Technically Monday AM, but Sunday to me still, and I'm home, warming myself by the halogen heating lamp. Quite pleasant, actually. I wanna post something substantial, but I also want to post some pictures from yesterday. I wonder if I have the patience for both? Let's see!

Okay, so it is definitely about 1:20am, so I'm going to do a quick commentary/tag for each picture and then I'm going to sleep. This week has been ROUGH!

Went to a cafe called CENTRAL with Keiko on Saturday afternoon, had some Mauritius Vanilla tea, and bruler with bananas. (Yes, I realize that makes no sense.) Was quite a cool cafe, French and Italian.

This was a neat steel statue of a giraffe in Kobe, I wonder who made it? There were quite a few nice scupltures there; I'd like Em to take some photos when she's here in December.

Kobe Habour Front. Quite pretty, although it was getting a bit windy and chilly when Keiko and I were there. There were rides and stuff which was cool, even a big ferris wheel!

Things in Japan are weird. (If you're just tuning in now, check out cake hat photo and reindeer robber mask.) This is a doghouse that's actually a hollow strawberry. I hesitate to overuse the term, but WTF, seriously? What dog wouldn't feel threatened living a giant fruit?

We don't have these in Canada. Escalators that are wavy or look like a big staircase with moving stairs on it. I thought it was cool, mind you, clearly all the Japanese people around thought I was demented for photographing it.

This mall in Kobe was very pretty, lots of lights. I imagine at night it would be utterly stunning. there were even huge animals lit up: a bear (kuma), a whale, a fish, etc. Poinsettas everywhere, too. (If only I could have remembered that YESTERDAY! Keiko beat me to the punch.)

One last photo: the huge tree. You can see it in the previous picture, but this is a close-up. It was lovely, although the stroke lights were a bit much. Christmas is SERIOUS in Japan.

So, I think that's it for now. I did other things besides shop, like have dinner with Tomoe and stuff, but I'm too exhausted to tell the story now, more to follow.