A little holiday fun

Well, the fact of the matter is, I love the holidays. It's always been one of my favorite times of the year because I get to spend time with friends and family prepping for parties and celebrations. This year, I tried to infuse some of my holiday enthusiasm into my co-workers and friends. Some of the pictures below are in preparation for a Christmas party I had. I put people to work making snowflakes for decorations. Sometimes, simple crafts are the best!
Here's the Christmas cake I picked up from a fabulous French pastry shop.
To get in the holiday spirit, a friend and I watched a concert put on by our students. They were excellent!



There is an after school English conversation group and we had a little Christmas party complete with cookie decorating (above) and caroling (below).

Stay tuned for shots of the New Year. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

New Term

Yes, it is that time. A new term begins tomorrow, which invariably means I will not be posting for a little while... stay tuned... even for a couple of weeks/months!

Saipan-Sunsets

These are various shots taken from the beach and from the sunset sail.





This next sequence was taken on the flight back to Japan :( A few more days on the island would have been fantastic. Especially when the weather in Kanazawa is cold, rainy and just all around dreary.

Saipan-Entertainment

Our vacation wasn't what you would call "adventure-packed"; there was no mountain biking, para-sailing or banana boat rides... on the contrary it was very relaxing and niiiiiicccce. One night we took a sunset "cruise". That is our boat pictured below.


On another evening, we went to a dinner show, where we saw Chomorro dances and fire poi.

Saipan- Fauna and Flora

Saipan- The Beach

Saipan-Getting there

As many of you know, I took quick 5 day break in Saipan. We left on NW Airs on Tuesday morning...

Here's a shot from the plane.Ah, there's my destination. Saipan. I was only there for 5 days, which of course, proved to be too short of a time.
I stayed at the Palms Resort Hotel. I had no idea what our hotel looked like, so when I saw this from the road I thought "damn, that place is pretty swanky" and I nearly fell out of my seat on the bus when we pulled in and I realized "damn, that's where I'm staying!"


The following pictures are views from the hotel. Below is the view from my balcony. Not bad, eh?
This is a shot of the mountains from the walkway.
A lovely chapel was part of the hotel, for any folks interested in a destination wedding.
The hotel came complete with a lagoon where tropical fish and reef sharks lived, a botanical garden, restaurants, cafes, kiosks, you know, the "normal" hotel/resort amenities.