Minnesota State Fair

Saturday was Boston Scientific Day at the fair. We got our 3 dollar discount tickets and yellow Boston Sci T-shirt so that hopefully a wandering company person would give us a prize. Neither of us won, surely because there were seemingly thousands of yellow Boston t-shirts. They were everywhere you could look. Linda and I both had people as us about whats up with all the yellow t-shirts. Some even wanted to know where we got them! This year I made sure to photograph everything we ate.

Ironically this year we really didn't eat as much as usual. The big item we were looking for was the hotdish on a stick which probably needs some explaining for some who are reading this. Hotdish on a stick is meatballs and tatertots covered in batter and deep fried. 1.) Hotdish, a uniquely midwestern term for cassaerole, often containing cream of mushroom soup. 2.) On-a-stick, many food items at the fair are served on a skewer like a corn dog for the ease of eating and walking. Now it's the theme to have every food on-a-stick. I liked it better then Linda despite the way she is chowing down in the photo.

In order here is the food we ate; Deep fried cheese curds, Sweet Marthas chocolate chip cookies and all-you-can-drink milk, a gizmo sandwhich, and finally a vanilla and strawberry shake.


















No trip to the fair would be complete without a trip to the dairy building to see the Princess Kaye of the Milky Way sculptures made from 100% butter. Each finalist in this beauty contest gets to keep her likeness in butter.








On the way out of the fair I grabbed a huge bag of kettle corn to take home. This place makes it fresh in this big kettle. I love this salty sweet treat.










And finally, after a long day of walking and eating, we felt just like this guy, the largest boar pig in Minnesota. I think he weighed around 1000 pounds.

Tokyo #13: Station of the Future

This subway station looks like it could have been a set for 2001; A Space Odyssey. It's obviously quite new. The walls are glossy and signs are all very graphic and high tech looking. Like the movie it shows a hopeful future - for public transportation.

Race Report; Heart of the Summer 10K

My company is a major sponsor of the race so I was able to register for free. Can't beat that. It was a 10K race (6.2 miles). The night before I started to get a slight cough and sneeze nose so I was skeptical about the race. As it turns out we are into a major ragweed bloom so allergy suffers are doing just that - suffering. However the race went really well.
At start time I was getting my watch ready when, BANG!, the start pistol went off. I think the suddenness surprised everyone. Usually there is the typical "Welcome, yadda, yadda, yadda". I didn't get my watch set right till mile marker 1 but I got someone to yell out something that sounded like 6:15. Excellent! I continued to clear my thoat for the entire run but otherwise felt really good. I was with a group of young people that maintained a steady pace. I was averaging about 7 minutes per mile so I was feeling good about my goal of sub 44 minutes. On the final lap (we did 2 laps around Lake Nokomis) I saw a big group of people gathering along what I thought was the finish line. So I started to really pour it on. Well, it turns out it was the start of the 5K race. My finish line was a quarter of a mile past it. Oh, no! My heart rate was way up and I was feeling the pain. But I backed off just a little, lowered the HR a few beats, and managed the last stretch. Into the chute I can see the finish clock already at 43:30. 30 seconds left! Can I do it! Yes! I cross at 43:40. A personal best in 10k racing. And with an allergy flareup!

Results: (the overall is only the men not everyone, weird)
overall place: 119 out of 311
age division place: 20 out of 42
gender place: 119 out of 311
time: 43:37
pace: 7:02

Race Report: Withrow TT, Aug

Time again for the monthly time trial in Stillwater. Same course as before. This time out I was more conservative and felt much better on the course. In the first 4 miles I caught the person 30 seconds in front of me and past him. After the 3rd corner, now heading into some good rolling hills, he had caught back up to me and was just behind me. Drafting is not allowed in time trials or triathlons so I was bugged that he was right behind me and staying there. To be fair, he might have been the 15 feet behind me, which is the rule, but it sure felt like he was closer. I backed off a bit and yelled at him about drafting but he didn't feel he was wrong. Who knows who was right. I was annoyed so I sped up to clear him. Now we are starting to catch the guy that's 60 seconds ahead of us and we pass him. 30 second man finally passes me. Then for the next 2-3 miles it's cat and mouse for the 3 of us. At one point I was behind one and boxed in from the side by the other. I decided to sprint clear of both of them but wasn't able to maintain the lead. My heart rate has been around 190 by this point. On the final corner the 30 sec guy is finally clear ahead of me and I make one last push past the 60 second rider and stay there till the finish. My finish time was mostly likely better then the other 2 because I had caught them.


