Another Tokyo Thanksgiving

You may recall that last year's Thanksgiving was a bit of a fiasco.  There was a toasted chicken, burnt stuffing, and a power outage.  Don't get me wrong- it was totally worth it, but we decided to go a bit more low key this year.
It sounds a bit like the set up for a bad joke: What do you get when a Chinese American and a Filipino American cook a Thanksgiving dinner in Japan?  The answer is after the jump.

Wings frying...hey it's poultry- that's Thanksgiving-ish!

Homecoming

It's official.  We will be coming home in the spring, as planned!  There was a while there when I was a little worried things would not happen as we expected, but this letter arrived last week:

Approval for early graduation

So what does this mean?  Just a few more months of hard work (and traveling, exploring, eating, planning, etc.), and we'll be back in DC.  I can't wait to see and catch up with all of you!

Kyoto- the Sights

After living in Japan for an entire year, I finally made my way down south to Kyoto.  I was excited to get away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and maybe even get to see some of Kyoto's famous red leaves.

Sogenchi Garden, a United Nations World Heritage site

Lucky for us, some of the leaves were just starting to change colors.  This meant a nice splash of contrast for all our pictures, but none of the crazy crowds of tourists that will flood Kyoto in a few weeks.

Off to Kyoto

"Kyoto is a very pretty city.  The prettiest in the country, so they say.  The capital of the nation in its day." 

This song has been my personal theme song for the past several weeks.  I was singing it to myself in preparation for our trip last week (sorry to our guests who had to deal with me singing it ALL the time!).  We were only there for two and a half days, but it was great!

Kinkaku-ji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion

It was my first time to visit Kyoto, and my first time taking the famous Japanese high speed train ("soon we'll take the Shinkansen, I can't wait til then.")  Check back soon for a full review of the trip!