Gavin and I took advantage of the sun yesterday and went bouldering. It was actually sunny for two days straight, so that meant Mitake would be dry. Even cool in the shade this time of the year.

We set up shop at the Ninja Boulder. A slow day, only one other Japanese climber. I climbed a few problems that I like to warm up on. Then played on Ninja and Kodomo Gaeshi. At one point during a rest Dai Koyamada walked up with a coffee in hand. He was filming some commentary for a new climbing movie that he is working on. A rather large production too I might add.

It was a short session, but it was a nice break from the city. We are planning on going to Mizugaki this weekend for some highball bouldering. Hopefully the weather will hold up.



Go Climb Something!!!!

Yesterday for Father's Day, Team G met up with Jack and his wife to check out a few bouldering areas. The weather was OK, but it is the rainy season so all of the boulders under trees or overhanging were wet. We were not able to climb anything but it was sure nice to see these boulders for the first time.

The first area is home to the Cabin boulder. A tall, steep block that sits very secluded next to a beautiful river making this boulder a great alternative to the Mitake Gorge. There are about seven problems here ranging from v1 to v-hard. The boulders here are the same as Mitake, chert, but much less frequently visited. I will be making my way back when the weather changes for the better.

The next area was near the Black Tea Cafe. On the water, below the cafe sit about six or seven boulders in a variety of sizes and difficulties. The nicest of these boulders is the Black Tea boulder. There are seven problems on this boulder from what I could see. A nice clean corner and a blocky overhang make this boulder a gem in my eyes. I had seen this boulder in the past and wanted to climb it but, it was August and too humid. I will visit this one again in September.

The name sake to this area, Black Tea Cafe, is amazing. The cafe is a traditional Japanese restaurant offering a large variety of foods. Luckily for us we had Jack and his wife with us to order for us. We started with a small sampler of tofu, pickled veggies, apricot, and river shrimp. Next was the main course of table grilled chicken, veggies, and river trout. All of the food is cooked on the table on fresh coals. The fish is served whole. We were told that it was OK to eat the guts due to the fishes diet of algae. We tried everything. Then there was the tempura, sea weed rice, and dessert. Dessert was a sweet tomato in a "soda" water. This was surprisingly good. All I can say is thanks to Jack for spending the day with us and ordering great food. You rock!!!

This past weekend was spent at the climbing gym. The weather here is very hit or miss and the best way to get a nice workout in is to go to a gym and really push it. It will rain for days then be sunny for an afternoon, then start raining again at 5pm. Not enough time for the rock here to dry. But it is OK, Caramba and Base Camp are very close. I spent most of my weekend on routes at Base Camp. And it looks like I will be headed to BC tomorrow too.

Enjoy the photos from my first Father's Day. I thought black and white was appropriate since were went to the Black Tea Cafe.


Go Climb Something!!!!!

It rained the entire time we were in the south. Kyoto is amazing and very old. Osaka is a larger port city. The remarkable temples are surrounded by 30 story buildings. The bad weather was due to a typhoon that blew in the entire time we were there. When I say this you might imagine gale force winds and waves crashing. No. There was just spitting rain the entire time. Enough to move around in but make you wish it would stop.

We took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto first, then the local line to Osaka. There are more sights to see in Kyoto then are humanly possible to see. Osaka has many sights to see, but we spent the two days we had in the underground tunnel systems around the train station. FYI if you are planning on traveling to these cities, the hotels in the train station are very nice. Some are pricey, but worth the extra money because of location.

We originally planned to go to the Kasagi bouldering area south of Kyoto, but it rained to entire time. I am not sure if I have said this enough. We did go to Crux bouldering gym one night. The owner, Yuki, is very nice and she has a fantastic venue. If you are in the area check it out.

This all said, I was not able to take many good photos. Here are a few from the trip.

Sorry that there is not more to this post but really it rained the whole time.


Go Climb Something in the sun!!!

Yes I am talking about Alaska. We are going to Anchorage on Saturday and will be staying for a week. I have never been to Alaska, so I am looking forward to this trip very much. Star has more training on the military base there and Gavin and I are planning on checking out the surrounding mountains. I am aware that this time of the year there are many hungry bears out, so GnE will not be venturing out too far by ourselves.

That said I have very lose plans to take some photos on the water and in Anchorage. I know of a few climbing areas that are on my list to visit too. Gavin and I are meeting Star's grandparents for the first time next week. Long over due. I have heard so much about them I can not wait to meet them.

This should be a great trip and I hope I am able to take some nice pictures. We will see. Here are some random pics from the last month. Enjoy and My next post should be from Alaska and hopefully drinking an IPA!!!!


Go Climb Something!!!

Joyama today was great. We went to Wild Boar Gorge. WBG is a steep sport climbing area that must be visited by all climbers in Japan that climb in the 11+ to 14a range. A very nice area with some nice history. Jack Nakane, Yuji Hirayama, and Dai Koyamada, to name a few, all have FAs here.

Hiroko and I started with Jack's 12b, Child's Play. The route is very fun and all of the moves require your attention. If you are tall like me(for Japanese standards) the moves are not tough until you reach the last bolt. The small crimp and terrible pinches had our attention for sure. I think I can send it, but I will have to work out the top moves. Hit Chan is in the same boat.

