What's up in Japan?

Easy to find bamboo on the beaches with all of the bamboo forests here. This picture of Mihoko is taken on the beach near a youth hostel we stayed at.

Mihoko (26yrs. old) and sister, Kana (20yrs. old). Not sure Kana chan would appreciate her monkey face on the web! Cute sisters eh?

Nihon Kai, Japanese Sea on the Tango penninsula North of Osaka. Went there with 4 Japanese friends in the summer - nice water - great for swimming. Stayed at a traditional Japanese hotel, Ryokan, with full course meal delivered to our room where we sat around a huge table on the Tatami Mat floor (expensive woven rice mats) in our Japanese Kimono robes.

Mihoko and I went to Shodoshima Island in the early fall of 2000. We took a turbo ferry that cruised at around 80kmh to the Island - about 3 hours South of Osaka. Amazing the amount of HUGE ships hovering around Kobe port. We saw a very amusing Kabuki (traditional Japanese theatre) show one night, where I was definitely one of the only foreigners some of them had ever seen in their little mountain town. Took one of the last swims of the season, rented bikes, took this picture from a tram, just before we ascended into the fog.