8/3-6/06: Stephen's Ohio Visit

During my Michigan Snake Internship, Stephen was able to visit, so we went to Put-in-Bay for a night of drunken fun. It's this island out on Lake Erie that's got the world's longest bar, among other things (although they kind of cheat by having it wind around). Essentially full of bars and touristy things, it was really great. I've added some pictures of interesting things we saw on the way there, out in farm country. Among them, a nuclear power plant (yay), a cheese store (they had a lot of cheese... a lot), and, of course, the Happy Hooker.

Assorted Pictures

Here are some assorted pictures I found from random occasions:











Totally Random Pictures









The Day Brett Came Over to Play Robot Dungeons and Dragons with Stephen at Work (unfortunately, the picture I had of Brett playing was in video format)

Obihiro Row Boats Day

Children's Day in Taiki

Eating AMAZING yakiniku with Misuzu and Shringi.

Sakura in Obihiro Park

Saying Goodbye to Japan

5/5-6/06: Date and Sapporo

The next day, it rained. So we had a marvelous time at the karaoke place in Date. C. Teeth was an amazing singer. He's actually in a lot of the pictures...












On the way home, we, of course, stopped at the Sapporo Beer Garden. Here, there was meat, meat, meat, and Dan got ladies digits, and most of us remember little about exactly what went on, but here are some telling photographs:

















I do know that afterward, Sara knocked me into the 7-11 chip shelves and we fell over together before we all stopped by the Bic where we spent at least an hour in the massage chairs sleeping and running to the bathroom to throw up. And then finally we went to the park where we slept and some of us threw up some more.

5/4/06 : Golden Week : Hakodate

So it's been a while, but I decided that I have to get these pictures out. Some of them are just too great (Ex: see Sara's drunk pictures in 5.6.06: Golden Week : Sapporo... amazing). Anyway, after, the beach excursion (5.3.06), we drove a couple hours to Hakodate, Stephen's old stomping ground and the place for squid and other assorted seafood. Dan, Stephen, and I sat down to eat and had a delicious meal of fish combinations. Sara, Erin, and Amanda caught up with us and we all strolled along the market where shops lined the street with their tantalizing fishware. Erin decided to eat squid at one of the squid fishing tanks. You can pick your squid of choice, catch it with a fishing rod, and then they'll cook it up right there. Erin said that it was quite delicious. We all eventually left the market and found ourselves at the Hakodate beer factory where we drank, ate, and generally created a rucous. I even got one of the confused waiters to hold C. Teeth.








We wanted to go see the cherry blossoms at the main park and took the local trolley where I terrorized a teenage boy by sitting C. Teeth next to him. He subtley scooted as far away as possible, but was already too close to the end of the seat to go very far. So after passing by what could quite possibly be the best store name in the world, Titty Twister, we strolled around the park, which was beautiful, but had hardly any cherry blossoms at all. Almost all the trees had buds and were close to blooming, but we were just a couple days early. And then we engaged in one of our favourite pastimes of pointing at gaijin and wondering where they came from (BRUCE WILLIS!!)
















As it was getting dark, we rode the skytrain up to the lookout point; Hakodate is supposedly third in the world in night views. It was pretty amazing, although cold and crowded. We managed to nab a prime spot and watched the lights come on, warding off would-be space hogs with elbows and the general gaijin smell. Afterwards, I bought my squid postcards (edible) and other related souvenirs and we all headed back down. And went to Futocho Burger! Home to the largest burger I've ever seen. It starts out with a bun, followed by the usual burger patty, but then topped with an egg, another patty in there somewhere, more eggs, some kind of tasty sauce, lettuce, tomatos, and other assorted things, topped with a final bun and held together by a chopstick. Hats off to Dan and Stephen who were able to eat the whole thing and not throw up. Neither was the ride home too terrible, from what I could smell, but it is unclear whether or not the meal manifested itself during the night or the next morning.










Picture of the Day: I really like this one. Mainly because it looks like Erin's excited about hooking that guy's boner.