In the end I probably worked harder and rode faster because of the 2 riders then any time I might have lost because of them. At 23.55 mph it was my fastest time of the summer but not my best ever. Steve the organizer took pictures of everyone as they started out. It was a good chance to look at how aerodynamic we all are. As you can see above, my back is hunched over which is bad for aerodynamics although fairly typical of normal road biking. A good aero position would have my back almost parallel to the ground.

After the race there was a raffle for prizes donated from Now Sport. I won a small bike pump.

Tokyo #12: Big Buddha

Ok, so I've been a little light on the tourist attractions. Here is one of the big ones - literally. We traveled about an hour south of Tokyo to the seaside city of Kamakura to see the 37 foot bronze statue of Buddha as well of some large temples and shines. We once again walked way to much. We bought a map of the area and figured it was an easy walk from one place to another however we found out it was drastically not to scale.
After Kamakura I decided to take us a like farther south to the island of Enoshima. The weather started to get kinda rainy so we only stayed of a short time before making our way back to Tokyo. A long day.

Tokyo #11: Miss Okinawa

While walking about in Shinjuku we came across Miss Okinawa. She was very pretty. So were the other 3 Miss Okinawas which made us wonder if they were really pageant winners or just hired beauties there to promote the island. Actually there was a lot of Okinawa things going on in Shinjuku that day.

Tokyo #10: Dinner

After one long hot day of walking around Tokyo, Linda and I dragged our sore feet back to our neighborhood to look for a nice place to have an ice cold beer. We ended up peeking into a nice looking izakaya called Umisen Yamasen which I believe means ocean spirit mountain spirit. Before we knew it the restaurant obasan (old lady) was seating us. We were the only people in the place of about 8 tables. Each table had a charcoal grill on it with large vents overhead to carry away the smoke and, more importantly, the massive amounts of heat coming from the habachi. We ordered up the combo platter of beef, fish, and vegetables - all uncooked. We then grilled everything ourselves. The fish were a bit disconcerning because they were whole, although they were completely gutted and looked very fresh. The problem was that we could not determine when they were cooked enough to eat. The beef and sausages were more familiar. Everything was delicious and the whole experience was novel and fun. FYI, I have a couple free beer coupons to the place if you're ever in the Shibuya/Shinsen area.

Tokyo #9: Toilet Part 2

As promised in a previous post, here is our second bathroom experience. This was in Shinagawa train station. As we were getting off the Yamanote train, I read a sign in Japanese saying 'Shinagawa Tip Toilet' in Katakana. That was enough to get me curious. It turned out that it was a restroom with an honor box to throw money into. But that was only the 'tip' of the iceberg with this restroom. The men's room was what I would expect to find on the starship Enterprise. It was all maple wood, white, chrome, and loads of back lit panels. It was so cool. The hand air dryers were such that you would stick you hands into a slot then slowly withdrawn them so that the water squeeged off. Just like coming out of a car wash dryer. It worked so slick! I tried to linger so I could get a picture but every time it vacated someone would walk in.

When I finally left Linda was waiting for me and was excited to tell me how cool the ladies room was! She said that there was a display panel that indicated which stalls were vacate or occupied so that a women would know which one to go to. I bet the Enterprise doesn't even have that one.

It's no wonder that they needed to ask for tips to use the bathroom. The station must have spent a fortune on it. I now realize that we were so in awe that we forgot to throw in a tip. Gomenasai!

Tokyo #8: ranKing ranQueen

In Shibuya station Linda and I found ranKing ranQueen. The premise of the store is that everything is ranked by it's popularity in it's category. So for instants you can pick up the #2 mineral water or the #4 book, etc... But they took it well beyond the popularity of popular things like water, books, DVDs, etc. I picked up the #1 callous remover and Linda picked up the #1 makeup remover. It was unclear to me (and others in the blogesphere) what the ranking is based on. Are they really polling people each day on their favorite ramen noodles? My guess would be that they put up 5 products in a catagory then monitor the sales to generate the ranking the following week. Just a guess. I would gave ranKing ranQueen my #2 shopping experiences during the trip. According to this CNN article, this particular shop gets 20,000 visitors a day. On this day Linda was the #1 customer .

