Happy Holidays!

Tomorrow is my last day of work until January 10th! Even better than that is the fact that my sister will be here in about 48 hours! Then I will do my best to be her personal tour guide and show her around Tokyo, Kyoto and Sendai/Shiogama. After that I am off to Hong Kong! I doubt I will have much time to update this blog for some time, but I leave you with some snow photos and from a tea ceremony at my girls school.

Hope everyone has a happy, safe, and healthy new year! Miss you all!

As always, check out the gallery for more...

PS. Next year look forward to photos from dodgeball, Hong Kong, Professional Japanese Basketball and lots of other fun stuff!

t.y.p.o.r.g.a.n.i.s.m

if you got some time to kill, and don't wanna read my blog anymore, and have flash, i highly suggest you check out this website called t.y.p.o.r.g.a.n.i.s.m. there are a lot of fun little applications to play with, like, creating music (vc) and turing a 60x50 pixel photo into letters or squares (ac) like my new profile photo (click here to get the full effect).

the music one is really cool bc after you create your tune you can upload it to the site and anyone in the world who happens to be at the site at the time can listen to it (obviously you can listen to others music as well).

anyway, just thought i would share the love.

beer vending machines

apparently these things use to be as common as rice here but now they are few and far between. In Japan the drinking age is 20 but it is pretty much the honor system; however, with the decrease of beer vending machines it leads me to believe that there were some troubles with the honor system. That being said, I have NEVER been carded here while buying a drink anywhere or even when entering a club or bar... Coming from the states where most of the time you get your ID checked just to get in, whether you will drink or not, it is different to say the least.

Japanese make the best signs...part III

Who wants a "Flesh Salad"!?!?!?

btw, it should be noted that there is no "l" and "r" sound in Japanese and actually they have a sound that is pretty much in between the two... SO a lot of times when spelling "l" and "r" are used incorrectly. for example, "really" could easily be spelled, "learry." so that being said, at first i thought this sign was suppose to be "Fresh Salad," but after examining the picture, i am not so sure it is a spelling mistake.... what do you think?

Its official...

By waking up early last saturday, to stand in a line, in below freezing weather, waiting for the grand opening of the new Apple Store in Sendai, I have officially become a Mac geek. PCs put up a good fight and they will always have a place in my heart; however, Macs are now the apple of my eye (sorry, I just couldn't resist...)

anyway, check out the pics...

Buddha Santa

Since there is no Thanksgiving here in Japan, the Christmas decorations start soon after Halloween (not that Halloween is big over here at all...) Of course, like the states, everyplace is different when they start decorating. Anyway, in main shopping are of Sendai I found this Santa and just had to share it with you...

Shabu Shabu!

Shabu Shabu is one of my favorite Japanese foods! It is called "shabu shabu," bc that is the sound it makes when you cook and swoosh the meat around in the pot! It is a little exspensive and a little hard to find but it is really ouishi (delicious)! Think of it as the Japanese Version of "Melting Pot." You get raw meet and vegetables and cook them in boiling water, salt, sake and you use two dipping sauces, ponzu (which I prefer) and sesame. If you come visit me in Japan, I will be sure to take you to a place where you can try it!

Cool restaurant (in Kyoto...)

I forgot to mention this really nice Udon (type of Japanese noodle seen in the photo above) place I went to in Kyoto (actually it was in Arashiyama). Anyway, it was almost all outdoors so I imagine the atmosphere was much nicer during the fall eating a piping hot bowl of soup with the autumn leaves in full bloom, then it would be in the summer when it is hot and humid. the only down side was that there weren't any tables which is a little uncomfortable for non-Japanese like myself. You just sit benches and eat your food holding your dish in your hand or leaning over it....again holding the hot soup is a lot nicer in the fall than in summer time! there really isn't much else to say, but check out the pics.

