So, I guess I have to do some quick re-capping since coming home from Japan.  Disclaimer: my life is very boring, which is why I tend to try and surround myself with as many interesting people as possible.  So far, I think I’ve done a good job.

After getting home from Japan at the beginning of June, I had about 2 days to recover before being whisked away to Colorado with my father, with the intention of getting to visit one of his old childhood friends who now lives out in Boulder.  This isn’t my first excursion to The Most Peaceful Place in America (TM), but I haven’t been out there since before I started high school, all those years ago.  I am a very different person now, but the effect is still pretty much the same.  Boulder is probably one of my favorite places ever.  I’ve always joked about how I won’t be living in America when I get older, but if I wound up here for the rest of my life…  Well, that wouldn’t be so bad either.  We arrived in Denver and drove down to Rocky Mountain National Park for a few days, drove around a bit, hiked a bit more, and sampled many local foods, including the Stumbling Elk lager, which I thought was hilarious (for those of you wondering, the label does in fact feature several drunken elk stumbling about.  I wish I could have saved it, because it was quite awesome).

Incident:
On the way up the trail to Mills lake, a guy died.  Yeah, just up and died.  Apparently had some heart failure of some kind; we weren’t entirely sure.  My father is a doctor, and did the best that he could.  By the time we got there, he had been passed out for maybe 5 minutes, and there were some kids around my age doing CPR and trying their hardest to bring him back.  In the end, no luck.  Park rangers were brought up after about 20-30 minutes, and brought him back down after closing the trail.  An absolute shame, and since my people-resuscitation skills aren’t quite on par with a 20-years-practicing doctor and a team of park rangers, I did what I could to comfort the man’s wife and other family.  In the end, only so much could be done.  His name was Bob, he was in his mid-70s, and it was he and his wife’s 50th wedding anniversary.  From New York, they decided to go to Colorado for a vacation and didn’t leave themselves enough time to acclimate to the oxygen difference with the new altitude.  His body was already in bad shape, so this was the final straw I suppose.  His family handled it well though.  One thing I will say, however: he couldn’t have picked a more beautiful place to end his life.

After we left Rocky Mountain NP, it was off to Boulder to visit Howie, my dad’s best childhood friend, and his family.  The real motivation behind the trip was Howie’s daughter’s bat mitzvah.  It went very well for her, and she did a great job.  Mazel tov Kate!  Pictures from the trip should be up within the next week or so (I’ve been real lazy).

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Since getting home, it’s back to work as usual.  I work the summer in the warehouse of a networking company.  It’s not the most exciting work, but it’s steady pay and I’m in pretty decent need of it after Japan.  Those concerts really took a toll on my bank account, heh.

In martial news, I recently started studying baguazhang, which is actually very exciting news for me.  It has been one of my life’s ambitions to learn this style, so even the little baby steps I get to make now are a pretty big deal.  Here’s to hoping things work out in the future with it.

Alright folks, that’s about all I’ve got for you.  Expect future entries to be mainly centered around the topic of 日本の音楽, Japanese music.

PS, I still toast to Akane-san at every chance I get.