I was quite busy because from late September to late November because I was regularly exercising. If you do any one thing outside of work, then there goes all of your time for doing anything else.  And December is just busy because it is always that way in December. I hope to get back to exercising regularly though. I didn’t lose a lot of weight, but my clothes fit much better and I generally felt better overall.

The marshland is every where and just goes on and on…

Sometimes a boat is just the best way to get around — riding on the Wando River with a colleague from work

Low clearance

Dusk on the water

Some people live on the water in mansions like this…I cannot even fathom this kind of world.  From what I’ve heard, this home is owned by a surgeon.  Kids, go to medical school.  Period.  No further questions are necessary.

Liam at the Children’s museum mock grocery store — despite the fact be appears to have picked out a lot of bread and fish, he consumes neither on a regular basis.  He is just into rice and miso soup.

At Checkout he experiences the sticker shock due to the food price inflation

Canadian Geese flew to SC in mass numbers and seem to bully the areas the occupy.  I could even walk beside them and they were not the least bit nervous about me–they even seemed a bit confrontational at times

Suspension cables on the Ravenel Bridge — there is a walking lane on this bridge, and it takes about 90 minutes to walk from one side of the bridge and then back.  It is a great workout due to the up/down slopes, and the views of the harbor of Charleston are wonderful on a clear day.

Downtown Charleston from the top of the Ravenel Bridge

The old cigar factory, which is now poised to be renovated and turned into modern urban living spaces

Port of Charleston – there is a lot of political fighting at the local and state level about competing with the Port of Savannah in Savannah, GA.  The Savannah river is going to be dredged further to allow ships with a deeper draft to enter the Port of Savannah.

The Bibimbap (비빔밥) at RiceB — they also offer a hot stone bowl type as well, which I was more familiar with because it is how it is often served in Japanese-style Korean restaurants.  Perfectly prepared, and oh so delicious!

The Bulgogi (불고기) bento box at RiceB — the beef, broccoli with sesame flavoring, seasoned tofu, daigaku imo (Japanese University Potatoes, or candied sweet potatoes), and rice topped with a sesame flavored sauce.  Home-style Kimchee also comes on the side which is quite refreshing.  Delicious!

My favorite plant in Charleston, yet I don’t know its name.  I just know that from late October to mid-November, this beautiful pink hue is everywhere!

High tide!

Seriously, high-tide!

After fixing Liam’s anpan-man piano, Liam enjoys playing along while giving his “Hi!” hand signal

Sedrin Beer (雪津啤酒) – I had to try it when I saw it in the Asian Market.  It is a very watered down beer, resembling Taiwan Beer or cheap Japanese Happoshu (fake beer)

“Inebriate American heart totally” — I think all of the China phobes and pundits misunderstand China’s plans.  China won’t attack the USA with its military, it is just going to get all of the Americans drunk

It is still too hot in Charleston, so we decided to head back to Charlotte for the weekend wear at least the trees help to beat the heat.  Last time we came for the Japan Festival, we had wanted to take Liam to the Lazy 5 Ranch, but the rain prevented us.  This time we made it to ranch, and it was quite enjoyable.  The animals roam freely around a large track of land with a dirt road.  You drive your on car on the road and can see the animals up close.  Among the animals on the grounds are emus, ostriches, water buffalo, bison, various steer from around the world, gazelles, zebras, and much more.  There is also a special section with giraffes.  All in all it was worth the visit, and though the large animals scared Liam, he enjoyed the emus, pigs, giraffes, goats and other less intimidating animals.

台湾牛肉拉面 Taiwan Beef Noodles — I skipped breakfast just to make sure I had room to enjoy these noodles at the Joy Luck Club cafeteria in Grand Asia Market.  They are not better or worse than Japanese style ramen noodles, they are different.  I really enjoy the beef broth!

This one is for Spounge Bear — Taiwan Beer now selling at Grand Asia Market in North Carolina.  Next time I will buy a few cases and start handing out beers at work.  In five years, Taiwan beer will be everywhere. Ha ha ha!!!

I had to work to get this photo of the gecko, but he eventually tired and let me take his photo.