Tokyo #7: Crotches

As Linda and I were resting our weary feet along Omotesando Dori (street) in Harajuku, I spotted this photographer and subject. Why is this man taking a picture of the guy's crotch? Usually I would chalk it up to a bad coincidence of angle and timing but he brought over another person to the same spot and took the same photo. Weird. But that's Harajuku for you.

Tokyo #6; Brides and Goths

While we were looking around Yoyogi Park and the beautiful Meiji Shine, we got to see a couple weddings taking place in the Shine. Or at least the wedding photos because that's all we saw going on. The bride and groom were in very tranditional kimonos that were amazing. Note the subtle pattern in her white robe. It was really warm that day so the bride was often shuffled to the shade and the waiting portable air conditioner. We felt very bad for her because she looked miserable. Plus, because Meiji Shrine is such a tourist attraction, there were quite a few people gawking and taking photos - including us. But the couple had to know that there would be such attention at the shine and probably liked it. It's their 15 minutes of fame so I didn't feel that bad. Linda and I were trying to decide if her hair was completely a wig or if it was her own. Linda thought it was a combination. I thought it was a wig.



In stark contrast to the bride in a traditional weddding kimono were the young girls just outside Meiji Shine dressed up in maid outfits and other fetish wear. Dressing in costumes has been a fad in Japan for a long time and Harajuku has always been a gathering point. In fact, these girls (and occasionally boys) were the inspiration for the Gwen Stafani song 'Harajuku Girls'. This area is probably one of the more bizarre examples of the old world and new world of Tokyo coming together. It's also my favorite spot in Tokyo.

Tokyo #5: Loco Roco

One of the things on my shopping list for Japan was the PSP video game, Loco Roco. It's only available in Japan although I've since learned that it's coming to the US Sept 5th. I still like having the Japanese version - it's more authentic and it makes me practice reading Japanese!
The game has become one of my all time favorites. Not that the game itself is so great, its ok. It's the combination of game, graphics, and music that make so perfect. The style is very simple and graphic but it fit the quirky gameplay. You only use the right and left buttons to tilt the world and make Loco Roco roll right or left. But it's the music and sound effects that really shine. I've had the songs on my mind ever since I first played it. They're wonderfully annoying. I'm not the only one that is so effected. My friend Roy in Tokyo blogged about the infectious music as well. At first I thought they were singing in Japanese but actually it's all made up.
The follow YouTube video will show you what I'm talking about. Warning! If you play it more then once you will be humming it for the rest of the day!

Tokyo Trip #4: Tsukiji

Tsukiji Fish Market is one of the big tourist spots in Tokyo. What says Japan more then tons and tons of fresh fish as well as every other imaginable (and unimaginable) sea animal. Tsukiji is the largest fish market in Japan - it's huge. All the guide books say that you have to be there by 6am or it will be all over, especially the tuna auctions. It's a real working market so the tourists have to be constantly aware of the men on their motorized carts buzzing around at high speeds. The man in the photo is inspecting the fish. He and the others would walk up and down the rows, flip up a flap of tuna flesh, shine a flashlight on it, then move on. It seems to me that they were doing more 'busy work' then actually inspecting.

The second photo is of an ice block making machine. It really caught my eye because, by the look of it, it's been faithfully churning out ice blocks for probably 100 years. I believe the sign on front is the pricing.

After the market we had tempura soba (noodles) at a nearby stall along the street. Usually people go for the freshest sushi on Earth in the resturants surrounding Tsukiji, but neither of us were up for raw fish for breakfast at 7am.

Tsukiji on Wikipedia
My photos on Flickr

Velodrome

I went with 4 co-works that I ride bike with to a local velodrome in Blaine, MN. One of the guys actually races there weekly and the others were just trying it out. I opted to take photos instead but I'm willing to admit that the track scares me a bit. The end embankments are 42 degrees then tapper down - but not much. The other scary thing is that they were using real track bikes that don't have the ability to coast. So you always have to be turning the pedals or else the pedals will start turning you! Crazy! After watching it for the first time, I thought that it looked kinda fun. But it will still be a while before I'll try it.

