The Wayfarer Blog

This is a noodle shop sign in front of Takadanobaba Station, Tokyo.

I didn’t expect to be offline so long (again). More on that later. I have to get some sleep.

Summer school at my high school started on Friday. I will go there everyday this week, except Wednesday. I usually take the Seibu Line train (if you look at my pictures, you can see the yellow and blue/gray Seibu Line trains), but sometimes, I take the Tama Monorail. I took this picture of the monorail on the way home on Saturday.

I think I will be taking the monorail more than usual this week, because it will fit my schedule better. And also, it is a change of pace. I can also go to different stations and take new pictures (especially Tachikawa Station, 立川駅, a major station that I have never really explored.)

I have a set of Monorail pictures (from Seattle and Tokyo). I will try to add more pictures during the week.

While another Starbucks in Tokyo is hardly newsworthy (like most major cities, we have TONS of Starbucks all over the place), this one is (as far as I know) the first one in my home station (Ogikubo Station/荻窪駅).

I don’t plan on whiling away the hours here, though. I don’t go to coffeeshops so often these days, and I hardly ever feel the need to go to one so close to home. But I will leave a little early tomorrow morning, just in case they give away some kind of freebies or samples.

There are no shortage of coffeeshops around the station, but I always wondered why they didn’t have a Starbucks around there. It’s a very busy area, so I am sure they will do a lot of business.

When you go without blogging for a few days, you want to come up with something really interesting to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, I really haven’t been up to anything special. Things are going pretty well, but I haven’t done anything particularly exciting.

I had a three-day weekend. I was planning on going somewhere and taking some pictures. But we had a typhoon, so it rained a lot. I ended up mostly just staying home and relaxing, which was good for my health and sanity, but not interesting for my readers. I also took care of a lot of small projects that I had been saving “for a rainy day.” And I slept a lot. I sure needed that.

You might have heard there was a pretty big earthquake this morning. Even though it was far away from Tokyo, I felt it. It was pretty mild, but it lasted a long time. The funny thing is, I could tell it was a big one, even though we were so far away it felt small. Hard to explain.

Anyway, I did manage to take walks, go shopping, and just relax. So it was a nice break for me. Thanks for your patience and bear with me, because I do plan to post more pictures and articles.

I took this picture a few days ago, but just uploaded it tonight. Beauty like this can catch you in the most unexpected times and places. It was just a routine evening. I was returning home from another day at work. As I got off the crowded train at Ogikubo Station, I noticed the sky was purple. I walked out of the station, and took a picture of the sunset.

It was sprinkling lightly, so I guess the sunlight was hitting the raindrops just right (yes, the sky really was this purple.)

This is the opposite side of the station from where I live, but I often come here. (You can see my video shop, Tsutaya, to the right). As always, you can click on the picture to see a larger version.

To all my friends and family in the US, Happy Fourth of July. I will celebrate by going to bed early, so I can be ready for my big day of high school tests and night lessons!

I wanted to find a few quotes by Thomas Jefferson, but I really need to go to bed. So feel free to check this link for some interesting quotes from Thomas Jefferson.

I’m busy getting ready for another round of tests at my high school. (Uggh…be nice, Andrew…) Ok. Anyway, I will do my best to post, but I might not have much time to write for the next couple days…

For now, check out this picture. I thought it was interesting. I took it in Mitaka, when I was on my way to teach a group of students there.