Jimmy and Jesse

Weekend escape to Murphys CA

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 02:42:00 +0000

Driving through California

This past weekend Jesse and I drove about 3 hours to Murphys California. The purpose of the trip was threefold: 1) We needed to visit a Shiba Inu breeder in Lodi, which was on the way, 2) Wanted to get out of Monterey and celebrate Jesse passing her ACSM exam, 3) to visit some friends who were going to be in Murphys. We departed early Saturday morning, detoured in Gilroy for some outlet shopping, and arrived in Murphys late in the afternoon. With not a cloud in the sky the drive was great, and we enjoyed scenery.

Our excellent dinner!

Upon arrival in Murphys we quickly checked into the Murhpys Historic Hotel. Although their main building has rooms from 1856--we opted for a room in the modern building (we like having our own bathroom). Afterwords we explored the town and picked one of the many wine tasting rooms to try some local wines. For dinner we settled on Murphys Grille, it was VERY good (much better than we expected). Afterwards, the hotel bar had a band and costume contest (it was Halloween weekend afterall), but we were lame and didn't dress up--maybe next year. We met up with our friends, and had a good night. Jesse got up and ran about 11 miles through the foothills, since I am still using a cane to get around I chose to walk to the local coffee shop instead.

Murphys Hotel

On our way out of Murphys we stopped in Lodi to meet with a Shiba Inu breeder I have been in contact with for a few weeks. Jesse and I had been talking about possibly getting a dog for the last few months, and figured it would be a good idea to visit the breeder (their NEW puppies, 8 days old at the time) and some of their adult Shibas. We ended up staying for about 2 hours talking to them about the breed, playing with the dogs, and holding the new puppies--we left knowing a Shiba Inu was the right dog for us. I will probably write another post discussing exactly why we chose a Shiba Inu, but to make a long story short we sent them a deposit for one of their new puppies a few days later! So we are getting a puppy in late December, right when we get back from visiting family for Christmas (probably the next day when we get back).

So overall, it was a great weekend and a MUCH needed respite from schoolwork. I was a little behind all week, but I managed to do alright--the time away was worth it.

Our Trip to Thailand (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 02:04:00 +0000

During the spring of 2011 our time in Japan was slowly coming to close. We found ourselves due to PCS (permanent change of station) in June. I had the unbelievable opportunity to travel throughout Asia for work the last three years, but Jesse hadn't really had the chance to visit very many unique places. She did get to travel with me to Okinawa a few times and even Guam once, but we really wanted to make at least one trip outside Japan (while on leave) without any ties to work. We decided to take about 10 days of leave and visit the tropical beaches of Thailand. Below is a map which details our travel route. You can zoom in to see what hotels and areas we visited. From Iwakuni we flew out of Fukuoka Int'l Aiport for a one night layover in Hong Kong. The next day we flew from Hong Kong to Phuket Thailand. We spent 2 nights in Phuket. Travelled via charter boat to Phi Phi Island for 2 nights. Travelled via charter boat to Railay Beach for 2 nights. We then flew back to Hong Kong for another overnight layover, and the next morning embarked on the final leg back to Fukuoka Int'l and the subsequent train ride back to Iwakuni.

View Trip to Thailand in a larger map

Rooftop RED Bar + Restaurant

Iwakuni Shinkansen (bullet train)

Day 1:

Train to Fukuoka, Plane to Hong Kong, Evening in Hong Kong
- 1.5 Hour Train ride
- 4 Hour flight to Hong Kong
- 30 Min train from Hong Kong Int'l Aiport to Downtown
- Hotel Check-in
- Subways, Dinner @ RED Bar + Restaurant, Ferry, Night Market, Getting lost....


Hong Kong harbor by Starline Ferry

Running in Victoria Park

Day 2:

- Morning Run & Workout @ Victoria Park
- Shopping in Hong Kong
- 4hr Flight to Phuket
- 1.5hr Drive to Royal Phuket Yacht Club Hotel (in RAIN)
- Hotel Check-in

- Local Thai food for dinner

Royal Phuket Yacht Club

View from our room's balcony

I realized this post would be better if I split it into multiple parts. 1) I have a lot of schoolwork to do 2) I would like to put each day into a narrative form so people enjoy it more.

