Fly Like a Baby

On September 8th we'll be taking off from Kankuu and going to the U.S. for a one month stay with my family. I'm so excited!

Also please check out my latest post on Bibilomania

Book List Year 4

Welcome Tutu and Dulie!

By this time tomorrow Tutu and Dulie should be on the Shinkansen from Tokyo headed to Osaka! I'm so excited!!!

Autumn in Kyoto (almost)

This past weekend Sho-chan and I went on a day-trip to Kyoto. We were hoping to take in the autumn leaves, which are especially beautiful in the mountains around Kyoto, but unfortunately we were early and most of the trees were still green. We had a great time sight-seeing and eating yummy food though, so no loss. Here are the pictures:


This is Sho-chan at Sanjuusangendou, the famous "Hall of 33 Bays". I always go to Sanjuusangendou when I visit Kyoto, but Sho-chan had never been before. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys temples even a little. There are more than a thousand spectacular gold-painted statues of Kannon (the Chinese goddess of mercy Kwan-Yin) and they say that anyone can find a statue that resembles someone they know.


This is a small pond at Sanjuusangendou. It's a little hard to make out, but there's a large carp swimming in the water near Sho-chan's hand.


From Sanjuusangendou we went to Kiyomizu temple, another famous sightseeing spot. On the way there we spotted this couple. Recently it's become popular for visitors to dress up as a maiko (apprentice geisha) and walk around Kyoto. There are many shops that rent clothes and do geisha/maiko make-up , but you can always tell the real from the fake by the way the walk. The fake maiko have a heck of a time in the giant clogs that go with the kimono. Also real maiko aren't usually strolling around tourist spots in the middle of the afternoon dressed in their full regalia.


This is a display of ema (votive plaques) at Kiyomizu temple. You can buy one and write your wishes and hopes for the future on it and hang it up here.


Here is one funny ema that we saw.


From Kiyomizu we went to Ginkakuji and on the way there we saw many young men pulling rickshaws (rickshaw comes from the Japanese jinrikisha). I've always wanted to ride in one, but they charge an arm and a leg, so we just took a photo.


This is the sand garden at Ginkakuji. Magnificent, isn't it?


After our long day trekking around we went to a lovely little restaurant in the Gion area of Kyoto. Dad and Julie may remember this place; we had lotus root chips, pumpkin soup and some delicious daikon pickles there. Here I am pouring Sho-chan a little cup of steaming hot sake.


And finally Sho-chan enjoying a well-earned cup of sake at the end of a long day of walking. Until next time, see you!

Back to Japan + New Ink

I arrived safely back home this morning at about 11:15 am. I was totally jet-lagged, but after some sushi and a long nap I'm back in top fighting-trim!

Here are some pictures of Shoichi's new tattoo. I got the same one done on my lower right leg.



This is Shoichi before the tattoo.



This is Shoichi during a break in the tattooing.



This is the artist, Ed, working on Shoichi.



Shoichi said it hurt a lot.


Ta-da!!! The finished product.

I'll be home soon!!!

Hey everybody!



I'm just on my way out the door to the airport right now and I'll be seeing you all in about 24 hours!

I am so so so so so so so so excited!!!!!!!!!!

America here I come!!!!

Only 10 days left!

I'll be back in the States in only 10 days so anyone who has any last minute requests please make them here!
Also, Mom I know you want toothpaste, but what flavor would you like?

Here's the list again so you can pick

Goodbye Alex!

This Monday morning bright and early (I woke up at 4:00am) we drove Alex to Itami airport and saw him off. It was great having him with us for 2 weeks and I hope he enjoyed it as much as we did. Here's a pic of Shoichi at the airport. I almost had to force him to pose for it.

PS- I put up another new post on Let's Signing!

Click Me!

America Here I Come!

