If I’m to share an “a day in the life” photo, it would have to be a walk at the old US Communications base. This is truly a daily occurrence. Maru the Shiba wants to walk rain or shine. 📷🐕☺️

Photo of Maru the Shiba on a drizzly day

This is my wife’s office chair from Itoki, that fits her smaller frame nicely. 📷💺

Photo of office chair from Itoki, with lime green fabric and a white frame.

Maru the Shiba was panicking about the thunder and lightning last night, so I slept on the couch near him for a while. 🐕⛈️

Doing this hike up the old Tokaido road, there were quite a few places where you would be hiking near the modern road. You could really feel the history in your legs. 📷🥾

Photo of Stairs on the old Tokaido next to the modern road

Before we built our new home, we had to raze the original jikka, my in-laws’ old home. It had been built by Sekisui House about 75 years prior. 📷🏡

Photo of the old jikka, the ancestral home

The wooden palm rest for my UHK “Ultimate Hacking Keyboard” was getting old and gross, so in the absence of any woodworking skills, I bought in right away when they released the new rubber version. It came today via DHL and feels great! ⌨️📷

Photo of new UHK rubber palm rest

A couple years back we moved into our new home, and I was fortunate enough to be able to observe it being built out the window from the old home. A real treasured memory. 📷🏠

Photo of our home while being built

Just a hint of fall. 📷🍁

Trees just starting to turn red in fall

Old Tokaido Hike in Hakone

On Monday 18 Sept 2023, on Respect-for-the-Aged day, I did a 5hr solo point-to-point hike in Hakone, up the “old Tokaido” and “old Hakone Town” roads, ascending 752m and descending 119m over 10.7km. This was not up a single mountain per se, but was plenty tiring going up a very long slope, as the humidity is still hanging around even in September. The hike started in Hakone Yumoto, then followed the road then trails all the way up to Lake Ashi.

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This is the massive 5 ton “shimenawa” at the Kagura-den ceremony hall, at Izumo Ohyashiro shrine in Shimane Japan. It’s stunningly impressive and is well worth the trip. 🇯🇵⛩️

Photo of the great shimenawa at Izumo Ohyashiro

A little fire shall not be a disruption to the git ops. 📷🔥🫷

Jokey sign telling ppl to git push before leaving in case of fire

If you study Nihongo, you might be interested in this table of typical “goroawase” word play I compiled; things like “4649” standing for “yoroshiku”. 🔰

Maru the Shiba ate very little for the past week and was acting depressed and acting out. Today he’s “back” though; he ate with gusto and was his usual self playing around, showing affection. Sigh of relief. 📷🐕

Photo of Maru the Shiba resting on Papa’s leg on the swing

The Yumoto to Ashinoko hike is a 10km uphill trek over roads, steps, and a lot of cobblestones, ascending 750m. It’s historically interesting because a lot of it is the old Tokaido road, which is like the photo. 📷🥾 (longer post here)

Cobblestones make up the old Tokaido road

Many stations in Japan have no barrier on the platform, so you need to take care not to tumble over the edge. Especially with cutting-edge trains like this Shinkansen flying through. 📷🇯🇵🚄

Photo of the Shinkansen bullet train

Going to hike 10km this AM from Hakone Yumoto to Ashinoko lake, via the old Tokaido. It’s an all uphill hike over some road at the start, then trail, ascending about 800m overall. 🥾

Self improvement 📷🌭

Kitschy hotdog mascot dousing itself with ketchup

Our daughter worked on Hachijo island, and one of the highlights to visiting was seeing how they weave the beautiful mustard and ochre color “kihachijo” fabric used in kimono and accessories. 🥰📷👘

Photo of looms used to make kihachijo fabric.

Sad foot spa kappa. 😅📷

Kappa statue for a foot spa

“Freshly picked” tomato-kun from mascot fantasyland. 📷🍅

Blow up tomato mascot