Busy Weekend

It seems like I have been going non-stop since I got back from Japan, and this weekend was no different.

I played flute on Saturday at a parish that was having its 100 year anniversary celebration as well as its Oktoberfest celebration on the same day. It was a big deal, and the archbishop was there as well as a bunch of different priests and guys from the Knights of Columbus all dressed up in their outfits. It was a big deal. And I felt only somewhat prepared. I played something or sang something on every single song, and also played some solos mixed in. I haven't played that much flute in probably a year and it was a bit stressful as well with all the pomp and circumstance. But it went off without a hitch and I was really satisfied in the end. Not to mention relieved. Whew.

I spent most of the rest of the weekend finishing going through my pictures from Japan. I'm finally almost ready to get them printed! It's really time consuming to go through that many pictures, let me tell you. I'm probably going to only print about 200 of them, but that's still a LOT! When you start out with over a thousand though...

Now it's the work week again and I'm already tired. Not a good way to start the week.

Home Again

I've actually been home over a week now, but between jet lag and emergency last-minute projects at work, I've barely had the time or energy to put away my suitcases, let alone post a blog entry.

I have finally managed to go through some of my pictures though and get a few teaser pics up on Flickr. (By the way, if you haven't noticed already, you can get to my Flickr page by clicking on the "LOOK" link above or the Flickr badge on the sidebar.) I have seven CDs worth of photos, so I'm going to have to be selective and upload a few at a time. I believe I managed to outdo any Japanese tourist with my 1,350 photos. Of course, I'm sure I'll end up deleting probably a third of them since many are repeats or different angles of the same thing. I plan on eventually making a slide show like I did for the last trip, but that took a long time when I had far fewer photos and fewer days in Japan, so I'm just putting some of my favorites up on Flickr for now.

Japan was awesome. It was hard to leave, but not as depressing as it was last time, partially, I think, because I felt so fulfilled on this trip. I saw everything I planned on seeing, I had a great time with my friends and experienced far more than I did the first time around. Overall, this trip was even better than the last by a substantial amount. Don't get me wrong. I loved the last trip. But this one was practically perfect. So many things could have gone wrong--such as the typhoon that only happened to veer away from Japan at the last minute--but everything seemed to go our way. Even the few rainy days we had turned out not to be so bad.

I'm not sure if it was because I was more familiar with Japan and the areas of Tokyo where we spent most of our time, or if it was because of my friend, Shivaindis, was always at hand to translate things for me, but I feel like I absorbed so much more this time. We went to some of the same places on this tour as I did before, but I never felt bored with the locations, perhaps because I didn't get the chance to fully explore them on the first trip. Everyone on the Pop Japan Travel staff was excellent as well, and I really enjoyed getting to know them all.

I can't wait to share more details of the trip, but it is getting late and I'm tired and I have the rest of the work week to get through yet... I hope you enjoy the morsels I put up on Flickr.

PS If you're here because you're a fan of my story, I apologize for not getting a new chapter posted yet. I promise that I'm working on it and hope to have it up soon!