This week I volunteered to get away from my desk, while my students were taking their midterm exams, and head out to take pictures for a guidebook that our students made. The weather was beautiful, and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get out and enjoy it. I had two days to try to navigate my way around Kobe, searching for the places in the ...

Well I am just shocking. It has been almost a week since I have updated this. Do forgive this unforgivable act. Because of this you will have to excuse the dodginess of the next couple of entries as I will actually have to use my decrepit excuse of a memory. So, on this day I took the 12 hour train, ferry, bus, foot ride from a tiny island off t...

I went to see the famous Kobe Illumination today with a Japanese friend from Osaka. We weaved through the city of Kobe, waiting in line for over 2 hours. I hadn't seen Ai since the language camp in Richland center so we had a lot to talk about and the two hours flew by. Luckily, since it was so crowded we didn't really feel that cold. The lights...

Goodbye Japan, hello China again! more to follow...........

Today we had a traditional Japanese breakfast at our ryokan. I learned that salads with slices of hard-boiled egg are a common breakfast dish, along with miso soup, rice and a bunch of things to pile on top of your rice. Heidi and I were complimented on our supurb use of chopsticks! After breakfast we used the communal women's bath. Our ryokan h...

The Kobe Winery was holding an Obon festival not to far from where we live. A group of us went and because we had registered ahead of time- they had prepared Yukatas (Japanese summer Kimonos) for us to wear. We went to the grounds around 2:00 and tested the wine, ate festival foods, and listened to groups perform music on the center stage. At 4:...

Sorry about the lack of updates, but I haven`t been able to get to the comp. Also, most bathrooms I have been out are shared. One very cool thing I wish we had in the US to deal with the bathrooms is this, they all have special slippers that you wear in the bathroom, and never leave it. Good idea. Also, squat toliets are kind of crazy. Basically...

Today I was woken ridiculously early (6.30am) by a really loud announcement over the tannoy in japanese. I found out later she was saying "Get up, it's bath and breakfast time." She then proceeded to give an indepth weather report. So much for a long lie. It was quite good though because I was up and on the train to Kobe by 8.30am. In Kobe I wal...