Don

At the Korean restaurant on 32nd street

Subway

49th street station from midtown to 32nd street station to meet Don for dinner.

Times Square

I'm here until tomorrow night to give a presentation to my clients on recent trends in accounting and auditing. Times Square is as busy and dirty as usual. I really enjoyed Chicago this time again, and wish to spend more time...

A bug

This little caterpilles scared the heck out of me since Josh suddenly noticed it on my pant!

Hanging from a sculpture

In the Millenium Park

Beautiful

Weather and Michigan Avenue deflected off the bean.

Cooling

From the warm sun under the bean

Water fountain

The water fountains are on two sides of this area, and in between are 1 inch deep water to cool ourselves from the summer heat. Josh and I

Heaven on Seven

This is Jason's favorite breakfast place in Chicago.

On the Chicago River

Josh and I on the river on our way back from shopping. What a perfect weather!

Leaving Tokyo

I'm always saddened by leaving Japan. It's a bit different from really missing Japan, but more nostalgic... The weather during this visit was great. Vi was also great to see my cousin getting married. It really was a great visit.

The second gate at night

The first gate in Asakusa

I've returned back from the dinner and walked through the temple to get back to the hotel I'm staying at. This is the first gate to the temple at night lit up.

All of us

It's been so long since all four of us have gotten together. This dinner was scheduled so that we can all spend time together as we used to as children... Was a very good, relaxing dinner together.

Daisuke and his girlfriend

They live in a different prefecture, about 100km away from Chiba, on the other side of Tokyo. They came from Yamanashi today and they've also just arrived.

my sis and Katsu

It's Katsu's wedding this weekend. He just returned home from running errands.

Uncle

After playing the piano a bit for him, we started dinner as my counsins were late for dinner. He's his usual friendly, warm, and talkative self, and as you'll see in my other posts, the food ranged from stew, sashimi (toro + others), tofu, edamame..... my favorites!

At my cousins' house - the doggies

Riko is the mommy dog (the dark colored one) and the lighter colored one is the daughter, Sachi. They were so excited when I arrived, they peed all over the front porch! They watched us eat dinner...

A street

Still walking towards my cousin's from the train station.

A view

Of the same garden from bother angle. It's serene, isn't it?

A front yard

I am walking to my cousin's gourd and came to the front yard of one of their neighbors. You can see a little stream running in front of the house. I used to catch tadpoles and frogs in the stream.

Another view

Of the rural feel...

My home town

This shows a better feel for what it was growing up. We used to run around the rice fields to catch snakes and frogs...

My home town

It used to be much more rural... But all there new houses are going up. It's actually pretty sad, although it's good for my town itself to have the wealth move in...

If you

Drop something off the platform, please notify the attendant so that it can be fetched for you safely.

The temple

This is the main temple structure. There are places to wash one's hands before one climbs the steps up to the alter. There also are places to cleanse one by covering oneself with incense smoke.

Closer

Picture of the second gate. Note the large red paper lantern, which is fairly typical.

Asakusa

If you've been to Buddhist temples before, you must have seen a five story tower buildings. This is a beautiful Asakusa version.

Asakusa2

This is the second have that you'd walk under before you reach the main temple building.

Another view

Of Nakamise, which is the main street that leads into the temple.

Asakusa temple

This is the main street that leads into the temple. Now, the streets line fairly tacky gift shops so the tourists can buy their souvenirs.

Tokyo subway

This is at the Ueno station. The orange line (my favorite color) is called Ginza line since it was the first subway that was built in the 1800's and connected Asakusa and Ginza. Asakusa is where I grew up and where my mom grew up.

Another

Picture of Ginza's main part.

At Ginza

Ginza's main street becomes open to pedestrians during weekends and many street performers come to life on the corners. Here's a street performer from England.

Ginza

I came to Ginza to do some window shopping today.

Tonkatsu

The best :)

My hotel room

Here's a small, but well apportioned and comfortable hotel room of where I'm staying in Asakusa. I typically stay with my aunt, but since I wasn't able to give her enough time for her to prepare for my visit, I've decided to get a hotel room. This hotel room is so inexpensive, yet walking distance to Asakusa temple, the subway lines, and just very very comfortable. I've stayed before and love it!

School Children in the Subway

I had to take this picture since there were lots of school children in uniforms in the subway. The cute white hats and shirts with navy blue shorts. I used to wear similar uniforms when I was in kindergarten. The teacher was smiling and talking to the kids as of her own. It was such a heartwarming scenery I had to take it...

Mt. Fuji

View from my hotel in Tokyo... I'm not sure if you can see it well, but Mt. Fuji peeked out between the clouds far in the back. The weather turned out to be gorgeous in the afternoon, but a bit overcast for the morning. You can see the tall buildings of Shinjuku area towards the back of the picture.

Cable car

As you all know, my favorite color is orange so you'd know why I love this particular cable car?

Morning Bay Bridge

I'm leaving for Tokyo on a business trip this morning. Although a bit of a rush, I've decided to swim at the cove before the trip since the weather is so gorgeous!

More IGLA Pictures part II

Here are my Tsunami team mates from left to right, Jason, Christophe, Stuart and me. Stuart just swam the 200m this day, and we look so happy together as a team. Thank you Long again, for your pictures!

More IGLA Pictures

Thanks Long for his photographic talents. Even a bad subject can come out better than average ;-) Here's me and Loc waiting for our event at the Paris IGLA. Mori has his eyes closed... ;-( But note the wonderful open roof swimming pool used for IGLA!

The view

From the Top of the Mark

Partner celebration

My best friend Jason took me to Top of the Mark restaurant on Sunday to celebrate my promotion to partner at Ernst & Young. The meal was a buffet style, and in an exquisite cuisine from Chinese to French. It was so incredible after a mile swim inside the cove! Thank you Jason for such a memorable lunch!

The Dolphin Club

The facade. If you'd like to learn more about it, please go to www.dolphinclub.org

The 100 mile sheet

As you can see. My name... is there...

100 mile swim

As you can see, the pictured wall has a paper table that has the members note how many miles they have swum since the official start of summer, with the goal of reaching 100 miles during the season.

The Dolphin Club

The boats to the club

The Dolphin Club

Less squinty, but blurry