So many things to do

1. Write a news article for the Rotary club. Hmm...I should have figured out the topic by now.
Last time for the speech, I di
2. Contact Piak, Por and P'Toon to schedule my travel in August.
3. Write an internship report to Matsumura-sensei and Prof. Jacobsen at Harvard.

Plan for this weekend.
Saturday: one-day trip to Hiroshima: all day is taken.
Sunday: hmm... I should put on some serious study of Japanese at this point, especially my composition skills that seems a little behind other skills, a some lab vocabs. And Kendo practice at a new place.

このごろ、とてもいい気持ちなぁ～

[...sigh...] 色々やさしい人のおかげさまで、岡山で気持ちよく暮らしてるよね。
今、日本でいるのは一ヶ月なったのね、あと一ヶ月ぐらい残って、日本とはなれることを思ったら、とっても寂しいね。

最近、うれしいこと：
1：斎藤先生は、僕をサッポロまで伴って、出張に言ってくださるといった。　スゲェじゃない？
２：火曜日、つい剣道部の野中君と本屋で会って、うちに遊びに誘われた。野中君の友達の俊夫君としゃべた。俊夫君はまもなく来月オレゴン州でホムステーする予定だ。　チャット旗のしかって、色々お互いに(僕には日本語、俊夫君には英語)勉強になったらしい。
３：実験同僚は、今皆ぐらい会って、つきあいをして、楽しかった。
４： これから、毎週の火～水曜、国際交流センターの日本語講座に行けて、うれしい。　渡辺先生はすごいし、二人の外国人と知り合いになった。　スリランカ 人は一人、他人は中国人だ。　それに、プラン兄ちゃんと一緒に帰ってるところ、ある岡山大の大学院してるタイ人と会った。

Onoyama-sensei and Shinkan (the Shrine-keeper)

:-)

A corridor to the hydrangea garden (Ajisai-niwa) with the deity(kami)'s house on top.

I don't know what this is actually.

Unfortunately the main hall is being restored (for 5 years) and therefore the frames and scaffolding structure obstruct the view. So I took pictures of surrounding buildings instead.

Onohara and dan at the gate of Kibitsu-jinja. :-P

Now, in Kibitsu-jinja (a famous shinto shrine of Okayama Prefecture), a view from the hill.

Then Onoyama-sensei took us to Mizutani School , dated back to Edo period (which means it is about as old as Harvard) and referred to as one of the first public schools in Japan. I left my camera in the car....no pictures. However, along the highway from Bizen and Okayama city, there are so many mountains, cedar(sugi) forests alongside Seto Inland sea....and as a result many many long tunnels through the mountains. This one took about 5 minutes to cross, and I remember going through about 10 of them. The scenery was very interesting, the combination of elevated highways, prestine forests, sea, islands and mountains.

Some magic show by Nagayama-san

More bizen-yaki :-P

This is what the bizen-yaki is supposed to be. Look at the dishware and cups, not the food.

A super delicious lunch in their house. (same place we made the pottery)

And the vase I tried to make (on the left). didn't get a chance to glaze and put in the kiln though. (that takes almost a week). They said that the clay (nendo) is brought from the bottom of Seto inland sea.

a cute dog of the Fujiwara.

eiei, as usual, picture of Harvard interns, at ????????

The weekend of June 26, Nagayama-san and Onoyama-sensei took us to Bizen. Bizen is well-known for bizen-yaki or Japanese pottery. This picture is the view of Seito Inland Sea from the place we made pottery. (the house/studio of Fujiwara-san who is also a member of the Rotary club and friend of Nagayama-san) There is also a museum showing his father/grandfather's works which was every awesome. They were such a nice family.

Oops, forget to introduce the notorious three Harvard interns. From left to right: Diana, Dan and me. This picture is at Tivoli (Amusement) Park. Interestingly, this park is subsidized by Okayama Prefecture government. It is designed as Hans Christian Anderson theme park, including an awesome puppet theater and a 3D Universal Studio-like "space travel" thingy.

