Photo of the Week

Nagoya TV Tower, as seen from the bottom level of Oasis 21. I haven’t posted a photo of the tower in a while, and recently found this nice angle to shoot from. So here you go.

Photo of the Week

At the temple in Osu Kannon, here in Nagoya, there are a LOT of pigeons. Just a reminder: I’ve got a new photo album up and you can view in HERE.

Photos of the Week : Nagoya Station Illumination

Here’s my attempt at getting some good shots of the towers in their all their Christmassy glory. For low-quality cell phone video, see my earlier post HERE. Much better in person.

Photo of the Week : Towers

In this shot we’re standing in an open-air area of an underground mall, looking up at Midland Square — the tallest building in Nagoya. Reflected on the glass surface are the twin JR Towers of Nagoya Station.

Life is Fast

I’ve been back in Japan for almost a year now. Crazy. I wish I could say I’ve made more progress in my Japanese than I have. But the biggest thing I’ve learned is how to learn. Actually I’m still learning. Hopefully the next year I can apply what I’ve already learned — both the “how to learn” and the actual language skills — and really see some measurable progress.

It’s Sunday afternoon, a rainy day, and with this cold I’ve caught, a great day to say inside. It’s a pretty good time to get sick, though. At school they’re having our annual health checks this week. Yes, my language school gives us health checks; I think it’s a law here. And actually kind of nice that they take responsibility for their students’ well-being like that.

I really don’t have much to say today. I just wanted an excuse to post a couple of photos. I’m thinking I’ll completely can the photoblog and instead just post more photos here. Maybe a re-design would help, though, something that lets me post them at a larger size and really let ‘em shine. What do you think?

The above photo, by the way, was taken at a Nagoya Station subway platform. Below, something a little more peaceful and traditional — yet another shot from the Nakamura Festival. These are dancers from the same group as the girl in my most recent Photo of the Week.

Christmasy Illumination at Nagoya Station

A Quick Re-cap and a Video – on Ice

I’m going away on Sunday and Monday, to Hamamatsu. Hopefully I’ll have some fun stories or pictures or something to share. In the meantime, here’s a video:

Ice Sculpting Contest in Nagoya, Japan. Specifically at Oasis 21. I came upon it after leaving Starbucks and shot some video on my cell phone. Probably the video quality doesn’t do it justice, but it was pretty impressive in person.

Thanks to those who commented on the previous post. Feel free to add your two cents if you haven’t already, and maybe I’ll come back to it with a follow-up sometime. For the record, I’m not worried about my future or anything; just curious to see how things will all pan out for us all, economically, and what that means for people like me.

I have been feeling a bit de-motivated, tired and distracted the past couple of days, though. I think I just need to re-adjust to school again and get back into a groove. Sometimes vacations don’t seem worth it. Anyway, prayers are appreciated; it’s going to be a busy next couple of weeks.

See you next week. That’s a wrap for now.

Robin’s Japanese Apartment, Part 2

I think it’s funny that I posted tons more content more frequently when I was away in August and not even online than I have since. Sorry I’ve been so quiet lately. Not much is going on, other than what I told you last week about finishing the semester successfully. But I’ll try to get back to posting more regularly when my schedule is more regular again.

In the meantime, here’s another video tour of my apartment. I’ve made some changes since the previous one, so I thought I’d show you around again. Enjoy.

Photo of the Week

From the recent Nippon Domannaka Festival 2008 in Nagoya. For more from this and other summer events, see my latest photo album on the Photo Page.

Photo of the Week : Kato Kiyomasa

This statue stands outside a shrine (or temple?) in my neighborhood. It is of Kato Kiyomasa, and apparently the monument marks his birthplace.

Photo of the Week : Romy & Me at Nagoya Castle

This week instead of a picture I took, here’s a picture I’m in. This is me with Asia area director Romy Caringal, at Nagoya Castle. It was shot by a nice old man we crossed paths with there.

Check out my photo blog for more and (hopefully) better photos (better ’cause I’m not in ‘em).

Zach Motts Invades Nagoya!

This past weekend, as I mentioned before, Zach came to Nagoya. I had the task of being his tour guide, which was kind of nice, because it gave me someone to do some site-seeing with (the locals, just like back home, take local landmarks for granted).

We met up Saturday morning around 10 at Nagoya Station. After a brief discussion we decided on three things to do: visit Midland Square (tallest building in Nagoya) and check out the view of the city; go to Nagoya Castle, where they were having a samurai parade and battle re-enactment (which was not nearly as cool as it sounds); and travel to Gifu (the neighboring prefecture) for the Fire Festival, which just happened to be going on Saturday night.

The Fire Festival was just as crazy as the name implies. Basically, a bunch of “bare-chested, sake-fueled men” (as the article read) carried around portable shrine things making lots of noise — typical Japanese festival stuff, but with the addition of fireworks being shot into the air, lighting up lanterns and sending ashes and sparks down on the aforementioned bare-chested men. There were also lots of booths set up selling various food and souvenir items. Zach got a bbq squid on a stick and I bought a huge bbq sausage on a stick; there were lots of things on sticks, now that I think of it. There were also lots of people.

Anyway, here are some photos and videos from Midland Square, Nagoya Castle and even Gifu (where it was too dark and far from the action to get good video on a cell phone but if you look carefully you may see some of those bare-chested men dancing beneath the flames).

Nagoya Castle and the surrounding cityscape,
as seen from Midland Square:

Fierce-looking samurai warriors:

Me! At the Castle:

Me again! On top of a replica of one of the
“Golden Dolphins” that adorn the top of the outside of the Castle:

More fierce samurai. Myself included:

Zach and his squid-stick:

The craziness just getting started in Gifu:

Lanterns on FIRE!

Going up the elevator at Midland Squre:

Taiko drummers at the Castle:

Craziness at the Fire Festival: