Saturday, December 29, 2007

Onesti LIVE- camere live din Onesti

Azi, 9 martie 2013 am gasit un webcam pe Onestiul.ro care ofera imagini LIVE de pe Bulevardul Oituz, la intersectia cu renumita statuie a lui Mihai Eminescu.

Apasa AICI


My Home- Onesti, Ro




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Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas

Been there again yesterday and seen something never seen been before at Hakkoda. The clouds were covering the mountain`s top anf falling into the valley. Great Show!

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The video of yesterday`s morning is uploaded here:



Going downhill the sky cleared and the fun continued

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I uploaded the video here:



"Beautiful dream" before Christmas.

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Went there at 8:30 in the morning and got home at 3:30 after another beautiful day at Hakkoda.

Merry Christmas !

Monday, December 17, 2007

Hit me with a shovel


d3o Lab is a UK-based chemical engineering company that specializes in creating unique polymers. d3o Lab invented d3o, a soft and flexible material that hardens on impact. d3o Lab was founded by Richard Palmer.



Currently, d3o labs is in negotiations with several companies over the use of d3o. As of October 2006, d3o is already incorporated into several products. The skiwear company Spyder has created racing suits using d3o for the U.S. and Canadian Olympic skiers. Ribcap, a hat company, has created hats with the product. Globe, a skate and surf company that also makes skateboarding shoes, has started making shoes that incorporate d3o. Sells, a goalkeeping brand, collaborated with d3o lab to create goalkeeping gloves and shin pads for soccer.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


I would really need a hat a chest protection that uses this material. It will sure take my pain away while marking the trees with my body.

What do you think about this product?

Mihai

Health vs. Snowboarding

Here I am coughing my lungs out, sweating like it was summer with a running nose and on my way to -10 degrees to meet my friends on the top of the mountain.



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Met a few of my friends downhill and waited for about 30 minutes for everybody to come down the mountain. When gathered we headed for the top.



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At the top there were -10, strong wind, visibility 30 for less than 30 metres and heavy snowing. We took the Forest Course, that opened yesterday. There is a trail on the course as wide as a snowboarding board and no chance of getting out of it, the snow is too deep.



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On our way down Mr. Mosurya filmed us going downhill by holding the camera in his hand. That is quite a challenge considering the weather conditions at Hakkoda. No worries for him- water proof camera and a good balance. Nice work! He also caught me dancing while snowboarding. Watch this:




We went uphill for two more times and this time, because the falling snow made it harder too go on the Forest Course, we took the Direct Corse and of course, enjoyed the powder around it. This is how the the gondola was looking like today on top the mountain.



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Downhill, the snow storm was so strong when we got there at 15:30- so dark, seemed to be 18:00.



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At 16:00 I remembered that my cold is still fighting with me and decided to go to pay a visit to a local Onsen. It has been a while since I didn` t visited an Onsen and it was so relaxing.



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At the moment it is 12:00 am, I am writing the blog, wiping my nose every 3 minutes and still coughing. Tommorow I` ll be as good as new. Or not !


Over and out!


Mihai

Sunday, December 9, 2007

December 9th at Hakkoda & Christmas

Yes, I went to hakkoda again. Got there at 9 and went up with the 9:20 gondola. -7 degrees at the top with low visibility and a little wind. After meeting 4 of my friends, went downhill only two times and then return to the city to be ready for my 1 o` clock meeting.


The snow a little hard on the course but good outside- powder!



In the evening I continued decorating the house. While being at Hakkoda I don` t feel cold at all, but while decorating I felt the cold air go through my bones. Interesting... Anyway, the Christmas decorations for outside the house are almost done, next is decorating the interior :D

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See you tommorow!

Mihai

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Christmas preparations




It took me and my brother in law about two hours to set it up. About 1 degree above zero with only a shirt on me. Sooo cold but I was so anxious to see it done.

Christmas is near!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

07-08 Snowboarding season opened

Yeap! 07/08 snowboard season started and yesterday I met my friends after a long break. I woke up at 7 and at 8:45 we were on the first gondola to go uphill. At first we were only 5 but after 2 runs, 10 members of our group gathered.




















The snow was a little hard because it didn` t snow recently but it was so much fun. I missed my snowboard buddies and the snow. I had to wait for one year but it worth the effort.

