I've been slacking, yes I know. Blame the winter months, it's like my semi-hibernation season.
Kobe Field Trip
The week I got back from Sapporo, I was lucky enough to go on a school field trip to Kobe with the second year students. We visited the Kobe earthquake memorial center, which was quite interesting and fun at the same time. They had these earthquake simulator games and gadgets on site. Next we headed to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art to see an exhibit by Edvard Munch. I had no idea who this man was except for the ads I kept seeing on the train. Nevertheless, he has some beautiful pieces and the gallery was HUUUUUUGE!! I also witnessed an umbrella locker hahaha, I never knew they existed(see pictures). Next up was the adventure of Kimoto-sensei(my team teacher at the 3rd school) and I searching for the train from HAT Kobe chuo to Sannomiya in search of China Town, the next check in point. It was quite funny because there were some lost students behind us trying to pretend like they knew where they were going and not following us. We got to China town just in time to bless our hungry bellies with some tasty Chinese cuisine. After lunch we walked around, bought omiyage and watched this man do some trick with water in a pan. We then headed to the last check in point before heading back to school at the Kobe port. There we went to the Kobe Maritime museum, met up with the students, took pictures and hopped back on the school bus, which may I say aren't like our yellow school buses. They actually charter coach buses! These students are living large.
KOBE PICTURES
Mie Bus Trip to Ise Shrine & Mikimoto Pearl Museum
At the end of that same week, I took the train to Gifu on Friday night. Khaleelah and I went on a day bus trip to Ise shrine and Mikimoto Pearl Island. We left Gifu station around 7am and about 2 hours later we arrived in Ise city(Mie prefecture) where we had an hour to walk around the shrine grounds. That place is huge! We were very fortunate to see many Shinto priests as there was a festival going on that weekend, namely the Kinen-sai; The ceremony to offer prayers for a plentiful harvest.
Next we headed to a hotel where we were served a "small" enkai-style Japanese lunch. Now, the people who organized the tour from the Gifu international Youth Assoc. said in the itinerary that lunch would be small. This is Japan and their portion sizes are relatively small, but nothing about this lunch indicated that. We had sashimi, fish, beef, veggies, oysters, rice, dessert and it was delish!! This hotel had a natural onsen on site, so we soaked for a little while after lunch before hopping back on the bus. The next stop was Mikimoto Pearl Island. Click HERE to get some more info. about Mr. Mikimoto and the harvesting of pearls. We all attended a workshop where we made what I like to call ketai(cell phone) bling. We were given 'Mikimoto' pearls and instructions to follow. Cell phone or ketai accessories are all the rage in Japan. I said I wasn't gonna fall prey, but I did and I now have for things dangling from my phone. Next we watched the woman diver's presentation. All I know is that those women are brave to be jumping into that cold water in the winter. It's not like they wear wetsuits to be somewhat insulated from the cold either. You'll see what I'm talking about in the pictures.
MIE PICTURES
Karaoke Night in Himeji
The Friday after the Mie trip, I got together with some of the other ALTs in my city to go out for dinner and karaoke. I had told them that I had yet to do karaoke in Japan and wanted to do so, so we organized an outing last minute. Let me start by saying I had a ball! I sang my heart out, on key, off key and around key lol. The English song selection really surprised me. I'm not going to say much more about this night, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves and you can tell me whether or not it looked like I had fun.
KARAOKE PICTURES
Nagano ski trip
The weekend of Feb 29th was another new experience for me. I went snowboarding for the first time in my life. Let me start by saying that I sprained my ankle playing volleyball with my students the day we left. We were having so much fun, my team
gave the other team some serious licks. They were surprised that I could play so well, it was quite amusing. So, I went up for a wicked hit and came down on the boy's foot. He was on the other side of the net trying to block my beautiful hit, failed to do so and he came down on my side of the net and alas I sprained my ankle on it very badly. After writhing in pain for a couple minutes while the students and gym teacher laughed (I swear the way they express feelings is JACKED UP), I iced my ankle, taped it up and carried on with my day. That evening I met up with my ALT friends to catch our shuttle bus to Osaka, where we would catch the overnight bus to Nagano. We arrived to Nagano Shiga Kogen about 7:30am, stored our bags at the Silver Shiga hotel because check-in time in Japan is ridiculously late...4pm to be exact, then went to deal with our ski rentals. I opted to snowboard for one day rather than two, which I think was a wise choice. The boots held my ankle in place so there was minimal pain. We hit the slopes at about 9am and I threw myself right into it. Getting up the first time was hilarious because I was on such a slight incline screaming my head off while little kids whizzed by me. I made it to the ski lift which I thought went up way to high, but I was a soldier. I wish I had the experience on video because all of you would be wetting your pants with laughter from me boarding down to the ski lift station, to getting off the ski lift, to falling umpteen times down the slopes and laying there laughing hysterically at myself while people passed me straight. I must say I was very proud of myself. According to the others I was spectacular for a first timer, especially because I was able to stand right away. By 4pm I had had enough. We met up and had lunch and then I headed back to the hotel where I had a much needed onsen bath. Half of the group went night skiing while the rest of us called it a night pretty early around 8:30pm. I iced my crippled ankle and was in lala land by 9:15pm.
The following day (Sunday March 2nd), Alison and I went to see the snow monkeys. I can't even begin to explain how ecstatic I felt. Those macaques are the CUTEST things ever! I was pretty happy with that part of the trip, actually that was the highlight of my weekend.
