I've gone and done it again.
Returning to Orange County, this time to attend the OCHHH on Saturday with a special virgin, my brother!
I digress... my broheim and I went down to Irvine to visit our cousin and her boyfriend as well as other various relatives down in the area. Not wanting to waste a road trip with potential to hash, I looked up the local hashes and found that Orange County was hashing that Saturday, relatively close to where my cousin lives.
My brother has been following this blog (more or less?) since I started it and seems to have become interested in hashing. So I invited him along.
We woke up for the early 10:00 a.m. trail, threw our crap on and headed to the start. It was all smooth as silk except that my brother forgot to pack his running shoes.
Never mind that, we'll stop by Sports Authority and pick some up...
Scratch that, he'll grab some sandals and just wear his Adidas Sambas. Silly bro.
We get there and it's a grand turn-out. I figure about 40ish hashers are there, including some new boots.
After a half-hour late start, they RA starts pulling things together and we do introductions and for lack of a Hash-it, they grab an extra flag and award it to me, myself and I. Silly OCHHH.
We are informed that there will be 3 (count 'em) beer checks. Two unmanned and a third one, also unmanned (those crafty hares!). We take off, almost immediately after exiting the parking lot, jumping down into a drainage channel that leads us under the local Ikea store (I suppose going through their parking lot wouldn't be the brightest idea now, would it?). But first, a beer check.
Those of us willing to hop the fence and get into the muck were rewarded with a 24 pack of cold Pabst Blue Ribbon. Congrats bro, your first beer check!
We continued on... As I entered the tunnel leading under Ikea I hear a "oh shit." behind me.
Turning around, I see my brother poised like a graceful drunk ballerina on one foot, his hand stretching out before him to pull his shoe out of the much. Tie your laces bro.
As my brother slips his shoe back on, I hear the phrase yet again. I turn around in the direction we are heading to see the sillouette of another hasher whose shoe fell victim to the sludge. Tie your laces random OC hasher.
We continue on through the tunnel, at times stepping carefully, at times running in the complete dark with wantan regard to what might be ahead of us, sloshing through the muck, splashing through the water. Keeping close to those with flashlights as if they were lifevests on the Titanic. It was a romp and extremely fun for those who dared enter the dark.
Our reward on the other side was beer-check number two. Yet another case of PBR.
Yes, I pity those walkers who were too primm to enter the dark lair of Ikea's underbelly!
At the next road we jump out of the ditch and return to shiggiless road. Cross a parking lot and traverse in, out and around a couple business complexes before arriving at a Jeep with beer-check number (saaaaaaaay it!) THREE!
I arrive and pop open another PBR while waiting for my brother to arrive. When he does we take off on trail again after a quick respite. This time it leads us around a fence, down some railroad tracks and again stretches across the endless blacktop of business complex parking lots. Sensing the hares and FRB's ahead, I bid my brother adieu and took off, flag in tow. Arriving fairly close behind the FRB's to the On-In (which was also the start in this A-to-A trail).
Quietly ditching the hash-it under a nearby car, I formulated a half-assed (more likely quarter-assed) story of my taking a piss and someone nabbing the hash-it from me while weenie was in hand. They kinda-sorta-not really bought it, and I was given down-downs for both the various expected infractions and then for my superfluous invasion of their circle. But c'mon, they were repeating songs! Even I know this is against standard OCHHH circle code!
My brother was called in for his down-down, they closed circle with Hash Hymn number 1 and then we all shifted over to Hooters for the on-after. Hotwings and beer were served. I was punched in the shoulder by a girl who seemed to have violence issues and good times were had by all.
Oh, I also kinda-sorta stole a beer vessel that Momy Hatchet was returning to the OCHHH from North Carolina after they said they didn't want it.
I probably would have cared less, but the thing looked to have solid history behind it and the only other option was Momy running over it with a car.
So, I guess the LVHHH has some tasks ahead of them and the OCHHH has some retrieving to do. This should be a fun year.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Last (lifted) leg
On Wednesday Special Ed and I took a jaunt up North to Newport Bay where the Orange County Hump Hash was holding their weekly rendezvous of hashing goodness.
Much like the Porter's Pub hash, they use each of their checks as holds for the pack to come together. Surprisingly enough though, without the Q&A sections, the pack was still able to keep moving at a fairly reasonable pace. Only near the end, when a late arriving EO was playing catch up, did we have a couple longer holds.
