We've been indulging in our holiday time off. That time off included lots of time off from blogging. So, I hope you'll join us in enjoying these recaps of the last two and a half weeks. Here's the first one!
On December 21st, I was joined in Kyoto by two of our best friends from our University years... Kathy and Eric. What happened next can only be described as 12 Days of Unadulterated Fun and Enjoyment of the Holiday/Sightseeing Spirit!
While our activities veered slightly from the Christmas Season norms, we still managed to be very busy and to feel very festive. While Chris was still at a conference in China, I showed our friends around Kyoto hitting lots of the major musts... Kyoto Station, Gion (the famous Geiko (Kyoto Geisha) district), and Kinkakuji Temple also called the Golden Pavilion.
In Gion, we were “accosted” by an infamous Kyoto denizen affectionately dubbed “Professor Dictionary.” This fellow purports to be a professor at Kyoto University who has spent time at Harvard, MIT and UCSD. He had a Japanese-English dictionary that needed editing and after some very strange small talk about New York's Wall Street, he foisted some pages (between N & O) upon us. It was an odd experience, but having read about him and his idiosyncrasies on the blogs of other ex-pats living in Kyoto, I was excited to have finally run into this odd duck.
We also traveled to Osaka on a rainy, crummy day to visit Osaka's Kaiyukan Aquarium and Tempozan Harbor Village. The aquarium is one of the world's largest and has some really neat tanks on display. One of our favorites was the 11,000+ gallon shark tank featuring a Whale shark and several other (smaller) sharks like hammerheads and black/white tipped reef sharks. Seriously amazing! The dolphins, otters, penguins and a scuba-diving Santa Claus were other highlights.
The weather did not deter us from a visit to the Namba District of Osaka (near Dotonbori Street) to introduce Kathy and Eric to the “world-renowned” Glico Man and his pals. Things were huge, neon and very tacky... just like we like them! You almost have to wear sunglasses 24/7 in Namba, it's that bright.
Stayed tuned for reports on Nara, a Rock Concert in Uji, Christmas Day and more...
No comments:
Post a Comment