In summer 2002 I went on a research fellowship to Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan, where Megumi lives. We used that opportunity to see many new places. In fact the summer was so packed with interesting things that this set is twice as long as usual!

After a week in Nagoya we traveled to Taiwan to visit Megumi's friend Mitchan and her husband. They live in Takao (Kaohsiung), but we started with a tour of the capital city of Taipei. Here is photo of what stands out most in my memory of Taipei, the motorcycles. People drove them everywhere, with little regard for safety, it seemed.	The national palace museum in Taipei, one of the largest museums in the world. It details Eastern history and prehistory, with artifacts taken from royal palaces, mostly in Beijing.
This is a night market in Taipei. The streets were lined with stands selling various kinds of food and bootleg CDs.	The gate at one end of the market.
This is the Buddhist temple Longshan, or Dragon Mountain. It was packed with people who came to pray and burn incense.	Here I am at the temple entrance.
Megumi snapped this photo of some neat sketches in the Taipei subway.	This is the main building of the large CK memorial honoring Taiwan's founder, Chiang Kaishek. It is the tallest public building in Taiwan and has 89 steps in the front, one for each year of his life.
Inside the main building is a large statue, with guards. Twice a day the guards come out and perform a ceremonial sequence.	Here is a picture from the main building, showing the plaza and some of the other buildings. It was quite impressive given the value of real estate in Taiwan.
Here are two photos of the gate on the other side. We had to jaywalk to the middle of the road to take this one.	The gate stands 30 meters tall. In the distance you can see the Shinkong observatory, the tallest building in Taiwan.
The main building and one building of the national theatre on the side.	Taiwan has several cultural festivals throughout the year. In June, while we were there, they had the dragon boat festival, a race of traditional canoes.
We sat next to one of the foreign teams, the Canadian Society. We got to chat with some of the team members while they prepared.	Here is the Canadian Society's team rowing out to the starting line.
The race is won by the team that captures the flag at the end of their lane first. In the picture you can see someone from the Canadian team leaning out to make the grab. They won their first heat.	Looking up the river towards the starting line, there was the Grand Hotel Taipei.
Next we flew to Takao. (Yes, you can fly within Taiwan; it was a thrilling short ride actually.) We visited this hotel, similar to the one in Taipei.	Mitchan's husband Ko-san is interested in Taiwanese tea ceremony. I got to try my hand at it, not very successfully!
This is a seven-tiered tower, one of many things to see at Cheng Ching lake, the biggest tourist site in Takao.	We visited these hills nearby. The soil is a mixture of clay and salt, so nothing grows there. However it is rich in minerals that make it glow at night; thus, this place is called "moon world."
We stopped by at a local fruit market for some mango.	They were deliciously sweet and juicy.
Although we didn't get to see any races in Takao, there was a carnival on the banks of the river there as part of the dragon boat festival. Megumi is holding a festival flag.	Both Taiwan and Korea are famous for massage. The masseuses are blind so you can shamelessly get a full body massage. Mitchan took this picture as Megumi and I got foot massages in Takao. I later got a back massage in Seoul, but fortunately no one else was present to take a picture!
Here are the dragon and tiger towers in Takao.	Here Megumi and I are entering the dragon tower. It is considered bad luck to enter through the tiger.
Our hosts Mitchan and Ko-san on the other side of the dragon tower.	Upon returning to Japan I had an introductory meeting in Tokyo with the program I was on. They gave us some quick cultural lessons and a three day homestay. These are small Buddha figurines that we saw at a temple in nearby Kamakura. There are so many temples at Kamakura, we barely had time to scratch the surface.
Here I am at the Daibutsu (Big Buddha) in Kamakura, the second largest Buddha in Japan, and third in the world. It was built in 1252. There was originally a temple surrounding it, but in 1495 a tsunami washed away all but the Buddha. For 10 yen (less than 10 cents) you can walk inside.	Our schedule was a bit poorly organized. After returning from the tour of Kamakura I found that my host family had been waiting at the hotel to meet me! That wasn't a problem though; we soon became great friends. Here is Mei, the youngest of three children in the family, getting an origami lesson from her mother.
