Fabulous Chicago

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We spent our 5th anniversary in Chicago, staying at the historic Hotel Burnham at the corner of Washington and State (above).
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The above and below photos are the view from our 12th floor room.
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In the room, looking out the window.
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The following photos are of the architectural details of the hotel. Originally designed in 1895, the Reliance building was one of the first 'skyscrapers' in the world at 14 floors, and has been refurbished to house the hotel, accentuating the original architectural features.
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Above is Joe outside of our room and below is me by the elevators, which are modern in mechanics, but antique in appearance.
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Some of the details of the building, including the stairway and mosaic floors.
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More hotel details.
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Joe at Daley Plaza with the Chicago Christmas tree and the Picasso.
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We had dinner at Topolobampo, one of the Rick Bayless restaurants.
Our first course of tamales.
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Joe with a starter of shrimp and avacado in a cilantro-lime sauce.
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Joe's main dish of pepper blackened seabass with quinoa and tomato consumee and orange air (the bubbly stuff in the middle).
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My entree of lobster with polenta and wilted greens in a red pepper sauce.
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Yum.....
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For dessert we had an apple pastry with cinamon ice cream and a chocolate tart with fresh whipped cream.
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After dinner we had a few drinks at a nearby bar and watched some American football.
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Walking back to our hotel.
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The windows at Macy's (Marshall Field's).
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At midnight we had the windows all to ourselves...
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The clock at Field's (Macy's), but the time was incorrect.
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More goofing around....
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Hotel Burnham at night.
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The next day we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and spent the day shopping around downtown.
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Lunch at veggie restaurant Karyn's Cooked, flautas and a "steak" sandwich.
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Walking back toward the loop from Michigan Avenue.
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Playing around at the bean (Cloud Gate). You can see us in the reflection.
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More bean photos...
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...and some more....
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At the end of the day, heading back towards the train station, I was so happy to see banners congratulating Chicagoan Barack Obama on his win.
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A special shout out goes to Joe's parents, who reserved the hotel and dinner for us as an anniversary gift. Thanks!

Christmas 2008

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We spent two weeks in the U.S. over the holidays, enjoying the cold weather, some snow, and the company of friends, family, and pets. After our long 23 hour journey (which became 26 hours due to airport delays), we arrived in Chicago on December 23rd. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with family. The following photos are from the various get togethers we attended for the holidays.
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Toji 東寺

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I have alot of catch-up blogging to do.
Back on Sunday December 21st we went to Kyoto to do some holiday shopping at the Toji temple market. The top photo is me with the Toji pagoda, the highest remaining pagoda in Japan. The Toji open-air market is held on the 21st of each month to commemorate the death of Kobo Daishi, founder of Shingon Buddhism.
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The above and below photos are of the temple grounds.
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The market has thousands of vendors selling everything from foodstuffs (like the fish below) to traditional paintings, to old kimono, to military surplus, to ceramics.
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Joe near the main hall of the temple.
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Even though it was a drizzly day we had a good deal of success in finding holiday gifts and had a great time browsing the many interesting stalls. In the evening we did some additional shopping and met up with friends for a tasty dinner of Indian food.
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Akashi 明石

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On Sunday we went to Akashi for an afternoon of classical music. The vice-principal at Joe's school performs in a regional choir, and was kind enough to give us tickets for their December concert in Akashi, where they performed Beethoven's 9th. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and also a nice opportunity to see another city in Hyogo. We also enjoyed dinner near the station before heading back home. The photo below is the area around JR Akashi Station from Pastel, the pasta chain restaurant where we ate.
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Kobe Luminarie 神戸ルミナリエ

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After our Osaka day of museum-going and dinner of Indian food, we headed to Kobe Luminarie, a light festival that commemorates the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995.
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We expected crowds, but were greeted by what felt like half the population of Japan. According to the Luminarie website, over 600,000 people shared our Saturday evening, and over three million passed through Luminarie in the two weeks it was open.
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This map shows the area around Sannomiya, where Luminarie is held. We exited at Motomachi station, in the upper left corner of the map and snaked through the path marked by the arrows. The actual lights of Luminarie are only in the dark red area. It took about an hour of waiting to get from the station to the lights.
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We made it! What I love about this photo is not the actual lights of Luminarie, the hand-painted bulbs donated by the Italian government that are exhibited in different designs each year, but the lights from the hundreds of cellphone cameras (look closely at the bottom of the photo).
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The main street of Luminarie. The 2008 theme was 'Infinite Light'. There was also light classical music playing along the street.
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Luminarie has a reputation as a romantic event among most people, but one of my (all-boys Tech High School) classes told me that it is bad luck to go to Luminaire on a date. Joe and I joked that the date problem stemmed from the massive crowds; this was definitely an event that required stamina, patience, and comfortable shoes. Anyway, here is the photo to prove the class wrong, a happy, if tired couple at Luminarie.
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At the entrance to the light tunnel.
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Half way through the light tunnel.
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At the end of the light tunnel (for lack of a better term) was a huge cathedral of lights. We observed from the outside, but didn't have the energy to force through the crowds to go inside. Also, the lights were set to turn off about 15 minutes after we took these photos, so we decided to go catch our train a little bit ahead of the crowds. Overall Luminarie was very beautiful, and we felt lucky to have perfect weather for it, but I think next time I will be prepared for the crush of people and try to attend on a weekday.
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