Some more quick hits but more detailed.

Taxis – they all have GPS in them so you just tell them where to go and they type it in and they go. They do not get lost so they cannot stiff you, it is awesome. The bad part is that the cab company knows where the cars are at all times. It is pretty cool though.

Bus Stops – Most of the bust stops have signs that tell you how many minutes away your bus is. It is so cool. I saw one that said the next bus was 36 minutes away so that way you can grab a beer and wait for the bus and not miss it.

Oviedo – is a pretty big town with not so many people in it. It never feels crowed. I do not think Oviedo has ever been attacked because the architecture is way too nice and it all looks really old. It is pretty crazy. You can run into a lot of places because you are always looking up and seeing the different architecture.

Condiments – They really do not like any kind of condiment on anything. Not ketchup, no salt, no pepper no nada. It is pretty amazing to think that everyone likes the same stuff the same way, but who knows.

English – it is amazing when you are attempting to speak Spanish how terrible your English gets. Maybe it is just me, who knows but I really struggle with English over here and I change the way that I talk as well. I speak much slower and much more direct than if I was just in the states.

Street Signs – There are none. I have no idea how anyone who does not live here know how to get anywhere. I guess that is why all of the taxis have GPS.

Lottery – They have people walking around with lotto tickets around their neck. I have no idea how it works but it must because there are a lot of people selling them. The other crazy thing is that they have blind people selling these tickets. It is crazy. I have no idea how or why they let the blind do it but Spain is not America.

The after work bar (cafe) scene – It is awesome. It is like happy hour but only more fun because more people are there and they always have free appetizers. They are little bite size things and they are so good. They also offer them at lunch. I do not know why anyone would ever order anything if they offered these because they are really good. Who knows that is why Spain is so great.

Well I think this maybe the last Post from Spain. Country number 14 in the passport. I really had a great time and i look forward to being back. The Spanish people are pretty chill and play it pretty even. I know we will all be in touch. until next time: Stay Safe. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Bring on the Bread

I sort of feel like all of my posts are about eating but i guess that is what interests me. So here we go. They serve bread with everything. You do not eat anything without bread. If you run out room on your plate, you just put it on the table cloth. It is crazy how much bread they eat. No one eats too many veggies but they do not hold back on the bread. All of the rolls are of the hard roll type. They are not afraid of Carbs which is very fun and everyone has a good time.

They are not afraid of the dishwasher either. After every course they take away all of the silverware and bring you new stuff. They also are very always want the right plate/bowl for the correct type of food. If you do not have the right one, or you just want to try a little bit of someone's food, they will bring a new one.

The craziest thing about food beside the long lunches is what time they eat. Everyone starts to eat dinner around 9 pm. But it is not uncommon to start eating around 10-11. So that is crazy, i have no idea what time everyone else goes to bed but if you have a meeting a 9 pm you really cannot do a lot after a 10 pm dinner. It does not seem that going out for dinner is as big a deal in the states but people do it. I think everyone walks to dinner because when you get out of dinner there is never anyone around. So that is odd because you see people at restaurants but they are not out on the roads so who knows. So there you go with the update on dinner, now in other news.
Yesterday was the first nice that I have had when i was at a Coke Battery it is unreal, how that works that if you go to a coke battery you will have bad weather. When we were there the awesome thing was that there was a school group that was taking a tour of the plant. How bummed out would you be if your teacher said you were going on a field trip tomorrow and then they said you were going to a coke battery. What a bummer. Today is my last full day here in Spain so i need to do everything that i need to do in the last day so it looks like i was here for a long time. We have not had a ton of time to do all of the little side things when you are a true tourist. I guess Oviedo is not a place that people like to talk about because there are no postcards in the town. I will not get turned away every place has a postcard about it, so we will find them. I also took some pictures yesterday so all is well, people will know that i am hear. I know we will be chatting soon and i look forward to hear from everyone. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Let us talk about Sidre

So last night, there we did something that we never did before. We had Sidre. It is pronounced Cider with a Spanish accent. I spoke with a couple of people about it and they all said good things, so I was somewhat interested in it. Well let me tell you what it is first. It is apple cider with booze in it. Just like Woodchuck (I think because I have never had Woodchuck). It is just apples that have fermented. Sidre is native to this region of Spain. Everyone loves it here. Let me tell you about it. It leaves something to be desired. The experience is fun but the taste is a little different. I will talk about the taste first. It is very bitter and not so sweet. It taste like apple juice that has been in the fridge for like 8 weeks too long. Now because that is bad we need to talk about the good. The experience is awesome, here is how it works. You order a bottle (about 6 servings per bottle) and the wait staff pours it for you. They do one of 2 things. They either pour it free hand or they pour it in a cylinder. The reason why they pour it behind a cylinder is to prevent the splash. The reason why there is a splash is because they do not look at the glass when they are pouring it and they start the pour above their head. It is crazy. It is also very fun to watch. So they pour about a shot and a half in glass and every time they hand it to you, it has to be finished before you set the glass down. It is crazy like that and very funny. Everyone is watching you and you have a jolly good time. The smells are not so good but it is well worth you time. If you find a good Sidre, well then get loose because you did better than I. In case you were wondering 3 of us did 4 bottles and everyone had fun and was not drunk. So enjoy. Oh yea by the way lunch was at least 5 hours today. So now you know. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk.

