Iona and I visited Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand, as a day trip from Bangkok. (It's about 76km outside of Bangkok.) Far too early in the morning for vacation time, we were picked up by a minibus. We had a hilarious tourguide, Mr. K. to keep up amused though. I don't think he was conciously funny...but just a quirky, weird man! He was constantly mumbling to himself and running off to the next place without telling anyone. Between every sentence he said 'Umm, YA!', 'So, YA!' or 'Ok, YA!' Basically, our day consisted of visiting ruins, temples, ruins, temples and [View Full Entry]

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Temples, tuk tuks and markets sums up my time spent in Bangkok. My reaction to Bangkok completely surprised me. I'm usually a traveller that loves adventures in big cities. However, Bangkok just didn't impress me as much as I expected. I think I was turned off initially from the constant feeling that everyone was out to hustle me. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed my time there! There's no doubt that I was dazzeled by the gold and glamour of the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, excited by the out-of-control tuk tuks, and marveled by the Floating Market. Wat Phra [View Full Entry]

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Again, apologies for the lateness of this blog.....time travel back to Dec. 25th..... Since I couldn't be with my family this Christmas day, I wanted to plan something completely abnormal to avoid any homesickness. This is my first Christmas away from home. A trek in the jungle sounded perfect to me! Bright and early Christmas morning Tony our Thai tourguide (tongue-twister?) arrived at our hotel with the pick-up truck. Our trekking group included 2 tour-guides, 2 people from Denmark, 2 from Australia, 1 from England and 1 from France. We rode in the back of the truck for about an hour, [View Full Entry]

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We are currently having our first snow storm in Innoshima (and hopefully the last), which made me think of warmer days in Thailand. It reminded me that I have yet to write about my fabulous winter vacation. I truly have meant to (and started even), but I just got caught up in work/play time and being lazy. Now I will begin..... Friday, December 22 at 4:15p.m. my winter vacation began. Off to Thailand the next morning! It couldn't have come at a better time....it was bitterly cold in Japan and I was ready for the heat! I travelled to Osaka that [View Full Entry]

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I took on a new role today: Santa Claus! or Santa-san as the Japanese call him. I was asked by the Habu pre-school to play the part of Santa for their kids. It was so much fun! When I got there I was ushered through the back door to make sure that no one saw me. I was dressed in a full Santa costume and then brought out on stage to a crowd of 71 little kids. Imagine a room full of tiny faces totally shocked to see this giant, foreign Santa-san standing in front of them shouting 'HO! HO! HO! [View Full Entry]

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I've learned that Christmas is (almost) entirely commerical in Japan. The Japanese enjoy the ideas of decorations and lights, pop versions of Christmas carols, and exchanging gifts. December 25th here is actually a day for couples....like Valentine's Day part-two! So knowing all of this, I went with the 'go with the flow' mentality when planning my lessons this month! At all my elementary school visits in December we had a lot of Christmas fun. In the younger grades we coloured Christmas pictures and decorated trees, and in the older grades we made Christmas cards....all the while listing t [View Full Entry]

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The area that I live in is a major producer of tangerine oranges (a.k.a. mikans) The trees are everywhere!!! The green trees started developing a bit of colour in October, and now they are all a vibrant orange in their peak season. Let me tell you these oranges are EVERYWHERE!! Throughout Japan mikans are fairly expensive (like they are at home)...but not in Innoshima! There are bags of them at the side of the roads for 100Y, 200Y, 300Y ($1, $2, $3)...desperate for a good home. Farmers bring them to schools and offices as presents. In the last few weeks I've [View Full Entry]

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On the neighbouring island of Ikuchijima I went to Setoda town to join the International School Day. The purpose of the day was to introduce junior high school students (and a few elementary and high school) to 'international' activities. The classes were taught all in English, which I'm sure was overwhelming for the kids**. There were about 14 English teachers and 65 students. Some of the classes were country line dancing, swing dancing, Spanish, collage making and Rice Krispie Square baking. I taught a Christmas-themed lesson with my friend Stacey. We made gingerbread houses.... [View Full Entry]

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It's a general rule that you explore the tourist areas in the city you live in, ages after you visit many other cities and countries. That is true for me and Innoshima. This morning I finally decided to visit the main tourist attraction of the island: Shirataki-san. Mt. Shirataki is small and quaint. It's about 227m above sea level. There are about 700 stone images of Buddha's disciples that line the path to the top where Buddha looks out. I was told that they were made sometime between 1818 and 1830. The view is absolutely spectacular. You can see most of [View Full Entry]

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After a late night of partying with my Board of Ed co-workers, I had an early morning of arts & crafts at one of my schools (Habu Elementary School). We made 'shimenawa', a New Year's Day decoration....very much like a Christmas wreath at home. There were about 50 people, all huddled together in the freezing cold gym. The pictures of the end result may make it look like it was an easy task....but no, it definetely was not! I would consider myself a fairly 'artsy' person...and I failed miserably with my first attempt! Normally they wouldn't give you a second chance [View Full Entry]

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