The Round Earth

After Miura we took a short trip to see this place called, "See the earth Round". This was an observation point above Choshi City where you can see the Earth's Horizon. According to the map at the top, you should be able to see all the way to the Philippines from here. From the top we could also see the many high tech wind power generators at the Choshi coast. These were also very cool to drive by on our way back to Inzai City.

Also, my wife and daughter look very cold because it is (very cold that is.). We found out the reason why they use wind to generate their power out here.

Miura in Choshi City

Yesterday we visited the city of Choshi on the coast of Chiba Prefecture. Here are the coordinates for Google Earth.

35 44' 00.99" N

140 50' 19.25" E

The coordinates above are for where we had lunch. A great restaurant called Miura. If you look across the street on Google Earth you will see where the fishing boats dock to bring in the day's catch. Miura gets the fish right from the boats. Whenever I'm back in the States people always want to tell me about this or that great sushi place. I would defy them to find anyplace where you could find fresher sushi than this place in Choshi City. Above are some pictures of the place and the fish they sell on the street in front of the restaurant.

My wife and I had Aji no Tataki Don (Horse Mackerel Cut into small slices over rice with a touch of ground ginger to be mixed with soy sauce and poured over top) and Fish Tempura. It was just about the best lunch I've had here since eating at Ebi Maru in Ise.

Climbing Mount Inzai

Today we also took a trip up Mount Inzai. It isn't really a mountain per say but it was allot of fun. From there we can see Inzai Makinohara Station, Joyful Honda, and Yamada Denki. You can also see that there is still allot of space that will be filling up soon as they take the Hokuso Rail line and extend it all the way to Narita Airport. As a result, I think that I will lose my seat on the train in the morning in about one and a half years.

For those of you using Google Earth, here are the coordinates for Mt. Inzai.

35 48 33.90N 140 10 15.05E

Just copy and paste these coordinates into the search field for Google Earth and you will see the majesty that is Mt. Inzai.

It is only 41 meters high. For those of you inclined to do a little math; that is about 2959 meters shorter than Mount Fuji.

Making Freinds At Kobayashi Tenshin Yochien

Today I was able to go with my wife and daughter to Kobayashi Tenshin Yochien (Kindergarten) for "Making Friends Day". It was allot of fun. My daughter is the type where when there are other kids around, she likes to go it alone and play without us. In one way this is nice but in another sometimes its hard for me to participate when I'd like to.

All in all though we had a great time this morning. Here are a couple of pictures.

The one picture with my daughter holding her fingers up is her just checking in for her first day at Nagato. The other is a picture of her with her "Oni" (Troll / Oger) origami bag that she made in her class.

Natto = Vile

Yesterday I was in a rush at Moriya station to buy some lunch. I had to catch our company's bus to our Tech Center in 5 minutes and so I jumped into a conbini (Convienence Store) and bought a couple of onigiri and a pack of five sushi maki's. I had looked at the label and saw "kimu chi" written in katakana and ingnored the rest of the kanji.

Later that afternoon when I sat down in a meeting room with one of my co-workers to eat my lunch, I bit down into the roll and to my shock, it had natto inside mixed with kim chee. I had to get something quick to wash this taste out of my mouth.

For those of you who don't know, Natto was developed by someone who left some soybeans in a barrel and they spoiled. At some point in the near future this person ran out of food and thought they should try whatever was left in the barrel. Much like the first person to look at a cow and decide that they will try whatever comes out of the pink teet, this person began to eat these beans that were stuck together with a snot like substance and smelled like feet.

This is what I bit down into. Yuck.

First Entry

Hi, this is Mark. I'm an American living in Japan since October of last year. I live here with my wife (From Matsusaka, Mie) and my daughter in Inzai City, Chiba Prefecture.

We moved here from Detroit, MI after I was offered a position with our parent company in Japan.

I'll try to add some more ideas as they come.

Some content I would like to add in the future is:

• Proper crouded train riding techniques.
• Comparing Winter in Michigan and Chiba
• Good Food in Japan (RA-MEN!)
• Drinking with my co-workers!
• Japanese Terebi Dramas and Kimutaku
• The story of the Matsusaka Cow that I ate for New Years
• Corn on Pizza?
• Mochi = Death
• Godzilla's Poop
• Trying to get my daughter to speak English

Talk to you later,

Mark W.