With a CD packet full of The Doors, Taj Mahal, Van Morrison, and yes, even Willie Nelson, we’re hitting the road to San Diego. I’m going to be out of touch until I get to Japan, and once I arrive, there may be a little delay while I look around for internet access. Thanks to everyone that made this trip possible. I’ll talk to you once I get there!

Last night the family went out to play mini golf in Sonoma, and after 18 grueling holes, Susan pulled out the win. The stakes were high, and that night, Susan got to drink for free at Murphy’s.

We went out to Murphy’s afterwards, where I was able to enjoy two last pints of Murphy’s Stout. Today I’m running a few last minute errands. I need to get some contact lenses to take with me to Japan. After I run out, 1-800 Contacts is going to hook me up with more via international shipping. I can tell already that my time in Japan will be greatly improved because of the internet.

I heard some more from my predecessor, Andrew, and the first week or so in Japan is starting to firm up a little bit. Looks like after two days in Tokyo for orientation, I’ll be getting aboard the Shinkansen, the Bullet Train, and heading to Osaka. I’ll meet Andrew there, and we’re off to have a drink with my Master Teacher and get acquainted. That night I’ll get set up in my apartment, but for a week or so I’ll be sharing it with Andrew. That should work out great – he can show me how everything works, and we’ll figure out the local things to do.

Tonight we had a bunch of folks over to say goodbye – Victor and Lisa with Alexander, Rico and Sherri with Nico and Dino, Mark and Susan, Neil and Terry, Marc Johnson and Betty Jane.

We ate sausages, had lots of desserts, and visited with everyone. We got a ping pong game going, but I consistently lost. As you can see in the pictures above, Nico and Dino really had fun with the ping pong paddles. They were “helping” us play.

We ate some sushi and hot dog rollups for appetizers – East meets West 🙂 Just a week until my flight – Tuesday we hit the road for San Diego.

Just found a special release, New Belgium Brewing’s Porch Swing. My dad and I were over at Safeway to buy a case of Fat Tire for Nancy, and found this quite unexpectedly. I’m drinking one now, and it’s very good – kind of a cross between the Abbey Ale and the Fat Tire.

I haven’t had any Japanese beers in a couple of months. Considering that they will be the only kind of beer I’m drinking for a whole year, I figure I’ll get my fill.

Last night’s poker game was a lot of fun. I haven’t played in a while, not since I was in Richard Nichol’s poker group in San Diego with Masa and Ryu. We had 7 guys playing, and we pretty much played every game that they knew. I ended up ahead for the night, and that’s gotta be a good thing.

Today I’m cramming things into suitcases to see if everything has a sporting chance of fitting in my luggage. I predict some packing trauma in the near future, however.

Today my dad and I split wood for an hour, and then went into Napa to visit my grandmother and run some errands. We took grandma out to lunch, and then we went to Target, Mervyn’s and 31 Flavors.

She was doing really well today, and twice she broke into a big laugh – something she does rarely since she had her stroke. I’d never seen it happen, but I felt lucky to have been involved in some big smiles, and it’s a great way to remember her before I leave the country.

Tonight is poker night, and I’m joining the big game. I hope I don’t lose my shirt 🙂

So I’ve heard that I will in fact be taking over the apartment from Andrew, my predecessor in Japan. I’ve only heard from him, not through “official channels”, but he says that it’s official on their end. He sent me some pictures of the apartment earlier, and you can check them out here. Just click on the individual images to see a larger version.

It’s twice as big as the normal Japanese apartment. More than enough space for me. I had some great practice living in tight spaces when Haven and I lived in Scripps Ranch down in San Diego.

Yesterday the place cleared out, with the Birches heading south to visit their niece, and the Kirkendall’s heading back to Vegas. We went into Sonoma and did lots of touristy type stuff on Friday, and hit a couple of my favorite spots.

One of those spots was Murphy’s Irish pub. We sat around and had a beer. The pub was a big contrast from last time, when it was like a scene from Cocktail. Anyway, we also went to the Cheese Factory on the plaza, and Vella’s Cheese off the plaza. We did a quick walk by the mission, and then off to my mom’s winery – Gundlach Bundschu. After all of that we went back into town for pizza at Mary’s Pizza Shack. As an added bonus, they had Fat Tire beer available in 22 oz. bottles there.

Today I’m off to town to see if I can dig up luggage for my trip. The trick is buying the right luggage – as soon as I get to Japan I won’t really need it anymore for at least a year, so I don’t want to get the Samsonite stuff. I’m going to dig around Wal-Mart and Target instead. Japan is less than two weeks away. Time to get serious.

I was rooting around on the website for Takasago, the town where my high school is located. I translated the hiking page and got this. Online web translation has a long way to go. My favorite hike is the one at the bottom – “Handle forcing Fragrance of home”.

Just got off the phone with my Master Teacher in Japan, Mr. Hayashi, and also my predecessor who is there, Andrew. The conversation went pretty well, and it was exciting to talk to people so far away. It was amazing – there was no delay on the phone conversation. I used to talk to my friend Vishnu in India, and the delay was pretty distracting.

Anyway, they were taking lunch and decided to give me a call. It’s looking more and more like I’ll take over Andrew’s apartment in Futami, but it’s not for sure yet. That means a pretty big apartment, and hopefully the rent is reasonable.

