Mountain Biking & Live Bluegrass: Your Average Day in Japan

As has become tradition on trips to Asia, I try to get away from the city for a little to hug trees. Lately, I’ve been mountain biking in Japan.

We somehow were, um, unable to locate the car keys which resulted in twice the mountain biking as originally intended! It meant another trip up that darned hill.

The morning’s sunrise in Makuhari.

There was a restaurant near the town we rode, which for some reason had antlers in the sink. I have no idea….

And which also has become tradition, a night of enjoying live Bluegrass music in Ginza’s Rocky Top. The night even included an unruly drunk that was booted out! I love country music.

You have to love any band that has a banjo, an accordion and can cover Japanese pop songs along with Jerry Jeff Walker and Dolly Parton.

I’m not at Narita Intl waiting to go back to the land of apple pie, Starbucks and Bed Bath and Beyond. This lounge is great and and I love free beer, but what’s up with the blue fish cake??

Makuhari: Dual Nikons Akimbo, John Woo Style

Sunrise in Makuhari, Japan, right along the Tokyo bay. Again, much better than the other convention center towns like Las Vegas or Orlando.

Unlike Orlando’s convention center, the food here doesn’t suck, but I’m not quite sure about this ‘sarad’.

A shabu-shabu restaurant in the area had a neato shoe locker for the patron’s footwear. The keys were made from rectangular wooden blocks. My Australian Blundstones barely fit inside. Good thing I didn’t bring my Justin Ropers.

A tech journalist I have been seeing year after year is still wielding his dual Nikon D70 and D100 bodies. These are ancient in the digital camera world but the image quality are constant reminder of what made these machines great in the first place.

The D70, my first Nikon body, doesn’t jump through hoops, trigger multiple flash groups and make me coffee like my D90 does, but darned if some of my favorite photos didn’t come out of that thing.

Decisions, Decisions

You ever come across those really tough decisions in life? I do; I’m torn here.

I don’t know…which would YOU rather use?

Remember: No Japanese

Getting my game on, on my 11 hour flight to Japan. MW2 runs on a netbook, sort of, at the lowest resolution. Battery died short of Hawaii. From then on, it was an Ayn Rand paperback, the gift that keeps on giving…and giving…and giving…and…. but hey it doesn’t run out of batteries. Or words.

17.5 hours door to door from home to hotel. The nice, big cavernous lobby in the hotel in Makuhari, Japan. Makuhari is between Narita International and Tokyo proper. Disneyland is also here, but unlike the suck that is Orlando and Anacrime, thankfully the town is almost a ghost town at night.

But you think they could have made the lobby smaller and made the rooms a little bigger?? At least I’m not hitting my head in the doorway, as I have in other hotels in Japan. And I’m 5’5”!

Mumbai, India: Hello, I Am Looking For Some Paint

Two men walking along the coast against the Mumbai skyline.

Children playing cricket in a relatively quiet street in Mumbai, India.

Child safety fail!

A glorious improvised men’s room made from a shipping container.

One of the slums of Mumbai, India.

A PSA on toilet etiquette from a healthy elderly person.

Hong Kong: 7,254 Miles from America

A great big sea of nothingness out of Lantau Island.

“Peace.” “Heavy metal!”

Despite the images you see in the travel magazines and TV shows with the lights and bustling crowds, Hong Kong is roughly 1/3 designated park land.

But somehow the wildlife manages to find its way into the urban areas, like this bird just outside the train station in San Po Kong, Kowloon.

All photos are from the Fuji F200EXR point-and-shoot, a tribute to my friend Hugo Poon who resides in Hong Kong He happens to be one of the best street shooters whom I personally know.

The Altoids Survival Kit (Skunk Edition)

I’ve been wanting to do a series about equipment and stuff I take into the field for travel, photography, everyday carry, business, etc. etc. etc. I’ll get started on my Altoids survival kit, which isn’t nearly as awesome and hardcore as the one here on Field and Stream’s website, but what I’ve cobbled up based on my needs and preferences with spare junk I have laying around.

I’ll have a permanent place for all the equipment-related posts later for easy reference, if nothing else, then as a visual travel checklist for myself.