Coming to the On-In itself was a load of fun as well as there are some serious runners in the O.C. hash and I took the opportunity to expend a fair amount of built up energy from the plane flights in all out drags with Howdy Do Me, Prick and another chap whose name I cannae recall at the moment (which is funny because he was the most competitive of the lot!).
We circled at a harriette's place with loads of top quality beer and some of the standard snack mish-mash. For the $5 fee, it was an impressive spread of drinks, reminiscent of Special Ed's beer-meistering in the mid-00's back in Las Vegas.
I was talking with Afterbirth about the beer and the run fee and she said that they have been working extremely hard at keeping the fee at $5, with a pack in the mid-20's. Hoarding coupons for the local big liquor store Bev' Mo (think Lee's Discount Liquor), buying seasonals that are being clearanced and being creative with their selection has really paid off.
It was a nice change from the standard piss-beer (Bud, Miller, Coors, etc.) that I had seen at most U.S. hashes (reference Tiger for most S.E. Asian hashes). I wonder if we can pull together that kind of resourcefullness back at home. Have a couple cases of PBR/ML for the down-downs and lighter beer drinkers, then buy some true good stuff at cut-rate prices (already did some looking, you can get bottled beer for less than $1 a bottle if you are crafty) and beef up the Las Vegas stock.
Over this past weekend, SpEd and I drove through Death Valley to Ely, NV to help out a friend of his who was running the Concessons stand at Cave Lake for their Fire & Ice event. Snow/Ice carving competition with a hell of a fireworks display at the end of the last night. We even got put onto a 100 year old train with the governor and one of our senators for a night of over-drinking and watching them shoot fireworks from the moving train.
It was special, not only for being able to ride in an old coal-powered locomotive, but this is (at the event coordinator's best guess) the first time fireworks were ever fired from a moving locomotive. Well hey, that's pretty damn cool.
On Monday I drove into Las Vegas, roughly at 4:30 a.m.
After dropping Special Ed off at his house, I drove downtown to Fremont St. and walked around for a couple hours, ending up on top of the El Cortez parking garage watching the sun rise over the valley.
I guess that means I am officially home, but I may not do my return hash just yet. I was talking with my brother about driving out to California again this weekend to visit some family and I might throw in a couple hashes while I'm there. Who knows...
The world is wide open.
Much like the Porter's Pub hash, they use each of their checks as holds for the pack to come together. Surprisingly enough though, without the Q&A sections, the pack was still able to keep moving at a fairly reasonable pace. Only near the end, when a late arriving EO was playing catch up, did we have a couple longer holds.
Coming to the On-In itself was a load of fun as well as there are some serious runners in the O.C. hash and I took the opportunity to expend a fair amount of built up energy from the plane flights in all out drags with Howdy Do Me, Prick and another chap whose name I cannae recall at the moment (which is funny because he was the most competitive of the lot!).
We circled at a harriette's place with loads of top quality beer and some of the standard snack mish-mash. For the $5 fee, it was an impressive spread of drinks, reminiscent of Special Ed's beer-meistering in the mid-00's back in Las Vegas.
I was talking with Afterbirth about the beer and the run fee and she said that they have been working extremely hard at keeping the fee at $5, with a pack in the mid-20's. Hoarding coupons for the local big liquor store Bev' Mo (think Lee's Discount Liquor), buying seasonals that are being clearanced and being creative with their selection has really paid off.
It was a nice change from the standard piss-beer (Bud, Miller, Coors, etc.) that I had seen at most U.S. hashes (reference Tiger for most S.E. Asian hashes). I wonder if we can pull together that kind of resourcefullness back at home. Have a couple cases of PBR/ML for the down-downs and lighter beer drinkers, then buy some true good stuff at cut-rate prices (already did some looking, you can get bottled beer for less than $1 a bottle if you are crafty) and beef up the Las Vegas stock.
Over this past weekend, SpEd and I drove through Death Valley to Ely, NV to help out a friend of his who was running the Concessons stand at Cave Lake for their Fire & Ice event. Snow/Ice carving competition with a hell of a fireworks display at the end of the last night. We even got put onto a 100 year old train with the governor and one of our senators for a night of over-drinking and watching them shoot fireworks from the moving train.
