Some friends and I volunteered to go plant trees on a mountain in Tanzawa. Although I have hiked over this particular mountain many times before, as well as many others in the Tanzawa area, this was the first time I hiked for a purpose other than to get to the top.

We met up with a large group of volunteers, picked up some equipment and trees and went to a bare part of the mountain. The leader of the group showed us how to properly plant the trees and we spent the next few hours planting. It didnt feel like work at all, and we all had a great time

A while back Suzuna and I received a coupon for a free lunch for two at a fancy restaurant in Hayama. Just for the fun of it, we got all dressed up and had a great romantic lunch date by the ocean.

I took a bike ride from my house towards the ocean past Kanazawa-bunko. Interestingly, the day happened to be one of the lowest tides of the year and the Japanese were out en masse to collect clams and other shellfish. I never realized that digging up clams was that popular, and there were people with large baskets full of them. To bad I didnt bring any beach gear or I would have joined them.