The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

 I've been reading this great series of books recently, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.  Their written by Alexander McCall Smith.  The series is about a Botswanan woman who starts her own detective agency. It's set in the capital Gaborone and it follows her life, the cases she takes and the characters she meets.  It's very nice to read something so enjoyable set in a place I know virtually nothing about.  I've been having some of my students read the graded reader versions of some of the books and they seem to be enjoying them as well. There is also a series of movies to go with the books.  They are all very entertaining and highly recommended.

This is a video clip from the movie series starring American singer Jill Scott.

Check it out if you have a chance!

The Philippines

Departing Nagoya on our way to Manila via Taipei

Arriving in Manila

R & R day at a beach in Batangas province. I was the only one who went for a swim. 

We were working on a large building site designed to house 

4000 families to be relocated from along the Pasig River in Manila.

These are some of the kids whose families had already moved in to the completed phase 1.

 Farewell party song and dance

Our guide/fixer Ving and some of the girls

It was a 30 minute ride in this jeepney from our hotel to the worksite

Me pretending to drive a jeepney. 

Considering the traffic we saw I don't think it's a job I'd enjoy.

Every night we were taken to a different wonderful restaurant.  

Hard at work building the walls.  We completed about 4 houses in a week.

I had only brought shorts with me and had to buy some pants 

to comply with the foreman's "no short pants on the job-site" rule

New Zealand

Auckland skyline

I declined the opportunity to bungee jump off the tower to the middle-right 

This confirms what I've always thought. It really is my planet.

Rotorua hot spring

The umbrella is protection from the scalding steam not the rain

Making the most of my time waiting for the bus south to Queenstown.  

Franz Josef Glacier

Milford Sound

Wanaka

If it wasn't so far from the ocean I think I could live there quite comfortably.

If anyone is interested in learning more about New Zealand 

I recommend checking out "Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby"

Ise, Mie, Japan

Entrance to Ise Shrine

After Izumo Taisha in Shimane the second most important shrine in Japan

Ise, Mie, Japan

A back street in Ise City, Mie, Japan

Ise Shrine 

Apparently, making a pilgrimage to remote Ise (before modern 

transportation made getting around so easy) is the source 

of the ubiquitous Japanese custom of giving "omiyage" (souvenirs).

A mist shrouded Ise Shrine, Mie, Japan

Kashikojima, Mie, Japan

A sleepy and scenic bay known for its cultured pearls.   

China

The Great Wall of China. A friend had told me it would be more

dramatic and impressive than I expected and it definitely was.

It was the off-season and we had this section virtually all to ourselves

Forbidden City, Beijing, China

The Forbidden City, Beijing. It's an amazing place with lots of places

to wander around. It was also one of the coldest days I've ever experienced.

I look a little demented but I'm just looking forward to eating another delicious lamb skewer.

A scenic canal town outside of Shanghai. We missed the bus out there

and paid about $50 for a taxi. It cost us $2 to get back to Shanghai on a local bus.

Asking some local kids for directions. They didn't speak English so we'd have to write

down the Chinese characters of our destination and they'd point us in the right direction

Trying to decide between the watermelon or pineapple. Where is it coming from in mid-winter?

Standing on the glass-bottomed observation deck of the Pearl Tower in Shanghai.

I was hoping it might help me overcome my fear of heights but it didn't work.

One of the street food stalls just down the street from our hotel in Shanghai.

Western Japan

Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan

Part of the bike path from Okayama city to Kurashiki city in Okayama prefecture

Stopping for lunch at a shrine between Okayama and Kurashiki

Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan

Kurashiki back alley

Playing with a deer at Miyajima, Hiroshima prefecture

Itsukushima Shrine, Hiroshima prefecture

Akiko buying a snack from a stand Miyajima, Hiroshima

Tohoku, Japan

In August Akiko and I took a trip to the Tohoku area, the northern part of Honshu,

the main island of Japan. One place we went was a country town called Tono

where we rented bikes and spent a day riding through the beautiful countryside.

A train in Sendai with the the designs of famous locally-born animation, or manga, artist.

The entrance to our inn at Tono.

Taking a break on our day-long bike ride. It was at the end of the

only long uphill section so we were pretty exhausted by this point.

A well-deserved locally brewed beer with dinner at the inn after a long day!

Trying to make sense of the trail map on our bike ride in Tono.

The lonely Tono train station. About as far physically and mentally as you can get from Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Exploring Sendai in mid-August, the hottest time of the year.

Trying not to think of the heat and take it one step at a time.