Calling All Book Nerds
If you are a book nerd (and you know who you are) or you are in need of a gift idea for a book nerd, check out the list of books I’ve read so far on the trip for some ideas. I’ve read 44 so far and am in the middle of the 45th!
Random images from Japan for your Saturday viewing pleasure
Wooden building in the adorable town of Takayama.
Field trip!
Fall Festival Parade, Nikko
Eating black eggs at Owakundani volcano valley
Sean in the crowd at Nikko
Fall Festival ceremony, Nikko
Peace at Nikko Fall Festival
Happy Diwali
Greetings from India! We are sitting in an internet cafe with excruciatingly slow internet, listening to the firecrackers going off outside in celebration of Diwali. Just wanted to let everyone know that we most likely will have little to no internet access in the next week or so. We are headed to the kind of place that we dreamed about sitting back at our desks so many months ago. And it is still in India, imagine that. I’ll tell more later – I know the suspense is killing you. The bad news is that the internet in our new location is poor to none, and I don’t have any new posts or pictures to put up. The good news is that we should have lots of relaxing down time which means lots of time to write posts.
Talk to you soon!
Happy Halloween from Japan!
Happy Halloween, Japanese style!
Allow me to skip backwards (since we are no longer in Japan) and forwards (since I still have another post planned for South Korea) in time to wish you Happy Halloween. Someone in Japan told us that Halloween is mostly a Western holiday not celebrated by the Japanese, but judging by the Halloween sights on the streets, I don’t think that’s true. Plus it makes sense that the Japanese would love Halloween; they certainly have a sweet tooth, and the day we spotted the costumes below was in the same neighborhood as where the Japanese teenagers dress up in cos-play all year long.
Hope you have a great Halloween; eat extra candy for me!
Spotted on someone's doorstep in Kyoto's Arashiyama neighborhood
Spotted in a Toyko Krispy Kreme
Spotted in Ueno Park
Spotted at a Tokyo flower shop
Spotted on Takeshita Dori in Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood
Takeshita Dori in Harajuku again
Where's Waldo? On Takeshita Dori.
Where else? Takeshita Dori. (There was a Halloween parade going on).
Also spotted on Takeshita Dori! (Along with his friend, above).
Merry Christmas! Oh wait, wrong holiday. Spotted in Tokyo's wholesale district, in October. Unfortunately jumping the gun on Christmas must be an international problem.
Hello to Fellow Fighters
If you’ve come from 1000 Places to Fight Before you Die, welcome! Mike and Luci, who tell what it is really like to travel as a couple on their blog, very kindly re-posted SurroundedbytheSound’s most recent blog post about race in South Africa over on their site. Mike and Luci also recently traveled through South Africa. They posted about their visit to Soweto Township, a place we didn’t get to visit, and about South Africa’s neighboring country, Swaziland, another place we would have liked to have seen but didn’t get a chance to. If you’ve never visited 1000 Places to Fight Before you Die, check it out!