a day in the life of. . .

so when i set up this blog initially, it was with the intention of being able to show pictures of some of the things i was doing and be able to share that with everyone else, but as of late, i have strayed from that original (usually b/c i forget to take my camera places), but i thought today i'd show you some of the things i get to see on a daily basis:



The first picture, is the road that i ride my bike down every day to get to school. the roads here (this is more of a side street through the neighborhood) are very narrow, and there are very few sidewalks, so i share this road with cars, bikes, and people out walking their dogs. not much for front yards, either



since the houses are so close to the roads there are many blind corners, so on just about every corner you'll see a big curved mirror that helps you see who could be coming at you. if you look real close, you can see me taking this picture in the reflection of the other mirror



the third picture is of my main form of transportation . . . my bike. my family doesn't have a car (like a lot of families here), so every morning i hop on my orange bike and ride down the road to my school. it only takes about 5 mintues to get there, and it actually helps me wake up before i have to go teach, so that has cut my need for coffee significantly. . . even though i still need it



the next picture is of sakura (cherry blossoms). Japanese culture puts a very high emphasis on nature, and sakura is a big part of the celebration of the arrival of spring. the blossoms only come out for a short time, and you can even see that the blossoms on this tree are already starting to fall as the tree switches to green leaves, but while the sakura are in bloom the whole country is pink, and actually quite nice to look at.



there is a park that i ride past every morning on my way to school, and apparently it isn't nice to let your dog do his business in the park