Friday FAILures

Enjoy

Time travel to get home...

Well it was a great trip. I am sure you read the post below you know the flight back was great. Anway here are some photos of the trip home (waiting for train and the folks on the plane) Enjoy and goodnight. Don't call me early in the morning, I am sleeping in!

Deacon Mass

The photo above was from the dinner and convocation held in conjunction with tonight's Deacon re-commitment Mass. It was a wonderful event. It was a great night and I was glad I went...even though I was/am a bit tired. Here are some photos from the event. Here is what Deacon Dennis Dorner, Chancelor of the Archdiocese and Director of Permanent Diaconate, said in his invite.

We will be focusing on the 40^th Anniversary of the renewal of the Permanent Diaconate with Mass at 6:00 celebrated by Archbishop Gregory followed by dinner and the AB is also our keynote speaker tonight. We will also be honoring Deacon Loris for his years of service to the community.

Back to work

Well we landed early enough that I able to get to the Deacon
recomitment Mass. I am with Deacon Gayle and Sally Peters...more
later. Oh yes I am tired.

Just woke up

Not sure how these will post with times and all but I just had a great
nap and now we are about to land...time travel is much easier than I
imagined. More later

Peace,
vg

Sent from iPhone

Still no sleep

Darkness has passed and now the sun is back up...still no sleep. Now
it is time to get some help from CVS

Peace,
vg

Sent from iPhone

Night time

I just looked out the window and looked over the "alutian islands"
and realized it would be night time...so much for seeing Alaska.
Anyway I nerd some sleep just can't make it happen...arghhhh. More
later.

Peace,
vg

Sent from iPhone

Getting tired

Well we have eaten lunch...err dinner, and I am a bit tired. We left
at about 3:30 pm and we should arrive berle 3pm...yep that's right we
are time traveling. More later. Peace

Good news

Well this is my first post from the plane, and I have some great
news...the plane is full, but they needed to make some room in the
back of the plane so they moved us both to the front of the
plane...how about that!!!! Well more later. Peace

Last set of shots from Tokyo

Ok. I really need to get done with packing and getting to the airport. Here are some photo. I will give context later. Peace

Bulletin backlog.

This is for this weekend...






...and these are for last weekend...bulletin and insert, sorry about the tardiness.

This will mess with your mind

Enjoy

Wednesday

Well it has been a busy day with lots of shopping; both trough the windows and handing over cash. I was a bit tired from all the hustle and bustle of things so when I got back to the parish I went to the local onsen (technically it was not an onsen but rather a hot water bath, but it still felt good)to get cleaned up and have a soak. I am refreshed a bit and ready to get some dinner and make a few more purchase and then get ready to leave.

Kamakura and Tuesday

The Great Buddha of Kamakura

Ok this will be quick for now...we went to Kamakura to see the many temple and the Great Buddha. It was a nice drive down to the ocean, then lunch then site seeing, then back to Tokyo. We went to dinner, shabu shabu, on the 38th floor with a beautiful view. Went out for drinks afterward and got a great nights rest. Here are the photos and a few panos that I took. Enjoy

Near the temple of the war gods

1000 year old tree near the temple to the war gods

Fish Market Videos from this moring

Enjoy

In this video you see a guy putting the finishing touches on a tuna before it ships out to a middle man, then in the last part of the video you see the step just before when the guy cuts frozen fish in half.

This guy goes after the fish and chops it up old skool with a huge knife!

In this video you see some of the organized chaos that happens when cars, trucks, hand trucks, scooters, mobile carts and pedestrians move in the same vaguely designated areas.

Morning at Fish Market

Well I got up this morning about 7ish and went to the Tsujiki Wholesale Fish Market, it was quite interesting to say the least. I think you could sum it up with the motto...follow the smell, stay for the views and the tastes. I went around the place seeing all sorts of stuff, then ate my breakfast at a wonderful shushi bar, then did a bit of shopping (boots!!!) and headed back. We (Frs. Bryan and Leo and I) are off to see a big Buddha and other things at Kamakura, photos later.

