Another busy few weeks...

The last few days have been fun at school. We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner on the 24th, the only thing missing was pumpkin pie and my family. But I will be home soon enough to eat pumpkin pie and spend time with family. I will be flying home on the 18th of December and spending a few weeks in Oregon. Besides Thanksgiving, we had Bridging the Gap, which was an informational day. We had a guest speaker come in and talk about the importance of sleep, nutrition, and exercise for the brain. During one of his presentations he had a website that helped students to find careers which fit their personality. For some reason I was the only person able to log onto the website... so I got to do my whole profile in front of all the teachers. According to the website, I am well suited for a career in taxidermy, jewelry making, tattoo artist, a florist, or as an elementary teacher... It was pretty entertaining. On Saturday we had Pecha Kucha, which are presentations in which the presenter is limited to 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide. Which makes things quick and to the point. Pecha Kucha was much better than I imagined it in my head, and I look forward to going to more Pecha Kucha's in the future.

Cross Country Day and Miura

The three boys with grey shirts are from Ishinomaki. 

The four girls in the middle with  grey shirts are from Ishinomaki. 

Sorry I haven't put anything up in the last few weeks. I've been busy working and haven't really done anything too fun. But this weekend I had a chance to get out and about. One of the things that has been keeping me busy the last few weeks has been planning the Cross Country Day. We in the PE department decided to try to invite some students down from our sister schools in the Ishinomaki area. For those of you who do not know the Ishinomaki area was heavily damaged by the March 11th tsunami. Many of the schools were destroyed by the tsunami. We were able to invite seven students down to run in Cross Country day and visit school and Yokohama. It was a great experience for all. One Ishinomaki boy and one girl both won their race, which was great to see. One of the teachers told us that one of the girls had only smiled twice since March 11th, and that the cross country day was her third time smiling. Stories like that is why sport and connections with people are so important.



After the craziness of helping to planning and implement the Cross Country Day, I needed a little time to relax and decompress. So I took the train down to the Miura Peninsula. The Miura Peninsula is the eastern side of Tokyo Bay. I took a bus from the train station to the middle of a Daikon field (Japanese Radish). From there I walked down to the beach I skirted the coast line and walked through a few fishing villages and saw a lot of really neat rock formations. The earth has definitely been moving in that area... I talked with a man fishing for a while, he had the coolest little tool to tie his hook. I was jealous.... But to fish they tied a small shrimp to the hook and then cast out, while the hook was in the water they launched more bait into the water around the hook to attract more fish to the area. After walking for a while longer I made it to the Tsurugisaki Lighthouse to watch the sun sink down into the ocean. It was great to get out of Yokohama for the day and walk on the beach.

Kansai

Kinkakuji Temple

For the past week I have been in the Kansai region of Japan. Mainly in the Osaka/Kyoto area. The first part of the week I was in Osaka coaching tennis and sleeping on the floor of a classroom... On Sunday we took the kids to Universal Studios Japan. They had a blast going on all the different rides. It was pretty entertaining people watching, especially because many people were in Halloween costumes. After the team finished, I went to Kyoto and our other wonderful coach went back with the kids to Yokohama.

Toji Temple 

Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine

The first night I slept in a Capsule, at the Kyoto Capsule Ryokan. I only spent one night in the capsule because I tended to wake up whenever anyone else woke up. If I was a heavier sleeper it would have been fine... but alas, I am not. So the next morning I switched to a single room. The first day I explored norther Kyoto visiting Nishi-Honganji, Daitokuji Temple, Kinkakuji Temple, Ryoanji Temple, and Ninnaji Temple. The next day I visited Toji Temple, Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine, and then went to Arishiyama and walked around to various shrines and temples. The last full day I met up with an old high school friend and we roamed about on a mountain top overlooking lake Biwa. We walked around looking at a bunch of old buildings. After that we took a bus back to Kyoto and ate ramen and chatted for the rest of the evening. Overall it was a great trip. I didn't make it every where I wanted to but, Kyoto is only a 2 hour Shinkansen ride away, and I'm sure I will visit again.

Iya Valley

This past week I had the great opportunity to travel to Shikoku with the grade 10 students on their field studies hiking trip. We spent the week hiking and making soba. The first day was spent traveling down to Shikoku which is near Osaka in Southern Japan. We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) down and then hopped on a local train to reach our destination in the Iya Valley. From the train station we drove an hour on the narrow cliffside roads that followed the river to Ryugugake Park where we stayed. To get to the lodge we had to cross a great bridge that was suspended high above the river. We spent the night at the lodge and then left early in the morning for our two day hike. We hiked from about 10am to 3pm the first day, we made it to the top of three different mountains the first day. At the top of Tsurugisan was a hiker's hut. The top of the mountain was 1955m (6,414ft). The hut was great, it was run by a family, we ate a great meal and then watched the stars before going to bed.

The next morning most of the students woke up early to watch the sun rise. It was a spectacular sunrise. After the sunrise we ate a great breakfast and then were off on the other section of our hike, climbing a few other peaks before making our decent. At the end of the hike we got to cross two vine bridges, they were a little scary because of the large gaps and loose boards. But no one died and everyone had a great time.
The next day we traveled a little ways down the valley to make Soba noodles and rope. There were about eight old ladies who taught the students how to make soba, most were in their upper 60's to 70's. The students started by grinding the buckwheat and sifting the grounds to add to the flour to make the noodles. Then water was added to the mixture and the dough was kneaded until smooth. Once the dough was ready it was rolled out into a thin sheet. The thin sheet was then folded and cut into thin noodle strips. The strips were then cooked and cooled before being added to stock and served for lunch along with smorgasbord of other goodies.
After lunch the ladies taught the students how to make rope from grass. I was terrible at making the rope to the old ladies put me in charge of tying and trimming the sections of rope. Once our rope was completed we used them as jump ropes. The students (and I) had a blast jump roping in the road. After that we headed back to the lodge. The next morning we caught the Shinkansen back to Yokohama. Overall it was great to get out of the city for a week and have a great hike with a great bunch of kids. 
The other great thing is that the day after getting back to Yokohama I get to go back on the Shinkansen and travel back to Osaka for a tennis tournament. After the tournament I will be staying in Kyoto and sightseeing... So look forward to some great pictures from Kyoto!