It was special, not only for being able to ride in an old coal-powered locomotive, but this is (at the event coordinator's best guess) the first time fireworks were ever fired from a moving locomotive. Well hey, that's pretty damn cool.
On Monday I drove into Las Vegas, roughly at 4:30 a.m.
After dropping Special Ed off at his house, I drove downtown to Fremont St. and walked around for a couple hours, ending up on top of the El Cortez parking garage watching the sun rise over the valley.
I guess that means I am officially home, but I may not do my return hash just yet. I was talking with my brother about driving out to California again this weekend to visit some family and I might throw in a couple hashes while I'm there. Who knows...
The world is wide open.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Stateside arrival
A week ago yesterday I landed at LAX after an incredibly long series of flights to get back to the U.S. from Tokyo.
It turns out that flying straight to Los Angeles from Tokyo is incredibly expensive. Like two and a half grand expensive. However, by being creative with flight scheduling, I was able to tweak a significantly cheaper route by first flying to Kuala Lumpur, then switching flights entirely to take a separate airline back via Seoul, South Korea. It was nasty in terms of spending time on planes and at the airport. Here's a break-down.
Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur - 8 hours flying time (backing up over a time zone to boot)
6 hour layover at airport.
This wouldn't be so bad if the airport was closer to KL in general, but it takes roughly an hour to an hour and a half to take a bus in from the airport to the city. Couple that with having to go through security again, it just was a better idea to stay in the airport.
Kuala Lumpur to Seoul, South Korea - 8 hours flying time (back OVER the time zone)
8 hour layover in Seoul.
I did take the opportunity to explore the city this time. I took an hour bus ride into the historic downtown part of Seoul and walked around a bit, freezing my ass off in the 19 degree weather with just a long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker. I wanted to go into a temple or shrine, but they charged for admittance to everything, so I just took some pictures from the outside. Then I went into a local restaurant and ordered some Bugolgi and Kim Chi before taking the bus back to the airport to go through security again.
Seoul to Los Angeles - 10 hours flying time, crossing the international date-line.
So I spent roughly 40 hours straight in planes or airports. It was not pretty, but I saved roughly a grand in costs and actually got to check out a little bit of Seoul in the process.
I arrived at LAX at around 8:30 in the morning on the 13th and fellow Las Vegas hasher Special Ed picked me up in my WRX, so I could complete my trip driving in. With the assistance of one Shrimp Skanky in San Diego we were able to score a couch for the night as well as make it to that evenings hash with the...
Porter's Pub Hash House Harriers
Based out of the Porter's Pub in the center of UCSD, they did a fine job of laying an inner-campus trail A to A style that incorporated some mixes of mild shiggy and pavement. The group definitely contrasted the hipster mix of college kids and overall it was just a good fun time.
Trail was done differently from others that I have done though, with each check acting as a hold point. Basically you followed trail to the check, then waited there for the rest of the pack to catch up before moving on. Checks were frequent enough that you never waited for long and the addition of the RA(?) using quiz questions to determine who left when, kept things entertaining. It was almost like a hashing version of burst running training which I found to be a refreshing change from the standard trail style.
At the beer-stop I took my time and ended up falling behind the group. It was easy to follow trail, but I was using my ears more than eyes to try and shortcut a bit to catch up with the crowd and ended up passing them on trail by a fairly decent amount. Eventually they caught up and I rejoined them to the end at the pub.
Circle was low-key and fun with some high quality beer. There was no beer cooler though so you had to buy your own, but the first beer was discounted and the down-down beer was included. So if you want to drink more, find reasons to get charged more. I did!
After things wrapped up, Afterbirth gave Special Ed and I a heads up about the OC Hump Hash the next evening. One more hash to notch the belt before returning to L.V.
It turns out that flying straight to Los Angeles from Tokyo is incredibly expensive. Like two and a half grand expensive. However, by being creative with flight scheduling, I was able to tweak a significantly cheaper route by first flying to Kuala Lumpur, then switching flights entirely to take a separate airline back via Seoul, South Korea. It was nasty in terms of spending time on planes and at the airport. Here's a break-down.
Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur - 8 hours flying time (backing up over a time zone to boot)
6 hour layover at airport.
This wouldn't be so bad if the airport was closer to KL in general, but it takes roughly an hour to an hour and a half to take a bus in from the airport to the city. Couple that with having to go through security again, it just was a better idea to stay in the airport.
