From This Front Porch: April 2008

Signs of Spring

The first Daffodil beginning to bloom and a Mountain Ash bud...

Country Style Ribs on the grill with Sweet Baby Rays!

Around the Farm

On Saturday we planted some poplar trees around in the pasture. Colter was a great help to Dad. We hope these trees will grow up fast for good shade in the years to come.

Then I twisted Randy's arm to help me role up some barbed wire to make some wreaths to put on the barn. He wasn't very excited about it since he has worked with barbed wire before and it's not very fun...

I think they turned out great. Thanks Hon!

And now I will tell you the difference between a hobby farm and a real farm. On a real farm, barbed wire is use to make good useful fences. On a hobby farm, barbed wire is used purely for decoration. Now, I can't wait to plant flowers in the flower pots below them...

Weather Report-April 22

This is what we woke up to this morning...

Japan Trip-Part 5

Picture from Japan's Sky Garden

For the last hours of his trip to Japan, his co-worker took him on a whirl wind trip around Tokyo on the bullet train and then out to the talest building in Japan, The Sky Garken below.

the bottom levels of the building is a mall...

this typical store is not bigger that a nice size closet...

The views from the top floor are amazing...

buildings beyond buildings, cities beyond cities...

and then more...

and more and more...

oversized dragonfly in the sky garden...

From here to...

here in just over a minute with one of the fastest elevators in the world.

(This is an old dry dock that is no longer used...)

And looking up, up, up...

And then they rushed back to the airport and headed home.

Flashback-April 2001

And here she is now...

Japan Trip-Part 4

Back in Tokyo, Randy had one night before his flight back. Here are some pictures from there.

Scenes from the motel...

Another Japanese meal out...

This thin meat is brought to your place raw and then you throw it in the boiling broth to cook and eat...

The dessert of all those at the table. They all wanted Randy to sample there-very polite huh? Some green tea ice cream, Mango, a black bean dessert and then maybe sesame seed ice cream...

The next day, his coworker took him on a wild and crazy dash to see some sited in Tokyo. Here they are crammed on a bus...

Then onto the Shinkansen or "bullet train". This amazing train travels at speeds of up to 186 mph....

Rice farming along the way...

and more views of the country side. See the tall stand of bamboo trees?

A blurry farmland picture...

In the train station...

A comfy seat on the train...

Up next, pictures from Japan's Sky Garden!

To be continued...

Japan Trip-Part 3

After time spent in Imari for work, Randy and a coworker drove back to Nagasaki where they would catch a flight back to Tokyo. They had some time in Nagasaki so they decided to visit the Atomic Bomb Museum there. Here are some pictures from there.

The picture above is just outside the museum and shows the exact hypocentre of where the bomb came down. Below is a replica of the Atomic Bomb or "Fat Man" that was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945...

This shows the inner workings of the bomb. The small center would be the "trigger" and is surrounded by explosives...

Inside the museum shows the effects of the bombing on the city. Everything within 2.59 square miles of the hypocentre was completely leveled. Here are melted coins found after the explosion...

and melted house tiles...

and a melted glass bottle...

Here is a clock that stopped at 11:02, the exact time that the bomb was detonated over Nagasaki...

Here is a structure taken from another part of the city. It shows the effects of the explosion...

And here are a few more facts about the bombing...

I hardly know what to say about this... It reminds me of this post I did back in January.

To Be Continued...

Some of the above information comes from Wikopedia

Japan Trip-Part 2

Experiencing Rural Japan

Randy's work took him to Imari in Southern Japan. Here are some pictures from his time there...

Dining area at a restaurant. You sit cross legged on the floor...