I decided to start my taxes this weekend and forego Whale Watching. I'm going to Germany in two weeks for my cousin's wedding and really have to start working on organizing my records.
 
So I stayed close to home for my sightseeing.  Yesterday, I had dinner with Scott and Tom after they inspected my house. They got lost on the way out because they tried to find it on the map.
 
Map reading is a fine art-form here.
1. all the streets aren't on the maps.
2. all the streets don't have names
3. addresses don't relate to streets but neighborhood blocks
4. maps are printed in Japanese and you have to compare Kanji characters with your translation -not easy
I'm proud that I've only gotten lost once but the year is young.
 
We went out for Sushi. I downed 27 pieces and some sweet potato tempura! The indigenous sweet potato was imported from China about 350 years ago and is excellent but there is an export embargo and you can only get them on Okinawa.
 
Today I explored a Zakimi-Jo, 16th Century Castle, a potter's village and the local ValuMart a 24 hour grocery. I came home with some familiar delicacies and some thing I've never seen before. I brought some rolls that I thought might make interesting sandwiches because the bread was green (on purpose not because it was old). It turns out that they are the equivalent of a cheese Danish. One package got bought solely because there were pictures of microwaves of different wattages and a number next to them which I assumed were minutes to cook. I'll let you know if I get surprised.
 
I'm going to limit the photos in my emails to 3 or 4 to speed transmission. I'll be posting lots more on my website including higher resolution ones too. Here's the website address;
www.dr4gums.com
look for the Travel Tales link on the bottom of the page.
 
I expect that I'll get it running tonight and transfer the pictures over the next week so check back often.
 
Sayonara
 
Ray

PHOTOS

Castle 1                                                Pottery

Castle 2                                                    Funeral Urns 1

Castle 3                                                    Funeral Urns 2

Castle 4        lower res                               Funeral Urns 3

Castle 5                                                    Funeral Urns 4

Castle 6                                                  Vistas from Castle

Castle 7                                                        A        F

Castle 8                                                        B        G

Castle 9                                                        C        H

Castle 10        lower res                                 D        I

Castle 11                                                       E