Oyama, Tateyama (2009)

So it's throwback Thursday! I don't remember what exactly brought me there, but at the sophomore year of college I made a decision to take a summer job at a shrine (雄山神社 at 立山, 富山) that let me live on a top of a scarily beautiful Mt. Tateyama for good one month, and experienced unforgettable moments for life.  I found the photos of my stay on my facebook album that I posted on 2009. My photography skill back then wasn't so great, and actually many of the photos were not even taken by myself, but thanks to factbook's 'download album' feature I decided to re-post them on my blog so that I (and others!) will see them more often. 

My Auto Challenge

To be honest, I had truly never been interested in any automobile things in my life until it suddenly became my job. I literally never paid attention on any of the car brands (For example, somehow I believed Toyota's emblem represent Hitachi, and Hitachi doesn't even make cars! :P), and had no idea about how much cars could cost or anything. I happened to start working at a research devision of one of those automakers a year and half ago, but when I got the offer at the first place I didn’t even have a US driving license nor my own car. Ever since, I try to put all my effort to learn about cars and get myself excited about it, and the challenge still continues...

A Visit to Santa Cruz

Three years in Bay Area and first time visiting Santa Cruz. It was a lot more prettier that I'd expected. There are still some other places that I missed this time in Santa Cruz so I will definitely revisit there hopefully soon. 

Sakagura: Visiting a Local Sake Brewery

A several minutes walk away from Koga (古河) station, Ibaraki-prefecture, there is a local sake brewery called Aoki-shuzo (青木酒造). This sake brewery, called “Saka-gura (酒蔵)” in Japanese, has a long history starting from 1831, and is still providing the finest awarded-winning sake to the local community and across Japan. 

Dawn from "my room"

Probably I have seen this scenery many times as I grew up in this house for like 18 years, but when I see it now, after having left home like 7 years ago, it feels sort of special.

A place in Tokyo that used to be my neighbourhood

Auberge du Soleil: A Fancy Brunch at Napa

I am not trying to make this blog a food blog, but well, food is photogenic, in general...

I got to know this restaurant and their relatively-reasonably-priced brunch course ($70-ish), thanks to this Japanese article. Food was good, and what's more the view from their patio was fantastic.