Renae's final final farewell party :(

Today was Renae's last day working at GEOS, so Lauren (my Canadian co-worker), Renae, two students and I went for dinner after work. We all loaded her up with more presents before dinner and during. I'd bought her a gift 2 weeks ago for her official farewell party, but for tonight I gave her a Jack Johnson cd, a farewell card (signed by Ryoko and I) and 2 Japanese style advent calendars for Christmas. (Japan has THE BEST cards ever!!! Very very elaborate and many have electronic lights or music included). As we were leaving and we were putting on our shoes, Renae noticed that a pen was attached to her shoe. We have no idea how it got there, but the incident defines her stay in Japan: full of strange adventures and fun moments. I'll miss her.....
Her final final final farewell dinner is Thursday night, and then she grabs a bus to Tokyo at 11pm, followed by a 10 day trip to Thailand (coup d'etat central) and then home to Louisiana).
Bonne chance mon ami!!

Some more pictures (^_^)

Ok, so here's some pictures of my stay in Japan (about time, eh?). The two pictures of the road is very close to my apartment. I walk down this road everyday to get to the subway. The trees on the left are a forest park called Dainohara Shinrin Kooen.
The castle is in a small town called Shiroishi. It's about 45 minutes south of Sendai by train. I visited the castle in May with my parents and then a second time in August with Ryoko and my friends Renae and Reiko. The castle was open on the second visit, so we got to climb to the top and admire the view of he city.
And the other picture was taken at the top of an extinct volcano near Shiroishi, called Zao. This is the beautiful crater lake called Okama. It was a really cloudy day, so we were lucky to see it for a few minutes before it was covered over again.
I'll post more again soon :)
Not much new here, except that tomorrow is Renae's last day at GEOS (and Thursday is her last in Sendai) and my next baseball game is this Sunday (first one in 2 months).

My first entry in donkey's years (>_<)

So here's my first entry on my blog since last year (if anyone is still checking it). I finally got the internet hooked up in my apartment, and I've found the motivation to try to continue posting info. This is a picture from September 17th, when Sean visited me in Sendai (for those of you who don't know, he's my brother and he's working for GEOS as well, in the Kyoto area).
The occasion was a farewell party for my friend and co-worker Renae (that's her up close to the camera). She arrived in Japan a month after I did and now she's heading back to Louisiana to go back to University. I'll miss her. I had a fun year working and travelling with her and spewing out childish/sarcastic remarks at each other.
And by the way, the Japanese girl sitting beside Sean is Ryoko, my girlfriend. We've been dating since my birthday :)
More about that later.
TTFN