Quick hits about Spain

Hello everyone,

I am sorry it has taken some time to post so you are getting like 2 in 1o minutes. So here you go. Here are some quick hits.
Lunch -- Everyone takes a 2-3 hour lunch. Nothing happens during that time. I mean nothing. If you want to go pick up some parts you need for the afternoon, you will have to wait. It is crazy. With lunch being so long you do not get home until about 8 pm.
The style of lunch -- First you start with a beer, then you drink some wine and have some food. It is unreal. After lunch is over you go back to work doing your job that needs fine motor skills.
Smoking -- Everyone smokes. It is unreal. I do not know if Spain knows about 2nd hand smoke or they just do not care because everyone does it. It is crazy.
Oviedo -- I think that is spanish for the "town that only sells shoes." It is unreal how many shoe stores there are in this town. Shoe stores are the Starbucks of Oviedo.
Google -- How come google is so smart and wants to tell you that you are in Spain. I know i am in Spain but does not mean that i know Spanish or can read web pages in Spanish? I want the stuff in English.
Bruce Springsteen -- He is following me around the world. 3 weeks ago he was in Cleveland and tonight he is about 3 hours away from Oviedo. That is pretty crazy. I guess Spain is pretty crazy for El Jefe.
3 years of Spanish 10 years ago -- You will amaze yourself on how much you remember about everything when you are forced to use it and talk with others. That is by far the highlight of the trip. I know I got "C's" in the class but i sure remembered a lot.
Sidear --I think that is how you spell it. It deserves it's own post so i will give you one very shortly. I hope all is well. More to come.

Peace out.
Kirk

Viva Esapana

Well I am back and I am sorry that is has taken so long for me to do another post. Hopefully that will change very soon. I guess I have not been traveling very much in the last five months. Who knows? Well I am back and this time I am on a different continent. I am in Oviedo, Spain. I left the US on Saturday and I got to my hotel about 2:30 pm on Sunday (11/25). Everything went smoothly and I did not have any trouble. You can have your business class; it was a pretty nice flight with an open seat next to me. I slept for almost all of the 6 hour flight so I feel pretty rested. I did take a nap when I got to the hotel from about 4 pm to about 6 pm. Well that was a bad idea because when I went for a walk pretty much all of the stores were closed. Hopefully they will reopen for dinner so I can get something to eat.

I would say the best story so far was on my flight from Madrid to Asutrias. After standing in the wrong line at the Madrid airport for about 30 mins I get my boarding pass and I am ready to go. In Madrid you only take your shoes off if you are wearing boots or something with a clunky heal. Very nice change. They also give the people that take their shoes off covers so that they do not have to walk on the dirty floor. That was very nice as well. So I board the plane knowing little or no Spanish and all of the sudden a fellow passenger walks up to me and starts speaking in Spanish. At that point I just freeze. I have no idea what to do or what to say. He notices that I have no idea what is going on and he says, “English?” I say yes and they wants to know if I would switch seats with him so that he can sit next to his girlfriend. I say sure and in perfect English like he has lived his whole life in America says, “thanks, man.” And I move to his old seat of 8C. Most of the people that I have spoken with know a good amount of English. I can tell you this, their English is going to be better than my Spanish so we shall see. Later that night am walking around the street and I see him (40 mins from the airport) and we give the universal head nod and he gives it back so I guess it is universal.

We will be doing a lot of different things this week. There will be service calls as well as sales meetings and other things. I have my eye out for some cool Spanish things so we shall see what we bring back. I hope all is well with all of the readers out there and I will be posting more often I promise. MORE To Come.

Peace out.

