Of course the picture doesn't do it justice. So here's another sunset pic!
This is Michiyo, one of my co-workers. She made a bowl for her dog, Spanky.
Afterwards, the sensei offered us coffee on the porch. The coffee was served in little cups he made and served on a cut tree-stump. It was the most beautiful coffee I've ever had. And when you looked up, this was the view. 
We stayed there until the sun set, then went to Joyful, the Japanese equivalent of Wendy's.
A few weeks ago, my friend Shinsuke invited me to "Come Fes"...And I didn't even know what it was exactly but I was very curious to find out. So I said yes. Today was the day, and it turned out to be a concert festival. Loads of fun! 
Then Shinsuke's band went on later and that was a blast. He's semi-famous around Kanazawa and has a CD in the Tower Records here. His band's called Cheriwo, and I've uploaded some of their songs here: Romi & Eden . If that doesn't work you can go to their site at Cheriwo (Thanks Erin) Check it out! 
Anyways, it was the drummer's last show and Shinsuke's encore was rather emotional. People around me were tearing up! awwwww....So afterwards, the rest of the bands got everyone on stage and sang a happy song. Like a farewell. It was great! All the musician were dancing on stage and some of the audience were singing along...It might have been a popular song or such. I dunno. Eitherway, I loved every minute of it and felt the emotional high and lows, despite not knowing the people so much. In fact, I think the emotional highs and lows made it all that much better!
In the picture you can see the yellow leg of a construction vehicle sticking out behind the coke™ machine on the right. The mountain in the back is Tate-yama. It's the smaller one of two in Kanazawa. The tall building is a newspaper office and I work near there.
This is a picture I drew the other day. My poor Aloe was reaching off of my balcony to catch a few rain drops.
Today I went to a shrine high in the mountains. It was a rainy day and the mist coming off the mountains was incredible. My new favourite thing is to go visit shrines. There is something so peaceful about them. It's hard to explain, but I feel at ease around the giant trees, and the rattling bells. Today, I was stuck in the rain under the roof of the spring where you wash your hands. There was something magical about the rain and the enormous tree -- maybe around 5m in circumference. The shrine was virtually abandoned and I sat inside the building on the tatami for a long time thinking.
culture tip #3: the Japanese flag is only flown on very grave occasions and certain holidays. So you never see it in public, except on a few international hotels. Recently, it has been flying to celebrate the birth of a new baby boy to Princess Kiko. This is the first male born into the Imperial family for over 30 years. And now there is a guaranteed successor to the current Emperor, which solves some of the political problems Japan has been having recently.
some history: Lord Maeda, the fuedal ruler of Kanazawa built walls around the city and set up a temple district outside the main gate. This area was the first defense against attacks. It would have been very bad karma to attack a temple, so while the army stalls in front of Terra-machi to debate, the city can get ready for the battle. And even then, they'd still have to get past Ninja-Dera, the second line of defense, a temple full of pit-falls, secret entrances, and highly-trained troops.
Daily Forecast: quiet day, not a lot of work. introspective. kind of boring.
This one is unusual for him in that it's an indoor scene. Most of his pictures either have no background or are set outside in the park and streets of Gion.
Anyway, after the museum we kind of got lost and, while walking in the extremely narrow streets of the little town, I discovered this footbath! It was basically just a trough next to the road, where a small hotspring kept pumping lukewarm water. Nice to relax my feet -- especially after the geta ruined my toes when i wore the yukata.
The houses were from the early 1600s, and were village houses. One was where the Landholder lived, the other was their peasants' house and the last was an independent farmer's house. Very interesting.
This is the inside. I thought that there was a simplistic, zen beauty to everything. The Master's house had a silk-worm den, where they made high-quality cloth for kimonos. The den was basically the only fully enclosed space in the house and hovered in the middle, so that you had to climb up with a ladder. A slave slept in there with the worms and made sure to put them back on their hammock if they fell down. The peasants did all the weaving, and created the tatami for the flooring.
On the other side of the houses, while sitting in the rooms with the large sliding doors open, this is the view. The rice fields are becoming gold, a sign that autumn is coming and that they will be harvested soon. Marco Polo wrote that Japan was a land of gold, because when he arrived it was fall and all the rice paddies were shining the colour of gold. And seeing those houses I think I understand, the thatch-roofs also shone gold when I stepped out of the dark interior into the sun.
the girl in the pink beat me repeatedly at darts...and everytime i lost i had to drink some moonshine with a preserved snake in it...........well, the first time i lost on purpose, because i wanted to taste it. but after the first shot i couldn't aim anymore. it slipped steadily downhill from there.
This is the intersection right where I work. In the background it looks like a park, but in reality it is just some trees planted to hide a promenade of really expensive shops. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, you name it. Personally, I like the trees. By the way, there is a restaurant above the blue sign that has sort of become our hangout. The people there bring us our drinks before we even order. And it's got this ULTRA-delicious, garlic-deepfried octopus. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......yummy.
This is part of the main street. The Labro building is a very cool place. They have a shop in the basement where you can get absolutely anything. Imagine the 'It Store', meets a headshop, meets, an art and design bookstore. They also sell imported candy. 
