Motegi, Nikko area bike ride, Pepsi Shiso...

While Kate was in Tokyo I took the children to Motegi.  Motegi is a Honda sponsored race track that is not far from Takanezawa.  I think it took about 30 min by car to get there.  It is not as much that they wanted to go, but I wanted to go.  It was fathers day so I told them they didn't have any choice.

There were no major events going on at the track, just open practice I think, but there are still many things to see and do there.  Below you can see a little of the race track.  We sat for a while and watched the cars going by.  Looked like difficult driving in the rain.

This is a racing kei car.  In Japan a kei car has a 660cc or less engine size.  Our Diva is a K car.

We also got to check out the Honda collection hall.  It is a three story building with a number of Honda vehicles on display spanning over the history of the company.  Sochiro Honda started the company making engines for retrofitting bicycles in the Post WWII time period.  There were a few of these on display as well.  

Also on display was a replica of the first known motorcycle.  It was made in 1885 and was steam powered.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of a car sized combine.  At the museum we saw a snow blower sized combine made by Honda..

There were many cool old cars on display, like this Honda S800.

Old F1 cars.

And the coolest car in the entire museum was clearly this black CRX..

After we finished at the collection hall we went to the activity center.  The children were able to ride electric powered go carts.  They were disappointed that the carts were so slow.

So we decided to try our luck at the pedal powered carts.  They were a little faster, but my knees hit the handle bars so it was a bit painful and I was still slow.

This weekend I went on another long mountain road bicycle ride.  This one was harder than the last.  The road was near Nikko, but not Irohazaka.  There was 5353 ft of climbing and the average grade for 3 kilometers was 10%.

This week I changed my rear cassette to get a little better gearing.  I went from a 21 tooth rear sprocket to a 23 tooth.  I am really glad I did.  Without that I am not sure I would have made it.   This picture is from my phone as we were going up the first real climb.

On the course we rode under a huge gate, this one was the largest I have seen so far.  It was really surreal riding on these mountain roads and just looking around.

6 guys decided to take on this challenging ride, myself Maeshima san, Ito san, Sasaki san, Ishikawa san, Hakamata san.  3 of which I had not ridden with before.  It definitely is more enjoyable to ride with others than alone.  For this picture I held my phone backwards over my shoulder and pressed the button.  Turned out pretty good.

We stopped in the mountains at a temple.  There was a shop there serving ice cream.  Below is from in front of the temple where we got the ice cream.

I am sure the heat and physical effort contributed, but it was some of the best tasting ice cream ever...  Everyone made it back safely.  On the day my heart rate maxed out at 193 and at one point I was able to achieve a little over 46 mph going down the mountain.  There are so many switchbacks it is difficult to go much faster than that.

Finally for this week I went to the Lawson and stumbled on to another new product.  It is Pepsi Shiso.  Shiso is a type of herb.  It is a member of the mint family.  The flavor is difficult for me to describe.  I guess the best shot I could give would be herbal, minty, carbonation.  Kate and Liam have taken a liking to this stuff.  I think just OK..

Okonomiyaki, Geisha Photos, and Eco Center Fun.

This week we were able to go to dinner with Miyazaki san and his son.  He selected the restaurant in Utsunomiya for us to go to.  It was a Okonomiyaki restaurant.  Okonomiyaki is a mix of different ingredients, batter, egg, cabbage, etc...  You cook it at your table to your liking and then put the bulldog sauce and Japanese mayo on it for extra flavor.  There are two main places the Okonomiyaki comes from and both are slightly different.  One is the Osaka area and the other is Hiroshima.  We tried both types at the restaurant.  They were both very good.  Miyazaki also schooled me in the art of tako yaki making.  It was evident in the final result that he has more experience then I do.  Looks like I need extra training before opening up my tako yaki stand.

Below is Miyazaki san displaying his mad tako yaki skills.

Miyazaki sans son behind the Osaka style Okonomiyaki.

Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki.  I think one of the main differences is that the Osaka style comes in a bowl and you mix it up and put it on the grill, similar to a pancake.  The Hiroshima style comes in with pre-layers and it is cooked more like a patty.

For the weekend Kate headed to Tokyo for a farewell celebration for Amy Boeck.  She will be going back to the US next month.  As part of the trip they went to a photo studio that specializes in Geisha portraits.  She said it took about 1.5 hours of preparation before the photo shoot.  Below are a few of the better pictures from the event.  I have trouble recognizing her in these pictures.

From the behind the scene pictures it looks like a pretty big ordeal.

First is the application of the white pasty make up.

The the detail work.

And finally getting dressed.

This is both Kate and Amy (Kate on the right)

Reiko and Nadine went along for moral support.

After the pictures a number of other women went down to join in the evening festivities.  We got a chuckle out of the guy in the middle of the photo.  He wasn't with the group he just photo bombed the picture.

One of the evening events involved a drag show, not the car kind.  Below Kate is pictured with two of the dudes from the event.

While Kate was away the children and I went to the Takanezawa Eco center.  We met up with an old friend Yama chan.  He was at the kite building activity I posted a number of months ago.  This activity basically involved getting out into the woods and fields to explore the different animals and bugs that are around us.  First we explored a little in a wooded area and then we walked to a rice field and the children were then armed with nets.  They tried to catch as many different things as they could in about 30 minutes.

