Final week in a nutshell...

I am going to keep this short because I have a lot to do (as you will see)... here's what my final week in Japan looks like, first starting with the past weekend:

Saturday: Went to see Ume no ki (plum blossoms) with Hara-san... very pretty! I think it may have been a few days too early to see them, but the ones we saw were still beautiful. (See picture)

Sunday: Went to breakfast with Casey at this cute little place that serves waffles... yuuummm! Then we went to Shinsaibashi and did some gift shopping. We also managed to find a Shakey's for lunch so we ate there (Gopal and Jeff, if you are reading this... we can't figure out how you missed that place! Guess you'll just have to come back and see it!!) :) We then ended up near America-mura, which is basically like a shopping area that is set up kind of like America, in a way... the funny thing is that it is the dirtiest place I think I have seen in Japan so far, so it did feel a little more like home. :P There was graffiti on the walls, and Casey and I accidently stepped in someone's vomit. Yep, just like home! That was gross... sorry. Back to the 'nutshell'... we met one of the guys from the lab in Nara last night and saw a fire festival which was really neat. Casey and I bought a tripod on Saturday, thinking that we'd be able to use it last night, but it didn't work out. There were too many people and the tripod wasn't tall enough. So instead, I volunteered to let Casey put the camera on my head for stability and that seemed to work out. I'll post one of the pictures from last night.. he did an awesome job at taking them, I think! Basically, a monk with a huge torch walks around the balcony of this temple and if you hold the shutter open long enough, the place looks like it's on fire. Toward the end of the month, there will be more torches to the whole place should look orange. :) Anyway, I'm not sure of the reason behind this, but it was still pretty cool to watch.

On with my plans of the week. Today, I am meeting Yanagi-san around 1 and traveling with her to Kyoto. We are going to sightsee and watch a bunraku performance this evening. It should be a good time! I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.
Tuesday I am going to go to a park with Tomoko and her son Haru, so I can take pictures of him. I wanted to do that for her and give her the pictures as a "thank you" gift for all of her help. She told me a long time ago that she doesn't have many pictures of him, so I thought this might be a good opportunity.
Wednesday, I am going to my Japanese class and then making sushi rolls with Yanagi-san and Tanaka-san. I am excited to learn that so I can go home and make them on my own! It should be fun... but that's also the day I have to say goodbye to everyone in the International student office, so I think it could be sad. I didn't cry on Friday so hopefully I won't cry then either.
Thursday, Casey *might* take off work. We are going to meet Mihiro for lunch at the Nepali Kitchen at noon, and after that we don't have many plans. Except packing... can't forget to work that in there somewhere. :)
Friday, my flight leaves at 1:15. This week's going to fly by...

I'll be sure to write more later... I don't want to have to update everything when I get back to the US because I probably will forget quite a bit of it. :)

-Ashley