Shuji's project is a 13d through an overhanging face that has it all. One jug, several crimps, and at least seven slopers that are just not enough. Shuji one hung today, and I know he will send soon. He looks very strong on all of the moves.

I climbed another classic, Gigolo 11b/c. This route really reminded me of climbing back home in the Little River Canyon. An overhung line about 70 feet long. The rock is no where near as good, but it is very close to sandstone. There are no jugs on this one. The line is chalked full of sloper ledges and OK sidepulls. Gigolo is well protected and I will redpoint next time I go.

On this trip I set up a couple of flashes for more practice. I think that this round was far better than the last and infinitely better than the time before that. I played around a bit with my f stop and ISO but tried to keep my shutter around 125 due to the action/climbing. I still have several that are a bit blurry, but overall I am very pleased. I hope that as I am posting photos that you can notice improvement in the composition or at least in the picture quality.

I will be taking a couple of days to rest but i think that a new area is in the works for this week. Till next time.....


Go Climb Something!!!!

Golden week has been the most widely celebrated holiday in Japan thus far. I have never seen so many people outside. I do not fully understand what the holiday is for, but it has something to do with the emperor.

Anyway, for a break from the city Gavin and I joined Jack and his wife for some bouldering at Mizugaki. We met up at the new area and decided to try a few new potential problems. Jack also wanted to send his V5/6 that we finished cleaning last week.

The first boulder of the day was one that had been wet on one side in previous trips but to our delight we found it quite dry. The Coffee Can boulder is small on this side, but has three stiff, fun problems. The same boulder on the northern side is the site of the 25+ foot lines that we closed last week. This is where Jacks Ideal Johnson V5/6 is. Jack cleaned it and sent first go. I on the other hand took my time to make it to the last scary dead point. After several tries and copious skin loss, I decided to try and send next week.

The trip was a success though. I played with a borrowed flash and I believe that I took a few nice shots. Jack took a few nice ones too I might add. In total this area now has 2 V2's, 3 V3's, 3 V4's, 2 V5's, 1 V5/6, 1 V 6, and over 25 lines yet to be climbed. And there are too MANY lines for me to ever be able to climb in my life here.

This weekend I am planning on heading to Mitake for some bouldering and shooting. I have lots of work to do with this flash technology. Monday I am going to Joyama with Hiroko and Shuji. Shuji and Hit Chan are working some projects so I hope I can take some sweet shots of them in action!!! We will see. There is a cool looking 12a that Jack put up there that I want to get on. Should be fun.

Enjoy the pictures and remember.....



Go Climb Something!!!!!

Here are some photos from today's visit to the new area. Hiroko and Shuji came out from Tokyo to check this place out. They really like it. What a fun place to climb.

Wow, so much has happened since Gavin and I came back to Japan. The weather is crisp and feels very clean now that spring is here. Gavin and I have gone climbing almost everyday since our return. We have mostly been going sport climbing lately, so I am happy to report that my endurance has improved rather nicely in the last couple of weeks.

Several months ago I was doing some research and decided that my Nikon D5000 was not up for the tasks at hand anymore. I was not seeing the picture quality and video quality that I wanted. So I bought a Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-104mm f/4 pro lens. I have only had the camera for about five days and I can already see the difference that this sensor is making. The sensor is twice as large as the D5000 sensor. Not to mention that it seems that Canon has really "got it" in terms of color awarness. Many photos and videos to come.

The Walkers and Team G went on our first family camping trip this past weekend. I took everyone to Mizugaki yama for some fric-tastic bouldering and climbing. There was a chance of rain, but we decided to go anyway. As it turned out, it rained all day Saturday. But we made the best of it. Saturday we went for a hike and I showed everyone one of the many areas here that Jack and I are developing. Totally rad here!!!! We played cards and went to the onsen for an very relaxing soak and dinner.

Saturday night the skies cleared and Sunday morning was glorious. Blue skies and sun. The granite at Mizugaki dries very fast. So by the time that we made it to the area I picked out, several of the problems were dry. On Thursday the previous week I established a very fun tough V3 on a 25 foot block and though that this would make a nice boulder to start on. It turned out to be very tough for the group, but everyone seemed to enjoy the whole experience.

On Monday Team G went into Tokyo for some good old sight seeing. We went to Jack's shop Calafate. Jack took us to a fantastic ramen restaurant. I really love ramen. In Japan ramen is the most popular noodle. When you go to a ramen shop it is more than just the ramen and soup that you are there for. It's the atmosphere. The cook right in front of you making your bowl of ramen and the continuous slurping all around you is priceless. In the states ramen is not treated the same way. I will sure miss the wonderful ramen when we move back home.

After an oishii (delicious) lunch, Team G headed to Shinjuku for some sightseeing. We journeyed to the top of the Japan Metro building for a free 360 degree view of Tokyo. It was so clear that we were able to see Fuji yama. We walked around Shinjuku and headed to a very nice IPA bar. After five glasses of tasty IPA we hopped on the train and headed west. A sweet weekend all-in-all.

