Back in San Diego and what a good time I had. Great seeing some old time friends and getting to see two good friends get married. The only thing is that my other friends were also were getting married on the same day, so I only have pictures of Ryan and Kat's wedding, as they invited me to take part as a groomsman in the wedding. I must say that this was one of the nicest weddings/biggest weddings I have every been to. Thanks for making me a part of your wedding, it was well worth flying in on Friday and flying out on Monday. Wish I could of stayed longer, but have to get back to life in Japan.

My pictures are not the best, as I was trying to take some of the pictures standing at the front of the wedding. I can't wait to get a CD from Ryan with the professional photographers picture. Here is a link to a small slide show he put together: www.razoxstudio.com/gallery/wedding/rk/weddingday. Take a look if you can, it is such a good slide show. Also you can see what all the pictures I took at http://picasaweb.google.com/yamamotohenry. Enjoy!!

Praying that Ryan would not get married.....another bites the dust. Just joking!! Couldn't be happier that you got married to Kat and that I knew both of you from way back in the college days. I guess DSP brings people together =P.

The wedding chapel on the day of the rehersal. The sky was beautiful, which set up for a great day for the wedding.

Ryan and Kat's last night as single people ><.

The day of the wedding looking like pimps in our groomsmen outfits. Nice pick Ryan.

A man standing to face the reality of getting married. I could have swore Ryan was about to cry, but he had a bet with all of us that he wouldn't cry, so he kept it in.

Sealing the deal of marriage. Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The married couple Mr. and Ms. Tolentino (or was it Tolino....inside joke). I guess it is not as bad as me and Max Holvik getting called Mr. Yosemite and Mr. Hulk. Good old automatic spell check on those emails. Good times, huh.

Me and Kat after she got married. I am so happy for you and with one of my best college friends. Hit me up if you need any help with accounting at your firm.

Of course I was craving Mexican food and what better time to go after getting married. So we hopped in the Limo bus and headed to Santana's. Oh was the rolled tacos good!! I miss good Mexican food =(.

Classic pictures.....another priceless picture.

Cutting the wedding cake.

Some of my friends from DSP. Great to see you all again.

8-26-07 Azabu Juban Festival

Finally time to post some blogs again. It seems like I have been so busy for the last few weeks, but here are some updates. After climing Mt. Fuji and getting a good night sleep, I decided to check out the Azabu Juban festival, which is one of the biggest festivals in Tokyo. Over just the weekend the festival brings in over 100,00o people. Eventhough I went on the last night of the festival a few hours before it finished, there were thousands and thousands of people there. And of course enough time to eat the great food and drink some beers =). The festival had music and tons of booths for food, games and gifts which spanned about 10 blocks or so. I guess it is kind of like the PB block party in San Diego, but 10x the people ><.
Take a look at this street and all of the people on it. WOW!!

Stopped to watch some of the music. This guy was the Japanese Kenny G, lol. Nah, he was damn good and was very entertaining to watch.

One booth of thousands making food. This is one of my favorites, "Okonomiyaki" which is a Japanese pancake. Yummy.

The yoyo balloons.....reminds me of when I was a kid in Japan visiting.

One of the games you can play. You scoop goldfish into a small bowl using a thing that looks like a round fly swatter, but has paper in the middle, so when you get it wet and the fish move the paper tends to break. The more fish you catch, the better chance you have of taking a fish home with you.

Same concept as above, but you catch turtle using this wafer cup that breaks and gets soggy after you get it wet.

Looking at the festival from above as it finished from my friends house. As you can see there are still a lot of people still there.

8-25-07 Trip to Mt. Fuji

Another weekend in Japan and still more stuff to do. So what better thing to do, but go climb a mountain. I could of swore about 10 years ago that I wouldn't climb Mt. Fuji again, but I found myself obligated to go again. I do have to say it was well worth it and it was with a bunch of great fellow workers. I guess you could say we went hardcore because we went to work during the day and then got dressed around 4pm to catch the bus to Mt. Fuji to climb for 8 hours to see the sunrise and then climb down the mountain to catch the bus home at 12pm the next day. Can you say tired...hmmm, just a little bit. I must of took about 200 pictures, so check the rest of them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/yamamotohenry. Props and thanks to Matthias for putting this together.

Me in the office dressed and ready to go.

All of us at the station at Shinjiku ready to ride the bus. From the left: myself, Joe, Ken, Adnan, Matthias, Cedric and last but not least Iver. You guys are troopers and we all made it to the top and nobody got hurt =).

Arriving at Mt. Fuji 5 station about 7:30pm. We all bought climbing sticks. These things are life savers and I got stamps at almost ever stop along the way. When I mean stamps, they pretty much embroder / burn an imprint into the stick. They do this at the huts along the way up the mountain. I think there were like 6 huts along the way where you can rest, buy drinks and eat some food. Without those stops, I don't think we would of made it.

