Thursday, March 16, 2006

Nirmal is Here

Nirmal is here – YAY!!! He arrived last week from London. He is so sweet and laid back! He’s been an awesome friend. I’m envious and excited for him because he purchased the Japan rail pass, which will take him all over Japan for one flat price. It’s very expensive to travel in Japan, but you cannot get the pass unless you have a tourist visa. Lucky boy! Silly me, I don’t have any pictures of Nirmal, we’ve been using his camera. I will post some soon.

I was sick this past weekend. I had laryngitis, fever, coughing, runny nose the works. I haven’t had laryngitis since I was a kid. Funny how when you can’t talk all you want to do is talk. I slept and hung out at home for 3 days. I was really upset because I missed the 9th graders graduation. It's the end of the school year here in Japan. I really wanted to go. Luckily, Julian and Nirmal were able to hang out a lot. They went on a sake factory tour, visited Kobe and went to an onsen near the Japan Sea.

Even though I just posted a blog yesterday about wanting to make more travel plans, I had actually written it last week, since then I’ve been putting together long lists of places that I want to visit. My traveling plans are coming to fruition. We are going to meet Nirmal in Hiroshima on Saturday. I’m so excited. We are going to Bizen, Okayama, Kurashiki, Hiroshima, Miyajima and Naoshima! We will be back on Tuesday and I'll try to blog about it soon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi taubs:

Very glad you're back on your feet & ready to roll.

Hiroshima is/was? different from other japanese cities in that it was built from scratch after the war ended. My memories are a little vague, but in some ways the city had the feel of a U.S. midwestern city--Omaha or Dayton e.g.
We found the Peace Museum incredibly moving. Some of the inscriptions from visitors around the world brought tears to the eyes. Believe one of Hiroshima's trademark products is "Kastilya" cake, which resembles sponge cake. You may want to bring gift samples back to Himeji.

Have good memories of Kurashiki, believe Ohara art museum was major attraction. Ohara was a wealthy local rice merchant (could he have been part-Irish??).

Believe we saw Okayama from a train
window & it was then last stop on the Shinakansen. Bizen sounds familiar & we may have paid a brief
visit.

Miyajima is the island where Marco DiPaul & his pals used to go scuba diving. One of the ASIJ teachers (Mr. Moss?)owned a small place there & he was a diver himself. Marc & Andy can tell you more about it if your interested.

I started doing daily home physical therapy for my shoulder. The program
lasts 6 wks, including weekly visits
to the therapist. The surgeon who
referred me thinks I can avoid surgery.
Mom's excited as we're renovating the kitchen this week.
Omedeto Tanjobi to Julian!

All my love to both of you.

Can't wait to visit.

Anonymous said...

Hi.

D