Kirk

Our Friends to the North

Well we made it. We got to Canada on Saturday around 5:30 pm. Since we last spoke a lot has happened. Well before you keep reading and you are really interested please pull out a map because i will give you a lot of places we stopped. We left Port Huron and made a really good run at it the next day. We left Port Huron around 6:05 am and headed north. We had the breeze at our back and we started making tracks. It was really great. After 15 hours of sailing going about 16 mph we made it to Harrisville, MI. We did 135 miles in one day which was pretty awesome. That was a good time. We made it time to see the Cavs game which was fun until the end when they lost. The people in Harrisville were great. The kids that were working at the marina gave us a ride to a place so that we could get some food and watch the game. After we finished watching the game, we asked some people at the bar and they gave us a ride to the only motel in town. Well we made it to Big John's state park motel (Big John was not there he is an iron worker and is only there on the weekends) the place was awesome. The room was set up so that you could sit on the toilet, brush your teeth and watch TV at the same time so that was nice. When we woke up the next morning the weather was very bad so we held off for a couple of hours. Once we got on the water we started making our way north again.
While we were going the wind really picked up and it started to get a little hairy, after having someone throw a bucket of water on me every 5 minutes we choose to pull into a little harbor and wait it out. It was crazy how windy it was. It was a good thing that we only had to go 40 miles so we finally made it to Presque Isle. The place we stayed was awesome. It was an old cabin/inn which was really cool. They had a bunch of cabins and inns it was awesome. it was called the Fireside Inn, if you are ever in the area which you probably will not be check it out. So we were within striking distance of the finish. On Saturday we made our final push. Just 60 miles but it felt like 200. We made it and everyone was totally gassed so last night was a pretty early night. So now we are spending an extra day in Canada which is not that awesome but that is how things happen. We will watch the Cavs game and then hopefully get on the road as soon as possible tomorrow. On Tuesday I am headed to Buckwheat Zydeco which will be so awesome, I will need to get the smile removed from my face. I think I have typed enough with no paragraphs so that was I will end it hear. As always MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

I guess No one wants to tell anyone that they are in Port Huron

Well what a difference a day makes. Today was Awesome. We sailed from Detroit to Port Huron. It was awesome. The weather was great; nice and sunny. We had a nice breeze and the food was good. Most of the trip was great because we were in the St. Clair river with little or no waves. There were no waves but there was a lot of current which held us back. We left about 6:15 and arrived about 4:15. So not a bad day. The boat is staying at the Port Huron Yacht Club but we are staying at the Best Western. Currently I am sitting at the check in desk writing on a sticky keyboard with a slow Internet connection. We went on a search for post cards today but we could not find them so I guess that Port Huron is not that awesome of a place. It has been a blast so far and we are heading out of here tomorrow at 5:30. The forecast says that we will get a good strong breeze behind us so that will be totally kick ass. Also the sun should be out which would be nice. Hopefully we will be within striking difference of St. Joe island by tomorrow so we will arrive by Friday. I will try and write more on the trip and just to let everyone know, I am happy to tell you that I am in Port Huron. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP

Well here we are folks 2 days of sailing to get to a place that takes us 3 hours by car. Is this sailing thing great or what. Well we left on Monday around 7:15 and it started great. The weather was warm and we were all out sailing. Then about 3 hours into it things took a turn for the worse. It started to rain and we had to motor sail the rest of the way to Put-In-Bay, OH. We got there around 7:30 and then went to have some food. The coolest part was right when we were pulling into P-I-B we saw 2 rainbows so that was pretty cool. This was the longest that I had been on a boat for a long time so I was still rocking when we were at dinner, which was not that awesome. When we were choosing beds i got stuck with the "V berth." This is usually an awesome choice only for that there is a new hatch and it leaks when it rains. Well last night it rained so that was not so awesome. We were planning on leaving at 6 am but everyone had drank too much so it was going to be pushed back because everyone would have been sleeping at 6 am except for the fact that it is really hard to be quiet when any way that you position yourself you are getting rained on. It is not that awesome and in most small boats, if one person is up, everyone is up. At that point we get ready to go and we leave the dock and the weather is quite bad but we leave anyway only to sail for 15 minutes and turn around and go back to the harbor. So we whent and had some breakfast at Frosty's and left 2.5 hours later than we wanted to but the weather had gotten a lot better and we could get to the Detroit light in no time. Once we got into the Detroit river the waters were nice and calm and we had a good time. There has been some napping, not much sailing and the weather has been really cold. This is not a great sign for someone who only brought 3 pairs of pants and no jacket to speak of. We all have spent a lot of time in our foul weather gear. When the trip started Dad said that there were a lot of people who wanted to switch places with me but i would think after today, if they had the choice they would have chosen work instead of this. We are at Bayview Yacht Club were we had dinner with the Nuzzo's and it was very very fun. Tomorrow we are hoping to get into Lake Huron which would be awesome. I will try and write more soon (because i had two great posts but oh well) and I had too great posts today but I am typing in the Bayview office and i should get to bed. I hope to hear from you all soon. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Hey Lady you've got a whale on your bow.

