Polaroids for UNICEF: Chinatown X Halloween 2009

Polaroids for UNICEF Part 2: Halloween 2009, originally uploaded by flogently.

Thanks to everyone who came and had a good time, it was a great party!


Natasha, you rock!

DJs Mike Munoz (all the way from Tokyo), Paul Walsh, Windcheater, and Richard got everyone psyched into the party spirit -- thank you!

And honestly, the bar staff must have been real zombies the next day ... otsukaresama!

Dressing up and seeing everyone dressed up is always great fun ... and special kudos to all of you who got creative and actually made your own costumes!!!

There were four of us officially recording the event: Tobias made an awesome video that you can see here, Joy's photos for GetHiroshima are here on flickr, Rebecca took photos, and I did the Polaroid UNICEF fundraiser for a second year; last year's photos (digital duplicates) are here.

GH bought the polaroid film this year so all the donations went straight to UNICEF. 11,000 yen was raised from the polaroid donations at Chinatown- 18,660 yen raised from the Halloween family picnic raffle and polaroids bringing it to a total UNICEF donation of 29,660 yen in 2009).

Although fewer people participated in the Polaroid fundraiser this year, we improved on 2008's donations because of the raffle at the kids' picnic: 29,600 yen total this year from a total Halloween donation of 16,111 yen (after film expenses) last year.

See the Polaroids (digital duplicates, sorry, the originals went to the people who donated) from the Kids' Halloween Picnic here and from Chinatown X here.

If you have a moment, please check out Michelle Crothers' very cool cut paper Halloween art here.

Method is the Man

Method is the Man, originally uploaded by flogently.

Introducing: Method

Really, Method is his name and he was our rescue man on Kilimanjaro. He was with us every step of the way.

On his head and in that duffel are a stretcher, portable hyperbaric bag, and oxygen.

Big love and thanks to Method, Francis, Bosco, Nemis, and all of the Tusker crew.

This was taken on the climb out of Karanga camp (4000 m) to Barafu camp (4600 m) on Day 6.

Polaroids for UNICEF: Chinatown Halloween 2008

Polaroids for UNICEF: Chinatown Halloween 2008, originally uploaded by flogently.

In collaboration with GetHiroshima.com, I spent the evening taking Polaroids for charity. It was great fun and I got to meet a lot of new people.

For 500 yen, this person got to keep their original Polaroid picture; 300 yen of that goes to
UNICEF and 200 yen went towards film costs (each piece of film costs a little over 200 yen).

This photo was taken directly after the Polaroid so that I'd have a digital document of the transaction.

To see all the other people who participated, please click on the photo above to go to my flickr stream.

For transparency and accountability, gethiroshima will be posting a scanned receipt of everyone's donation soon.

The National Art Center, Tokyo

Tokyo art weekend with Mom, originally uploaded by flogently.

We saw a fantastic Picasso retrospective here. It was so good that we felt we'd already had a great Picasso day and decided against paying the 2800 yen to get into the Suntory Museum (also had a Picasso show). Did anyone do both? I do wonder what we missed at the Suntory.

Hiroshima Toyo Carp vs. Chunichi Dragons

Hiroshima Toyo Carp vs. Chunichi Dragons, originally uploaded by flogently.

It was a sold-out game that almost got rained out but then turned out to be a perfectly beautiful and really fun Sunday afternoon.

This was one of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp's last games at the historic Hiroshima Municipal Stadium. The city has decided to abandon this stadium in favor of a new one.

After the atomic bomb devastated Hiroshima, the people of Hiroshima took it upon themselves to raise the money to build this stadium. The city of Hiroshima only paid $15.

I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I love this stadium and the fact that it's really a citizen's stadium, symbolizing one of the many remarkable ways that Hiroshima came back to life after the war.

It's located smack in the center of downtown with a beautiful view of the Chugoku mountains. On game days, it always makes me happy to see all the devoted fans and families wearing red and walking around. I have a soft spot for underdogs.

the view from the top

the view from the top, originally uploaded by flogently.

5,895 meters (19,340 ft), Uhuru Peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania

I reached the summit at 2:30 pm on August 15, 2008 with my mother and 4 friends.
Two other members of our group summited the next morning.

Mom, I love you and thank you for everything.
You never cease to amaze and inspire me.

Thanks to everyone in our group for making such a diverse, positive, and interesting team.

We couldn't have done it without the expertise and sound leadership of our Tusker Trail guides and the strength of our hard-working porters.

Watermelon truck in San Antonio

Watermelon truck in San Antonio, originally uploaded by flogently.

You don't get watermelons like these in Hiroshima.

I'm trying to walk to/from work (30 minutes, fast) three times a week. The higher humidity recently is making this a sticky proposition.