A few pics for a beautiful day.

There we are at the famous Do Jin bar having some snacks after a rigorous evening of badminton.  It's been a long time since we played badminton, but it was a lot of fun.  I think it would be great to play badminton or tennis regularly.  Now that spring is here we will have more fun outdoors...until summer, that is.  Summer summer summer.  it's going to be a long, hot, sweaty time out here, and i'm not especially looking forward to the weather conditions.  the japanese word for hot and humid is  "mushiatsui".  they have one word that means both hot AND humid, which means that it's hot enough and humid enough to want to save one's words.  or something.  right?  how would you understand that?
Obama is a sensation out here.  His books and speeches are bestsellers, and almost every day i hear a student say "Yes We Can" as we try to teach them how to answer in the affirmative.  instead of "yes i can", they say "yes we can" with the appropriate enthusiasm and conviction, just like Obama himself.  it's weird.  i wonder how he is thought of in North America.  is he still the hope of the nation, or what?  i should just read some  newspapers, but i haven't, and in this moment, it seems ok to ask anyone reading this what North America thinks of Obama.  because obviously you know, and obviously you're in North America.
Our town is locally renowned for its onions and carrots.  here is an onion patch, growing tall and green.  Mandy can't understand why nobody picks them.  they've been growing all winter, and still nobody picks them.  do they sweeten the more they stay underground?  obviously, it's a strong temptation to snag a few, but that would upset the delicate culture of trust that still exists in Japan.  we wouldn't want to ruin anything like that.  
Here we are, in Nagoya, and the overhead road there is an expressway.  when the surface of the earth becomes too congested to drive fast, they elevate the roads.  simple.  just lift it up and drive ABOVE the city rather than crawl around down below with all the traffic lights and other rat racers.  seeing all the high expressways around this city and the obvious pains that have been taken in building them, i mean, they seem impossible, especially at major intersections, it's like the Jetsons or something, spaceships going every which way, swooping around curves and up over stuff, i don't mind paying a toll once in a while.  

and yes, that sentence is a dumb.  but this explains why we don't pay tolls in Saskatchewan.  of course, they might start setting up toll booths and collect money to 'someday' maintain the highways.  that sounds very Sask actually.  in Japan, they don't have to deal with all the frost heaves and such.  
it's like a big claw holding it all up.  doesn't it look like it will tip if a heavy truck goes on one side and a mini is going on the other?  or some other combination?  like a tank on one side and a harley on the other... or like Andre the Giant on one side and Webster on the other...or...