Today I went to on of our closest climbing areas the Towers. I was able to climb 6 routes. A couple 10a's and 10c's, an 11a, and a 11b. Fun day. I will post pictures from today tomorrow. Now I must get to bed, I am super tired. Tomorrow I am headed to boulder at Mitake.

To catch everyone up, the last month has been a bit turbulent to say the least. Of course the catalyst for this was the earthquake and horrific tsunami on March 11th.

It so happened that on this day Star, Gavin and I were in the Yokohama area at a MontBell store. In the past three weeks I have described the EQ to several people, but I am not sure if I have given my full impression. I have to say that because we ran outside and I was not near any man made torpedoes, I was not scared for my safety. It was exhilarating to be honest. As a climber, terra firma is something that you always expect to be just that. When the ground you walk on everyday starts to move like the ocean, you start to see things a bit differently.

I could not believe the strength of the forces at play that day. I imagine that someone who witnesses an avalanche, tornado, volcano, or some other force of nature first hand feels the same way. When everything stopped, after the two rather large aftershocks, people started to disburse.
There are a multitude of city speaker systems all over Japan to communicate emergency information to the public asap. A voice came over the national system to announce that an earthquake of 6.0 struck north of Tokyo and for everyone to go home.

We do not own a television so we went to a friends house and saw that a devastating EQ had taken place. It was surreal. Now I have to admit, this was my first large EQ, so I did not even fathom that something like this could even take place. Over the next week everyone I came in contact with was very concerned with the continuous EQs that were and are happening at least twice a day. Then you throw the nuclear power plants into the mix and as parents with an infant we decided that it might be best for the little guy and I to go visit the states for a "vacation". Star was scheduled to participate in some training in San Antonio in two weeks so we figured that at the longest we would see her then. So Star and I made the very tough decision for Gavin and I to leave while she was still on orders to stay on base. Gavin and I left Yokota Air Base on March 17th.

We took a military standby flight to Seattle and met up with Star's parents. Gavin and I stayed with them and friends for two weeks. These were two of the toughest weeks I have been through in my life. I do not mean that taking care of Gavin solo was what did it. Rod, Robin, Sean, Michelle, and my parent's help can not be thanked enough. It was being without my wonderful wife. It was worrying about her everyday because of the lack of information or maybe just the unknown in terms of the nuclear plant. I love my wife dearly and being in that situation really made me think about what it would be like to have her taken from us. It was terrible to say the least. Aside from not knowing exactly what was happening in Japan I didn't know when I would see my wife again.

My wife is in the military and she literally belongs to them. She has to have permission the go more than three hours from base on a normal work day. So when there is a natural disaster near base, well let's just say she was not going anywhere anytime soon. So during this period the military was changing there minds several times a day about what exactly to do with the personnel and civilians on base. In the morning it was she was not going to be going to her training in San Antonio and by lunch she was being told that they were setting up a staging area to prepare for iodine tablet distribution. And by dinner she was told to go home and pack a bag because she was probably going to be sent to Okinawa until things"blew over".

In the end, she was sent to her training in SA and we were finally able to reunite after two weeks of uncertainty. I met up with my parents in Austin, where Star and I had planned to go before the training in SA. On Saturday, just over two weeks from the last time I saw Star, we headed to the airport to pick her up. It was a wonderful moment. I hugged my wife and Gavin nuzzled his mother at first touch. We spent the next week catching up and promising each other that we were not going to do that again to our family. During the week Star went to her training during the day and Gavin and I went on adventures. We went to the Alamo. We drove due west from SA to the Pecos river to see the fabled limestone cliffs towering on either side. We went to Enchanted rock and back to Austin. Our nights were spent together as a family eating, laughing, and loving each other. These times will never pass from my mind. I will hold them dear to me always.

We landed back in Japan on the next Sunday, April 10th. I will say it sure was nice to be back home. It is interesting that it took being sent away and put in a state of uncertainty, fear, and angst to realize what the word home really means. Home is, for me, wherever my wife and son are.

Thanks again to our family, friends and even Mountain Khakis for checking up on us while this was going on. It really shows how much you care.

For anyone that reads this and would like to help the thousands of Japanese people affected by this terrible disaster, here is a link.

I love my son dearly.

Star has gone back to work and has left Rod and I in charge. It will take some time to find a routine but with Rod's help I am sure it will happen. We took another trip to Base Camp and Rod is starting to really get into climbing. I do not have any photos due to all of us being very busy. We were either taking care of Gavin or climbing constantly for 6hrs. A good day. Start has a new project there, a very steep 11a. Tough. She will do fine.

We also finally went to check out Mt. Mitake. This day started with a tram ride to the top and an afternoon of hiking and exploring. This area is very beautiful and very nice this time of year. Gavin had a fantastic day. He really loves being outside. He is really a happy baby. I have been compiling some video of him and am about to start to edit another short video of his sweetness. Stay tuned for that.

This past Monday and Tuesday were filled with nasty weather and no climbing. we are planning on heading to pull on some plastic tomorrow at Carmba Climbing Gym. Enjoy these random photos from these last few days.


Go climb Something!!!