"超田舎" or, "My week in the country"

Here are some shots of my recent trip to Yamagata.  Enjoy the Japanese countryside on your very own photo tour.

Day 1: The train I took to get there went, for part of the way, along the western coast and included some beautiful views of the Sea of Japan.

You know you're not in Tokyo anymore when...

Day 2: Went on a hike up Haguro-san (Mt. Haguro).  Successfully climbed the 2,446 steps to the top.  (Continued to feel the "success" for the two days that followed.)  Had lovely views of tall cedar trees, and the trail was dotted with lots of shrines for the local folk religion, Shugendo.

Even monks living in shrines at the tops of mountains in rural Japan need their cola fix.  I guess.

Day 3: Sakata City.  A smaller and much emptier town than the travel guides led me to believe, but maybe worth it for the blue skies.

I took a picture so it would last longer.

Here you have it: visual proof that Yamagata is the treasure at the end of the rainbow.

Days 4 and 5: Shinjo City and vicinity.  Went on a boat ride down the Mogami River.  See our tour guide?  He serenaded us with traditional songs about the river as we sat on a tatami-mat floor.

Yamagata's rice looks just as pleasing as it tastes.

One final photo, taken about an hour before heading to the train station to catch the bullet train back to Tokyo.  This made it a whole lot harder to leave.

Blue Skies Over Kamata

This is what a saw when I went up to the roof to hang my laundry today...



Not sure if I've ever had a view this clear before, and *definitely* not a normal occurrence in our usual smog-filled summers...so I couldn't resist sharing. ;)

The fastest way I know how to get caught up...

My life over the past 7 months or so...

July: Baseball game @ Meiji-Jingu Stadium. I rooted for the team that won (aka ヤクルト).

August: @ Fujisawa. This is a hotel that rented rooms, ahem, by the hour. That is, until they went out of business. As it turns out, the Christmas theme just didn't do it for that many people. Go figure.

September: Chopstick rests in Kappa-bashi (the "kitchen district"), where I went with my parents while they were here for a visit.

October: Taken at the new International Terminal @ Haneda Airport the day after it's grand opening. Went with a couple of guys who live upstairs in my building. Followed it up with Chinese food. I guess that was the extent of our "international" activity that weekend.

November: Three days after arriving back in Tokyo from my trip to Cambodia (those pics will come later), I promptly went about putting together a Thanksgiving dinner party for my housemates. The chicken and bread were baked by Costco. The cranberry sauce and the yams both came from a can. But I promise you, I did...I DID cut the vegetables for the salad all by myself. And followed up everything with homemade applesauce and non-homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert.

December: New Years' Eve...as far as the "December" category goes, this photo barely eeked by. And yes, I also realize that I'm posting an awful lot of food-related info. But anyways, while in Portland I had a Chinese friend (that I'd met while living in Tokyo and who now lives in Vancouver, BC) come spend a few days at my family's house. We went to a mall. We ate "Chinese" food. We laughed at the "How to use" instructions on the chopsticks wrapper.

January: Wait a second, it's January now! I've got a few things up my sleeve, but maybe I'll wait until later to post them up... ;)

The only way I can prove that I didn't make this up...

I live somewhere else now (Part 1)

I've actually been in the new place a little over a month now. It's GREAT! I really love it a lot and I've made a couple of fun new friends.

Here are some shots from my moving days on June 30/July 1.

The old place: See? Almost as if I was never there. (I'm getting really good at cleaning...)



First afternoon in the new place. Trust me, it's much cleaner than that now. I would show you a picture to prove it, but I just realized that I've got laundry hanging up. You don't need to see my unmentionables.



Next time I'll give you the "tour" of my new place!

Today's present (Get it?)

This is a delivery van that parked outside my school this afternoon...

Now that the water's, um, brown...

OK, so I know that this really doesn't have anything to do with my normal updates about life "on the island," but I just couldn't resist sharing Shell's new ad that keeps getting printed in the magazines I use for my classes. There's irony here. Enjoy it.