Hotel Tsubakikan Bekkan Matsuyama

... like being on another planet. Across the green fields was one last steep slope up to a small settlement where we rested up before the final ascent to the top.<br><br>Now at this point there are three sets of chains to the summit, 33m, 65m and 68m ascending from lowest to highest. The first set of chains was very congested and we were forced to wait quite often for the congestion to thin out. The second set was slightly better. Somehow we managed to miss the third set ...

... 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 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 ...

... recommend it.<br><br>The next morning ( 17 AUG 2009 ) it was up early for a road trip to Vancouver with my folks. It was a leisurely and surprisingly short trip and I had a good time chatting with my parents. Once in Vancouver we did a little shopping around for a case for my Nikon FM2, but to no avail. Then a dinner out at Bostom Pizza, some much needed web work catch up and then to bed.<br><br>The next morning ( 18 AUG 2009 ) was the big day: the flight to ...

... ones was especially enormous - too heavy for even Brian (who is six feet tall and works out almost daily) to lift by himself! To carve the jack-o-lanterns, we brought our students into the gym, four classes at a time, and since we had 8 pumpkins, each English class got to have their own to choose the face for and watch their English teacher carve, with some guest-carving by the Japanese teachers. The students even ...

... us for so long, they were probably trying to figure out how to tell us to leave. Finally, an old lady decided that yelling at Will was the best solution. We then went onto the sea wall to eat. There they had huge "sea cockroaches" as the girls liked to call them. I didn't take any pictures of these ones up close, but they were huge. and ugly. and fast. and there were a lot of them. Since the girls were ...

... focused on the hosts of the TV show while THEY watched the game. They commentated on who had the ball, and goals and passing and such, but they didn't show the actual match. Odd. Rachel has mentioned that there are foreign guys who go around and try to pick up on Japanese women. During the course of the game, we met a couple of the inverse of that. Glen, who works at another English school, ran into one of the students that comes to his school. He came ...

... they get to do more complex games and things. My classes right now are memorization-regurgitation classes. The kids don't know how to use the information you give them, they just know that if I hold up a picture of a lion, that they shout "RYON," and I say "good." I guess Aiko wants them to teach the kids how to speak in conversations: How're you, my name is.. etc. That's a lot of work, but I think it could be fun. Ashleigh has some good ideas for getting the kids ...