My visit with Hikari and her parents...

As most of you know, we had Hikari, a Japanese exchange student, stay with us for a month or so in Jan/Feb of this year. It was such a great experience, the kids really bonded with her and we all learned a great deal from each other.

I was fortunate enough to have dinner with her family during my time here in Japan. It was great to see her again and her parents were very warm and conversational. Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Hikari


Hikari, her parents and me at dinner.

This picture was inspired by the picture of the kids on their blog. She thought it was so funny.

Tokyo's Ice Bar...one of the "coolest" places I've ever been!

The bar is kept at -5 degrees Celsius.


The walls, bar, tables, chairs and glasses are ALL made of ice!


The bartender behind a stack of new glasses for incoming customers.

All of the ice for this establishment is flown in from Sweden.
The ice is not made, it is harvested.

Before they could open this bar in Tokyo, they had to prove that using ice glasses would not be a heath risk. After running tests on a melted glass, the Japananese Health Department determined the water in these glasses was cleaner than the water they had in they're own water system. (Which is very good, in of itself)

The glasses did melt a little after drinking from them, as you can see in this picture.

Tokyo's Electronic District...

This post is for all those "techies" out there, or anyone who has enough testosterone running through their veins to truly appreciate it.

So I have a huge love of Fry's Electronics, but its status has officially been demoted after my visit to Tokyo's Electronic District. Here they have an ENTIRE DISTRICT (several city blocks) dedicated to electronics stuff.

There were several large stores that we went into and they were all very similar to Fry's, except they were 6-8 stories tall with each floor having it's own theme.

I was blown away with the selection. This only one of SIX rows of mice!


If you are looking for anything iPOD, this place has it.
This was what I could get into the picture, but it is only part of overall iPOD set.


I think my favorite "find" was the different USB drives.
In Japan, the Sushi is not only delicious, but functional, too.


And of course, they had thumb drives.

More pix from Japan...

I got to ride on Japan's Bullet Train (Shinkansen), this is the front of the train I rode on. This was a 700 series train, one of the fastest!

I traveled from Shinagawa to Osaka this past week-end on of these bullet trains and it travels at speeds upwards of 285 km/h or 177 mph. The cities were flying by...

...so were the trains going the opposite direction.

This is the front of another style train as I was passing by out of a station. You can find more about these trains and all of the different styles by clicking here.

Pix from Japan...

To get to the office we walk through the train station in the sea of "Black Suits". There are always hundreds or thousands of people in a hurry to get through here.

The hotel I'm staying in is right across from the Shinagawa train station which has many trains that come through.

I'm working in the second building in this picture, on the 6th floor. There are about 8 buildings around this courtyard here. There are tons of little shops and restaurants on the lower levels.

Japan is currently in the Rainy season. This last for about 1.5 months so the covered walk ways are nice. Other than today, it has not really been rainy here but it has been very humid!

Where I've been...

create your own visited states map

or check out these Google Hacks.

IT Motto...

We the willing
Led by the unknowing
Are doing the impossible
For the ungrateful
We have done so much
For so long
With so little
We are now qualified to do anything
With nothing

Another Microsoft Joke...

There was a pilot flying a small single engine charter plane, with a couple of very important executives on board. He was coming into Seattle airport through thick fog with less than 10m visibility when his instruments went out. So he began circling around looking for a landmark.

After an hour or so, he starts running pretty low on fuel and the passengers are getting very nervous. Finally, a small opening in the fog appears and he sees a tall building with one guy working alone on the fifth floor.

The pilot banks the plane around, rolls down the window and shouts to the guy "Hey, where am I? To this, the solitary office worker replies "You're in a plane." The pilot rolls up the window, executes a 275 degree turn and proceeds to execute a perfect blind landing on the runway of the airport 5 miles away. Just as the plane stops, so does the engine as the fuel has run out.

The passengers are amazed and one asks how he did it. "Simple" replies the pilot, "I asked the guy in that building a simple question. The answer he gave me was 100 percent correct but absolutely useless, therefore that must be Microsoft's support office and from there the airport is just 5 miles away."

Peer Pressure

Everyone else in the family has switched to blogspot...so I figured I'd give it a try.