co-workers

I already took photos of some of my co-workers wearing my glasses, but I needed to get the rest.  Here are photos of the rest of my happy co-workers.  I eat my lunch everyday at the pond in Ueno, so I decided to post a photo of the changing color of leaves as well.

leaves changing colors at the pond in Ueno

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USA

England  7777

Reunion+International Picnic

Five years ago, on my second trip to the Philippines, I met an amazing girl and her husband (boyfriend at the time).  We became good friends and she even invited me to come to her hometown for Christmas later in the year. I met her family and all her friends.  Three years ago, when I was in Japan I got to meet her mother.  Recently she was living in Japan, so once I got my job I wanted to surprise her.  However, she went back to the Philippines and will return to Japan after I leave.  Unfortunately I haven`t been able to meet up with her since we spent Christmas together 5 years ago!  On Sunday, I was able to meet up with her mother, husband and her mother`s friends. It turned out to be a very international picnic.  There was lots of DELICIOUS food!!!  I even got to try some food from MALI!!!! The person who cooked the food from Mali was kind enough to put some extra in another container so I could bring it home!!!! It was sooo good and now I have a couple of meals worth of food!!!  On the menu was chicken adobo, fried shrimp, and bbq shrimp from the Philippines.  The dish from Mali was a lamb stew with sweet potato and eggplant that you put on top of rice.  It was so nice because I actually have never met anyone from Mali, so now I have another nationality represented on my blog. And for dessert we had something Indian, jalebi.  Thank you all so very much and I can`t wait for our next picnic!!!!

picnic time minus the mali food

the international group

India

Mali

Mali

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my filipino family

dance time

my new car

Bar Heavy Sick

After the Trick Art Museum, my colleague invited me to go to a concert that some other co-workers were going to perform in.  The bar we went to was called Heavy Sick.  I am sure you can tell what kind of music would be expected to be played in a place with that name.  We had to pay 1,500 yen to enter.  It was a bit steep considering how small the place was, but I guess since there were 4 bands playing it was a good deal.  The band that my friend knew was already playing when we arrived.  They were quite good.  The second band was interesting.  The third band was awesome!! They played really well and were so much fun to watch.  Then the final band, well I`m not sure what words would be best to describe them.  I had to plug my ears to listen to the music and the next day my ears hurt a bit.  Overall, it was a good night because I got to experience bands that I would have normally never listen to.

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Japan

band with 7 people on stage!!!

Portugal

France

USA

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Tokyo Trick Art Museum

I had been wanting to go to the Trick Art Museum for some time now, so I decided to make a couchsurfing event.  The Trick Art Museum is in one of the many shopping malls (Decks) in Odaiba.  It cost 900 yen for a ticket.  They had lots of illusions and great images in which you could take fun pictures.  Some of the images were difficult to figure out, so we had to look at the instructions to see which poses worked best. It was a lot of fun! I wish I stayed a bit longer, but I was starting to get a bit too hungry.  I decided to take everyone to Wahoos so I could get my favorite meal.  It was soooo good.  After that we walked to the Venus Fort.  Then I had to call it a day because I needed to bike back home.  I biked over 36km that day, but I still decided to go to a concert in a bar that night.

the group

the painting of the lady was the first illusion

sitting on a bench......actually i wasn`t

jumped high away from a ninja

lady who worked there gave us some pointers

mirror illusion

Finland

Germany

Canada

me and a crazy neck lady

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trying to catch the bowl

breaking through the wall

help me!!!!

inside the Venus Fort

tokyo dome lights and cs event

After work I decided to walk to Tokyo Dome to see their Illumination (Christmas lights).  Since it rained earlier in the day, there weren't that many people walking around Tokyo Dome.  It was perfect for taking photos.  The first light tunnel I walked through changed lights with the music it was playing.  It was really nice.  After I was satisfied with my photos I walked back to Ueno to go to a couchsurfing event that I went to last week. For my dinner, I decided to try emergency food that my company gave me to bring home.  I was a bit skeptical about the bread in the can, but it was actually good. I totally forgot to take photos at the event, so I forgot to take one participant's photo.  However, I was able to another participant's photo because he was using the same train as me to get to his cousin's house. 

light tunnel

changed colors to the music

me in pink

some of the other lights on display

the stairs were lit up as well

another light tunnel

a light dome

light balls on the water

light tunnel

close up

emergency rice, bread and soup

the group

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asakusa lantern parade sunday/unfortunate day wednesday

On Sunday, my mother and I were wandering around Asakusa and stumbled upon a lantern parade that was only going down one street.  The lanterns were beautiful and quite impressive.  Then on Wednesday morning I got called in the morning to cover for an instructor who was sick.  I actually ended up going to a university that I had worked for in the past.  The building was in the same place, but it was completely new.  It was a shock to see.  The other instructors at the university were great and so were the students.  The teaching part of my day was great, unfortunately the election didn't go the way I wanted.  It was such a downer to the day.  I just went home and had to drink something and eat some tim tams to try to feel a bit better.  Now only time will tell to see what will happen.........

giant lantern

close up

dragon lantern

Australia

Wales

Australia

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what helped me through the night.....