Every time something like this happens, the excitement starts building. I probably won’t be able to sleep tonight 🙂

My dad mentioned that he was thinking about a poker blog to keep the rotation going for his poker group. I’m going to maybe fool around with that the next couple of days while the family is up north. They are staying at the Pt. Arena lighthouse, and doing some winetasting and fun stuff in the area. I’ve got some great beers to drink here, and I’m working on negotiations with my predecessor in Japan to buy some of his furniture.

I’ve been running around with Sara over the weekend, so I haven’t really updated the site. The weekend was great – we did everything we set out to do, and as always, I took lots of pictures.

I drove down to pick up Sara, and we went from there to the beach at the end of Sloat St. in San Francisco. I figured that since Sara was landlocked in Colorado, it was a good idea to hit the beach as soon as possible. The weather was cloudy, but it was good to see the ocean. Sara even found three intact sand dollars. From there, we went to the Exploratorium to do the Tactile Dome. We ran around inside, going quickly from exhibit to exhibit. There’s always a lot to see and do, it’s just conjuring up the patience to check everything out. After the Tactile Dome, we went down to Pier 39 for some tourist watching. We ate at Bubba Gump’s and then headed back to Glen Ellen.

The next day was the Fourth of July, so we went down to the plaza to watch the parade, which clocked in at two and half hours (!). I’m not saying I was miserable and bored, but I will say that Sara and I ended up at Murphy’s Irish Pub. We got there right before the parade ended, and when it did, it was like a mob scene of people going for beers. I was served the quickest Guinness I’ve ever had, which unfortunately, isn’t a good thing with Guinness. Oh well.

After the parade, we went back to Glen Ellen for more beer and a twenty minute nap. Then on to Mike and Mary Benziger’s place for some relaxation out on their patio, more beer, and some great food. Matt and Suzie Atkinson were there, and we had a good time visiting with everyone. Buck had a superpowered Spud Gun, pictured above. I have had experience with the hairspray version, which is a little more dangerous, but this one was built with a compressed air tank. The potato (red potatoes are best) fired from the deck of the Benziger’s house clear over the crush pad down at the winery. Brody and Dale ran down to the winery to serve as targets, but the accuracy was not quite good enough to hit them.

Afterwards, we met up with Dave and Britta and their kids, and we all went to fireworks ground zero. The Sonoma fireworks are held out in a big field off the plaza, and we set up right behind the yellow tape. I think firefighters would call that the “minimum safe distance”. The display this year was pretty good – lots of great shapes and colors. I snapped a few pics, we had some wine and snacks, and then joined the traffic parade home. The next day Sara and I were off to Goat Rock State Beach on the coast, and then south to Point Reyes. We ate Poor Boys on the beach, and got some serious beach time. That night we came back and rented Gangs of New York, and finally hit the rack.

Yesterday gave us a chance to visit Victor, Lisa, and Alexander. Alexander is pretty big for such a young guy, and we played with him and talked with Victor and Lisa for a couple of hours. Victor and Lisa looked great, and you can tell they are proud parents. Afterwards we headed back to Glen Ellen and my folks treated us to steaks from Harris Ranch. It was a great meal, with portabello mushrooms, Caesar salad, and good wine.

Today I drove Sara to the airport. We stopped at the fruit stand and Artisan Bakers for some souvenirs, and then I dropped her off at SFO for her flight back. Now we’re gearing up the house for Nancy, Lynn, Pam and Rob.

This morning I’m heading into South San Francisco to pick up Sara at the airport. From there we’re going to run around in the city and do some touristy-type things. Let’s hope my old Toyota Cressida still has the guts to get me there and back.

Today my dad and I went to Mrs. Grossman’s Sticker Company, Lagunitas Brewery, and Costco in Petaluma. The sticker trip was kind of a bust – I was hoping to find stickers to pass out to my students in Japan, but everything was pretty high priced, and there wasn’t anything that jumped out as uniquely American.

After the sticker place we went over to Lagunitas Brewery to check out the brewery. My last visit to a brewery was New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO while I was visiting Sara. The contrast between the two breweries was amazing. While New Belgium had an extensive tour, a really nice bar area, and a compliementary flight of beer tastes, Lagunitas was totally different.

We walked in and the tour guide took me and my dad (we were the only ones) across to the brewery, where we were lead up to a tasting bar overlooking the bottling line. She poured us a couple of beers (full glasses) and one for herself (!). We sat around talking about the beers and the bottling line, and then she starting pouring more. No little tasters here, we’re taking 12 ounces a pop. Did I mention that it was free?

We walked the bottling line, and even got a couple of low-fill bottles that quality control had kicked off the line. All in all it was a great tour. The tour guide obviously loved her job, and said that is a great place to work. Even the cellar workers were walking around drinking beers. She said that the owner is a “stoner”. Sounds like a great job to me.

Costco was overwhelming as usual – we got out of there for $350. Ouch! The food selection was pretty good, though, and I was able to pick up a game I’ve had my eye on few almost a year. It was down to $25. We picked up a case of Lagunitas IPA though, so the tour paid off right away for the brewery.

This evening we went out to the Sonoma Plaza, for the Farmer’s Market. I used to attend this when I was living in Sonoma… it’s a great little event. They’ve got booths set up all around the plaza, and a ton of people come down to do some shopping and eat junk food. This time I ate jambalaya, but my only complaint is the lack of shrimp. It was still good, though, and spicier than I would have expected.

My folks and I sat down with the Phelan family (part of it, anyway), and had a good time just watching all the chaos around us. The weather was perfect, and it was a great evening.