Keep checking back for more in this series.

Bringing this blog back from the dead...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:40:00 +0000

It has been a LONG time since I have posted anything to this blog! Now that is going to change. When I decided to start this back up again I had ideas of completely re-designing the blog, maybe making some fancy custom layouts with Photoshop or something. When I actually started playing around with some of the new settings in Blogger, it turns out that I really like some of the new available default templates (I especially like the dynamic magazine layout). Well great, now I don't have to slave away re-creating anything and I can jump right back into producing content!

But where do I begin? A LOT has happened in the last 2 years since the last post here. I took many more trips to countries around Asia. I was promoted to Captain. Snowboarding in Nagano. Climbed Mt. Fuji. Jesse and I took a wonderful trip to Thailand. We moved from Japan to Monterey CA. I started graduate school at Naval Postgraduate School. We bought a new car. Camping in Yosemite. There are probably a ton more things that I just can't remember...

Most of what I mentioned above is cataloged in pictures on Facebook already, but it is hard to include a good narrative along with the pictures on Facebook. In my opinion, a blog covers this gap and provides a conduit to share the story behind the pictures in a way that family, friends and visitors enjoy.

So enough rambling! Now I need to get to work on capturing some old adventures in new blog posts. With all the possibilities I don't really know where to start. I am completely open to suggestions... What posts would our viewers like to see first? If I don't get any requests, I guess you all will just have to suffer through whatever I feel like writing and posting about first---your choice, so put your requests in the comments if you have them!!

Trip to the Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 May 2009 12:56:00 +0000

The weather is rapidly warming here in Iwakuni. Today just happened to be the perfect day for a trip to the beach. About an hour south of Iwakuni is a wonderful beach area. Apparently, this is not the busy season yet, so we had almost the entire beach to ourselves for a few hours today. Very relaxing. It is also incredibly convenient having a beach close enough to drive to on a whim.

Friendship Day 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:22:00 +0000

This past Tuesday, May 5, was the annual "Friendship Day" on board Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. US and Japanese aircraft from all over the theater come to setup static displays and aerial demonstrations. There were over 250,000 Japanese visitors to the base for this one event. It may be the largest airshow in Japan (not sure, but very likely). Anyway, I have posted some pictures and a video for your viewing pleasure. Pictures Here.

Video of the F-16 demonstration:

Blog Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:20:00 +0000

I have been changing the layout/look of the blog the last couple of days. I have also managed to figure out how to link the blog, flickr and facebook together (I think). Hopefully you like the changes. Let me know.

Tsuwano Horseback Archery Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:40:00 +0000

Today we took an ITT (Information Tickets and Tours) trip to visit the town of Tsuwano Japan. The main attractions on this tour were the town itself, with its many beautiful shrines, and the annual Horseback Archery Festival. It was a very long (uncomfortable) 2.5 hour bus ride from Iwakuni--imagine a charter bus with poor A/C on the extremely winding local mountain roads of Japan, and one screaming baby right behind us (on the way home anyway). Outside of the transportation the trip was an excellent way to spend the day. We stopped in downtown Tsuwano for about three hours of free time. During this time we hiked up the mountainside on the Tori covered walkway (pictured above) to the town's shrine/temple. After our decent we walked around the town in search of some lunch. We ended up being beckoned into a very quaint sushi bar by a friendly old Japanese man--who spoke no English and made no attempts, but he insisted that we dine in the place that had obviously earned his patronage. We pointed at pictures on the menu outside and were able to communicate with the sole employee who could speak barely broken English. Somehow we received the correct food. After lunch we wandered around town a bit more and then embarked on the bus for the ten minute ride to the festival grounds. Ceremony and tradition surround this annual festival. As you will see from the pictures, traditional Japanese dress, kabuki plays, and ceremonies decorate the time and area prior to the archery contest itself. We had a wonderful time watching and photographing the events. You can see some of the video in this post and you can grab all the pictures from trip here.

