Another View of One of the Palace Guard Houses

Imperial Palace Garden, Hibiya Park

Bride and Groom Preparing to Depart

After the Wedding

Two men preparing the "carriage" for the bride and groom after a "traditional" Japanese wedding in Asakusa.

Asakusa Shrine

After a morning of steady rainfall, the sky cleared...

5 Story Pagoda

One of many pagodas in the Tokyo area; this one in Asakusa (Ah-socks-sa). The one in Ueno turned out to be inside the zoo. I had entered the zoo at the end of the day to see LingLing, the giant Panda. I left the zoo to find the pagoda only to discover it is inside the zoo!

Famous Building Along the Samida River

Cruising Up the Samida River, Tokyo

High Rise Buildings Beyond Hamarikyu Garden

Walking through Hamarikyu Garden near Ginza with tall grey buildings in the close distance... Grey skies above.

Green Tea and A Sweet

In Hamarikyu Garden outside Chuo-ku, I stopped at a small tea house and had a traditional green tea and sweet on a tatami mat. I sat on a red carpet with the "food" on the mat before me. I exchanged greetings with several other patrons.

The sweet was a "bean paste." Yummy.

Tsujiki Fish Market

Early morning fish market in Tsujiki. I found a small counter restaurant inside the fish market where I had miso soup and sashimi meguro (tuna) with a big bowl of sticky rice and a small bite of sweetened egg.

Corner Guard House

Beautiful setting of moat and guard house in Hibiya Park.

The Palace

I believe the Imperial Palace is in the background on the right... however, I am not absolutely certain of this.

Sleeping

A man sleeping outside Hibiya Park, Tokyo, Japan.

Imperial Palace, Hibiya Park

Hotel Monterey Ginza

A 13 story hotel in the heart of Ginza, the glitzy shopping center of Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. This turned out to be an extremely comfortable place to stay, close to Yurakucho Station along the Yamanote Line... the huge train loop around the 27 "ku"s of Tokyo.

A Tokyo Skyline Beyond

One of many skylines of Tokyo; yes, that is a swan.

Imperial Palace Moat

Imperial Palace Moat

Along the outer moat of the Imperial Palace, Kyoto within the larger city of Tokyo, close to Tokyo Station and Ginza...Hibiya Park.

First Full Day in Tokyo

One of 12 bridges on Sumida River, Tokyo.

My Hotel

The Hotel Monterey Ginza, a quaint establishment designed by a Japanese businesswoman for Japanese businesswomen. My room is very small, very comfortable. This is my view out of my window on first full day there.

tokyo or bust

next month i am off to tokyo to visit my daughter a bit, explore a lot, and get lost i am sure... i hear everyone (including the local taxi driver) gets lost in tokyo due to streets not being named and buildings being numbered in the order they were built... wow...

i hope to have some good photographs to post... maybe even while i am in japan. i have a heavy notebook computer, but i can not imagine being anywhere for a week without it...

more later...

back once more

something rather extraordinary happened to me this year - i discovered roman catholicism and have converted as of january 30th...

i was sitting on my couch, praying.

suddenly, i asked the Lord to help me to be holy that wednesday... and i realized that i had seldom if ever prayed for this help...

now, something struck me as not right about that fact...

and, having spent approximately 4 mos. exploring catholicism, i decided to accept the truth that Christ did choose 12 particular men to be apostles and later 1 more to lead His church over the years...

makes sense to me...

Chat with Lisa Lui ("Lisal")

Come to Personality Forge and enter as a guest, search the "bot list" for Lisal under "most improved" and select "chat" to talk with my "chat bot" an artificial intelligence "girl named Lisa Lui, who is about 21, in college, and happy to chat with you."

Daughter in Japan

My daughter is the blonde slightly left of center with the big smile! She is in Japan for the next 10 months studying in Tokyo! All power to her! 

His Stuff Moves Out

Today, after a long long long wait, his stuff moves out...

My betraying, sad husband of 26 years! comes today to take his stuff out of my house... after his announcement in February of 2004 that he had "given up on me" (yes, those particular words are still haunting) while he was secretly sleeping with his director of nursing! Uggh.

"I will only take what is mine." So he says.

But, you know, he is a liar. Therefore, how in the world can I believe him?

I am feeling generous this morning... he can have the television he wants, two bookcases, a chest of drawers... I will offer the couch we bought together years ago, the old toaster oven, some sheets and towels if he wants them... maybe even a few dishes...

He must take his butterfly collection and his many pastel drawings... and please! All his clothing and whatever books and papers are his...thank God!

Been A Long Time

Been a long time since I posted anything at all on my blog. So much has been going on in my life that I don't know where to start. I do know that there is probably no one out there who is going to read this, except perhaps the errant wanderer or the friend or family member who may stop by.

MEPKIN ABBEY has been on my mind all week after a 4 day retreat there. What a place - check out their site:

http://www.mepkinabbey.org

and see what I mean.

This is a wonderful, extraordinarily peaceful and spiritually rich place.

odd times off

in indiana again, picking up daughter and all of her things from college tomorrow while my son finishes his final exams 600 miles away at his college... like having my heart split...

odd time off from work, for sure...

that's all...

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