Super Hotel Takamatsu Kinenkan

... a 15-minute walk to the Shikoku Mura Open-Air Museum. As soon as I got off the train at Yashima, a woman, who must be a local volunteer, gave me directions for the musuem, and a coupon for 100 yen off the admission fee. She wore an official-looking green polo shirt with an insignia for a Genki (Health) project, so I figure she is a volunteer with the local government. The Musuem consists of traditional farmhouses and other old rural ...

... I have my hat off to them. Dropped my **** off at Takamatsu before heading to Marugame which apparnetly makes 90% of the fans (uchiwa) for Japan. They also has a castle which I visited and doesn't really inspire much. Even the view, though expansive, is of cranes in the harbor and the sprawl of humanity approaching Takamatsu. The other main sight there is the fan museum which has demonstrations of how they're made. I was ...

Got a good night's sleep at the hostel but I awoke to Jordan's alarm at 7AM. So I decided to get out to Matsuyama castle, which I originally was going to skip. The castle is on a hill that I feared if I climbed, I'd have no engery for Kompira-san. So I took the cablecar. The castle, though renovated, has been redone with original materials and is really nice and complete looking. I'll pass on history if I can get a good photo. The sakura were in bloom here too and ...

... seeing nothing but steps up and up). I was ready to jump for joy when I reached the cable car station, only to realize that there was still another 20 minutes of climbing ahead of me. But I did get to the peak, which offered great views of the foggy islands nearby and the actual Miyajima island itself. That was what was so unexpected in this tourist trap. Beyond the hype, it really was a great view and despite the effort of climbing, you escaped the crowds, wandered ...

... Japan country side. However when we arrived there,I noticed there were so many people and couldnt find the car park. All the parkings were full, and one guy took us to a parking inside one small road. So lucky! There is 785 stone steps to the Main Sanctuary, and another 1,368 stone steps climb up to the Inner Shrine. If you couldnt climb the steps, there are ...

... once and that didn't even stick to the ground. It being December most of my lessons have had a Christmas theme. There is not much of a Christian population in Japan, but they do love anything that involves overly-cute cartoon characters and gifts, so Christmas in that sense lines up with Japanese pop-culture pretty well. One Friday for work all nine of the English teachers in my area went Christmas caroling at all of the jr high ...

... over the past two months I have gone to Kobe and Osaka twice and I also visited Korea.   The first time I went to Osaka and Kobe was over a three-day weekend after Halloween. I went with my friend Laura and we had a lot of fun. Osaka is seriously one of my favorite places in the world. It's very exciting, has tons of bright lights, people, food, atmosphere, etc. All in all it's just a great city. We also visited Kobe, which is a great place for me ...

... rubbed into the fact that I am really not getting enough exercise here. The temple itself wasn't especially impressive however talking this over with some Japanese friends we were informed that it is not the end which matters but the journey (I guess we did quite well then). The trip was concluded with some udon making off our own which goes something like this: Mix special flower, salt and water. Kneed it into a ball ...

... at this point) 'Ill just check how many stops it is before i need to get off," and i set about looking for my station on a diagram of the train network. Well, the train network is quite big, and it took me a while to even work out where i had caught the train from, let alone where i currently was! A man approached me and asked if I needed help. I told him i was going to Mure, and he said 'as it happens, i live in Mure, i will help you', which was lovely! To cut a ...

... a bit much for him sometimes!). We thought we were done, and were finishing our beer when another mystery plate was put in front of us. We had clearly only ordered 3 dishes, but the waitress insisted the 4th was for us. So I bravely tried it... Chicken grizzle. Yup, deep-fried Cartilidge! We call it "Chicken Knuckles". And as is often the case here in Japan, I was the one who finished it! Once you get over the chewy-ness... the taste is sensational! We ...