Here are some pics, without specific explanation and untouched:
http://www.robo-christ.com/gallery/index.php?path=L0phcGFuIFRyaXAv&page=1

If the above doesn’t work, go to:
http://www.robo-christ.com/gallery/
and click on “Japan Trip”

Today we went to eat at a restaurant in Kiryu that specializes in Yuba, a specific kind of tofu curd: We went there to eat a 5-course meal that was almost entirely made from different kinds of tofu. Great stuff, more on that later (pics in the above link).

Tonight I went to our friend Shimizu’s place, which today hapened to have a festival- Interestingly enough, the last time I went to this festival was exactly ten years ago when I came to Japan in college. It’s the Kawagoe (city name) festival, and features two to three story tall movable shrines called “dashi”, each representing a district of Kawagoe, and they roll through town. I took pictures, above, and right when I was thinking, “Man, pictures alone just don’t give off the feel of the festival, I remembered that my camera can also take mini-movies. I took a few here:

http://www.robo-christ.com/movies

More later, including explanations of lots of the above.