a fish in a bucket

am i in california?

ricepattyk — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:55:28 +0000

A beach in Ishikawa Prefecture–one of the few beaches in Japan that were wide enough to be driven on. I went swimming in September, amazing.

the garden

ricepattyk — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:43:02 +0000

What came out of the garden.

neighborhood castle

ricepattyk — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:32:52 +0000

A hanami (cherry blossom-viewing) party at Ueda Castle.

river bath

ricepattyk — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:50:00 +0000

One of the riverside onsens at Kurokawa.

onsen heaven

ricepattyk — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:21:51 +0000

During the road trip, we spent a night at the beautiful onsen village of Kurokawa Onsen, in the mountains, in a forest, by rivers and waterfalls.

Onsens are natural hot spring baths, the best of which are outdoors. The village was tiny enough that we were able to walk around in traditional yukatas from onsen to onsen. We went to four in 12 hours.

moving adventure

ricepattyk — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:22:42 +0000

From 10PM Wednesday night (3/18) to 8AM Monday morning (3/23), with approximately 36 hours of driving, in a van with 8 other people, I visited Hiroshima,

Miyajima Island,

Fukuoka,

Nagasaki,

Obama (the city!),

Shimabara Hantou,

Kumamoto,

Kurokawa Onsen,

Beppu,

and several highway rest stops that were luxuriously hotel-like in quality.

Road tripping in Japan was, by far, one of my most incredible experiences ever.

More pics here.

auld lang syne

ricepattyk — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:45:01 +0000

Yesterday was Graduation. It lasted about an hour and a half. There were lots of bowing and synchronization. Girls were in 300,000円 ($3,000)/day rental kimonos. Boys were in suits. I was in a suit! At the end, they played a song called Hotaru no hikari (Glow of a Firefly) to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.

The tennis club bid farewell to the 3rd grade tennis members.

they looked lonely

ricepattyk — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:13:51 +0000

Trees need love (abuse?) too.

day trip to narnia

ricepattyk — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:06:34 +0000

Because of the unseasonably warm weather, we couldn’t go snowboarding this weekend so instead, we decided to find a frozen waterfall. Pro-boarding practice gave way to indulging our Narnia and LotR fantasies.

mallets and international relations

ricepattyk — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:32:53 +0000

Today at one of my schools, Komoro Commercial High School, 40 high school students from Taiwan came to visit. They performed a flag dance while the Japanese students and faculty performed mochitsuki, a traditional ceremony for making mochi.