Sayonara!

Wow. I can't believe how fast the last few weeks have gone! It is weird to think that we are leaving tomorrow...

This year has been great - a roller coaster ride that's for sure - but great! We have made a lot of good friends and done a lot of cool stuff. There are a lot of things that I will miss: friends, students, great customer service, the JR train system, cheap sushi, not having to get up before 9:00 am, karaoke rooms, and many, many other things.

I am sad to leave but also excited to go home and see my family and friends again!

We had a Sayonara party last night at Akashi park and it was a blast! We enjoyed some nice weather and drinks in the park and then went to karaoke one last time...

Very, very early tomorrow morning we will leave Kansai, make a brief stop in Seoul and then off to Paris. We'll enjoy a wonderful 5 days in Paris and then take a train to Munich for another 5 days before coming back to Minnesota. I am incredibly excited that we are getting to go to Europe on our way home!

Sayonara Japan!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!  

I know a lot of people say it, but I have the best mom in the world!!

She gave me my taste for good food,  good books, and good bargain shopping!

Thanks for always being so supportive and encouraging, mom!  You rock!

I love you!

Tokyo!

Wow - time is flying by super fast!  I can't believe that we're leaving in 3 weeks!

Last week we went to Tokyo and it was awesome!  We stayed with my friend Beth and her husband Shawn at their really, really nice house in Shinjuku.

We took the shinkansen (bullet train) up to Tokyo on Sunday night and wow, was it nice.  It goes over 200 mph and is an incredibly smooth ride.  We got in late so we caught up with Beth and Shawn and then headed to bed.

Monday consisted of a leisurely lunch in the park in Shinjuku and then off we went!  First to Shibuya to see the famously busy intersection and some shopping, then to Harajuku for more shopping.  I 

went to the MAC store in Harajuku and it happened to be a Pro Store which was really cool because there aren't any pro stores in MN.  We headed back to Beth's place picked up Shawn and had dinner at a really good Indian restaurant near their house.

Tuesday we went to the Imperial Palace, Ginza for shopping and then Meiji Shrine.  Ginza was crazy - so many high end stores.  Willard was extremely happy to go to the Ginza Apple store, of course.  After dinner we had to head back home to Akashi on the Shinkansen.

It was a short trip but a lot of fun!  Click HERE to see the pics!

This is us at the Ginza Apple Store: