Blogs from Yokote, Akita, Japan, Asia

As we planned our trip, we worked with Inside Japan Tours (www.insideasia.com) on an itinerary that would follow the blooming of Japan’s famous cherry trees. We started in Tokyo and didn’t move to the very northern areas until early April. While in Japan, we read studies documenting the effects of global warming on the bloom: it’s occurring earlier each year. NOT THIS YEAR. This spring, storms and unseasonably cool temperatures followed us throughout our trip. We’ve been consistently 5-7 days ahead of the blossoms. “Oh, we are so sorry. They bloom next week …” However, this itinerary also sent us through some of the most beautiful parts of northern Japan, even though we saw more snow than flowers. We caught a few bravely flowering trees in Kyoto and Kanazawa, but most of the time, we saw ... read more

Kyo wa march 21st It’s spring! Happy spring to everybody! I think that springs deserve that we say happy spring to each other… it’s a day that announces reborn… renew, freshness and warm sun. Today was my before last last day in Akita… it went sooo fast… well two weeks is always passing fast but I really feel I didn’t spend enough time here to bath myself in it… don’t know if I’m clear but oh well… Since last time, what did I do? We had this big party on Friday, it was a really nice evening. Diana invited all her friends for dinner. There was: The family, Kazuhide and his mom, Yoko, Nakagawa and Waga. Yoko is really nice, she’s 19 and doesn’t speak Japanese… so we didn’t say much but I felt we could ... read more

Hi! This week I’ve been very busy! Or I should say these last two weeks! I didn’t think I would write that late. But here it’s pretty a working beat so there isn’t too much big events to talk about. Still, I’ve plenty of things to say! I’m homestay in a family of five: Diana, Toyo and their three daughters: Miku, Mayu and Lina, 9, 6 and 4 years old. Their house is also Diana’s private school, so I’m sleeping in the classroom. She has something like 70 students plus she goes in kindergarden and elementary school few times a week. Takaashi is working for her, they’re splitting the job. My job is to go with them and help them with the classes! It’s all very basic courses: alphabet, numbers, days of the week, self-presentation and ... read more