Terminal Hotel Matsuyama

... to a Meiji Era tea house overlooking the Hijikawa River. I stayed a hostel just below the castle for about $35 which might have seemed expensive for what could have been a huge dorm with futons spread out over the open space, except the I had the spacious second floor to myself with full windows facing the river on one side and the castle (lit at night) on the other. It was wonderful.

On to the big city of Matsuyama, capital of Shikoku.........

... clouds. But even more hair-raising was looking ahead to the actual peak of Ishizuchi, still towering far over head and far off in the distance.

Down the other side of the peak was another set of chains back to the main path and we continued what would prove to be an increasingly steep and difficult climb to the top.

There was one easy section not long after the first set of chains, where the forest opened up to open fields of low-lying bamboo. It was ...

... a amazing to see all the shrines all lit up at night and clambering out a cacophony of bells and drums all playing different notes at different times. Jess has really become somewhat of a celebrity amongst the young children in Hojo, everywhere we went little kids taking part in the festival were yelling "Jeshka sensei! Jeshka sensei!" It was really cute.

This was all quite exciting until later on that night when the drumming and bell ...

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 ...

... 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.

I plan to take more, but the thing is, when you are just a tourist somewhere it is a lot different than living there ...

... attract the fish...which I'm pretty sure is illegal in Canada??? Anyway, the lights and burning lantern thing attract the fish and the Cormorants catch them. When one of them is full ( apparently they can hold up to 16 fish ) the fisherman reals one of them in and sort of chokes them until they cough up the fish.

The boat got us quite close and I got a pretty nice video, which I will try to upload. It was a pretty amazing experience, even if questionably a little cruel.

The Japanese are lovers of nature (at least in the rural sections they seem to be). My students love to talk about their flowers, gardens and the birds coming back from winter. One popular thing is the beginning of spring with the sakura hanami (Cherry blossom viewings). I thought initially that they all had to involve copious amounts of alcohol and are related to workplaces forcing their employees to sit on blue tarps for over 8 hours to reserve a spot for aforementioned ...

Ashleigh and I don't really have a lot of time together outside of the apartment. She works in the day time from M-F from 8-6, and I work in the evenings, on T-Sat from 12-10. Usually, our time together consists of going to sleep. On sundays, and sometimes Monday, we get to hang out and do stuff. This day we decided to do something very touristy, so we went to go see Shiki-do, and the Ferris wheel that's in the center of town. Matsuyama is the birthplace ...

... to our table with his beer and we resumed talking about stuff. Five minutes later, she sat down right next to Glen and started talking to both of us. I was a little surprised at this, but she was friendly and I didn't object to meeting someone new, so we all talked and drank for a while. After 20 mins of talking, Ashleigh, who was sitting at a different table right next to us leans over and asked me something. I answered back and talked to Ashleigh for ...

... practice this, and since they're 5 years old, they have better discipline than American 10 year olds. It's amazing to see them during assemblies, and she says classes are so well-behaved. In other employment news, I spoke with my "future" boss from the English Academy. I have an interview with her on Tuesday to secure the job in June. She also wants to meet me face-to-face to talk about some other options regarding part-time work once I'm done with Aiko in May. Wish me luck!