Life After New York: June 2006

Picnic in Petersfield

Today, on our way to pick up the cats from the cattery, we stopped off at a National Trust park for a picnic.

England is blessed with countless rolling hills of endless green countryside that one can enjoy while drinking pellegrino sparkling water and eating poppy seed bagles with smoked salmon, and today we indulged in such activities.

Carmelo & Ivana's wedding in Rome

Now that I'm living in London, it's a lot easier to take a short flight anywhere in Europe and this weekend Kyoko and I flew to Rome for Carmelo and Ivana's wedding. Carmelo studied economics with me at York University and they both even met in York!

Rome and York are similar places in many ways. History dominates both cities and they look fantastic on a warm summer's day. Unfortunately, both also get very cold at night. Just as all 100 guests sat down for dinner, a cold wind blew on to the terrace where we all enjoyed a spectacular view of the sun setting on Rome. Still, the great food and warm atmosphere a wedding always creates helped us through the night and both Carmelo and Ivana didn't stop smiling. Hopefully they will always be this happy.

Me outside the Colloseum

Kyoko and I before the wedding ceremony

Carmelo, his parents, Kyoko and I

Carmelo, Ivana and both parents by the cake

Back to Japan

After leaving Japan over two years ago, I finally decided to return there... for just 10 days. In that short space of time, Kyoko and I flew from Tokyo to Okinawa, Okinawa to Kyoto and Kyoto to Tokyo (via Kanagawa, where Kyoko's family lives).

We did a lot of things I never did while I was living in Japan, including visiting all of these places, scuba diving as well as all-you-can-eat sushi! Below are some pictures from the trip. More are available here.