Tokyu Inn Takamatsu

... Naoshima, an island which has become a center for modern art. First, I went to the Chichu Art Museum, which has only four small exhibits, but it uses the sky and sunlight as part of the art. Then I took a bus to an old town where traditional houses have been converted into art installations. One has a replica of the Statue of Liberty taking up two floors. Another has a pool filled with electric-lit numbers that are constantly changing ...

... Koen, a landscape park supposedly rivalling the 3 best parks in Japan. It can tell you it's more expensive than Kenrokuen, larger than Kenrokuen and wilder. Which means it was better-less sculpting, more branches. While the view was fine the highlight was meeting Kaisha-san, an eight odd year old man who walked and talked with me through the park. Surprisingly spry, he suggested climbs I wasn't sure I wanted to make. He was ...

... which I found out was packed to the gills because there had been a Kabuki parade that day. Not a parade of Kabuki characters, but famous actors in palaquins. Even the TV crews were there and JAL and JTB had stands with food and beer at the kabuki theater. And here I thought a lot of people wanted to climb to the Shinto shrine on top of Kompira-san. I arrived at Kotohira at 3:30 and after getting lost for half an hour (never follow Japanese tourists anywhere ...

... br>
More train transfers to get to Miyajima island, near Hiroshima (which I avoided like a plague because I just don't have it in me...) Miyajima is 'one of the three most famous views in Japan' and for that reason I was doubtful about how much it would really match the hype. The actual view that people talk about is the floating torii, which is basically erected on a mud flat and appears floating in the water at high tide. Though the torii is nice to look at, as well as ...

... bearers for them to hire.They will carry you up the steps to the Dai-mon Gate. One funny thing was I saw many people even took their little dogs with them to Shrine. Watching the dogs jump up the steps, I guess the dogs must want to cry for coming to this kind of place. Btw, Kotohira produces the best Udon in Japan. Outside one famous Udon school, you ...

... 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 ...

... it is the first place in Japan that I went to when we ported there on Semester at Sea in September 2006. Laura and I visited Sannomiya, Chinatown, the Port of Kobe, and Kawasaki Good Times World. Overall it was a great weekend.   The next weekend I went up to the Iya Valley with my friend Gilly and a friend of hers who was visiting. The Iya Valley is about an hour west of my house and is incredibly beautiful. We were up there to see all of the leaves ...

... ball into plastic bag. Stomp on it with your feet several times over (really). Roll the dough to make a long strip. Fold the strip and cut it into thin noodles. Unfortunately, it is getting late and I (and my computer grrrr) am getting tired. So, to prevent my pieces from becoming illegible due to sleep induced spelling errors I will leave the accounts off my trips to Ise and Hiroshima for another day in the (very) near future.

Yo Yo, It's been three weeks since I updated and I'm pretty bored at home right now so how about a new post? Cool? Good. Life's been sweet lately. I've been getting paid, having fun, and actually teaching kids some English. It was pretty cool how my school handled September 11th too. They had me bring in my American flag and flew it on one of the flagpoles outside all day. There was a large assembly in the gym and they had me address the students about the significance of 9/11 ...

... this year Japanese horse Delta Blues edged out stablemate Pop Rock to clinch the Cup. Both horses are bred and owned by Katsumi Yoshida who owns Shadai Farm in Sapporo, and are trained by Katsuhiko Sumii, who broke down in tears when the trophy was presented. Delta Blues' jockey Yasunari Iwata was also very emotional after the win. Finally, in December Melbourne hosts the Australian Masters Golf at Huntingdale Golf Club and the Melbourne ...