I do, however, have to say that the health care industry in the USA is out of control and absolutely horrible. Not only is it ungodly expensive, it employs the most lazy and the rudest people I’ve ever met in my life. You get better service at a Walmart! The next time I hear someone going on about how the health care system in the USA is supposedly the best, my head is going to explode. They are obviously people who have never received medical service outside of the country and are just saying that to make themselves feel better. We could do worse, but at the same time, we could do a hell of a lot better.

Imagine living across from the Wells Fargo building in such an upscale condo!  How nice not to have to operate a car…

No Japanese festival is complete without kingyo (goldfish) catching games

Matsuriza (祭座) mans their stations

Matsuriza in the heat of their action – the drums just roar in the large atrium of the Wells Fargo building

All ages and skill levels participate in the Bon Odori (盆踊り) dance.

I found it interesting that this dance is not typical across all of Japan — our friend from Okinawa let us know that the dance is quite different in Okinawa — it was her first time to see this dance, actually

It is August in Charleston, so that means that every afternoon we experience rain showers and grey skies.  It only makes the humidity worse and more unbearable.  Sometimes the sun is out and the sky is blue, yet the rain still falls upon us.  Thankfully, August will be over soon and though the autumn weather will not come until November, at least I can look forward to better weather. I’m tired of living in a pool of sweat…

August has been a busy month–we have three birthdays that fall in the same month.  As such, I recently visited the shopping mall after a long hiatus, and my son and I found something rather interesting…

….an “enSpire” machine.  It projects images onto the floor, and you can interact with the what is projected.  I won’t bother explaining, pictures should do the job, for example…

an action scene, when my son stomps on the orange flowers, they move around on the project surface.  Kids seem to enjoy chasing the flowers all over the projected surface.  After all, if they stomp on the floor in their apartments, their parents and neighbors tend to get rather upset!

When my son walks on the projected water, there are ripples and small waves.  While children in the shopping mall seem to enjoy playing on these projects, I have yet to figure out how they can make a profit on this.  They had several different projections, and then they also had an add for AT&T Mobility that would show up every few minutes.  I seriously doubt parents are paying much attention to the ads, and I’m sure the kids are more focused on kicking things around the surface than they are about what mobile phone service provider their parents use.  Between Google, Facebook, and this, I’m just rather disappointed that everything someone creates ends up being used for advertising.

Memory Lane

As my son and I were walking through the mall, we passed the pretzel chain that I used to work for when I was in my final year of high school as a shift supervisor.  Since we hadn’t had lunch and Liam was getting hungry, I purchased a basic pretzel which my son thoroughly enjoyed—like father like son.  I was shocked with the price, however.  In 1999 when I was working at this pretzel shop, a basic pretzel went for $1.86 before tax.  I remember the owner telling me that of the $1.86, it only cost them $0.11 in raw materials to make the pretzel.  The rest was for wages, electricity/water, rent in the shopping mall, and then pure profit.  I was surprised, however, to see that in 2011 the price for the same pretzel was $2.89.  In a decade has the dollar inflated that much?  Perhaps the raw materials cost is up due to transportation and distribution costs…due to oil?  Still, what a price hike!  Speaking of gas, I remember that gas used to be $0.99 a gallon in 1999.  Now it is $0.99 a litre!

This past weekend I decided I’d make my own pretzels from the recipe my brother gave me a few years back.  Using the recipe and my pretzel rolling skills gained from working in a shopping mall pretzel shop, I must say I’m proud of the results.  The color came out better this time, and I think I did a fair job on the pretzel rolling.

Thankfully hurricane Irene decided to skip Charleston and go straight for the outer banks of North Carolina.  We had some heavy rain and wind this morning, but the rain has passed and we largely have slightly strong winds now.  The humidity seems to have been sucked out to sea with Irene, and the air this evening was largely present, especially with the breeze.  I always love the calm before the storm.

I highly recommend the boat tour on the swamp, where a knowledgeable guide paddles you through the swamp and explains the wildlife habitat, the ecosystem, and the history of the swamp.  Pictures will follow, but I thought it was interesting to note that the site used to be a rice plantation.  South Carolina used to be one of the major rice producing regions of the world too.  I asked the guide why the plantations failed, and he explained that while South Carolina used to grow some of the best rice in the world, eventually growing rice in South Carolina was no longer competitive in the rice markets and the cultivators had to give up.  The end of slavery also had a large part to play, I suspect.  The Rice Museum in Georgetown, SC (about an hour north of Charleston) might be worth the trip, if you can tolerate the post-industrial failure that overwhelms you in Georgetown.

