Homeward Bound

Well, my time here is coming to an end. I have a way over stuffed suit case, and only a few things left around the room. My flight leaves at 1630 tomorrow, but I have to catch the bus some time around 1130 from the base up to the airport.

I am so glad that I shipped as much as I did home. I think next time I am going to have to watch it a little better how much I actually pack or maybe bring another bag... I am right at capacity and even have extra in my little travel backpack I bought while over here. The day should be fairly relaxing. A nice ride up to the airport, then check in and ditch my big bag. The flight, and then all followed by the goal of trying to stay awake for two days straight, fighting the jet lag.

For my last night out I got to enjoy some Thai food from this little shop I frequented. The place is really good. Great flavors but it doesn't leave you stuffed with food. Actually it is just right. I am looking forward to being home. I did find out though that I am coming back soon. Actually it sounds like in 4 weeks until the middle of June. I think that when that trip is over, I will have spent more time in Japan than I have spent in the USA.

Well, homeward bound. Thank you all for the love and support and following along. I am sure as new trips arrive and details unfold I will be sure to post them online.

A Day at the Zoo

Today was a great day. Lots of nice weather to enjoy and some fun surprises along the way. Two of my coworkers, Dave and Nao, and myself went up to Tokyo to visit the Ueno Zoo. It is the oldest zoo in Tokyo. Sadly, there is no giant panda here, but plenty of red pandas to see. These ones were pretty active and seemed to almost put on a show, or were just really enjoying the bamboo they were eating. Of course there were lions, gorillas, and elephants, the kinds of animals you would expect to see in the zoo. But they also had some fun ones like pigmy hippos and a Galapagos tortoise. I have all the photos up online showing the zoo and a few cherry blossom photos I snuck in.

After the zoo we wandered around an open air market area in Tokyo looking for lunch. We ended up at this sushi place. It wasn't sushi like the rolls you might be thinking of. This was more a bowl of rice with the raw stuff on top of it. I had a bowl with crab (the real stuff not fake), salmon and ground tuna. Nao informed me that the ground tuna had tuna stomach ground into it. If you are wondering yes I ate the whole bowl, raw fish, crab, tuna stomach and all. It was really really good. And as of almost 8 hours later I am not exhibiting any sickness from the raw meat. I have to figure out how they properly prepare the fish and other raw meat to make sure it is all okay to eat and not get sick from it. This might cut down on my cooking time at home....

After lunch we all went back to our respective residences to rest. Around 6pm we met back up again and went to this Korean BBQ place. Really neat restaurant, I wish we had one like it back in the states. You order a 'set' which is rice, salad, soup of your choice and then a platter of mixed seasoned raw meat. No it wasn't a whole day of raw food. The reason the meat comes raw is that you have a little BBQ in the center of your table to cook your own meat on to your liking. The meat is sliced really thin so it takes only a small time to cook and afterwards you dip it in some sauces and then eat it over rice. Really good and for the 1500 yen it was way worth it.

Now I am back in my room and ready for bed. Strange to think this is my last weekend here. I did have a taste of home today. I was informed of a Krispy Kreme in the Yokohama train station so when I had to switch trains today I stopped in and grabbed two. One for my mid day snack and another for tomorrow morning. Assuming that it will last that long tempting me with its sugary goodness....

Little Updates

It has been a little while since I have posted anything of length on my blog. I had finished a video update but for some reason I can no long upload videos... So until I can figure out that I will fill everyone in the old fashion way. The weeks seem to go quicker and quicker. I cannot believe that by this time I next week I will be stateside again. 

Last weekend it was peak cherry blossom season. I had gotten an invitation from some coworkers to go up under the cherry trees and enjoy lunch there. The day was just perfect and I want to plant cherry trees back home, even if they only bloom like that for a couple of weeks. Here are a few photos of the time. A note that though there are a lot of people at this location, it actually was really sparse. There are many areas where there area so many people you almost cannot walk under the trees. 

Things here have been nice and relatively quiet  This whole last week at work I was in training and on Wednesday the guy coming over to relieve me of my work arrived. Though I was really surprised to find out that I made employee of the week out of my entire department for my efforts over here. The hard work is looking like it is paying off. 

Well today I have a trip up to Tokyo planned. My coworker who is coming to relieve me of my duties and myself are going to the Ueno (pronounced way-no) park and zoo. Sad part is that they have no great pandas. The last one died in 2008. But I should still be a fun time. I guess I am going to have to go down to San Diego for great pandas.