The way to San Jose

Today we said goodbye to Amy and George and got back on freeway 101 heading north. Our first stop was at another Spanish mission (San Miguel Arcangel).



















In our excitement of being on the road again, we forgot to fill up with petrol before we left SLO. This meant we were in the middle of nowhere when the red light started flashing. We are used to regular service stations in Japan and the UK, but there aren't any of these on the 101. We pulled off the freeway at a town called Bradley (population 120). It was not much more than a collection of tatty trailers and a church. A scary white pick-up truck overtook us then vanished. We saw no other people, and this is a photo of the gas station.










We got out quick.

The next town was called San Ardo (population 501). The first gas station looked like this.










Fortunately, the second one was open. Just as well as we have seen the movie with Kurt Russel where one of them goes off for gas in a pickup truck with a local.....and never comes back.

We drove past the town of Gilroy. We spent 24 hours there on the way down at the outlets. We stayed at the classy Motel Super 8.










We haven't shopped like that since we were last there almost 2 years ago.

California

No time for blogging, but here are some photos:

1. Visit to Alcatraz, San Francisco

2. South on the 101 to San Juan (mission)

3. Christmas with Amy and George

Bonenkai (“forget the year” parties)

I could never complain of not having a social life here in Nagoya; in eight days I’ve had six parties. It sounds like a recipe for excess and weight gain, but strangely I always lose weight at this time. I’ll explain why. Restaurants do “bon-enkai” specials for large groups which are shared set dishes. This means I don’t get much to eat. The portions are pretty small and I have to flight over morsels with my (still) substandard chopstick skills. Plus there are always a few dishes I pass on. I’ll probably make up for it in California. I leave on Wednesday.

Christmas in Tokyo

Today we went to Tokyo just for the day. Have a look at my photos taken in Shinjuku and Glitzy Ginza. The highlight was seeing Ebi-chan (Japanese supermodel) coming out of Samantha Tiara (diamond shop) in Ginza.

We'll live and die in these towns

Are there really still people out there that haven't heard of The Enemy? They are like The Jam reincarnated. They are the only band I know of to come out of Coventry. The lead singer looks about 12, but he's great! We went to see them tonight in Club Quattro. The Enemy have lots of fans in Japan - the place was packed and hopping.

Carmen (Georges Bizet)

On Tuesday I went to the opera with my colleagues and over 200 students. It was a compulsory school trip which worried me a bit. Forcing 19 year olds to go to the opera could have devastating effects on future art appreciation, couldn't it? I needn't have worried. The girls loved it, and they understood more than I did (it was sung in French) as there were Japanese subtitles in LED lighting at the side of the stage. I've never seen that before!

Yorosan

I have been so distracted with Facebook (plus other things going on in my life) that I have neglected my blog!

On Sunday we led a hike to a waterfall and three peaks in Gifu. We last did this walk in February in the snow, so it was quite a different experience to see the beautiful autumn leaves in all their glory.