House tour

I'm heading off to Taiwan in a few days, but for now, here's a quick tour of my house here in Shinano. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

A bit late I know, but well....here it is! Lots has happened since my last post back in December. Still enjoying myself immensely here, I have recontacted for another year here in Shinano. School's going great, the students and teachers are as wonderful as they've always been. I've been doing a lot of skiing and other outdoor activities. Went snow camping two weekends ago on the top of a mountain nearby. Got myself a pair of backcountry nordic skis. I'm actually moving into a new house on Tuesday, a couple of minutes from where I am now but significantly better than where I'm living (not to say my apartment is bad or anything but I'm getting a huge house instead now). I wanted to update today though because got back at the beginning of this week from an exciting 5 day road trip to Japan's southern island, Kyushu. We saw Hiroshima on our way down, stopped in Nagasaki, saw a couple of other cities and then topped it all off with a relaxing two day stay in a hot spring town. Our itenerary was as follows:

Wednesday March 18th - Leave Nagano and drive straight through the night down to Hiroshima.
March 19th - Hiroshima.
March 20th - Nagasaki
March 21st - Kumamoto City and Kurokawa Onsen Village
Martch 22nd - Kurokawa Onsen Village, then return to Nagano.

Without further adieu, the photos!

This one was taken in Hiroshima, looking through a monument through to the blown out memorial structure at the peace park

Looking down the river in Hiroshima

A closer view of the memorial structure

A deer on Miyajima island, right across the bay from Hiroshima in the Seto Inland Sea (Awaji island is also in this area!)

A beach looking towards the "floating temple" on Miyajima.

The floating temple arches, one of the very famous sites here in Japan.

A cool looking old palm tree on Miyajima by a huge temple. It was totally summer here, in the mid 80s.

One of the main streets in Nagasaki.

A crazy 50 foot turtle temple on a hill in Nagasaki.

A famous statue in the Nagasaki Peace Park.

The black monolith there is directly below where the bomb detonated.

I don't recall the name of this volcano but we camped near it before we took the ferry from Nagasaki to Kumamoto City.

Spring has arrived! In Southern Japan at least (Nagano is still pretty chilly). The cherry blossoms are almost in full bloom at this famous park in Kumamoto.

The castle in Kumamoto.


Looking across the grassy, dry plains outside Kumamoto twoards the billowing active volcano Mt. Aso. The landscape here was quite unique, lots of rolling grass plains and huge swaths of burnt land. A little reminiscint of Colorado.

On top of the Mt. Aso, looking down into the pit of doom, the green is a caldera lake.


After the trip, I bought these bananas at my local grocery store for 4 bucks. There's about 15 of em.

Well that's pretty much it for now, I will try to update this blog more. For some reason it's hard to be diligent....

Video part 3

Just wanted to post this video, its the third and final part in a series I made about coming to Japan. This video highlights some of the memorable moments over the past few months I've been here, going to Tokyo and meeting friends and drinking beer at Oktoberfest, school festivals and karaoke. Enjoy!

Mochi Madness

For the second time since I arrived, I was invited to one of the local Elementary schools today, where instead of my typical English introductory lesson I helped make Japanese “Mochi” with the 5th graders. Mochi is essentially lots of rice that has been beaten with a big wooden mallet until it becomes uniform and sticky, at which point it is dropped into a bowl and caked with various (usually sweet) seasonings. After the rice-beating session (which lasted about an hour) I went and played hand baseball with some of the students. We finally got to eating the mochi after the game—it was a mochi feast. I got a whole plate full of the stuff, and of course lots of vegetables and soup. Believe it or not I'm actually eating a lot better since having come here, I'm pretty sure I've dropped a bit of weight. Although the food was very good, I was so full at the end that it made me regret having eaten so much as when I returned to the junior high school I had the school lunch (curry rice, one of my favorite dishes here, coincidentally). I felt like I was going to explode.

It was a fun day, and I'm looking forward to going to Tokyo tomorrow with many of the other teachers on our teachers trip. Apparently Circ du Soleil and a Vermeer exhibition are on the books at the moment, and I will also enjoy seeing my good friend Hiro again after a year. Sorry no photos or videos this time, there will be some next time though!

Another normal Day

Today started off like any other day here, my apartment was a bit cold now that winter is approaching, so I turned on the heater, then I ate some breakfast and left for work. I taught my classes and then at the end of lunchtime, one of the other teachers informed me that none other than Prince Charles of Wales, the future King of England, was in Shinano. At first I thought she was joking around but she showed my a picture she had snapped earlier in the day. I quickly asked around and found that one of my fellow English teachers was interested in seeing him as well, so we hopped in her car and sped off to the tea house where he was going to be. We didn't know if we'd make it but we did. Regrettably, I didn't get to shake his hand although I imagine I'll be pictured somewhere in the English newspapers in the next few days as the incredibly tall person standing in the sea of Japanese people, as the Prince was right in front of me at many points during his brief visit. Here are the photos!
Yeah it was pretty crazy, definitely worth missing an hour of work! In other news, I'll be heading home for Christmas for a couple of weeks, and thanks to the strong Yen I'll have lots of money! See you all soon!

And here is a picture I took yesterday looking over Shinano, very pretty and for good measure.

Culture Festival

This weekend was Shinano Junior high School's annual culture festival. In Japan most all schools have some kind of culture festival around this time of year, although apparently most every school in Nagano prefecture had their culture festivals this weekend as well. There isn't really an American equivalent of the school culture festival, its kind of a combination between talent show and a sports meet. The first day we saw skits the students put together and a class jump roping contest, in which about 5 teams of 20 students all jumped together under a huge single rope. There was also a teacher's work exhibition, where all the teachers showed projects they had completed (My thesis was on display). Day two was a music day, all the sections in all the grades (in Japan the different grades are divided into sections, for instance the seventh graders have three sections, 2-1, 2-2 and 2-3) sung different songs they had prepared. The teachers also prepared a piece and we sung it, it was a traditional Japanese love song (I played the keyboard harmonica). Finally, the whole school sung a very moving piece together. It is humbling to think how much work went into organizing the event. For the past month I heard singing everyday from all directions, saw teachers working late everyday, and finally saw the fruits of their labor. It was a wonderful experience I look forward to seeing and participating in more culture festivals in the future.

Second video!

Here's part 2, Tokyo Orientation. Enjoy!