All Aboard!

Wow I'm realizing how much I have to do before I leave on Friday. At least I've started packing already. Here's a quick pic of me from my trip to Yufuin this past weekend. I'm so glad I went (too bad none of my real cameras made the trip, though) - the fall colors there were amazing, and the town tucked in the mountains was sleepy enough not to wear me out, but it had so many little shops/rivers/trees/cute kids to keep me interested. The train ride was even really interesting - especially with the photo op - I felt like I was (already) at Disney World. :)

Let's go to Goto!

Right, so it's really corny...but I've a cold and the medicine is making me "happy" (or I'm lacking oxygen?). I just wanted to throw some quick pics up - here's one of me and Jared on Takahama beach in the Goto Islands. We went there on a slow ferry, and later some other mates joined us at a bungalow I found for us on the beach. It seemed like we had the island to ourselves, though, as the Japanese don't seem big on beaches after Obon (Aug 15). Right - so I have more photos, but blogger is not cooperating - gomen ne -
I planned to go to Kyoto this weekend, but I came down with this cold, and apparently it's cold and rainy in Kyoto. So if I make the 6:08 bus tomorrow morning, I'm off to Yufuin, a little onsen town in the mountains in Oita prefecture on the other side of Kyushu. OK - bedtime - oyasumi nasai :)

Yosakoi performance

Here's more from the Yosakoi Dance Festival that I saw in Sasebo. It's only a short clip, but I thought this group had the most creative little side band. Look closely - those ojiisans are 'playing' garden tools...

Happy Hallow-een!

OK - so it's a little late, but I was busy with the conference, so I didn't have time to post the pics before now. I was one of the "chosen" to be on the working committee for both the new ALT Orientation and our JET Mid-Year Conferences. The team grudgingly obliged our Prefectural Advisor, but to be honest, at the end of the day, it was a lot of fun working together. I gave a workshop on lesson planning that seemed to be very well received (or at least many people wanted to buy me "otsukaresamadeshita" drinks at the after party).

But enough about me - look how cute my students are! I was really missing the Halloween/Fall spirit, so I decided to take my lunch on the verandah outside of the library (yes - that really IS all school property there!) and tried to sprinkle about some Halloween cheer. Some students joined me in trying to carve the kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), we sang the "Monster Mash" and had fun with random trick 'r treaters that happened by. Unfortunately, "kabocha" are not pumpkins - they're green (OK), small (OK), and reeeeeeally reeeally thick skinned and HARD (NOT ok!). So here's as far as I got carving the pumpkin...I gave up and ended up with a fabulously delicious soup instead :)