Blogs from Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, Asia - page 9

Instead of being boring and studious and staying home for the weekend (did I hear someone say something about midterms next week... midterms smidterms...) I ventured when no gaijin has gone before! Almost. There was an aussie girl last year... I visited a lovely family who live out in the countryside, outside Kobe. Kobe is a coastal city famous for Kobe Beef, just by the by. They feed their cows beer and give them massages and stuff. Then they charge a serious amount of money for the meat from these pampered cows. I'll have to get around to trying some, sometime, when I'm feeling rich... On saturday morning I packed my life (roughly, a passport, toothbrush and clean underwear) into a backpack and boarded a train to Sannomiya with Makiko, a local student from my university. ... read more

The last couple of days have been very busy as I´ve begun my teaching schedule. Its only been three days but I´ve already met many wonderful students who are eager to hear about Canada and practice their English. Yesterday I was assigned to Kikagowa school, which is located about 30 minutes from Kobe. The train ride was absolutely beautiful to my left was the sea and to the right was a great view of the mountains. Kikagowa is a small school with only 2 teachers working at it each day. As such I taught my first ever kids lesson, we learned all about sea creatures! The class consisted of 5 boys and one little girl, all were between 6-8years old.All in all it went really well, I taught them vocab words, we played some games and ... read more

I awoke, had a sauna and then Jumped on the train to Kobe. Its occured to me that I am familiar with most Japanese cities for the wrong reasons. Tokyo subway attacks, Osaka - wasnt that the general area of a massive mercury poisoning, and Kobe for the earthquake. Ah well. I arrived at Kobe railway station, which as it turns out isnt really where the action is. Infact the action in Kobe is centred to the north of Kobe Station around the Sannoymiya station area. So no sooner as I arrived was I back on the train (as it turns out an unnecessary step, the two stations are easy walking distance). Having now found my way to the correct station I went in search of accommodation. Kobe is very pretty as a city, and I ... read more

Well, I can't say I'm surprised, it had been chasing me all over the country, it was bound to happen some time wasn't it? Yep, the typhoon caught up with me. The last proper entry I wrote when I was in Takamatsu was the day it happened, after writing that entry I was about to make my way to the station to catch a train to Tokushima, but things didn't quite turn out that way. As I made my way back to the station from the internet cafe, I walked through the covered shopping arcades as that was the quickest way, and I noticed that a lot of the shops were closed and they had taped up their windows and doors and put huge sand bags out the front, I noticed that they had signs on ... read more