Voyage Junkie

This year has already been an improvement on last year in terms of students.  All the new first-years (seventh graders) are friendly and unafraid of speaking English.  It helps that I am better at Japanese this year, so often I can translate words for them and help them translate for me more successfully.  The second-years (eigth graders) are still a rowdy bunch.  The teachers are starting to split them into leveled groups, so some can do the "challenge" course and some can go a bit slower.  It's nice for both students and teachers.  I don't think as many students will be "left behind," if you'll pardon the reference to current American doctrine.  The third years (ninth graders) are certainly the most morose of the school, having toned down the antics and tantrums from last year.  They're all in new groups now, so the "bad" kids can't be bad together, and they're all losing their thunder. Today I helped with a second-year "cha...

Matt with Roo, very kind and fluffy bunny. Over Golden Week, which is a week that has three holidays in a row (Tues, Wed, Thurs), we went to Nagoya again with a few friends.  This trip's specific purpose?  To visit a rabbit cafe located in a really pretty part of the city.  We discovered it when looking up cat cafes in Nagoya after visiting one in Tokyo.  Since Matt would love to have a bunny if he could, it made sense to visit the cafe and see if we enjoyed actual bunnies as much as the concept of bunnies. They did not disappoint.  The cafe is set up differently from a cat cafe, mostly because bunnies are a bit... dirtier.  The cats are allowed to roam around actual cafe space, but they can be trusted to hold their bodily functions until a litter box, and they're fastidious with personal hygiene.  The bunnies, while they can be trained to go in a specific place, don't mind peeing and pooping anywhere.  At one point, a very calm l...

We headed to the famous island Miyajima in order to recuperate from the historical beating Hiroshima's museums and monuments provided the day before.  We took the streetcar line to the island, which gave us about an hour's ride through Hiroshima suburbs.  It was a very interesting ride.  We saw insane apartment buildings, mountains, shopping centers, schools, and finally the little waterfront town that boasts two ferries to Miyajima. We bought a 2-day streetcar, ferry, and ropeway pass when we arrived in Hiroshima the other day, and we put it to good use on Miyajima.  It was an insane deal, plus we got to ride the historical streetcars and thumb our nose at JR, the national transportation system.  JR is awesome, don't get me wrong, but this felt like shopping local.  It seemed important, and it was fun. The pass got us on the trolley, then across the water on the ferry.  As you approach the island, you see the famous o-torii  gate standing in ...

Near the garden sits Hiroshima Castle.  It is of course entirely rebuilt, as it was blown to bits during the bombing.  While the castle was renovated (a few times, actually), the grounds around it remain a testament to the bombing.  Remains of buildings, trees, and other structures adorn the grounds.  People play and picnic in the grass among the ruins, or sit on the old, broken stones and read.  It is a vision, and a testament to what this city has been through.  The castle functions as a museum, upon entering which you must "Please drop the mud of the shoes bottom with the mat,and enter" (sic).  The castle museum holds a lot of ancient history from the area and just a little of the bombing, so it was a nice way to ease into our hard day of facing up to the atomic destruction our country heaped on Japan. Below is a former great fountain that stood near one entrance to the castle grounds.  It is now a home to new trees.  It is a very large ...

We headed to Hiroshima via shinkansen  on April 5th.  After a few cold days in Kyoto and Nara we welcomed the southerly trajectory and the warmth it offered.  First order of business: explore the city.  We had picked a wonderful hotel to stay at, in the heart of downtown right off an old trolley line (still running, and packed all the time).  We took advantage of this and spent our first evening walking the city, taking in shops, sights, and my first taste of Okinawan cuisine. The next morning was beautiful and held the promise of a warm day.  We decided to tackle quite a bit in the first day, as we only had two full days to spend in Hiroshima. The first part is covered here.  We went to a beautiful garden complex called the Shukkeien , which literally means the "scale model garden."  It is modeled after China's  Xihu , or West Lake.  The garden evokes, in miniature, a multitude of terrains, aesthetics, and scenic views.  To the l...

Matt here.  It's been a while.  Just wanted to tell you about a conversation I had today with an old friend. Last year I worked with a very kind and knowledgeable man who traveled to both of my junior high schools as a school psychologist.  He and I had the same long commute to my once-a-week school, so we often talked on the bus ride home.  I'm at a different main school this year, so I'm commuting to both now.  To my surprise, about five minutes into my trip home my old friend got on the bus I was riding.  It turns out he's working at the neighboring school this year, so we share a commute again. We got caught up, and as we were discussing our new placements and situations, he said something that I thought deserved to be heard by more than just your humble narrator.  (What follows is my poor translation of our dialog.)  "My salary is reduced this year," he said.  I asked him to explain.  "I get paid from two sources.  The first...

Nara: home of tame deer, hundreds of stone lanterns, and the biggest bronze Buddha in the world.  We ventured to this smaller city on Monday, April 4th, after our two days of Kyoto adventures. To the left, I meet a friend! To the right is the famous 5-story pagoda, just one of many old and beautiful buildings in the first temple complex we found upon reaching Nara. We walked into the foothills and as far as we could see stood stone lanterns.  Paper was being cleaned off them the day we visited.  I think recently there was a festival when all the lanterns were lit, which would be a breathtaking sight, simply judging from how many lanterns there are.  We meandered, taking in cherry blossoms, stone carvings, and many shrines with amazing architecture.  The craftsmanship of these places is unbelievable.  Nara is another site that delivered the ancient Japanese aesthetic in bounds.  It was incredibly peaceful (except for the deer chasing anything tha...