05 November 2009

heron


heron

At Engaku Shrine in Kamakura; herons always remind me of my mom and dad, so this photo is for you guys :-) 

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04 November 2009

engakuji

Kamakura--11.2009-021

Two stone pagodas at Engaku Shrine in Kamakura. I love the shrines here, especially on the weekdays when they're not swarming with people and giving me Perfume Pagoda flashbacks. In Southeast Asia, I was always a little overwhelmed by the over-the-top-ness of the temples, so I love the comparative serenity of the shrines here. 


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03 November 2009

daibutsu


daibutsu
We have a few days off from work, which we are spending unadventurously in Tokyo, studying, reading good books, playing guitar (Iain) and knitting (me), and staying warm in the sudden cold. Part of me wishes we were using this time to travel somewhere new, but both of us are pretty worn out from our schedule, and so sitting in cafes and cooking big dinners at home suddenly seems more appealing than anything else.  Lazy reclusiveness aside, we did manage to make it to Kamakura yesterday, where we hiked our way to the giant, bronze Buddha who looks just as big now as he did when I was sixteen. 
daibutsu

In other news, today I figured out how to make instant almond gelatin! My mom used to make it when I was a teenager, and it's the quite possibly the best dessert in the world - who doesn't like the synthetic taste of fake almond? (Most people, apparently, Iain included, which means more for me!) Also, a perk of learning the Kanji for my name - 美加 - is that, thanks to the meaning of the second syllable (addition),  I can now make some headway in figuring out cooking instructions! You could probably argue that the adding part of the recipe was obvious thanks to the drawing of a maniacally cheerful anthropomorphized jug of milk pouring itself into the boiling hot pan, but that would be far less cool. 


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12 October 2009

wishes


wishes

Multi-lingual wishes at Meiji Shrine.

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11 October 2009

ohayo!

bamboo

Things I love about being in Tokyo: the food, having our own tiny little apartment after six months of living out of suitcases, the food, my awesome, friendly students, the stationary shops, the bottles of water on the street that supposedly keep the cats away (?), the weather (for now), the way I can just wave my wallet containing my train pass over the gate to make it open, finding copies of a rare Haruki Murakami book in English, and, in case I haven't mentioned it, the food - all of it: the cheap ramen and don restaurants near my apartment, the rotating sushi bars, the grocery stores. Really there isn't much I don't love, except maybe the insane, impossible crush of bodies that is my daily subway commute, and even that is surprisingly less hostile, if more crowded, than my daily rides on the R back in Brooklyn. 

At any rate, we were whisked away by our employers the minute we set foot in Narita, and have had very little free time since (nine-plus hour days + two-plus hours on the train + most recently, Japanese lessons!) so, apologies for the radio silence; I love being here but most days I'm so exhausted by these twelve hour days that I haven't been able to keep in touch as much as I'd like. Today's a school holiday, however, which means I'm going to try and catch up on some e-mails, study Japanese, and explore our neighborhood a bit (finally). More soon! 

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26 September 2009

last days in Scotland


DSC_8478

In Tokyo! I've been up for awhile (it's almost six) but have given up trying to sleep, since we have to be on the subway in an hour and a half anyway; I love our neighborhood and our tiny apartment, but have been so busy with work stuff that I haven't had the chance to explore much yet, so, in the meantime, here are the last of the Scotland photos.

Scotland--8.2009-229
Photo by Iain rather than me, obviously - the first week in Aberdeenshire, near the River Don.

DSC_8556

The closest I came to Haggis the whole time I was there. 

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17 September 2009

the kids in the rock

DSC_1975

Midway through our road trip back in March, we had pulled over to investigate a massive rock formation when some local kids noticed us, abandoned the cow they'd been herding home, and immediately clambered up the rock to show off.


North--3.2009--504

Above: Iain and four of my favorite kids in Vietnam.

The girl with the red scarf was obviously the bravest one, and she made it to the top first, at which point she sat back, ate some fruit, and taunted the others till the little boy in blue managed to join her.

North--3.2009--514

North

The other two were much more cautious, and only made it halfway up, where they remained, despite much taunting and shoe-throwing (from their friends, obviously, not us).


North--3.2009--556

(Above: the little boy in blue is taking off his sandal to throw it at the boy in yellow).

North--3.2009--603

I couldn't tell at the time how much of this was for our benefit and how much was just, I don't know, impromptu acrobatic frolicking/shoe-throwing, but I'm glad my zoom lens, at least, was able to remove any doubt. After awhile, we waved goodbye (they ignored us) and started to hike back up the hill, at which point they scurried down, climbed to higher ground, and burst into an exuberant, apparently well-rehearsed dance.

North--3.2009--617

Finally, as we drove off, they ran off - probably to collect their forgotten cow.

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09 September 2009

boy on a rock

boy on a rock

North Berwick beach.

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07 September 2009

stormclouds overhead

north berwick shore

Again with the tall grass...

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05 September 2009

back from north berwick


north berwick i

We got back into Aberdeenshire after a week spent in Edinburgh and North Berwick, which was lots of fun. In Edinburgh, we caught the tail end of the Fringe Festival, where we managed to get last-minute tickets to see a dystopian rap peformance, this improv group and this guy, all of which were great. At any rate, more photos to follow!

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