Kikusuitei 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 ...

... you enter the actual school, is the school's outdoor playground-structure-thingy. The panorama picture sort of explains this, but it's a dirt-packed gymnasium with basketball nets, a ton of balls, in a sort of amphitheatre that's is caged in with windows. Really, it reminds me of those abandoned greenhouses from the sequal to Jurassic Park, or it might have been the third one (but I can't remember, since they all sucked).
The school itself is well organized, which i would ...

... were weird, googly-eyed for my fellow female classmates, and always carried some kind of stink, whether it was alcohol or pot-related. Sometimes, you meet a cool cat, but he's only cool because he's giving you attention and some corrupt kind of wisdom. Kudos Japan.
So, once a year, my community throws a "Cleaning Day", where all the students, most of their families, and many others in the vicinity get together and...well, clean. It's mostly an outdoor thing, something that gets ...

... vegetables from their garden, and of course, freshly BBQd Ayu. I turned down an offer to go again this weekend, mainly because I was out of town and just exhausted. But this man's house is amazing: it's at least 100 years old, made completely of wood, and smelled great. He lives with his parents, wife, and kids (most whom have taken off for university already, I think).
All in all, an amazing time.

... something told me (maybe it was laziness) that I shouldn't worry. So I just went back to bed and sort of forgot what happened until my co-worker e-mailed me that day and asked me how my first Jishin was.
So, back to the bike-ride. I went riding on a later date where I took many more photos, which I'm also including in this mix as a sort of introduction to Toyone. I had a sandwich overlooking the village, that's nicely nestled in between the river and the mountain ...

... 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 ...

... the two little girls running around him, wearing nothing but a face-cloth over his groin. I can hardly even say 'wearing' in this case. Having just finished his own bath after dinner, I suppose he was on his way to the bedroom, but he was very at home in his birthday suit. In Japan, they say that after you turn 60 you are 'reborn' again. The elderly traditionally wear all red for this event, and its usually a huge birthday celebration. Not sure if they retire at this age, but the red is ...

... draw me maps indicating different landmarks, but the best was the one gas station where this grubby looking mechanic gave me a huge handful of "maple candies". They were just caramel (a Canadian could tell the diff), but they were delicious and appreciated nonetheless. I didn't eat for another hour. Eventually I found the grocery store, and some cool farmer's market that had some deep-fried potato nugget things (called after the French Croquette), bought a bunch of ...

... thunder and lightning, so I headed for a bookstore and passed some time in there. I knew that I had to walk back to Yusuke`s place at some point, but the weather showed no sign of relenting - in fact it felt like armageddon! In the end I just decided to go for it, and it was a relief to get indoors again and strip off, since my jeans were drenched! We went out for ramen later in the evening, before going to a huge Internet cafe that had many pool and table tennis ...

... guess quasi-popular American music here just skips a generation. I wonder if the next generation are going to be listening to "Shake your love" by Debbie Gibson. *ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH* In conclusion, I'm not trying to say that the American way is better. I'm just confused as to why these things are the way they are. I'm trying my hardest not to let my ethnocentric feelings dominate my thoughts on Japanese culture, since it's neat to see the differences. These were some that I've noticed.