Picture time!
The guy came this afternoon and installed my cable and internet, I'm so happy! So, for your viewing pleasure (and to make up for the fact that not much of interest has happened in the last few days), pictures of Japan! My laptop is still on Cincinnati time, I'm not really doing this at 4:30am...
First up, O'Hare terminal. They had a cool dinosaur skeleton advertising the Field Museum.
The tunnel to the international terminal was really pretty. The rainbow lights lit up in patterns as you walked along.
Narita airport, which looks normal enough.
The no smoking sign in the bus. Note the time on the clock: 4:10 pm for them, 3:10am for me. Ick :P
Random pictures of Tokyo on the way to the hotel: 1, 2, 3. What's with the Greek-style building in the middle of Tokyo? Must be a leftover from the Meji.
The inside of the hotel room and dawn from the 14th floor. Shoji doors! I stayed at the Hilton Tokyo, which is a really nice place. Here's a view during the day. And I thought Manhattan was cluttered...
A Denny's next to the hotel. Of all the restaurants they could have possibly picked, they chose this one. Go figure...
The Japanese license plate of this cute little truck. Most cars in Japan are incredibly small and boxy; this truck was hardly bigger than your average SUV. When you see their neighborhood two-way streets, you can understand why.
The homeless and their prominent shanty town. I hope at least some of them get a real place to live. Tokyo in the winter can't be pleasant...
Pictures (1, 2, 3) of our night walk to the Heaven and Hell restaurant (including a photo of the Saga ALTs. I'm in front ^_^). This is a big business district in downtown Tokyo (can't remember its name), we passed a lot of electronic stores and giant tv screens mounted on buildings (much like Times Square in NYC). Also at night they set up lots of cheap, gas generator-powered noodle stands on wheels. Whenever you seen a red lantern hung outside a restaurant in Japan, it means its cheap (i.e. ramen noodles and the like).
The inside of the Heaven and Hell. You enter the restaurant and walk through the tunnel (inside the metal rib things) to get to your table. Really cool design :)
Here are two views of the bathroom head: 1 and 2. Big and terrifying, isn't he?
There were an insane number of new JETs at the conference. These are some my fellow southern Japan ALTs, two of which are from Ireland. Most of the Saga ALTs this year are from Ireland or Canada. Very few Americans, but that's okay, it's nice to get to know people from other countries.
Juice machines!
The giant Tokyo ferris wheel. Fans of Inuyasha and Sailormoon will recognize it :) This was taken on the rainy early morning drive to the small domestic flight airport where our plane to Saga was waiting.
They had Junior and Senior high school student volunteers at the conference to talk to us. They were so cute!
The often-requested pictures of my apartment! Um...not that it's that exciting or anything. Okay, here's the bedroom which is the tatami room also. You can tell newer and older tatami by the color; the green one was replaced just before I moved in. It will eventually turn brown. The room has sliding doors on the closet (the white patch on the wall is a reflection from the mirror, not a tear in the covering), and a pretty light fixture. Here's the living room (which I took from the bedroom), and another view of the living room. This is my itty bitty kitchen. The door going to the front part of the apartment looks like this. This is the furo which is pretty much in the same room as the washing machine. A skinny little hallway connects all these various rooms to the engawa where you leave your shoes. The apartment building itself is ugy and concrete...you don't want a picture of that :P
A couple views from the third floor of the apartment building:
1 and 2. You can see the low mountains in the distance, they're about a 30 minute drive away. The netting you see in the second photo is supposed to keep the pigeons off the balcony...but it doesn't really work :P
Pictures of our trip to the waterfall. I love this place, I wish I had a car so I could go there more often: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
Pictures from the Friday night summer festival, including the drummers and our group at the BBQ. Some of the Japanese people had a BB gun they kept firing at cans the whole time, and somehow one of the girls ended up holding it in the picture. I swear, she's not trying to shoot anyone... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Our Sunday lunch with Mark's Japanese friends, where I met Seiko. The bamboo thing was so cool. I even have picture of this red forest crab we saw up in the forest. I circled him because he's a little hard to see. Up above where the party was are the ruins of an ancient castle; you can climb the stairs (with the white rails) up about forty feet, then the stone kind of disintegrates into the forest floor, but there are more old walls furthur up on the mountainside: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
After the party they drove us around the mountains looking for Nadeshiko flowers, which are really pretty: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
The Saga City festival, both Saturday and Sunday. Check out me in yukata, whee! ^_^ 1, 2.
This first set is of the group one of the 2nd-year ALTs belongs to: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Here are some of the other Saturday groups. They always bow when they've finished their dance. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
That evening they had a stage performance, which was pretty neat. At the end they invited the audience to come on the stage and dance. Believe it or not, I actually went up and danced with everybody *family and best friend stifle gasps of shock*. Hey, it looked like fun and it was a huge group so no one could stare at me ~_^ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Pictures of the Sunday portion of the festival. There was tons of stuff going on, including a really neat ice carving. When I walked by in the daylight it was just chunks of ice, by the end of the festival it had become a dragon boat with a phoenix carved on the flag. It was really beautiful :) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
And finally, some random pictures of downtown Saga. The animal symbol of Saka-ken is the mudskipper, so you find statues and pictures them everywhere. 1, 2, 3,
4.
