Yamaguchi Trip and Last day at Noro-Higashi Elementary

This past weekend I visited the prefecture to the west of Hiroshima called Yamaguchi. My English teacher Mr. Okamoto and his wife took the time to drive me there and show me the different sights. I’m a Japanese history buff and Yamaguchi (formerly Choshu) is a prefecture that has had a great influence on Japanese history. Okamoto-sensei knowing my interest in history was really eager to show me around the prefecture. (Picture Below: Entrance to Akiyoushidai)

We left earlier Saturday morning, and drove straight to Akiyoshidai- the largest limestone caves in Asia. The drive took about 3 hours, but went fast for me as I passed out in the car going there. The caves, reminded me of the ones I saw in Oregon during high school.

We spend about an hour meandering around the boardwalk and saw most of the accessible kilometre. Some of the natural formations where quite breathtaking and we had a nice cool walk in the caves.

Afterwards, we stopped by a traditional Japanese restaurant and sampled some of the local delicacies of Yamaguchi, one of the foods well known to Yamaguchi in Sea Urchin (uni). The meal was really good and we left the restaurant feeling satiated.

After lunch, we made our way Hagi, a famous castle town that produced some of the most notable individuals responsible for the Meji Restoration. We spent a few hours walking around the samurai town and visiting the various old fashioned samurai walls and visiting a few famous buildings of significant Japanese men.

We visited the house of a famous Japanese intellectually and got a tour of the full estate by this Japanese granny that had trekked half of the world.

After Hagi, we went to Yamaguchi city, known as the "Kyoto of the west." We stopped by at Ruriko-Ji Temple in Ko-zan Park which has a 31.2-meter tall five-story pagoda built in the 15th century. One thing very different from this pagoda is that the roof is made of straw, different from the ones in Kyoto and elsewhere.

Right now its rainy season (Tsuyu), but the weather held out until the evening when we drove back to Hiroshima. Okamoto sensei and his wife were really nice to bring me and virtually didn’t allow me to pay for anything. With the toll fees, gas, lunch and various entrance fees- the price of the trip really added up quite fast. I was able to treat them to dinner and also give them my Canada Hockey jersey as a present. When we were doing our hockey lessons in class, he always liked the colour of the jersey. So it was fitting that I gave him that as a present for all the help he has given me this year.(Picture Below: My grade 1/2 students, the bottom right is a super cute kid!)

On Monday was my last day at Noro-Higashi elementary school. This school was one of my favoirtes as it is a mountain school and all the kids are really adorable and always excited. I gave my final lessons to each of the grades, which was really sad as I’ll miss a lot of their faces and personalties. (Picture Below: Grade 5/6's-They were always really polite and easy to teach)

The kids were nice enough to make me cards too and a few of them had some real touching words. A lot of the kids I’ve seen them grow up in the 2 years I’ve been here and I wish I would be able to see what kind of person they grown into.

After eating lunch, the school had a goodbye ceremony for me. It was the first of 5 speeches I’ll have to give in Japanese. Since, this was with a smaller school, I didn’t feel too nervous and I was able to give a pretty good speech I think.

I took lots of goodbye photos and it will be sad as I slowly say good bye to all the kids and places I’ve called home the past 2 years. Next week I’ll have 3 more last visits at elementary schools and I know saying goodbye to the kids is going to be really tough.

Japanese Factoid#52- Vending Machines are everywhere in Japan. Not only do they sell drinks, but also numerous vices. The most popular 2 are tobacco and beer vending machines. However, I've seen some of the craziest vending machines, like popcorn, condoms, batteries, bowling shoes, used female underwear- and even porn vending machines full of videos and magazines.

I've never seen one of the porn ones, but they are supposedly in the countryside in the middle of nowhere. The estimate in Japan is 1 vending machine for every 23 people, which I won't dispute because they are honestly everywhere you go- not matter how rural or urban.

Su's Oasis Concert and Dice's trip to Hiroshima

The past two weekends have been really enjoyable as I’ve spent my time with friends before my time here wraps up. Last weekend, my friend Su invited me to go watch his Oasis cover concert in Kure. (Picture Below: Su's doing awesome Oasis covers)

Whenever we meet up we always go drinking and usually ended up at our local bar singing Oasis songs. So it was nice to see what he can do without us being inebriated. I was really impressed by his performance as he did some great covers of various Oasis songs. Rob and I both cheered him on and sang along in the front to most of his songs. I found out that he actually released a CD with his former band, which he was nice enough to actually give me a copy. (Picture Below: Rob and I with the Big Rock Star)

After the concert we went for dinner with a bunch of his friends and spent the night drinking at an izakaya, then bar hopping around Kure till the morning. Rob and I crashed at him place for the and the next day he and his girlfriend Akiko took us to the highest mountain in Kure, which had a breathtaking view of the city. (Picture Below: Overlooking the heart of Kure City)

This past weekend my friend Daisuke (Dice) from University came down to visit me from Tokyo. I met with Dice at the station on Saturday morning and then we took the train to Miyajima. We were really lucky that it was a sunny day as Tsuyu (rainy season) has already begun in Japan. We spent a few hours just walking around the 3 temples and eating the good street food that Miyajima has. (Picture Below: At Memories our local bar)

We were lucky to come when the tide was high so the famous red gate was covered in water and we stayed late enough to see the tide go out, so we were also able to walk up close to the gate.

