So, finally getting into more from our snowy new-year's trip in the mountains of Toyama Prefecture, four hours north by car (of good-weather driving) from Kyoto, picking up from the post about driving in the driving snow that ended with a desolate view at a snow-filled parking lot.

We had arrived at a tourist-parking area up the mountain from Gokayama Village (五箇山), a world-heritage site of old houses built in a very distinctive style.

At the parking lot, we entered a small building and descended in to the mountain in an elevator evocative of what you see of NORAD in [...]

The lack of context and clues for orientation make this shot perhaps a bit odd, but for the life of me I have no good ideas for a caption.

Continued here...

It turns out that Anthony's art project, A Fish That Can Suck In Anything, was a more than a hit just here at home. He was one of several who received recognition for interesting, individual thinking in their art project, in the form of an "Idea Award".

The prize was lunch with the principal, who has street cred with the kids (one of the sports-day activities, for example, had him dressed head to toe in a blue-spandex super-hero suit that I would certainly not have the guts to don.).

Anthony said that he enjoy it..... it's normally a bit crazy [...]

The day we arrived up north in Toyama Prefecture at the start of a short New Year trip, it was clear and sunny, but that was pretty much the last sun we saw until on the we came home. We woke up the next morning to find that it had apparently just started snowing hard... there was only a bit of new accumulation, but no let up in sight.

So we headed off to our planned destination for the day, which entailed a drive through the mountains. It would have taken about 45 minutes in clear weather, but since we [...]

The entrance to our home is currently graced with an objet d'art that Anthony made in crafts class last month (pictured here at a bright window in the living room). Assigned to make something that they each thought would be great if it actually existed, he made this なんでもすいこまれるさかな!!! ("Can suck in Anything!!! Fish").

I asked whether it was actual size, to which he replied "No" (you silly daddy!), "It's as big as Kyoto Tower". Kyoto Tower is fairly big – more than 100 meters tall – as can be seen in many of my blog posts, such as this [...]