A week of fun with Leila!
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2009
1
10
47
Trip End
Jun 25, 2011
Nachikatsuura,
Japan
Monday, October 2, 2006
Day 1-2: bike tour around town, trip to the super center to buy food for the week,
took the day off from work, slept late, went hiking at Nachi-san on a perfect day, then drove to Kushimoto (where Justin and Tony live) about 25 minutes away and explored the famous rocks there. Then met up with Justin and Tony for conveyor belt sushi, scrabble and Memoirs of a Geisha (which was so much cooler since we had just been to Kyoto)!
Day 3: Leila came with me to my small mountain school. We arrived to find the tea lady/janitor/gardener killing a poisonous snake with a hoe in the school garden
01 the temple complex at Nachi-san
! All the kids came running outside to see the snake (that had a triangular head!) Apparently there are lots of them around the school...At that moment I knew I would never forget the word for snake, "hebi." We had a great day at school, Leila got to listen to me recite my self-introduction (which I was so sick of doing by that point), then we watched the kids practice for sports festival, had lunch with the 1st graders (only 2!), then learned origami during recess. We made a delicious Mexican food dinner and stuffed ourselves silly, then spent the rest of the evening watching ridiculous Japanese TV shows. Day 4: After I finished school we met up with the other ALT's in the area, and went to our favorite place for Indian food. Then we met the men who work at our Board of Education's to play bowling! It was 4 people from two local towns Board of Education plus Sara (the British ALT) on TEAM WORLD, versus TEAM AMERICA!!! haha we had a good time bowling, the Japanese guys were pretty ridiculous and silly the entire night per usual! After that we drove to the local karaoke place in Katsuura, where it turns out one of my students fathers owns the place! We had a nice room and took turns alternating between popular Japanese songs (for the BOE guys to sing) and American favorites, so neither group would get too bored. After that we went back to my apartment for more late night partying :)
Day 5: Nachi Camping Trip!
02 hiking up to the temples, monks houses
! The Wakayama JET "club" sort of thing organizes a camping trip/visit to Nachi falls every year. So we met up with about 20 or so other JET's from all over the prefecture and went hiking around Nachi-san, then we visited a local onsen, and headed out to the nearby camp site! We made a huge delicious dinner on the grill and slept in cabins right on the Pacific. It was such a beautiful view!!Day 6: Sports Festival Day! Leila and I drove around to 4/6 of my schools today to visit and support the kids during one of the biggest events of the school year! We watched relay races, obstacle courses, relays with HUGE rubber balls, marching, singing school songs, taiko drumming (traditional Japanese drum), and more...It was really fun to see them perform in front of all the parents, family, friends especially after watching them practice for weeks before. They were all so excited to see me too, which was very cute! They kept saying to Leila and I, "You are berry beautiful, berry beautiful!" and "Big sunglasses! Movie star!"
Day 7: Leila and I decided to visit the very famous Japanese love hotels as a joke. If you don't know already, these are places where people can go and pay for the room by the hour, half-evening, whole evening, etc...Since there is one about 1/2 mile down the road, we decided to try it out! (Keep in mind neither Leila nor I knew nothing about how love hotels work before we went) We drove up to "Hotel Nonno" and there since there is no place to check in, you park your car and walk up to the open garage door of your choice. We learned later that you can pull your car into the garage, and a sensor will shut the door automatically. This all adds to the secrecy of the love hotel. We picked a room and the door was open, so we walked up a flight of stairs and into a suite
03 view of the pagoda and nachi from the temples
. We opened the door to our room and found a vending machine type box with Kanji all over it. Before we knew it the door was LOCKED!! We tried to open the door but there was a plastic case over the dead bolt! We were locked in! Having no idea how to read it we just inserted the amount of money it stated on the screen 10,000 YEN ($100) and walked in to find a HUGE suite, very nice, huge bed, with very nice bathroom and Jacuzzi. I will spare you the rest of the details, but we hung out and explored for an hour, and then started to get a little panicked that we would have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to stay there! And what if we couldn't get out until the morning? So I e mailed a friend here who speaks Japanese and he couldn't stop laughing, but when he heard how serious I was about wanting to get out, he suggested I send him pictures via my cell phone of the vending machine thing and he would tell us which buttons to push to get out. So, thank goodness that worked and we were on our way home after an hour having only paid $40. What a funny experience that was! Day 8: I took another day off and we decided to take a boat ride to "Camel Island" where there is a beautiful onsen literally on the Pacific. We boarded the boat about 2 minutes bike ride from my apt, and were taken about 5 minutes out into the ocean and let off at this secluded onsen, where NO ONE was!! We took one look in front of us and there it was - the huge rock that looks just like a camel! We had the most relaxing afternoon soaking in the (very hot) onsen with the beautiful rock formations in front of us.
Leila left for Tokyo the next day :( It was so great to see a familiar face and spend time with her in my new home. We had a great time together
04
!This past weekend, we took our first road trip (I drove) up north to our friend Parry's house, he had some friends studying abroad in Nagoya come visit for the weekend. SO we met up with all the other ALT's at his house, and went to the beach for a bonfire. The next day we all kind of did our own thing, Justin and I went to the driving range and then down to Ryan's town, Minabe to teach Sara how to play baseball! Because she's from Britan she only knows how to play cricket! I told her that's next on the agenda, teaching me cricket..haha
Great couple of weeks, and to top everything off - we just booked our flight to Beijing and Thailand for 2 weeks over Christmas and New Years!! I can't wait!
