After our San Francisco trip in May, this continued to be another summer full of travels. The theme for June was Canada! We averted the floods during our camping trip to the Canadian Rockies:
From Salmo through Fernie into Alberta to see the Frank Slide (where 82 Mio tonnes of rock decided to say goodbye to the mountain they were attached to...), and back through Glacier National Park to Vancouver, we had a pretty packed 4-day weekend. The weather wasn't so great (google Alberta flooding...), but hey, BC is beautiful either way!
Less than a week later my parents and "little" brother came into town :) We explored a bunch of Vancouver, hiked up the BCMC to enjoy the view, and set out for an adventure on Vancouver Island. We started in Victoria on Canada Day, the perfect choice. After some sightseeing in and around town, Hey Ocean! were playing live and for free in front of the government building, followed by a really cool fireworks show. We ventured out west the next morning, and checked out some parts of the Juan the Fuca trail, one of the things on my "To-Do-in-BC-list". The next stretch brought us up to Tofino, were we hung out at Long Beach for a bit, and got some awesome views on the (long) drive there and back to the East. Back there, we stayed in a nice little B&B in Comox, definitely a great choice. Mount Washington and Strathcona Provincial Park (BC's oldest Provincial Park!) were up next. Last but not least, we made our way all the way up north to Port Hardy, which, honestly, has nothing at all to offer. Nearby Telegraph Cove, however, is a different story. It's a super cute tiny little village, with many of the original buildings and structure still there. We went on a boat tour up Knight Inlet into the mainland, to get some grizzly action. Not only did we spend the morning watching a grizzly momma and her two cubs for a few hours, we also saw a younger male, a bunch of porpoises, dolphins, bald eagles, deer, snakes, an orca, and a humpback way out in the distance. Life doesn't get much more exciting :) From there, my parents continued further north by ferry through the Inside Passage, whereas my brother and I spent our Sunday getting back to Vancouver by bus and ferry. Spent a few more days in Van, just to get ready in time for my trip to Japan!
The original plan of checking 3 volcanoes (Sakurajima, Aso and Fuji) had to be changed, since I realized that it was gonna be a crazy rush to do everything. Instead I listened to the advice of some great Japanese friends (thanks, Aikito and Tamy!) and decided to south to the island Yakushima. But one thing after another:
I started with a night in Tokyo, where I met up with some nice ladies from the DAAD. After a few hours of sleep, I went to check out the fishmarket, walked through Ginza for a bit, strolled to Sensoji. My flight to Kagoshima was already packed with volcanologists, so it was easy to figure out what was happening from there on. Quickly dropped by stuff in the hotel in Kagoshima, and met up with people at the icebreaker. Man, I wish I could have free delicious Sashimi and Steak every day! The next five days were pretty conference-y: Some talks and posters during day, maybe a little break over lunch, meeting old and new friends, and of course some business talk. The evenings had something different to start out every night: A festival on Sakurajima with fireworks, traditional Japanese BBQ, a post-fieldtrip gala party on the ferry (with fireworks again, notice a theme?), conference dinner with 10 course in 2 hours (they're efficient, the Japanese... makes any good German jealous!). But somehow we ended up at the same place almost every night at some point... the Reggae Bar "Namasute", with now-world-famous-among-volcanologists-bartender DJ Cool. Say no more... ;)
After the conference I decided to attend a workshop and got some more time on the volcano. We also had a little outreach session with local kids who live on the island. Quote: "What is it like to live so close to such an active volcano?" - "It is not special." Oh well... Finally, with my brain pretty fried, it was time for some vacation! Took the ferry to Yakushima, with was simply amazing. Spent some hours at Inakahama Beach, where Loggerhead turtles lay their eggs and little ones hatch :) The second day was pretty long: After speed-hiking up Tachudake (yes, it really would have been nice if I hadn't been to stupid to read the bus schedule...), we ended up having some spare time, so we decided to bus all the way around the island to check out Okonotaki waterfall. Worth every minute on the (air-conditioned) bus :) Made our way back to Kyushu the next morning, and got soaked from top to bottom within 10 seconds upon arrival back in Kagoshima... This didn't stop us from continuing onwards, of course. Successfully got my Japan Rail Pass to go north to Aso - where I found more rain! Perfect for a night at the pool! The next morning looked more promising, so we made our way up to Nakadake, where you can see a really cool crater lake... if it's not super foggy, like it was when I was there. We could see barely 10 meters, the walk up to the crater was closed due to volcanic gas, and the gondola was closed due to fog. Uhm, what? Oh yeah, it's really easy to take a wrong turn with a gondola when you can't see, so better close it... Instead we made our way up to Tokyo, which only took a refreshing 11 or so hours on the train ;) Some good sashimi was had in Hiroshima, and beds were waiting at the hostel in Tokyo, so all was well in the end! Spent another couple of days in Tokyo, where we got a great tour by the locals (thanks Ema-san and Riyo-san!).
Now back in Van, went camping over to Pender Island for a couple days. We had to cut the trip short because I wasn't feeling so great at all... guess all the travelling is a bit much?! Pah, I can always do more. Once my cold is gone there are more adventures to come this summer! Visitors from Germany right now, California next weekend, then hopefully some visitors from Seattle for some Wellington memories and a reunion of the amazing Pad Popants ;) And of course Susi's birthday is coming up, our grad council camping trip and much more. Oh, did I ever have to get work done? Probably at some point... but that'll be future-me's problem :)
PS Pics as always on Picasa, or now apparently on Google+ (it doesn't seem to give me a choice anymore...), so click here.
