This goes out to my Step Dad Fritz, who is having his "29"th birthday today ^^
Happy Birthday - Click here for funny video clips
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Pitagora Suichi
I don't usually watch my tv, since it's all in Japanese and there are no subtitles to help me. But every now and then I turn it on and if I'm lucky I'll find a show called "Pythagora Switch", an educational program for children. I like it cause I can usually understand most of it (since it's for young children the language is pretty simple), it's made to make you think, and generally speaking it's pretty amusing ^^
My favorite segment is called ju pon anime, "10 stick anime". It involves 10 sticks coming together and doing.... stuff =D
One of my all-time favorite songs from the show is the onomatope no uta, "onomatopoeia song", which shows just a few of the zillions of onomatopoeia there are in the Japanese language ^_^
And here are a few examples of the Pythagora Switches (Rube Goldberg machines) featured in the show
This one shows all the stops of the Yamanote Line in Tokyo
Cool show, hu? See? Television can be educational!
My favorite segment is called ju pon anime, "10 stick anime". It involves 10 sticks coming together and doing.... stuff =D
One of my all-time favorite songs from the show is the onomatope no uta, "onomatopoeia song", which shows just a few of the zillions of onomatopoeia there are in the Japanese language ^_^
And here are a few examples of the Pythagora Switches (Rube Goldberg machines) featured in the show
This one shows all the stops of the Yamanote Line in Tokyo
Cool show, hu? See? Television can be educational!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Polini Grand Prix of Japan
This is very, very late, but back in April I gave myself a very cool birthday present. Tickets to see the Polini Grand Prix of Japan - the Japanese leg of the MotoGP circuit. And I talked a friend into going with me too, heh heh. You may remember, I posted briefly about this race last year when Valentino Rossi won the championship at the track in Motegi.
This year the Twin Ring Motegi hosted the 2nd round of the MotoGP championship, and it just happened to fall the weekend of my birthday. The tickets are actually good for the full 3 days of practicing, qualifying, and the final race day, but since I had to work Friday and we spent all day Saturday driving the 6 hours to Tochigi prefecture, we only saw the main event. Which was all I cared about seeing anyway ^^
We left early Saturday morning, our goal:
the "tsuin ringu motegi", located in the town of Motegi, in Tochigi Prefecture. And because my luck is like that, the weather was terrible
Motegi is actually a very small town, so we stayed in the larger city of Utsunomiya, located relatively nearby. Six hours after we left Takayama, we arrived and parked in a very cleverly designed parking lot
why is this so cool? cause look! It locks you in until you pay! genious.
The weather was actually so bad this day that they were unable to do the qualifying laps for the finals the next day, so we didn't actually end up missing anything by burning one day driving. So we entertained ourselves in a mall near our hotel, where I found POPPLES!!! How long has it been since you've seen them?!?! They must have made a comeback.
The next morning we woke up to a slightly better-looking sky...
And headed off to the track!
At this point I was getting quite giddy and couldn't believe that I was actually at a MotoGP race. eeeeeeee!
There are all sorts of booths set up by the various teams and companies represented in the competition, all selling merchandise
Many of them also had replica bikes you could look at or sit on, this is at the Fiat Yamaha team tent. The bike is a replica of the one Rossi rides ^^
At this point they were beginning the warm-up laps, so we decided to go find some seats before it got too crowded. Unfortunately, mother nature had different plans and decided to start pouring rain minutes after we sat down. Our umbrellas weren't up to the challenge in that much rain, and all of the ponchos sold out in seconds; leaving us to run for shelter in the Ducati shopping tent, of all places =D Which is where I got my current favorite sweatshirt (that I was teased about in the last post ^^). I took this pic of a Repsol Honda bike as we were running for cover in the downpour
Lucky for us, the rain only lasted about a half an hour, after which the sun broke through and dried the track. And it actually turned into a lovely day! We were sitting in a pretty awesome section, near to the start/ finish line and one of the curves in the track
The 125cc and 250cc classes each had their races before the 800cc GP one. During which we got to see a bike go down right in front of us
The rider was ok, though I'm sure unhappy about crashing out.
Eventually we got to the main event - the MotoGP class race. Since the qualifying laps the day before had to be cancelled due to the weather, positions were based on the warm-up times the riders had on Friday. Which put my favorite, Rossi (number 46), in pole position
The stands were pretty full by the time this race got going. Check out all those Japanese flags!
There is one Japanese rider currently racing in the MotoGP class, Yuki Takahashi. There are also a few others in the 250 and 125 cc classes. Actually I think the Japanese star of the day was the 250cc rider Hiroshi Aoyama, who came in 2nd in his race. Unfortunately for Takahashi, he crashed out in the first lap, taking down one of my other favorite riders, Nicky Haden with him =( But this is only Takahashi's rookie season in MotoGP, and I am very much looking forward to seeing him develop as a rider ^^
Anyway, we had a pretty good view for the start of the race
And some awesome views of the curve
^ here you can see the 3 leaders - Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi, and Dani Pedrosa (1, 2, and 3 from the left)
A closeup of Rossi and Pedrosa
The race was actually fairly straightforward, the biggest event being that Rossi lost the lead to his teammate Lorenzo relatively early in the race, and was never able to get it back. Aside from the crash at the beginning (which happened on another part of the track so we only saw it on the big tv) and a little back and forth between Rossi and Pedroasa, it was pretty uneventful, ha ha ha
Rossi approaching the finish line
The final results were Lorenzo in 1st, Rossi 2nd, and Pedrosa 3rd
Lorenzo got a bit caught up in the excitement and jumped off his bike to plant the victory flag in the sand
After which his bike stalled and he had to be pushed over to the podium, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!
