Hawaii!

I was lucky enough to be sent out to Hawaii of all places for some training. For once, the military did something right I guess. Here are a few shots from my travels in Hawaii on my time off. 

Blake waiting patiently for a burrito big enough for Andre the Giant....

A palm tree on Waikiki beach!

Waikiki beach

A solo surfer paddles by Diamond Head, near Waikiki.

One of the members of our group who had way too much fun the night before.... He spent most of the day in this position while the rest of us surfed. 

A surfer walking out on the jetti near Waikiki for some dawn patrol action. 

A crab. (Just one.)

Paddle boarding 

A local tearing it up on a long board. 

As you can tell by the 7 or 8 surfers on this short stretch of wave, Hawaii can be a crowded place to surf. 

Me on the surf spot. 

Honalulu in the background, palm trees and surfers in the foreground. 

The beach where we spent literally all day. It was a hard day. 

MeTaL MaDnEsS

Recently there was a metal concert in Sasebo, Japan of all places..... I invited some of my friends, but one of the raised a good point - "Who listens to METAL?!". Well, I do. Especially when it's FREE and it gives me an opportunity to shoot some photos of something new. I figured with all the lights and headbanging I would at least come away with a cool shot or 2. It was worth the temporary deafness and braving the mosh pit. (All photos shot in RAW with no adjustments. )

Tokyo + Nasu, Japan

I recently had the opportunity to go to Tokyo and Nasu on vacation. I took 6 days, and spent about half in Tokyo and half in Nasu. Nasu was by far my favorite as it was more of a mountain town, and is home to a lot of volcanoes and geothermal sites.

Looking into the cone of Nasukogen volcano. You can see some people hiking on the trail towards the lower right side of the photo. You could feel the heat and smell the sulfur as you walked by on the trail. One of the signs we read said the temperature of the steam can be as hot as 520 degress C! Even the ground was hot.... 

Another angle on the summit.  

Again I don't know what it says, I just thought it looked cool. I could say that about a lot of my photos from Japan..... 

 Kiyono and I 

We had lunch one day at Zest restaurant in Tokyo. It made me feel like I was back in Idaho with the old west theme and antler chandeliers. 

Kiyono enjoying the view near Mt. Bandi

 The view North from the ridge just below the summit of Mt. Bandi near Inawashiro, Japan. All the mineral deposits from volcanic activity made me miss Yellowstone National Park a lot! 

Two hikers descend from the summit of Mt. Bandi. The guy in the lead had 4 chairs - YES, CHAIRS - strapped to his back with a pack draped over the legs..... Never seen that before. I guess they don't like to sit on the ground in Japan.... 

 Rocks and tress. (Were you expecting more? ) 

A sunset as good as the day was!  Lake Inawashiro at Inawashiro, Japan. 

Kiyono strikes a pose. =) 

The view from the road to the trailhead on Nasukogen Volcano. 

A lizard I found on the trail up Nasukogen. 

Part of the trail up Nasukogen Volcano. Not all of those clouds are actually clouds. Some of that is steam coming from thermal vents in the ground. 

A trail marker in the foreground, and the cone of the volcano in the background. You can see some of the steam coming from the top of the volcano. 

Beach and a Busted Toe.....

A couple of my friends and I decided to wander around the coastline of Sasebo. We walked about 10km total by the end of the day. it gave me the chance to get off the ship, and experiment with my brand new lenses.... Here is a little of what we saw....

Umm.... A butterfly.

Niko munching on a snickers bar. That's Karl in the reflection in Niko's shades.

Karl's face.... Yeah. I'm not much for captions at the moment.

A bird of prey. Eagle? Hawk? I'm not sure. I may need to hire a raptor specialist when my site gets a bit bigger.... 

The sandstone along the shore was AMAZING! It brought back memories of slot canyons deep in the deserts of the Southwestern United States. 

Blake's feet. 

My Feet. 

More sandstone.

So I decided towards the end of the day to go for a swim... I decided also by default to be a total knuckle head while entering the water, and step on some sharp coral and slice my big toe wide open. Nothing a little super glue can't fix (really. I did). 

The Sunset 

Ai Shite Imasu Koibito. =)

Kiyono and her great smile.

On top of Mt. Sufuri

Sasebo Bridge at night.