Skin diving is great by virtue about its accessibility. Strictly speaking you just need goggles, but that’s easily augmented with a snorkel and fins – all things you can just throw in a backpack. And in fact, some people can hold their breath for relatively long periods of time. At least, long enough to go down, see something interesting and come back up. However, there are others that take it to a whole different level:

via WonderHowTo

While I’ll continue to work on holding my breath, I think a pony bottle or bailout bottle would be an interesting addition to all this.

‘What,’ I wondered, ‘could possibly be the fascination?’

Growing up in Colorado, playing around on the beach meant going to Boulder Reservoir, which isn’t much more than an enormous swimming pool. Just not much remarkable about it. The only real beaches I had been to until now were in San Francisco and Japan, and the novelty wore off pretty quickly.

This last weekend, I decided that I ought to give it a try, and not being certified for diving I went snorkeling with my friends. We drove to a private beach (which was a treat in itself – men and women can mix, and music plays over the loudspeakers. These are things I’ve learned to not take for granted), rented gear and got in the water. On the dock, I was excited when I saw a small coral growing in the shallows. It couldn’t have been more than 10 centimeters in diameter but thinking about exploring the beach for more such treasures was enticing.

We waded out and put on our flippers, and then our masks. I dipped my head down, ready to explore, and instantly my head popped right back out of the water. “Guys! Guys!” I shouted to my friends. “There’s a freakin’ million fish here!” They chuckled knowingly, and I realized this is what they came for.

I just could not get in the water fast enough. There were so many fish I had never seen except for in aquariums, brightly colored, quick, and just stunning. Thousands of them from deep blues to iridescent purples, all swarming around beautifully-colored coral and anemones. All told, I spent about four hours tooling around the reef, examining fish at the cleaning station, clownfish in their anemones and predators lurking near the surface.

On leaving I instantly felt like a tree-hugging hippie, and felt a need to protect the ocean. Ok, sure, it was a bit short-lived and I feel like someone who’s hopped on a bandwagon, but it’s an incredible world down there. You see shadows off in the “distance” (though it’s usually only 30 feet away) shimmering and swimming around. Floating in the sea, weightless, above the sheer cliff faces of 20, 30 or 40 feet is a unique sensation. I tried to compare it to hiking and climbing mountains, but it occurred to me that unless I learn to base jump, I will never see that kind of geographical structure from the same relative perspective – hovering above it.

Between dives (well, my friends were diving while I was snorkeling) we’d pull out a book of Red Sea fish and try to find all the ones we’d seen. The camaraderie of stories of dives past and fish seen was nearly as satisfying as the experience of being in the water like that.

I’m exploring getting certified (either through PADI or BSAC – we have both available here) so that I can join my friends on deeper adventures, but in the mean time I’m going snorkeling as often as I can. Forgive the pun, but I think I’m hooked.

We made it out to Jeddah, and then onto the boat, and around 8:30, we were on the water heading out to the reef. It was supposed to be a two-hour trek each way, but we were perfectly comfortable on this 70-foot yacht. Really pretty stunning accommodations.

Around 9:30, we were informed that the university had actually called us back for security reasons, and that security had just closed off the channel we were going to take out to the sea anyway. Such is life. The reason for the security issues here now through the next few days is the King. Not only the king, but 60+ of his closest friends who rule countries. All in, 3,500 very impressive and generally awesome people will be flocking to campus to open this school up.

I’d still like to get an invite to the event, and I was looking forward to trying my flippers at snorkeling, but if I’m going to be snorkel-blocked by anyone, I suppose there are worse reasons.

Monarchs who’ve indirectly snubbed me: 1

I got into town on the Fourth of July, and was fortunate enough to meet up with Michael and some friends before the fireworks. I’ve only been here a couple of times, but still I’ve never seen it so crowded. We got to watch from Pat’s parents’ boat, docked in the Potomac. Thanks again, Diane and Bill!

