Erin was the next visitor after Chris left. We started off in Japan, visiting Naruko and Sendai. Every holiday season Sendai has a sort of “Festival of Lights,” in which they place mass Christmas lights down the 2 or 3 streets that are thick with trees. Since we have the Festival of Lights at the Grotto near my house in Oregon, I wasn’t thinking it would be too spectacular, but I was wrong- it was beautiful! The amount of lights they put on each of these huge trees is incredible! It must take tremendous effort. It’s kind of funny, at 5:00 PM the street fills with spectators to watch the lights go on, and they let out this big, “Ahhhh!” Then at 7:50, they turn the lights off again and turn them back on 10 min later at 8:00 to another big, “Ohhhhh!” I found it kind of funny that people go just to see them go on at those two times. I never saw it myself, but I think it would be a cool thing to see. This is a very romantic display and the streets are filled with not only with amateur and professional photographers, but with awestruck lovers as well. Erin liked Sendai so much that she went back to explore it by herself when I was at work. She took the bus all by herself and everything- I thought that was pretty amazing. There’s no way I was ready to do that the first week I arrived. You rock, E!