Notes

To sort through my thoughts from all that has passed since my Uncle Terry and Aunt Judy arrived will take some time. I think I will work my way backwards. Today in the office I was surprised to find that I may or may not be going to a teacher conference this week. I have returned full speed with other commitments on the near horizion too. Next week the new school year starts. I will neglect things at home and go for a run after work of which I'm very excited. Driving back from the airport last night I was relived to be out of Kyoto's traffic which had been slow, packed and daunting due to people viewing cherry blossoms from cars (not to mention the traffic of Osaka and Tokyo which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy). To have the streets before me empty of tail lights was a relief. With no street noise around, my house was deathly quiet which took no time getting use to. I couldn't have asked for better traveling companions and I thank them for their generosity. We covered an absolutely gaganitic amount of stuff culturally though not that much ground geographically. Some highlights do come to mind which I'll detail in the coming days but importantly I want to mention how perfect our timing was (part of the plan) to see Honshu in full bloom. Abolsutely everywhere we looked one could see trees in bloom, most of them sakura but some were fruit trees. It's hard to impress on the foreign reader just how amazing and fortunate a sight it was. Below is an image of an average - average - street in Kyoto. Amazing!! Also included is a picture of my travel weary mug that will soon be radicadly changed when I find where I put my shaver.