Last February, Fumie's friend Ma-chan (at left, above) came to Kyoto for the wedding reception of one of her coworkers. The wedding itself was held in the Heian Shrine, and likely limited to only the most immediate family -- it's the reception later on that Ma-chan and other friends would attend.

So, while her friend was at the private ceremony, Ma-chan walked around the public areas of the shrine with Fumie and Anthony, with me and my still-new D200 trailing behind. I posted this picture of the lanterns that evening, but it wasn't until today, 10 months [...]

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I was at Yodobashi Camera in Osaka the other day, the largest camera store in this part of the country. It's something like six expansive floors, selling everything from obscure large-format camera accessories to luggage (but, alas, not the out-of-production AF-Nikkor 28mm f/1.4 I was looking for).

They're a national chain, and internationally minded: the "welcome to Yodobashi Camera" jingle that continually plays storewide cycles among a bunch of languages (at least Japanese, English, German, Chinese, and I think Portuguese. Maybe French too? I wasn't paying that much attention.)

So, with that in mind, I found the [...]

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I went to America the other day, but I'm already back in Japan.

Actually, it was my shortest trip to America, having been there for less than an hour. In fact, I was back in Osaka eating lunch 15 minutes later.

As part of the paperwork for selling my house, a few of the thick stack of associated documents needed to be notarized, so I had to visit the US consulate in Osaka (officially, the Consulate General of the United States of America, Osaka Japan).

I knew that I was getting close to the building when [...]
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Today was Anthony's first "bento day" of the new semester. His preschool started last week, but they were all short days. Finally today the kids could bring lunch ("bento" means "boxed lunch") to eat at school.

As I wrote in the post "It's All About the Bento" when he has his first bento day last May, the bento is a big deal, and Fumie puts a lot of effort into making them fun, easy, and healthy. Today was no exception.

As is normal, Anthony ate the thing clean, down to the last piece of rice. His bento box is [...]

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