This happened yesterday:








Thank you モスSan for the clips!
This morning it started to snow and after I wake up, at 12:00 o` clock I went to Hakkouda again. There were about 10cm of new snow at the bottom of the hill and on the slopes there were about 30 cm. It was great! can` t explain the pleasure of hearing the sound of powder under my board: SSSSssssssssSSSSSSSSsssssssss


Mihai

Thursday, May 3, 2007

April in Japan

Spring has finally came in the North of Japan. Along wih it came the spring snowboard season and the Cherry Blossom Party. It has been an agitated but fun month. On the 9th I started a new job beside the job that I have at the Ramen Restaurant, and every morning starting from 9 am until 14 I have been spending my time with my new little friends that enjoy English. A new job and a new way of seeing life. Seeing life as they see it brings up my childhood memories.


On the 25th I have been invited to the local Tv Station called RAB as a guest for their Show. I was the Romanian traveller, wearing a backpack at first that is paying a visit to Japan. We talked about Romania, Nuclear Energy and the movie " An Unconvinient Truth" . Working in a Ramen Shop was a surprise for them too so they came to my shop as well. The show will be broadcasted on the 12 of May.





Tv Guest

On the 29 th I joined my friends to the trip to the top of Hakkoda. I arrived at the bottom of the mountain at 8: 30 and for our surprise the gondola was not working because of the strong wind( over 25m/s). Fortunately the gondola started to work at 10: 30 and at about 11 o` clock we started our trip. The weather was good but the wind was so strong that we had to stop at least 10 times before we got to the top. I realised that I should stop smoking beause when we finally arrived on top I was out of air.


One hour to the peak

Once on top, after a regained my strenght I was amased by the beatiful view. Sitting on the other side of the mountain, the wind was almost absent and after I filled my mounth with some snacks and drinks I started taking pictures. Even if I was takeing pictures of the same spot it seemed that it wasn` t enough.


Sweet

We restarted our walk to the other peak and all the way I kept the camera in my hand. My friends continued their walk but I stopped a few times to immortalize the view.


Friends


This was my first time to climb up to the top and even if I had a bad cold and coughing really bad, it couldn` t stoped me from going. I am still couching but I am so glad that I decided to go that day. An unforgatable breathtaking fight with the wind.





On top of Hakkoda in April 2007

This is a picture taken from the part other side of Hakkoda, the side that I didn` t see before. We went downhill right from the top and all the trip took us about 3 hours. On top there were about 2 degrees and on our way down we had to open our jackets. Downhill there were about 10 degrees and that was quite a difference considering the wind from the top.


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The water I drank downhill was so tasty and I didn` t stop before the botlle was empty.


April Snow

On the 30th we had a walk in the nearby park to see the Cherry Blossom. ( Hanami)


Cherry Blossom


Asamushi

On the 6th of May I will be on my way to Romania and I` ll miss these places so much.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Saturday` s Schedule


Friday night I met the other members of the Snowboarders Community in a Club here in Aomori to celebrate the 06/07 Snowboarding Season and to watch the DVD we made on Hakkoda. While snowboarding at Hakkoda one of the snowboarders taped us while sliding, flying, hitting the trees, eating snow falling and crashing. We had a lot of fun laughing about each other. One of us left for Tokyo on Sunday to study. He will be there for quit a long time but he promised that he will visit us often and of course be here next year for the 07/08 Season. We partied until 1 o` clock in the morning and we switched clubs until 3 a.m.
On Sunday I walked up at 7:30 and prepared for a new day. I had to work from 5 o` clock in the afternoon, but before that I had a lot to do. I know a few things about snowboarding, but about skiing- zero. One of my friends promised me that he will teach me how to ski so today we went to Hakkoda. It was my second time to step into skies at Hakkoda. We slided a few times by the chair lifts and then decided to climb the mountain and slide on the 5 km course. A little scared but I got on the Gondola.


Last Powder


On top the temperature was almost 2 degrees Celsius and the snow starting to melt- very wet. We headed for the Forest Course, put the skies on and started to go downhill. I realised that the same slopes that I was so fast on when snowboarding were so steep on skies. As I am not so good at skiing the wet snow made it so hard to curve. The feelings that I had when started snowboarding came back now while skiing. I got so familiar with the snowboard and the sensation of having my both legs tide up to it. While on ski my legs felt like going on different directions and sometimes spreding too much- it felt like making gymnastics. I am so bad at skiing. Once it took me about 10 minutes to put my skies back on after falling. Then I realised that I was trying to put my left foot into the right ski. I was sweating so bad trying to fix the skies and it felt so long before I had to restart to ski. I was on my way to swear out loud when I finally made it. When the steep part of the course ended I began to curve and even slide normally. It was such a relief. By the time we were downhill my muscles were hurting so bad. That was the last run for Saturday and decided to come back another to practice ski. Never realised that it might be so difficult to ski normally considering that I used to snowboard for a while. You have to try it too. If you had please tell me how it was and where should I pay attention.


