Grand Hamamatsu

... I came across on the middle of this road. I saw one pair of red eyes glint back at me in the darkness reflected by my headlights, glaring at me with pure hatred (as much hatred that is possible in a jackrabbit). "Jackrabbit?" I hear you say. Yes, and how could I tell this? Well, I'm not sure who ran away faster, but I could swear it was the jackrabbit who was on top who ...

... of the lake sits before the Sakuma dam, a neighboring town that generates much of the power in this region. Actually, there's dams all over this part of Aichi, for it's vast number of mountain rivers. This part of Aichi-ken derives its financial sustenance mostly from nature: wild forests and natural mountain rivers turn into lumber and hydro-power. It's unfortunate that the only perk I receive from this is a population to teach, because I'm not seeing any reductions in my ...

... that I think sort of gets left behind in Kindergarten back at home. The kids essentially 'own' their classrooms; it's the teachers that migrate from room to room (except for specific classes like music, tech, art and science). So I am always aware when I have the kids clean up my mess on the blackboard, and take my bags that I've left behind to me after class to the office. This cleaning duty extends to lunch as well, where the students (and sometimes the teachers) clean up the mess ...

... this time was that I had a much better rod. My vice-principal makes the hooks himself, and the rod was in pristeen condition. All five hooks were there.
So this time, I managed to catch 10 (where only one was a net-caught fish!). With my newly founded bragging-rights, I set off that day on a full stomach of delicious and freshly made Onigiri (surprise-center wrapped with rice and Nori, dried seaweed ...

... had before I arrived. The older road as about 40 minutes longer, and almost as scary. In contrast, this road offers some beautiful views. In a later entry (maybe today), I'll include the videos of me attempting to navigate safely through them.
A beautiful area, Toyone and Tomiyama. The next entry on Tomiyama will be well worth the visit, as this is probably the most beautiful place I've seen in Japan thus far. I almost can't wait for Fall, if it wouldn't get so cold.

... woozy from the night before and our hike, I came back from the suspicious washroom to face two slaps of meat covered with some brown sauce. It was absolutely delicious. I wanted two more.
When we left Shinshiro, I already felt like I had put in a whole day. 1PM felt (and looked) like 6PM, approached bed-time. Trying some Japanese tongue-twisters on the way, we passed a few Philippine Clubs (but not going in) only to arrive in the best temple I've seen so far.
Toyokawa's ...

... this event; it almost puts Canada Day to shame. It did in originality and tradition. Rain or shine, this event was going down. Those carrying Tezutu (literal meaning: One at a time/piece by hand), crazy bamboo rockets filled with gun-powder, donned heavy black uniforms that are designed to prevent serious burning (but are known to allow some burning through). It is a huge honor to blast one of these things, but people have been known to lose more than just their courage wielding one of ...

... in a sack, stayed away from anything that looked too outrageous, and generally had a good time.
The worst of the day, other than driving, was wasting 5000 (roughly $5) on stupid Pachinko. I had a guy there "help" me to a machine, and I popped in the 5000yen coin, and watched my money trickle away in the form of little metal balls. There were some seasoned pros all around me, so I figured it was something I was doing wrong; there's a kind of 'knob-technique' to ...

Happy Golden Week! I remember this time last year I went home. I can't believe it has been a year since I started working here in Nagoya. We are on Golden Week holidays in Japan at the moment. Golden week is a week of public holidays including Children's Day, Greenery Day, Constitution Day and Emperor's Birthday. The kids had a whole week off, but teachers had to work 2 days. It was nice though to have ...

... into discs the size and shape of a large half grapefruit, hard as a hockey puck, but several times as heavy. The announcer would call off rounds of 30 seconds to 1 minute where they would hurl the beasts into the crowd, a dozen in the air at once, again and again. The object for the crowd is to catch one because it ensures conception success. So prized are there that Ryan was asked to trade one of his afterwards for a branch ...