Last week I was able to get over to the Yamazaki Distillery. I have wanted to take the tour for quite a long time, and it  turned out to be a fun afternoon. The factory is located just inside of Osaka prefecture.

They offer a quick 30minute guided tour of the facility, showing how they make their whiskys from start to finish.

The dark, cool, alcohol smelling warehouse full of barrels was huge. The oldest I could find was a 1991:

The distillery is located at the base of a mountain that gives Suntory an endless supply of exceptionally clean spring water.

After the tour, 20minutes of free tasting. Basically, how much can you down in 20mins. My damage:

After the tasting, you are able to spend some time in the “Library”, where 7,000 variety of whisky is displayed from distilleries around the world:

Together in the Library, the bar is housed. I counted 98 variety of whiskys from around the world available, fairly cheap, by the glass for tasting.

I opted to try out the 21y Hibiki blend. Normally $180 a botttle, the 500¥ taste was just right. Check out the full set of pics from my afternoon there.

This past weekend we headed down to Shizuoka to visit some of Mayu’s family there. Fearing the horrible Golden Week holiday traffic, we opted for the more expensive Shinkansen down. It was a good decision, there was a 27km (17m) backup of cars on a key stretch we would have needed to take. Nothing was planned, and we just relaxed and saw a few things around. One being the worlds longest wooden walking bridge:

For lunch we drove down closer to the Pacific, were we had lunch at an ocean front cafeteria that serves fresh seafood from the tsukiji-like market across the street. I opted for super fresh maguro-don:

The area also offered a distant view of Mt. Fuji:

After going for a little rest, we all went and played tennis. Something I don’t pretend to do very well. After working up an appetite, we headed over for some much needed meat:

A failed attempt to relax at a local sento sent us home, we relaxed and headed to bed early. The next morning we decided to go up into the Sumatakyou, famous for green tea, various bridges, and natural hot springs. The rolling hills filled with green tea orchards were beautiful:

We stopped near the small Senzu Staton to see some of their still running Steam Locomotives. A cool sight, and one that Mayu’s 2 year old nephew really enjoyed.

Across the street from the station we sat down for a nice light, cool lunch on the oddly hot spring day. Amazingly good zaru soba and shrimp tempura:

After lunch we started the 30min trek up to the “Yume-no-Tsuribashi” (Dream Bridge).

Mayu and I

And more of the beautiful view. We had some awesome weather while in Shizuoka:

After all the hiking, it was off to a local hot spring to kick-back for a few:

After the refresh we drove back into Shimada and headed to a cool little ramen joint downtown:

and go their famous tonkotsu “maru-yo” ramen. I’m not a huge ramen guy, but the juicy pork and flavor of the tonkotsu were an awesome match. I also need to learn how to make boiled eggs with those perfectly jellied yokes:

And then off to the station for the quick hour or so ride back to Kyoto. I then spent the rest of Golden Week doing absolutely nothing, and loved it.

Riding out enthusiasm from our climb of Diamond Head in Hawaii, Mayu and I decided to climb the Daimonji here in Kyoto this past weekend. Daimonji proved to be a bit more of a pain to climb, but well worth the view of Kyoto:

I tried to do that whole panoramic thing, but I failed to line it up correctly…oh well.

In a place called paradise….

If your so inclined (after all the TAS coverage, who would be?) take a gander at the rest of the shots from my little camera of this years show. Click the pic!

In a last minute move, I headed up to Tokyo for this years Tokyo Auto Salon. Leaving Saturday night at 10:30, we got into Tokyo at 5:30am, and slept in the car for a good 3 hours before heading into the show. Here are just a few of my favs:

We left the show around 5:30, had some dinner (I ate with Takatori, Kuroi, Teramachi and Jikuya and that made for interesting conversation) and got back on the road. I got home around 1AM on Monday morning and got up at my normal 6:30 to head to work….

First off, happy holidays to all you guys out there who actually read this thing! After a nightmare trip back from Japan (that included missed flights, and maxed out credit cards) I finally made it into LA only 12 hours later than I had planned (with a stop in Hawaii for some nice weather). Of course the 1st stop was for some late night HAT:

Despite thr jetlag and lack of sleep for over 24 hours, we got up early and headed out to Horse Thief Mile. The guys over at RAD were cool enough to arrange a small event, and even helped me snag a ride for the car. Big thanks go out to Ryan @ Rad, Terry & Tony Pham for getting the car ready and letting me use it, and to John @ CTO for getting the tires taken care of for me. Tony’s fun car:

After driving that fun little turbo deal in the morning, Jefe let me polish off my remaining pair of DZ101 using his NB. Jefe recently snagged his FD licence at Irwindale and plans to hit Rd.1 at Long Beach hard, so thank you for trusting me to toss your car around! 340hp and similar torque with insane angle made for a FUN time:

As you can tell, I liked the power

More food was had; this time at King Taco:

Then some more later at Canters. Met up with Rogan, Flybert, John from CTO & Azndoc. Celery soda, Matzo ball soup, and a corned beef/pastrami sandwich:

and then some more grub. This time, some dope Chinese in Temple City:

and there is always room for some yogurt:

Saw Doc Brown’s house (Gamble House) from Back to the Future:

Then met up with the Uncle and Aunt down in Seal Beach for a nice dinner at Walt’s near the pier. Hawaiian Ono:

And then it was off to Chicago, via Minneapolis/St. Paul and into the fantastic weather.

HUGE thanks to B&N for your hospitality! Hope to see you guys in Japan sometime soon

Ran through Tokyo for the 1st time in almost a year for various reasons. The JR N700 Shinkansen makes the trip from Kyoto station to Tokyo Station in 139mins.

Harajuku on a Saturday afternoon…too many freaking people:

Slick jazz band outside Shinjuku station.

Drinks were had, memories made. Good times.

I got tossed on a weeklong school trip to Norcal (mostly in Modesto) last minute, but the high point for me was getting to see Yosemite.

I’ll make a proper post on the trip here in a fews days. But dealing with moving 70 kids around for 7 days has left me more tired than I’ve been in a long time.

This past week I was fortunate enough to head down to Sydney for a conference on virtual world education to meet with the fellow teachers we work with on the Skoolaborate projects. It was only a quick 4 days but we had plenty of down time to enjoy the beautiful city along with working out details for new projects and such. For the full set of pics be sure to check out the Flickr album. It was a decently long 8 hour flight down to the Gold Coast and then a quick hour further down to Sydney:

The 1st thing I did was grab a proper breakfast…plates like this don’t happen in Japan:

I’m not a huge “see the sights” person but I really liked the downtown area and the view of the Opera House. Pictures do not do this place justice:

See, I’m working…so I’m serious……

And of course business meeting = beer…..at least for us it did. I really liked the VB on tap. I’m sure its just run of the mill down there but good beer is good beer:

We had a few drinks at Bondi Beach…you can see how clear the water is. I wanted to go grab a board and jump in, but no time….

More real breakfast:

and real burgers:

We were also lucky enough to be in Sydney for a nice little thing they call a dust storm…something I guess never happens?!

Anyway, I celebrated the occation by eating a kangaroo for dinner:

Though short, it was a great trip. I took way more pics that I really ever do, so check those out on Flickr if you like. I’d like to get back to Sydney and see it at a more leisurely pace, along with a few other cities.