Now I'm trying the same thing. This and the next few pictures were taken by another guy on the trip.	Mei and two of her friends. The next day I read a Winnie the Pooh story (in English) about best friends. Afterwards I asked Mei who her best friend was, to which she replied "mina," the Japanese word for "everyone."
Here are Madoka and Jun, the other two kids, and origami experts.	Here is the whole family, except for the father who was on a business trip that day.
Here Jun and I are playing solitaire together as Mei and Madoka copy coins into "slime" (something like silly putty).	Climbing some hills on our way to see a temple. Mei had the most fun.
We took the dog Rizumu (Japanese for "rhythm") for a walk on the way.	This is the money washing temple. We all took coins in to wash, which following a local legend was supposed to bring good fortune.
The castle I saw with my host family. The same day we went to an "onsen," a natural hot spring. You enter the spring with nothing but a towel, so no pictures. However, I can tell you that you do not know relaxation until you try it!	Here's the garden in front of my host family's house. We parted later that day, and all were very sad. It wasn't all bad, though; I got to see them again on a later visit to Tokyo.
From the hotel I took a trip into Tokyo. I passed this cigarette machine on the way, with typical "Jenglish" advertising. (Click on the picture to see it more clearly.)	There I met up with Mika, a friend from France whom I hadn't seen in three years.
Mika, her new husband, and I went out for a drink near Ginza, which is spectacular when lit up at night.	Back in Nagoya now, here is Megumi posing in her yukata.
We caught up with Kazumi, her boyfriend Ryota and friend Yuki at a fireworks show. The women all wore yukata. The fireworks were impressive and last much longer than anything you see in the States.	Here I am with Megumi, displaying the shirt she gave me for my birthday. (That's her on the front.)
We got this picture from Kazumi. Notice anything strange about it?	Here are Kazumi and Yuki in the subway after the fireworks. We were so packed in that I was leaning over Megumi at the time.
Two women are playing the taiko at a dance festival outside of Megumi's apartment. There the old taught the young (and the foreigners :) traditional dances.	Next we took a week-long trip to Korea, where I met up with some old friends. Here I am with Mijung, whom I met in France.
One of the highlights of our Korea trip was going to Panmunjom between North and South Korea, the most heavily guarded border in the world. That translated into strict rules of conduct while we were there. We were only allowed to take photos at a few specific places. We went with a Japanese tour group, so I wasn't able to understand everything. Apparently, it's much easier for foreign tourists to visit here than for Koreans.	The building across the way is part of North Korea. Although not visible in the photo, there were some North Korean soldiers standing guard there.
Here we are in one of the blue buildings in the center. There was a guard with our tourist group at all times to protect us; he had exactly one bullet for each member of our group. We had to wear plain-looking clothes on the trip. In particular, no jeans were allowed. I'm told that this is so that the North Koreans will not think that the South Koreans they see are under the influence of the United States. It goes to show how skewed their version of reality must be.	We were lucky to have reserved our trip for the day that we did. The next day all trips were canceled as talks between the U.N. and North Korea were scheduled in this room.
On our way back from the Panmunjom tour Megumi took this picture of Gwanghwamun, the front gate of Kyungbokgung palace. In my pictures from Korea in Summer 2000 you can see a photo taken from the other side, with a glimpse of the crazy traffic. Now we're part of the crazy traffic!	This is Olympic Park near Chamshil, where I changed subway trains every day for a few months in 2000. It was a popular place for roller blading.
Back again in Nagoya, here you can see a few people from the Japanese class I took at the University for a couple weeks.	This is the foreign student center where my class was held.
There were some Korean students there on a study abroad program. I tried to talk with them a bit in Korean. Because of the similarities between Japanese and Korean I was really confused, although I seemed to do better after our trip to Korea (and consequently worse in Japanese!)	Who's that lucky guy?
Next I took a trip to Wakayama to visit Maki and her family. Here we are at dinner the first night. I was feeling very underdressed.	Wakayama is a beautiful town by the sea.
Here's a view from the other side of the inlet.	Maki's father took us out sailing in his boat.
Here they are.	And here I am, trying to look like I know what I'm doing. I'm sporting my "Be the Reds" shirt, in support of the South Korean Red Devils, who shocked the world by placing 4th in the world cup that year. Meg and I rooted for them all the way.
Back at the dock. Actually, this is a different dock than the one we left at.
