Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Thursday, March 9, 2006
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
45F Sunny
Happy Birthday
to Rahi...He's celebrating his last cool birthday. The big 2-5. He can celebrate his insurance rates going down now.
Its been nice to email and talk with Stacey the last couple of days. I can't wait to get home in 2 days. We can't thank our family and friends enough for their support and assistance this week. It really means a lot to us.
The meetings have been going very well here in Japan. We reached agreement on several items that have been open for several years. The topics over the last two days have centered on the test plans for the next 4 years in preparation for Japan's launch of their HTV rocket which will send a large container vehicle to the International Space Station in 2009.
Last night we had a social with our Japanese hosts at a local restaurant. Plenty of good food and drink. A large group went to Karaoke afterwards but a couple of us got separated from the pack and tried to find them at the Karaoke bar but missed them. Oh well, it was probably for the best considering how I felt this morning. I did get over 15000 steps in yesterday with 10500 on Tuesday.
We were hoping to get out early on Friday and head to Tokyo for the evening but it looks like will be hard at work for the whole day. Bummer.
After the festivities last night and other dinners with a group of 10-20, a couple of Lockheed people and myself are going to do our own thing tonight. We'll also stop by the bus station and buy a ticket for the bus on Saturday to the airport. I think I heard its an 11:15am bus +2hr drive so we'll have about 4 hours to kill at the airport before takeoff. Thank goodness for Sudoku :)
Cheers,
Scott
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
45F Sunny
Happy Birthday
to Rahi...He's celebrating his last cool birthday. The big 2-5. He can celebrate his insurance rates going down now.
Its been nice to email and talk with Stacey the last couple of days. I can't wait to get home in 2 days. We can't thank our family and friends enough for their support and assistance this week. It really means a lot to us.
The meetings have been going very well here in Japan. We reached agreement on several items that have been open for several years. The topics over the last two days have centered on the test plans for the next 4 years in preparation for Japan's launch of their HTV rocket which will send a large container vehicle to the International Space Station in 2009.
Last night we had a social with our Japanese hosts at a local restaurant. Plenty of good food and drink. A large group went to Karaoke afterwards but a couple of us got separated from the pack and tried to find them at the Karaoke bar but missed them. Oh well, it was probably for the best considering how I felt this morning. I did get over 15000 steps in yesterday with 10500 on Tuesday.
We were hoping to get out early on Friday and head to Tokyo for the evening but it looks like will be hard at work for the whole day. Bummer.
After the festivities last night and other dinners with a group of 10-20, a couple of Lockheed people and myself are going to do our own thing tonight. We'll also stop by the bus station and buy a ticket for the bus on Saturday to the airport. I think I heard its an 11:15am bus +2hr drive so we'll have about 4 hours to kill at the airport before takeoff. Thank goodness for Sudoku :)
Cheers,
Scott
Monday, March 06, 2006
Monday, March 6
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Cloudy
~50F
All that climbing yesterday took it out of me. I laid down for a quick nap at 5pm and woke up at 1am. I then proceeded to toss and turn for several hours. At 4am I woke and surfed the web, then returned to bed and slept till 6am.
Stacey surprised me with a wakeup call just after 6am. I wasn't to hear from her until Thursday but she was back in Seabrook. It was great to hear her and Jake. I can't wait for her next call tomorrow morning.
After breakfast we boarded a bus to head to JAXA. At JAXA we spent the morning reviewing the week's schedule. Lunch was spent at the cafeteria...Ramen noodles w/ wontons. The afternoon session was spent reviewing how we were going to setup a test with JAXA, NASA/JSC, NASA/MSFC, and TDRS. We rapped up around 430pm.
After a 20 minute stroll back to the hotel, we met in the lobby for a dinner patrol. 6 of us headed to the local Korean BBQ place while a large group headed to Shakey's Pizza for some corn and tuna pizza. We dined on some kim-che, beef, and something called a bah-bim-bah.
Its about 8pm now and we're calling it a night. Another 10594 steps today.
One more thing....what the heck is going on in the NFL labor talks. They've had like 20 'deadlines' over the last week. Everytime they get to the deadline they extend it. Apparently these 'deadlines' have as much teeth as a homeowner's association letter.
And props to the Aggie Men's Basketball team for perching on the precipice of the Big Dance. The first time since 1987.
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Cloudy
~50F
All that climbing yesterday took it out of me. I laid down for a quick nap at 5pm and woke up at 1am. I then proceeded to toss and turn for several hours. At 4am I woke and surfed the web, then returned to bed and slept till 6am.