Kuala Lumpur to Seoul, South Korea - 8 hours flying time (back OVER the time zone)
8 hour layover in Seoul.
I did take the opportunity to explore the city this time. I took an hour bus ride into the historic downtown part of Seoul and walked around a bit, freezing my ass off in the 19 degree weather with just a long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker. I wanted to go into a temple or shrine, but they charged for admittance to everything, so I just took some pictures from the outside. Then I went into a local restaurant and ordered some Bugolgi and Kim Chi before taking the bus back to the airport to go through security again.
Seoul to Los Angeles - 10 hours flying time, crossing the international date-line.
So I spent roughly 40 hours straight in planes or airports. It was not pretty, but I saved roughly a grand in costs and actually got to check out a little bit of Seoul in the process.
I arrived at LAX at around 8:30 in the morning on the 13th and fellow Las Vegas hasher Special Ed picked me up in my WRX, so I could complete my trip driving in. With the assistance of one Shrimp Skanky in San Diego we were able to score a couch for the night as well as make it to that evenings hash with the...
Porter's Pub Hash House Harriers
Based out of the Porter's Pub in the center of UCSD, they did a fine job of laying an inner-campus trail A to A style that incorporated some mixes of mild shiggy and pavement. The group definitely contrasted the hipster mix of college kids and overall it was just a good fun time.
Trail was done differently from others that I have done though, with each check acting as a hold point. Basically you followed trail to the check, then waited there for the rest of the pack to catch up before moving on. Checks were frequent enough that you never waited for long and the addition of the RA(?) using quiz questions to determine who left when, kept things entertaining. It was almost like a hashing version of burst running training which I found to be a refreshing change from the standard trail style.
At the beer-stop I took my time and ended up falling behind the group. It was easy to follow trail, but I was using my ears more than eyes to try and shortcut a bit to catch up with the crowd and ended up passing them on trail by a fairly decent amount. Eventually they caught up and I rejoined them to the end at the pub.
Circle was low-key and fun with some high quality beer. There was no beer cooler though so you had to buy your own, but the first beer was discounted and the down-down beer was included. So if you want to drink more, find reasons to get charged more. I did!
After things wrapped up, Afterbirth gave Special Ed and I a heads up about the OC Hump Hash the next evening. One more hash to notch the belt before returning to L.V.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Finally Friday Fukov Hash House Harriers
This post is a little over a week late, but when it came down to my last 48 hours in Japan, I decided it would be best spent going places and doing things instead of sitting in front of a computer typing up these posts.
There was almost a solid week in between my hash with the Sumo H3 and the F3H3 so I spent it traveling around Japan in a whirlwind self-tour.
On that Monday, the 5th I took a train down to Kyoto, arriving late into the night and finding probably the most local of hostels to stay in. There were no locking doors, only sliding panels, the tables were all sit on the floor style with a comforter attached which was warmed by a heater. The place had no showers, only toilets so I had to walk a block to the local bath house in order to bathe. You really don't get much more cultural than this! Even better, the extremely cheap 2000 Yen a night rate (in comparison my Tokyo hostel cost about 3600 and the capsule hotel was closer to 4000) included all you could drink local whiskey and rum from 9:30 until when the cartons and bottles were gone.
Tuesday I spent wandering around a couple of the 2000 or so temples around Kyoto and taking a train to nearby Mt. Inari where I hiked around for about 3 hours and had a bowl of Soba noodles at a path-side café.
Wednesday morning I took an early train to Hiroshima, arriving around noon. I dropped my bag off at the hostel and took the tram to Peace Park, the epicenter of the A-bomb blast. It was haunting and beautiful at the same time. I took the opportunity to visit the museum, take some pictures and ring Peace Bell. They say the total number of deaths related to the Hiroshima blast was around 200,000. Mostly women and children.
That night I tried the local flavor of Okonomiyaki, a nutritionally balanced sort of fast-food that the Japanese eat in places where it is easier to grow wheat than rice. It consists of batter, cabbage, pork, egg, onions, sprouts and Okonomiyaki sauce. Quite tasty!
On Thursday I jumped on a train back up towards Tokyo, making a stop at Himeji to see the castle there.
Something about Japanese castles just makes them appear so much cooler (to me) than their European counterparts. The way they appear to be segmented with wild flailing corners to their roofs. Couple that with blossoming sakura (cherry flower blossoms which I was unfortunate to be a couple months early for) and the sights are absolutely amazing.
