Mom and Dad's trip!

On par, about 4 updates a year. Every season, and as Japan runs on the seasons, I guess it fitting. With that said, sorry I don't update too often. Mom and Dad just took a trip out to Japan, and we had a wonderful time.

So here are some pictures of 2012 so far. First are some random, yet wonderful times with friends.

This kid's, Ryo, house was ridiculous. It was like being at a New York apartment in the 90's. Biggie figurines, turn tables, tapes, and about 1000 records.

My friend Eric. We rented dogs for 10 dollars an hour. Strange? Yes.

A good looking couple. That's all.

This car defines Japan. The most tricked out van ever. I always hated vans in America, but now I love 'em, and this is the chillest ride ever. It belongs to the guy in the following picture, Naoki. The flyest person I know.

Fashion mag left, too tired right.

One of my last times on the mountain this year. A great day.

I went to Tokyo with a friend, and this was the shot of Mt. Fuji from the plane. Cool, huh? Japan is so small. It's tall, but I went coast to coast in an hour.

The recent trip to Kyoto...

I like this one, in the subway.

At the Silver Pavilion.

So, breaking Wiggin tradition, I read the brochure on this place. In the back is the Silver Pavilion, and in front of it it sand. The mountain represents Mt. Fuji, and the sand is the ocean.

So the cherry blossoms were quite open. Too bad so sad (shoganai). This is the Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto. It was real nice, filled with Chinese, Germans, mom and me ;)

Yep, the dude was here, killing it. This was a fantastic dinner in Kyoto. Everything was grilled on a stone hot plate, and these were prawns about the size of your hand. The dude loves the food, can use chopsticks, and works WAY too much....he belongs in Japan.

So this is funny. These geisha were probably fake. Fake means that regular people get all dressed up like geisha and cruise the streets and take pictures with people. But I've heard even most Japanese can't tell the difference between real geisha and fake ones. But I'ma go ahead and make this call.

Mom and I at Kyomizudera. It was cold, but nice, and packed with people.

Not the best picture of the three of us, but you get the picture.

A king size Westin bed for me. Thanks Sissy and Dad :)

So that's about it over here. Spring is coming and I will update some pictures of the cherry blossoms. I am contracted at work until November, and after that I don't know. Might not be coming home right away, but who knows.

Wishing everyone the best. HAPPY SPRING!!!

chris

Dear Family and Friends,

Wishing everybody who reads the best. I hope 2012 is off the a great start for all of you. I'm a doing great, and just got back from an epic day snowboarding.

Here are some photos and notes from the past 2/3 months.

I'll start with Nov/Dec, which were good, ending with an good finale in San Francisco.

So this is my friend Aki, who I bike and snowboard with. We did some mountain biking this day. Taken Nov 11.

A shot from the train close to where I live. It's a good place, no doubt.

In Tokyo, at the airport. Singapore Airlines was fantastic, by the way. I saw two Santa's (fat white guys with long beards in red) at the airport. Taken Dec 24th.

I like this one. I arrived in L.A.X., and I would be lying if I said part of the goal for my American adventure wasn't to drink some good beer. And the tea made it from Japan.

A shot of Denver from the plane. At the time, I was incredibly stoked, as you might have guessed.

This picture is actually kinda of difficult to look at. Jameson made some absolutely delicious food from Christmas eve.

Pretty epic, and self-explanatory. It was good/great/fantastic.

Taken Christmas Day, before me and Tembo went for a walk.

So the whole family traveled up to Aspen. Cam took some days off and skied with us. Free tickets to Apsen. It's gross how much he saved us.

I have a good friend named Andrew and their family owns a house looking out at Aspen. Cool, huh?

My first picture from San Francisco. This is Ben, and as you can tell he is from Tasmania, and we went to school together in Santa Barbara. We had a great time traveling around the north bay area.

One of the biggest surprises I had about America was the grocery store. It was SO big. Coming from Japan, airing on the smaller portion size...and if any city in America is going to lead by example and live on less, you think SF would be the place.

I saw another friend Joe, who I also know from Santa Barbara, and he showed my around the San Francisco area. This is a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. Taken Jan. 2.

So, back to Japan. This is Aki, the kid from the first picture. Ishikawa, the place where I live in Japan, is super close to the Japan Sea, so the snow can be wet and heavy. But this day was good.

This is Shane and Mariko. I know Shane from UCSB, and Mariko is his girlfriend living in Japan. We met up in Osaka, and spent the day kickin around. This is around Osaka Castle, which is an epic spot.

I guess I'll end on this one. So this was near Osaka Castle, too. This dog's name was kuri, which means Chestnut, and also sound close to my name, kurisu, or chris. We saw maybe 20 dogs, and they were all wearing clothes.

So those were some of the good pictures from the end of 2011 and starting off on the right foot for 2012. I hope a couple people read this and enjoy :)

Best Wishes

Chris