Tome Ryokans - Reviews and Rates

Its been a while!

I decided to take this opportunity to do a little bit of a cultural update! Every day I'm pretty immersed in Japanese life, and every day notice another interesting little thing that I realize is much different than how things are in America. I also figure this would be a nice change of pace for all of you to get not onl...

So it finally arrived, the day that had received two weeks of practice, the sports festival!

Before I begin, let me just say (even though you will understand soon enough) that this sports day absolutely fascinated me, because as far as I'm aware, American middle schools don't have anything of the sort. Much of this was put on, organized a...

So me and Mr. Ito, whom I was doing my Homestay with, headed back to his house. He lives a bit on the outskirts of...one of the towns, I can't remember, about 10 minutes from the BOE. There I met some of his family: His sister, who is in her 50s, his mother, who is in her late 80s, and his father, who is in his 90s. They were all very nice about...

But first, a correction on my alice nine. live report. I got the trial version of Babylon, which is extremely useful in interpreting blog posts and live reports in Japanese. The downside is that it's time consuming, and I maxed out on how many times I can use it in a single night. ^^;; Shou said he was tired of his current name and wanted to cha...

The week has been so weird. Of course, it doesn't help that I've been in visual kei land. I had Monday off in exchange for last week's PTA Day and today because it's Showa Day. At the same time, I had to get up early Sunday morning for the shamisen/shakuhachi/taiko performance. I should've caught up on sleep, but I'm still tired. The musical per...

Today is White Day, the holiday where boys reciprocate the valentine's gifts given to them by the girls. Except that their presents have to be twice as good/expensive/meaningful. Man, maybe I shouldn't have been stingy because now I don't get any chocolates. :( I hate being sick because I end up having a cough that lasts for a couple weeks. It h...

I figured that I am entitled to at least one blog post made entirely of complaints. To say that I don't like Japan is like saying that I don't like America . I am not fond of either place (or Taiwan ) so it's useless for me to compare countries until I find a place I truly enjoy living in that's not my fantasy world. My first major gripe is abou...

Dear Mother Nature, why are you being mean? Have I been a bad child? Why must it snow when I am biking home from school and right after it was starting to get warm? There are days when I am convinced my fingers and toes would never regain feeling. I hate winter so much that I have no desire to see the Winter X Games. You can bribe me with the ch...

The paperwork has been submitted, and the agony is over. Although I am surprised that my decision wasn't questioned, maybe my procrastination gave kyoutou-sensei a clue. I am sure I made the right choice. Next time I go abroad, it's gonna be somewhere tropical or a desert. Despite all the frustrations, there are days where junior high goes reall...

Well, I'm back in Tome, and I'm not exactly thrilled. I was so sure that I would re-contract until about a week ago. Maybe I got too comfortable at home, but being away from Japan has allowed me to look at things differently. I could be going through a phase of cultural shock or the wintertime blues, but I'm thinking there's a more serious issue...