Back to Cypress Gardens though.

The water looks black, but it is crystal clear–the tour guide stuck the oar in the water and I could see it clearly.  The leaves fall from the trees, and as they decay at the bottom of the water, they release an oil that makes turns the leaves dark and creates the illusion that the water is dark.  In fact, it is just the bottom that is dark.  The water is not deep either, with the water level at thigh-level (around two feet) in most places.

During the revolutionary war with Great Britain, Francis Marion, otherwise known as “the Swampfox“, lead his militia men through swamp land like this all over Eastern South Carolina.  By moving through the swamps he was able to use a gurilla-style warfare that seriously disrupted the British Army.  Just imagine trying to tread through such swamp land searching for the man and his unit.

Alligators often rest near these trees in the hot summer, and thus the guide bumped the boat into the trees to try to stir up an alligator.  During winter, he said the alligators sink to the bottom of the swamp and hibernate at the bottom of the swamp.  Another good reason not to go for a walk in a swamp!

The swamp land is beautiful, yet eerie, especially when the sun is hidden by the clouds or closer to dusk.

I just had to post these to share with you a different side of Japan that you don’t see everyday.  Certainly not if you only hang out in the swanky parts of Tokyo.

Its not just the fundamentalist Christians of the southeastern USA who can make me turn my head.  This group was decked out in white (mostly) and following a monk (the guy at the very front) along the many shrines that exist on Takao-san (Mt. Takao) in Hachioji.  Besides the chanting and white headbands, what really stood out was …

…just in case it isn’t obvious, yes, those are animal pelts.  Let it never be said that one doesn’t have freedom of religion when it comes to democracies.

Have a problem with cats and birds getting in your garden?  This hairdresser’s solution was to put heads in her little garden.  Heads…the last time I saw this place the number of heads had increased…as has the creepy feeling about the place!

Office building in Charlotte, NC – I like the glass window walls, and would love to see the view from the top

CATS (Charlotte Area Transit System) blue line that runs from Pineville into “Uptown” Charlotte.  I understand there have been some trouble with this above ground rail system, but I certainly hope they can continue with the project and improve it.  More cities need to take on projects like this.  Though the returns might not be immediate, with proper planning and the foresight to look beyond election cycles, more cities can provide better public transit systems.

A great place to start is by improving the bus systems–four dirty buses a day just will not cut it.  After all, do we all really like sitting on those parking lots called the interstate highway system around our cities in the mornings and evenings?

I always thought this would make a good cover photo for a math or engineering textbook – the bottom of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in Charleston SC

The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Eastern USA.  To the left of the photo is the Port of Charleston.

Chinatown in Yokohama, Japan

So I turn back in my photo archives and found some pictures I had not yet shared from Taka0-san (Mt. Takao), just outside of Hachioji.

You’ll find natural beauty on Takao-san, as well as great hiking trails, some fabulous restaurants, a great summer beer garden, a monkey park (Takao-san Zaru-en), a Buddhist temple, and a handful of shrines

I’ve always been fascinated by the statues one finds at Buddhist temples, I just wish I knew more about them!  On the both sides of the guardian figure, you find little men with beaks and wings, as well as an 猪 (inoshishi – wild boar).  I wish I had spent less time at work and more time learning more about thing like this.

Takao-san is a great escape in the brutal heat of summer.  The humidity is gone at the top of the mountain, and on an overcast day it can get a bit chilly.  In the bottom left corner, you can see the national highway system diving through the base of the mountains.

I don’t know what type of temple this was, but based on the signs it was built by a group of Buddhists that are based in Thailand and popular in and around western Tokyo.  This architecture of this temple is quite different from typical Japanese Buddhist temples.

Nothing like a bowl of noodles after walking around all day from the famous ramen chain 万豚記 (Wanzhuji).   Each store in the chain is usually a little different from the other, but they have an awesome core menu of Chinese-style food, mixing in elements of Japanese and Korean cuisine as well.  The kim-chee fried rice is to die for, as is their 坦々麺 (Dandan noodles).  My absolute favorite–that I have only seen offered in two of the chains in Hachioji–is the Taiwan ramen.  They put a heaping topping of dried shredded pork on the top that complements the soup so well.