Family Visit, part 2

More pictures from the family visit:




Photos:

• Top left: my dad and my sister in Kamakura
• Top right: only in Japan will you find a "Cup Ramen" game at an amusement park
• Bottom left: a view of Tokyo to the north from the top of Tokyo Tower. In the distance you can see a group of skyscrapers in Shinjuku, which is where the next picture was taken later that night.
• Bottom right: a view of Tokyo to the west (I think) from the 51st floor of the Sumitomo Building in Shinjuku.

Family Visit, part 1

My family's here this week for a quick visit, and I am so excited to see them! Here are a few pics of what we've been up to for the last couple days:

























Photos:

• Top left: Asakusa Kannon-do Temple, right before the lightning storm.
• Top right: painting on the ceiling of the temple
• Middle left: Torii outside Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park. You can see my parents at the base of one of the posts.
• Middle right: even though we'd had lightning and thunder earlier in the morning, the sun came out for a while in the afternoon while we were at Meiji Shrine.
• Bottom left: We went to Tokyo DisneySea today and arrived just in time to see the parade for the Spring Carnival. Nice stilts...
• Bottom right: no smoking sign outside one of the "Little Mermaid"-themed roller coasters.

A second night at cooking school

This week Kim and I went back to cooking school for one more project before the classes get too expensive to afford... This time we made Cafe au lait Bread.

Photos:

• Top left: I made a sculpture with the butter...
• Top right: we got to knead the dough by hand.
• Bottom left: they smelled soooo good when I opened the door to the oven
• Bottom right: finished!

Cooking class in Roppongi

A couple weeks ago, Kim--by chance--found an ad online for a cooking school that just opened up in Tokyo Midtown and teaches classes in both English and Japanese. Since it's a new school in the area, they're giving trial lessons all this month. Just sign up with a partner and pay 500 yen (about $4.50 USD) and you're in! She signed us up last week and tonight we went to the ABC Cooking school in Roppongi and made a Matcha Chiffon Cake (matcha means 'green tea' in Japanese). Here are a few pics of our night:

















Photos:

• Top left: I made the meringue all by myself!
• Top right: that's Kim adding the matcha to the meringue and the egg yolks. Our teacher, Junko, is next to her.
• Bottom left: we did the dishes while our cakes were cooking
• Bottom right: the finished product!!

In a really big effort to get us to enroll in their cooking school, they've offered us another trial lesson--this one will be FREE--next week. We're going to make bread...

Look what I found in Shibuya

Another trip to Kamakura

This past Tuesday, Laura, Kim and I all had a day off together so we decided to go back to Kamakura to see some of the last of the cherry blossoms for the season. It rained all morning and we were worried we might have to cancel our plans but went ahead with it anyway. I am so glad we did. In spite of the freezing cold weather and on-and-off rain we saw some beautiful buildings and got great pics of the blossoms. Luckily, we had blue sky just long enough for a visit back to the Daibutsu as well. Enjoy the photos!





















Photos:

• Top left: Kamakura Daibutsu
• Top right: one of the golden buddha statues at Hasedera Temple. I wasn't supposed to take pictures here, but I couldn't resist. (You can see the "no photos" sign at the base of the statue...)
• Bottom left: a view through the trees of the top of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine--Kamakura's most important.
• Bottom right: a view of the seaside from the observation platform at Hasedera Temple.

Cherry Blossoms, Part 3

Photos:

• Top left: until one of my students recommended going to Tama Plaza to see sakura, I had no idea that there were so many beautiful trees a mere 20 min. walk from my apartment. The trees lined both sides of the street and must have stretched for over a mile. Incredible...
• Top right: I took this photo standing in the exact same spot as the photo from last week (refer to my post from March 20). No more bare branches along the Meguro River!
• Bottom: another view of cherry blossoms along the river. This photo is one of my favorites; I only wish everyone at home could be here to see how much more beautiful it is when you're actually standing there.