Hotel Azalea Matsuyama

... br>The bus took about one hour and took us on a long and windy road through beautiful green valleys up to a small settlement in the mountains where we caught the rope-way ( cable-car ) to the most common start point for the grueling hike to the peak. Some people do hike all the way from the base, but it is apparently, very difficult and quite dangerous, takes over two hours and ascends 600m up poorly kept trails. Considering everyone was nearly dying by the time we got ...

... other smaller portable shrines down a very high set of stairs, followed by a brawl to collect the pieces.<br><br>I am not really sure of the significance of all this, but it was definitely interesting to watch! I will try to find out more about the meaning behind this festival and make another post about it at a later time.<br><br>For the first night of the festival Jess and I walked down to the water to watch them parade around. It was really ...

... 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>

... and there is a massive parking lot overflowing with bikes. So, I decided I had to buy one and a couple of days ago I finally did! It's called "Tea Cup." It's a beautiful cream and brown beauty and I love her. So today I took a nice shot of her and road around snapping a few ( very few ) pictures of the neighborhood.<br><br>I plan to take more, but the thing is, when you are just a tourist somewhere it is a lot different than living there ...

... The Japanese don't mess around. We got there. We left.<br><br>When Etta was arranging everything, we had the option of getting the tour avec Bento or sans Bento, Jess and I both opted for avec, since it was going to include fish that were caught using the same technique that we were going to be watching. We were a little skeptical of the 2500 Yen price tag ( a little more than 25 dollars ) but once we saw them in the boat waiting for us, we soon realized we should have ...

... at night and was on the last leg of the trip to Hojo. Right on time at 12:33 at night I rolled into Hojo station, caught a cab and was at Jess's apartment. I really should've walked, but I didn't realize it was so close. How close was it? It was so close that the meter didn't even change from the starting rate of 550 yen.<br><br>It took a lot of knocking and ringing to get Jess up, but man was she surprised to see me! Yes, for those of you who don't know, I had told ...

... so mixed breed faces like Brian and I were impossible to make, and you can forget Will's English face. The furoshiki club was fun, we made carrying cases for wine bottles, tissue boxes, and watermelons. Ashleigh's group finally got on stage and I set up my camera. I had no idea what they were doing, so I had to move the camera back in the beginning. Click this link to see video 1 Click this link to see video 2

... posts.. It makes sense, since both countries are centuries old, there's probably tons of families that are lost or forgotten, you gotta do something with the stones. Ohaka, a lot! the ohaka means grave stone grave stones, oh my gosh! We then went to have some lunch of the famous Matsuyama 5 colored noodles. There are supposed to be a bunch of places that serve it, but we'd never been able to find any. This time we hunted one down. Just for a little ...

... make it out to be. I made a few lumpy ones, some undercooked ones.. mostly, they looked like they were once round, but someone had sat on them while they were in a lunch box. ah well, not bad for my first effort. After talking to a number of other people, they mentioned they had the same results - it tasted good, but it just didn't look "right". Some day I'll be a takoyaki-master like Taiki. He's my hero.

... and the fluted slate pagoda roofs that modern Japanese houses still use in full traditional glory. The architectural style is beautiful - simple materials, simple lines, inexplicably ornate effect. And here I am, with a few hours left on Shikoku before I say a goodbye I`d rather not, and get on another overnight ferry, curling myself up on a tatami mat in the women`s room and clawing together some precious sleep before tackling the sights of the mainland.