Ahh...the joys of teaching

Date: today
Situation: kids class
Kids: two boys..two girls (twins)
Age: 5

As I'm giving the kids their stamps for being good at the end of class, I look over at one of the twins (who is just standing next to her little kinder-sized chair...frozen) to see her look down at a nice big puddle on the floor...she went wee-wee.

What makes Japan.....Japan!

Over the past month or so, I have had the chance to go out and visit the countryside around here. I visited all of these places with Rumi and we both had a lot of fun together. This will be the photo journal of it all.


Nakasendo Road

One of the historic roads which connected the cities of Kyoto with Tokyo (the two seats of power in ancient Japan), many old post towns along the road have been preserved in their old style. We visited three of the town, Narai-juku...Tsumago-juku...and Magome-juku. In times gone by, it took about 20 days to travel to entire length of the road , which I believe was about 250 km or just over 150 miles. Although the road no longer exists in its historic form, except for an 8km stretch from Magome to Tsumago, the modern roads pretty much run the same course so driving through the area affords a mental image of what it would have been like those hundreds of years ago.

Narai-juku









Tsumago-juku




...more coming later

Tokyo, 47 Ronin, masks, missed buses and Ribs!

I haven't posted for a while...so I'm here to remedy that. :D Let's see, where to begin. Earlier in October my school had a one week holiday. I went over to Tokyo for a day to get a notarized copy of my passport, and did a little exploring while I was there. I got the passport business done first and had the rest of the day to go around. I had made a list of a few places I wanted to visit including: Japan Sword shop, Sengokuji, some used book shops, International grocery etc. As I was walking to the sword shop, I passed some sort of small festival of people dressed in traditional garb. Very interesting...but i'll let the pictures do the talking.




After checking out some old swords, some costing $20,000 or more, I headed over to Sengakuji. This is the resting place of the 47 Ronin, masterless samurai who, on Dec. 14, 1701, took revenge on the man that had been responsible for the death of their master. After attacking his house and decapitating him, they then brought his head to this place, washed it in a well, and placed it at the gravestone of their deceased master, who was buried here. They were then arrested and all made to commit ritual suicide (seppuku). They were also buried here along with their master.
I did a lot of walking that day, and learned that my cheap-o 500 yen ($5) shoes aren't great for walking!! I had a nice dinner at T.G.I. Fridays (Jack Daniels ribs) before heading to the bus station. Turns out, regardless of being told otherwise by two separate people, it was the WRONG bus terminal. I missed my bus, last one of the day, and thought I'd have to stay the night. I ended up getting a ticket to another city about 45 min from where I live and was lucky enough to have Rumi come and pick me up at like 1:00 in the morning....Thanks Rumi!!! :D

Surfing & Buddha

What do they have in common? Well...not a whole lot! lol Last weekend I went down to Kanagawa prefecture with Kuniko (a friend of the receptionist at my school) to try my hand at surfing. NOT EASY!! Unfortunately, I didn't snap any pics of the beach or while trying...but I got some of the big Buddha statue in Kamakura that we visited afterwards.

This thing was cast in 1252, believe it or not. Now that's OLD!!!! I snapped some other various pics from around the area.
Watching over the crowd.

Close-up.
Close close-up.
Incense burner.
Details.
Me...Zenning out.
Small stone statue with cape.

Sign leading to the big Buddha.

How it appears on Kuniko's GPS Navigation.
Hmmm...I'm not quite sure.

Kamakura monorail.
Elvis sighting??!!
Have a nice day.....Dog Lover!

Mio's farewell B-B-Q

One of my students, Mio, has gone off to Germany...no no Greenland...wait, no I think it's Finland...anyway, she went there to study for an MA in Education and chose Finland as, get this, education is FREE there!!! I checked it out on the net and it's true....anyone willing to travel to Europe? Before she left, she had a farewell B-B-Q at her house. It was a perfect day and I brought along my cooler, bottle of Jack and a liter of coke....needless to say I was shitfaced by the end of the day.....but everone else was too!! :D

Here are a couple of vids of people trying to smash open a watermelon while blindfolded...the Japanese equivelant to the pinata I guess.

New Apartment

I recently moved out of my old apartment and in to a new. The old one wasn't bad....but it was just too damn small. I got lucky and scored Chris' old apartment as I arranged it with his landlady before he left. Now, I'm living large in and nice-sized place with 2 rooms, a nice kitchen and a view of lake Suwa and beautiful Mt. Fuji (on a clear day) from my window. I'll take some pics or a vid with a walkthrough soon. Be patient.

