On the Bottom Half

Japan Japan Japan

The creeks we trotted up and down were basically like this first photo shows. Some were a little wider than others, some were a little more buggy than others. Some were more slippery than others. Of those, the buggy valleys were the most irritating and the worst was a day in a narrow stream valley during a particularly hot and humid day.

The bug is this mystery, non-biting, flying, crab-looking thingy, about the size of a large pin head. You can't notice them until they land on you, then they attach themselves to your clothing and scamper sideways. If you try and squish them, they keep scampering; if you try and flick them off, they either fly away or keep scampering. Then only way to satisfy the knee-jerk 'augh, bug on me' feeling is to grab them between your fingers and roll. Then, they'll leap off your fingers unhurt, but without wings and you won't see them again. They are as hardy as ticks, but thankfully they don't bite.

Anyways, couple a swarm of these scampering on your face, humidity, frustration, and finally a slip into the water, and you get me 'spitting a dummy', which is a quaint Aussie phrase for a tantrum of the adult variety.

One morning, we were in town at the right time for the scheduled exercises. The Japanese have this well-known tune to which every one is able to whistle along. Accompanying that is a series of well-known 'movements' which constitute exercise. They basically swing through all their joints and up and down and kick and bop to the music. It's really unique and they actually broadcast the whole thing periodically on T.V. with stadia full of people moving along. Unique. As far as I know, every one does it, particularly factory workers, school children, and people at home. Talk about an effective way of encouraging fitness - try getting any western nation to have institutionalised calesthenics and you'd get discrimation lawsuits.

Look closely in Andy's hands and you will notice them well instrumented. We went to a graphite deposit somewhere in the distal Japanese bush. It was definitely interesting rock with these knuckle-sized balls of graphite thickly populating the rock and Andy went to work extracting samples with such gusto, I had to step back and take a picture. He's like a rock beaver - industrious, furious, and dangerous with his native tools.

More giant beetles. That's Andy for those wondering who the rock Dr is.

Later the next day, my associate supervisor Roberto showed up and we started touring further afield. The first stop was at a granite outcrop next to the ocean, and in the other picture, you can see that Japanese rocks exude concrete after landslides. The infrastructure is wonderous in this place.

Soon, we ended up in central northern Hokkaido looking at some other rocks in a river valley.

We later followed that up with Sake. It hits me like a brick, sort of how Baccardi 171 would hit any of you guys. However, served hot and in small quantities, there's not as much alcohol left in it and I was good to go the next day.

Oh, I went flying today!!!!! The Texan, though an ultralight, is superb. Yeah, really superb. Fast, agile like you don't even know, smooth, and it's a stick! Not concerned about flying ultralights anymore if they're anything like the Texan. Check it out here. Fun fun fun!!

posted by Kyle @ 00:55