Drove to one of my favorite cities, Chicago, for the weekend with some friends. I love walking around downtown, checking out the architecture, people watching, and taking pictures. The purpose of the trip was mainly to visit a few friends I hadn’t seen in a long time, and I was able to see quite a few of them, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time for everyone. Also had a chance to finally visit the much talked about Mitsuwa Japanese marketplace. They had an impressive amount of Japanese liquors and beers, but their ramen selection left me disappointed (it was Sunday though…maybe the good stuff was already snatched up). Definitely a place to check out if you like Japanese food though!

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Another entertaining trip to Colorado this year, full of snowboarding, partying, and relaxing. Went with some family, like last time, and rented a four-bedroom house near downtown Frisco. The trip there wasn’t without any hitches though, as the airline somehow lost my younger brother’s suitcase, which made us miss the shuttle to Frisco. We did eventually get there (very) late at night, and his luggage was recovered the next evening.

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During most of 2001 I was working as waiter on a Mississippi-style stern-wheeler named “Michigan”; located on Lake Biwa, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. This was my first time in Japan, and I along with the sixteen other people in my group were taking classes and working as on the boat as a part of an exchange program (named “The Japan Adventure Program”). Our duties there consisted of waiting tables, cleaning up, selling trinkets, and posing with old ladies for pictures—kind of like the costumed characters in Disneyland do. The boat would do four cruises per day, each around 90 minutes long, and then return back to port to unload the passengers. During most evenings the Michigan would depart on an extra two-hour “showboat” dinner cruise. Each of the students on the program were scheduled to work at least a few showboats every month.

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Wow, what a non-stop trip that was! Just got back from about two weeks in Costa Rica, it was a blast. It seems like every minute of every day we were busy doing stuff—hiking, swimming, horseback riding, kayaking, mountain climbing, milking cows… it was definitely not a ‘lie back and relax’ type of vacation. Very glad I went. We had an excellent group of people in our tour, a great guide (and driver), went to a lot of interesting places, saw tons of wildlife and natural scenery, and interacted with some of the locals. I usually like to do things on my own, but as I look back at all of the things I did in the thirteen days I was in the country, it would have been impossible to fit all of that in had it all been up to me alone.

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