We hung out, had some food and occupied ourselves with the overactive children. (Actually, we got a little peace and quiet when I handed the troublesome trio a logic game on the iPhone – they got so absorbed in it they sat calmly for two hours!)

The fireworks started at a quarter past nine, but it was one of the weakest shows I’ve seen, though I’ve been spoiled by Mines’ E-Days display (if you ever have the chance to see that event, it is imperative that you do so).

Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from that event.

Moab lives about 350 miles away from home or about 6.5 hours through mountain resorts and podunk towns. We got a late start and didn’t show up at our campsite until the early hours of the morning. Setting up the tent in the dark was not our problem – ours was one of being exhausted after the drive. Despite it all, the next day saw an enthusiastic start.

Our first hike was the longest at the park, weighing in at about 7 miles. The rangers said we should plan on between 3 and 5 hours to hike it. With only about 1,000 feet in elevation change on the trail, we thought they must be crazy to think it would take that long. Four hours and two camelbacks later, we realize they were right.

In the desert, they recommend that each person drink 16 ounces of water per hour of exposure. It is truly an odd sensation to drink a gallon of water per day and not urinate at all – this massive amount of water is completely sweated out. With more than half of the days of July over 100F (it hit 101 while we were on this hike), Moab is a great and terrible place.

In the middle of our second night there, we awoke to find ourselves being dragged away by the wind… while still in our tent. Though we tried desperately to weigh down what we figured were key areas, we had no chance to stay, so we scrambled out as quickly as we could and collapsed the tent. We were a little late in doing so as the wind had ripped a hole in the fabric, and bent one of the poles in half. Our camping was coming to a premature close. We slept in the car that night and decided that the next day we’d hike some of the easier trails and then head home.

I’ve got dozens of photos from the trip that are worth looking at (especially if you’ve never been). Later this summer I’d like to visit Dinosaur National Monument in western Colorado and/or Glacier National Park. Time permitting, of course.

1. Place cigar/cigarette in mouth, ignite.
2. Open yourself the first of your beers and begin consumption.
3. Line up a few empties at a time.
4. Swing away.
5. Repeat ad infinitum or until you run out of time.

I bought a video camera that I’m excited to use. This means that friends and family will actually see some pictures when I get back (if you’re lucky!), so look forward to it. Hopefully it won’t be boring vacation clips. ( http://www.amazon.com/VPC-CA6OR-Weatherproof-Digital-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B000DZKVSS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/102-2275879-9761733?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1177905210&sr=8-3 )

It turns out, I’ve listened to approximately 26 days of music in iTunes since I bought my Mac in December. That’s roughly 1/5th my life listening to iTunes. I find this relatively surprising.

I went at the end of last week with Alan who was up visiting from Kyoto. (Alan and I went to high school together.) That was a nice easy day – Alan wasn’t feeling particularly adventurous.

Sunday night Michael and Bjorn knock on my door and ask me if I want to go to to Yamagata Zao for a couple of days. 17,000 yen (about $150) for 2 day passes, two home-cooked meals, and a place to sleep. Not too shabby.

山形 (Yamagata) Zao ski resort has about 40 lifts, 5 of which are gondolas, and what looked like some pretty promising boarding. Equipment problems, 70 mph wind gusts and temperatures below -10 C changed that, though.

I had borrowed a board from the school, and the bindings were giving me all kinds of trouble, and my gloves quickly turned into mittens after fingers start to freeze together.

The first day, the top of the mountain is closed because of wind, but we had a few good runs around the mountain. The second day let us see the top (with almost zero visibility – you could only see about 5-10 m away), and a couple of 30 degree slopes. Powder was pretty good in some spots, but there was ice aplenty.

I just got back from a little trip to my favorite resort (面白山 Omosiroyama), where they still had some of the foot of snow they got this week. Powder was pretty solid in spots, more equipment problems, but I felt pretty good overall. I found myself tackling some slopes I didn’t think I would be able to handle this season. A few sections were steep enough that you could reach out horizontally to touch the mountain as you’re riding down! That was pretty awesome.