Meet Yo Chan, friend and drinking buddy from the NSF program I was on.	As I returned from Wakayama, Meg, Yo Chan and I met up in Kyoto. We did some tourism there, including my second trip to the golden pavilion. We also saw Megumi's friend Emi, whom I have failed twice now to photograph!
The staircase on the way out.
I liked these lamps, near Ginkakuji (the silver pavilion).	A street in Gion. No geisha this time either. :-(
The main event we came for was Daimonji, a yearly festival in which huge characters formed out of lamps are lit at night. Here Yo Chan points to the first character "dai," meaning "big."	We saw the lighting of the first two characters. It was hard to find a spot where more than two could be seen and after each one people rushed madly in all directions. Here you can see somebody sending a picture with his cell phone; the Japanese and Koreans are much bigger technophiles than Westerners, I think.
Megumi and Yo Chan saying goodbye as he and I boarded the Shinkansen for Tokyo to attend the closing meeting. I returned for a few more weeks (and we still have 32 more pictures to go!).	Here is a street in Kamakura which I saw while visiting my host family again.
This is the Nozomi line train I rode from Yokohama (near Tokyo) to Hiroshima. Nozomi is the fastest of the Shinkansen. Japanese trains operate with refreshing efficiency; you could set your watch by them.	Now in Megumi's hometown of Hiroshima, we met up with her junior high friend Hiroko, whom we had seen earlier in the year in Belgium. She was in town to give a concert.
This is the Monument to the Atomic Bombed Children. The figure at the top was made in resemblance of Sadako Sasaki, who when diagnosed with leukemia in 1955 folded origami cranes, believing that she would recover when she reached a total of 1000. Despite folding more than 1300, she died later that year.	A plaque from the new memorial park and museum in Hiroshima. It's very modern, with a huge database of personal accounts and information on many of the victims.
A shrine at the center of the park. Through the arch you can see an eternal flame standing for peace, and the A-bomb dome in the distance.	This is the tower Tennenji, near Hiroshima. It was built in 1367 and originally had five tiers, but two were destroyed by lightning.
Below you can see the fishing town of Onomichi.	The temples at Onomichi are high in the hills, so we got our exercise on that day! These are the 108 steps we climbed to the temple Saikokuji.
Saikokuji was built in the 8th century. Both it and Tennenji are considered cultural treasures of Japan.	Here we are at the highest temple, Senkouji. We were tired from our ascent and took a cable car down.
We rented bikes to tour the island of Innoshima nearby. The scenery was beautiful. Here we are just after returning to Onomichi by ferry.	We went to Megumi's mother's hometown. This is Megumi kneeling to pray in front of her grandmother's grave.
This is Hiroshima castle which I photographed from the car.	Meg and some more school friends after Hiroko's concert.
Now on our last voyage for the summer (finally!), this is the temple Tennmangu in the city of Dazaifu, near Fukuoka, on the southern island of Kyushu. It was built in 1591.	I went to Fukuoka to meet a professor at Kyushu University, but it also gave us a chance to see some more sights. Much of this was new to Megumi too.
Meg liked this red arched bridge, typical of a Japanese garden.	This bell, called a bonshou, was crafted in the 7th century. It's another one of those national treasures and consequently hard to photograph. This picture was taken with great skill by Megumi.
This is the temple Kanzeonji. It appears in the Tale of Genji.	Just to show that I did do some work while there, here is a photo of the math building at Nagoya University.
My advisor in Nagoya, Prof. Matsumoto (to the left of Megumi) and some of his students threw me a farewell party. Here we are in a cafe.	When asked to make a crazy face, this group of normally sober-looking mathematicians rose to the challenge. Meg and I look like boring people however.
This is the "Cafe de le pain," whose name includes a grammatical error in French. The cafe made great pastries, though, and was close to the math department.	This is the pizza I had at another cafe we tried on Megumi's birthday.
We had cake later that day.	We got to try out her birthday present, a new camera...
...with a remote control!	Here Meg and I are in Motoyama, one subway stop away from her apartment, near the end of my trip.
We met Yo Chan several times in Motoyama.	This is Ayano whom we saw on my next-to-last day. She was also in France earlier in the winter. We're standing in front of Ayano's new motorcycle.
Me and Meg at a cafe, taken by Ayano.

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