Blogs from Hikone, Shiga, Japan, Asia

I slept in longer than I intended to on Wednesday, so I missed breakfast at the hotel. No matter, I was heading off on my first rail day trip so I grabbed some sushi and sandwiches (in case I didn’t like the convenience store sushi) to eat on the train. First task though, was to pick up my rail pass. It all went smoothly, and it was a simple enough to find the next train to Hikone. Both sushi and sandwiches were fine. I don’t get why the sandwiches didn’t have crusts though. The ones I had on the train to Kyoto on the first night were the same. The train journey was a pleasant way to travel, although I had to keep aware of the stations so I got off at Hikone. That was pretty ... read more

So...things have been fairly busy this past week, and I'm sorry to those of you whom I've been neglecting. It's nothing personal, really! Classes began on Tuesday, and so far I am impressed. The instructors are great, and even though they don't speak any English whatsoever in the classroom, they do their best to make it easy for us foreigners. I'm in the same classroom with the same 10 students every day, from 9-2, with an hour break in-between for lunch. Right now we're still going over material that I've already learned, but it's good to have a review, and we're moving along very quickly. By next week I predict that I will be doing some heavy duty studying. The big news is that today I leave the JCMU residence building to live with my host ... read more