My Japanese Apartment

Here is my building. The rent costs $127 per month.


This is the entrance and where we park our bikes.


Here's my door. Apparently, at one time the room served as "Sternie's Den."This is a shot of my room.

This is a shot of my room. The rose comforter, pillows, microwave and fan were hand-me-downs from my host family.


All of those cloth banners were promotional gifts from a bottled tea company.


I bought those curtains myself. That window is brightly lit at night.


Here's the view from my window.


This is the shared kitchen. Remember, the rent only costs $127 per month.


Here's our kitchen sink. And a note about cleanliness.


This is one of the stalls in the shared bathroom. The rope on the right flushes the toilet. I *almost* fell down the first time I tried to use it.

Here is a shot of our two washers.


This is where we dry our clothes.


We all shared this device for drying clothes economically.


Here is some of the flora next to the building.

This is my one of my neighbors, a Korean grad student, showing off his cuisine.

Here is my other neighbor, Ryo. He let me store things in his refrigerator. Ryo's goal is to become a Japanese teacher in Brazil.

Here is a view up the street. On the corner to the right is a library.

Kyoto's Fushimi Inari

I got the chance to travel to Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. Inari is the Shinto god of rice. This would have been a great picture of the entrance building had that maintenance truck not been there.

Here is a stone lantern and an orange fence that is outside the shrine.



Inside the shrine there was this good luck ring.


At the beginning of the long series of gates is this building here.


Many gates seem to be sponsored by businesses. The two characters on these gates are there to prompt donations.

Wolves are supposed to be the messenger of Inari so there were a couple statues here and there.

Here are some more gates.

Here is a shot from inside the gates.

I was able to get two trees into this shot.

Here is a map of the whole shrine.

I didn't travel through all of the gates because they seem to go on for kilometers. Here are some gates near water. I took this picture from a hole where a missing pillar was.

Those gates led to a small lake and what seemed to be a cemetery.

Here is a wide shot of the lake.

There were also these purple flowers.

Here is a Shinto statue.

Here is another one with a gong.

Here is a statue of Amida who I learned cares for infants. She is holding one there.

Here is a good shot of Kyoto I took before leaving.

Special Korean Edition

This past weekend, I traveled to Korea by Ferry. Here is the boat I took. It held about 500 people: 499 Asian people and me. We crossed the Sea of Japan.

Here is my cabin which I shared with a number of people.

Here is a shot of us leaving Japan.

My first night, I stayed with my former roommate, Jae Hyeon Park ("Hyeon Blood") in Daegu, the third largest city in Korea. Here is a picture of his apartment which he had just moved in to.

Here is a shot of his kitchen. His refrigerator was delivered the next morning.

Here are some sockets, a basket and a lamp.

My roommate and I ate some traditional and very spicy Korean food. My tongue hurt!

H-blood's school is called "Keimyung." It was voted the most beautiful university in Korea.

Here is H-blood in front of a map of "Hanhakchan" which is is a traditional looking area mostly used for lectures and to attract tourists.

Here he is on a path to that area.

...going up some stairs.

I was told that in this building in which they sometimes hold lectures.

Here is a nice view of a building over looking some water.

Taking pictures was easy at Keimyung.

Here's some Korean lily pads.

Here is a flower and a bridge.

Here is a nice looking waterfall.

Here is another angle of that building overlooking some water.

A nice person was driving me around that day. They did not want to get too much sun.

It was H-blood!

He drove me to this place called Gyeongju which is a very old city.

This building was outside a temple. There's a bell in there, trust me.

Here what I guess is a willow over looking the water in Gyeongju.

Here is the temple we came to see. It was built by a famous Buddhist emperor to honor his parents.


Here is what is inside the main building at that temple. Apparently I was not allowed to take a picture. There was a sign that I did not see. I only found out when some woman yelled, "No photo!"

Here is me with a lucky golden pig.

We also went to this famous Buddhist shrine in the same city. Inside the shrine there is a statue of a sitting Buddha. It was built by the same emperor who built that temple for his parents; however, he built this statue to honor the parents of his past-lives. Here is a sign describing how good it is. You'll have to take the sign's word, because I was also not allowed to take a picture there.

Here is a man explaining how the Buddha sits in a man-made cave facing East.

Here is a shot of the cave.

Here is what the Buddha looks at all day long. Apparently the sunrise is very beautiful.

In the small building in the picture above, there was this going on. I think I was allowed to take a picture.

When I wasn't being driven around Korea, I was taking bullet trains only went 299km/h (I was a little disappointed).

I took the bullet train to Seoul, the largest city in Korea. They have McDonalds too!

Here is another restaurant in Seoul.

Here is a picture of Seoul Tower. I tried walking there until I saw a sign that said it was 4.5 km away. I decided that this was far enough. (Also I didn't have the time)

Here is a picture of Seoul and one star.

Here is a wider city-scape.

Here is an even wider city-scape I took from the veranda of a library.

Instead of taking a taxi to Seoul Station, I took a free shuttle to the Hilton which is right across the street from the station.

It was a very high-quality hotel. Apparently there was some sort of ceremony happening.

Outside the Hilton, I saw this cat climbing garbage.

Here is a shot of Busan, the second largest city in Korea.

In Busan, they have this "Good Restaurant." Unfortunately, it was closed.

Here is a night-shot of the beach at Busan.

While in Busan, I got to see my friend, Brett who is there teaching English. Here is a picture of us hung-over.

Finally, here is a shot of us leaving Korea.