Well, here is the first entry from our trip to Korea! We started out early, because it takes about 2 hours to get to Narita from where we are (ugh) and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time since it was Golden Week, and therefore everyone was traveling. Turns out, we got there a bit earlier than we needed to, but it gave us some time to comment on how awful Narita actually is (we had to go to the information desk to find where our check-in counter was) and exchange some of our yen to Korean won! Going over, the plane ride from Tokyo is shorter than our 2 hour trip to the airport from my apartment, which I found both awful and hilarious. It was still light when we got there, ... read more

I woke up early today on my "Sunday" so that I could go hiking - something I had been wanting to do for awhile. Sometimes, you just need to get out of the city! I WANT to climb Mt. Fuji this August, but I'm really not sure that a) my gimp knee can handle it, and b) I'm in good enough shape. So today was sort of a beginning test to see what my body could handle. I went to Mt. Takao back in November, to see the autumn colors, but hadn't hiked it since. This time, I went alone (!!!) which was awesome, because I like doing things alone and knowing that I can have independent adventures. Mt. Takao itself is a super popular day hike because of it's close proximity to Tokyo, but according ... read more

We got word last week from several students that the cherry blossoms had opened early. Normally, "optimum" viewing time is the first week in April, generally April 1-10, but this year, the blossoms opened over a week ahead of schedule, which really threw off everybody's "hanami" parties. This also includes my days off, that I specifically took to be during sakura time, but haha, I suppose that's what I get for trying to plan anything around nature. Anyway, the blossoms are out, so today on my day off I headed out to see if I could hunt down some good shots. It's a little early still - full-bloom is probably a week away, still, and the trees that are blooming now are generally no more than 50% in-bloom. But what an amazing view it is, even ... read more

While it hasn't been a busy time for much sight-seeing due to the temperatures, it HAS been a time when a lot of stuff that needed to get done got done - and most of this is stuff that I have done in Japanese myself. While Jocelyn was here, we hit the Ueno Zoo and got to see the cute animals there! We saw a Giant Panda for about .5 seconds amidst a wave of Japanese parents shoving through people with strollers. It was like being back in America again, it was amazing and nostalgic. The penguin exhibit was closed due to renovations, so I made a ton of sad faces and resigned myself to going back another day to see my favorite animals out playing. But there was some pretty cool stuff and it was ... read more

It's been a long time since I wrote a blog! Coming back to Japan was a pain since my flight got so screwed up. We were delayed due to mechanical reasons out of Chicago, and it ended up being such a long delay that by the time we got into Narita, it was after all public transportation out of the airport had stopped - and a cab to just Shibuya, which would only be halfway to my apartment, would have been over $250! Fortunately, they got a bus to take us to Shinjuku and I had a friend to stay with overnight, but it was really just not a great situation and I can't say I'm in any hurry to fly United again. But I was anxious to get back to my life here, so I ... read more