Test...test...hello? Is this thing on?

Good morning friends and family! Well...I'm technashmazoligizing myself here in Japan, and thought it was about time I did some kinda thing where I could maintain a bit more regular contact, albeit a bit impersonal, with the people I love and left back home. I've gotten enough shame-laden e-mails from many of you not to do something to remedy the problem of my infrequent contact with many of you up until this point. I'm HOPING that by having a place where I can put a bunch of thoughts and photos and recent happenings about my life in Japan, I can trust that you will or will not check out what's happening with me regularly depending on your level of interest or lack thereof, and in so doing I won't bore you with more details about blahdy-blah that happened in the nearest rice field last week and I can ask more questions and care more about what's happening with all my friends and pookie siblings and parents back home. I want to write e-mails to you guys with less information and more conversation. See the shmoozy way I said that...? Thank you. ANYways...here I am Monday morning on my day off. I have to go the post office and then perhaps I will patronize one of the nearby coffee-serving establishments for one of the dainty, non-refillable, spots of coffee served in a porcelain tea-cup and saucer. I use the word "spot" intentionally, because that's about all you get. Well, Starbucks is always a stop or two away by train, so for longer periods of quasi-introversion and introspection, I may park myself there. Oh, I have to do laundry, too. SEE what I mean now? Now I don't have to say in an e-mail to any of you, "I did laundry today," because you will already know if you have taken the time to read it here. I'll keep you updated on other household chores, as well. From Friday night to Saturday Jonathan and I went to a bluegrass festival in Hakone. It's across Tokyo Bay and it took a butt-long time to get there. And it rained ALL night long and most of the next day. So it was unfortunate, especially for Jonathan because it was difficult to make the jamming rounds. It was difficult for me jus' cuz who likes camping in the rain? However, due to some already established bluegrass connections, we hooked up with a tribe of people who played in a few different bands. They had rented bungalows in the campground area and they offered us a spot under one of their roofs (rooves? how embarassing...i can't remember...) as well as TONS of food and drinks and tea. People don't mess around with food here when camping. They served us course after course of yakitori (BBQ stuff) and grilled fish and chicken, balls of squid, salad, udon noodle soup with veggies, and in the morning we ate even more. It was pretty fun. And people jammed til way early in the morning. I sang along when I knew the songs. They played a lot of old-time gospel songs (of course) and it was pretty cool, actually, to see these guys totally rockin' out singing "I'll dance with the angels..." I've come to really enjoy bluegrass festivals for moments like those. (Jake you woulda been in heaven). Anyway, here are quite a few pictures from my adventures here so far. To be continued...

Yup, that's me out there. Jinkies!

On the grounds of the one of the most famous and largest temples in Japan. It's in Narita near the airport.

Took this picture as we were walking back down from Mt. Nokogiriyama.

In the stream that runs past the temple.

We were invited to stay the night at a student's home in the country. Her husband is a retired monk and is now learning the art of samurai. He showed us some of his moves.

Makoto Kamada is a good friend of Jonathan. He is a dentist in Japan. He and his family have been very kind and generous to us. This is the shrine in their house. They invited us to dinner one evening. They live in a very old and beautiful traditional-style Japanese home. This shrine is decorated for Obon festival, a season that welcomes the visit of the spirits of dead relatives. Makoto's (Jonathan calls him Mak) father passed away a few years ago, so this shrine is for him.

Sachiko, Mak's daughter, prepares a daikon and an eggplant for the shrine.

Mak's kids caught a beetle for me. SO awesome!! (Check it out, Jeremy!) Here it is about to take flight from my hand.

More former students of Jonathan that we ate lunch with.

On the train heading home from lunch.

Our friend, Saki. She speaks English well and loves to study and talk about languages. She was a linguistics major in college. She and I hit it off right away.

Pix from a day at the beach.

Here I am posing with the longest, most-disgusting specimen of a tapeworm I have ever seen. This bad boy RIPs at the Megura Parasitological Museum. Pretty fascinating and pretty grody.

Odaiba has the World's Tallest Ferris Wheel according to the 1999 Guiness Book, as reported by the lady in the overhead speaker of our car.

Jonny getting geekarific at the ham radio convention in Tokyo.

Watching the stage in the rain.

Pause for a picture during the late night jam. Note the distinguished VIP pass around my neck.

You can't see the rain as clearly in this picture as you could definitely feel it coming down. We felt like lords looking down on the poor drenched peons from our roofed shack up above them.

Hanging out with "Ghostriders" at the Hakone Bluegrass festival.

Taken on the train with my schnazzy cell phone