Well, I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to the blog. It is my fault and I will try and do better. A lot has happened since the last update but not a ton of Tommy Adventures. So while we were gone we had my grandparent's 60th Wedding anniversary which was really fun. It was great to have all of the family in town and I trust that everyone had a great time. Well there will always be family issues but those never go away. I would say the high-light of the night was when the whole family was playing croquet. Well the reason for the update is because we are headed on more adventures. This time it is as Tommy Boy as it gets, that is because we are sailing from Mentor, Oh USA to St. Joesph's Island, ONT Canada. This trip also does not count as vacation because both Dad and I will be together. If things go well it will only take us 5 days but it could be as long as 7 or 8 depending on the weather. So the day starts about 6:45 Monday Morning and the next destination is going to Put-In-Bay, Ohio. It should be a fun day and hopefully the weather will be nice and we will be able to sail there. I have not been to Put-In-Bay in a few years and i am looking forward to the return visit. I will try and update this as much as possible because I know that there will be more stories than I can write. We are staying at a dock every night so the key is to find a place that has an internet connection. Well I know we will all be in touch and I will be checking my e-mail so feel free to write. I look forward to hear from you and Hopefully we will have good breeze and not a ton of weather the whole trip. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Time to Spare Go by Air

Well i hope that everyone had an awesome Memorial Day. Mine was spent traveling from Denver to Cleveland. It could have been a lot smoother but those things do not work out. We got to the airport in what I thought was plenty of time but I will latter find out that it was not. So the line to check the bags was pretty long but nothing too crazy. So that is not a problem. The biggest issue with DIA is the security lines. They have 3 of them that all go to the same place and you have no idea if one is busy or one is dead. I do not know if I picked the busy line or not but it proved to be my downfall. I know that i had to go to extra security because of the "SSSS" on my ticket. So I get into the extra security line after we double back about 25 times. Once I get through security they say that I need more security. The guy now has to swipe every piece of electronics that I have in my bag. Needless to say it was about 6 items that added an easy 8-10 minutes that I lost. So I finally get on the train and I look at my gate and it was B-90 the 2nd to last gate in the whole terminal. So I am hauling through the terminal and I get there with the door being closed but before the 10:06 departure time and they will not let me on. It was a total bummer. So now I go to the service desk and I need to talk to about 5 people at a bunch of different desks I get a standby ticket for my flights to Chicago and then to Cleveland. I get to Chicago with with about an hour to go before my flight. Well they start boarding and listing off about 10 people on the stand-by list well I must have been #11 because my name was not called so I now have to wait another hour for the next flight to Cleveland. I finally get on the flight to Cleveland at 6:25 pm. I got to Cleveland around 9 PM about 6 hours after my bag got there but it was there waiting for me. So I made it home just fine and was ready for my first day of real work in about 2 weeks. Well that was a real shock but I made through it. I hope all is well with all of you and you are enjoying the posts. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Golf or Tennis anyone?

Well yesterday Jaime (one of the people that I am visiting in CO) had a Golf Pros/ Tennis Ho's party to kick off the "best summer ever." There were a lot of people that were dressed for success. I showed up as the official caddy and guacamole maker for the party and both were a big hit. Well I can tell you that it was a very fun party and everyone had a great time. The best part of the day was the weather it was very sunny and not so hot but the sun was out the whole time. The party started at around 11 am and i thought everyone would be stupid drunk by about 3 but that was not the case, everyone held their own for the whole night it was great. There were a lot of fun things to do at the party, like washers the game and there was a pool and we even went and played some tennis. The party ended about 11 pm which was nice because everyone got a good night sleep. There are a lot of good pictures and I am sure that you will see some of them at a later date. So today (I know it is Sunday but no idea what the date is) we are just relaxing. The weather has been great all weekend and it is very nice to be back in Colorado. I am heading out tomorrow and it will be very hard to say good bye to everyone and the Mountains but I guess i have to start working again sometime. I know we will be in touch very soon. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

