End of Golden Week Blues

I finally bought a memory card for my little Kodak camera so now I can take a lot more pictures before having to transfer them to my computer. This is a good thing, as my computer and camera cord are sitting in my apartment in Utsunomiya and my camera and I are sitting in my brother's apartment in Tokyo. I'll be heading back to my apartment in a day or two and will be posting a ton of pics from my week off work - Golden Week, as it's called here.

Here's a quick run down of my last couple of weeks:
-April 22: I headed in to Tokyo to see my folks who were visiting from the States
-April 23: Hung out in Tokyo with folks and bro and family (missed out on Maki's excellent sukiyaki by one day)
-April 24: "The day I tried to kill my parents" as my father calls it - I took them to Utsunomiya and proceeded to make them walk everywhere - we visited two shrines, a stone mine, a gyoza restaurant, a student (who gave us green tea), and my office.
-April 25-29: Taught all week and went to a hip new restaurant in Utsunomiya called "Le Metro" where I drank a tasty hot Grand Marnier and had a dessert called "opera."
-April 30-May 2: Took the shinkansen (bullet train) down to Kyoto for p2 1/2 days with my parents. We visited five of the 2000 or so shrines there, some beautiful gardens, and a shogun palace. The palace had wooden floors called "nightingale floors." These floors were designed to alert the head honcho if anyone (ninja or otherwise) were on the premises - when you step on the floors small clamps come into contact with nails and create bird-like sounds. I kept imagining Liz in a ninja costume trying to figure out how best to cross the floor without being heard.
May 2: By the middle of the day we were all templed out and headed back to Tokyo.
May 3-5: Relaxed at my brother's apartment for my parent's last couple of days. During this time I did the following:
-Helped my folks babysit the kids so Eric and Maki could have a night out together.
-Looked (unsuccessfully) for some cool striped socks like Mr. Hulot wears.
-Tried some toed socks (which are popular here with both men and women) that didn't fit and had to be returned cuz I have big American feet.
-Ate hamburgers at T.G.I.Friday's
-Visited Ueno and walked through Ameyeyoko (sp?) - a kickass market with tons of street vendors hawking a variety of foods and clothes.
-Bid my parents goodbye and bon voyage as they headed out for Hawaii.
-Bought a linen shirt for summer and found a super cool Tintin shirt at a Tintin shop in Omote-Sando.
-Ate burgers at Hard Rock Cafe with my brother (and got a well-deserved lecture from my sister-in-law for eating American food two days in a row in Japan).
-Went to an English pub with my brother and had a Bombay Gin and Tonic while watching light-weight Japanese boxing on TV. The winner of the particular match we watched was super cocky - when he won, the lights went down and a mic was given to him and he sang (badly) some karaoke tune about being strong.
May 6: Discovered a Central Park-like park in Tokyo where I spent an afternoon renewing an old interest in watercolours.
-Happened across Scott and Alex - we were planning on meeting at 4 at the station, but met by chance in the gardens.
-Met up with another Aeon teacher - Alfred - and went to a yakitori place for dinner.
-On the way, we ran into this huge group of costumed kids - like those you see on Sundays in Harajuku - and took several pictures.

Right now it's 3:30 am on May 7 and I am unable to sleep. I caught my fifth cold since arriving in Japan and in addition to this, my hay fever has kicked in (with a vengeance) for the season.

During this time three friends, a brother, and an awesome niece have had birthdays, so I'd like to wish Chad, Xtina, Shannon, Pete, and Maya all Happy Birthdays from your Gaigin buddy in Japan.

I have had a great vacation week, but am feeling that feeling I used to get on Sunday nights when I was in school. I've also been informed the rainy season is about to start - I may start spending my weekends at hot springs to relax.