Sleeping Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:20:00 +0000

This "lump" is the cat... who apparently likes to sleep in the bed under the comforter.

Tokyo Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:24:00 +0000

Jesse and Shannon at the Tokyo Marathon... The rest of the pictures will be posted soon.

Our Place

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:14:00 +0000

Quick video tour of our apartment!

Cherry Blossoms

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:07:00 +0000

You know it is spring in Japan when you start seeing Cherry Blossoms everywhere. One of the big annual events in Iwakuni is a trip to the Kintai Bridge to view the Cherry Blossoms surrounding the area. Hordes of people visit from near and far to picnic and take in the scenery. Jesse and I decided to skip the traffic and jog out there today. I threw the camera in my camelback and off we went. I have posted all the pictures here.

Idemoto Spanish Restaurant Hiroshima

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:33:00 +0000

This is a quick video of "Idemoto" Spanish restaurant in Hiroshima last weekend. One of the cool things about Japan is the number of small restaurants like this (only room for about 15 people max). The food here was excellent! We just went exploring and found this place... well, we had a little help from Google of course.

G Lobo

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:27:00 +0000

We tried a new restaurant the other night. G. Lobo Noodle house in downtown Iwakuni. This place is located at the end of the "yellow brick road" about 300 yards from Ganesh (a really good Indian restaurant). The picture above is their "Avocado Tuna Tartar" and garlic bread loaf. It was as good as it looks... definitely some of the best food we have had in Iwakuni. This place is described as "Japanese Italian Fusion." They have courses ranging from pasta to steak and some excellent side items as well as wonderful desserts. I should have taken some more pictures, but I didn't want to be "that guy" taking pictures of all his food in the middle of a restaurant. Everythig was great, and we will definately make this one of our routine stops when eating out.

Miyajima Oyster Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 09:53:00 +0000

Biggest and best fresh raw oysters ever! This festival occurs annually on Miyajima island just south of Hiroshima. We took the train up to Miyajima for the day with our friends Dan and Donya. I had just un-boxed my new camera, so I was anxious for an opportunity to try it out. I did manage to get a few good shots. I have all the pictures here. Apparently, these oysters are some of the best in teh world. I wouldn't know about that, but they were definately the best that I have had to date.

Thailand Children's Home - Khorat Thailand

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 06:38:00 +0000

While I was in Thailand last month we had the opportunity to visit a local orphanage/children's home. The home was about 15 minutes away from the hotel we were billeted in for part of our exercise. One of the local business owners and her friends had orchestrated this trip with some of the Marines they had come to know as a result of our many semi-annual deployments to Thailand. We brought the all the children Kentucky Fried Chicken (yes they have KFC in Thailand) and several sea-bags full of clothes, toys, and miscellaneous goodies that were donated by Marines and their families back in Iwakuni. This wonderful place was home to children ranging from 2 weeks old to 18 year old teenagers. All the children eat, sleep, study, and play on the grounds of the children's home. After our dinner together the children scattered to their usual groups to play and entertain themselves. It didn't take long for them to warm up to us enough to start playing soccer and other games with us. You could tell that the older children really enjoyed interacting with us... all too often they don't have anyone to play soccer with because they are too busy looking after the smaller children. We were so consumed with entertaining the children that we ended up staying into the night up until the children began their nightly bedtime routine. I have posted some pictures here. I still have some more picture s to upload (I just have to get them from someone else, my camera was broken). This particular children's home was no stranger to the Marines who come to Thailand. However, it had been many years since the Marines had been to visit (until our group came). The last group to visitcreated a paved a walkway in the back of the facility... this happened in 1995. They desparately need a larger overhang in front of the house because of the number of children. The small shelter they have now is barely big enough to shade half of the children from the sun during the intense summers in Thailand. I think the next exercise we do we will be able to return and help them with some construction. Here is the website for the home if you are interested.

