Wrappin it up...

This is me by the Kamogawa in Kyoto.

So, we’ve begun the great count down. We have one week until we go to Fujisan, two weeks until Sue comes, four weeks left of school, and five weeks left in Japan.

I won’t say that their aren’t mixed feelings about the approaching end of our Japanese adventure, but more than anything, I am excited to go back to the US and relax. Unlike the train systems and the sweet car technology, that is something that the people here have not mastered. People here don’t relax, or their relaxing is working. I don’t believe everyone really likes it enough to validate the extremeness of it though.

The one place here that we have found a little oasis of relaxation is in Kyoto by the Kamogawa. The Kamogawa is a wide shallow river that runs through the city. It’s not even all that pretty. Like the mountains up in Nagano. The mountains were pretty, but while I was skiing, I kept noticing the beautiful view always included some concrete support structure somewhere, holding a piece of the mountain in place. The Kamogawa has that going on. The whole bank and bed has bed cementified. It’s nice enough to sit next to and drink a beverage. So, that’s what people do. On a nice day, people sit along the river, drink beer, barbeque, and just hang out. This is the only place in Japan I have seen this happen(other than cherry blossom season, and then it’s sake, not beer). I love it.

I must make a disclaimer. We are in Kansai(the region around Kyoto). People in Kansai are old school. They love being Japanese and seem to conform even more than other parts of the country. It’s even evident in the clothes people where. Here you don’t really see tank tops or sunglasses. I was once told by someone I consider to be relatively “normal” for this area that “we think that sunglasses are showy”. They don’t, however feel that wearing gloves, huge welding masks, scarves and umbrellas in the middle of summer, to block the sun from their whitened skin, is showy. But, go an hour south(Osaka) and people are wearing more “normal” clothes. Last time we were in Osaka, I even saw a girl with a sun tan!

Anyway- the end is near. I am mostly happy about it, but Dan and I were talking about what we’ll miss most about Japan:

#1 not the job

#2 the trains

#3 the healthy food at convenience stores

#4 some of the people we’ve met

#5 the Kamogawa

Here are some pictures of what we’ve been up to lately:)

Here I am making takoyaki(octopus balls) with Kinoshita sensei. I love Kinoshita sensei.

Here we are with the Fukadas. We went up to the top of that bridge. This bridge has the longest distance between the support things of any suspension bridge.

This is a kiln in Shigaraki. Shigaraki is a town up in the mountains known for it's history of pottery.

This is us out in Kyoto with our friend Masami.

This is the sunset view from Koshien Stadium(between Osaka and Kobe), where we went to see the Hanshin Tiger baseball game.