Sea of Clouds

On a Monday holiday in November, K and I made yet another adventure trying to catch a real “sea” of clouds rather than just the super low ones we ended up seeing every time we went.

１０月の休みにKとトマムの雲海へ行って見た。毎回とても低かった。今回も低かった。

Even if they’re super low, they’re still gorgeous.

低いけど、とても綺麗だった。

There was ice on the sea of clouds terrace that day.

この日に雲海テラスで氷があった。

The towers and the gondola (how we got to the top).

トマムのタワーとゴンドラ。

So many people!

たくさん人だった。

A sunny shot of K and I.

強い光の写真。

Time to send some mail!

はがきを遅れた。

If it’s normally a sea of clouds, is this a river of clouds? ^^

だいたい雲海だったら、これは雲川？^^

A ghost!

お化け！

It was a fun early morning adventure.

楽しかった。

Golden Week Day 3

You can see the pics posted during the trip here.

前の携帯の写真はここで。

The day started with me finding the cutest mail box ever.

この郵便箱はとてもかわいいと思た。

Mandie was flying in to Narita that afternoon, so I wandered to a park near the hostel, Sumida River Park, to read, people watch and chill outside.

妹は昼に成田空港へ来るから、ホステルの近い公園へ行った。隅田川公園と言う公園。

I was soo excited when she finally showed up.

来た！

This was the view from our hostel.

ホステルから眺め。

After we got settled, we went back out and found one of the outdoor restaurants to eat in.

その後に外のレストランで食べた。

. . . right next to the lockers.

ロッカーの近いテーブルで食べた。

After dinner, we walked to the cat café.

晩ご飯の後に猫カフェへ行った。

Mandie was in heaven.

妹はとてもうれしかった。

This cat wanted to be my new best friend.

この猫は私の新しい友人になりたかった。

Then we went for convenience store dessert.

コンビニのデザトーを食べた。

An accident

It was a cold morning and despite my gloves, hat and scarf I was cold on my walk to the BOE (Board of Education, like a school district). I had to pick up the car so I could use it to get to some of my schools that are outside the area where I actually live.

My mittens are a little bit big for my hands and despite being size small, I often feel like I’m trying to do things while wearing oven mitts – big and awkward.

As I began to open the garage door, my purse began to slip down my arm. With an oven mitt-ed hand, I tried to save it. Despite my attempt, my mittens did not want to go with it.

My purse hit the ground.

I didn’t think anything of it, because I didn’t hear any crashes or cracks. Then I stopped outside to take a photo of this mail box, I mean how often, in Portland, do we need to dig our mailboxes out of a pile of snow that is twice as tall?



As I spun the zoom to get just the right angle, I noticed a shadow that seemed to move with my lens. Why, I wondered, was there a shadow on the lens? (see photo above)

And then I realized that in dropping my purse this morning, I also dropped my camera! < insert thoughts of: "I haven't even had this camera for a year!", "Do I replace the lens or get a 50mm prime to make up for the small amount of lost range?", etc. >

I headed inside to inspect the damage. It seemed, from me looking at the camera, that the only thing I did was destroy the filter.



As I left, I went to take some more pictures. It was a gorgeous day and I was in one of the prettiest areas of town. I went to zoom in and my once 18-55 mm lens had decided it wanted to be a 18-47mm lens – it wouldn't zoom all the way in.

After another small panic, I zoomed all the way out and then back in. Thankfully, when I zoomed back in, it fixe the problem and I haven’t had a problem since.

So glad I followed my friend, N’s advice and kept a filter on my camera!



Inspecting the damage:



In the end, it seems the only thing I really damaged was a filter. Thankfully, I had a mix up in lens sizes when I bought my camera and accidentally bought two in the size my camera calls for. I was back in business after a quick stop at home!