Night before

We met Toshi and Kaolyn and went to TGI Friday's tonight. Honda came a little later too and we all spent some time talking and hanging out at the restaurant.



Hard to believe this is our last night! (Actually early morning now) We were thinking of staying up all night and then being exhausted enough to sleep the whole flight, but wondering if we will have the will power to stay up :) Maybe we'll just tough it out (staying up all day) the day we get back.

Fujiya Hotel - Hakone

Chris and I spent today with Kaolyn and Toshi in Hakone. We ate at the 'famous' Fujiya Hotel (very old hotel), walked around the hotel grounds and garden, and walked downtown for a bit. It was a really nice day (even at 32'F outside) and a great way to spend our last weekend day in Japan. Thanks Toshi and Kaolyn! :)

Toshi and Kaolyn

Lemon Sherbet

hotel lobby

greenhouse on the hotel grounds

miniature apples!

Only a week

Only one week left! This last week is probably going to fly by. We only have four more nights in our apartment and then we'll be staying in a hotel for a few nights before we're off on our plane back to the states. Exciting, exciting!

Mari, Yukiko, Kanata, Kumiko, (my Japan-office co-workers) and me

Shabu Shabu

Honda, Chris and I went for Shabu Shabu on Sunday night. The meat was soooo tender! We're not going to find meat like that in the U.S...at least not easily.

Sumo in Tokyo

Ginza - Kabuki

Chris and I went to see Kabuki this afternoon with his Japanese teacher (Kabuki is a type of Japanese dance-drama set to music). I was told by someone it might be boring, but we really liked it. Very beautiful and powerful to see--especially set to music.

early morning hours

odd to see a tank (or part of one) and a Lamborghini

front of the Kabuki theater

Seagulls and Kamakura

It's been awhile! I finally got over the flu (took a week to get rid of the fever!). Dizziness lasted up until just recently though--luckily I'm feeling back to normal--just a bit of a runny noise.

It's getting much colder here, although not cold enough to snow yet, nor have we seen any rain recently. I'm hoping we'll get a light snow before we leave.

seagulls right near where we live
Japan seagulls are VERY white and clean...much unlike California seagulls ;)

Chris and I went to Kamakura with Kaolyn and Toshi yesterday afternoon.