Takaraso Hotel Matsuyama

This weekend saw quite an impressive ( though sometimes annoying ) Autumn Festival here in Hojo.

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 many things to tell, and so little time!

My first week of teaching in Hojo has been very very busy, and very interesting. I have come home everyday too tired to even check email (so sorry for lack of communication, guys!). That being said, I am hoping to become used to the teaching routine and get my energy back ...

... 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.

I am also going to upload images for the journey here entry. So you can check that out if you want.

... at night and was on the last leg of the trip to Hojo. Right on time at 12:33 at night I rolled into Hojo station, caught a cab and was at Jess's apartment. I really should've walked, but I didn't realize it was so close. How close was it? It was so close that the meter didn't even change from the starting rate of 550 yen.

It took a lot of knocking and ringing to get Jess up, but man was she surprised to see me! Yes, for those of you who don't know, I had told ...

... waiters didn't want to go up and down the stairs. If I ever design a restaurant, there will never be a second floor dining area. Sorry, just some of things I think about. Went home, went to bed, and Dave and I went to the temple to look around. It's a modern temple, so not a lot of interesting things about it. We then went to the castle, the ferris wheel and had some dinner. See pictures for the rest. Sorry this is short, I'm 3 months behind.

Brian, Ashleigh and I woke up super early on this Saturday morning to see the omikoshi (portable shrines) bash together in the early morning. I don't know the history of this event, but it's a pretty cool thing to see. I think first, the (probably yakuza)men drink all night the night before. Then, at around 4-5 in the morning, they get their omikoshi's and haul them to the small square ...

... like fiesta in Santa Barbara, for example! Anyway, I will admit that the park was certainly beautiful, and I did really enjoy sitting on a bench under a tree full of sakura ("cherry blossoms") with a plate of takoyaki in one hand and a Chu-hi (fruit-flavored malt beverage) in the other. The thing I most enjoyed about the experience, however, was seeing that every tarp in the place, with its load of drunk and happy people, was outlined with a neat row of shoes! *hehehe*

... dishes in Japan that cannot be identified by sight or smell meaning that if you don't know what they are you either have to pop them in your mouth and hope for the best or leave them) but both of us really enjoyed the whole experience and felt much more Japanese for doing it. To get from the train station to our hotel we had to take one of the many tramlines which criss-cross Hiroshima. Unlike most other Japanese cities, Hiroshima doesn't have a metro system and everyone gets ...

... The shorts also don't tell you what year they are. Now there's also kids with light blue hats (solid colored) and they are non-english 4 year olds (since not all parents want to pay for their kids to learn english). There are also bright pink hats for 2 year olds and light pink for 3 year olds who don't learn English as well. Next are the yellow hats, both solid and white striped to tell if they're 4 year olds and Yellow A and Yellow B. Their shorts are red. The ...

Caught the night bus at 8pm in Tokyo, only just mind, and arrived in Hiroshima at 8 the next morning. The night bus was comfy, 3 seats per row, reclining, slippers and blanket provided. We had had a few drinks before we started then had our bottle of wine. We were quite merry but somehow failed to sleep. Arrived in Hiroshima ...