Mountains, Gandalf!

Hello, my poor, neglected blog and our poor, neglected readership. As hard as this is to believe, I am well over the halfway point of this semester abroad and time is passing quickly. Near the beginning I would have given a lot to spend a few days back in Evanston, but now part of me wishes that I could have studied abroad for an entire year.

Not to be outdone by Luke and Tom, I went with my program into to mountains to visit Shirakawa and Takayama, perhaps the only parts of Japan not accessible by a super-punctual express train. The region is famous for delicious beef, carpentry, and faceless baby good-luck charms. (Yeah, that was my reaction as well.)

But more beautiful than any of the historic houses or feudal palaces we visited was kouyou, the trees changing colors. Seasons and nature in Japan is more vivid and serene than anything I've seen in America or Europe, and the autumn scenery are no exception.


Tuesday afternoon is the beginning of my nearly week-long fall break, and I'm planning on using it to relax and read, since I've been doing quite a bit of traveling recently. Maybe I'll re-watch Casablanca - I love watching it all the more here because the Japanese subtitles fail miserably. And I hope to write something in the next few days about the trip to Hiroshima last week.

I miss you all, and although part of me is resisting the idea of leaving, I still look forward to winter, and have already started listening to my Charlie Brown Christmas CD.