Land of the Rising Sun

For all of you poor folks living in the Midwest, I thought I would send you a little ray of sunshine. I hear it is cold by you, while this is what it looks like in my neck of the woods:

Here's a shot of the farm/garden that is next to my apartment. Yup, those are pansies that are planted along the curb. They are alive and provide a lovely splash of color. It is still a little disturbing to see plants (especially flowers) living outside at the end of January for this Wisconsin girl, but I am coping. I am continuing to take advantage of my mild winter and run outside a few times a week.

Welcome to Kodaira (the neighboring city and home to my local train station). It seems that every city in Japan has their "own" manhole covers. This one is particularly special, as it has their name and is painted all pretty. The cover below is the regular cover found throughout the area near my station (note the continued flower theme).

Lastly, I was reminded how differently people sometimes see things again last week. I taught a lesson that involved talking about why you prefer the country or the city. At the end, I tried to elicit ideas from students, and I was met with blank stares. When I asked them why they liked living in Hachioji/the city, one of my students innocently said that Hachioji was the country. I was a little shocked by this, as the population of Hachioji is 530,000. I explained that the population of my parent's town (Sherwood) was about 2,500, and that that was what I considered to be country. After a few laughs over this, the ideas started to flow.