Garden (week 11)

The harvest has started, and I'm not even in Nagoya to enjoy.I'm still in Utsunomiya and a friend is keeping an eye on the apartment, taking care of the garden and enjoying all this good food.Although we are still waiting for the watermellon, the garden is actually growing much better then I ever though it would. Currently I'm only using about 1/3 of the total garden space. Next year I will have to plant more things and try to use up to all the space.

Koinobori Magoi

Normally you would see something like this in Japan, around May 5... Cinco De Mayo, to celebrate Children's day, or a day set aside to respect children's personalities and happiness. But now, you can see the koi more often then that in Barryton.I find this really funny, a little slice of Japan in central Michigan. The fish was a present for my parents when I visited Detroit earlier this month for my brothers wedding.

Garden (week 9)

My garden is blowing up, it's actually making food. So far, there are two egg plants ready to eat, Chilies, tomato's and cucumber growing and watermelon flowering.Ironically, I'm not really taking care of it, I've only been home for 36 hours this month and not much more last month. A friend is apartment-sitting and will ultimately enjoy all these vegetables.Next steps will be to prop up the tomato's.

Nikko

This past Sunday I made a day trip on a very rainy day to Nikko. The shrine at Nikko is a beautiful place, here are some photos, I will write more later.This is the original hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil carving.*****I can never tell if the lions are suppose to be scarry or cute.*Bling... one of three most gold covered shrines in Japan. *Larger view of the monkey carving.Looking towards the forest from the front of one the shrines... most of those are the Japan national tree