For those of you who don't know, Matsushima is said to be one of the 3 most beautiful places in all of Japan. Matushima is made up of about 260 tiny islands (in Japanese: shima) covered in pines (matsu), and thus where the name comes from. Lucky for me, it's right in my backyard so I've been a number of times and have taken many photos. (For those of you who read my post on the fireworks, those took place in Matsushima as well). Again, sorry for not writing much but there are plenty of pictures to look at! [View Full Entry]

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The weather was amazing on Sunday, making it the perfect day to have a festival. Both Saturday and Sunday was the Michinoku Yosakoi Festival (referred to as just Yosakoi, which is a type of dance) in Sendai. I was being attending a school festival on the Saturday but I made sure to check out the festival on Sunday. Lies and I arrived around 11am in Sendai and the festivities were already underway. At the school festival, the day before, I saw my students perform their Yosakoi dance, and was informed that they would be performing it again on Sunday, so we [View Full Entry]

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Sept. 21 This morning was an early one. Up at 7:45 (mind you've I've been getting up at 5am for work...so I guess it's a surprisingly easy habit to break). My friend Sarah and I met her friends at the station at 9am, along with one of their Japanese friends. After waiting for the "right" train, we finally got on and were headed for Osaka... expect the train was packed so we had to stand. I read a manga (comic) over a guy's shoulder to pass some time, but then started to get a headache so I had to stop. When [View Full Entry]

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Sept 19 So for those of you who don't know, Silverweek is a week that consists of 3 National Holidays back-to-back. So I chose to go to Kyoto and Osaka since I had the time off! I took an overnight bus (which took 10 hours) to Kyoto on the Friday night. The buses are pretty well equipped. The seats are recliners; they provide with slippers, a back support cushion, blankets and drinks, and an additional food rest. But mind you, despite all this, I don't travel well, and I forgot my gravol so, although I slept, I woke up once every [View Full Entry]

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Note: I apologize that I do not go into much detail about the temples I visited but please see the photos as I'm sure they can tell you just as much as my words would have. Background info: So this trip was decided before I even got to Japan. Lies’s band from University was invited to a steel pan festival in Japan so she was going there to play in the festival with her band. When I heard about it I said I’d love to come along if possible. The morning of Saturday the 29th, Lies and I were out of [View Full Entry]

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One of the schools I will be teaching at is on an island, and because there was a meeting for all the school principals at the school, we went to check it out and introduce ourselves. The ferry ride takes about 40 minutes, and it stops at another island before going to the one that Urato is on. Before we got on the ferry, my supervisor gave us a bag each of these fish flavoured chips (in the shape of French fries), because he said there are a lot of seagulls that get close to the boats. When we were on [View Full Entry]

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Today there was a big fireworks festival (Ohanabi), so Lies and I headed out towards Matsushima quickly after work. The place was packed thus making it hard to find any of our other friends so when we found just one of our friends and his 2 Japanese roommates we stayed with them. There were tons of food stands (we got crepes) and people (both boys and girls) in Yukatas! I really want to get a yukata! The fireworks were AMAZING! Each one of them equivalent to a “Canadian finale” fireworks show lol. They lasted just over an hour. Across the street [View Full Entry]

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Today, me and a few friends went to Tsurugajou Castle, which is about 2.5 hrs away from my house. About an hour into the drive we stopped at a rest stop because for a drink. I took a quick video of the area because the cicadas were pretty loud. Apparently Fukushima is famous for it’s peaches, so we got to sample a piece. We stopped again later for a few minutes by the lake to take a few picture. There were a bunch of tiny swan peddle-boats, but then there was also a huge swan-shaped ferryboat. Our next stop was for [View Full Entry]

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I should have just slept through this day. It started off fairly easy. Got a piece of paper saying I'd applied for my registration card, set up my bank account, and then headed to the library to get a library card. Now typically, you'd think that going to the library would be fairly pleasant, or stress-free... well this trip wasn't. I was sitting down waiting for the woman to take my card application form when this man came and sat beside me. He said “Ohayo gozaimasu” to my work colleague and hello to me. I said hello and then he continue [View Full Entry]

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The second day after I had arrived at my new home was already an exciting one! I had work, starting at 8:40, but it wasn't really what I'd call work. I met the mayor of my town, I registered for my alien registration card, and then we went for some yummy beef curry! In the afternoon I went back to work, going over my schedule for the next few months, and studied Japanese... Yup, it was a tough day at work for sure... I was done work by 3 and ran home quickly to change because Lies and I were going [View Full Entry]

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