From my new place....

I know I promised more frequent updates in my last entry, but it turns out I don't have intertnet access at my new plase yet.  Yes, that's right, my new place, meaning I've moved out and on my own now.

My new place is in a city called Tsukuba, about an hour north of Tokyo...Imagine Iowa City (or any Big Ten school I suppose), multiply the population by 10, and add about 10 years to everybody's age, and you can get a pretty good picture of life in Tsukuba.  It is a research oriented city, with Universities, the Japan Space Center, Japan's largest particle accelerator etc etc.  But it is pretty nice.  It's not so jam packed with people like Tokyo or Osaka, so it's more relaxed, and has much more greenery, so I think I will enjoy it here.  Here are some pictures from:

my place when I moved in

my place with stuff in it

my new car!



It turns out Tsukuba doesn't have that great of a public transportation system.  Well, it does, but not to my work.  So I had to buy a car.  I had about two days to pick out a car before I had to go to work, so I really couldn't be too picky, but I think I did pretty well.  It's a Honda Civic EL.  It has a 1.3 liter engine, which is a size you don't hear of too much in the states.  It runs pretty well, it's clean, and shoud get great milage (because it's only 1.3l).  But, but, but, it is an automatic...(T_T).  But it should be fine for a couple of years until I can really go shopping for the car I want.

and my dog (who is unfortunately in Kobe...)

Well, that's about all from here.  Drop me a line whenever,

yt

All moved out!!!

The movers have come and gone.
My room is now completely empty.

Here is the "after" shot.

I probably should have taken a "before" shot for a better comparison, but we all know how I am about thinking ahead: I don't do it until later.

So I'm all moved out.  Now, I just have to move in.

My next update will be from my new house!

yt

I'm a statistic...

I am now, officially one of the roughly five percent of Japan that is UNEMPLOYED!  at least until next week.

Yesterday was my last day of work!!!  I head for Tsukuba on the 1st, and start work there on the 7th.  It's kinda nice having almost nothing to worry about.

Anyway, so I'm just bumming around the house until the movers get here to take away my stuff.

Mac says hi.

ready to move on out...

As anyone who has used google today knows, Happy Earthday!  Although there doesn’t seem to be much to celebrate lately...(x_x)

Well, I’ve started packing up my stuff in preparation for the move.  I really don’t have that much stuff.  It’s all the same stuff I've been lugging around with me since high school.  I'm starting to get pretty excited about moving to Tsukuba and also about the new job.  I’m also starting to get a little sad, but if there’s one thing that I’ve realized in the last 25 years is that there is always one more good-bye.

In totally different news...

Mac has been having allergy problems for a while with dog food.  He gets rashes and stuff.  We’ve been trying all different kinds of foods to try to find one that he could eat without much success.  Finally, the other day, the vet said, “Let’s take him off dog food.”

!!!!!!

Yeah, that’s right, he eats, by doctor’s orders, human food now.  But he also needs almost no salt and fat and stuff, so we have to make food especially for him...that’s right, we have to cook for our dog now!  How sad is that?!?!

Anyway, hope all is well.

Things should start to get pretty interesting here soon...

yt

Cherry Blossoms

For cherry blossoms this year, I took a day off of work on Monday and went to see the cherry blossoms in Kyoto.  The place I went to is called Arashiyama which translates directly into Storm Mountain (or, Mount Storm.  That sounds cooler I think).  It was pretty late in the season so the cherry flowers were beginning to fall and turn green.

Anyway, I'll stop talking now so you can look at the pretty little pictures...

Arashiyama Station. 

We took a trail up a mountain side and we came to this shrine.

And then...

MONKEY!  or really big squirrels...no, I'm pretty sure they were monkeys...

That's the city of Arashiyama in the background.

Lot's monkeys.  It reminded me of Al Hitchcock's classic horror movie: "Monkeys"

And baby monkeys...awwww

Appearantly, they haven't figured out how to use benches correctly.  Stupid monkeys
But so cute...

And deer too.

Then, it was off to Tenryu Temple.  Tenryu temple is called Tenryu Temple because "ten" means heavens and "ryu" means dragon in Japanese, and there is an enormous painting of a dragon on the ceiling of one of the main halls.  The dragon is HUGE, and insanely cool looking!  I couldn't get any shots of it, but here are shots of some of the other areas.

Tatami rooms.  It was a pretty expansive place.  I overheard some tour guide saying it has twice the area of Tokyo Dome. 

Japanese gardens... 

Then we walked through a bamboo forest

and took a mountain train ride to Kameoka Hot Springs

the end...