The Weekend Review - to Himeji and the Moon

Didn't really do anything exciting on Friday. Just went to Japanese class and then came home, read for a little while and went to bed. On Saturday, I did another 28 kilometer run to the famous Himeji Castle. My old running buddy and I always wanted to do that run together, but it always scared me. I'm pretty proud I made it! It took me over 3 hours, but I am def going to be in shape for the marathon, the running is REALLY good for dealing with stress and I went to the public baths before taking the train home after the run and my muscles don't even hurt now! It was also fun to try a new course. I passed restaurants my coworkers have brought me to and had forgotten about, had a little adventure when I got lost at one point and had to get directions in an old folk's home and the beauty of the Japanese countryside (ok, even with the Shinkansen whizzing through it) was a treat. Once I made it to Himeji, I walked around the castle area for a few minutes to take pictures and cool down, got some water and food to replenish and then hit the sento (public baths) for a few hours to soak my muscles before taking the train home. Absolutely fantastic afternoon.

I took this picture when I arrived downtown - elated:

Tired but fueled by excitement - I made it!:

On Saturday evening, Dave and I went to see "In the Shadow of the Moon" at this sort of artistic, off-mainstream theater named Cinelivre in Kobe. The documentary, which chronicles our experience with travel to the moon, was really good and I really loved the place it was shown. It was my first time at Cinelivre, but they show a lot of the better American movies (because they are foreign films here...) and tickets are about half the price of a normal theater. I love the movie theater, but I generally don't go out to the movies in Japan because it's so expensive (about $20 USD a ticket!), but this theater is in central Kobe and they also offer both "couple discounts" once a month and a cheaper rate for the late show (21:00～). I definitely want to go again - a few times. You should see the movie, if you get the chance, too, by the way: http://www.intheshadowofthemoon.com/.

On Sunday, I hung out with Dave again, both of us working on papers. We had 3 laptops going in the same room; one with his work, one with mine, and one with classical music. I won't lie - I did get distracted a lot and neither of us got as much as we had hoped completed (especially when I took a very long break to make lunch) but it was a fun day and I made more progress in the evening.

Maybe I should have stuck with sandwiches if I needed to work? Oh well... I've been craving spring rolls for a while so I guess it was worth it. Check out the SE Asian meal I made... chicken and raw salmon fresh spring rolls:

And a chicken and cashew stir fry with sweet rice (learned how to make it at an IFA cooking class!) and pineapple: