Nagasaki

Aonghus and I spent the public holiday in Nagasaki which was well known as Japan's port of entry for all things foreign, a vibrant cultural crossroads, until um, you know. Way to go America.
The first night we ate champon in Chinatown and wandered aimlessly around the hostess lined streets. The next day we put on our sneakers like all good foreign tourists and, as the Japanese say, "went to sightseeing." God bless Aonghus for sharing my love of museums as well as my exhaustion-fueled indifference to ever seeing another piece of Nagasaki porcelain.

happy b-day, lou

In the end, Lou's J-boy turned out to be a bit of a flake, but he was good fun to celebrate with, if a little overwhelmed by our gaijin presence, outnumbering the Japanese contingent by 4 to 3. He might be a flake, but we still love you, dear. Happy Birthday, Lou!

halloween

My monkeys had too much fun and had to go home at the end of the night. And I learned a valuable lesson: Don't ever trust Aonghus to hold your camera while you pee.

Yufu-dake

Yufu-dake almost owned us, but in the end, with the encouragement of fellow climbers("mo sukoshi ganbatte!" "FITO!") and the embarassment we felt when we saw an old lady scaling the peak, we triumphed. Yatta!

Friday Night Lights

Every Friday night, Aonghus meets me outside my office, waiting patiently on his bicycle, listening to techno or something else I would roll my eyes at on his iPod. I can always hear him from my second floor classroom, and I know that it is time to wrap up my class. I get my bike and we ride for a few minutes before we realize that we don't know where we're going yet.

yanagawa

In order to distract Lou from a broken heart, we took a train to Yanagawa, famous for its canal boat rides. We brought along a little friend.