Last post for a bit

We leave for Beijing on Wed and will get back next Mon. We'll try to post pictures sometime next week. In the meantime, here's a random pic. I'm sure you can guess what it's for. I translated the top line and it comes out roughly to 'Disposal is a fun favour'. Yay!

We're currently gearing up for China. Our last work week (and a couple days) is starting up right now, and then we're off to Beijing for a week. The week that we're going is a massive holiday for about 90+% of Japan called 'Golden Week'. It consists of a string of back-to-back holidays, and since everyone's on vacation, it's extremely busy everywhere, and traveling within Japan is VERY expensive. It's actually cheaper to go on vacation outside the country during this time - hence China.

Looking forward to it. Should be making one more blog post before then.

Brian.

The newest little Dyck

Today Laura and I became an Aunt and Uncle. Our nephew's name is Ethan (hope the spelling's right). Congratulations to Dave and Katie. We love and miss you.

Hal

Say hello to Hal.

These are EVERYWHERE in Japan. My guess is they are an emergency station (fire, etc), but every time I ask it to tell me what its purpose is, it says 'I'm sorry Brian, I'm afraid I can't do that'. Meh. Should be fine...

Sorry, another late post.

Getting back into the swing of things for work, though thankfully, we only have 4 weeks until the next break. We went and booked a trip to China, so we're doubly looking forward to the 29th.

Had a lot of fun while my parents were here. Disneysea was a blast, and Kyoto was amazing. Here's a random pic of our adventures in Japan.

This one's from our hotel in Kyoto. A vending machine that offers 'casual frozen foods'. Hot of course. I just loooove that Takoyaki (fried octopus in a ball of batter) is considered casual (though if you're Japanese, it really would be). Enjoy!

Kyoto

Sorry for the late post. Haven't been around much lately. My parentsn have been visiting since Friday. So far, we've hit up the Ushiku Daibutsu and Kairakuen (see earlier posts on each), Tokyo (Shibuya and Ginza wards), Tokyo Disneysea, and now Kyoto.

We just got to Kyoto today. We rode the second fastest type of train in Japan (and the world?). Amazingly smooth ride. Lots of leg room too. From Tokyo to Kyoto in about 2hrs 30mins. FAST.

Not sure the name of where we went, and Laura's taking a nap, so I will add details later.

Brian.

Spring is Finally Here!!

I'm so happy :). It's gorgeous out today, about 22 degrees with a slight breeze. As Bri mentioned, our neighbourhood smells of Froot-Loops. I'm pretty sure it's because of the plum trees blossoming. It's amazing, I just want to eat the air.

I'm also happy because as of tonight, we have a week off. Bri's parents get here tomorrow, which is super exciting! We're heading into Kyoto next week with them. I've wanted to go there since we got here and this is a great season because hopefully the cherry blossoms will be in blooms. Apparently it's an amazing sight.

I got a haircut today. I was really nervous cuz my Japanese still isn't good and not many service people in Tsukuba speak English. Luckily I found a hairdresser whose English is almost perfect! So it worked out-yay!

That's all I had to say. We've been pretty busy lately for some strange reason. Well, busy by Japan-standards, which I suppose isn't actually that busy.

Talk to ya soon
Laura :-)