I left a little early (around 3), and while waiting for the train, a couple in their 50′s approached me and started making conversation. We talked about where I was from, and my major, what they did before they retired, etc., and then the woman remarked that I looked like Tom Cruise. “He looks like he could be his kid!” the man replied.

Call me crazy, but I think I’m a far cry from Tom Cruise (I’m pictured in what I was wearing at the time):

The whole thing reminded me of the following Family Guy clip:

I admit that when I first got here, I had some of the All-Japanese-People-Look-The-Same syndrome going on, but now I find it pretty easy to recognize my Asian compadres.

- Tom Cruise

Two boat rides, two hotels.

Dozens of bus, train and subway rides, a couple of cabs, bike rides, and countless kilometers walked.

The 58th Sapporo Snow Festival.

I went with eight other JYPE students on the ferry between Sendai and Sapporo, and the ride was a lot of fun! We went out on the deck for a while, and as you might have suspected, it’s pretty cold in the northern Pacific.

14 hours on the boat there, leaving at 8 PM. The room we got wasn’t so much a room so much as a bed. They have these large rooms on the ship where 20 people sleep on futons, with a kind of foam-brick-like pillow (apparently relatively common in Japan). Very relaxing sleeping at sea.

Before sleep, and while amusing ourselves with poker and some Chinese card games we learned, a couple of Japanese guys who were heading off to bed handed us their half-finished bottle of Gilbey’s vodka. (In some cultures, “Gilbey’s” translates to “rubbing alcohol”.) We didn’t touch it, but when we were done playing cards, we kept the dream alive by passing it to another group of Americans.

Woke up for about an hour to see the sunrise. Unfortunately, the cloudcover didn’t let us see much. Glad to have tried, anyway.

We got into port around 10 the next morning, and we caught a taxi to the train station for the 12 o’clock train ride. The train was pretty full, so we were spread all over a couple of cars. I sat next to a Japanese woman, and she started talking almost without cease. He name was アスカ (Aska), and she just graduated high school and was on break before heading to college in Osaka. Not sure of her major – when I asked her about it, she made a gesture like giving herself and injection. My guess is nurse or doctor, but hey, maybe you can major in intravenous drugs these days.

I asked her where a good place to eat in Sapporo would be, and she said she was meeting a friend if we’d like to join. We wanted to check into our hotel first, but we agreed to meet up later at the snow festival. It was fun to hang out with a couple of friendly Japanese kids, and we got to practice a lot of Japanese.

The snow festival is in three different parks, and we hit the first two on the first day. Dozens if not hundreds of smaller sculptures from 2-3 meters in height, with maybe a half dozen or so larger international ones, most of which were about 20 meters wide by 15 meters tall and 12 meters deep. Can you imagine!?

At night, we went to the second, which consisted exclusively of ice sculptures. There were even entire functioning bars carved from ice, where they were serving promotional alcohol from Smirnoff to Bailey’s.

Dinner was たべほだい (all-you-can-eat) lamb. Delicious. Every 2-3 people are given a grill, and platter after platter of raw lamb.

In the morning, we went to the last park, which was more geared towards children, it turns out. Slides, build-your-own snowman, a life-size maze, ice golf, curling, and even one attraction where you ride in a raft that is strapped to a snowmobile.

In the afternoon, Sapporo beer museum. Sapporo has Japan’s first beer brewery – the founder studied for two years aus Deutchland for this undertaking. Not bad. Not my favorite, but relatively tasty. Still not a fan of dark, and I was pleasantly surprised by the chocolate and the カルピス (Calpis) beer cocktails.

Back to the train station to catch our train ride to Otaru, where we will be seeing another relatively famous snow attraction.

In the evening, we walked the streets of Otaru, where many of the blocks are lined with hundreds of votive candles in ice candle holders. I don’t know if love or hearts was the theme, but we must have seen at least 12 given snow hearts throughout the whole walk.

