Blogs from Kagawa, Japan, Asia - page 8

I got my first real impression of Shikoku the morning after I arrived. I opened the curtains in my hotel room and looked out at my new home city of Marugame. My first impression of the view was a good one. I could see the Inland Sea of Japan and the Seto Ohashi Bridge from the window. Besides that I noticed that Marugame was not a big city. On my first day I was shown around the area by the teacher I was replacing. That evening we went to her goodbye/my welcome party. The party was in a nice restaurant and we had a nine course traditional Japanese meal: Tofu, sashimi, salad, teriyaki pork, rice, tempura, miso, melon and some weird gelatin soup that I never caught the name of. Plus it was all you could ... read more

My travel buddy: I met Barrie in December through a mutual friend. I saw him again at work a couple of months later. The combined amount of time that I was in his presence probably amounted to three hours. So of course he was my obvious choice to spend a week with traveling around Japan. Thanks to an online community (go Facebook!), the two of us began exchanging pleasantries regarding new work schedules and classes, as well as our plans for Golden Week (national holiday at the end of April/beginning of May). It turned out that we were interested in going to the same place- Shikoku! Our destination: Shikoku is Japan's fourth largest island but seems to be generally overlooked by tourists, which is what made it such an attractive destination (especially during a period ... read more

In the Japanese zodiac 2007 is the Year of the Boar (Inoshishi). I spent the New Year with a couple of different friends that I had met the first time I was in Japan, and their families. It had been three years since I had seen one friend and his wife, and five years since I had seen the other friend and her family, but in both cases it was as though it had only been about a month. ... read more

At some point during the train ride to Osaka, we decided it would be better if we went as far south as we had intended to go and work our way back. To this extent after arriving at peak hour in crazy Osaka we jumped on the next train to Takamatsu. Takamatsu is located off the mainland on the island of Shikoku. The reason for going their intiatally was it’s close proximaty to the tiny island of Noashima - on which is located the Chichu Art Museum that was designed especially by the famous Japanese architect Tado Ando. Takamatsu proved to be a wonderful city. I highly recommend going there to anyone visiting Japan and want to get away from busy cities for a while. It is quite a metropolitan town, but without the mayhem. On ... read more