Liam was really excited to catch and hold a huge dragon fly.

Yama chan tried to eat the dragon fly, it was really disturbing...

After the time was up all the specimens were collected to be shared.   The gentleman in the picture was very knowledgeable about the different bugs and animals and shared interesting facts about each.  The children found various bugs, worms, frogs, salamanders, crayfish, etc.  Maybe 1/3 of them I had never seen before.

It was nice to see all the children listen intently as he talked.

Colleen was super excited to find and catch a lizard.  She wanted to keep it, but we don't know how to take care of them.  In the end we ended up letting it go.

Once all the exploration was finished we played a number of fun games to finish out the day.  One of those games was to see how many people you could stack on two legs.  In the end we resorted to using the children as they are much easier to hold than full grown adults.  I think the record was 8...

Almost since arriving in Japan I have been using my bicycle to get to and from work.  The increased activity has also promoted weight loss.   Below is a picture of me with one of our wicked rides. 

When I got here I was about 180 lbs.  This week I bought a scale and found out that I now weight 71.7 Kg.  That is 158 lbs with clothing on.  The reason the picture is 1 Kg higher is because I am holding the camera.  At this point I think I need to modify my eating a little to stop the loss.

The interesting product we found this week is yogurt with aloe.  I am used to putting aloe on sunburn not eating it.  The yogurt actually has chunks of the plant in it.  Kate likes it, but the after tasted reminded me of lotion.  Not one of my favorites.. 

Hope everyone has a good week..

Takanezawa Green park, Green Tea Coke, and more.

We decided this would be a good weekend to try out the Takanezawa Green Park.  The weather was good and we wanted to stay close to home.  The park is only a short distance away only about 5 min by car.  I had heard a little about the park but I had never been before.  After arriving we found out there was a celebration going on and all the activities were free.  The only exception was the bicycles and they were only about $5 for 30 min.  The park is pretty big, actually we didn't see all of it this trip.  We did go to the obstacle course.  It is like a small training camp for a Japanese game show.  There were a ton of obstacles to try and some of them were a little dangerous.  I can't see anything like this surviving in the states.  It would probably only last a few weeks before someone got hurt and sewed.  The first picture shows the map of the course behind the family.

There were a variety of different challenges from climbing to zip lines..

I think the park is geared towards children, but adults are allowed to participate.  Some of the obstacles are better suited for children as we found out.  The zip line is one of those.  With Kate's weight on the zip line she smashed into the wood platform on the other side.  She received her share of bruises while at the park.

Kate was a good sport and was willing to give almost all the obstacles a go.

Colleen on one of the rope climbing obstacles.

Liam sped ahead so this was one of the few pictures I was able to get of him.

I also jumped in to try the challenges.

Now if there is one thing I have learned by watching Japanese game shows over the years is that you have to move quickly on floating or moving obstacles.  If you go to slow or lose momentum you will fail.  Well there were floating barrels that you had to cross.  I told Kate that she had to move quickly or she wouldn't make it.  On tape you can hear me say you don't have to do it..If you listen in the middle you can also here Kate say "what do I do?"  and you will hear an Japanese girl say "Ganbatte"  that means "Do your best".

Anyway she tried it but just a little too slowly and the result..........FAIL.

This is my version putting in to play my years of Japanese game show watching experience.  I actually did it twice, once before Kate and once after for the camera.  Just want to make sure everyone knows I didn't make her try it first.

And a picture of the aftermath.  Kate was a good sport about it.

The park also has a paved course for bicycles to ride on.  There is a variety of bikes to rent.  We picked the one below because we could all fit on it at the same time.  There was actually room for 2 more children on the center seats.

Liam and Colleen saw some of there friends from school at the park.  They rode around the course with us.  We battled them with the bicycle Nascar style.  I bumped them in the dirt and they spun out and crashed.  The next time around they threw there helmets at us as we past the wreckage.  (OK, I made all of it up except for us riding around the course with them.)

There is also a pond at the park with paddle boats and row boats you can rent.  This time because of the celebration it was free.  Liam and I paired up.

Kate and Colleen went together.

A while ago I was able to find the 1:64 scale cars of our exact cars in Japan.  Same type color, everything.  I finally obtained pictures of them to post on the blog.  The first one is the Diva.  Sorry Troy, the photo's are not up to your level of photography.

Our real car.

And the Odyssey.  This one came with two sets of wheels.  Our real one also came with two sets.  Winter and summer.  With the exception of the wheel color they are also the same as our real car.

The real one.

These will be great mementos to take back to the states when we return.

I will end this post with two new products we came across this week.  The first is green tea Coke.  Unfortunately it is diet.  The two flavors together are not overpowering.  It has a very light green tea taste.  Since it is diet it has artificial sweetener.  Whatever they used overpowers the flavor of the drink and that is the main flavor you taste.  I don't plan to get it again.

Finally we walked past a Starbucks and saw jelly coffee so I had to get one.  It has been long enough since we have been in the US so I am not sure if this has also infiltrated the Starbucks at home or not.  I will assume it has not.  Actually it is not jelly that is in it, but jello.  I would drink this one again.  The jello coffee mixed in with the slushy stuff and cream was very tasty.  If they do come to a Starbucks near you I would recommend at least giving it a try.

Thats all for this week, have a good one.