UI Hotel Shingu

... to keep him away. No one tried to kill it, of course, cuz they’re all freakin Buddhist!

The priests beat a drum for a minute and and they lit some candles or incense or something and that was the end of the ceremony. The first one. The head priest came back in with a different hat on and we chanted some more. And prayed to the Buddha. And then finally, we get to see the Buddha. See, this wasn’t just an ordinary ...

On arrive au camping de Kawa-Yu sous une pluie battante, heureusement des le lendemain matin un temps splendide s'installe. La saison du camping au Japon etant juillet et aout, il n'y a personne ! La region est faite de plein de petites vallees boisees avec riviere, dont une tres speciale puisque sous les cailloux de ...

... waterfall was very small, but enough to make me relax. After a short break, I took a 15 minute walk and reached a viewpoint in the middle of the uphill. I got a beautiful view of the Owase city area from up there. There was a young couple amazed by the view. By the way, I expected to see a lot of people on the route at first, because it was a sunny Sunday, but I passed by a few young couples and fit seniors. That may have been ...

... to readjust before I get back to the daily grind :) Hopefully the reverse culture shock won't be too hard. If you're in the D.C. area my friends are throwing a welcome back party for me on August 23rd. E-mail me for details if you are around and want to come! Everyone is invited :) I'll leave you with a few things I can think of as I'm writing this... Things I will miss: 1. my heated toilet seat 2. 7am, waking up to a watch a beautiful sunrise over the pacific ocean ...

... Another thing I think is so funny that my friend told me (who speaks fluent Japanese) is that the prefecture where we live, Wakayama, has a very distinct dialect/accent. He said "it is, soooooo ghetto I feel like I speak with an thick Alabama accent sometimes when I speak Wakayama-ben." hahhaha ohh poor (literally, it's also apparently the second poorest state in the country!) Wakayama. Recent Interesting news from Japan... 1. Heroes star Hayden ...

... I actually CAN speak another language, just not theirs - haha. But unfortunately for me, they will only be here for a few weeks :( as they return to Australia at the end of the month. Recently at Tea Ceremony, our teacher Shibasaki Sensei (whom we receive free lessons from in exchange for helping her practice her English), decided that she would only speak to us in Japanese. She feels it would be a waste if we lived here for 2 years and left not speaking any Japanese! She ...

... Their names were funny: Matsui, Ichiro, etc.. We also watched a Squid cleaning competition, where elementary schoolers race against the clock to gut the squid. One girl had black ink all over her hands when the buzzer went off! Once the holidays were over it was back to the daily grind for me. Thankfully I was invited on a school trip this year at one of my Elementary Schools. It's nice to be included since most time JET's are left to sit alone in the teacher room, and usually ...

... Shingon Buddhism, Kobo Daishi. Greta sights, great photo opportunities, made all the more interesting by a constant flow of "pilgrims" in various attire, moving back and forth to the main shrine by the mausoleum. An "organic" lunch preceded further visits to shrines and temples and shops galore throughout the village, before we dashed back to the temple to make sure we didn't miss out on our next vegetarian/Buddhist supper, squatting at a table with chopsticks - Oh sublime enlightenment!

... we hung out and explored for an hour, and then started to get a little panicked that we would have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to stay there! And what if we couldn't get out until the morning? So I e mailed a friend here who speaks Japanese and he couldn't stop laughing, but when he heard how serious I was about wanting to get out, he suggested I send him pictures via my cell phone of the vending machine thing and he would tell us which buttons to push to get out. So, thank ...

... While walking from the train station to the Todai-Ji temple, we came across what could only be described as a horde of deer. There were, from my counting and estimations, about 60 bucks, a few does and a few younger deer all lying in a field right next to the sidewalk. This sight was quite impressive and we all enjoyed taking a lot of pictures, all the while taking care not to pet any of them. We passed this group of deer without incident, and as we approached the temple ...