Post castle I got back on the local trains toward Kyoto, where I switched to a high-speed bullet train to get back to Tokyo at a reasonable hour (7:00 p.m. vs. 11:30 p.m.) where they local trains would still be able to take me to my hostel in Asakusa.
Friday arrived with a tormental spell of bad weather. The wind was ripping and it was raining for most of the day. Cold was an understatement, but I didn't want to waste a day due to weather so I braved the storm and trudged down to the Pokémon Centre and then over to the Square Enix Store in order to get my geek fix in.
Post that I grabbed a bowl of noodles and then slid back to the hostel to change for that night's hash trail. Without long pants I would have to endure, so I slid on my running shorts, threw on a wicking shirt and long sleeve combo, then threw on my windbreaker which I had to hope would hold the horizontal rain at bay long enough for me to do trail. The worst part was my face though, which I combated the blistering cold with dual bandanas, going checkerboard ninja with my LVH3 bandana on my head and my Munich H3 bandana over my nose and mouth.
Trail was a short 3.5 miler, but felt much longer as we faced into the wind most of the time. Honor to the hare though as he actually laid a live trail, something I hadn't seen in a while.
Without an on-after to go to, we hunkered down under some stairs to protect ourselves from the elements during circle before a bored security guard kicked us away from the building. So, we walked 20 feet over to the sidewalk where an overwalk was creating a rain break and held circle there. It went fairly quick as Rapunzel went down the usual list. I got called out for only remembering the names of harriettes I met on previous Tokyo hashes (Pee Wee, Second Hand Job and Anchor Twat), and was given a patch to add to my collection. The hare was blamed for the weather (someone had to, and there was no RA!), then we all went our separate ways.
With my plane flight on the coming Monday, I took the opportunity over that weekend to finish up some personal goal loose ends in Tokyo, skipping the hashes as a result.
"What? Skip a hash? Never!" You may say, however I felt the following justified my absence.
Eating fresh sushi at the Fish Market in Tsujuki. It was the best sushi I have ever had in my life, even if I had to get up at 5 a.m. to get in line for it.
Watching Japanese Rockabilly clubs do dance battles in Harajuku with pompadours the size of small pick-ups.
Getting a spare pair of glasses. It turns out glasses in Japan are extremely cheap. Frames range from $45-$125 U.S.D. and they include both the lenses and an eye exam in the price.
Frame+Lenses+Eye Exam in the U.S. can add up to $200-$300 easily.
Checking out the electronics stores in Akihabara. If the DSi wasn't regionally coded, I would've picked one up.
Getting a full 6 course Fugu meal. Fugu is Japanese for pufferfish and it has one of the most potent neuro-toxins in its system. The Fugu chefs have to be specially licensed to fillet and serve the fish. My personal favorite was the fugu sashimi. Sliced so thin you can see the plate beneath through the fish.
There was almost a solid week in between my hash with the Sumo H3 and the F3H3 so I spent it traveling around Japan in a whirlwind self-tour.
On that Monday, the 5th I took a train down to Kyoto, arriving late into the night and finding probably the most local of hostels to stay in. There were no locking doors, only sliding panels, the tables were all sit on the floor style with a comforter attached which was warmed by a heater. The place had no showers, only toilets so I had to walk a block to the local bath house in order to bathe. You really don't get much more cultural than this! Even better, the extremely cheap 2000 Yen a night rate (in comparison my Tokyo hostel cost about 3600 and the capsule hotel was closer to 4000) included all you could drink local whiskey and rum from 9:30 until when the cartons and bottles were gone.
Tuesday I spent wandering around a couple of the 2000 or so temples around Kyoto and taking a train to nearby Mt. Inari where I hiked around for about 3 hours and had a bowl of Soba noodles at a path-side café.
Wednesday morning I took an early train to Hiroshima, arriving around noon. I dropped my bag off at the hostel and took the tram to Peace Park, the epicenter of the A-bomb blast. It was haunting and beautiful at the same time. I took the opportunity to visit the museum, take some pictures and ring Peace Bell. They say the total number of deaths related to the Hiroshima blast was around 200,000. Mostly women and children.
That night I tried the local flavor of Okonomiyaki, a nutritionally balanced sort of fast-food that the Japanese eat in places where it is easier to grow wheat than rice. It consists of batter, cabbage, pork, egg, onions, sprouts and Okonomiyaki sauce. Quite tasty!
