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Archive - July-September, 2010 |
 We purchased this piece of crap
property back on January 12, 2010. This entire property was
in much worse condition than we ever thought possible. After
months of working alone on this place, enough work is
finished to post pictures. The following link is to the main
house information page. From there you can check out a bunch
of before and after pictures and other stuff. Enjoy.
House information and more pictures |
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 Some
of you might remember my trip to Japan back in the Summer of
2002 when I stayed at an okonomiyaki restaurant the family
of a friend owns. I stayed there for almost three months,
drank beer pretty much every night, and ate tons of food.
During this time I went hiking at Myoujin Mountain almost
every day. The following link shows the most recent pictures
of our visits to the mountain.
More pictures of Myoujin mountain |
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 This
weekend we spent two days and one night camping in the
mountains of the Yoshino area in Nara, Japan. It was really
nice and I was able to go fishing in a very secluded place
and actually catch something.
More pictures of camping |
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Tropical Storm Dianmu, which passed on the
western side of Japan over the last few days, brought a few
inches of torrential rains and a few awesome thunderstorms
to this humble little farming community. The much needed
rain was definitely welcome by the local farmers. |
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 This is the fifth time to stay in Japan
but the first time to go to this event. Called Tokae, this
nighttime event features the lighting of 10,000 candles
throughout Nara Park with a stage at one end of the park
where a jazz band performed. As usual many yatai (food
stalls) were set up selling anything from takoyaki (fried
octopus) to French fries. Nice event, but while eating, spent
half of the time pushing away a few of the estimated 1,200
deer roaming the park looking for an easy meal. |
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 Today
the three of us went to a fireworks festival which is pretty
famous in Nara, Japan. We ate a lot of food, drank a lot of
beer, and met many cool people.
More pictures of the event |
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 Today
Shai celebrated his birthday American style with tons of
food and a cake representing his mixed heritage. Pretty much
everyone showed up and really enjoyed themselves.
More pictures of the party |
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 Today
Shai became a one-year-old. Pretty much spent the day home
and quietly celebrated his birthday in anticipation of his
party this weekend.
More pictures of his birthday |
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Rock and roll. The quake, which
occurred at 6:19 in the morning local time, measured 5.0 and
was enough to wake us up and throw the Einstein coffee cups
off the shelves in the second floor classroom. The roof of
the newly constructed outside laundry room was shaking
pretty good. |
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Yup, today is the seven month anniversary
since we purchased this piece of crap
property. With the exception of a few flooring projects
scheduled for after Summer when temperatures are cooler,
much of the work is now finished. All the rooms are usable
and looking pretty good. I plan to post tons of pictures
showing the progress over the last few months. It might take
some time to set this all up so hang in there.
A few links about the house until more stuff is uploaded.
Property plan and house floor plan
Gardening Schedule
Gardening Plan
House location on Google maps |
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 Today
we held an Independence Day party at our house in Japan. It
sure was a strange experience. None of the hoopla you would
expect in America but lots of fun nonetheless. We actually
set off fireworks in the street which are still legal in
Japan
More pictures of the party |
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The
end of the camping trip included a very long drive to the
top of Odaigahara Mountain which happens to be the rainiest
place in Japan.
