tsubaki onsen


R1015092
Originally uploaded by renfield

Spent the night down in Kanagawa Prefecture at Tsubaki Onsen. This place is basically known as a traditional kaiseki-ryori restaurant that happens to have a hot springs resort attached to it.
The KIDDIE meals were ridiculous.
Completely brilliant, and only an hour out of Tokyo!
Photos

Jesus was a Jew, just like Buddha


R1015070
Originally uploaded by renfield

Excellent traditional Christmas: presents in the morning. Chinese take-out for dinner.
Photos

New year's eve pasta feast with Arriola gumi!


New year's eve pasta feast with Arriola gumi!
Originally uploaded by renfield

Year of the rabbit Arriola-gumi!


Year of the rabbit Arriola-gumi!
Originally uploaded by renfield

Watching pingu


Watching pingu
Originally uploaded by renfield

Subway accident


Subway accident
Originally uploaded by renfield

Someone jumped/fell under the train at sangenjaya station. Crew looking
under the train trying to figure out if they can back it up.

Happy 4th ton!


Happy 4th ton!
Originally uploaded by renfield

good enough, without sleep

Had yet another work end-of-year party, which I sensibly left early, to help a friend run an errand, grab some dinner, and talk until...2:30am?!
Drag-assed at work all day but productive, then hit the dojo with Elvis and ripped through a bunch of kumitachi and iai. Besides making stupid mistakes due to exhaustion, it was all good.
Next weekend might not be a total wash, but first, Tonchan's birthday, then Arriola-gumi is upon us!

Remodeled Starbucks


Remodeled Starbucks
Originally uploaded by renfield

I like the new interior; all the counters are huge slabs of pseudo natural
cut wood.

Tempura at lucky


Tempura at lucky
Originally uploaded by renfield

Had dinner with Salty; talking smack about budo all night. Lucky just remodelled and reopened so we killed the tempura and other yumminess.

long weekend recap

So we had an awesome weekend. Took the bus up to jiji and baba's and spent the night, eating a traditional way-too-much meal of hand-rolled sushi, legs stuffed under the kotatsu to stay warm.
Next day got up not as early as we planned and piled into jiji's New Hotness for a leisurely drive up north. Along the way we made a few rest stops, one of which included an opportunity to clean Mookun's puke off of himself and mom. Well, Ton puked last year at Halloween in the states, so I guess we get one kid-puke per family trip?
Anyway made it up to the apple orchard in the afternoon, boxed up about 60 kilos of apples (damn good ones, too!) and headed to the onsen. Great bath, awesome food, lights out. Next day, more bathing and eating, then checked out the local waterfall before heading to the coast.
Monstrously killer sushi lunch at a place that looked super-sketch but was upstairs from the open-air fish market on the pier, so it was as cheap as it looked and the sushi was so. damn. fresh. We stuffed ourselves silly and still for four adults and two kids it was barely 10,000 yen. I love eating in the boonies!
After we ate all the lovely fishes, we went to the aquarium, perfectly timed to catch the 2pm dolphin show, then checked out the penguins, hurried through the sharks (dark halls, big tanks full of big fishes...Ton not a fan), snacked on some icecream, and headed home to jiji and baba's.
More eating, more sleeping, more eating, and then took the train home.
A weekend of good food and good times and good weather.