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.
I came across this Buddha on one of the paths - very impassive looking, no?
Here is another shot of the gold leaf covered temple:
Along the way we stopped for some green tea and a sweet:
Another shot of the Golden Temple
These next few are taken at the Ryoanji Temple. Here's a close up of a late blooming cherry tree:
And the rock garden this temple is famous for:
This is a shot I'm rather proud of - I put my camera next to the ground to catch the carpet of cherry blossoms in one area of the temple gardens:
Here is a pic of my favorite temple in Kyoto, the Kiyomizu Temple:
This is a small carp filled lake at Ryoanji temple:
And some of the beautiful trees:
Here we are again at Kiyomizu temple:
Here people are drinking from the mountain spring water - our guide said that in the early mornings some monks go there for a wash in the freezing water:
This is the Ninomaru Palace (another map just calls it Nijo Castle). This is the shogun palace that has the nightingale floors:
Here is the view of the gardens from the palace:
These next pictures were taken at Fushimi-Inari Taisha, just outside of Kyoto. The area is known for the hundreds of torii that line the paths through the trees. I haven't seen it yet, but I heard there was a scene filmed here in "Memoirs of a Geisha." Can anyone verify this?:
Here's my brother and my mom back in Tokyo - we decided on T.G.I.Friday's for this meal:
And here are my nephews and niece after braving the crowded market streets near Ueno:
I also discovered a huge park in Shinjuku that reminded me a bit (tho' on a smaller scale) of Central Park:
These last pictures were taken a couple days ago when I met Alex, Scott and Alfred for dinner in an area called Nakano. At the station, we came across all these girls dressed up like they do in Harajuku so Alex and I went nuts taking pictures:
