busy dan

you might think i've been a lazy person, but actually ive been too busy to spend the time required to update this site. sorry if you're waiting, then again, if waiting for me to update a travelblog is THAT important to you, you should probably get a life of your own.

I went to Kanazawa city last weekend to stay with Masako, a former student of mine in Hopkins, and her husband. They gave me a kings treatment, with homecooked food and tours to local points of interest, such as Kanazawa castle, one of the top 3 gardens in japan, the beach, the floating noodle restaurant, soy sauce breweries, and food food food. we also met up with fujimi, another student from Hopkins, and her family. It was a nice change to get out of the big metropolis. there was a different vibe over there on the sea of Japan. the train ride gave me a chance to see the green of the country.

the past few days i was over in Yokohama, catching up with Joel. He and his girlfriend Yumishi and i went to some of the famous temples at Kamakura. We also attended a fun night at a bar featuring live music, including a japanese grateful dead cover group, in honor of the anniversary of jerry garcia's death.

Now I'm back in tokyo at dave and gan's place. I checked out the area near the imperial palace yesterday and successfully negotiated the subway and ordered food in a resuarant alone. It was in a noodle shop in which you put money in a machine then press a button by the picture you want, take a ticket, give the ticket to a server then wait for your soup.

in between tourist attractions and bowls of soup, i've been attending english lessons, getting the feel for japanese EFL students, helping out if i can. i can't believe i actually miss teaching. maybe its just something comfortable in an otherwise foreign setting.

the plan for the next few days is as follows; wander around more areas of tokyo (Ueno then Shinjuku) today, go to Gan's family gathering then a punk rock show tomorrow, back to yokohama to attend a minor league baseball game and stay in yokohama for the first part of next week.

sorry this is such an abbreviated blog. i guess you'll just have to sit through my slide-show when i get back. I've only got around 600 pictures so far.