Voyage Junkie

The resplendent view from the window of our train, as we headed back to Gifu on 12/28.

To use a grammatical structure I must teach in English class: this is a hat given to me by a crazy teacher.  Check the accessories, i.e. the bright gold feather necklace and the earrings.  Oh Japan.

This kind of name is far more common in Japan than I'm comfortable with...

Take a good, long look at the name of the cookies/breakfast bars (not sure what they are).  If you can't quite make out the French there, it says "Couque D'asses."  English speakers have an immediate, and understandably juvenile, reaction to this product.  However, if you go into the language, there's a perfectly good explanation.  "Couque" (pronounced more like coouke) means "cake" in Belgian French.  And "D'asses" is most likely referring to Asse, a city in Belgium.  So, while wrong in a few ways, this product is trying to say "Cake of/from Asse." For those of you not convinced, " âne" and "cul" actually mean "ass/butt" in French.  The first word is used in sentences like "He's such a stupid ass," and the latter is used more literally as "butt" or "posterior" and in a lot of sexual instances.  Or at least that's what the online dictionaries tell m...

This amazing statue is in Kobe, on the way to a wonderful park on the harbor.  I just love Kobe so much, and I'm so happy we're going there again in a month!

My friend Audrey and I go bananas at purikura in Okazaki.

Dancing at a Gifu festival.

The back entrance to Ikuta shrine at the base of a mountain in Kobe.

"Don't mind us, we're just putting this back where it belongs."

It's been awhile since we've posted, since nothing typically goes down in Gifu.  Tomorrow, it's back to school for us in a snowy land!  But today, it is fun to see that there should be no bikes and no smoking on the streets of downtown Nagoya... ferris wheels, however, are fine.

I'll let my intelligent readers figure this one out.

Buddhism never looked so cute!

How many animal prints/accessories can you find?

This is a crazy incredible building in downtown Nagoya that houses three creative schools, the specifics of which I forget. I just like the way it twists. It feels like the future.

Japan knows what's up when it comes to fitness. Why look to any other source for body image? Here's the thing, though: this product is an appetite suppressant. So, what does it take to get the body you want? One word: Sacrifice.

Yet another hair salon in the great Gifu. By the way, kuma means "bear."

This is a graveyard in the middle of a rice field, beside a residential area, between two very busy streets with many corporate businesses. This, in a nutshell, is Japan.