We haven't actually put up an entry yet dedicated to all the weird and fun things we see day to day here in Japan, so this entry will include a bunch, as well as some regular photos from Sebastian's school. Included in the photos are: 5 different brands of gum: Spash - with liquid inside! Glamatic - for glamorous girls! Xylish - if it's got xyli...

A short sleep after club Womb and the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, we check out our own local matsuri, the Gion festival of Yoshiwara. It's a relatively small 2-day festival, but it's fun run into so many people we know, to have festival food, and check out the taiko carts.

Yet another brief visit and a very quick blog just for the record. Our much anticipated visit to the famous Mt Fuji turned out to be quite a disappointment as dense clouds ruined any hope we had of witnessing the great views of Japan's largest mountain. We took a long winded combination of Shinkansen and other private trains all the way from Nag...

Sebastian's school holds its annual school festival and sports day. Like Fiona's school, the cultural club display their works, while the sports clubs sell food. The English club at Yoshiko set up an English movie theatre this year, while the international classes set up Halloween and Mexican themed rooms. There was tons to see, and not enough t...

Fiona's school celebrates their annual festival and sports day. Cultural clubs display their work and sports clubs sell matsuri food. Fiona's English club performed a mesmerizing version of Snow White this year. Fiona herself dressed up in yukata and participated in the third-year's traditional dance called Minyo. For Sports Day, students were d...

Students at Fuji High School teach and learn the school anthem.

Schools is well on its way now, our conversation classes have resumed, and the end of the year is fast approaching! It'll probably get busy here, but we'll try to keep updating regularly. Here are a few photos from around Fiona's place, including some more of Fuji at this time...the snow is on the way out! And the warmth is quite welcome!

Konichi-wa, mein Plan fuer heute sah vor frueh mit einem Shinkansen am Fujiyama vorbei zu fahren und dann via Odawara nach Hakone zu fahren um dort das touristische Shinkansen Programm zu machen (welches in der Woche billiger und nicht so ueberlaufen ist wie am Wochenende). Als ich um 6:30 aufgebrochen bin schien ja noch die Sonne, aber schon ba...

Warning: If you don't like flowers on trees, you should probably skip this entry as it's mostly filled with pictures of said trees (ie sakura). Sebastian's family left us on the 27th, likely a bit overwhelmed from their whirlwind tour, but hopefully with many good memories! The sakura began blooming just as they were leaving, so they were only a...

A big WOW for our 2 days in Fuji!!!! We arrived after a 6 hour train journey to the most wonderful setting - mount fuji herself from our bedroom window - amazing. We were so tired the first night that we slept for about 11 hours - both very tired and a bit ill still. 2nd day - took a walk down to Oshino village which was very quaint and then cau...