Busy, busy, busy...

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been busy! This last week at school we had parent teacher conferences on Monday and Wednesday after school. I was also busy this week making a video announcement for the Sweet Home High School Homecoming King and Queen announcement. That was fun to make... I introduced the video with the help of a group of 1st grades at school. Then I filmed the queen announcement at the Hei Shrine in Tokyo. The king announcement was shot at the Shibuya intersection which is one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in the world. About 3 million people cross at that location daily... Which is about the population of Oregon...  Here is the video that I made, hope you all have a great weekend!

SUMO!!!

Sunday I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the final day of the Sumo tournament in Tokyo with some friends from church. We left Yokohama pretty early and made our way up to Tokyo on the train. The first few hours were basically the lower ranked guys. There were a few really good matches and some mismatches, which made for entertaining Sumo. After the lower ranked guys were the middle/upper lever guys. There was a dramatic increase in skill and time before the match started. There is a whole ritual that is done before each match, which includes "singing" the names of the wrestlers, throwing salt into the ring, squatting, slapping, squatting more, getting a drink, squatting, throwing salt, squatting, wiping off sweat, throwing more salt, slapping, squatting, and finally sumo... It was a pretty interesting routine. After the middle level was the top guys (Makuuchi). These guys were the top of the top and they were even better. The yokozuna (top ranked sumo wrestler) was the last group to wrestle. The yokozuna was actually from Mongolia, and he was really good. After the matches the winner received two giant trophies and a flag along with a ton of other papers and littler trophies. Going to a sumo match has been a life long dream, and I am happy to say that I can now check SUMO off the list. Here is a link to a video I made of the SUMO DAY.

http://www.vimeo.com/29602556

Kamakura

Friday we had the day off, so I took the opportunity to take a day trip to Kamakura. I left Kannai Station around 7:20am and made it to KitaKamakura Station a little after 8am. After getting off of the train I went right to the first of many shrines. After  walking around the first shrine I tried to go to the one next to it but it was closed because it was too early in the morning... 

So I continued my walk. I noticed there was still quite a bit of clean up being done after Wednesday's Typhoon. There were down trees and branches littering the roads and sidewalks. The next shrine I visited actually had a large tree down right in front of the gate, luckily there was no damage. At the shrine the sign said closed, but some other people went in so I just followed along and walked with them. When I came out the lady was in the booth to take money, I tried to pay, but she wouldn't take my money. Next I continued my hike on an actual trail through woods... It was nice to be out of the city and have actual dirt under my feet... minus the giant snake a saw... I was happy it was still pretty early and no one was out and about, because I screamed like a little girl.

After hiking for a bit I came across another shrine. This shrine had the coolest dragon purification fountain. Before entering a shrine it is customary to wash both of your hands and rinse your mouth. Further along was yet another shrine. The entrance to this shrine was through a cave/tunnel, which was pretty cool. At this shrine many people wash their money in hopes that it will double. 

Next on my own personal shrine tour was the Daibutsu or the Giant Buddha. This Buddha is the second largest outdoor Buddha in Japan... It was inside until there was a large Tsunami in 1498. The Buddha is about 43 feet high and weighs 93 metric tons. It is made out of copper and lead, and was at one time gilded. After looking at the outside of the statue, I went inside. The statue is hollow, which was pretty cool, I walked inside Buddha's belly. After looking at the Buddha inside and out. I went and had some green tea ice cream, which was quite good. 

Next I had to back track to go to another shrine that I missed... I went on a wild goose chase, but I found it! I ended up walking in on the back side of the shrine. The best part about this shrine was the entrance, which was my exit... There were dozens of orange/reddish Toriis going up the hill. It looked really interesting. 

Further towards to Ocean was the last shrine/temple I visited. This one was by far one of the most interesting. There were tons of statues in this temple. The saddest ones were hundreds of statuettes for unborn children who have died. There were also giant gold statues of who knows who and beautiful fountains and buildings. There was also a neat part of the temple that was in a cave. The first part was really open and then the celling got lower and lower... but then I was back outside. This temple also had the cutest little statues (left). 

Having seen enough temples/shrines for one day (more than I had ever visited in my lifetime). I decided to go spend a little time on the beach. There was still quite a lot of debris from the Typhoon and crews and individuals were working hard to repair and clean up damage. The beach was littered with kelp, rope, buoys, and other debris washed ashore. I even found a car... it was a small toy, but still a car... As I was walking some people snapped a picture of me, I guess I look pretty different here in Japan... But I still find it odd... I sat and watched the surfers attempt to catch a wave, the ocean was pretty flat, but it passed the time and gave my feet a break. After a sitting on the beach I started to get a little hungry, so I made my way towards Kamakura Station. I walked around looking for something good to eat... looking is the key word, because I still have no idea how to read Japanese... So I decided on a little place, that was not the one I had actually decided on but I made eye contact with the lady inside and then I felt obligated to go inside to eat. It was just a little Jazz Bar, which was quite funny. There were only about 10 seats all at the bar. I sat down and then four other people sat down, they were very excited to try out their English on me. Which was fine by me, I had some delicious curry that I was eating and I was more than happy to attempt a conversation. After dinner I made my way to Kamakura Station, and back to Kannai and then home. Kamakura was beautiful and I look forward to visiting again.