The ROCKY Mt. High

Well sorry for the delay in posting. I will make sure that it will not happen again. Well i am now in Loveland, CO with my old college Roommate John and his wife Amy. I arrived in Denver on Thursday night. The flight was delayed so that was a bummer but my bags showed up and everything was good. On Friday we did not do a lot but get ready for the Golf Pro's and Tennis Ho's party that is happening on Saturday at Jaime's house. For lunch we went to the Cherry Cricket . Everyone said that it was the best burger ever and it would blow Chase's out of the water. Well here is the definitive answer. It is a close 2nd, but it does not top Chase's. They are very good but I do not think their grill is nearly as dirty as it could be and that is what makes Chase's so good. So after lunch we headed to the batting cages but they were closed which was too bad. So I met up with John who was working (which was too bad) and then came up to Loveland. The traffic was not too bad getting home. When we arrived Amy had a bunch of her teacher friends over and we had a good time with them. At the end of the night we ended up at Ragin' Ryan's. If you do not know what Ragin' Ryan's is it is "Loveland's Live Country Music Headquarters." It was awesome very very fun. The band Crossfyre was playing and they played all of your country favorites. At Ragin' Ryan's they sell these awesome tank tops and I would recomend everyone get one when they are driving though Loveland. Well I need to go and get ready for the party but I am sure there will be a full update about the party tomorrow. I know we will be in touch. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

the Pit Stop

Well the Last day in Hawaii was very relaxing and very fun. We did not do a whole lot because Greg had to work and I had to leave at 3 pm for the airport. The one thing that we did do was go to Duke's which is right on Waikiki beach and it was very fun. I would say it was the one touristy thing that we did the whole time. On the way to the airport the traffic was not too bad but the drivers were terrible. They have to be some of the worst drivers in the world, in Hawaii. So I get to the airport and everything is fine. We get on the plane and everything is good to go other than on a huge jet the just said "alright everyone ob board." Needless to say that was a mess. After everyone is on the flight I notice that the seat next to me is open which was awesome and the woman sitting on the other end of the row was a pilot who moved into first class after the flight took off. So I had a full row. That was awesome. I got to stretch out and really get some good sleep on the flight. The only problem is that we had a fuel issue which Loretta (the pilot next to me) said was an easy fix the only problem is that the fix took 2 hours. Loretta was great to sit next to because I got to ask her a million questions about the airline and pilot business. If you have any questions, please let me know because I am sure I have the answer. My guess is that she did not think that the feeling was mutual. One other side note, on the flight there was a man who was so fat (morbidly obese) that he bought 2 seats. It was the first time that I had ever seen that. Also he had two seats but he really could not move, it was unreal how fat he was. So we get going and I get a handful of good hours of sleeping which was awesome because I was one of about 3 people who could really lay down. The only problem is that we arrived in the Twin Cities at 9:00 AM for my 7:30 flight to Cleveland. So that was a big bummer. So I am on the 1:30 flight to Cleveland to be home for 24 hours before I head out to Colorado for the weekend. Colorado should be a good time and please keep checking back because I am sure there will be updates. I look forward to hear from you and MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Chillin on the North Shore

Well sorry for the delay, yesterday (Sunday) was a good day, started slow and ended even slower. There was a lot of relaxing because it was Sunday. Greggy's girl, Courtney came back from Oregon so that was a lot of fun to see her but it made the day start late. Once we got everything under control we made our way up to the North Shore. The North Shore is one of the coolest places in the whole world. To get to the North Shore you have to drive through the Dole Plantation. We did not stop because that is what tourist do, but the plantation does have a pretty kick ass maze. Once we get into the North Shore we stopped at awesome burger place (KUA'AINA) where Greg and I had ABC (avocado, bacon, & Cheese) burger. It was probably the best ABC burger that I have ever had. It was pretty big and the fries were very good. If you are ever in the area you should stop. Once we finished our meals we made our way past Waimea Bay and stopped at Sunset Beach. You may know of Waimea Bay because of the movie Riding Giants because it has some of the biggest waves in the world but Sunset is just as famous. Right after you pass Waimea Bay there is an awesome church at the top of the hill with JC and open arms with some leis on him. Never in the world will you see JC as chill as he is right there. We went to the beach and there were not a ton of people or a ton of waves but we had a good time none the less. Once we had enough beach time and almost getting rear-ended we thought it was time to leave. On our way back to Honolulu we stopped at the best sandwich shop in the whole world. Yes it is better than Deli Zone in Colorado, and Dave's Cosmic Subs could not carry their stale bread to the trash. The name of the shop is Storto's Deli and Sandwich Shop. It is very good and worth the trip every time. If you are driving by, you will probably miss it but stop and ask because it is worth it. It takes a little over 30 minutes to get home from the North Shore but the Sandwiches were great. The rest of the night was pretty chill and it took a lot of effort to do anything. Not a ton planned for Monday but I know it will be a good time, why because it is Hawaii. I look forward to hear from you and I hope all is well. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

