So, um, New York is still standing, right?

I've spent the past few days travelling around. After one night in Tokyo, took the train into the interior of Japan (well, as far interior as one can get in a country so skinny) and met up with my parents.

I've grown up around mountains and I suppose that's why we end up climbing mountains whenever my family meets up. Absolutely gorgeous out there and it was great getting away from the big ass metropolis. Natural hot springs are, in a word, fantastic. We were also blessed with incredibly good weather, considering the June rain season was supposed to start this weekend.

Back in my hometown of Kobe now. Apparently, I have what amounts to a portion of the proverbial Million Dollar View from the balcony of my parents' place here. Life here isn't bad. Eating ridiculously good food here. Also, I can't tell you how much I love Japanese beer.

But really, I can't be arsed to give you details so here are the photographs. If some of the photographs look less than perfect, it's partly because Photoshop is being a jackass and won't let me open my images and I can't do color and level corrections. So yeah, it's all the machine's fault.

I'm off to Tokyo in a day, then I'll be back in NYC on Wednesday night, immigration officer willing. Wish me luck!