You can hear the Japanese announcer saying near the end "that was a great performance Lorenzo, but please don't stop your engine! ^^"
Before we left we checked out the shops one last time
And I made sure to grab some Rossi schwag
And that was it! We hopped back into the car and began the 6 hour journey back home. I'd say it was a birthday weekend well spent ^^
And in return for going with me to this race, I had to promise my friend I would go with him to see the F1 Japanese Grand Prix race at the Suzuka Circuit in October. So it looks like my racing days for 2009 are not quite finished yet! ^^
This year the Twin Ring Motegi hosted the 2nd round of the MotoGP championship, and it just happened to fall the weekend of my birthday. The tickets are actually good for the full 3 days of practicing, qualifying, and the final race day, but since I had to work Friday and we spent all day Saturday driving the 6 hours to Tochigi prefecture, we only saw the main event. Which was all I cared about seeing anyway ^^
We left early Saturday morning, our goal:
the "tsuin ringu motegi", located in the town of Motegi, in Tochigi Prefecture. And because my luck is like that, the weather was terrible
Motegi is actually a very small town, so we stayed in the larger city of Utsunomiya, located relatively nearby. Six hours after we left Takayama, we arrived and parked in a very cleverly designed parking lot
why is this so cool? cause look! It locks you in until you pay! genious.
The weather was actually so bad this day that they were unable to do the qualifying laps for the finals the next day, so we didn't actually end up missing anything by burning one day driving. So we entertained ourselves in a mall near our hotel, where I found POPPLES!!! How long has it been since you've seen them?!?! They must have made a comeback.
The next morning we woke up to a slightly better-looking sky...
And headed off to the track!
At this point I was getting quite giddy and couldn't believe that I was actually at a MotoGP race. eeeeeeee!
There are all sorts of booths set up by the various teams and companies represented in the competition, all selling merchandise
Many of them also had replica bikes you could look at or sit on, this is at the Fiat Yamaha team tent. The bike is a replica of the one Rossi rides ^^
At this point they were beginning the warm-up laps, so we decided to go find some seats before it got too crowded. Unfortunately, mother nature had different plans and decided to start pouring rain minutes after we sat down. Our umbrellas weren't up to the challenge in that much rain, and all of the ponchos sold out in seconds; leaving us to run for shelter in the Ducati shopping tent, of all places =D Which is where I got my current favorite sweatshirt (that I was teased about in the last post ^^). I took this pic of a Repsol Honda bike as we were running for cover in the downpour
Lucky for us, the rain only lasted about a half an hour, after which the sun broke through and dried the track. And it actually turned into a lovely day! We were sitting in a pretty awesome section, near to the start/ finish line and one of the curves in the track
The 125cc and 250cc classes each had their races before the 800cc GP one. During which we got to see a bike go down right in front of us
The rider was ok, though I'm sure unhappy about crashing out.
Eventually we got to the main event - the MotoGP class race. Since the qualifying laps the day before had to be cancelled due to the weather, positions were based on the warm-up times the riders had on Friday. Which put my favorite, Rossi (number 46), in pole position
The stands were pretty full by the time this race got going. Check out all those Japanese flags!
There is one Japanese rider currently racing in the MotoGP class, Yuki Takahashi. There are also a few others in the 250 and 125 cc classes. Actually I think the Japanese star of the day was the 250cc rider Hiroshi Aoyama, who came in 2nd in his race. Unfortunately for Takahashi, he crashed out in the first lap, taking down one of my other favorite riders, Nicky Haden with him =( But this is only Takahashi's rookie season in MotoGP, and I am very much looking forward to seeing him develop as a rider ^^
Anyway, we had a pretty good view for the start of the race
And some awesome views of the curve
^ here you can see the 3 leaders - Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi, and Dani Pedrosa (1, 2, and 3 from the left)
A closeup of Rossi and Pedrosa
The race was actually fairly straightforward, the biggest event being that Rossi lost the lead to his teammate Lorenzo relatively early in the race, and was never able to get it back. Aside from the crash at the beginning (which happened on another part of the track so we only saw it on the big tv) and a little back and forth between Rossi and Pedroasa, it was pretty uneventful, ha ha ha
Rossi approaching the finish line
The final results were Lorenzo in 1st, Rossi 2nd, and Pedrosa 3rd
Lorenzo got a bit caught up in the excitement and jumped off his bike to plant the victory flag in the sand
After which his bike stalled and he had to be pushed over to the podium, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!
You can hear the Japanese announcer saying near the end "that was a great performance Lorenzo, but please don't stop your engine! ^^"
Before we left we checked out the shops one last time
And I made sure to grab some Rossi schwag
And that was it! We hopped back into the car and began the 6 hour journey back home. I'd say it was a birthday weekend well spent ^^
And in return for going with me to this race, I had to promise my friend I would go with him to see the F1 Japanese Grand Prix race at the Suzuka Circuit in October. So it looks like my racing days for 2009 are not quite finished yet! ^^
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