Matsuyama Toei Hotel

... trees, with two sturdy chains to hang on to and reasonably good footholds...most of the time ( there were a few somewhat smooth and even slippery bits ). The real "kowai" ( japanese for scary ) bit was yet to come. The climb across the jagged ridge from Misen to Tengudake at 1982m. Only Saffiya, Doug and I ended up climbing across for various reasons, including miscommunication. There is one more very small piece of chain leading down from the very stable and flat ...

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>

... 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 ...

... a wide array of movies, a map with flight path and info about speed and duration, music and even two plane cameras: one, a bird's eye view looking down and the other looking out the front. Very cool. The flight staff was also very polite, friendly and helpful.<br><br>Just before landing there was even a video about Narita airport that guided you through everything you needed to know about getting around and getting through immigration, baggage and customs. Very ...

... to a kimono rental shop and rented kimonos for a few hours. They then proceeded to wander around to all the shops and stuff and take pictures of themselves. They went to a tea ceremony and had tea and small sweets. Here's some pics. She can write descriptions about them later. After she's stopped being mad at me for doing this. (-: &gt;Alright, alright, it's actually Ashleigh-the-slacker this time. :-P I've ...

... in Ehime supermarkets. Japanese rice is supposedly "superior" to California rice, but really, the Japanese government knows that the Japanese rice economy would be destroyed by the cheap California rice. Watching them use heavy machinery makes me miss being an engineer. I hope someday to go back to making things, but for right now, I'm not sure where I want to go ...

... What about him?" She pointed at me. "Sorry, he's my boyfriend." At which this girl let out an even bigger groan, and another whine. "See? Please help me find a boyfriend. I don't want to be alone anymore." Ashleigh then took her around the bar and tried to hook her up with any white guy standing there without a woman. Ashleigh kept asking me if we could leave, but I was having too much fun watching her try to set up this poor, pathetic, groaning ...

... cars! The rest of Japan has done away with them with preference for subways. The apartment is comfortable. It's not huge, but it's not tiny. I think it's a good size for 2 people. Ashleigh said it could probably hold a small Japanese family, and I think that it would be pushing to be a little too small. Our neighbors upstairs and next door are teachers at the kindergarten where Ashleigh is working. Ashleigh got here 4-5 days before me, and ...