In Japan, there is a holiday called Kinrou Kansha no hi (勤労感謝の日), which is something like "Labor Thanksgiving Day". Although it's a national holiday, there isn't anything special most people do for it. However, just like last year, John-sensei had a wonderful big meal, where we all ate way too much and enjoyed great company. Once again, you outdid yourself, John!

2007 Thanksgiving

Thanks to a comment from Susan, I realized I hadn't posted pictures looking out of my apartment. Actually, I had, I just hadn't posted a link to them here. So here are a few. The view isn't spectacular or anything, but at least it's interesting. I have something I can look at without people 10 feet away from me looking back, as it was in my old apartment. I also added a few pictures from the inside, like my wall with my maps, kanji poster, and aircon on it.

izumi apartment

Today, I rode up to Kakuouzan (覚王山), an area with a couple of shrines and some really nice houses between my house and my work. Not too much to say, except that I really like the kanji on the far right of the sign, because it's an old style kanji that you don't see so often. Also, there's this photo of my favorite traffic light status. There are a few intersections in Nagoya that employ this particular combination of lights, and I have no idea what it means, because the same intersection also uses the plain green light in its series. Also notice the battery of cameras flanking the signal.

覚王山

On Saturday, my friend Hiromi invited me over to her house for a fantastic meal where I met her family and her friend Atsuko. The meal was fantastic, and so was the company.

広美さんの所で

I love my new apartment. One of the great things about it is the nice real kitchen it came with. So I try to cook all sorts of things, sometimes real recipes, and sometimes stuff I just make up. Really, I'm not a very good cook, in that I don't know how to cook many different kinds of cuisine. (And really, since I don't have an oven or a microwave, my options are still kind of limited. Many of my friends, like Tom, Harry, Candice, et many al. are far superior.) But I've been having a great time just gathering random ingredients and cooking them up. And I really do love to cook for other people, even though my opportunities have been kind of limited up to this point. Anyway, anytime anyone wants to come over for dinner sometime, let me know and I'll be happy to cook for them. The results won't be pretty, as these pictures can attest to, but I think it should taste pretty good and it will be a fun time.

  

哲也とご飯

Tonight I had dinner with my friend and former student Tetsuya, who recently came back from America, where he studied for about three months. It was a great dinner and we had a good time. I'm still trying to figure out the right way to do Picasa on Linux, which is why the pictures aren't edited correctly. Anyway, in the old days, I can remember when I wouldn't be caught dead with a North Carolina shirt, but this time I was really happy to show it off.

obon2007tokyo

By the way, I went to Tokyo over Obon, and took a bunch of pictures. Highlights included finding the ramen place these guys talked about, and finding this tiny little jazz bar in Shinjuku that was just the coolest. I've really been getting into jazz lately, something I'd never thought would happen.

Finally, I'm connected back to the internet. Took me a month, but now I've got a nice fat pipe, so all those of you who I haven't contacted in awhile will start to hear from me. Here are some random observations:

1. My new apartment is just two blocks from a decent Mexican restaurant. Hell, I didn't even have that in San Francisco. (Although, I must say that this place doesn't hold a candle to Taqueria Cancun, which was just 8 blocks from my place in Noe Valley
2. It's also adjacent to a 99 shop. For those of you not in Japan, it's basically a convenience store that has _everything_ you need, and most of it is 99 yen ($0.85 at the time of posting). For example, if I leave the apartment in the morning, and I realize I left my umbrella at work, I can get one. For eighty-five cents.
3. My new apartment comes with a 440-station radio that comes out of the wall. I can get everything from 80 stations of J-pop, to Indian and Latin music, to the messages they play telling you not to leave stuff on the escalator
4. For many reasons, life is better than it's been in years and years. Ever since I can remember.
5. I think this year's sauna might finally be nearing an end. We'll see...

Because that's all I do in Japan, right? Anyway, lately that's all I've been taking pictures of. Just wait, in a couple of weeks I'll have something interesting to say. In the meantime, please enjoy these pictures of the party we had in honor of Hideki-sensei, who's leaving Sakae school to start a new program at the head office, and also welcoming Scott-sensei and Miyaka-sensei. The place we had it is called J-cafe, and it was really interesting - very dark with a big runway down the middle, like it would be a place for a fashion show.

And then we went to a nijikai (second party) at Joy Joy Karaoke right next door, which I think I'm liking a little better than Karaokekan. Anyway, one of our students happens to be an actual opera singer, and so obviously her performance blew us all away. It was amazing.

Party at J-cafe

Nijikai

A couple of weeks ago, a few of my students took me out for a great night out. Perhaps it was a goodbye party, perhaps it wasn't - I can't really say now right now. Anyway, the specialty of this place is tofu. In America, if you have a place that specializes in tofu, it's probably like a vegan or vegetarian place. But here, it's just another kind of delicious food that you can have. Because some of the specialties included raw horse meat and other deliciousness. So anyway, enjoy the pictures.

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