And we were off on the climbing root, starting from about 2300 meters or 10,499 feet.

The guys all enegized to go. Dang they started off really fast at first and then really slowed down towards the top =). It is pretty rough hike and in the dark it is even harder. All we had are these lights that we strapped on our heads to see.

The group stopping at a hut to grab some food and drinks. Boy we were tired already and we had to climb a lot more.

Making it to the entrance to the top of the mountain. Wow did if feel good to be up here and F@#$ was it super cold. Brrrrrrrrr

The first ones to the top. You guys did great. The top of the mountain is 3,776 meters or 12,388 feet. Quite a hike and happy that we all made it without too many complications.

From the top waiting for the sunrise.

A nice picture as the sun was about to rise.

Finally, the sun peaked through the clouds and all the pain and suffering was well worth it. Kind of like the Visa commercials.....priceless!!!!!!

Another shot and my screen saver on my computer now. What do you think?

The sun almost fully out and us starting to warm up. Thank gosh I was freezing to death up there.

The sun fully out. Beautiful I must say.

Three of us dead tired and getting ready for the hike down the hill ><.

Oh my, this was painful to walk down the hill after not sleeping and hiking up the hill for 8hrs. But I did find it was easier to just almost run down the hill as opposed to walking down.

This is pretty much what we climb up. Not much to see and probably a hike that not many would want to do again.

At the bottom of the hill where we started. So happy to be taking the bus home. I must of had the best sleep after taking a shower and sitting in the bath tub for an hour. Hope you enjoyed!! More posts to come. Now time to head off to Ryan's/Kat's wedding this weekend (9/1/07) in San Diego. See you all then for some fun!!

8-19-07 Ueno Zoo

So it has been years since I have been to the zoo and my German co-worker Matthias loves going to the zoo, so he invited me and Joe to go with him. I think he has been there 4 times in the last 9 months or so. Wow!! Well here are some pictures from the zoo and you can see all the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/yamamotohenry.

One of the main attractions here is the Panda bear. He is tired....I don't blame him, it was super hot and humid when we went there.

The polar bears. I think they went crazy because all they do is walk back and forth on that small platform. The space they are in is way too small. Poor guys =(.

We got there in time to see these guys get feed. Dang they eat a lot.

A view of the lake that has some really rare birds living there.

Some of the huge Lilly pads out there. I am not sure if that is what they are, but there were super huge.

Picture of the beautiful flower that blooms on these Lilly pads.

8-18-07 Dinner with Singapore KPMG team

Our beloved partner Stan Sawaii decided to set up a dinner with the Singapore KPMG team doing some work here in Japan. If you know Tiffany Sawaii, this is her father and one of the nicest and funniest partners I have ever meet. Thanks Stan for setting this up!!

Me, Stan and his wife. Can you tell they are from Hawaii. Maybe the shirts give it away.

Me and Adnan with some of the girls from the Singapore office.

We ate at this place called Gonpachi. Have you ever seen Kill Bill and the fight in the restaurant? I think it was modeled after this place. Gonpachi is very famous and even our favorite president Bush eats here ><.

Here is some more of us before we went out to A-life for a little dancing and some drinking =).

The three gals got some makeup done Japanese style. Thanks for the fun night and hope to visit you all in Singapore.

Fireworks and Iver's house warming party

One week after my house party, we had another house party at Iver's house. Right before I was about to leave my place, the Tokyo Bay fireworks started and what do you know I could see them from outside, so I watched them. Dang, the fireworks went on for an hour and half. Supposedly the Tokyo Bay fireworks is one of the largest fireworks in Japan and has about 12,000 fireworks. In Japan there are fireworks all over and have the name Hanabi Taikai (Fireworks Display Festival). There are thousands and thousands of people who go watch them and during the summer they have at least one a weekend and some during the weekdays, along with all the festivals. I am personally getting ready for the Azabu Juban festival...I heard that is the biggest in Tokyo and one the best ones to go to. Anyways, here are some of the pictures of the fireworks below. See more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/yamamotohenry.

Can't beat seeing the Tokyo Tower and fireworks together.

I arrived at Iver's house a bit late, but everyone was in full force with partying and drinking, so of course I had to get my drink on =). Let me tell you Aya was the life of the party and a great person to have at any gathering.....definitely makes the party very lively =). Aya we love you and don't ever change!!

Taking a picture after Iver gave a sticker to all of us with his name. I must say that Iver's place is very nice and look forward to hanging out there more.

Aya and her roommate. Of course Aya is giving the Japanese peace sign and something that most people do in the pictures. So I had to take a picture of me doing it, hehe, I am Japanese, right?

What do you think? The Japanese peace sign pose. Personally I kind of like it.

Just starting to get the party going. There is Joesph Sisson who just came over from the Ohio office and moving into the same apartment building that I live in. We will have a party at his place soon. Look forward to it.

Sitting around and playing truth and dare game. Boy was that fun and did I see some funny stuff.