Hotel Taihei 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 ...

This weekend saw quite an impressive ( though sometimes annoying ) Autumn Festival here in Hojo.<br><br>The festival basically consists of many many Hojo residence, getting together and building these strange portable shrines and carrying them around town banging on bells and drums as loud as they can all day and all night, dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and getting really really drunk. All culminating in a spectacular event of throwing ...

... 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 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>

So we saw our first really cultural "touristy" type thing the other day. We were lucky enough to be placed only 25 minutes from one of the THREE places in Japan that still practices the traditional Cormorant fishing. I just want to make clear that this is NOT fishing for Cormorants, but with them. I'd also like to thank Etta ( one of the advisor people for the JET programme ) for putting this together and inviting us.<br><br>So there was twelve of us, 11 other ALTs and me and ...

Ok, so I have a bit more time, I am going to write a bit more detail about my Voyage. I don't have a USB cable with me so I will have to wait to upload pictures.<br><br>So after my last Edmonton post, Jess left for Japan, I packed, tried to catch up with friend and moved in with Jess's sister Emily. Em and I had a lot of fun living together for my last couple weeks in Edmonton. I managed to get a lot done, but still felt like there was more to do. Isn't there always ...

... more prestigious bathing area, away from all the peasants, and despite my jesting it was a relaxing, erm, experience. I always look to see if there`s anything of interest nearby when I arrive in a city, hoping for a nice day trip away from the hustle and bustle. Luckily for me, I uncovered the small island of Kashima, which turned out to be a mini-Miyajima with gorgeous scenery and wild deer. It only took twenty minutes to arrive there by train, followed by a five minute ...

... the last 5 days of her vacation. I've discovered that it makes me happy to have guests come over and show them that we're not doing so badly over here. Well, I mostly went to work, but we all went to the beer gardens, took Claire around our fair city of Matsuyama and showed her the sights. Not much more to write about there, if you want to see said sights, please come visit (-:

... identification speed passes. Thanks, mom. We then went back to the apartment via the bus. We talked about Matsuyama, her trip to Japan, her visits with her friends.. it was really nice to get to talk to my mother about stuff that I'd seen. It was also nice to have someone to talk to about how slightly confusing my aunt is. I'd never really quite understood until I spent time with her. I'd always imagined taht my mother was exaggerating, or that Taiki was exaggerating. I'd never ...

... at the edge, others just head for the cold shower at intervals. After a few repetitions of this ritual, once the body is weakened, dehydrated and generally reduced to a lobster-pink jelly, everyone heads back to the changing rooms. Sitting upstairs afterwards in my yukata (~kimono), sipping green tea, I felt pretty damn good. I can see why the Onsen tradition is a cultural institution.