Before heading down town we decided to take a walk up to Towada. On the way to Towada starting from April teh Gold Line Route is opened. This year` s amount of snow was smaller than last year but the Hakkoda Walls are still big. Last year the walls of snow on both sides of the road were 9( nine) metres tall. This year there were only 6 metres of snow that guided us to Tsuta Onsen.


Hakkoda Walk



After 4 hours of struggling with my legs to stand on the skies and visiting the Hakkoda walls, we ariived at Tsuta Onsen. The hot water, the smell of wet wood and the strong air relaxed my muscles. I almost fell asleep on the floor. On the right side of the bath there is a portion of the floor, where the hot water is going out of the bath, on which you can rest- even sleep. The floor is hot so if you fall asleep for a litlle longer no worries.


Tsuta Onsen





Tsuta Onsen


On out way back to town my friend fell asleep into the car but I couldn` t stand not to stop the car and take a few more picture of Hakkoda. In this photo you can see the back side of the mountain, the side that I get to see once a year.


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Hakkoda Snow Walls


After taking a few more pictures I didn` t stop until we arrived in town. It was three o` clock, so I had some time to have lunch and drive my friend back home before starting work. We went to eat at the same restaurant where I am working and I had a Spicy Miso Ramen with Gyoza.

Ramen Shop




After taking my friend back home I returned to the Restaurant. It was 4:15 and I said that it might be good to rest for a while so I made myself confortable into the car and closed my eyes... It was 4:45 when the alarm woke me up. It was after midnight when I arrived back home and after taking a bath I stumbled into bed.


Wishing you a nice week!

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Short Review



March has been a pretty busy mounth and because I haven` t been writting on my blog for a while, I decided to shortly describe my happenings. A few days ago, I was asked by a Y360 friend what am I doing beside snowboarding? I first I thought that she likes the winter landscapes on my blog, but thinking about it I realised that my blog, starting from December last year turned into a winter blog, even the often keywords on it are powder, snowboard, winter and so on. Ok, I admit I wasn` t that sincere with you and I` ll try to expand my horizons in my blog.


As you all may know, the World Women's Curling Championship 2007 Aomori Japan has been hosted in Aomori City between March the 17th- 25th. I was tried to do my best by helping the organisers and the competitors by working as a volunteer interpreter. I was asked to work in three different locations: The Arena, where the games took place and two other different locations- hotels that were hosting the Media Representatives and the Competitors. It has been a pleasure to work at this Championship I had the occasion to talk with many people on different subjects. The presence of the foreign competitors gave me the occasion to exercise my foreign language skills that are quite... rusted, I have to admit. While trying to translate the first language that was coming in my mind was...japanese, not Romanian, not English and not even Italian. Am I growing Old???


It all ended before I realised but I have many good memories, a few photos with the competitors and ... many gaps in my known foreign languages.


World Women's Curling Championship 2007 Aomori Japan



Project "M" is called the worked that me and my friend Mark are trying to put together since December last year. Recently we visited Shiko Munakata ` s Museum to improve our knowledge in his personality and his work. I waited for a few months to "meet" him, and visiting his museum was just what I needed. We also had the chance to watch him work- a video of his life is broadcasting while the visiting hours.


Japanese Garden


Ok, enough work, here comes the fun part. A few days I went to this Yakitori restaurant and I ate a litlle of everything. It wasn` t my first time to eat Yakitori but it seems that the Yakitori made in a Yakitori restaurant are more delicious. It my sound stupid, but I thought that all the Yakitori are the same everywhere. Well, I was wrong. The smell of the charcoal, the crusty meat and the variety of the menu is worth all the cholesterol.


Yakitori


And of course, I have been to Hakkoda on Saturday. The smell of spring is present here too, but luckily, the old snow of 290 cm was covered by a new " white carpet" of 5 cm. It was enough for me and another 10 friends to go up the mountain. The sky was clouded and that temperature was 1 degree below zero on top and 4 degrees plus at the bottom of the mountain. Before going to work I got up on the gondola as many times as I could- 6 times I think.


Surfing on Powder



I left for work at 3:30, raised my body temperature into an onsen and arrived at 4:35. Just in time and ready to make some Ramen. It seems that the snowboarding season for the 06/07 is over but the ski season is just starting for me. I forgot to tell you that I took my first ski lessons of ski last week and I quite enjoy it. It needs some time and practice to slide as a normal skier though.


Last run

Wishing you a nice spring!


Sunday, January 21, 2007

Hakkoda's 俳句





3 years ago I was reading about Haiku( Japanese poetry) and made one:

You make me laugh friend,
You take my pain away with Powder,
Will always love you Hakkoda.