Mostly I went along to try out my new 70-200mm Canon zoom. It's an awesome lens that I got just before the Tokyo trip. I wanted to try it out on active subjects because I don't have a lot of experience doing that. With the longer lens I could get farther away and keep them in focus more easily. It was still hard though and I missed many many times. Got to love deleting on the fly. The auto focus was never fast enough. By the time it ranged the subject they were already closer and out of focus. It worked better to use manual focus, find a spot to set the focus, then shot as they entered that zone of focus. The photo finish shot on the left was a rapid fire shot of 4 frames. that I combined in Photoshop. They weren't really racing each other.

The rest of my photos are on Flickr

Tokyo Trip #3: Toilet, Part 1

Home bath rooms and toilets are far more high tech then anything in the US and our apartment was no different. Please note that I said bathroom and toilet separately because in Japan they are their own rooms. They may not even be close to each other.
Most all Japanese home toilets have a hand washing bowl on top of the tank as you can see in the photo. With each flush, new water first goes through the top where you can rinse your hands, then is collected in the main tank as normal . This way there is no wasted water. Why isn't this used here in America? The flush handle has a large flush and a small flush for either solid or liquid flushes - you with me? Again, ingenious!

Our apartment toilet also had the high tech option of a build in bidet complete with a Captain Kirk control pad on the side. There were not one but 2 different stream options as can be seen in the icons - with the stop button on the left. It was a first for both of us. Linda is a convert, I am not.




The separate bath area was no less high tech. It had a typical Japanese bath, or furu, and a shower head with the entire room being water proof. The bath is really deep but only big enough to sit in, no stretching out here. The bath was filled once for the week and because we showered before entering, it was always clean. Again, in the hopes of saving water. The contol planel on the wall could control the temp of the bath and the shower separately and the black panel on the top was the LCD TV. There was also a duplicate control panel in the kitchen so that we could warm up the bath when we got up in the morning. Great for those cold winter mornings! Once again Linda was totally sold on the Japanese style bath however I stuck to just the shower. We both liked the bath TV.


Yes, the title says part 1 because I will be posting more about toilets.

Tokyo Trip #2: Apartment

Our friend Dan's Japanese cousin, Harumi, graciously helped us get an apartment for the week in the trending area of Shibuya. The apartment was a short 4 minute walk from Shinsen subway stations but it also ended up being only about 10 minutes by foot to the much larger and better connected Shibuya station. Chances are that if you've seen a photo of a bustling Tokyo street it might have been right outside Shibuya station. We ending up using the closer Shinsen station only twice. Shinsen would be a great area to live. Every day we walked by many nice resturants and bars (more on those later) and there was also a good sized market.










Our apartment was small but quite comfortable. Actually it was small by US standards but fairly typical of a Tokyo apartment. As a general rule, it's important to distinguish Tokyo from the rest of Japan just like New York standards of living must be distinguished from the rest of America. It was far better then either of the previous places I had lived in while working in Japan. We even had our own clothes washer.
It was such a bonus to have an apartment instead of a hotel room because it allowed Linda to get a feel for how it is to live in Japan. She's been in hundreds of hotel rooms so that experience would have been about the same as everywhere else. The apartment also ended up being far cheaper then a Tokyo hotel would have been. We were extremely lucky to have Harumi san find it for us.

Tokyo Trip #1: Portland Layover

Before we got to Tokyo, we did a layover in Porland, OR to visit my high school friends Jeff and Lisa Steffl. We arrived Saturday afternoon and after a few hours at their home we headed out onto the Columbia River on their beautiful boat. Their 3 kids joined us as well. We cruised up the river a ways and beached on a sand bar with
50 or so other boaters. It was a great afternoon and we enjoyed cracking a few beers and talking with old friends. The next morning we were off for Tokyo. An all to short stop but so worth the little extra effort to get there. Jeff has bug me for 20 year about when I was going to visit. I'm slow but I eventually come through.

Tokyo Trip

On July 24 Linda and I took a trip to Tokyo. For me it was a return trip. 12 years ago I taught English in Japan and have not been back since. Linda had never been to Japan. We walked all over Tokyo for 6 days to look at things really old and super modern. That is the great thing about Japan and Tokyo, they embrace the future while holding on to the past.

Instead of the typical cronological travel log, I've decided to instead post some of the more interesting things we saw in no particular order. They will probably not be very 'touristy' and at times might not even seem relevent, but hopely it will be an insight into what I find fascinating about the city I call my third home. It was most definitely be visual. I've got 4 gigbits of photos!