Sleep was at a really really cheap hotel that would turn out to be our most comfortable stay. A more traditional Japanese hotel – straw mats on the floor, robes, and very comfortable futons. Rice paper everywhere. Really quite beautiful.

The next morning we wandered around Otaru (famous for glass-blowing and music boxes), and were invited into several shops. Everything seemed to be closed, but we’d walk by a shop, and an old woman would come running out and welcome us in with great enthusiasm. A seaweed shop was the first, and the owner was giving us sample after sample, and brought us each out two cups of tea. I don’t know if it’s the ploy, but we felt almost obligated to buy at least some seaweed. Some was pretty tasty, but on the whole, meh.

A glass-blower was next. They welcomed us in, and asked us if we wanted to try blowing our own glasses. It was about $20 per glass, but it was about as much to buy such a glass anyway. I don’t want to give the impression that they showed us the glass and the tools and lets us go at it – it was very controlled, and they really do virtually everything. You blow a little here, a little there (very gently and slowly), and when we occasionally use a tool, they guided our hand. More interactive than watching, far less involved than the job. I brought home a small beer mug.

We wandered around Otaru a little more, back to Sapporo and onto the port. The boat ride home was similar to the first, though the room for sleeping was a lot larger (housing 80 people, 30 of which were from the Japanese national guard). Also, once we got out to sea, a lot colder. We all took a lap around the deck in tees and pants, snow and ice flying everywhere, and the boat rocking pretty steadily. It was a lot of fun running around the deck like that – when it would rock, the ground would suddenly give way underneath you, and you’d be running almost in mid-air.

All in all, good trip, and for reading this all, here are some pictures:

札幌

The site I use to get all such information (http://snowjapan.com), said that they are in fact a resort, and gives me all this information, including that they are 5 minutes from the nearest train station (八ツ森駅). The price is right, and it’s not a 2-hour trek like the last place I went to. (To which I went, I suppose.)

8:10 – Hop on train. ~35 minute ride ahead
8:50 – We haven’t stopped, but everyone carrying a snowboard (about half the people on the train) is still on, so hopes are up. Internet information is sometimes wrong, after all.
9:00 – All the boarders get off the train, at a station whose name I don’t recognize. There is no one to take your train ticket (they use the honor system a lot here, and don’t make a fuss if you’re dishonest. Especially if you’re a stupid 外人 – lit. foreigner, more along the lines of “white devil”.) I walk about 10 meters, following the other people, and I find myself at a ski lift. I may have my ski trip after all.

I had been planning on using the ATM in the town I was planning on visiting, but this town doesn’t have one. None of the businesses I’ve come across in Japan take credit cards, and ATMs close at about 6:00 PM, and don’t open until about 9:00 AM. (I thought the point of an ATM was that it doesn’t need to go home and eat dinner with its family. I can understand them being closed if there are a lot of muggings, but this is Japan.) I’m told the nearest ATM is two towns (and train stops back the way I came), so I keep my ticket, and just hop on the next train back.

I get back to the resort Omosiri-yama (面白山) with money around 10:00, get a rental, a coin locker, and I’m on a lift by 10:10.

I fell a lot on my first run, but after that, I fell maybe 30 times the rest of the day. I played it pretty easy at first, getting warmed up, and then I decided to try and hit the powder (of which there was A LOT). There were these little hills I guess you’d call them, lining the runs, and just stacked with powder, so monkey see other boarders doing this, monkey try. They’d get up the velocity and either try to go up and jump to the other side, or just come back down with a huge velocity. A lot of crashing, but to my surprise, it’s soft and cushy! There is no pain – only cold powder spraying your face and getting in your coat.

I spent most of the rest of the day on the intermediate and advanced runs where I got a lot of powder experience. The speeds and slopes I can handle are really really picking up, and I felt really good on a lot of the runs.

Biggest achievements:

1. Improved speed and balance.
2. Standing up parallel to the course instead of standing up, stalling, and then turning the board.
3. No yard sales.

