Beach Bum

What's up everybody! I'm walking out the door right now, headed to Thailand for Spring Break!! 10 days of sitting on the beach, eating awesome Thai food, scuba diving, and working on my tan. Life is good!

Hope I don't get the 'rhea.

I was going to write about graduation, spring time and the plum blossoms, my trip to Kyoto, my trip to India, yakiniku (Japanese BBQ), and all sorts of really interesting stuff, but I've been too preoccupied thinking about my $5 massage and $12 beach bungalow and the grubbin' pad thai I will be mowing down on.

Stay tuned, I'll write about all that fun stuff when I get back, tan and happy.

Peace out!!
-m.

Mr. Ohashi

Speaking of simple things, I ran into one of my students, Mr. Ohashi on my way to the train station. Mr. Ohasi is 13 years old and he's in the special ed class. He's super energetic and really funny, and to tell the truth, I don't see why he's in the class (I asked, and it's because he's got a low IQ and a short attention span... like all the rest of the monkeys in the regular classes).

Anyway, this kid is funny. He goes out of his way to say hi to me and was one of the only kids to show up for my English club. When I ran into him, he was watching a backhoe loader in the parking lot of the recently closed grocery store. Just chillin,' pimpin' his lowrider bicycle, and enjoying the weather by watching a big machine smash stuff.

It made me think about the simplicity of being a kid again, when you could idle away the hours and not stress out about stupid things.

For a 'retarded' kid, Mr. Ohashi sure does have it figured out. What a guy.

The simple life...

So lately I have been catching myself reflecting on life and sighing with contentment, usually when I am biking home across the bridge. I pass the Ibogawa River everyday on the way to and from school.

The river has become kind of a companion to me, like the Old Man and the Sea. Hi River, Bye River. I usually stop on the way home to check the water level, the speed of the river, the color, the waves, and generally, it's tempermant and how it's doing. It's a lazy, shallow river that doesn't like to do much (insert Narcissus symbolism here, ha!).

Anyway, during one of these Garrison Keeler moments, I realized how much my life has changed in the last couple of years. It's really slowed down in these last 7 months, which is super cool! Nowadays, I get to watch the river, sleep in, travel, chill out in Zen gardens, explore castles, play sports, learn Japanese, eat weird food, and ride around on my mama-cherry bike. Life is good!

This is my view everyday. It would mellow you out too!

Ko-su Outo aka Backcountry Powder!!

... a few weekends ago, sick of the rinky dink hills here in Hyogo, I took a trip to Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics in search of big mountain riding... and boy did we find it. The main ski area is a two mountain range called Hakuba47-Goryu, meaning White Horse/5 Dragons. Well deserved names considering what an epic weekend it was.

On the advice of a local snowboarder, we spent the entire weekend riding "Course-Out-o" (out of ski area boundaries), which resulted in 40 minute runs through 2 feet of fresh, untracked powder snow. At any given moment you would be cruising knee deep in snow though trees, down bowls and valleys, natural halfpipes, and singletrack runs through the woods. It was amazing!

Sunrise on the way to the mountain.

The Ubiquitous Cute Japanese Cartoon Mascots

Maikeru scouts out the terrain. "It looks dangerous over there - that's where we should ride."

Keep Out in 3 languages. I betcha that's where the good runs are!

Uh, make that 24 Variable Courses (Merle illustrating our single run of the weekend). Love that new snow!!

If any of you ever make a trip to Japan in the winter, I highly recommend a trip to Nagano - I can see why they decided to have the Winter Olypics here, hot damn!