The guilt, the Catholic guilt...

hello, friends,

so, this summer, i went to japan to visit brother rob.

i have been totally remiss in posting photos. there are literally HUNDREDS more, but i am posting those that i like best. suspiciously, the photos from my ascent of yote did not wind up on a CD -- this will be rectified shortly. i did climb that god forsaken mountain...

without further ado, this one is for bert:

this is the family that rob teaches japanese to. he's a cardiologist. the kids are SO CUTE.

rob likes to make friends, and, one night, when we were going home to go out (what was THAT about?), we encountered a street festival. rob stood on top of a newspaper box and took this really cool photo.

this is another one of rob's friends. it needs no explanation...

the photo below was taken at one of the many summer beergardens in sapporo. the beautiful girl to rob's right is aika. next to her, i felt old, fat, haggard, dowager-esque, hostile...you get the picture.

this was on the climb of yote. do you SEE how high up we were? do you see the cloud-lines? we did that two more times. oy.

but it sure was beautiful, right? this other photo,

which i do not know how to turn, was on our first climb. it was amazing (despite not having food or water or, frankly, rest). i keep thinking about what a remarkable thing it was, for my baby brother to use what can only be described as psychological warfare on me to make me continue.

rob, for all the bad words i used on you during my time in japan -- i am truly sorry.

there will be more. but aren't they so cool?

gotohellifyouhatefreedom,

volansky