Kentucky Animals

Nelly and Copper playing tug of war. All the rest are pictures from Jane's farm. She likes animals, but they're more like pets than livestock.

Here are some chickens. I took all these pictures at Gen's request. Normally I don't venture beyond the house. Barnyard animals freak me out. I trace it back to a bad petting zoo experience as a child.

These chickens have feathered feet. They're pretty cool looking.

This is Jane with Gen the Goat. He's a pygmy goat, smaller than our dog. She now has 4, 2 boys (Gen and Gruff) and 2 girls (Pamie and Annie). Jane only gives her animals people names and she either really likes you or really hates you if you get an animal named after you.

I think this is Ed. There's an Ed and a Fred. He got a little too close for my comfort.

This is Julie the cow. Some people might be offended to have a cow named after them, but Jane told me that it's because Julie has pretty hair like me. So I suppose I'm flattered.

Here's a peacock.

This is Big Ben, the farm dog. Jane's other dogs are inside-outside, but Ben is only outside. He takes care of the other animals. He and Jane are dance partners.

Christmas in Tokyo

These are some pictures taken in Tokyo on one of my last days in Japan. That is a tree made of Santas in the Tokyo Midtown Shopping Center.

They have a waterfall that goes from the ceiling down to the lower level, I think it's 4 stories high. They built the Santa tree around the waterfall. It looked very cool.

And these were paper cutouts hanging down from the ceiling. Very, very pretty.

This is the prettiest Christmas tree I've ever seen. This is also outside at Tokyo Midtown. They had a fun light show. Gen and I bought some wine and bread and sat outside to watch the light show. It was a fun night.

That's Tokyo Tower in the background.

So pretty.

This was at the New Otani Hotel in Akasaka. It has a really nice garden and was also lit up for the holidays.

You can kind of see the twinkle lights in the background behind the bridge. They have a teppanyaki restaurant on the grounds of the garden and it smelled really good.

This is the display at the Prince Hotel in Akasaka, across the street from the New Otani.

Also at the Prince. Happy Holidays! I miss Japan!

The Day After Christmas

Every year on the day after Christmas, we all go out to my Aunt Jane's for our family Christmas. We eat Aunt Jeanne's lasagna, open stocking stuffers, and Grandmommie hits a pinata for the little kids. That's me and Kris, waiting for presents and food.

That's Grandmommie with cousin Casey and his wife Julia.

Above is me with my cousins Shannon and Kelly.

Here are the girls collecting the pinata goodies. That's Olivia, Faith, and Keeli. Olivia is Shannon's daughter, Faith belongs to Kelly, and Keeli is Shane's daughter. Shannon and Shane are brother and sister.

All of the stockings lined up on the stairs.

Handing out the gifts. That's Grandmommie, Keeli, Shane, and my mom.

Christmas in Kentucky

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning. That is my brother's dog, Copper. He didn't like his Santa hat. He just wanted to chew on it.

Here's my dog, Nelly, with her sushi chew toy. She and Copper took turns munching on the temaki.

These are some of my presents. The brass sculpture is from my dad and the hat and gloves are from Mom. I wore the hat today and looked very cute. On the left is Aunt Jane's boyfriend, David, and on the right is my grandmother.

Here's the wrapping aftermath.

Some more wrapping. I dressed both Nelly and me in the ribbons. We looked pretty. The dogs had a great time. It was Copper's first Christmas.

This is an ornament I gave to Dad last year. It's on the Santa tree in the family room.

Stockings.

This is the tree in the sitting room. Dad managed to restrain himself this year and only put up three trees.

This is the red Santa family room tree.

This one is my favorite, silver and crystal ornaments in the dining room. For brunch we had shrimp and grits, turkey, fruit, and cheese and crackers. Kris poured some delicious mimosas. Then we all took naps. Good Christmas!

Takaosan Round Two

Since the leaves weren't in full color last time we went to Mt. Takao, Gen and I decided to go again. It was a good plan. This is the first thing you see when you exit the station.

The colors of the Japanese maples were just brilliant.

It was super-crowded. We had to stand in line for about a half-hour for the cable car, so I took a lot of pictures of the surrounding foliage.

This is totally out of order- this was up on the summit. Gen saw one group of girls picnicking and they had brought at least 6 bottles of wine. For 5 girls! And he said 5 were empty. Hard core. I don't know how they made it back down the mountain after that.

This was also at the beginning, near the train station.

I should be a professional photographer.

Gen actually took the one above. I had to relinquish the camera because I was sure I was about to tumble to my death, and I prefer to have both hands when I careen off the side of a mountain. See, Path 1 is wide and paved. But we had a genius idea to try Path 4, because there is a suspended bridge that looked cool on the map. However, Path 4 is neither wide nor paved, nor are there any guard rails to prevent me from falling to my death. I am a teeny bit afraid of heights. Right before that picture was taken, I was paralyzed with fear. Gen heard me whimpering and came back for me. What a gentleman.

See. totally out of order. This was the cable car. Gen said it was much better than hiking up the first half of the mountain (that's what he and Kris did last time).

Gen standing in line for the cable car.

Me on the infamous suspended bridge. I don't know why we never remember that I'm afraid of heights, mountains especially. We continually make these ill-fated forays into hiking.

Good light on that one. I can't take credit- Gen had the camera at this point too.

Tsukiji Fish Market

It took us until November, but we finally got up early enough to make it to one of Tokyo's most famous institutions- the Tsukiji Fish Market. These first few pictures were actually taken at the outside market, which is the retail market. The inside is wholesale. Above are crabs.

These are eel.

Various tuna parts. The heads are in the front. The tail is on the back right. Second from left in the back are eyeballs. And yes, people really eat all this stuff. Actually, one of the best things we've had over here was grilled tuna jaw.

Close up of the heads.

Uni (sea urchin), Kris and Gen's favorite.

Lobsters. The price (2000 yen) equals about $20 each.

Various shellfish. The had scallops bigger than my hand.

I think this is yellowfin tuna.

More tuna. This is probably bluefin.

Here I am at 6:00 am. It was early. And cold. They are breaking down the tunas behind me. We have a picture of one of the knives they use, and it is no joke, about 3 feet long. It was easily as long as my arm.

We had to get up so early because the tuna auctions are only open to visitors between 5:00-6:15 am. They used to be open all the time, but then tourists got pushy and interfered with the people actually doing their jobs, so they were closed for a while. You can't imagine how big this warehouse was. This picture is maybe 1/10 of what was there.

And now a video of the tuna auctions!