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Archive for the ‘pictures’ Category

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Aug 10

Summer 2010

My summer break is almost over and I’m left wondering where my time went. Here is some proof of the fun:

Visit with Renee and Brad in Vancouver ( 3 nights)

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Visit with lady, doc and Sophia in Colorado springs (3 days)

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ISTE conference in Denver (8 days)

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Visit with friend and family in Ottawa with a 2 night trip to Niagara Falls with Rosie (3 weeks)

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2 weeks of summer school
1 week of computer setup, relaxation, tweeting, blogging, staying up too late and waking up to early.

Teach workdays begin on Monday August 16.

May 10

Last Tuesday (May 4, 2010), two friends and I went to Toganji Temple in Nagoya to visit the Big Buddha statue. One of my friends recently downloaded a geocaching application on her iPhone and discovered that there is a cache at Toganji Temple. Tanya found the cache. We discovered another cache nearby so went in search of it. Charlotte found it. They wanted to go in search of one more cache so that I could have my turn of being the first to find the cache. I declined because in both cases, I’d suggested the possible locations but didn’t want to encounter bugs or other unsavory characters in my quest. I guess I need to get over my issues with bugs and dirty hands.

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May 10

Meiji Mura, Inuyama

Two friends and I went to Meiji Mura on May 2, 2010 since we had an extra three days off for Golden Week. We prepared a picnic lunch of vegetables, bread, hummus, banana chocolate chip muffins, bean salad and egg salad. We spent about 4 hours at Meiji Mura before heading back home.

Meiji Mura is a Japanese open air museum about 30 minutes (driving) from Nagoya with architectural artifacts from the Meiji period (1868 – 1912). It was opened in 1965.

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Apr 08

Tokoname Pottery Path

Kathy and I explored the Tokoname Pottery Path on a windy, cold sunny day during our spring break. We went in the afternoon and the two sites that we could have visited were closed but we enjoyed the circuitous walk, with frequent photography stops.

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Feb 25

Pictures from Sapporo and Otaru, Winter Festivals 2010

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Feb 14

Beautiful Hokkaido

I met the mother of one of my grade one students at Centrair Airport. Her son pointed me out and told her that I am his teacher; she was initially confused because she hadn’t met me before. Once in Hokkaido, we took the train downtown together. As we parted, she gave me her number and invited me to call her if I needed help or wanted to grab a meal together.

I messaged her yesterday to suggest lunch today. We met for a late lunch and went to an Indian restaurant near her parents’ home. The proprietress is so interesting. She is a Japanese woman married to a Tibetian man who has refugee status in India; they met in India when she was vacationing there. We bonded over our Ayurvedic experiences in India and over our adoration of the twin polar bears at the Maruyama Zoo. My friend translated some of our conversation but it’s amazing how much of a language you can understand from the tone of voice and body language. We spent a lovely hour and a half together before she pointed out a nearby bus stop to Otaru, my next destination.

Simply beautiful. I’m overwhelmed by the beauty of the Otaru winter festival. I took a 50 minute bus ride from Sapporo to Otaru and walked around the beautifully lit up city. Ice candles are laid out all over the city, particularly along the more traditional streets. There was no pomp and circumstance tonight, just crowds of people enjoying the unique candle holders made of ice and snow.

I stopped along the way and bought a large clam cooked mostly by blow torch.

Feb 12

Long weekend in Hokkaido

I’m sitting at my hotel in Hokkaido, having a tart and coffee. It’s warm in here even though I have the thermostat set to 23 degrees. I’m enjoying the warmth after several hours in the snow and cold today.

I got to Hokkaido yesterday in time to enjoy the ice and snow sculptures in Odori park and the entertainment for the final night of the Sapporo Winter Festival. Light snow constantly fell over everything giving the illusion of a snow globe. The scale of the sculptures is empressive. There is one of animals at the zoo and several of buildings. Most of the sculptures are done by Japanese but there is an International Park with sculptures representing the following countries: Finland, USA, China, Thailand, Korea, Bali, New Zealand, Singapore and Hawaii (yes I know it’s not a country). There were two other sites for sculptures too but I didn’t make it to either of them. And now it’s too late because I saw cranes tearing the sculptures apart as I walked to my hotel tonight.