NAGANO PICTURES
Kobe Sky Buffet
The following weekend I met up with some other ALTs to go out to dinner at the sky buffet in Kobe. I only knew a few people there, which was cool. My purpose for going was to find out where the place was. I enjoyed the company and the food. The view of Kobe is beautiful. I'll keep this one short so I can get up to date faster! lol
SKY BUFFET PICTURES
Kobe Field Trip
The week I got back from Sapporo, I was lucky enough to go on a school field trip to Kobe with the second year students. We visited the Kobe earthquake memorial center, which was quite interesting and fun at the same time. They had these earthquake simulator games and gadgets on site. Next we headed to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art to see an exhibit by Edvard Munch. I had no idea who this man was except for the ads I kept seeing on the train. Nevertheless, he has some beautiful pieces and the gallery was HUUUUUUGE!! I also witnessed an umbrella locker hahaha, I never knew they existed(see pictures). Next up was the adventure of Kimoto-sensei(my team teacher at the 3rd school) and I searching for the train from HAT Kobe chuo to Sannomiya in search of China Town, the next check in point. It was quite funny because there were some lost students behind us trying to pretend like they knew where they were going and not following us. We got to China town just in time to bless our hungry bellies with some tasty Chinese cuisine. After lunch we walked around, bought omiyage and watched this man do some trick with water in a pan. We then headed to the last check in point before heading back to school at the Kobe port. There we went to the Kobe Maritime museum, met up with the students, took pictures and hopped back on the school bus, which may I say aren't like our yellow school buses. They actually charter coach buses! These students are living large.
KOBE PICTURES
Mie Bus Trip to Ise Shrine & Mikimoto Pearl Museum
At the end of that same week, I took the train to Gifu on Friday night. Khaleelah and I went on a day bus trip to Ise shrine and Mikimoto Pearl Island. We left Gifu station around 7am and about 2 hours later we arrived in Ise city(Mie prefecture) where we had an hour to walk around the shrine grounds. That place is huge! We were very fortunate to see many Shinto priests as there was a festival going on that weekend, namely the Kinen-sai; The ceremony to offer prayers for a plentiful harvest.
Next we headed to a hotel where we were served a "small" enkai-style Japanese lunch. Now, the people who organized the tour from the Gifu international Youth Assoc. said in the itinerary that lunch would be small. This is Japan and their portion sizes are relatively small, but nothing about this lunch indicated that. We had sashimi, fish, beef, veggies, oysters, rice, dessert and it was delish!! This hotel had a natural onsen on site, so we soaked for a little while after lunch before hopping back on the bus. The next stop was Mikimoto Pearl Island. Click HERE to get some more info. about Mr. Mikimoto and the harvesting of pearls. We all attended a workshop where we made what I like to call ketai(cell phone) bling. We were given 'Mikimoto' pearls and instructions to follow. Cell phone or ketai accessories are all the rage in Japan. I said I wasn't gonna fall prey, but I did and I now have for things dangling from my phone. Next we watched the woman diver's presentation. All I know is that those women are brave to be jumping into that cold water in the winter. It's not like they wear wetsuits to be somewhat insulated from the cold either. You'll see what I'm talking about in the pictures.
MIE PICTURES
Karaoke Night in Himeji
The Friday after the Mie trip, I got together with some of the other ALTs in my city to go out for dinner and karaoke. I had told them that I had yet to do karaoke in Japan and wanted to do so, so we organized an outing last minute. Let me start by saying I had a ball! I sang my heart out, on key, off key and around key lol. The English song selection really surprised me. I'm not going to say much more about this night, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves and you can tell me whether or not it looked like I had fun.
KARAOKE PICTURES
Nagano ski trip
The weekend of Feb 29th was another new experience for me. I went snowboarding for the first time in my life. Let me start by saying that I sprained my ankle playing volleyball with my students the day we left. We were having so much fun, my team
gave the other team some serious licks. They were surprised that I could play so well, it was quite amusing. So, I went up for a wicked hit and came down on the boy's foot. He was on the other side of the net trying to block my beautiful hit, failed to do so and he came down on my side of the net and alas I sprained my ankle on it very badly. After writhing in pain for a couple minutes while the students and gym teacher laughed (I swear the way they express feelings is JACKED UP), I iced my ankle, taped it up and carried on with my day. That evening I met up with my ALT friends to catch our shuttle bus to Osaka, where we would catch the overnight bus to Nagano. We arrived to Nagano Shiga Kogen about 7:30am, stored our bags at the Silver Shiga hotel because check-in time in Japan is ridiculously late...4pm to be exact, then went to deal with our ski rentals. I opted to snowboard for one day rather than two, which I think was a wise choice. The boots held my ankle in place so there was minimal pain. We hit the slopes at about 9am and I threw myself right into it. Getting up the first time was hilarious because I was on such a slight incline screaming my head off while little kids whizzed by me. I made it to the ski lift which I thought went up way to high, but I was a soldier. I wish I had the experience on video because all of you would be wetting your pants with laughter from me boarding down to the ski lift station, to getting off the ski lift, to falling umpteen times down the slopes and laying there laughing hysterically at myself while people passed me straight. I must say I was very proud of myself. According to the others I was spectacular for a first timer, especially because I was able to stand right away. By 4pm I had had enough. We met up and had lunch and then I headed back to the hotel where I had a much needed onsen bath. Half of the group went night skiing while the rest of us called it a night pretty early around 8:30pm. I iced my crippled ankle and was in lala land by 9:15pm.The following day (Sunday March 2nd), Alison and I went to see the snow monkeys. I can't even begin to explain how ecstatic I felt. Those macaques are the CUTEST things ever! I was pretty happy with that part of the trip, actually that was the highlight of my weekend.
NAGANO PICTURES
Kobe Sky Buffet
The following weekend I met up with some other ALTs to go out to dinner at the sky buffet in Kobe. I only knew a few people there, which was cool. My purpose for going was to find out where the place was. I enjoyed the company and the food. The view of Kobe is beautiful. I'll keep this one short so I can get up to date faster! lol
SKY BUFFET PICTURES
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