Trip coming to a close...

Well as I sit here writing it is hard to believe that 5 and a half weeks have already passed. My bag is as packed as it can be. As it is right now I don't have to ship anything home... I still have one pair of pants to squeeze in and after tonight I will know for sure if some of my gifts will be following me in the mail.



Where did the time go? Looking at my calendar which counted down the days for me it seems like it was just yesterday when I touched down to work. But with a few trips under my belt and some good time in at work Like my past trips, I miss family and friends the most. Last weekend I was kind of burned out from traveling so I stayed in the local area, enjoyed a talking to my fiancé' for a long while, and a coffee down at Starbucks.



Work has slowed down as well. Training is finished and things are all smoothly running along.



Thanks to everyone for the payers and support. Looking forward to being stateside soon!

Weekend Trips!

Truth be told my trips were not only on the weekend. I took advantage of the holiday on Thursday to go with a few guys from work up to Kamakura. I had been there a few times, but they never had and wanted a pseudo tour guide, so I played that role.

The trip up to Kamakura was a blast. Fun times wandering around some of the temples and shrines I have already seen. But the revisiting is always very refreshing. Kind of another look, with details I didn't notice the first or maybe second times previously. One major change we made to my normal trip was a walk down to the beach. I didn't realize how close it actually was and the walk through the sad was very enjoyable while the waves were crashing around us.

This Saturday one of the guys from Thursday and I went up to Yokohama to a garden I had never visited before. It was a little out of the way and required a fairly good walk but like so many places here it was worth the walk. The garden contains lots of older relocated buildings dating as far back as the 1400's. We had lunch there in the garden and then took the train back into Yokohama near the Landmark Tower area. I alway love that spot and my coworker and I wandered around browsing and looking at all the interesting things in stores until dinner time. I have been having so much Japanese food recently I was craving anything different and as a result, for dinner we ended up in the Hardrock Cafe. I ended up actually with a BBQ pulled pork sandwich. After dinner we made our way home.

I am not as tired as I might have been if I had ended up on some of the other offered trips I had this weekend but I really enjoyed the time. I was very happy about the fact that I was able to find a few Christmas gifts for people and can now check a few off my list. I posted some photos online, hope everyone enjoys them.

New Office

Today at work I got to enjoy a much anticipated day, office relocation day. Since I began working over here there has been this air of possibility that my desk would move again. When I first started working over here I knew that my desk was temporary and it seemed like almost everyday someone was asking when my desk would free up or if I was supposed to be there. Kind of the bummer of the limited number of spaces here. So for the last few weeks one fo the rooms has been in the remodeling phase and after the final inspection yesterday we got the all clear to move our stuff.

Now  I am happy to have a place that I can set my stuff down and claim as my own. As of now there are no new moves in the future. The space is nicely located around other people I frequently work with making the job a little easier too.

So though not the biggest work achievement of the day, but probably one of the most enjoyable one. I ended up finishing it up with an afterwork coffee at Starbucks and a very nice sunset.

Long Awaited Post

It has been a little over a week since I have posted anything online and though I could go through the longer explanation I will share the shorter less painfully reminding one; work has been busy.

Well at least the first part of this week was super busy, now followed by a nice, relaxing end to the week. I did get to go out and enjoy some Okonomiyaki with a coworker and one of the supervisors of the shop whom I work with. 

The dinner was rather fun and it was another reminder of why I love this country so much. 

Saturday was another adventure. I spent the major part of the day going up to Tokyo with one of the guys from the shop to wander a round and see some of all that is up there. The most of the time we spend wandering around the side streets of the major stops. Going to places like the Adidas store, Starbucks, and a few other major name brand kind of places. They guy who I was with is really into soccer and so it became kind of a game to see how many different sports stores we could find in Tokyo. I was looking for the Apple store, but was unsuccessful. I think I will need to get some better directions and see if I can find it another time. 

The day kind of wore me out and so by the time we made the hour or so train ride home I was ready for bed. Dinner was light and quick.

Thank you to everyone for the love and support. I will hopefully be a little more up to date this week with postings. Assuming that work doesn't get the better of me.