Business Hotel Clark Matsuyama

... chains drapped over the edge of the mountain, which are the traditional way to climb the last 166m of the mountain. There is also a separate set of chains starting just before Yoakashi Pass and taking you 74m up to probably the most spectacular views of the whole hike. These chains are exactly what they sound like, just big chains. They hang down over the edge of cliffs and you hang on to them to scale sections of the hike. There is usually two sets of chains for ...

... continued all night long. And when I say all night long I mean it didn't stop until the next morning around 6am. This happened the whole long weekend and though Jess can sleep through anything I cannot and barely got a wink of sleep. I didn't let this stop me from enjoying the festival though.<br><br>On Saturday night was the big smashing ceremony and that was really the highlight of the festival. It was amazing how many people came too, from all ...

... so that I can regularly update you with some photos and information!<br><br>I will try and backlog later, adding in Tokyo photos, and some other events.<br><br>For now, just a quick glimpse into life in Hojo!<br><br>(More photos to come....more of our apartment (after I finally bought some curtains), my school, etc!)<br>

When leaving Edmonton, I decided it was finally time to retire my 15 year old norco bush pilot. I left it unlocked in the bike rack at my apartment the day I moved out and hopefully by now someone is getting deteriorated black rubber handle grip all over their hands and cursing at the stuck pedal. Or maybe they have already gotten sick of it and thrown it in the river valley.<br><br>Anyway, in Japan everyone rides bikes. Go to any train ...

... began.<br><br>At first I thought a guy in each boat would be fishing, but instead how it works is, there are lines of boats on either side of the river and the guy fishing is on another boat and he sails up the middle of the boats so they all get a good view.<br><br>So how it works is, the guy stands at the front of the boat, beside a giant flaming lantern thing and has 5 Cormorants, one tied to each finger. The light of the torch ( assisted of course by some massive spot ...

... before we were in the air. Thank god for my trusty Nintendo DS and The Legend of Zelda.<br><br>The flight itself was uneventful, as is usually the case with my bad travel luck. I guess I should be thankful that my bad travel luck relates only to minor details such as missed planes, unstamped passports and fog and doesn't seem to effect important things like the engines.<br><br>Once in Kelowna, I spent the whole day with my brother who was leaving the next day to go ...

... sample *****s, tasting all of the offering multiple times. I wish I had discovered this sooner as it's actually the standard all over Japan. I ended my time in Matsuyama with a visit to one of the local onsens. This one sees few tourists, Japanese or otherwise, so is a much more typical look into modern Japanese onsen culture. I found it to be pretty much the same as the touristy ones, though the walls weren't decorated as much.

... sweating and trying to keep to the shade, with periodic dashes out into the sun to nail down placement lines for dance routines, cheer on two-year-olds so they'd know which way to run, or hold the finish-line tape for relay races. All in all, I think it was a success. The month and a half of strict daily marching practice paid off. :-P

... comic books with the characters dressed as school girls. The normal uniform is pretty modest, but these comics modify them slightly to make them more sexual. Makes me feel creepy to see these girls in their uniforms. It feels like I'm checking them out. ick. 7) Their distaste of anything different from themselves I hate how uncomfortable Ashleigh gets when I decide to be my goofy self. In the US, if I'm goofy, people just ignore me. Here, they scowl and ...

... thru our kindergarten, and was bored for the first two years he was in elementary school. Seems like a waste of childhood to me. School seems to be a top priority here, even if it only LOOKS like it's important. I'm noticing a trend in this country. There's a lot of focus on LOOKING like you're doing a good job, and not really caring much about the quality or whether you're doing it the best way possible. I would say that my experience in the ...