Things are just cooler in Japan...Internet Cafes

remember me telling you how things are just cooler in japan? no? well you don't read my blog enough. anyway, here is another example: Fujiyama Land Cafe

In general internet cafes here are really cool, usually being fairly large places where you can use the internet (duh!), read magazines, books, comics, watch tv, dvds, play video games, eat, (free) drink bar, and some places you can even use some really fancy massage chairs, sleep or even take a shower. as you can see, Japanese internet cafes are a little different from anything we have in the states.

so in Kyoto i found a REALLY cool one and just couldn't resist snapping a few shots. it had a real trendy pop art/Japanese anime decor and after you go up the stairs and enter the area where you can choose what plan you want (if short time you can get just by the hour or if long time you can get a multi-hour plan) you enter through these huge padded doors that looked like you would be entering a (insert amazing place here). after going inside the main area the lights are dimmed (but not too dark bc that would be bad for your eyes) and there is some really nice relaxing Japanese music (imagine something like Enya) playing. anyway, check out the photos.

yeah that is a sand garden under the glass




Magazines, dvds, books and drink bar...and yeah, that is 24 at the bottom. Jack Bauer is the man worldwide.






well to be honest, my photos and description don't quite do this place justice, so if you ever get a chance, you should check out Fujiyama Land for yourself!

Hospital Fun

Right now my boys school is taking exams which means they come to school for the 1st half of the day, take some exams and then go back home. since i do not have any classes and have already graded the tests that i made this pretty much leaves me with nothing to do. I mean sure I could plan more lessons but who wants to do that for 7 hours.... so i decided i would do something productive and try to get a flu shot.

after getting some help trying to find a place that had some left, I finally found one about a 10 minute walk from my high school. I went by myself so I a little worried about how things would go down; however, not only did it go smoothly with no problems I got to play some games!

First I had to sign in and fill out some forms that were all in Japanese. my Japanese is getting better but I still h ave a ways to go and I know almost NO scientific or health related vocab (besides stuff like headache, fever, having a cold etc.) So here I got to play charades with the nurses as they were asking about my family and my medical history. then they sent me to another room where i waited for a bit, got my temperature taken and then sent to another room. here a doctor checked my throat, lungs and then played a little pictionary as I was trying to describe to him where I was from in the US. After he got the right answer, he sent me to another room where i waited...Finally, i got my flu shot and then played charades again with the nurse as she was telling me what i could do (take a bath) and could not do (drink alcohol), and to come back if (i get a fever, or get a rash, or get violently ill and feel like i am about to die--i think that was the last one she was acting out).

anyway, it was a success on all levels: got my shot, some time away from sitting at my desk doing nothing, and played games.

Kyoto: Day 4

Dedicated to Arashiyama an area just west of Kyoto (I am not sure if it is really part of Kyoto or not)about an hour by bus with some traffic 45 without (from Kyoto station). It was really interesting to see how some of these places transformed from the summertime. I really enjoyed this bridge and also a place I went to for the first time called Daikakuji which was adjacent to Osawa Lake (a place where I wanna go back during cherry blossom season). Here are some photos comparing these places in the summer and fall.






so as you can see, things are pretty different... anyway, check out the good stuff here

It is snowing. I miss Miami.

That it is all I have to say about that. :-(

Kyoto: Day 3

I knew it was going to be a good day when I woke up to Carolina Blue skies and I was really excited about going back to Kinkakujin and Ryoanji. I had been to these places summer but was expecting big things this time since it was
autumn and I wasn't disappointed. The fall leaves were out in full force and extremely beautiful. I will just let the photos speak for themselves.


Ryoanji




Next I went to Ninanji which just like everything else I had seen was really nice and nothing less than amazing.





Zenrenji



That night I went to a "light up" show of Zenrenji. Actually I got there at 400 and the places closes at 5 and reopens again at 530, but i decided to dish out the 1000 yen for one hour of daylight i had left. I wish I had got there earlier bc as far as autumn goes this place had the best I had seen anywhere else in Kyoto. If it weren't for the 1000 yen entry fee (and the fact it is the total opposite direction of where i was going the next day) I would have gone again but I figured just going to the "light up" show for 500 yen would be good enough. i had learned from the last one i went to that these things tend to get a little crowded so with that in mind i kind of scouted out where i was going to go first and pretty much went about the route backwards and started out and stayed most of the time at the lake. anyway, this light up show was much better than the famed kiyomizudera in my humble opinion...







as always, check out the gallery for more photos.