Right opposite my hotel was one of he largest sculptures. A stage was created as part of the sculpture, one of several such stages created in Odori Park to host performances. Most of the Japanese performances that I’ve seen involved taiko drumming. These were unique in that there were no live instruments. Large groups of performers danced while one person on the sidelines called out/sang out. Considering how cold it was, I was surprised that the outfits were often sleeveless or bared the men’s torsos. In one outfit, the men stripped down to underwear. There was even a Japanense boy band who performed. One thing that strikes me when I watch Japanese performances with dancing is how much fun the participants seem to have. The audience was having lots of fn too, dancing and waving in time with the performers.

Today I simply walked around the city and went to the zoo. I’m heading to Otaru tomorrow.

More pictures when I get home …

Jan 04

A long way and a relaxing holiday

It’s been hard carrying this secret for months; I told my family and friends that I was going to Thailand for the holidays. I couldn’t suppress my excitement on the long trip from Nagoya to Detroit. I was exhausted by the time I reached Detroit, around the same time of the same day that I left Nagoya. And I still had to contend with a 10 hours layover.

I’ve heard so many bad things about Detroit that I worried for weeks as to whether I should leave the airport to explore the city. I finally decided that if I could live in Sudan and travel in Yemen, I could find some areas of Detroit where I could feel safe in the daytime. But I refused to pay close to $50 to get there.

I got on the Smartbus at the airport, having decided to sit beside the driver. I almost lost my nerve when I got on the airport and found the driver calmly having a smoke in his seat. I hoped that this lawless behavior was not a bad omen. I kept my wits about me, observe everything closely as we drove through Detroit, going past many boarded, graffitied and deserted buildings. I kept watch for a safe place to get off. I decided to do so in the downtown area beside a Subway restaurant.

I walked around and grabbed coffee at the Au Bon Pain. There was a Hard Rock Cafe and mall nearby and a skating rink where many families seemed to be enjoying the beautiful winter day. I walked around the area before grabbing a taxi to take me to Livernois avenue to a hairdresser that I’d previously found.

I still had 4 hours to kill by the time I was finished at the hair dresser and had walked around the area looking for a nail bar that was open, to no avail. I called a taxi (as I’d had enough adventure for the day.)

I stayed overnight in Miami, just enough time to deal with all my Amazon.com orders. Between the packing, the time difference and my internet addiction, I only got three hours of sleep before heading to the airport.

As I sat at the airport waiting for my flight to board, I called my aunt to find out if the family would be home that day. As they called the flight, I started to wonder if it was such a good idea to surprise my grandmother. I called my aunt and told her that I was coming and that she shouldn’t tell anyone, knowing that she’d tell my grandmother if she thought it best. Four hours later, I was in St. Lucia. The immediate family all knew that I was coming.

I spent a little over two weeks in St. Lucia, visiting family and friends. It was a relaxing time in the heat, surrounded by familiarity and heat that make Japan seem a very long way away.

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Oct 24

A Week in Bali

I walked along the beach last night and listened to the play of waves. This was my moment to say goodbye to Bali.

The dolphins were the highlight of my week in Bali. We took a morning dolphin “tour” in Lovina, hoping to see the dolphins up close. We were not disappointed. There were hundreds of dolphins all over, playing, doing air flips and belly flops. I even saw them under the water. I couldn’t stop smiling watching them. The experience was surely worth the early morning wake-up.

During my week in Bali, I spent two nights in Ubud, one night in Kintamani, two nights in Lovina and one night in Kuta. I watched legong dancing in Ubud, climbed Mount Batur around Kintamani, saw dolphins and felt the mist of waterfalls around Lovina, relaxed in Kuta, and did spa treatments several times. I did not enjoying having to bargain for every purchase, even fruit, but I did make some good purchases of Balinese batiks, silver, Balinese puppet dolls and the obligatory tshirt gifts. The week was wonderful. It seems surreal to be back in Nagoya on a cool cloudy day…

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