Yamatoya Honten Matsuyama

... the air ticket was cheaper though this time around but I should have known better. I spent a lot of time with my Gramps in the mornings and then had the rest of the day to putz around (actually I ended up rearranging half of the house and ran out of time to finish the rest!). <br><br>To maximize my time in being back in Japan, I filled up on food! I ate yakiniku, matsutake dishes, ramen, strawberry shortcake ...

... trees, with two sturdy chains to hang on to and reasonably good footholds...most of the time ( there were a few somewhat smooth and even slippery bits ). The real "kowai" ( japanese for scary ) bit was yet to come. The climb across the jagged ridge from Misen to Tengudake at 1982m. Only Saffiya, Doug and I ended up climbing across for various reasons, including miscommunication. There is one more very small piece of chain leading down from the very stable and flat ...

... other smaller portable shrines down a very high set of stairs, followed by a brawl to collect the pieces.<br><br>I am not really sure of the significance of all this, but it was definitely interesting to watch! I will try to find out more about the meaning behind this festival and make another post about it at a later time.<br><br>For the first night of the festival Jess and I walked down to the water to watch them parade around. It was really ...

So many things to tell, and so little time!<br><br>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 ...

... with great force. It's likened to sumo wrestlers bashing together. Unfortunately, in Japanese culture, everything is likened to sumo wrestling: dogs fighting, bulls fighting, omikoshi-bashing, etc. After so many comparisons, I start to question the originality of the person who was describing the event. Anyways, after we went home, I slept for a little longer before I went to work.

We had to be at school at 7am for this fieldtrip, on a Sunday, a few weeks into summer vacation. We were going to the beach to set up huge tents, fill tubs with water, and generally set up for our students, who would arrive with their families three hours later, in time to watch a boat drag in a net full of fish, which were then dumped into the tubs to be handled by the children until dead, at which ...

... just me, I guess. It was really cute to watch the little kids doing ballet - one of them stopped during the performance to wave to his family in the audience. I felt like I was slightly intruding on a family event. Anyways, here's some of the million pictures that I took - none of them really came out since we were in the nosebleed seats (we got there late).

... to Hiroshima written by locals to show off their city. The guide was excellent and if you are heading to Hiroshima I would really recommend looking at their website, Gethiroshima, and getting hold of a copy of their city map. We had a look at the map and Fiona spied a place to eat called Spud Love which, given Fiona's love of tatties, was soon top of the list of places to eat. Heading out from the hotel we strolled downtown along Peace Boulevard and soon found the potato ...

... and copy Rachel's lesson plans (she's got this stuff down) and am basically a guest teacher for the kids. I teach them basic English commands (stand up, sit down, quiet, etc.) and we sing songs and play games. I start teaching them things like songs with the ABC's, hokey pokey, hello, how are you. My job is super fun. I dig dancing around and getting the kids excited. For the 2 year olds (Gb), the two Japanese teachers basically are in charge of the behind-the ...

... worse for wear but ready for some sight seeing. Started off by catching the tram down to Miyajima, apparently when everywhere else in Japan was scrapping their trams Hiroshima bought up all the cars and extended its network. Caught the boat across to the island where there is a floating shine, temples and a large Tori ...