The pictures are here.

Just came back a few days ago from a short trip to Hawaii! Valerie came down as well The main event this time was Lisa and Nathan's wedding. It was a wonderful wedding! I had some fun leading the "banzai" toast. Congratulations to both of you!!

Okay here are the pictures from trip to hawaii.

It had been about 2.5 years since I had been back to Hawaii, the last time being August 2006 for my sister's wedding. The occasion this time was my sister's baby shower. Wonder when the next time shall be??

As for a summary of the trip, we had party, party, party for the first two days, most notably my sister's baby shower! After that my dad, deanne, frank, val, and I went over to the big island for the next few days. We saw a great macadamia/coffee farm, but the highlight would have had to been the volcano. We trekked across the Kilauea Iki crater had these smooth rolling landscape of solid black rock, created from lava flows of many years ago. The other neat part was the devastation trail which had surreal feel with a low fog rolling through and just rock and dead trees.

Towards the end of my trip, we went to Ko olina beach as well as Waimea beach. Finally, I had met up with some high school buddies, who seem to be doing quite well!

Overall, it was nice to friends again, and see what they had all been up to. More importantly, it was nice to have the family together and observe with more older eyes.

So after Hakodate, we went back to my old stomping grounds, the blue forest... or as some people like to call, Aomori. I guess not much has changed, except my house has been "renovated" for better use:

before

after

Well, when I was in Aomori, I was prevented from getting a car by the fact that I didn't have a parking spot. I guess the ALT doesn't have to worry about that now......hum.

Anyway, I stayed at my friends the Okishima's place for three nights. I got to met a lot of friends from back there as well as hit the ski resort once! Aomori was as I left it, with some improvements here and there... but still remaining was the small town charm that was always and will always be there.

I just added a few more pictures. The album is here.

For new years we went up to Hakodake and Aomori.

Hakodate is small port town located on the southern coast of Hokkaido. Heres a map . It is known for seafood and the scenic night view.

We travelled up by night bus to Aomori and then took the train up to Hakodate. So first off is the food! They had this neat "yokocho" market place near our hotel, where its kinda of like a parking lot with temporary restaurant buildings (huts?) set-up. Each one has a one person size kitchen where they can cook and then a counter with a table attached. They can only fit in maybe 5-6 people and you eat there and usually chat with the owner... we cuz they are right there. There we ate some nice yummy Hokkaido ramen, as well as fresh, fresh crab lets. Among other things, we went to see the wonderful night view (shown above).

After that we went to Aomori...

Unfortunately, I accidently deleted the past entries :o I guess we should be looking forward not backward, eh...