Skunk’s Altoids Survival Tin (last revised Sep 2009)

Contents:

* compass

* LED light

* bandages

* antibiotic ointment

* tweezers

* das magnesium scrapensparkenfirestarter

* stormproof matches

* tinder (made from Vaseline and cotton balls)

* safety pins (for repairing gear, improvised arm sling)

* needle (for use with dental floss for sewing)

* tube containing Ibuprofin (ex. Advil), Acetemophin (ex. Tylenol), antihistamine (ex. Benadryl, handy for long flights and jet lag), all wrapped in duct tape (1001 uses incl but not limited to securing gauze bandages, improvised moleskin for blisters, improvised Ace bandage, fixing stuff)

* water purification tablets (yuck)

* signal mirror

* whistle

The survival tin in a 1-quart freezer bag along with hand sanitizer, bandanna (improvised gauze, water pre-filter), cough drops, trash bag (improvised poncho) and baby wipes (not pictured; for bathing and toilet paper). The freezer bag is also handy for collecting water, improvised glove, and keeping little stuff dry.

So This Is Where That Left At Albuquerque Goes

I had a business trip to Albuquerque last week and it just so happened airfare plus car rental would have been a lot more expensive than just driving out. Boo hoo.

There are a couple neat stops along the way, like the Painted Desert in Arizona, just off the I-40.

So is Meteor Crater, which is a big stinking hole in the ground and probably a snowboard park when it starts snowing.

Just another Arizona sunset.

El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico, near Grant, about an hour and a half out of Albuquerque.

La Ventana arch, one of the bigger accessible arches in New Mexico.

Cactus of the Day!

After work was done, it was time to drive back to Los Angeles the long way…via Colorado, passing Shiprock along the way.

The Red Mountain Pass, connecting the two towns of Ouray and Silverton, Colorado.

Along that road, there is a turnoff to Ophir Pass Road, which connects Red Mountain Pass with, you guessed it, Ophir.

The road tops off at almost 12,000 feet.

The road when dry is navigable without a 4WD as long as one has decent ground clearance.

There were marmots, but I didn’t leave my car around long enough for them to chew up my radiator hoses.

Pika, too!

Coming down off the pass.

The road leads through a few aspen groves.

Speaking of aspen,

Might as well get it over with…

Last one, I promise.

Once in the town of Ophir, there was a neat little Post Office shack…with three Subarus parked in front. I guess I had to stop and take a snapshot.

Leaving Colorado we missed the turn off to Moab and drove up Highway 141 to Grand Junction, which added at least an hour and a half to our travel time,

but passing through some of the most spectacular scenery of the trip along the Dolores River. I wouldn’t mind planning a trip back out to these parts.

Exotic Eats in China–Sea, Air or Land

I alluded to the exotic eats last post, here is what transpired. I went out for hot pot one night which was pretty good, including the sketchy looking fish, or at least by Western standards. Looked just fine to me, shiny halved heads notwithstanding.

Us ethnic Chinese remind the rest of the world that the whole critter in front of you on the table is proof you’re actually getting pig, chicken, or, you know, whatever you ordered. Not beef, because that’ll be a darned big table.

So thinking I escaped Korea and China without eating anything that would make most Americans vomit, Air China did not let me down. See Exhibit B, or their breakfast porridge. It was so disgusting looking I just had to try some. It tasted like sandy cardboard and had the texture of, um, well, crappy porridge you get on an airline.

Surak Mountain, South Korea–5,686 Miles from America

As has become tradition on my trips to Korea, I try to get some semblance of something outdoorsy done.

One of the great things about Seoul is that there are quite a few very good hiking opportunities on the same trains that serve the metropolitan area.

That day’s destination was Suraksan, a ‘relatively easy’ hike, according to the guidebook.

I’m used to park brochures calling trails for dog walking to be ‘moderately strenuous’ so I figure this would be a cakewalk. Not really…but the terrain in Korea is pretty rugged so on second thought this would be ‘relatively easy’ for out there.

As mentioned in a previous post, the average hiker in Korea aren’t exactly youngers but they are tough as nails. The Five Ten approach shoes are pretty popular out there, as the mountains near Seoul are similar to Yosemite, with lots of steep granite.

To give you an idea how hospitable the folks are in Korea, I slipped off a boulder at the summit and some hikers noticed I was bleeding all over my elbow and knuckles. I tried to tell them I was ok and that I had my own first-aid-kit (we had the language barrier to work with), but they grabbed my hand and patched me up before I could even have a chance to drop my pack.

Since I couldn’t read the signs, I hiked with another younger guy, who never took an English class, but rather learned all his English from watching TV. He was pretty up to date with US news and politics and the celeb stuff. He probably knew more about mainstream American culture than I do, which isn’t saying much but I still feel pretty lame. He hiked with me all the way to the top, then all the way down with me. I’m glad he did, as I may have walked down the wrong side of the mountain again.

I had all of two and a half days in Seoul, then went to China for four days of work. Did I eat anything gross? Maybe… I’ve been so busy I haven’t managed to get my photos online in a timely manner, so stay tuned for the nasty…