Our Kyoto trip was really busy but also mostly fun (minus one day spent in Chinese fire-drill style sightseeing while trapped in the middle of a taxi with my principal and two other English teachers). I enjoyed hanging out with the students outside of school and Kyoto, as always, was beautiful. Many of the cherry trees were still in full bloom and we enjoyed two full days of sunny skies and warm temperatures. Bus karaoke withstanding... I'm glad I went!

This weekend started with another teacher drinking party (man, I'm seriously feeling the money pinch!) then I enjoyed sleeping in on Saturday (after waking up at 4 am on Wed., and 5:30 am on Thur/Fri.). It was beautiful out so I celebrated by- cleaning out my closets! Well-- it had to be done and I didn't feel like getting out of my pjs so I just went for it. I got a lot done and finally got dressed and went for a run around 4 in the afternoon... then weeded a bit. Caught the phone in time to agree to meet Tom for dinner in Matsumoto- I guess the "jumping on trains" fever is going around. Jaclyn and I picked him up and had some delicious Thai food for dinner.

Yesterday we all slept in, again. More gorgeous spring weather so Tom and I did a long bike tour out to the local trail, almost over to Matsumoto then all the way back with stops at the shrine and for ice cream. It felt awesome to be out in shorts and a t-shirt! Later we headed to the bookstore and purchased some Japanese guide books for Northern Japan, which is where we've (finally) decided to head to for Golden Week. I'm looking to do a major-ly cheap trip and hoping that by going up into the backwoods of Japan we'll avoid the crowds. Of course I know next to nothing about Tohoku (Northern Japan) so I've got more than a bit of reading to do.