I'll be going back to the States to visit my family for 2 weeks in August. Here's the flight info for your edification.
GOING TO AMERICA

Depart Osaka : 10th Aug 13:15 CI0157
Arrive Taipei : 10th Aug 15:05

Depart Taipei : 10th Aug 16:15 CI0012
Arrive Anchorage 10th Aug 9:15 (moving back in time)

Depart Anchorage : 10th Aug 11:15 CI0012
Arrive JFK : 10th Aug 22:15


RETURNING TO JAPAN

Depart JFK : 22nd Aug 23:45 CI0011
Arrive Anchorage : 23rd Aug 3:05

Depart Anchorage : 23rd Aug 4:35 CI0011
Arrive Taipei 24th Aug 6:05 (jumping forward in time)

Depart Taipei : 24th Aug 8:25 CI0156
Arrive Osaka : 24th Aug 11:15

Yup- I have to stop TWICE, once in Taipei and once in Alaska, I'll see if I can't pick up some polar bear tooth key-rings or frozen moose poop or something at the airport for you guys! See you soon!

Tokyo Love Story

Shoichi and I went to Tokyo for Golden Week and we had a great time! Here are some pictures.



We went by Shinkansen and passed Mt. Fuji, but unfortunately it was very cloudy, so you can't really tell. I promise you, that really is Mt. Fuji though, cross my heart and hope to die.



Once we arrived in Tokyo we met up with my friend Shin-chan from Morioka and his wife Chiemi, who had recently moved to the city. We also met my friend Sachiko (who my family may remember from when she came to stay for Christams once) and her new husband Kenji, but alas I neglected to take their photos.



We went out for dinner and then to Karaoke. Shin-chan always sings very passionately.



The next day we went to Harajuku, which is home to Goth and Goth-Loli teens, but there weren't as many as I'd hoped. I did get this one picture, and the girl was very amused by my Doraemon.



After Harajuku we went to Akihabara, also known as Akiba: Nerd-central of Japan. The first thing we saw was this cat, who was kind of a mini-celebrity.



Harajuku is famous for its maid-cafes where girls dressed as maids pour coffee for you. Maids really do come in all shapes and sizes...



There are also lots of general weirdos and cosplayers, such as this young gentelman.



I think he ate the original Pikachu...



On the last day we went to Asakusa which is famous for Soba noodles and Monjayaki. I thought this tadpole building was too cute to pass up.



This is the famous Kaminarimon or Thunder-gate of Sensouji temple in Asakusa. Since it was Golden Week it was packed!



And here's Sho-chan in front of the gate as well.



We had a great time in Tokyo and hopefully we'll get another chance to go again soon.



Goog Afternooner!

♡Honeymoon♡

So, we're off to Bali in a few hours! Thanks to Paul and Tristan for the advice. (We didn't end up taking it, but thanks anyway!!!) (^_^)

We'll be arriving in Bali around midnight tonight, so we'll basically go to the hotel and crash. Then tommorow and the next day we'll spend in Sanur, relaxing on the beach, snorkeling, getting massaged, and maybe even parasailing! We're staying at the Tamukami hotel (website below if anyone wants to check it out). For beach reading I'm taking Jasper Fforde's 'The Well of Lost Plots' and P.G. Wodehouse's 'The Luck of the Bodkins'.

Then, the next 2 days we're going to Ubud to explore Balinese culture and nature. We'll hopefully see some temples and a Balinese dance performance. Also there's a botanical garden that's supposed to have hundreds of different kinds of orchids, which I'm quite keen to see. In Ubud we'll be staying at the Cendana Resort and Spa. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures!!!

Goog Morninger and See you!

Tamukami Hotel

Cendana Resort and Spa

The Well of Lost Plots

The Luck of the Bodkins

Road to Bali

As most of you know, we are planning to go to Bali for our honeymoon at the end of March. Has anyone been there who can recommend a good hotel in either Kuta, Sanur or Ubud? Recommendations of spas, beaches, temples etc. also welcome!

PS: The picture is a Balinese fruit market I found with GIS

♪Going Home!♪

Woo hoo! In less than one month (August 7-17th) I'll be going home again. I'm so psyched! I probably won't be going on the Pikachu-plane, but I've always wanted to...

OOooo Aaaaa! KI KI KI !!!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Things have been rather busy lately, especially with the (whisper) new boyfriend . We spent Golden Week driving around the Kansai and I finally got to go to Minou and see the famous Minou Monkeys up-close-and-personal.

I had heard rumors that the monkeys were pretty wild, but they seemed calm to me. Of course we were safe inside the car, so maybe it would've been different if we were walking around. We also saw the Minou waterfall, which was lovely; but we didn't get to eat any maple-leaf tempura because we went too late at night.