On Thursday I jumped on a train back up towards Tokyo, making a stop at Himeji to see the castle there.
Something about Japanese castles just makes them appear so much cooler (to me) than their European counterparts. The way they appear to be segmented with wild flailing corners to their roofs. Couple that with blossoming sakura (cherry flower blossoms which I was unfortunate to be a couple months early for) and the sights are absolutely amazing.
Post castle I got back on the local trains toward Kyoto, where I switched to a high-speed bullet train to get back to Tokyo at a reasonable hour (7:00 p.m. vs. 11:30 p.m.) where they local trains would still be able to take me to my hostel in Asakusa.
Friday arrived with a tormental spell of bad weather. The wind was ripping and it was raining for most of the day. Cold was an understatement, but I didn't want to waste a day due to weather so I braved the storm and trudged down to the Pokémon Centre and then over to the Square Enix Store in order to get my geek fix in.
Post that I grabbed a bowl of noodles and then slid back to the hostel to change for that night's hash trail. Without long pants I would have to endure, so I slid on my running shorts, threw on a wicking shirt and long sleeve combo, then threw on my windbreaker which I had to hope would hold the horizontal rain at bay long enough for me to do trail. The worst part was my face though, which I combated the blistering cold with dual bandanas, going checkerboard ninja with my LVH3 bandana on my head and my Munich H3 bandana over my nose and mouth.
Trail was a short 3.5 miler, but felt much longer as we faced into the wind most of the time. Honor to the hare though as he actually laid a live trail, something I hadn't seen in a while.
Without an on-after to go to, we hunkered down under some stairs to protect ourselves from the elements during circle before a bored security guard kicked us away from the building. So, we walked 20 feet over to the sidewalk where an overwalk was creating a rain break and held circle there. It went fairly quick as Rapunzel went down the usual list. I got called out for only remembering the names of harriettes I met on previous Tokyo hashes (Pee Wee, Second Hand Job and Anchor Twat), and was given a patch to add to my collection. The hare was blamed for the weather (someone had to, and there was no RA!), then we all went our separate ways.
With my plane flight on the coming Monday, I took the opportunity over that weekend to finish up some personal goal loose ends in Tokyo, skipping the hashes as a result.
"What? Skip a hash? Never!" You may say, however I felt the following justified my absence.
Eating fresh sushi at the Fish Market in Tsujuki. It was the best sushi I have ever had in my life, even if I had to get up at 5 a.m. to get in line for it.
Watching Japanese Rockabilly clubs do dance battles in Harajuku with pompadours the size of small pick-ups.
Getting a spare pair of glasses. It turns out glasses in Japan are extremely cheap. Frames range from $45-$125 U.S.D. and they include both the lenses and an eye exam in the price.
Frame+Lenses+Eye Exam in the U.S. can add up to $200-$300 easily.
Checking out the electronics stores in Akihabara. If the DSi wasn't regionally coded, I would've picked one up.
Getting a full 6 course Fugu meal. Fugu is Japanese for pufferfish and it has one of the most potent neuro-toxins in its system. The Fugu chefs have to be specially licensed to fillet and serve the fish. My personal favorite was the fugu sashimi. Sliced so thin you can see the plate beneath through the fish.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Sumo Hash
Wow, in the course of a week I have done 4 hashes. That's pretty impressive, eh?
I'm not so sure though, given as I had the opportunity to do 5 hashes.
That put aside though, I will be back in Tokyo on Friday the 9th and will regain my chance to hash with the F3H3 then. I am not concerned.
Today was the Sumo Hash and while I did trail I was quite late in arriving and simply had to carry my bag with me. Not a huge deal, but due to my camera I spent more time walking than running.
It was another hour and a half train ride, this time right out of Tokyo into Kawasaki. Yes, more of the non-city! Trail itself was an adventure from the train station all over the nearby area. Up into city parks atop large hills and wandering down the roads between houses. Since I was a half-hour late to start, I did trail alone and with most people gone for the holidays it was kind of Resident Evil-esque.
Having my gear with me, while it really kept me from running, offered me the unusual opportunity to take some pictures as well of Japan in the winter. Sorry, no snow (this isn't Las Vegas), but I made do.
