Time flies....

The last two months have been quite busy, leaving little time for blogging. After a while I fell behind on posting things that I wanted to say and felt overwhelmed by the task of catching up, so I have decided to post the super-condensed version of the last two months in an effort to be current.
In August we spent three weeks back in the U.S., mostly visiting with friends and family in the Chicago area, but also taking a three day trip to Michigan with Joe’s family. I’m including some photo highlights of the Lake Michigan beach near Saugatuck, Michigan, the new wing of the Art Institute, and Millenium Park. We also spent a great deal of time just relaxing, hanging out in the backyard with the dog, and enjoying the lovely weather.
When we arrived back in Japan we spent a few days getting over jet lag and organizing our apartment before I had to start back to school at the IUC. School has been fantastic, I can’t speak highly enough of the program here. It is crazy intense and leaves me little time for anything other than studying, but my language is progressing really quickly, and I’m thrilled to have this opportunity.
September flew by and was mostly uneventful, but we did enjoy some time off during the Silver Week holiday. We spent one day visiting the Shin-hanga special exhibition at the Edo-Tokyo Museum, as well as walking around the electronics district of Akihabara so I could replace my broken headphones and another day visiting the National Museum of Modern Art and exploring Jinbocho, the used book district of Tokyo and my new favorite neighborhood. We also spent a lovely afternoon walking around Ginza.
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Lake Michigan near Saugatuck, Michigan.


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Lake Michigan.
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Stormy day on the lake.
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Beyond Golden Clouds, the special exhibition of Japanese screens at the Art Institute.
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Millenium Park.
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The new Modern Wing of the Art Institute. Yes, I am wearing a jacket in August in Chicago, it was chilly for most of our visit. Talk about climate change...
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Back in Japan, the Edo-Tokyo Museum.
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Bikes parked in the Ryogoku neighborhood of Tokyo, near the Edo-Tokyo Museum.
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Kinako ohagi flavored Kit Kat that we had with our lunch of onigiri. This surprisingly tasty Kit Kat was emulating kinako ohagi, ohagi is sweet a rice ball with bean paste and ground sesame, and kinako is soybean flour. I'm not sure how the two come together, if the kinako replaces the sesame topping, or is just added to it, but either way this was one of the better special edition Kit Kat flavors, and was super tasty.
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National Museum of Modern Art.
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A theatre building in the Jinbocho neighborhood of Tokyo.
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Books! Lots and lots of used books! All in tiny shops that specialize by subject matter. Block after block of books for me, mixed in with a few record shops and music stores for Joe, some cafes for both of us, and a great natural food shop that sells wheat gluten "meat". So wonderful....
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Shops in Ginza.
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Ginza.
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More Ginza.
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