Samui Desune

It’s cold here now. Well, not as cold as Canada, maybe like 5-10 degrees, but Japan it sorta seems like this is the first time Japan has ever experienced winter. Buildings have no insulation whatsoever, so there is usually no difference in temperature inside and outside. Also, not even the school has central heat, instead they rely on kerosene heaters for each room. Right now there is a huge heater that sorta resembles a jet engine sitting beside my desk (it has a big blue flame shooting up the middle all the time). I’m sure there is some reason for the really primitive cold weather measures, I just can’t think of what they are.

Taylor and Paige’s Visit: Hyogo

For the last few days of Taylor and Paige’s visit we have stayed in Hyogo, because there is a bunch of stuff to see here. They got to see just about everything Asago-shi has to offer: Jusco, Joyful, Gu, Sushiro, and the Takeda Castle Ruins. We also went to Himeji and saw the castle there, which they seemed to enjoy. Today we drove up to Toyooka and did some more shopping at UniQLO, as well as at the recycle shop. I found a couch that just barely fit in my car, which made the ride home pretty interesting. Tomorrow the girls head back to Canada, so hopefully they have seen everything they wanted in Japan. I think it was a pretty good trip, considering we saw just about everything I have seen since being here in under 10 days. Here are the pictures:

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Taylor and Paige’s Visit: Asago JHS

Yesterday Taylor and Paige came with me to school, and all the kids got pretty excited. I guess it wasn’t the best representation of an actual day at work for me, because all the students were super energetic, but it was really fun. Groups of girls would often poke their heads out of doors and watch us walk by, and then laugh whenever we looked at them. A lot were willing to try talking, which impressed me. Even some of the more shy students made an attempt to answer questions like what’s your name. We watched a gym class on one of my free periods, which seemed to slightly embarrass some of the girls in that class. The girls participated in two of my san nen sei classes, which worked out pretty well. A couple of the boys seemed pretty interested in talking to Taylor (going so far as to use an online translator). Anyway, here are some pictures:

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Taylor and Paige’s Visit: Kyoto

So after Osaka we went to Kyoto, which I thought was a lot more fun. I don’t have anything against Osaka, but it doesn’t have the same kind of interesting sites as Kyoto, and it is much more concrete which doesn’t really look as nice. Anyway, while we were in Kyoto we saw Kiyamizu Dera, and Kinkaku Ji, which are two really famous temples (or shrines?). We also did quite a bit of shopping, so some people can look forward to some Japanese gifts. Our hostel was really nice again, but this time we all had futons, so Taylor and Paige experienced another part of Japanese living. Also, the Japanese style toilet (basically a hole in the ground) was much more prominent. I was really impressed with Kyoto again, so anyone else who is planning to visit can expect to spend a couple days there. Here are some pictures:

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Taylor and Paige’s Visit: Osaka

After I picked Taylor and Paige up at the airport and drove them back to Asago, they spent their first night in Japan freezing cold. After that we took the train back to Osaka and stayed there for two nights. It was a pretty good first stop in Japan I think. It was a lot like Tokyo in some ways, but much more manageable in the short time we had. Our hotel was much nicer than I expected: the girls had a double Western room, and I had a single Japanese style. Here are some pictures:

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After that we went to Kyoto, which was more fun I think, but I’ll write more about that later.