so i've been too tired to blog the past couple of days. i've been waking up at 6:45am to get to kyoto for 9am to meet up with the kids (cass, chris and michelle) and getting home really late and then going to bed at around 2am...it's like i sleep even less then during the school year! so this is it...tomorrow i'm going home! anyone miss me?

ok, so highlights of the past week...

FRIDAY:
- went to roppongi with the kids at night and then walked to the tokyo tower and took some really cool night pictures (but now that i think about it...i forgot to take the flash off...it might not come out...)

SATURDAY:
- spent the morning in shinjuku shopping in expensive but really pretty stores
- cass called her friend, yasu, who came and met up with us, took us to a ramen restaurant and then took us to harajuku
- harajuku is a kickass place to be...it's where all the teenagers go to shop for stuff (like a kensington market)...aka...you see all the STYLIN' CLOTHING (hahahaha)
- yasu brought his friend, shun and we walked to shibuya for the night life...took sticker pictures...they are HILARIOUS...i'll put it up once i get home...)

SUNDAY:
- went to mount fuji for the day....and saw JACK SHIT....it was raining that day and nothing could be seen!
- BUT...i bought a postcard of how mount fuji would have looked like if it HAD been nice!
- went out for a beer in shinjuku, brought our new friend, bill, with us (i met him on the first day, we were both looking for the hostel and we both couldn't find it for awhile...)

MONDAY:
- while the kids headed straight to kyoto in the morning, i went to see nikko with bill
- saw the most beautiful temples and shrines made for the famous buddhist leyasu

TUESDAY:
- went back to kyoto and spent the day looking at more temples and shrines
- walked the philosophers walk (not the one at u of t) and stumbled upon the quaintest shop where i bought the cutest souvenir...tba...hahahaha
- got tons of mosquito bites (i itch all over!)

WEDNESDAY:
- went back to nara and looked at the kasuga taisha with all these gorgeous lanterns surrounding the shrine...
- saw more deer (nara has tons of deer because in pre-buddhist times they were considered messengers of the gods)
- went and saw the most gorgeous night view of osaka from the umeda sky garden....stunningly breathtaking...(i remembered to take the flash off this time...)

TODAY:
- went to himeji to see the himeji-jo castle (this is the castle that the great anime director, miyazaki, based his movie, spirited away on)
- shopping in the himeji mall! whooo!
- went to visit liz at work...saw her in action!!!!! she's a great teacher!

i will go into more detail when i get home...but i need to watch the last samurai and lost in translation ;p