More later

Goog Afternooner

Good bye, Dad and Julie! (T_T)

I saw Dad and Julie off to the airport this morning. The time just flew by like nothing. We had a great time and saw just about every famous place in the Kansai as well as eating tons and tons of yummy food. I'll never forget these two weeks, and I'm excited about coming back to the States in August for the wedding!
I took a ton of pictures while they were here, and when I get some free time (like that'll happen any day soon!) I'll put up some more. For now though you'll have to content yourselves with these pictures of D and J at the departure gate and playing Mah Jong with Non-chan and Mr. Non-chan.

Adventures in the Kansai

We've been super busy the last week travelling all over the Kansai and seeing all the major sites. Here's a short day by day for the folks at home.


Friday the 16th - We went to Nara to see the Daibutsu (giant statue of the Buddha - see above). Dad had his map eaten by a deer and Julie and I gained enlightenment by squeezing through the Buddha's nostril (and got nasty bruises in the process). We had a yummy dinner at Eishu (Hana and Shu's restaturant) and then went for Karaoke with Hana, Shu, and Mr. Suzuki (?). Dad and Julie sang a lovely rendition of 'Mellow Yellow'.

Saturday the 17th - I had to do some demo lessons at the new school so Dad and Julie went shopping in Kobe with Hana, Non-chan and Non-chan's two girls, Satoko (see above - with Dad at the famous Boob Mountain) and Yuki. I joined the group for the first half of the trip and then went home to work, but not before we took some funny purikura (picture stickers) of the seven of us. After Dad and Julie got back to Sanda we had planned to play Mah Jong but everyone was so beat (especially after traipsing an hour out of the way to go to the tofu place and finding out that it was closed) that we decided to call it a night after a nice dinner at Suzuya.

Sunday the 18th - Sumo Day! We got up super early to go to the Sumo and spent the whole day cheering on our favorite wrestlers, eating, drinking and relaxing. After the sumo Nori-san took us out to dinner at a wonderful kaiseki restaurant in Umeda (thanks Nori-san!!!) and we enjoyed good food and good conversation.

Monday the 19th - We went to Arima Hot Springs with Nori-san, Hana and Shu. We took a cable car to the top of Mt. Rokko and took in the absolutley stunning view of the untouched forests and waterfalls, then went for a hearty grilled mutton lunch! In the evening we bathed in the natural hot springs at the hotel and had a very nice dinner. I got a tofu set which was fantastic and also some loquat juice. After Nori went to bed, we taught Hana and Shu how to play set-back and stayed up late playing cards.

Tuesday the 20th - We took the train to Kyoto. Dad got a little car-sick on the bus to the station so we had a brief rest, but then soldiered on to Kyoto. We visited a little festival at Yasaka Shrine in Gion and wandered around searching for a maiko parade that had been advertised only to find out that it was only on Saturdays. We were a tad disappointed but we did get to enjoy the festival atmosphere at the shrine and a yummy dinner at Kirin-ya restaurant, where we had a creamy pumpkin soup. After dinner we chilled out at the hotel and watched weird Japanese TV shows, and found several funny Engrish signs (see above - the Japanese actually says, 'In case of evacuation, keep low to the ground and hold a handkerchief over your mouth.'

Wednesday the 21st - This was our major sightseeing day. We started out in the morning at Fushimi-Inari Shrine, then went to Sanjuusan-gendo and Kiyomizu-dera before finishing up with another visit to Yasaka Shrine and a swing round Maruyama Park to see the modern ikebana (flower arrangement) exhibition. Finally at Kodaiji temple we watched a group of very earnest young men perform thier original version of 'You Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog' in heavily accented English including some extra verses about Snoopy and Huckleberry Hound.

Thursday the 22nd - Before leaving Kyoto for Hiroshima we visited one last shrine, Heian Jingu which was about a 5 minute's walk from our hotel. I'd never been there before, but the gardens were spectacular (see above), and I wish we'd had more time to explore them. At 12:12 I put Dad and Julie on a bullet train bound for Hiroshima, and hopefully right now they're enjoying the city!

More later! Goog Afternooner!

Welcome to Nippon!

My Dad and his fiancée, Julie finally arrived in Japan late Wednesday night after their flight was delayed 4 hours in Detroit. They got in so late that the airport buses were no longer running, but thankfully the airline set them up in a hotel room free of charge. So, I ended up having to pick them up Thursday morning rather than Wednesday night, which means we were all a little tired, from getting up at various ungodly hours, but it was great to see them again!

