dmizer

I couldn't believe that the weather was so good and the water was so warm that I just had to go for a swim.

Since I just purchased a motorcycle, I thought I would celebrate by adding a new gallery for your viewing pleasure: Click!

I purchased the bike on September 30th, and I've already put about 2000 Km on it. It's an older bike, a 1994 Honda CB1000 FR2, and it doesn't have any frills but it's reliable and very rideable. I'm looking forward to exploring Japan on two wheels!

Just started taking motorcycle lessons. Because it's been many years since I've spent more than 5 minutes on a motorcycle, I thought it prudent to take lessons to hone my skills and get back in the saddle, as well as to learn the finer points of the Japanese rules of the road.

Went out before my lessons and picked up a helmet. I already had the rest of the gear from my riding back in the states. Check out my getup.



Hopefully I will be posting pictures of me actually on a bike and riding next!

My heart goes out to all those involved.

One of my favorite things to do after work is to head out for some delicious yakitori (pronounced like yah-key-toe-re). It's basically a Japanese style barbecue where the various meats and vegetables are cooked like shish kabobs over a charcoal fire. It's not done outdoors, but on a specially built open brick pit. Like this



Traditionally yakitori was only bird meat since yakitori literally means grilled bird. They usually serve sundry chicken parts that many people would find unpalatable like deep fried cartilage, or hearts and livers, and gizzards. I'm told they even used to serve whole grilled sparrows. Apparently some places still do, but I've never seen them.

Now, yakitori restaurants are serving a much larger variety of meat including beef and pork. And by far, my favorite yakitori is called butabara which is a pork meat very similar to bacon. It's very fatty and full of flavor. I had 6 of them last night!