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| Since our return from Japan it has been one day after another of HOT in Kansas. I am looking forward to the end of this heat wave.
This little American Goldfinch has spent most of the morning eating off of the Sunflower in the garden.
One last pic from Japan as well. On the last day I went to Tokyo to attend tea class taught by my sensei.
The sweets we had do tend to bring to mind cooler weather.
They tasted as sweet as they looked.
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| We are back in Kansas, mired in the heat and stickiness that is the summer in the Midwest. THe time we spent in Japan was great.
I managed to get a few more of the great shots my sister-in-law took in Okinawa.
Zamami island coral
A fantastic looking nudibranch. I love the differing patterns on these slugs of the sea.
While on Zamami we also spent an afternoon taking a short and easy sea kayaking tour.
Shigeko and I are pretending to be very sporty here.
The town barely visible on the island in the background is where we started from. It was a nice paddle.
After 3 days on lovely Zamami Island we headed back to the main island of Okinawa.
The resort pool had a lovely view of the ocean and sunset.
This pic is for Pin and Mark, I know it is not ramen, but the Okinawa style soba was most excellent. As was the Orion.
I am an aspiring historian so I drug (dragged?) the in-laws to visit the Imperial Japanese Naval underground headquarters from WWII. there are about 350 meters of tunnel open to the public. This was the final HQ of the navy and some 4000 soldiers perished in these and surrounding tunnels. We also visited the Himeyuri memorial to the hundreds of high school age girls that were forced to act as nurses and errand runners in the final stages of the battle of Okinawa. Most of these girls were killed in the battle.
Closed tunnel that led to the kitchens
The commanding officers room.
Okinawa was a nice mix of the rural (Zamami), the plush (the resort on the main island), the historical (see above), the tasty (Orion and Okinawa soba), and the relaxing (diving, the resort pool, etc...)
Then it was back to Shizuoka for a few quick and busy days. I tried to see as many old friends in just 72 hours as possible.
I had dinner in Fujinomiya with my old friend Daigo Sano. He was the first teacher I worked with in Japan 11 years ago now. He is doing well and still as funny as he was when we met. After dinner we went out and met Pin. He also lives up near Fuji now and writes one of the best blogs on xanga. He also rocks the wifebeaters pretty good.
The next day I hopped on the train and made my way back to Shizuoka city. Met my wife and we had lunch with her old boss and went shopping. New glasses made me realize how bad my eyes had become over the last few years. maybe visiting the eye doctor more than once every 7 years would be a good idea :).
That evening we ate much of this...
ummm, tasty Maguro, served up by these lovely people.
at our favorite little sushiya in shimizu, behind our old apartment. Sat for a couple hours and ate, and ate, and then ate some more.
Finally that night we met up with Shin-chan at the kinky bar. He is the dude that Shigeko can blame for having to live in Kansas as he introduced her to me many moons ago.
He is in the back ground next to Taro, an expat from the UK who lives in Yaizu. Mitsu is in the foreground. He is a No-Pulse alum, good footie player, retired bar tender, and all around good bloke.
For another "only in Japan" pic I leave you with the following clothing store sign.
They seem to have a fine understanding of U.S. politics.
And finally, a watermelon
only square........
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| Well, May is nearly over. I am focusing on finishing my thesis this summer. 20 odd pages done, 60 to 80 or so to go. Just came home with 8 more books to read for thesis research today. Someday it will end. I am also starting to put together my syllabus for the World History since 1450 survey next fall. They done made a mistake and gave me my own class :) Imagine, up to 80 young minds to fill with the joy of History :)
In my last post I talked about my lack of photo skillz, well, my wife has good ones. here are some of her pix.
Our roses are looking great this year
This little one visits us often.
Our home sometimes seems to be the center of all slacking worldwide. Here is the local squirrel making like the Big Lebowski on a recent weekday.
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