Blogs from Sunnyvale, California, United States, North America

Nancy's Entry: Finally -- we woke up to sun today! We started the day by taking a drive along the coast now that we finally had nice weather to enjoy the views. I have had a phobia of riding in the car for as long as I can remember, and some things make it worse -- two lane roads and heights/cliffs are a couple of them, and add to that a tendency toward car sickness, and it was a recipe for a panic attack. After getting out of the car and relaxing for a bit, I was able to get back in and actually enjoy our drive along Highway 1. We drove to Bodega Bay, the location where Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was filmed, and had a little coffee/breakfast with incredible ocean views. Then we went ... read more

Had a very exciting New Years Eve, spent walking along the Las Vegas Strip, shoulder to shoulder, very crowded and cold......Countdown..... Fireworks........ Fantastic..!!! We met an Aussie couple in LA - Trisha and Peter - and met up with them again in Las Vegas and went to "Return of The Rat Pack" - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Joey Bishop, a really great show. (For our Dubbo friends, small world story, Trisha lives next to and teaches with Amanda Pilon in NT) Headed out of Vegas on the 2nd Jan, along with thousands of others, traffic was slow and some roads were closed due to the snow. It hadn't snowed in northern LA for 20 years. Stopped at Glendale for the night before heading up the west coast through Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, ... read more

Some people have been asking what my car looks like and such so I decided to upload some pictures because I have free time now. I hope that mom and dad, you are taking care of it while I am away and not letting it get too dirty :)... read more

Well, I finally received some information from KGU about my host family. It appears that I will be staying in Takarazuka (which is 20km north of Osaka) and will be living with (文男 Fumio, 70) and (千鶴子 Chizuko, 67) 松本 Matsumoto. Takarazuka is known for it's theater and onsen. An added plus is that to get to Osaka's Umeda Station, it takes less than 30 minutes and costs about three dollars. As for the distance to KGU, I don't know if it will be a long commute or not. My host family did not list an e-mail address, so I won't be able to contact them (cheaply that is) until I get there. I'm not sure if this couple still works or not, but it should be a very interesting experience. For now, the only information ... read more

My name is Bryan Zen Hiraki and I grew up in Sunnyvale, California. I am currently 20 years old and am double majoring in Global Economic Relations and Japanese at the University of the Pacific. So far, I have visited Japan twice and have loved every second I was there. That is why I plan to study abroad in Osaka for a year. It is official now that I will be studying at a school called 関西学院大学 (Kwansei Gakuin Daigaku) or just KGU for short, and I will start in the beginning of April 2006. The school is located in a town called Nishinomiya and I plan to do a homestay during my 9 months there. Hopefully all will go well and I remember to keep this diary up to date so that everyone at home ... read more