weekend upadate

Well it has been some time since I last posted and I am sorry that it has taken so long for me to post but a lot of things have happened that I need to fill you in on. On Friday night, we went sailing and it was very fun, but we did not do as well as we would have liked. The breeze was light and then slowly started to build and I think we finished 8th of 21 boats, so not bad. Then Saturday was very fun. We went to the beach to hang out and that was awesome. The water here is so clear and so warm. It is almost at the point where it is not refreshing, but we had a great time. After the beach we went over to Diamond Head to go surfing. That was really fun. Greg is a really great surfer and can really hang with anyone out there. As for me, well I got up on my first wave and was stoked. It was probably the best surfing day ever (out of 4 career days) but that was awesome. This next sentence, is what every surfer would have told you. "Surfing yesterday, I was so stoked the waves were glassy waist to head high and the 1st wave I paddled for I got up and ripped it, it was at least a 1/4 mile to a mile ride."
There was some chatter about us going to a Luau. I wanted to have the food but not all of the other crap so Greg suggested that we just go to a local place and have really great food. The place was called "The Side Street Inn" if you are looking for it, you probably will not find it but ask and I am sure you will. Well the food was awesome and we had a great time. As for being a local place, I think that I was one of 3 white people in the whole place. I can say that this the first time ever in America that I have been a minority anywhere so that was a new experience. Well today we are headed to the Northshore which is going to be awesome and I will give you a full update tonight. I look forward to hear from all of you. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

This week I had two fridays

Well I have successfully left Japan and made it half way across the Pacific. I am currently in Honolulu, HI with my buddy Greggy just watching the Cavs game, enjoying be back in America. The last day in Japan was pretty low key. Dad and Ray left about 11 o'clock. At that point i went to the Shinto Shrine Meiji-Jingu. When you walk in all you see is one of the thickest forest I have ever seen. It is very nice and calm. If this was in America the place would turn into a runner's paradise. So you finally get to the temple and it is really amazing. You walk into the area where you pray and they have the instructions for how to pray there, the only problem is that all of the instructions are in Japanese. So I stood around a while and I think i figured it out. So it you put some coins in the box and then clap your hands twice to awake the spirits and then say your prayer and then clap once and walk away. I do not know if the Shinto gods know English or are in touch with the English speaking gods but a prayer was said to give Bob the strength that he needed so that he could get better. So now we have another god pulling for you Bobby. The part that was really cool was that there was a wedding going on, and it was really neat to see the bride all decked out in her traditional bridal attire which was very impressive. After that, I got back to the hotel and they told me that the Emperor called and said he could not see me because he had to meet with the other Emperors of the world to see what the next step would be. So that is too bad but I told him the next time I am in Japan we will get together and if he was ever in Mentor that he should stop by. So we made plans. After that I took the bus to the airport and said good bye to Japan only after i got some static from the Northwest airlines people about the weight of my luggage. We were close to having an international incident, but because the Emperor and I are tight everything would have been fine. So I get on the flight and the plane is about a 1/3 full. It was awesome, because you really got to stretch out and enjoy yourself as much as you could. So we land in Hawaii and you never would have guessed that it is Friday morning again. How cool is that? I could do this every week. It was very nice when I cleared through customs to get "welcomed back" into the states, and they say the custom's guys do not have a good heart. So that is where we are, just relaxing in Hawaii, probably going sailing tonight and surfing if the waves are good tomorrow. So yea it should be a good time. Let me know how things are going with you, and always watch out for the Ninjas. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Domo arigatoo Tokyo

Well this is my last day and post from Japan. In a few hours i am on my way back to the States. I have one last day of hanging out so i need to post this so i can finish packing and then get to the imperial palace, because the Emperor would like to have some tea with me this afternoon. He said he wanted to speak with me about ways that he can improve his trivia knowledge. We shall see how that goes. Once I leave I will be stopping in Hawaii to see my friends, so that should be awesome. I am going where the sun keeps shining and the weather suits my clothes. The one thing that is really crappy about staying in a hotel is that you cannot open the windows at all, so you get no fresh air. That is what i am really looking forward to, is some fresh air. All in All i had a fun time in Japan, would i go back, oh yea it is cool enough to go back but hopefully next time I can go to Tokyo and get out of the city some. I would say the most surprising thing that i found yesterday was that there millions of cars in Tokyo and i have seen maybe one gas station so that was really odd. The things that i missed that i wish i would have done: Mount Fuji, karaoke, visit some more temples and shrines, and get to see the country side. I think it would also be interesting to see how the people outside of Tokyo live. I feel like I have just scratched the surface of things but it is a cool place and if you get the change, you should go, just remember to bring lots of Yen because things are not that cheap here and since I did not know the language it was hard to find deals. I hope all is well and i will update you with more Tommy boy adventures from Hawaii. I look forward to hear from you. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Come on Rain