It was a consummate 9k trail with a beer stop about half-way through... though trail honestly felt much longer. Maybe it was because I was walking most of the time, maybe because of the number of hills and stairs, but for the first time out here I felt like I was on a 12 or 13k trail. My hour and a half walking time damn near proved my point.
Though, when push came to shove, In Your Dreams laid quite well and except for one instance at the start of trail where it changed direction and wasn't marked, I found my way quite easily.
Kampai to all the pack who marked trail and even pointed out a couple short-cuts along the way in chalk.
Circle itself was pretty low key. We stood around in a small park, ate some typical hash snack food and drank local brew and Budweiser (what? Budweiser?).
I have most every hasher here hooked on adding "Viva Las Vegas!" as a tail-end of when I say where I am from which is pretty cool.
Went for haberdashery, but they didn't have any patches for Sumo. However, the haberdasher does now own a sewing machine that does embroidery, so I am doing my best to convince him that he should get a patch made for next weekend when I return before flying back to the U.S.A.
Still got a T-shirt though. It is very, blue.
I'm not so sure though, given as I had the opportunity to do 5 hashes.
That put aside though, I will be back in Tokyo on Friday the 9th and will regain my chance to hash with the F3H3 then. I am not concerned.
Today was the Sumo Hash and while I did trail I was quite late in arriving and simply had to carry my bag with me. Not a huge deal, but due to my camera I spent more time walking than running.
It was another hour and a half train ride, this time right out of Tokyo into Kawasaki. Yes, more of the non-city! Trail itself was an adventure from the train station all over the nearby area. Up into city parks atop large hills and wandering down the roads between houses. Since I was a half-hour late to start, I did trail alone and with most people gone for the holidays it was kind of Resident Evil-esque.
Having my gear with me, while it really kept me from running, offered me the unusual opportunity to take some pictures as well of Japan in the winter. Sorry, no snow (this isn't Las Vegas), but I made do.
It was a consummate 9k trail with a beer stop about half-way through... though trail honestly felt much longer. Maybe it was because I was walking most of the time, maybe because of the number of hills and stairs, but for the first time out here I felt like I was on a 12 or 13k trail. My hour and a half walking time damn near proved my point.
Though, when push came to shove, In Your Dreams laid quite well and except for one instance at the start of trail where it changed direction and wasn't marked, I found my way quite easily.
Kampai to all the pack who marked trail and even pointed out a couple short-cuts along the way in chalk.
Circle itself was pretty low key. We stood around in a small park, ate some typical hash snack food and drank local brew and Budweiser (what? Budweiser?).
I have most every hasher here hooked on adding "Viva Las Vegas!" as a tail-end of when I say where I am from which is pretty cool.
Went for haberdashery, but they didn't have any patches for Sumo. However, the haberdasher does now own a sewing machine that does embroidery, so I am doing my best to convince him that he should get a patch made for next weekend when I return before flying back to the U.S.A.
Still got a T-shirt though. It is very, blue.
New Year's Heave!
Oh, the ladies of the night! What beautiful music they make!
Well, maybe... I guess it depends on the Count.
You see, the thing with the Tokyo Harriettes is, there weren't all that many harriettes on trail. I would say the male hashers outnumbered the females almost two to one. Travesty? Perhaps... Surprising? Yes!
One shant complain though when there is another twisty-curvy trail through the Tokyo subdistrict streets.
We started out this time at a quaint little Indian restaurant with the illustrious hares of Tidy Whitey and Spud Poker (again!?) spreading the New Year's cheer with chalk and flour.
Yes, this trail was an early set (around 1400) on the 31st of December, to ready the illustrious hashers for a full night of drinking, partying and debauchery.
It was also a slight pre-lube for the Samurai Hash actual New Year's trail where they started at 2300 and ran into 2009 in the most literal of ways (I didn't go to that one though, so that is my mention of it for this post).
Trail was a touch longer than Monday's Tokyo H3 trail, this time clocking in at a grand 10k. Nice, nice! It was more city running, more pavement pounding, but the hares did a great job (again) of keeping things interesting. Jettisoning the pack through small parks, over playground equipment and through the front area of a museum with loads of nude sculptures for daring hashers to pose with in defiling ways (no one is innocent at the hash, even statues!).
One harriette did a "riding" pose on a laying male statue, I fiercely grabbed a nude female statue that looked to be of age, but the top shot for the photo album (not mine as I didn't have my camera, but I hope it appears quite soon on hashspace!) was Anchor Twat poking her head between the legs of a statue of a young girl (13? 15?) in a dress and looking decidedly UP.
