More critters

Alice mentioned this mantis beastie was hanging around our front door
when she got home last night, and her report of its enormous size was
not an exaggeration. It was still hanging around this morning when I
took the trash out: the body is easily five inches, with the legs
spreading out considerably further.

Summer Vacation Report

 Departing from Nagoya, the airport has a deck where you can hangout before departure.

 Arriving in Honolulu, my first sightseeing stop was the Arizona memorial.

The view from Diamond Head.  

I cant wait until the weather here turns cooler, even the temperatures in Hawaii felt great in comparison to the heat and humidity we have here.

Leapin lizards!

Maybe not leaping so much slinking and sticking. The environment here
is great for bug-eating animals. Every time I go out at night there
are lots of bats going about their business, fluttering around. The
bats never come hang out on my screen door though.

Japan is hard on bicycles

Just like umbrellas. The interesting thing here is an abandoned
bicycle, unlocked, would disappear rather quickly at home. This poor
thing has been here for several days.

My understanding of Japanese bicycle migration suggests it was
probably left unlocked and was stolen for a drunk ride back to the
neighborhood. Moral of the story: even the most minimal lock that
prevents the bike from rolling will go a long way towards preventing
theft.

As a side note, those stairs go down into the underpass where those
kid's paintings are located.

Scouting Fujigaoka

We took a walk this evening to ensure we knew where the bus departed
for the airport.

Bicycle Bell

This settles it. I need to get a bell for my Japan bicycle!

Make sure you watch to the end to see the indoor reactions too. :-P

Summer Vacation

Next week is Summer Vacation in Japan.  At the last minute I booked a trip back to MI with a one day layover in Honolulu!

Toaster Oven Cookies

The 90 degree weather didn't stop me from trying to make cookies in the toaster oven.  They didn't flatten out like real cookies, but they tasted ok.

Morning bike ride

Having a maglev train and a ferris wheel in the neighborhood leaves me
feeling like I live in a theme park some days.

Fooled again

I just opened a bag of potato chips I bought on my last trip to the store. Chip bags are much smaller here than in the US, I swear I'm not a snack-food glutton. I thought they were the same salt and pepper flavored ones I'd picked up earlier in the week, only it turns out they're not. Those dark flecks on the chips in the bag photo are seaweed this time around, not pepper. Still tasty, I'm crunching one right now, just not what I was expecting. You win again, Japan.