Another day with 12.8 million friends

Well there are about 12.8 million people in Tokyo, and most are ready to get into bed and sleep because Monday is about over and done. For those of you still yet to enjoy Monday let me just say it was great! Well today after some blogging Bryan and I went off to see a few sites. We first went to Asakusa to see the Sensoji Temple. Then went browsing through the shops surrounding the temple, loads of stuff. After that we stopped to get some lunch, well I ate, Bryan was not so into the okonomiyaki, but it was quite tasty. Then we split up to see some of the city on our own. More shopping, more seeing unique stuff, in the end it is still mind blowing that I am here. I did find the edamame game that I was looking for, I am so happy. Bryan and I met up at the church and we went to dinner together...separately. Bryan wanted Italian and I wanted kaiten-zushi. I was helped at dinner by a really nice Korean man, well Korean who was born and lives full time in Japan. He runs sushi restaurants in Osaka and on Hokkaido. Mr. Wonki Yoon is his name and he was a God-send to have next to me at the restaurant. Well here are some photos...and after that a panoramic photo of one of the Temples.

\/here are two shrines at the Sensoji Temple/\

by the way the stuff at the end of this video is whale meat...uhhhhh



here is how they total up for the bill!


More later.

Neat idea for trains

Check out this video, yes I know it is in Chinese but I am sure you can get the gist of it, then you can go to boingboing gadgets and read a nice story about it. Enjoy

Hello again

Well we are having a blast in Tokyo, so many things to see and so much rain to see it through. Oh, did I fail to mention that we are here during tsuyu. Oh my it was wet wet wet on Sunday when we went out sight seeing. So here are some photos and then some description of how we have spent time since I updated you last, which I think was on Wednesday, that day I was crowned Champion of Croquet at the monastery.

• Thursday we had a typical retreat day (well typical for how that retreat went) got up, prayed, ate, spiritual reading for some time, rested, Mass, some exercise. Thursday's exercise, was going to the local pool which also was our daily trip to the Onsen. Then on the way back we hit the donut shop, the technology store, and the 100 yen store (think Dollar Store, but much better stuff) then back to the monastery for more prayer, eating and retreating.
• Friday was about the same, except for the exercise we went to the local mountain for a ride on the ski lift with a short hike. The mountains name I am not sure of but the ski area and mountain bike area is called Panorama. Then Fr. Jay and I went to the Onsen (the same onsen I went to on my first trip to an onsen) to relax a bit before dinner at the monastery with a few invited guest of the monastery.
• Saturday we were up early and then off to Tokyo, with a fine send off from all the monks.
  
• The train to Tokyo was a direct, so about 2 hours and we were in the heart of Tokyo. We made it from the first train station Shinjuku to our home station of Meguro.
• After a brief lunch with the Pastor of the Meguro church, Fr. Leo Shumacher, Bryan took a nap (his back is still hurting) and I went exploring around the area....some fun.
  
• Back to the parish and then out to dinner with two priest and two seminarians. The priest were Fr. Leo, our host, and a diocesan priest from County Cork, who works in Japan at Sofia University in the area of English Literature, Fr. Joseph O'Leary, whom I met in the comments area of Vox Nova. We went to a typical causal night out in a fun little restaurant near the parish, it was a great time, followed up with drinks at a local pub.
• Sunday morning arrived and Fr. Bryan and I celebrated Mass in English and then were on our way to see the city. We had arranged a tour with Tokyo Free Guide, and it was quite nice. We met her at Hachiko in Shibuya. Our guide took us to Mejii Jingu (while there we saw a few wedding ceremonies beginning) and then to Harajuku, then to the Oriental Bazaar for some shopping. We went to lunch at a tonkatsu shop, it was quite delicious. After that it was back to Shibuya for a bit of electronics shopping at Bic Camera. We then left our guide and headed home.
  
• Sunday night we went with Fr. Leo to a huge onsen. It was like Dave and Busters, meets a old time county fair, with a mall type food court, and onsen with everyone walking around in yakuta, oh and they serve beer! More on this place later
• Monday morning I have spent the better part of an hour on this post and I am hungry and read to tour so more later.

Sayonara Jaa mata