And then, as the picture was taken, Wee Willy Wanker decided to add in a bit of nipple licking on the statuette as well. OOOOOH, DIRTY MAN!
We all arrived at the On-In at a reasonable time after galloping through a couple of the bigger shrines where people were setting up their booths for the evening, and with the pack together in a reasonable fashion, we gave a few quick down-downs and then headed into the warm restaurant to continue circle and eat and drink ourselves merry.
Inside it was a smaller group this time as several hashers cut out to prep themselves for the Samurai hash later on.
Never the less, it was good food, a good (and loud!) circle and a great time. I got to chat with Slowy Gonzales a bit about Japan as it turns out he's a Puerto Rican who lives out here selling coffee beans to the local shops. He hooked me up with some Milk Thistle to help clean out my liver some too, which was very cool.
Afterwards, everyone set off to wherever they were going to celebrate the turn of the 00. I went back to the capsule in Shinjuku for a quick shower, then over to Shibuya where most of the "party" crowd had gathered.
Honestly, it was a touch anti-clamatic. Things were much more ordered and organized (and controlled) than Las Vegas, but with the same party vibe. It was almost a been there, done that feeling that I had.
No worries though, for Japan the New Year runs pretty much the entire week (with the 5th being a full on National holiday), so I still had the opportunity to celebrate properly over the next few days.
Well, maybe... I guess it depends on the Count.
You see, the thing with the Tokyo Harriettes is, there weren't all that many harriettes on trail. I would say the male hashers outnumbered the females almost two to one. Travesty? Perhaps... Surprising? Yes!
One shant complain though when there is another twisty-curvy trail through the Tokyo subdistrict streets.
We started out this time at a quaint little Indian restaurant with the illustrious hares of Tidy Whitey and Spud Poker (again!?) spreading the New Year's cheer with chalk and flour.
Yes, this trail was an early set (around 1400) on the 31st of December, to ready the illustrious hashers for a full night of drinking, partying and debauchery.
It was also a slight pre-lube for the Samurai Hash actual New Year's trail where they started at 2300 and ran into 2009 in the most literal of ways (I didn't go to that one though, so that is my mention of it for this post).
Trail was a touch longer than Monday's Tokyo H3 trail, this time clocking in at a grand 10k. Nice, nice! It was more city running, more pavement pounding, but the hares did a great job (again) of keeping things interesting. Jettisoning the pack through small parks, over playground equipment and through the front area of a museum with loads of nude sculptures for daring hashers to pose with in defiling ways (no one is innocent at the hash, even statues!).
One harriette did a "riding" pose on a laying male statue, I fiercely grabbed a nude female statue that looked to be of age, but the top shot for the photo album (not mine as I didn't have my camera, but I hope it appears quite soon on hashspace!) was Anchor Twat poking her head between the legs of a statue of a young girl (13? 15?) in a dress and looking decidedly UP.
And then, as the picture was taken, Wee Willy Wanker decided to add in a bit of nipple licking on the statuette as well. OOOOOH, DIRTY MAN!
We all arrived at the On-In at a reasonable time after galloping through a couple of the bigger shrines where people were setting up their booths for the evening, and with the pack together in a reasonable fashion, we gave a few quick down-downs and then headed into the warm restaurant to continue circle and eat and drink ourselves merry.
Inside it was a smaller group this time as several hashers cut out to prep themselves for the Samurai hash later on.
Never the less, it was good food, a good (and loud!) circle and a great time. I got to chat with Slowy Gonzales a bit about Japan as it turns out he's a Puerto Rican who lives out here selling coffee beans to the local shops. He hooked me up with some Milk Thistle to help clean out my liver some too, which was very cool.
Afterwards, everyone set off to wherever they were going to celebrate the turn of the 00. I went back to the capsule in Shinjuku for a quick shower, then over to Shibuya where most of the "party" crowd had gathered.
Honestly, it was a touch anti-clamatic. Things were much more ordered and organized (and controlled) than Las Vegas, but with the same party vibe. It was almost a been there, done that feeling that I had.
No worries though, for Japan the New Year runs pretty much the entire week (with the 5th being a full on National holiday), so I still had the opportunity to celebrate properly over the next few days.
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