Last Weekend in Nagoya!

This was my last weekend in Nagoya, so I had to enjoy Japan life as much as possible.

Besides the wacky Japan costume party,

I also went to a traditional festival with "sword" dancing.

Check out these silly hats and fancy "fan" dances.

The street was lined with food booths and games for kids to play.

Kerri and her friend, Yuko. 

She is from volleyball club and took me on my first onsen (hot spring bathing) experience!

Little kid parade

Baton performances were really popular.  Not so in-sync, though, as you can see from the pic!

The kindergarten baton girls were so cute!!

Check out this video of the baton kids!!

I love the goofy English song in the background that their routine is choreographed to!

(You must go directly to the website to watch it.)

Here's one school band I could be part of...

How do you get the job where you hold the "Year of the Tiger" banner and sway back and forth?!

Yuko enjoys Japanese dessert.  It looks like a chocolate chip muffin,

but it's really made with black sugar and azuki (sweet red beans).  I passed on this treat.

Check out this video of a bunch of kids doing a Hip-Hop dance. 

One earlier routine was choreographed to an uncensored American rap song, and I'm pretty sure so one knew there was a bunch of swearing going on...  except for me, of course!

(You must go directly to the website to watch it.)

On Sunday I had last day hanging out with Tarynn in Nagoya. 

First stop was a final shopping trip to the giant 100 Yen store (like the dollar store), and then on to an art exhibit that I had free tickets for.

This "art" car is adorable, but I'd like it better if it had black spots and looked like a ladybug!!

Sweet giant pumpkin just in time for Fall!

Crazy flower with an "eye" on you!!

Tarynn & Kerri throw out a peace sign for one last Japan photo!!

I have no idea why the Nagoya TV Tower is lit up green, but it looks pretty spooky!

They should have done this for St. Patrick's Day!

For dinner we wanted to try something new, so we ended up at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, which has been recommended as "the best American food in Nagoya" by an acquaintance of ours. 

After a delicious dinner of nachos, burger, and salmon,

we decided to ride the giant ferris wheel attached to the Sunshine Sakae Building!! 

It was raining, but don't worry the capsules are completely enclosed!

KG takes in the sights!

View of a rainy Sunday evening in Nagoya.

What a fun weekend! 

Pretty relaxing, but still full of plenty of new experiences to help me remember Nagoya.

Now for a busy last week of work and more farewell parties!!

Day in Tokyo with Jess

Jess and I started our Tokyo adventure out at the shopping mecca of Roppongi Hills. 

Here is the "Top Hat Building"

Sure Roppongi Hills is a tall building, but this was a hazy, rainy day!

A pretty cool spider sculpture called "Maman".

The Roppongi Garden is beautiful even in the rain.

The view from the top of Mori Tower was completely blocked from the fog, rain, and haze!!  Such a bummer...

You can barely make out the massive Roppongi Hills condominiums. 

So we moved on the Mori Art Museum instead, where the weather didn't matter!

Here's a cool exhibit of delicate, intricate trees made totally out of fast food and/or retail shopping bags!

It's supposed to remind us that bags really do come from trees.

This looks like a pretty cool skateboard ramp :)

The Toy Story room at the Tokyo Disney Store.

Jess says this is a Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga billboard, but I was clueless...

A funny little store in Shibuya: Condomania, with a motto of "Give Safe Sex A Chance".

Shibuya Crossing in the rain... all of the umbrellas are kind of cool!

The busiest crosswalk in the world!

View from our hotel room.  I did a good job finding this awesome hotel on the web, but finding the entrance in person was another story...  Always tricky since the streets don't have names and hotels don't have addresses...

And my quote of the day: 

You can't say Shibuya without the "Boo Ya"!

View in the morning... Tokyo likes to sleep in!

Thank goodness it's a sunny day.  We are ready for our bus tour of the city!

Check out this neat double-decker train!  I have no idea where it takes you from Tokyo, but I certainly want to go for a ride!

Jess is a true Japanese in this pic.  She's riding the shinkansen (bullet train) and eating a mochi treat (pressed rice with a surprise inside--hopefully not the dreadful red bean paste!)