After spend a few hours in Miyajima we went back to Hiroshima city and chilled out a at manga café until going to a concert at 6. I’ve been follwing the band Monkey Majik in Japan for about a year and when I heard they were coming to Hiroshima I picked up two tickets for their concert. There music is pretty good and recently they’ve gotten pretty popular with a few hits in Japan. The band members are composed of 3 Japanese and 2 Canadian brothers. (Picture Below: The Maynard brothers)

The concert was a great and both Dice and I enjoyed the atmosphere and the performance. After the concert we took the train back to Kure where I met up again with Su-san and a few friends. (Picture Below: Monkey Majik's newest release with the Yoshida Brothers)

We ate dinner at an izakaya and spend the night throwing back beer and shochu. We ended up coming out of the bar and about 5 in the morning where we then crashed out at the local onsen for the night. We slept for about 3 hours, then just relaxed in the baths before heading back to Hiroshima.

We spent the rest of the day visiting the Peace Park and museum and then walking around Hiroshima. All in all, it was a great weekend as we packed in a lot of do and it was nice showing Dice my city. He works as a “salaryman” in Tokyo and doesn’t get to travel as much as he wants to, so it was nice just relaxing and seeing a friend from home. It was nice chatting with him and talking about the things we love about Japan and things I’ll miss when I leave here. Countdown is almost at a month!

Japanese Factoid #51- One of the problems with owning a car in Japan is that parking is incredibly expensive and difficulty to find. In city centers space is limited, so they have quite inventive ways to park cars. One of the most interesting kinds is the car elevator. A ramp take up too much space, so a car ramp takes your car up to it’s floor and parks it into a space. Another popular one is the car stacker which sometimes stacks cars in twos and threes and your press your number to bring your car down. Also, Japanese car spaces have a metal bar that pops up when you park your car. To release the metal stopper all you do is pay your fee before you leave.

Matsue Trip and Tokusan Yukata Matsuri

I just got back from visiting Shimane Prefecture, where I met up with Asuka’s family for 3 days.I took the bus to Matsue city on Wednesday and stayed with Asuka’s parents, brother and his wife. The bus took a little over 3 hours and it went fairly briskly. (Picture below: Picking up a rock with silver in it)

On Thursday, we had a full day of sightseeing around the prefecture. We first went to a silver mine, which was reputed to produce the most silver in the world during the Edo period. (Picture below: Me looking bored listening to the history of sand)

We also decided to visit a sand museum. Yes, a sand museum. Small towns in Japan build the most obscure museums and attractions in order to get tourists to visit their towns. It actually works, since Japanese people just love traveling. Since it was about sand, it wasn’t that exciting. (Picture below: Group picture after dinner in our Yukatas)

At night we checked into this really nice Japanese ryokan (inn). We were the only ones staying their and that had a really nice private room and bath. We soaked in the bath then had a really good dinner.

I really enjoy Japanese ryokan dinners as the food is always great. We also had a few battles of Sake to go with 8 course meal and ended up having a good night chatting. (Picture below: Our small but rustic bath)

The next day we went sightseeing again and visited a lighthouse on the sea of Japan in the morning. It had a pretty good view of the Ocean and it was fun to climb all 96 steps to the top.

We also went to an English garden, which was actually pretty impressive as this British gardener created this huge garden full of some pretty amazing flowers and plants. In the end all the attractions where actually pretty random, but it was just nice to do a little road trip and visit various places with Asuka’s family. (Picture below: Asuka's dad side of the family)

The next day we had lunch with all of Asuka’s uncles at another really nice Japanese restaurant. The food once again was great. So I basically, just spent the whole week eating and drinking every day. It’s no stretch to see why I’ve gained weight here in Japan.

Asuka and I then took the bus back to Hiroshima and went to the Tokusan Festival in town. It happens during the first weekend in June and everyone brings out their yukatas (summer kimono) for the first time in the year.

I brought my yukata a few weeks back and the hotel we stayed in Saturday provided one for Asuka. (Picture below: Outside the shrine)

So we picked a yukata for Asuka, then went around the town and just soaked in the atmosphere. It gets pretty busy and crowded at these festivals, but it was fun meandering around the streets and waiting the various street foods.

We also met up with Rob and his girlfriend and spent some time chatting and eating on the streets.

This festival also has a tradition where you pray at the local shrine for a prosperous year. So Asuka and I dropped by at the temple, threw our coins into the offering box and made a few prayers. (Picture below: People throwing coins into the offering box)

It was a great night as I’ve always wanted to wear a yukata and go to a festival. It was also the last few days Asuka was in Japan as she left for Vietnam this past Wednesday to Volunteer for a month before I meet up with her. Only a few more weeks left in Japan and I’m finding the weekends are pretty much reserved up with things to do. It should be a fun filled last few weeks here.

Japanese Factoid#50- If you followed the news, you might have heard about the big hoopla over Japan and their insistence on their rights to hunt "Kujira" or whales. Traditionally, whale has been a part of the Japanese diet and even 40 years ago, kids use to have whale at schools for lunch. I've had whale a few times and it's not bad, a bit of a darker meatier taste. Not only can you buy whale you can also go to whale restaurants like this one I found in Osaka.