So, I took them back to Sanda and got them settled into their hotel (Hotel Melxe, which is apparently supposed to be a blend of 'melody' and 'relax' but ends up sounding like some kind of STD). After that we headed out for a day of fish,fish and more fish! We went to the Osaka aquarium, Kaiyuukan, which in my opinion is the one of the coolest places in Osaka. My favorite part is the jellyfish hall, but there are so many awesome things there it's hard to pick. My dad seemed to be particularly enamored of the giant spider crabs and he also got rather 'up close and personal' with a sunfish. (see above)

After the aquarium we all went on a big ferris wheel, which anyone who knows my dad can imagine was NOT his idea of a good time. He managed to stick it out quite bravely though while Julie and I enjoyed the view. We also went into this 'Ninja House' and had fun wandering around in the dark and getting jumped out at by ninjas.

Finally we had dinner with my friend Ayu at this really great Indian restaurant in Umeda, but unfortunately the crazy waiter that usually works there had the night off. Oh well! My dad had us all in stitches with various bad jokes though, so a good time was had by all. Plus the food there is amazing!

Today we're off to Nara!

Ex-citing Expoland

Following the lead of hearty ex-plorers Erica, and Tristan; I too decided to trek out to Expoland and ex-perience it in all it's cheesy theme-park glory. I've always been a sucker for amusement parks, especially ferris wheels and roller-coasters and Expoland did not disappoint. Jun and I went on the Orochi, the Raijin-Fuujin II and the Daidarasaurus, and they were all pretty sweet. We also went on this thing called the Roto-shake where the spin you around and hang you upside-down which was a little stomach-churning but good.

We went to the petting zoo as well, but all the animals were so calm and unperturbed, it seemed likie they were on Valium (as they well might have to be sitting around all day right underneath a roller-coaster full of screaming teens.) The pigs were awfully cute though. This is the point were I curse myself and say "Self! You need stop living in the stone ages and hurry up and buy a digital camera already!", because I don't really have any decent pics of the cute pigs, or the roller-coasters or anything. You'll have to content yourselves with this low-res pic of me and o-musubi-man.

Pineapple Pop Quiz!

So, I have just returned from the lovely tropical islands of Okinawa where I went swimming, snorkeling, sightseeing and ate many delicious foods. I also visited Nago Pineapple Park and Winery and saw how pineapples are grown, and that's today's pop quiz.


Do pineapples grow:

a) hanging from a tree like an apple?
b) on a vine on the ground like a pumpkin?
c) in the ground with only the leaves sticking out like a carrot?
d) on a stem like a flower?

No fair googling it! Just go with your gut feeling.

Goog Morninger!

Laser Tag

The second week was full of activity, starting with... TA DA: Laser Tag! If you've never played laser tag, you should! It's wicked cool. Basically there's this big dark room filled with little walls and fences and things you can hide behind stuck all over with glo-tape, two teams go inside wearing the above vests and guns and try to shoot each other while avoiding being shot themselves. It's very exciting, because it's quite dark and hard to see and there's loud music going so you never know when someone's gonna sneak up on you and shoot you in the back.

My little sister (she's still in highschool) actually works part-time at the laser-tag place so she got us a discount and my whole family went in and played. On my team were me, my mom and my two sisters and on the other team was my dad, his girlfriend, my sister's husband Frank and Frank's sister Angela. Unfortunately I learned that while laser tag is fun, I totally suck at it. My dad's team creamed us 3 times out of 4. Not next time though! I'm ready for a revenge match next time I go back to the States.

Goog morninger!

Life in These Here United States: Week 1

The first week at home I just spent mainly lounging around by the pool, swimming and playing with the kids, with a bit of shopping and eating Pizza thrown in. I went to Borders and got a huge stack of books, and to Old Navy for tons of clothes, and to the Godiva shop for c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e. I also went out for Mexican at this great restaurant near my house where they have a live Mariachi band, and awesome virgin daiquiris. I always wonder why Mexican food hasn't caught on in Japan; in my opinion it's one of the great world cuisines. I also ate a ton of Taco Bell besides the real Mexican food too...

And that pretty much sums up week 1.

More later, Goog Morninger!