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.