Okubo Komatsu

... that they had bought for me. Well, the women we were with wanted to stop every hour or so to shop and use the rest room, about 20 – 30 minutes each time.

At around 7:00 a.m. we stopped in a town called Hida Takayama, “Home of the Japanese Spirit.” It was too early to do any shopping in this really cute town but there was a farmers market open and we stopped and stretched our legs and looked at the fresh foods ...

So my last week begins here in Kanazawa. Hopefully its apparent that I've been having an incredible time. Not too many noteworthy events recently, so instead of listing some mind-numbing details, I just uploaded some fun pictures that I've accumulated over the course of the trip. I posted a decent amount of of captions, so read through and enjoy.

... mom is a real solid cook as well, but the Gaijin Craving is a pow**ful, pow**ful force. Sometimes you might consume meal, but th**e still may be a sort of emptiness in your stomach. As if your stomach w**e a black hole. An object of such incredible mass, yet wholly intangible. Even as you feed this anomaly it remains utt**ly insatiable. I'm not talking about being hungry p** se, just that ling**ing desire for something else. Even as I consume a mass of rice, fish, and ...

... tucked between our legs, we decided to head out to the pier that protruded from the beach several hundred yards into the ocean.
The first incredible feature appeared about 100 yards into the pier. Along the right side of the walkway were piled huge, geometric shapes of concrete. They were stacked several deep for the length of the pier.
At the end of the pier we found a small lighthouse ...

I can't say when it happened. It's not like one of those "light-bulb" moments, a sudden culmination in all your mental awareness. Nope. Slowly you're just right back living like you aren't actually thousands of miles from your actual self. For me, that's the self waiting back in Foggy Bottom, DC. The Japan self, merely a projection, a drone sent to collect data from some extraterrestrial setting. Like I'm one of NASA's rovers combing the Martian landscape, scouring for tidbits ...

... pronunciation is the least of my concerns. Conversely, for Japanese people, English pronunciation can present quite a challenge to language learners. Particularly the L and R sound which in Japanese, from and english speakers perspective, are merged into one conglomeration sound. So for the purpose of this entry, all L's spoken by my home stay will be replaced with an R.

The hunger pangs begin stabbing. Tiny gremlins gnawing at my insides, or so I told myself when I was a kid ...

... Hokkoku Bank and suddenly there is gentle glow burning ahead of us. I begin squint like dawn is coming. Within seconds I see the familiar Saigawa bridge and the fierce activity of Kata-machi just a bit further. I feel of tinge of soreness in my legs and I ease up my pace a bit.

"Lets stop for a moment on the bridge." I call out

It feels good to rest a minute. When the wind is whipping in your face, you sometimes fail to recognize the sweat ...

... There wasn't a single empty seat, but I was more than happy to join the masses of people standing anywhere they could. In the video that I've attached to this post, you'll see there are actually fans who have taken up the onus to be the cheer leaders. Some chants are generally popular, while many are unique to the team and their fans.

When the Dragons were up to bat, the entire section would rise their feet, no question. From the little ones sporting the ...

... br>Now I pride myself on my fair understanding of Japanese culture. Although there are some things you simply can not learn, no matter how many classes you take or ****** 1980's instructional videos you watch. One of those things is proper onsen procedure. So as it goes, I committed my first major cultural faux pas. But before I get into that, let me give you an idea of what this onsen had to offer...

Overall the onsen is a place for total refreshment and ...

... thinking about as I came down from that hill was computers, and digital cameras, and how best to deal with all the photos all of this travelling is going to generate. The Japanese have a great word for that sort of a phenomenon. They call it bachigai [wrong or different for the place]. A bit like the sound of those cars, I suppose. I then walked back into town via Wada-ya to Nagase-ya, enjoying a gorgeous clump of sunflowers in front of what I imagined to be a ...