Louvre in Japan

Recently, we visited the National Art Center in Tokyo to see an exhibit of works borrowed from the Louvre. The theme was the history of portraiture, and included a wide variety of styles and mediums from ancient through modern times. In the hall outside the exhibit, they had a clever photo frame where you could put your face into a frame to become one of the pieces of art. I'm also including a picture of some of the postcards that we bought at the museum shop.

Golden Week 2018

The first week in May is Golden Week in Japan. (For Wikipedia's explanation, click the link.) In past years, we've taken longer trips, but this year was more relaxed. One of the days, we went to a nearby town in the countryside and visited one of my favorite local restaurants (Brazilian food- BBQ, yum!), the uniquely styled train station next door, and a large nature park with walking paths and gardens.

Whenever we visit Mōka City,
this restaurant is my first choice for lunch.

Creative architecture for a train station that operates antique steam locomotives.

There's a museum next to the station.

Even the clock is themed.

A small exhibit of prints inside the
station included this one of... uh...

Despite this sign's "be careful of squirrels" message, in eleven years I've never seen a wild squirrel in Japan.

The roses in the garden had just started blooming.

No squirrels, but we did see many birds including dozens of herons.

Sunset Rainbow

We've lived in this apartment on the sixth floor for a few years now, and sometimes I take the view for granted. Even though the view is mostly just a typical part of town, in the evening the golden light of the sunset striking the buildings can be beautiful. A few days ago, the sunset was combined with a rainbow to make it even more spectacular. If you look at the right side of the photo, you can see part of a second rainbow near the ground.

Eclipse & Family Reunion August 2017

I'm hoping to start posting on this blog more often again. Sharing photos of last summer's family reunion and eclipse viewing party seems like a good place to start. The eclipse was indescribably spectacular, but unfortunately, due to the limitations of my camera, the photos of the event itself are not so great, so I'll post mostly photos of our activities and interactions. First, the group shot:

Fun and games and food:

This photo is actually from the "pre-party" at Jane's house.

Getting ready and the main event:

Until we meet again:

Shimoda Trip Part One - Kawazu Loop Bridge

At the end of December, we took a short trip to Shimoda at the end of the Izu Peninsula. We had originally planned to take the train, but realized that it would actually be cheaper to drive and pay the highway tolls. The drive through Tokyo wasn't much fun, but the area south of Mount Fuji was very beautiful (Nozomi had to tell me to watch the road, not the view, a couple of times).

We followed the highway down the peninsula as it wound through the mountains and I wished that we had started earlier in the day so we could have enjoyed the scenery more before it got dark. I was using Google maps on my phone for navigation, and as we started to head down out of the mountains, I saw a very strange thing on the map display: it showed the road making a complete circle. Because it was dark, I couldn't see far ahead; I thought that maybe Google maps had some kind of error. We approached the big circle on the map, and then I saw the big circle in the road.

What do you do when the road needs to descend from a mountain very quickly, but there isn't enough space? You build a circular bridge. It was rather eerie in the darkness, but very interesting to experience. We didn't have time to stop and take pictures, so I'm including some photos I found on the Internet.

From...who?

A few weeks ago, Nozomi & I returned home in the evening and saw this note on the door. I had been expecting a package from my mother, so the notice wasn't surprising. When Nozomi saw it, she laughed a bit, and then helped me read it. At the end of the blank spaces after "addressee" and "sender" there is a character that's a polite word for "Miss/Mr./Mrs." Apparently, the postman didn't want to copy full names onto the notice, so it literally says that I am "Mr. Robert" and my mother is "Mrs. foreign country".
Well, it made us laugh...

(We picked the package up at the post office later-thanks again for the fruitcake and gifts, Mom!)

America Trip 2013 Part Eight - Santa Cruz Beach

The contrast between mountains and ocean is almost always striking, and the change when travelling from the Redwood park to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is too.

We enjoyed a great time relaxing on the beach, walking along the ocean, playing more kubb, riding the famous Big Dipper roller coaster, and playing classic video games.

That looks like the end of another wonderful visit with family and friends ... see you all next time!

America Trip 2013 Part Seven - Santa Cruz Mountains and Redwoods

One of our favorite side trips when we visit San Jose is driving across the Santa Cruz Mountains on the way to the ocean and stopping at Henry Cowell Park to see the huge redwood trees. Even though I've visited the park a few times, I'm always amazed by the magnificent trees. Some of the oldest trees are about 2000 years old. Next to the park, there is a western-themed railroad stop and entertainment area called "Roaring Camp". After enjoying a picnic lunch in the park, we continued on to Santa Cruz and spent the afternoon on the beach; those pictures will be the next post.

I used a panorama camera effect, which distorts the photo a little, but helps to show the size of the trees.

Nozomi and Elaine (and trees!)

We thought about riding the train to the beach, but decided to save that for another time.

Old West themed camp and store

We did this the last time we visited, but it always makes me laugh.

America Trip 2013 Part Six - San Jose

The next part of our trip was spent in San Jose. Following the usual pattern, we played games, laughed, watched funny movies, laughed, ate delicious food, laughed, listened to music, laughed, talked and laughed.

Most mornings, we enjoyed breakfast on the patio with a view of the lemon tree, lavender, and hummingbirds. One morning I saw at least four, and sometimes they hovered over the yard and seemed to be watching me. As one hummingbird flew near the lemon tree, the early morning sun reflected in its iridescent feathers so brightly that it looked like a small flash of red light in the sky. It was truly beautiful.

We learned an outdoor game that was new to us. The name is "kubb" (click the link if you want to read more on Wikipedia). We played several games together throughout the week, at the Haggerty house, and also later at the beach during our Santa Cruz ocean trip.

Enjoying the back yard. You can see lemons on the tree behind the lavender.

Playing kubb together.

The Haggertys' backyard is just big enough for a kubb court.

America Trip 2013 Part Five - Casa de Fruta

After a wonderful family reunion in an amazingly beautiful place, we had to say goodbye to family members and Yosemite Park and traveled to our next destination, San Jose. Much of the trip between the two places crosses land that isn't really very interesting. There are many many miles of farms that grow many many different crops, but when you're traveling at highway speed, the scenery starts to look the same after a couple of hours.

One stop along the highway that WAS fun and nostalgic was the famous (infamous?) Casa de Fruta tourist trap attraction (if you want to know more, click the link to the Wikipedia article). I have many happy memories of stopping there during family vacations in the past when we were traveling between San Jose and Yosemite. We stayed there for a couple of hours, reminisced, ate a snack, and then continued our trip. The last picture was our dinner later when we arrived in San Jose, my favorite hamburgers: In-N-Out Burger.

Two very enthusiastic customers!

Everything at Casa de Fruta is Casa de...something, so the children's train ride becomes "Casa de Choo Choo"

A group picture as the Casa de Choo Choo Casa de Travels down the Casa de Track.

The sign that shows you how to go to Casa de.... somewhere...

Can you find the hummingbird resting in the tree? I had never seen one that wasn't flying.

All I can say is: yum yum yum yum yummy yum yum!