Summer days.......

The days just keep rolling by........ Day? Friday I think. Time? Most definitely pre 4am. Weather? Ahh, I think I can see some stars......
Destination: Moriya. I'm driving (I think, I might not actually be awake yet).
A fairly uneventful ride along the highway and some back roads and we're there; 6:30 and thankfully not too hot. A welcome bank of clouds are taking some of the brightness out of the sun.

After setting up the tent etc. it's time for our almost ritual snorkel. Kanako was in like a flash but I took it a little slower. Thankfully the water temperature is a lot better than the last time we were here, so no girly squeals as I walk in. The water is not quite as clear but still able to see plenty of fish, shellfish and crays.



While heading back to the beach this beast poked his head out of a crack in the rocks. Despite his valiant efforts the monster was no match for my mighty hunter-gatherer instincts. It was a fight for the ages. The huge tentacles wrapped their way around my hand trying to pull me under. The minutes seemed like days.

(The author takes no responsibility for the validity or lack there of in the previous paragraph)


After the successful capture of my first ever octopus I was pretty stoked.

Nini showed only a fleeting interest.

After showing the octopus to a few nearby children I took it back into the water and let the mighty beast go. A brief moment of playing dead, followed by some quick changes of colour and it was off. Hopefully to grow into an even mightier beast than now.
The morning was starting to move on and the clouds that had given respite from the sun upon arrival were starting to burn off.
Kanako took this opportunity to work on her tan.....

... before being interrupted by Nini.


Other beach goers were also taking in the morning rays.

Somewhere to dip your toes in the water....

Maybe up to your knees, but no more than that.
Another nice bit of ocean where they won't let you swim. If they actually taught people to swim properly and tell them of the dangers to look for people here would be more water savvy. However, they don't and stupidity wins again.
Although if you couldn't read Japanese or Portuguese you would have no idea thanks to the amazing signage you only notice after you get out of the water!

A new beginning....

There have been plenty of butterflies in the garden this year but none of them seem to want to have their photo taken. So, guess you need to catch 'em while you can.
The different stages of transformation in one shot is quite cool me thinks....

To the beach!

普通二輪

As i have no job I thought it would be a good idea to make some use of the spare time. With the encouragement of my lovely wife I trotted off to auto school to get my motorbike licence. Not too hard as I already had a Japanese car licence and I only needed to do one hour of 'practical' to go with my 17 hours of riding.
Kanako had told me that when she did her bike course she had to push the bike around in a figure 8 for the whole first hour( apparently a way of weeding out the 'girls' !). The instructor took one look at me and said 'Take it for a couple of laps and meet me back here'. Riiiighht. So first time riding a bike and that's the instructions. Good on ya mate. Didn't have any problems though and motored my way through the course.
There were also a couple of simulator lessons to show the limits of your cornering ability and where you had random obstacles jumping out at you, and the one practical lesson where we were shown a video about pillion passengers (and the instructor decided to make a lot of noise and fix the classroom door). And that was it (terribly paraphrased I know.....).
Then on to the test. Ride around the set course and as long as you don't stuff up too bad you can get your licence. Didn't stall, indicated in the right places, didn't fall off the plank or in the crank and nailed the emergency braking. Bob's your mothers brother.
So go from never having ridden to being licensed for up to 400cc in about 2 weeks. Sweet.

Now if only I had a job so I could actually buy a bike.......

Smoking is gay....

apparently a new untapped market.....? The denim shorts are quite fetching....

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

After the first snow of the winter on Tuesday, it decided to start again last night.

Not quite as much as before, but still enough to give things a covering.

The gate was nicely frozen shut by the morning. Needed a bit of effort to get it open.

But not quite as much snow as I expected when I got to school.....


Still, nice to have some fall twice in the same week.