Ueoka-san, a member of the Rotary club and a kurashiki local who guided our sightseeing in Kurashiki.

I forgot again what this thing is called. Hmm...have to do some research.

We ran across couple during their traditional wedding ceremony while walking in the city. So lucky!

An interesting antique shop :-)

More at the Rural Toy Museum. Lots of Japanese kites, masks and daruma (I forgot to take a picture of daruma, though a daruma recently became by cellphone strap)

Kurashiki main street on the sunny day

a decorative accessories shop near Kurashiki flea market. These stuffs are made from real plants. Ueoka-san then took us to a kimono shop and buy us each a yakata (casual summer kimono) for the festival near the end of internship. The price was dreadfully high. At one point, I had a weird feeling just like living in a kind of movie where the main character realized suddenly he becomes an heir of millionaire, and then there are escorts who take him to luxury clothes- shopping, that sort of thing.

This is the Kurashiki-gawa (kurashiki river) and chuo-douri.

On June 20, Mr. Nagayama took us to Kurashiki, a small city near Okayama. Supposedly Kurashiki is an industrial city but it has a quaint feel of a fususato (home village). The street and river surround by the old residence of Ohara family looks very pretty, though we didn't have time to get inside Ohara museum.

Dolls in the Toy Museum

In Kurashiki 

test 

Okayama

Thursday, June 02, 2005
[Begin: Okayama version]
あぁ、やった！長い間ウェッブに入らなかったなぁ￣。
Yeah! Finally, I`m back to the cyber world. (fuufuu ii nagara)
I`m now in Okayama. People here are really nice to me, esp. Yamada-san and Prof. Saito. Haven`t got to meet the students and colleagues though, and really free right now because Saito-sensei is giving lecture out of town. つまり, work doesn`t start till monday.


[Flash back: Osaka May 29th]
Actually I`ve been in Japan since Sunday 29th. I stayed with Piak and Note, that was so much fun. Osaka is so crowded and modern, once I got into the limousine bus from KIX, I saw the industrial\port sprawl for hours all the way to Umeda which is the northen (as opposed to the southern, to be accurate) center of the city. So many high-rises (not as high as NYC, I guess) but still many many  layers of subways and expressways, and flashy buildings, enormous screen. Piak`s house is in Onohara on the north brink of the city, pretty much beyond the last terminal Kita-senri or Senri-chuo line. (need norikae to bus or 20 mins. walk). The neighborhood is really nice though. (never think of Japanese suburb as spacious and characterless, no way) It`s more serene and cozy, closely packed, semi-traditional style home-like houses =-)

[flash back 2: Osaka 2nd day]
Zannen da naa...I came when Piak was busy, so I went downtown to Nanba (southern center of Osaka) by myself around 9.30 (actually that was really fun, getting around on my own and practice Japanese).  [the bus and subway is sooooo expensive though 4$]. Walking out of Nanba station, I saw a huge  gate and pedestrian way, (again) flashed with neon lights and colors, only to realized later in an hour, these kind of shopping streets almost have no ends in sight. Another surprise is, there were so many people--the young and the salarymen in suits, and even the older office workers--waiting in lines in Namba. They were simply waiting to get into pachinko (slot machine) when they are open. And there were soooo many of these pachinko, almost everywhere in Japan.
Hey, I took so many pictures in my digicam actually but I forgot to bring the transfer cord...couldn`t upload, or even find a new fittable cord in Yodobashi or Nihombashi But now I have a new


[more flashback : May 31st* Kyoto with Por]

[June 1st]
1. challenge--bought a new digicam at yodobashi on my own
2. missed Sukesada-san at Shin-Osaka station

[June 2nd]
1. meet my advisors
2. another びっくりしたこと with Okayama city (is this what you call 田舎(rural)?)

Plus, more photos to c