Hotel Sunroute Matsuyama

... year I was born ). It is also an important center for Shugendo, a mixture of Shintoism and Buddhism.<br><br>We got up at around 5:00am Saturday morning to catch the train to Saijo a town bigger than Hojo, but smaller than Matsuyama about an hour away from both. We caught the train and made our way to Saijo. In Saijo we just had enough time to grab some snacks from the combini ( Japanese convenience store ), before we had to catch the bus to the Ishizuchi rope-way.<br ...

... There was also a stand that sold the most amazing fried chicken ever!<br><br>Another interesting point ( though once again not conducive of sleeping ) was that one of these giant shrines was being built right below our balcony. It should be mentioned that they also drum constantly the entire time the shrine is at home in the makeshift garage they built for it.<br><br>Anyway, despite all the noise and lack of sleep it was a very enjoyable weekend.<br>

So many things to tell, and so little time!<br><br>My first week of teaching in Hojo has been very very busy, and very interesting. I have come home everyday too tired to even check email (so sorry for lack of communication, guys!). That being said, I am hoping to become used to the teaching routine and get my energy ...

... when you are somewhere, where rules and manners are so important. So I often feel weird just snapping away. Especially at things like temples and shrines. I'm not even sure if you're allowed??? I'm going to try and find out though, because there are some beautiful Buddhist temples in Hojo, especially the one, it is just gorgeous.<br><br>I am also going to upload images for the journey here entry. So you can check that out if you want.<br>

... just shared one.<br><br>So the first part of the trip, we just journeyed peacefully around the river being either ruddered or poled in the shallow bits, by a older Japanese man wearing traditional Japanese clothing.<br><br>Quite a long while of this went on and we didn't realize, that this was the time we should be eating our Bento boxes...oops. So when someone finally decided to ask, he was pretty much "hurry up and eat!!!" Finally it was dark enough that the Cormorant ...

... except my parents ) that I was not coming for another 2 weeks. I decided to surprise Jess on her birthday and she was very happy!<br><br>So now here I am, I haven't done a whole lot so far. I have met quite a few of Jess's friends and they all seem very nice so far. A group of us had dinner at this really neat little Korean restaurant in Matsuyama. It was really fun and only 1000 yen each! ( that's about 10 bucks )<br><br>Interesting things so far:<br ...

... students(college students from a local university here. They took us out to dinner(so nice to have someone help you order so we actually knew what we were going to be eating!) Then we all went to Karaoke which is very popular here. We had soo much fun singing lots of oldies, backstreet boys, journey, nsync, and a few japanese hits too.....the girls from the univerisity that were with us were ...

... towns. Luckily we had about an hour and a half to rest at the hotel, enough time for me to shake the sea sickness. This hotel (ANA Hotel Matsuyama) is maybe our best yet. So stylish, with a giant bed and a view of two castles! Matsuyama castle is a traditional Japanese castle on top of a hill, and below it was a European style mansion used for government offices, I believe. Not too shabby. Show went great, and luckily most everyone is ...

... good, and were quite a hit at the party, with everyone but Rachel, of course, who is vegan. I think she's the sort of vegan who just really loves animals and feels bad at the thought of eating any of them, so I was careful not to say too much about the little octopus I had dismembered. Two (hopefully) interesting tangents that popped into my head while writing that first paragraph: 1) I taught my 5-year-olds the word "squishy," and they love it. ;-) We were talking ...

... motives were even if something was fizzing in my glass. Free alcohol is free alcohol! Sunday was too hungover to do anything productive as usual. Spoke to Roz as well who had good news. She said that she had got my digital camera back from being repaired in Tokyo. Can always rely on the Japanese. In England it would have taken about a month just for someone to look at it. Also got some photos developed from a disposable camera I've been using so will hopefully be able to ...