it was a good trip to japan for many reasons.

(1) hanging with tyler and mihoko. 

(2) meeting their friends.

(3) eating gourmet brunches that mihoko made every day.

(4) seeing tokyo and loving everything i saw.

(5) walking through the parks. feeling so far from the city, while still being right in the city.

(6) breathing in fresh air.

(7) cozying it up at their place, which felt like home.

even though our move to korea makes us a plane ride away, we wish we still lived even closer to tyler and mihoko. 

we went to a zoo near tyler and mihoko's place. we saw the oldest elephant in japan and also, animals very common in the states: cows, deer, squirrels and raccoons.

we stopped by this one-room, one-table restaurant for a cold refreshment.

to get to tyler and mihoko's place, you have to walk through an amazing park, filled with so much to see and do. swan-paddle-boats, ice cream (flavors like brown rice), a small buddhist shrine, a giant stream or a bicycle made out of balloons. pretty amazing, i'd say.

the meiji shrine in shabuya, tokyo is beautiful. the white detailing against the natural wood seemed more colorful to me than many of the ornate and painted shrines and temples i've seen. 

a restaurant that served 1950 japanese style food. we had pitchers of beer in large metal teapots, fried frog legs, octopus balls, other fried treats and the most crowd pleasing...vanilla ice cream in a rubber-balloon-type-thing that you sucked out of one end. (it was, by far, the most embarrassing way to eat ice cream for all of us).

today was a good day. it's my last day of teaching before christmas break. but more importantly, i got to spend the early afternoon with jiwon, a friend from the CCAC. jiwon was a huge help and support before moving to korea. so it was nice to catch up, talk about korea, families and anything else we could try and fit in the little hours we had together.

a part of home. that's what it felt like. thanks, jiwon....for meeting me during your amazing-race-vacation-in-korea, treating me to lunch, and being a good friend. it always seems too short when we spend time with each other, but we somehow fit a lot in.  i owe you lunch. so i guess you'll have to make another visit in 2009.

sidenote #1: ding dong is a traveling-themed cafe, and where we come for french toast, cafe lattes and zachary's favorite....the ding dong sausage meal. 

sidenote #2: last photo...smoking section for the tiny?

sidenote #3: today, a cab driver tried to rip me off with my fare, yelled at me, and then gave me a stick of gum. i was mad, but the gum was delicious, i won't lie.

every. single. student at the hagwon has a pencil case, but never an ordinary pencil case. oh no. each one is either cute, odd, food-related...or a combo of all three. i've included my top 5.

(1) heather's bunny is the most adorable, especially when lying flat with it's tummy unzipped and the littlest pencils and erasures peeking out of it.  the bunny is always smiling at me in the front row. (i've been very tempted to steal it.) the best part: heather looks exactly like her bunny.

(2) calvin has a chalkboard that he uses to remind him how much he's obsessed with world wrestling entertainment. (i love that he has "carlito" written on it).

(3) donovan's backpack case=size of a hand. 

(4) yes, a milk carton. jenny has a collection of pencil cases that she switches out on a weekly basis. the milk carton is, by far, her best.

(5) i love kit kats. i've never tried a peanut butter & strawberry kikat. neither has ally. thankfully, it just holds her school supplies.

on cold nights, we find ourselves at oi, and all-white bar with heated floors and chi-chi's.