Hong Kong etc
I couldn't possibly write down everything I saw and did and felt in the past few weeks, but here at least are a few of the major things worth a mention and I'll let the pictures tell the rest... New Years Day with host family. (photo: osechi and sake for breakfast)>> Since my prior stay in Japan was only for the summer duration I missed out on the Japanese New Year. So this time I wanted to go back to ol' Minami Gyotoku to spend the holidays with my former host family in Chiba. New Years included a visit to a local shrine, traditional osechi made by my host mom, and a whole lotta sake. I always love seeing my host fam again but it seems like my visits are never long enough. This time I could only stay for two nights and 3 days because of schedule conflicts. Mari-chan is getting cuter and cuter everytime I see her (and more fluent than me in Japanese) and I saw the emperor of Japan: from left to right- the prince, the emperor, empress, his 2nd son and his wife (th