So, without further ado, photographs from Winter Holiday continue:
I flew from Bangkok to Chubu International Airport in Nagoya and spent a couple nights with a friend from my Japan overseas study experience and his former host family. After that I spent a couple nights with my old host family. I discovered a karaoke parlor with all-you-can-eat ice cream and took a chance to wander aimlessly through the city - something I didn't do much when I had the chance a couple years ago. 
Dragons abound!The baseball team here, by the way, is The Dragons. They won the Japan Series last year.
Anyway, coming back to Nagoya reminded me of just how much I really can enjoy living in Japan. I didn't do anything exciting or out of the ordinary while there, but most everything I did required a basic understanding of Japanese. Meeting with old friends and their new boyfriends (O_o), watching silly dramas with my old host family (I highly recommend Nodame), listening to an older woman telling stories her sons and husband have heard too often to notice anymore, etc, etc, etc.
Also, I probably can't go without mentioning "Meijo". Meijo is a bit of clever wordplay that, depending on the characters used to write it, could either mean "Nagoya Castle" （名城）or "Nagoya Girls"（名女）. Meijo (the girls) have a reputation for fashion and fancy hair styles that is either negative or positive (usually positive for the Meijo but synonymous with snobbery for outsiders). To be honest, I wasn't really amazed by the girls in Nagoya when I lived there, but, after living the "inaka" (countryside) for a while, well...
Nagoya, as it turns out, is sister cities with LA. There's even a small walk of fame.
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