Photos of the Week: Land of the Rising Sun

A quick thanks to my friends Joe and Emily for giving me the idea to post a "Photos of the week" blog. I'll try to add some new pics every weekend or so.

And, on that note, I finally finished posting the photos I took during my trip to Japan in February on my Flickr page. I know that I still owe you some blog postings about my trip to Japan (specifically, the differences I observed between Japan and China), so I'll try to work on those soon (don't hold your breathe). In the meantime, you'll just have to stand by and enjoy these pictures. As a preview, some of my favorite Japan photos are below. Enjoy!


I visited my college friend Brooke in a seaside city called Hamamatsu where she is teaching English with the JET program. I followed her to school one day to check out what high school in Japan is all about. This is one of Brooke's students practicing calligraphy at an English Corner Brooke organized.



I was lucky to catch some of the first cherry blossoms (sakura) of the season budding while I was in Japan. This picture was taken at a beautiful park in Hamamatsu.




Young students in Japan wear helmets when walking home to protect them in the event of an earthquake. No, I'm not kidding.






More cherry blossoms. This is probably my favorite picture I took while in Japan.







Me at a Buddhist shrine in Hamamatsu. These red gates are all over Japan, though I'm not exactly sure what they mean. Special thanks to Brooke for snapping this pic.