Greetings from Thailand!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:50:00 +0000

It has been a while since I last updated the blog (I have just been too busy, and Jesse still won't do it). Right now I am sitting in the small outdoor cafe of D'Pelican Inn located in downtown Bangkok (Thailand). I am enjoying the great breakfast, wonderful atmosphere and free WiFi provided by this small Pub/Inn.

I have been in Thailand for the last three weeks preparing for, and conducting, exercise Cobra Gold 09. This exercise is one of the longest running multinational training evolutions the US military participates in (story, website with videos). So far I have been to Utapao, Pattaya, Khorat and Bangkok--not too bad for my first trip to Thailand. The culture of Thailand is extremely open and friendly. It has been called the "land of a thousand smiles," and for good reason. In addition to visiting several cities within Thailand I have had the chance to eat some of the best food in Asia, meet wonderful Thai people (military and non-military), visit a Thai orphanage, see an authentic Muay Thai boxing tournament, and even participate in portion of a friend's Thai wedding. It has been wonderful experience, with the only exception being that I am away from my beautiful wife who is back home in Japan. I really think she would enjoy Bangkok, so in the future we will take some time off so we can make a trip over here together. I will try to throw up some more posts regarding some of specifics about some of the interesting places and experiences here, but that will have to wait until next time. In the meantime I have posted my pictures on our Flickr page. Click here for my Thailand pictures. Unfortunately my camera is being repaired, so I am forced to steal other people's pics and upload them as my own (I hope you don't mind). I still have yet to "acquire" all the pictures, so check back often. You have no idea how bad it sucks to be without a camera in Thailand, but I think I have some decent pictures uploaded.

Skiing in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:35:00 +0000

Jesse and I went skiing yesterday at Mizuho Highland Resort. It was my first time even seeing snow deep enough to think about skiing in. It was only about an hour and a half drive from Iwakuni (which was great). We got there around 9 and left about 5. So we had plenty of time practice skiing and falling down. Jesse didn't do so well on the skis (we accidentally went down the wrong course and spent more than an hour crawling down the mountain) and it took me another few hours to get the hang of it. By the end of the day I was able to tackle all the runs except the black diamond ones. Overall it was a great place whith plenty of snow and lots of different runs. We will definately be going back sometime in the next few weeks. I have uploaded the few pictures we took here.

Digsby boxes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:35:00 +0000

You may notice the "Digsby boxes" on the right hand side of the blog. If either one of us (Jimmy or Jesse) is logged in on our computer at the same time you happen to be browsing the blog it will say we are "online." If we are online you can chat with us using the window on the right in real time (a chat window will pop up on our screen with your message as soon as you send it). Just change the "visitorxxxx" name to your own so we know who we are talking to.

Thanksgiving in Okinawa

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:13:00 +0000

After I got home from Australia I had about 3 days off and I was off again for Okinawa in preparation and execution of yet another exercise. I was able to fly Jesse down here so we could spend Thanksgiving together. We didn't do anything special (we ate Thanksgiving dinner at the O-club), but it was great that we could be together. She spent most of her time during the days with one of the other wives that was down here (so at least she wasn't completely bored while I was working). We were able to get most of our Christmas shopping done (everyone should be presents soon). Jesse left about 2 weeks ago and I stayed for the exercise. I should be leaving early next week for home.

First Update in while

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:16:00 +0000

Sorry it has been so long since the blog has been updated. I have been away on exercises and extremely busy over the past month or so. We all need to bug Jesse to keep the blog updated while I am away (I cannot seem to get her to do it).

I am going to add a few posts tonight in order to o catch everyone up on things that have been going on over here.

Travels to Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:32:00 +0000

I am currently sitting in an Internet cafe located at Inchon International Airport in Seol South Korea. I figured I would use some of my 3 hour layover to update the blog. I left Darwin Australia about 3:00PM yesterday. My itinerary has taken me from Darwin Australia, Singapore, and now Seol South Korea. One more flight to Fukuoka Japan and a 2hr train ride and I will be home.