Okay that's it for now, I'll keep posting pictures as I take them :)
First up, O'Hare terminal. They had a cool dinosaur skeleton advertising the Field Museum.
The tunnel to the international terminal was really pretty. The rainbow lights lit up in patterns as you walked along.
Narita airport, which looks normal enough.
The no smoking sign in the bus. Note the time on the clock: 4:10 pm for them, 3:10am for me. Ick :P
Random pictures of Tokyo on the way to the hotel: 1, 2, 3. What's with the Greek-style building in the middle of Tokyo? Must be a leftover from the Meji.
The inside of the hotel room and dawn from the 14th floor. Shoji doors! I stayed at the Hilton Tokyo, which is a really nice place. Here's a view during the day. And I thought Manhattan was cluttered...
A Denny's next to the hotel. Of all the restaurants they could have possibly picked, they chose this one. Go figure...
The Japanese license plate of this cute little truck. Most cars in Japan are incredibly small and boxy; this truck was hardly bigger than your average SUV. When you see their neighborhood two-way streets, you can understand why.
The homeless and their prominent shanty town. I hope at least some of them get a real place to live. Tokyo in the winter can't be pleasant...
Pictures (1, 2, 3) of our night walk to the Heaven and Hell restaurant (including a photo of the Saga ALTs. I'm in front ^_^). This is a big business district in downtown Tokyo (can't remember its name), we passed a lot of electronic stores and giant tv screens mounted on buildings (much like Times Square in NYC). Also at night they set up lots of cheap, gas generator-powered noodle stands on wheels. Whenever you seen a red lantern hung outside a restaurant in Japan, it means its cheap (i.e. ramen noodles and the like).
The inside of the Heaven and Hell. You enter the restaurant and walk through the tunnel (inside the metal rib things) to get to your table. Really cool design :)
Here are two views of the bathroom head: 1 and 2. Big and terrifying, isn't he?
There were an insane number of new JETs at the conference. These are some my fellow southern Japan ALTs, two of which are from Ireland. Most of the Saga ALTs this year are from Ireland or Canada. Very few Americans, but that's okay, it's nice to get to know people from other countries.
Juice machines!
The giant Tokyo ferris wheel. Fans of Inuyasha and Sailormoon will recognize it :) This was taken on the rainy early morning drive to the small domestic flight airport where our plane to Saga was waiting.
They had Junior and Senior high school student volunteers at the conference to talk to us. They were so cute!
The often-requested pictures of my apartment! Um...not that it's that exciting or anything. Okay, here's the bedroom which is the tatami room also. You can tell newer and older tatami by the color; the green one was replaced just before I moved in. It will eventually turn brown. The room has sliding doors on the closet (the white patch on the wall is a reflection from the mirror, not a tear in the covering), and a pretty light fixture. Here's the living room (which I took from the bedroom), and another view of the living room. This is my itty bitty kitchen. The door going to the front part of the apartment looks like this. This is the furo which is pretty much in the same room as the washing machine. A skinny little hallway connects all these various rooms to the engawa where you leave your shoes. The apartment building itself is ugy and concrete...you don't want a picture of that :P
A couple views from the third floor of the apartment building:
1 and 2. You can see the low mountains in the distance, they're about a 30 minute drive away. The netting you see in the second photo is supposed to keep the pigeons off the balcony...but it doesn't really work :P
Pictures of our trip to the waterfall. I love this place, I wish I had a car so I could go there more often: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
Pictures from the Friday night summer festival, including the drummers and our group at the BBQ. Some of the Japanese people had a BB gun they kept firing at cans the whole time, and somehow one of the girls ended up holding it in the picture. I swear, she's not trying to shoot anyone... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Our Sunday lunch with Mark's Japanese friends, where I met Seiko. The bamboo thing was so cool. I even have picture of this red forest crab we saw up in the forest. I circled him because he's a little hard to see. Up above where the party was are the ruins of an ancient castle; you can climb the stairs (with the white rails) up about forty feet, then the stone kind of disintegrates into the forest floor, but there are more old walls furthur up on the mountainside: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
After the party they drove us around the mountains looking for Nadeshiko flowers, which are really pretty: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
The Saga City festival, both Saturday and Sunday. Check out me in yukata, whee! ^_^ 1, 2.
This first set is of the group one of the 2nd-year ALTs belongs to: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Here are some of the other Saturday groups. They always bow when they've finished their dance. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
That evening they had a stage performance, which was pretty neat. At the end they invited the audience to come on the stage and dance. Believe it or not, I actually went up and danced with everybody *family and best friend stifle gasps of shock*. Hey, it looked like fun and it was a huge group so no one could stare at me ~_^ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Pictures of the Sunday portion of the festival. There was tons of stuff going on, including a really neat ice carving. When I walked by in the daylight it was just chunks of ice, by the end of the festival it had become a dragon boat with a phoenix carved on the flag. It was really beautiful :) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
And finally, some random pictures of downtown Saga. The animal symbol of Saka-ken is the mudskipper, so you find statues and pictures them everywhere. 1, 2, 3,
4.
Okay that's it for now, I'll keep posting pictures as I take them :)