Well today we are having our first crappy day. It is raining and not that awesome. The one nice this is that the sun was not shinning at 5 in the morning like it usually does. So everyone got to sleep in a little bit which was nice. So it is raining the the major bummer is that both the books that i have for Japan do not give you any suggestions on what fun things you can do when it is raining. So there is going to be a little bit of guess work. The thing that is amazing about Japan is that no one owns a rain coat. They all use umbrellas and they leave them at the door when they walk into some place. They also do not lock up their bikes. I guess they do not have a steeling problem or they have eliminated all of the 15 year old boys who like to pull pranks and do dumb stuff. It they have done the latter that is pretty cool, and no wonder this place is so nice. The only good thing about the rain is that we have meetings all day which is good because we will be getting a lot of work done. So that is what is happening today. I am sure there will be more adventures, they will just need a little time. I hope all is well and write if you can. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Yokozuna -- SUMO

Well we have reached the highlight of the trip. Tonight we went to Sumo. It was awesome. It is so cool. First off, here is all you need to know about Sumo. Sumo is one of the coolest things around. With America being so fat I am surprised that Sumo has not taken off at all in the States. The arena that it is in is very small and they have awesome seats. The first level is all "box seats." That means you get a box with 4 little pillows in it. There is no way you fit 4 people in them. Well we had Dad and I both sitting on the floor watching Sumo. Ray sat in the box behind us because that was open. So that is very fun. The event goes all day but the real action does not start until about 4:00 pm. This goes on for 2 hours. There is a lot of showmanship and stare downs and things like that, but the rush of when the two guys go belly to belly is pretty awesome. Since we had no idea who was good and who was bad we each would pick a guy who we thought would win each match. That made it a lot more fun. I would say the coolest part is that this is something that has been going on forever and they still do it about the same way. Between matches they have people walk around the Sumo ring with banners to advertise things. As you can tell it really worked with me because I could not read one sign. I would say the worst part of the night is that all of the wrestlers showed up so they did not go looking into the audience seeing if anyone wanted to do it. So that is a bummer but these were some big dudes. The thing that is crazy is that they look really fat and out of shape but there legs are rock solid and they have a lot of mass traveling with them. If you get a seat in the first couple of rows, you are in the splash zone and you can have guys fall on you. Talk about a bad deal. There is not a bad seat in the house and they are throwing salt around all of the place. There is some interaction with the fans, when the matches take a while to get going all of the fans start clapping to get things on pace.
The whole thing is great and if you are every thinking about going to Tokyo, please go in either January, May or September because that is when the Sumo happens. This post does not do it justice, but I did my best. I hope all is well and MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

The land of the raising sun

Well when they say that Japan is the land of the raising sun, they really mean it. It starts getting light around 4:15-4:30 in the morning. Now i understand that the days are still getting longer in the Northern Hemisphere, but 4:30 that is insane. The other thing that is crazy is that if it was light that early you would think that everyone would get up and get rolling but that is not the case. It is a very late town and the busiest time of night is around 9 pm and the streets are packed. It is unreal. The hardest part about the whole thing is that it is really hard to stay up late when you are waking up somewhere North of 5:30. If you are getting up that early, you really can get a lot done before 10. Well i know that there will be more posts later but i just wanted to squeeze that in. Sumo is up next. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

The National Pastime

Well last night we went to the baseball game. The whole process was very cool. It started by me walking into a convenient store and buying the tickets through a machine. I needed a lot of help from the guy because everything was in Japanese, and i could not figure out any of it but we got them. This machine sold tickets to everything (movies, sports, theater ect) it is pretty crazy. We get the tickets and we head to the Tokyo Dome. The place is so clean inside. This was the first game that I have been to that was in a dome. So that was pretty neat. The top of the Dome looks really close and you think baseballs will hit it all the time but that is not the case. At stadiums in American they have the net right behind home plate and a little bit more but in Japan they have netting going from foul pole to foul pole so it really takes away from your vision. They are really safe here. It is nice to know that if you are not looking you will not get hit by a line drive. The balls can still go over the net but they will not come right at you. All of the ushers that work near the field were batting helmets. We saw the Fighters vs. the Eagles. Each team has their own fan club section and those areas are packed. I think these two teams were not that great because there were a lot of people that showed up as empty seats. The game started at 6 pm right on the button. Not introduction of players at 6, the pitcher was pitching the 1st pitch of the game at 6. That was pretty amazing. The fan clubs are making noise and cheering the whole time their team is up to bat. Each player has their own cheer so they are always changing and it sounds great. It is a very fun crowd and people come at all points in the game. It was the end of the 3rd inning and people were still pouring into the stadium. Yes they do sell hot dogs there the only problem is that they do not have Cleveland Stadium Mustard which was a major bummer but the hot dog was good. The seats are a little small and they have not changed the seats around to help fit fat Americans enjoy the game.
So we take our seats and they have vendors selling everything walking up and down each row. All of the vendors are woman under the age of 20. They walk down the row, bow and then hold their hand up and walk up the row to see if anyone needs anything. They are all in very bright colors and hats. It is very different than America. They sell both Coke and Pepsi and they sell competing brands of everything. They way that they sell beer is by having the girl carry around about 4 gallon keg on her back and walk around with a tap and fills up cups. It is crazy, and it would never work in America because the vendor would be walking around with the tap in their mouth the whole time. The other Amazing thing they sell while you are at your seat is booze. They sell scotch and whiskey with ice and water and the whole bit. That was pretty amazing. This would also never work in America because if they sold booze at your seat, every game would end in an all out fan riot. The pace of the game was very slow. I do not know if it was just the teams were not good or that is how the game goes. It took more than an hour and half for the first 3 innings to be finished. I would say the level of play is similar to triple-A ball. It took us a while to figure out how fast a 140 kmph pitch was but we figured it out. The fielding was not that great but they are very aggressive on the base paths. It was a very cool experience. I would go and do it again. All in All it has been pretty fun. I hope all is well with you. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Your Yen or My Yen