Stacey surprised me with a wakeup call just after 6am. I wasn't to hear from her until Thursday but she was back in Seabrook. It was great to hear her and Jake. I can't wait for her next call tomorrow morning.
After breakfast we boarded a bus to head to JAXA. At JAXA we spent the morning reviewing the week's schedule. Lunch was spent at the cafeteria...Ramen noodles w/ wontons. The afternoon session was spent reviewing how we were going to setup a test with JAXA, NASA/JSC, NASA/MSFC, and TDRS. We rapped up around 430pm.
After a 20 minute stroll back to the hotel, we met in the lobby for a dinner patrol. 6 of us headed to the local Korean BBQ place while a large group headed to Shakey's Pizza for some corn and tuna pizza. We dined on some kim-che, beef, and something called a bah-bim-bah.
Its about 8pm now and we're calling it a night. Another 10594 steps today.
One more thing....what the heck is going on in the NFL labor talks. They've had like 20 'deadlines' over the last week. Everytime they get to the deadline they extend it. Apparently these 'deadlines' have as much teeth as a homeowner's association letter.
And props to the Aggie Men's Basketball team for perching on the precipice of the Big Dance. The first time since 1987.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Sunday, March 5, 2006
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Sunny
~50F
Morning
Well after all that traveling yesterday, I slept right thru the small earthquake at 3:30am local time. A couple of guys mentioned it at breakfast (just a bed shake). I woke up briefly at 4am and was able to get back to sleep until 6:30am. Had a yummy "full american" breakfast at the hotel restaurant.
There's something like 20 people from different NASA groups here this week. There were 4 folks from Huntsville, AL that were heading into Tokyo this morning so 2 from our group joined them. Five of us headed out to climb Mt. Tsukuba (The Mt Fuji of the East) at 877m.
Mt. Tsukuba
We took a 40 minute bus ride to the base. There are two peaks on the mountain and it somewhat resembles the eyes of a frog so there were frog trinkets in all the shops. There is a cable car to take us up to the 800m level and then we hoofed it from there up the rocks and steps to the shrine on top. We were all sucking wind a couple of times during the "ascent". Coming back down to the cable car station, there is a walking path along the ridge of the mountain connecting the two peaks. The second peak is slightly higher and the trail was cast in shadows so there was plenty of mud and traces of snow. The view, however, was worth the trek. It was really hazy so we couldn't see great distances but we could all imagine what a spectacular view might be possible on a clear day. From that peak, a cable car gondola took us down to the south side of the mountain where we grabbed the bus back to Tsukuba.
Afternoon
We were all ready for a sit down lunch and a cold beer. On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at the local drug store to pickup essentials...water, beer, and chap stick :)
Its 3:00pm and I've already got 10000+ steps in for the day. I'll probably take a nap and then walk around Tsukuba some more before dinner.
Hope all is well back in Houston.
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Sunny
~50F
Morning
Well after all that traveling yesterday, I slept right thru the small earthquake at 3:30am local time. A couple of guys mentioned it at breakfast (just a bed shake). I woke up briefly at 4am and was able to get back to sleep until 6:30am. Had a yummy "full american" breakfast at the hotel restaurant.
There's something like 20 people from different NASA groups here this week. There were 4 folks from Huntsville, AL that were heading into Tokyo this morning so 2 from our group joined them. Five of us headed out to climb Mt. Tsukuba (The Mt Fuji of the East) at 877m.
Mt. Tsukuba
We took a 40 minute bus ride to the base. There are two peaks on the mountain and it somewhat resembles the eyes of a frog so there were frog trinkets in all the shops. There is a cable car to take us up to the 800m level and then we hoofed it from there up the rocks and steps to the shrine on top. We were all sucking wind a couple of times during the "ascent". Coming back down to the cable car station, there is a walking path along the ridge of the mountain connecting the two peaks. The second peak is slightly higher and the trail was cast in shadows so there was plenty of mud and traces of snow. The view, however, was worth the trek. It was really hazy so we couldn't see great distances but we could all imagine what a spectacular view might be possible on a clear day. From that peak, a cable car gondola took us down to the south side of the mountain where we grabbed the bus back to Tsukuba.
Afternoon
We were all ready for a sit down lunch and a cold beer. On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at the local drug store to pickup essentials...water, beer, and chap stick :)
Its 3:00pm and I've already got 10000+ steps in for the day. I'll probably take a nap and then walk around Tsukuba some more before dinner.
Hope all is well back in Houston.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
