This past week has been a little crazy. For the first half of the week I was in Japan putting in some long work hours. My schedule of working during the day, grabbing dinner with friends and then staying up most of the night communicating with US colleagues caught up to me and I spent the rest of the week after returning quite sick. Luckily I am starting to feel a bit better and hope to be back on my feet soon.
Collage One, First Row
- Monday night for dinner I had some wonderful sushi for dinner. Delicious!
- I also had some tebasaki (手羽先), which are fried chicken wings famous in the Nagoya area
- Tuesday night I also had more awesome sushi. I had to try to get my fill before heading home
Collage One, Second Row
- The whole time I was in Japan it was ridiculously hot and humid. Some days it was even approaching a hundred degrees.
- Beating the heat was made a little bit easier by the omnipresent vending machines on the streets. You can't walk much more than a few minutes before seeing one so you are never far from a cold drink
- Wednesday night I met up with some friends at an Italian restaurant, Il Grano, for dinner. They had a wood burning pizza oven and it was absolutely amazing pizza
Collage One, Third Row
- Thursday morning I snapped this photo of downtown Toyota City before taking the bus to the airport
- When I checked in at the airport I was happy to have an upgrade to business class
- Centrair Airport has a cartoon mascot known as "フー" or "Who" the mysterious traveller. Cute, isn't he? American airports should have mascots, too.
Collage Two, First Row
- After I checked into the airport I had a decent chunk of time so I hopped on a train to Tokoname (only 3 minutes away) and spent an hour there wandering around. Tokoname is a little town famous for pottery, particularly maneki-neko. Maneki-neko, or beckoning cats, are said to bring good luck to their owners. This extra large maneki-neko in Tokonake is called Tokonyan about 4 feet tall and 7 feet wide.
- Tokoname (常滑) has a sign posted pottery trail which takes you past the tourist sights in the town. One of those sights is Dokanzaka (土管坂) or Clay Pipe Hill. One side of the path is embedded with antique clay pipes while the other (in my picture) is embedded with ceramic sake bottles
- Tokoname is home to an impressive norborigama (登り窯) or climbing kiln built in 1887 with eight chambers and ten chimneys
Collage Two, Second Row
- After returning back to the airport I hung out in the business class lounge before boarding for my flight
- We left the gate at the airport a bit early which was nice. Early departure = early arrival
- I saw some beautiful views of the Japanese Alps on my flight
Collage Two, Third Row
- I had a chance to see Mt. Fuji swathed in clouds as I was flying overhead
- Saturday was my birthday (how is it that I can be 35 already?) and as part of my gift Frank gave me a Roku Box. I don't have cable but I do have a Hulu account and this lets me watch Hulu on my TV among other cool features. Being at home sick it was really nice to be able to veg out in front of the TV over the weekend.
- While I've been sick I've had trouble feeling like eating anything, but eating pie and drinking tea has hit the spot.
