East coast sunrise

I am home!!! And a bit jetlagged, obviously ;). I managed to keep a more-or-less normal schedule yesterday after arriving in Providence at 2 AM the night before--we had crazy weather delays leaving Chicago and got off the ground one minute before our flight crew would have been working illegally! It was a huge relief to sleep in my own bed after a 28(?)-hour trip, and an even bigger relief to receive my luggage (mostly intact) from the airline last evening. Somehow--even after a full day of errands and rehearsal--I am awake super early after sleeping for only a couple of hours, watching the sun rise on a gorgeous, cool Massachusetts morning. I am sure I'll sleep again soon, but for now I figured I'd use the time to post a few pictures from my time in Japan.

Hooray for friends--I was so glad to see these people! Naomi, Young, Jae and I visited a temple in Nara with Naomi's dad on Saturday:















The aforementioned tame deer live in the same national park--a little freaky, right?















If you buy a packet of the food sold especially for deer at the park, several of them will charge you to get first dibs! Yuck.

We ate so well in Japan! Here Naomi and I are getting ready to eat our soba noodles and tempura...so yummy!















Forget your necktie? Fill up your memory stick? No problem! Just insert your coins and press the button...



















More food--in this case, the most expensive ice cream ever. We (as 20- and 30-somethings) were some of the oldest people in the place, but we sure enjoyed ourselves!















Mugging for the camera with Naomi's parents...the people partially responsible for my weight gain on this leg of the trip.















Would you look at all that food? They were so kind to me, even if they fed me at an absolutely unsustainable pace! ;)