Japan Trip

I had previously posted that I would post later about my trip to Japan, but I haven't felt like doing that lately. It was a lot of fun, but I don't know how interesting it would be to anyone else. I don't have any pictures to go along with it because I didn't have a camera. But here are some things I did.

-Visited my 第に故郷 or second hometown. It was pretty nice to see some people again and surprise the folks at the BOE. I spent basically a whole day at a kindergarten that asked me to come as soon as they heard I was there, playing with little kids.

-Spent about a day and a half playing with the nephews/niece of the friend of Mie, who was also visiting Japan with her American husband. The friend was. Mie isn't married. I guess that was confusing, and I guess I also rock with little kids. We built a snowman even though there was only about an inch of snow on the ground. Japanese snowmen are made of only two snowballs instead of three.

-Visited Osaka castle, which was sort of funny in that I'd been there twice and neither of the Japanese people in our group had ever been there. It's a pretty decent castle with a museum in time.

-Ate some awesome okonomiyaki in Osaka.

-Ate some Osaka style ikayaki, which is cooked (grilled?) squid. I don't know if it's actually Osaka style, or if that's a thing, but that's what it said, and it was different from normal ikayaki.

-Ate kitakyuushuu style ramen in Fukuoka at a place called Ramen Stadium.

-Ate yakiramen, a Hakata specialty, from a street vendor in Fukuoka, in the same night.

-Stayed in an awesome ryokan with an onsen for a couple days.

-Nomihoudai!

-All around awesomeness.

That's about it for now.