Here is one thing that I am having a really hard time understanding and that is the money. I really like how there is no amount of Yen below 1 so that is pretty cool, but the highest bill is 10,000. So that is a lot. Also there are a lot of coins. That is not that awesome. At the current time the exchange rate is 118 Yen to 1 USD. I do not know how good your math is but can you list the the multiplies of 118? It is hard work and I am always confused. I know my trip is going to end at the very least with me buying something on my credit card and then when i get the bill having no idea how expensive the item that i bought was because of the exchange rate. I guess that is what makes it fun to travel it far off lands where you do not know the language and the money is different. I hope all is well and i know we will be in touch. MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk

Konnichiwa Roppongi

Well here is the post for the last two days to bring you up to speed so that we can be a little bit more current with the posts. We went to Roppongi to try and find this bar that was an old school bus. It sounds like a pretty cool idea. My dad remembered the bar when he was here last in 96 so it still had to be there right, no it was not. So we are walking around and we stop into the Hard rock Cafe (my dad has been on a hard rock kick recently on our trips) and who walks in. No one else but Megadeth. So there you go, at least that is what the bartender said. They looked like they could be Megadeth. So we saw someone famous.
Everyone here is very friendly but they do not know a ton of English. I am itching to get home so that i can watch Lost in Translation again because i know it will be twice as funny now. The culture is very different which makes it very fun. Last night for dinner we went to this place that basically just serves fried finger foods on a stick. they bring them out one at a time and you eat it and enjoy. So Here were some of the highlights: Octopus, squid, some root vegetable that they said was a yam but i had never seen a yam like that. The fun part is that you have no idea on what they are bringing out next. I was really hoping that Quail egg would not be brought out and thankfully it was not. So now you are up to speed. I know that all of you will have an awesome Tuesday because I am already in Tuesday and that is what the newspaper said. I have not taken one picture but hopefully that will change today. I think we are going to try and get to a baseball game tonight which should be a good time. More to come.

Peace out.
Kirk

Well this trip started on Friday May 11th. We left Mentor about 9:30 and arrived in our Hotel in Tokyo on Saturday about 6 pm. Needless to say it was a long trip. The flight was completely full with not one open seat. The people that I had the pleasure to sit next to had flown once before, that was their flight from Nashville to Detroit. So this was their 2nd flight ever. I guess there is nothing like jumping into it. Well they were nice people, but total country bumpkins. One might go so far to say that they were hill-billys. I do not think until this point they had never been out of the south. They had lots of questions and would always ask me "Where are we now?" and Having no idea where we were other an on an airplane i just made stuff up like, "I think we are close to Alaska now." So that was a good time. They were headed to China to adopt a child. I guess it takes 2 years to complete the process. Ray said it best when he said, "great now we got a Chinese hill-billy." So that sums it up. The airport was about 60 clicks from Tokyo which is a long way when you have been on a plane for so long. When we arrived, we went to Trader Vics for a Navy Grog and Menahune (i have no idea how to spell that) and then went to bed. The next morning when you get up at 5:15 it is a long time until 10 when you go and do something. I need to run but there will be more to come.

Peace out.
Kirk

When do i get to Haiku?

Well this is 1st post of my Tommy boy adventures. I have been a tommy boy my whole life and right now i am in the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo Japan. I am here for 1 week looking to find some new sales reps to sell our products over here. I am going to try and update things as much as possible so that you have lots of things to talk about. So here it goes. I will re-post in just a few minutes.