The Family Comes To Town

As introduced to the world a few months ago, this is my now 5 month old nephew Baby Jez:

Jez recently came over to check out the japanasian hotties, and bought his support crew with him: his mum and dad (James and Mel) and also his ageing grandparents, Baz and Mez.

It was the first time I'd seen the fam for about ten months, and also the first time I met Jez in person. Me and the fam did a lot of catching up, plus heaps of toursity stuff around kumamoto, and with four digital camera's between us quite a few happy snaps were taken (as evidenced below).

Here's a shot of the first time I saw mum in almost a year:

And James:

The touring party was pretty tired from flights/train rides getting here from Oz, so we didn't do anything too spectacular on the first night, and Baby Jez was asleep (so I didn't get to play with him!) although the next morning it was all systems go:


Cute huh? Note the t-shirt. Like uncle, like nephew - that's what they say right?

We hired ourselves a massive van, and headed on a road trip to the local active volcano, Mt Aso. Check out the phat ride:

Unfortunately the weather was bit dodge, however it was heaps better the next day so we hit Kumamoto Castle, went and checked out Suizenji Park, then had lunch at Ni no maru (the castle park).

Suizenji snapshot:

Nice 'do' James (ha ha!):

Good times. It was another road trip day the next day, destination Kikuchi Gorge. It was pretty dangerous cos there was trees falling all over the place, but luckily James was on the ball and used some of the family's super danger strength to save the day.

We were a bit unsure of which way to go, but luckily James had it sorted.

Here's an interesting shot - check out the reflection in the car window:

After the gorge I drove the fam up to the top of Mt Kinpo for some excellent views over the city. Mum got a bit freaked out when I drove up a 'no entry' service road on the top of the mountain, but when you're as tough as I am you can do what you want. Afterwards it was onto my favourite japanese family restaurant, Joyfull, for some excellent 'n cheap eats.

After Joyfull I decided to show the 'rents my home away from home, Jeff's world bar. Being the excellent uncle that I am, I also introduced Jeremy to beer. Being a true Nash, he loved it.

Another cute shot:
All in all it was totally awesome having the family come up and stay, I'm looking forward to coming back in October for some more quality time.

Shamesless Plug: www.kumavibe.com
Recently I've been spending a bit of time making a website about Kumamoto. I found it hard to find info in english about my two favourite pastimes: eating and drinking, so I made a bit of a list and decided to post it so other can people can learn from my own excessive drinking.
Seeing that google ranks a website by the number of other sites that link to it, the more links to kumavibe from other pages the better. So:
For up to date reviews on bars, clubs, restaurants and cafe's in Kumamoto, check out www.kumavibe.com
The site's in test mode at the moment, but should have more info in a couple of weeks.

Gab and Marty
You guys should totally come over here for a ski mission. In Feb next year there's a snow festival in Sapporo which is meant to be pretty cool, I want to check it out. If you guys come over then, we could hit the slopes for a few days as well. Pierre you should get over here as well, make it a complete Box Hill North Reunion! Do it!

Ok that's about it for now. Stay tuned to the Dangerblog: upcoming episodes include 'Girls Day Out' and 'Harmony Land - Best Day Ever'.

Talk soon!