Nearing the End

I've been meaning to post something lately, but haven't really known what to write about. In some ways the last couple of weeks have been harder than I'd expected. This is primarily due to the fact that I have had so many nice messages from students since they've heard I'm leaving Japan. In spite of some of the problems on the administrative levels of this company, I've really come to care for and respect many of my students - so many of them have become good friends, and it's hard to leave good friends. I don't really know what more to say about this except that I hope many of the people I've encountered here in Japan will come visit me back in Minnesota.

I'm also very excited about returning to the States next month and seeing friends and family whom I've been away from for too long. I am a little nervous about the return - I've had no real nibbles from the applications I've submitted for work, and am not quite sure what it will be like to be back in the US after living in a place as different from it as Japan. Anyway, these last too paragraphs have taken far too long to write for as wordy and uninteresting as they are, so I will move on to pictures taken recently.

After tennis a couple weeks ago, Stacy, Anthony, and I were invited to the Suda's for dinner. We had a lot of fun playing with their new toy: Wii. Here's Stacy and Anthony boxing:
And Stacy, Motoki, and Tomoko in the kitchen whipping up some paella:
Here's the gang after the meal:
Later that week, Michel's family stopped in Utsunomiya with Michel and Yoshiko for a visit. Here we all are at AEON:
I went to Tokyo and Yokohama this weekend. Here's a shot of Tokyo Station:
Chinatown in Yokohama:
A temple in Chinatown:
I walked around Yokohama bay and saw this nice looking ship:
I really enjoyed my afternoon/evening in Yokohama - the architecture was really interesting, and in spite of the drizzly weather, it was fun to walk around and take some shots of the buildings and amusement park:



I tried taking some night time sakura pictures, but the cherry blossoms, while beautiful, didn't really look the way I wanted them to with a flash on them and I didn't have my tripod to take a good evening exposure. Ah, well...

Daytrip to Tokyo

On Monday morning, Michel and I hopped on a train to Ueno for a day in Tokyo. We first stopped at Ameyoko - the market street at Ueno station - so I could get some lentils, cardamom, black mustard seed, basmati rice (cheaper than Japanese rice, and of course much better when cooking Indian dals), and some tea.

Here's the market - it's generally much more crowded than this. I like the crowds, but it's much easier to shop on a day like this:

We met Alex in Shibuya and after stopping at the Mac store so I could get some stuff, we hopped on a train and went to this awesome burger shop over in Kichijoji - now my new favorite area of Tokyo. The name of the restaurant was Village Vanguard, and here's the burger I ate (the one thing they don't get right here in Japan, in my opinion, is the bacon - I love it crispy and dark. Here's it's more like just some fatty slices of smoked ham):

We left to head to the park and on our way saw this sign. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have seen this kind of racism in Japan. It seems to be perfectly acceptable in Japan to portray black people in this way (as the continued popularity of "Little Black Sambo" (complete with similar illustrations) in book stores here shows):

We got to the park. And...

...saw a duck,

...got some desserts in an Asian cafe,


...and chatted and brought Alex up to date on all the happenings at Utsunomiya school (Alex, on the left, is the emergency teacher who I replaced).

Next, we walked around the park for a bit. We all tried the macro setting on our cameras. This was the result I got:

Here's a small shrine in the park. At least I think it was a shrine....Michel?

Here's a blues singer we met in the park and listened to for a while. He was pretty awesome and had some cool, Elvis-esque moves:


All in all, it was a great day. Loads of fun, but exhausting.

Golden Week Pics

Well, I'm back at my apartment in Utsunomiya now and have had a chance to transfer some pics to my computer. I'm not sure why, but they never end up being in the order I upload them in, so I'll give you some minor commentary on each as they bop back and forth between days and places a little bit. For a fuller rundown of my Golden Week, see the previous post. I hope you enjoy the pics:

Here I am with my folks at the Kinkakuji (or Golden) Temple. This was a great spot with a lot of beautiful paths: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:





Well, that was my Golden Week. What's been happening in your neck of the woods?