okay one more...

a favorite picture

The Olive Garden

Shodoshima is a small island in the inland sea -- between Honshu and Shikoku islands
(btw, these are long sheets of somen noodles)

I don't really have much to say about the whole trip -- it was really nice. The island was the first place in Japan where olive trees were sucessfully grown, and is thusly known for their olives (and all things remotely olive-related.)


This is the Strait of Dofuchu -- the worlds smallest navigable strait (Hey, it's even in the Guiness Book of World Records...)


and here's me at the peace statue.

peaceful indeed.

Let's Try

Just thought I'd share my debut article in a Japanese newspaper -- it's a Kagawa weekly paper called 'Let's Try.' I actually wrote the little blurb for the GEM School newsletter originally, but as luck would have it, it ended up, with a most officious picture of me, in the paper! Yataa!

routine quotidienne

Just to give you a little taste of what it's like living in Kanonji -- this is the main street in the downtown area. We live near an elementary school brimming with uniformed geniuses in progress.

Anyone read Kanji? Me neither.
Please don't get your hand caught in the elevator. It will turn yellow and your first two fingers will need extensive bandaging -- likely due to the fact that you will have mysterious blue script on your palm.
the bike parking for the train station is actually on our street (although the train station itself is not on our street....) So many spokes.

What's green, fuzzy, square and is fun to squeeze?

Allow me to introduce my cutest new Japanese aquisition: her name is square. I found her today at at a shop in takamatsu and had to have this super-soft, super-cute, super-square pal!
so cute
still having way too much fun with a cube of fluff

Happy Mother's Day

My mom is the coolest. (Hi Mom!) Here she is wrapping Christmas presents -- we tease her about having flowers, grapes and ribbons (bum detail) on everything from gifts to the walls to her super-hip accessories, but the truth is that she just wants to make everything beautiful.
And she does.

a week in the mountains with Japanese people

Golden week is a Japanese phenomenon -- four national holidays in the space of a week means that almost everyone in the nation goes on vacation for the first week of May. Well, when in Japan...
So I hooked up with some friends of a friend and made my way out to Nagano prefecture (it took 7 hours and a convoluted mess of trains to get there, but I made it) and spent the last week trying not to eat this:

but completely enjoying this view:




This is a shrine located in a redwood forest planted, I'm guessing, by monks, as the trees are around the 200- 300-year-old mark


The last day of the week my friends took me out to Issa's house -- he's a Japanese writer, famous for his haiku. (anyone seen the 'Trogdor the Burninator' thing on homestar runner? all week I wanted to scream "thatched-roof cottages! thatched-roof cottages!") Here's a picture of the man himself:

And here's one of Yatsuko-san and me in front of the Kurohime station. She and Yoshi are a great pair.