Australia was a great experience for several reasons: excellent food, everyone speaks English, and everything is written in English--It almost felt like home. It was a welcomed change from the extreme cultural difference we deal with in Japan. It was also a pleasure working with the Royal Australian Air Force in preparation for our exercise. While down under I was extremely busy handling logistics coordination and communication support for the exercise. I did not have much time to sight see. I did get to experience Darwin night life on a few occasions--beer, techno music, cricket and rugby are the descriptors I would choose to quickly paint a mental picture of the local bar scene. There is no shortage of good restaurants in the area. Because of its strong foreign influence Australia has a wonderful selection of food from around the Pacific. Some of the food that I had the pleasure of partaking in: best raw oysters ever, Kangaroo steak (tastes like something in between beef and venison), lots of great Thai food and Indian cuisine were just a few of the options available. I wish I had more time off during the days to explore some of the countryside--off road outback safari's, fishing trips and many other outdoor activities were advertised all over town. Maybe next time I get down there I can knock out some of the more "tourist" attractions. I was too busy to take any pictures, so I don't have any. But here is a link to "Darwin Australia" pictures from Flickr that you can explore at your convenience if you are interested.

Safari Land!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:57:00 +0000

I meant to publish this post about two months ago, but I forgot. We took a trip to "Safari Land" outside of Yamaguchi City (about a 2.5-3hr drive from Iwakuni). It is basically a zoo that you drive through with your vehicle. It reminded me somewhat of Jurassic Park because you drive through to different areas which are separated by large double gates (so the lions don't eat the gazelle). It was great because the animals (if they want to) can come right up to your car. Once inside whatever area you happen to be in there are no fences between the animals and your car. One of the black bears got extra close to the car--Jesse freaked. They had several different areas. The first one had all the non-carnivorous animals (Rhinos, gazelle, zebras, etc.). The next series of areas contained lions, tigers, cheatahs, etc. The tigers were probably the highlight of the drive through portion of Safari Land. After you completed the drive through exhibits they have a "petting zoo" portion. We parked and started walking around the petting area. The first display we visited was the tiger kittens. They had about 5 tiger kittens in a play pin and visitors could pay $10 to get their picture taken with one. We paid for a picture and played around with the kittens for a while. We sent out our Christmas cards out with one of these pictures. After the tiger kittens we continued to walk around to all the exhibits. Most of the exhibits in this area allowed you walk into the animal's pin. We were able to pet, feed, and interact with small kangaroos, miniature billy goats, monkeys (which were hilarious), ponies, zebras, giraffes, etc. It was a great time. You can check out the pictures here (I still need to finish uploading the rest, but some of them are already uploaded).

Iwo Jima

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:18:00 +0000

I recently had the unbelievable opportunity to take a trip to the island of Iwo Jima. I group of, roughly, 40 Marines and Sailors were flown down to the island and we were allowed 4-hours on deck. Unfortunately, 4-hours is barely enough time to walk from the airfield to Mt. Suribachi and back with a quick detour to the primary landing beach used by the Marines 63 years ago. The battle of Iwo Jima was/is bloodiest battle in United States Marine Corps history.

More US Marines earned the Medal of Honor on Iwo Jima than in any other battle in US History.

In 36 days of fighting there were 25,851 US casualties (1 in 3 were killed or wounded).

Of these, 6,825 American were killed. Virtually all 22,000 Japanese perished.

View of Mt. Suribachi from the middle of the Island.

Me on the "black sand" beach of Iwo Jima. I am on the same beach where roughly 100,000 Marines landed back in 1945.

View of the landing beach from the top of Mt. Suribachi.

In the pictures above I am standing in almost the same spot as these Marines were years ago. I have posted the rest of my pictures from the trip here.

