update and more Japan goodness...

I realize I've been neglecting my blog...to anyone who still cares: sorry. To those of you who still actually check every once in a while, thanks, you're the best.

So I don't have too much time for, well, anything, lately as work is keeping me pretty busy. I keep promising myself things will slow down, but it just never seems to happen, and even when a week seems like it's going to be slow, it always ends up picking up and the last minute and somehow I end up working too many hours, no matter how hard I try not too. But I'm not complaining one bit. I totally adore my job and I'm super happy. For those of you who aren't too sure what I do (join the club!) I've been working with the City's Youth Drop-ins getting to know the youth and the staff and helping out when I can (I've been playing basketball a lot lately--good times!), I'm helping with the City's Youth Council, I attend meetings like mad, and I sit on what feels like a billion committees. I also recently had a great meeting with the VP of a high school in the area which I'm pretty excited about...we have a similar vision for how we'd like things to be, so I think we're going to make some things happen for youth starting this fall. Stay tuned!

Anyway, I don't have much time, as I have to get to work soon (yes, I even work on Sunday nights), but I wanted to post a few more Japan pictures. I'm determined to post all my Japan stories and pictures, even if it takes me all year (which it likely will at the rate I'm going).

These gems are from our trip to Miyajima. We paid all this money to ride a gondola up to see these monkeys that were, apparently, off in the forest. Boo. You'd think they could have told us that before we went up. At least they had these here to entertain us. Apparently this is what I think monkeys look like...I look like I'm in pain in the second photo.



This last one is Chaz on the ferry that we had to take to get from Hiroshima to Miyajima. What a lovely moment.