Self portraits

Thank goodness for the 10 second timer on digital cameras. Otherwise, I wouldn't have any proof that I'm really in Germany. Yesterday, I went to see Berlin as a tourist. I went to the Brandenburg Gate, the Tiergarten and a street called Unter dem Linden, where I had no one else to take photos of but myself.

One of the more fascinating things I saw is bluntly called "Memorial to the Murdered Jews." I didn't know what is was when I encountered it at first. It's basically a maze of evenly-spaced cement rectangles that people can walk through. The start out short and grow taller as you come into the center. As you walk, the stones they sit on weave between hills and valleys, and you catch only quick glimpses of others as they pass through.



It started to rain just as I stopped for lunch (a Turkish Doenner Kabap, which is shaved lamp between slices of bread with vegetables and an amazing sauce, that I developed a taste for in Austria). Fortunately, stopped raining just long enough for me to get home.

Lesson learned: Self portraits are somewhat boring.

Tokyo sights

Since Amanda's flight was cancelled, and then delayed (all due to birds, who would have thought?) Taro and I had the day to bond. He took me sightseeing along his girlfriend, who is a stewardess for Japan Airlines.

The three of us started the day wandering among the shops that cloak the entryway to a giant temple. The street was a human traffic jam, everyone moving in slow motion toward the temple as they peered over the goods in the shops.

Afterwards, we wandered among the grounds of garden and took a "water bus" around the harbor and by the famous Rainbow Bridge.


There was no sight I was more happy to see, however, than Amanda finally entering the airport. We wasted no time in introducing her to sashimi (raw fish) and octopus.

Lesson learned: A water bus has no wheels.