Next: Pictures

Call this a solemn promise to download the contents of my camera tomorrow at work- I've got a backlog of pictures and the weather here in the Kansai area is turning absolutely beautiful. The kerosene heaters and kotatsu hot-lamp tables are all scurrying back into the closets at the first sign of spring like surprised cockroaches, and my lament of "it's the same temperature inside as outside" has been replaced with an exultation containing the exact same text.

I spent the last weekend bumming around Kyoto- visiting little cafes, leaping across stepping-stones in the river, enjoying the shock of shrines sneaking up behind me in unexpected places. There are pictures. They're trapped on my cameraphone.

Sunday evening, I recieved some visitors- Jon and Tonia, from Kalamazoo, MI. There's something both grounding and surreal seeing people I knew in the US here in Japan. We took them out for okonomiyaki, and afterwards picked up some dessert from the convenience store to be enjoyed on the sly in a little cafe near Kyoto station. They're staying in the country for a week, touring Tokyo, and I might be enlisted as a tour guide when they come back to my part of the country on their way towards Nara.

The kids graduate next week- for now, there's a lot of free time (as lessons wind down), outdoor lunches, and since the last of the highschool exams are today, the students are all either relaxed or resigned, and as such pretty happy to talk. Some are going to highschools where I know the foreign teachers- I'm a bit embarassed, as they don't speak too well, and it just might be partly my fault.

Planning this week is in high gear for the adventures at the end of this month; Australia and Vietnam. Three days in Oz followed by a week and a half in and around Ho Chi Minh City (nee: Saigon) with possible trips North into the jungles and tunnels. It's going to be nuts: watch this space for more adventures.