Suwa Firework Festival

August 15th is the date of the second largest (at least that's what I was told) firework festival in Japan and it's held in Suwa, Japan which is the next city from where I live. Something like 40,000-50,000 fireworks are shot off on that night. I met up with a few students to hang out around the lake, drink, chat, and of course watch the firework show.

One thing that's pretty cool is the variety of different types of fireworks here. There are ones that explode diagonally, ones that form hearts or smiley faces, and others that explode like 4-5 times as they rise then one huge time at top. Enjoy the vids.

Matsumoto Bon-Bon

Me and a couple of co-workers (Scott and Michael) went over to Matsumoto City last month for the O-bon festival. There were lots of dancers, music, kimonos and of course...BEER!! lol It was crazy crowded and lots of walking, but everyone had a good time. Check out the videos I took with my phone...not to shabby. I especially like the one with Hard-Gay!! :P

Welcoming Party

A few students at our branch in Chino City were kind enough to throw me a welcome party last month. We had a great time at a small izakaya near Chino station with good food, good conversation, and all-u-can-drink alcohol!!!

From left to right: Tomomi, Me, Mie, Hirohiko, Mineko, Sayuri and Masakazu.

Thanks guys...I really appreciated it and had a super time. :D

August: Festival time in Japan

Yes, it's been a while but I have a lot to update. August is the month of summer festivals in Japan as well as the time when the O-bon holiday occurs. I was pretty busy having parties with students, going to festivals, watching fireworks, moving into my new apartment, B-B-Q's, etc. last month and put off updating until now. I will, however, be putting up a lot of videos (sorry for those with slow internet connections...Chelle) for all to enjoy as well as a few pics. All of them were taken on my phone so the quality isn't great, but pretty impressive considering. I'll be putting some things up after work tonight (hopefully) and tomorrow morning.

D

Farewell Party

One of the teachers here, Chris, just finished up a 2 1/2 year stint and headed back to Canada with his wife Michiko. I think they are heading to Europe to do a cycling tour for a month or so before settling back for good. Here are some pictures of his farewell party we had last Friday, as well as a short video.



and the vid.....

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!#&#*(%^&# R%$^%*&#&) $&$T*_$()++($&*^& !^&E*^&)(GH& Y*(_!*Y&*TT&*
&*(!&*!( T&FDF!C!FCAGH()(*(A YU*Y! (*(!&^&%#^&RTSFTGS*&(S&*(
*()*&(&!*^SFYU*&!^&*S
(!&*(^S ^&!^&!*)&^)*^!&_&*()*&)_*_)(**()*_)~* GYGY~IU*YG:


****I have removed the video as I don't want to tarnish the person-in-questions reputation...
.......he can do that all on his own*****


If you have had trouble understanding this.....you now know exactly how I feel about an unnamed co-worker. Enjoy!! :D

I'mmmmm Baaaack!!

I made it back from my road trip without a hitch. It was a long trip with a lot of driving though, 6 hours there and about 5 1/2 back. It was good to be back in Fukui and the drive over there brought me through some really nice countryside which made it all the more bearable. Here is the happy couple:


I arrived on Saturday at noon and met up with Brad at his place. Later, when Mariko got home from work, we all went over to Hachiban Ramen for lunch. It was nice catching up with Brad and seeing what all has been going on since I visited last August. I told them I would treat them to dinner at a place of their choice as a "Wedding gift" and Mariko decided on a place called Saint Mark in Fukui city. We decided to check out some old friends of mine, The Katsuyama's, before dinner. Mr. Katsuyama sells Japanese swords and I had purchased from him back in 2002-2003 when I had a collection. It was a welcome experience to be back around some awesome swords and to be able to handle them. The one I'm holding here was selling for around $15,000....yikes!!




Dinner was excellent, good choice Mariko, and the bread was all-u-can-eat. I wouldn't mind checking it out again next time I'm in town.



It was a good day.

On Sunday, we met up at the movie theater to watch..........of all movies.............ummmm...........errrr................Ha.....Harry.......Po...Pot.....Potter....ok there I said it. It wasn't bad, wasn't great either. Brad and Mariko showing off their tickets.

Unfortunately, I didn't really take any photos of the drive over or back. There were lots of scenic things but the roads are so small, there's nowhere to stop and photo. I did, however, take some vids on the trip back...not too interesting but damn did the weather changes fast.

Hope you enjoy...till the next update.