This picture was taken by another teacher who has visited the Kyoto area. It shows the colors even better.

An unexpected farewell at the Narita Airport as Colleen and Amber headed home 2 weeks early when her mom had a severe heart attack. I will be staying until the end of the contract on Dec. 17th.

The yellows are the last colors to show up.

Some of the December colors by our university.

Jim with Josh and Tomomi's baby, Erin,

Jennifer is an American who is married to this Japanese fellow.













We had our meal at Josh and Tomomi's and they have a new born baby girl who is only 7 weeks old. We taught with Josh first term and he is also an American.

We celebrated American Thanksgiving with friends that we met through teaching. We even had a small turkey with cranberry sauce.

Hakone was a very picturesque place with streams flowing through it.

It was about 4:00 pm when we took these pictures. It gets dark by 5:00 in Japan.













A view from the street where we went shopping. This region of the country is very hilly.

On our way back from Nagoya we stopped at a small town near Mount Fuji and went for a walk and to look in the shop. The name of the town is Hakone.

This is a glimpse of Mount Fuji. This picture was taken from the train on the way back from Nagoya. It's not very clear but you can see the tip of the mountain above the clouds.

This is a picture from the second floor balcony of the house we stayed in. There is a rice paddy right in the middle of a residential area, this is quite common.











A different view of their yard. I don't know why but I was amazed that there were palm trees in Japan.














A view of the house from the street.















This is the couple that owned the house , their hospitality was great.












Jim playing with his favorite animal.