Trip to Okinawa

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:58:00 +0000

I was scheduled to take a trip down to Okinawa (small island ~150miles south of Japan) last week. I got the word mid-day on Friday that I needed to get on a plane in three hours vs. taking my originally scheduled flight that was going on Monday. I didn't complain... it was a free weekend trip to a tropical island. I was also able to get the paperwork done to allow Jesse to tag along. So we flew down to Okinawa on a military flight Friday evening. I didn't have any work requirements until Monday, so we had the entire weekend to explore the island and meet up with some friends. Okinawa is beatiful. The picture above is a beach right off one of the main roads. The beaches are typically very shallow and the slope is extremely gradual. I was able to walk out nearly 100 yards in waist deep water... And I could see my feet the entire way. The picture represents what the majority of the coastline looks like. We were unprepared for the aquatic adventure that is Okinawa... Next time we will have our scuba certification or, at least, some snorkal gear. Okinawa is known to have some of the best diving in the world. We did take a boat ride out from Naha (city on the south end of the island) port into the harbor. This boat had a submersable middle section that would submerge right over one of the reefs in the harbor. Our shipboard view of a typical semi-manmade harbor was quickly transformed into an underwater spectacle consisting of beatiful coral reef filled with all the tropical fish and animal life you would see in an large tropical aquarium. It was quite shocking to see such a colorful collection of coral and fish in a large industrial shipping harbor. Needless to say, it only motivated us more to return geared for some scuba diving excursions. We have some pictures of our trip here. The pictures of the underwater scenes didn't turn out as good as I had hoped, the color is a little off. We will be sure to get some better ones next time.

Hiroshima

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:12:00 +0000

A few weekends ago we traveled north to the city of Hiroshima. It is only a 45min train ride from Iwakuni. It is the closest big city in relation to where we are now. Once we got off the train we realized we were finally in a Japanese city that corresponded to what we had previously thought of as a "Japanese" city. Large buildings, busy streets, lots of taxis, bright lights, shopping and tons of dining opportunities were only a few minutes walk (or trolley ride) away from the train station. We spent most the afternoon just wandering around the shopping district and visiting stores that looked interesting. Because of the lack of space in Japan (Japan is about 75% mountainous) most space is constructed in a vertical fashion vs. horizontal like back in the US. Instead of a shopping mall taking up the space of a few faootball fields and two floors... the Japanese accomplish the same thing with one building housing seven or eight floors of shops. Hiroshima reminded me of some kind of crossbreed between the size of Atlanta and the Shopping sectors of New York. I even talked Jesse into letting me into Japanese arcade (which was 5 floors by the way). Arcades over here are large and contain elements of a casino, Dave and Buster's (or any large American type arcade), and Chuck-e-Cheese.

The biggest highlight of the trip was our visit to the A-Bomb dome and Peace Park. The A-Bomb dome was one of the handful (read 3 or 4) of buildings still partially standing after the blast from the the first atomic bomb in history. They reinforced the shattered remnents of the building to ensure that it wouldn't collapse. They have left it (as much as possible) just as it was after the blast. You can read more about the bombing of Hiroshima here. They also constructed a large "Peace" park with several other monuments dedicated to victims of the bombings. We took the time to visit the museum about the bombing as well. We have lots of pictures of the A-Bomb Dome, the park, and the museum here.

After touring the A-Bomb museum we headed back to the shopping/dining district for some dinner. We were recommended to a "Garlic" restaurant we figured we would track down. After an hour or so of searching for a restaurant we had vague directions for; we finally found the place (which had closed and re-opened under a new name). It really was a garlic restaurant... all you could smell once you walked in was garlic. We both ordered their "garlic steak." The dish was a medium sized sirloin pan fried in--and covered with--garlic. It was excellent. After dinner we hopped the trolley car back to the train station and boarded a train bound for home. On the train ride home I--(Jesse was practically asleep at the time)--befriended a local Japanese man who lived in Otake (half way between Hiroshima and Iwakuni). He started talking to me, in Japanese, and realized I didn't speak his language. When continued to communicate through charades and what little we knew of eachothers language for the next 20minutes or so. He recognized my "military haircut" and began to talk (illustrate with his hands) that he used to be in the Japanese Army. We continued our feeble attempt at conversation, he showed me pictures of his family, and then he pulled out a bottle of whiskey... We shared a shot of whiskey and he got off the train at his appropriate stop. He was the most outgoing and friendly (friendly towards me anyway) Japanese local I have met so far.

We had a great time visiting Hiroshima... it is good to know that it is only a short train ride away.