Urban Hotel Yonekyu Hamamatsu

... or talked me into confusion--joining their local team), and on my way back home on the winding road, when I spotted something moving on the road. Now in this area, this is a common occurrence. Wild boards (Unoshishi), deer (Shika), and all other forms of life find their way onto the half-wild half-tamed highway that runs through these parts.

"Wild" would describe the ...

... As the videos indicate, these roads are winding around corners as they go up and down the mountain slopes. Sometimes, these roads are only narrow enough to just fit my car through. I can only imagine how the truck drivers feel as they lunge down these mountain passes with their lumber in tow.
My second time coming here, I got lost for the first, but not he last time, in Tomiyama. I was supposed to follow one of my colleagues, Tanabe-sensei, to school that day so she could ...

... and received my own reasons to respect them. Now, if it's someone I simply don't know well, I try my best not to stare off into the mountains or grow impatient with their honorific and spar-jarring command to "Rei!".
Tangent!
So, after all the ceremonies were done, and I was having fun laughing with the kids and earning their admiration for pulling two, sometimes three heavy weeds at a time, we packed up and headed off to the nearby river for a massive Hikakke feast. My ...

... this time was that I had a much better rod. My vice-principal makes the hooks himself, and the rod was in pristeen condition. All five hooks were there.
So this time, I managed to catch 10 (where only one was a net-caught fish!). With my newly founded bragging-rights, I set off that day on a full stomach of delicious and freshly made Onigiri (surprise-center wrapped with rice and Nori, dried seaweed ...

So this is going back a few days from the festival, but after staying about a week in Toyone, I felt like I had to explore more of it, rain or shine, farther than the nearest convenient store.
So grabbing my trusty wendy-basket mickey-mouse-locked Jidensha (Bicycle), I took off on what was a downhill journey one way...and a terrible return trip up the steep road that leads to my mountain apartment. In Japanese, they say Iki yoi yoi, Kaeri koway (The way there is good ...

... woozy from the night before and our hike, I came back from the suspicious washroom to face two slaps of meat covered with some brown sauce. It was absolutely delicious. I wanted two more.
When we left Shinshiro, I already felt like I had put in a whole day. 1PM felt (and looked) like 6PM, approached bed-time. Trying some Japanese tongue-twisters on the way, we passed a few Philippine Clubs (but not going in) only to arrive in the best temple I've seen so far.
Toyokawa's ...

I was all excited this week because a friend I met at the Nagoya orientation -one of the few who could hold his own- invited me (in my first Japanese keitai text message) to a tour of the area. Not having much planned yet, we agreed to tour around Saturday and maybe Sunday.
Less than a day or two later, my gym teacher (a personal favorite) brought up a BBQ he was hosting with his friends and family on Saturday. It being my first 'official' invite to any sort of co-worker outing, I didn't ...

... draw me maps indicating different landmarks, but the best was the one gas station where this grubby looking mechanic gave me a huge handful of "maple candies". They were just caramel (a Canadian could tell the diff), but they were delicious and appreciated nonetheless. I didn't eat for another hour. Eventually I found the grocery store, and some cool farmer's market that had some deep-fried potato nugget things (called after the French Croquette), bought a bunch of ...

... 13-hour time-difference would vouchsafe, is not that easy to get past.
My supervisor showed up at 8:30, and we stepped outside my apartment so that he could show me the way to his company car. To my demise, he asked if I would drive it. Of course I blurted out a "Hai, onegai shimasu" (Yes please!), but everything inside me was saying "A test already?" As I was quick to find out, everything here is a test, but always for your benefit. Everyone wants to make sure I'm ...

... epic Pirates of the Caribbean...all three hours of it! I really enjoyed it though, despite not even seeing the second one, and the time seemed to fly by. I would hazard a guess that a few of the audience fell asleep at some point though! A popular activity amongst the youth of Japan is to go into a photo booth and pose for photographs with their friends, and after the movie the three of us joined the throngs of youngsters in an arcade and eventually found a free booth ...