I went back to The Netherlands last weekend and I didn't even have to travel all the way to Europe. All I had to do was hope on a plane to Nagasaki!


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I went to the Chirimen Craft Museum in Kyoto a couple weeks ago in hopes of finding some cute crafts for Valentine's Day.  They surprisingly had NOTHING, except for one craft in the shape of a heart and probably not related to Valentine's Day, BUT they did have some cute other things!

The theme for this time of year is 7 Lucky Gods.  There's one for ( Read more... )

I went shopping in Arashiyama, Kyoto, yesterday with my friend.  And what a great shopping day it was!  This is a great place to go for trinkets and souvenirs, and also has a wonderful atmosphere.


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45:31:13N

I hope I wrote that right!  That's the latitude of Japan's northernmost point... Cape Soya.  I went there this afternoon so I could stand on this spot myself.  A monument marks the northernmost point and naturally I stood right on it in my victory TADAAA pose.


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Greetings, friends.  I am here with an update for you from Wakkanai, Hokkaido. For those who don't know, Wakkanai is waaaaaaay up north on the tip of Hokkaido.  It's so far north that it can proudly boast that it's Japan's northern most city. What a title!  I love this kind of stuff.  Northernmost train station, northernmost aquarium, northermost ( Read more... )

Long time, no update ( Read more... )

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I finally went to Osaka's famous aquarium. I took Nick for his birthday and his Kyoto friend went along too.  I live so close so I don't know why I've never been there.  Maybe it's an all good things come to those who wait kind of thing because I put it off and waited and then experienced good things!  This aquarium is awesome!!


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The day has finally come... the grand opening of Osaka Station City.  The big day was Wednesday May 4th.  This place has been under construction since before I arrived in Japan in the summer of 2008.  I've never seen the JR Osaka station without construction going on... until now.


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On day #2 of vacation we went to an island called Naoshima.  It's a small island between Takamatsu and Okayama in the Inland Sea and is famous for its artwork scattered around and art museums.  It was a beautiful, sunny day (though windy) to get on a boat to an art island!  I've been dying to go to this place since I had heard nothing but great ( Read more... )