Next weekend I’m taking some friends back, because it’s super close, and really affordable, and great slopes and snow.

Wednesday I talked to Keith and he said that he was going skiing with a bunch of friends Thursday through Friday, and I was welcome to tag along, and so I called Collin (a kid I know from Wyoming) to see if he was interested. Keith was planning to go to the town, spend the night, ski, sleep, ski and come back, but Collin and I decided we’d try to get there in time to hit the slopes, and then spend the night, go again, and then come back. Unfortunately, it was about 1:00 AM when we got everything together, and had to catch a 6:30 train.

Little sleep that night – too excited, and no sleep on the train. We get there around 10, get everything in order, get geared up and go for it. The night before I read an online “tutorial” on snowboarding, but that can only “prepare” you so much. I (admittedly a little recklessly) ignored the tutorials suggestion, and just jumped on the beginner course. A lot of wipe-outs, goggles and hat flying everywhere, but I figured the best way to learn is try it, do your best, and get my hindquarters handed to me by the mountain.

By the end of the day, I was going down the intermediate run (very slowly and wiping out a lot), but I was enjoying myself. We got some food and checked into the hotel. Speaking of which, the room we got was enormous and way way better than our apartments. Also, very Japanese.

Second day, and lots of Tylenol and Ibuprofen later, we get on the mountain just as they open, and I’m starting to go a lot faster, and catching about 1/8 the number of edges as I was the day before. Go up to the very top (all intermediate runs), and the view is spectacular. Almost as beautiful as the Rockies, but not quite.

We had to stop around 3:30 to get our rentals in and catch the last bus at 4. We get home around 7, and I stuffed my face, went to bed, and then when I woke up, all my joints had turned to bone.

Will I do it again? Absolutely. As much and as often as my body can afford.

It’s about $150 US for transportation, a day of snowboarding with rentals, a hotel, another day of snowboarding, and then transportation back. I don’t think that’s too bad relative to the JASSO scholarship.

I feel like a total nerd, but I actually went online and read a tutorial on snowboarding before packing my backpack and getting some shut-eye. We leave for the train station in about four and a half hours, and we should be on the mountain by 9:30 or so. Exciting!

If I’m still alive, I will post pictures.

The downward spiral:

Around midnight, Keith called and told me that we’d be leaving around 2:45 instead, because Kurnia (a friend of ours from Indonesia) would be coming with us. Mind you, Kurnia had just learned to ride a bicycle about a month before. We leave the dorms on time, and everything looked good for the first half-hour or so.

We missed the turn onto the road we had planned on taking for the majority of the journey, but Keith said he was pretty sure he knew a more scenic alternate path, and we had planned for a little bit of padding time-wise. We decide to take a chance.

Around 4:00, we get pulled over by the police. We passed them while they were driving the opposite direction, and they had slowed to a stop, but we just rode past them, thinking they were just letting us by (the road was very narrow). They turned around and caught up with us about 200 meters later, and it was a little interesting trying to explain why four foreigners are up at four in the morning biking to another city in the freezing weather, but we got by. Again I was surprised at how much communication could take place between us and the native Japanese-speakers, and it answered my question about how polite the police are. (It turns out that they use the informal when speaking to us.) They asked for our foreigner and bike registrations, and took down all of our information. About 30 minutes later, they let us go; we never had the impression that we were in trouble and they were really friendly.

The getting lost continues and Kurnia can’t keep up, so we each take turns biking with her behind the others.

Around 7:00 Keith finally realizes where we are, and that we’re about 6 km from where we wanted to be, but seeing as it’s freezing and the sunrise is starting, we watch from the docks.

松島

We ate at a McDonalds (one of the only places open), and got warm. The ride back took about 3 hours, putting us at about 7 hours of being on a bike. I feel bad that Kurnia had such trouble keeping up, but it also would have been nice to be able to go at a regular pace.

All in all, a bit of a Christmas Eve day adventure.