On Sunday I went to Amanohashidate (“Bridge to Heaven”). It is considered one of the three best sights in Japan, and since it was only about a three hour drive away I decided I should see it before I leave. On the way there I drove through about the worst storm I have seen in Japan yet, but by the time I got there it was only slightly raining. Although it wasn’t perfect weather, it was still an interesting thing to see. Basically there is just a really long sand bar connecting two sides of a bay, but there is a forest and a few little shrines along the way, as well as a really long beach. Here are some pictures:

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This weekend was the Taj Ultimate Frisbee tournament, which some of the other JETs from my city, some Japanese girls, and I played in. Despite my assumptions that a tournament hosted by a bunch of JETs from Tajima (there is another team from around here that includes basically everyone but the people on my team) would be a pretty low key thing, there were 300 players, some coming from as far away as Tokyo.

Our team, “The Wad”, consisted of Mark, Kenji, Meaghan, Mario (Kenji’s friend from the states), Mario’s girlfriend Wendy and her two friends Yui and Haruka, two guys we picked up from Shikoku, and myself. Before this weekend, the two guys from Shikoku were the only ones to have ever actually played ultimate frisbee, and the Japanese girls had never actually thrown or caught a frisbee before.

The Wad

Our first game was against Tajima Gyu (the other local JET team), and they beat us. Then we played a Japanese university team, and they really beat us. Then we started winning games, because we learned how to play. In the end we played Tajima Gyu again, and beat them quite decisively. We ended up placing 9th in the entire tournament, which is way better than last place like I expected.

Today was my last day at Okuganaya Elementary, so the school had a goodbye party for me. We played some games, they gave me some presents they made, and then we said a lot of speeches. It was a really good way to end my time there I think, but it was still very hard to leave at the end of the day. Even though I was only this school for one day a week, I still got to know the kids pretty well, especially because there were less than 40 in the entire school. I was really impressed at how well all the kids work and play together. I guess because the school is so small they have no other choice, but I never saw anyone getting picked on, or even left out of any games. The teachers here were also great, which I think played a huge part in the way the students have turned out. They have certainly set the bar pretty high for the schools I will be in when I get back to Canada.

Okuganaya Elementary

The students drew me some pictures to remember them by, but there are too many to show on this page. I have made a separate page with all the pictures, plus my attempt at translations (they are all in Japanese).

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Last night a bunch of other ALTs and I went to McDonalds, because Mark and Kenji thought it was necessary for everyone to try the Mega Mac (basically two big macs in one). To make sure the evening was memorable, Kenji downloaded “I’m in love with a McDonald’s girl” by Weird Al Yankovic, which he played on Veronica’s portable iPod speakers as he and Mark danced into the restaurant. Mark brought his camera, and while we were all ordering our “Mega Mac setto”, he filmed Kenji explaining to some Japanese girls that it was Mega Mac day, which meant they also had to buy Mega Mac sets. The burger itself wasn’t actually as gross as I expected. It was, however, much messier and more difficult to eat than a regular big mac.

Mega Mac

I went to the washroom last night and saw this stuck to the outside of my window:

A couple nights ago we went for a Tajima Gyu (Kobe beef) dinner, which was really good. Yesterday mom and Mel came to my special needs class with me, and then after school I drove them up to Takeda Castle (my mom kept talking about how Mel had to see it, but neither of us wanted to walk). Anyway, here are some pictures:

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Here are a few pictures from Mom and Mel’s visit, as well as some I never put up from when Marla was here:

Yesterday, after I finished my classes, I was wasting time on my computer when I came across a wordpress news article about a new blogging theme. For those who don’t know, wordpress allows users to create their own themes (how a blog looks and acts), which can then be uploaded and used by other users. Anyway, this one is called Monotone, and is a theme for photoblogging. What it does is looks at the colours present in a photo, and then chooses appropriated colors for that photo’s page.

So, I thought it sounded interesting, which meant I had to make a photoblog. So I did, and I named it 私の図会, which just means “My Pictures” but in a less boring way. Anyway, the theme has turned out to be pretty interesting, but also a bit buggy. There are some sizing issues, so if you look at it and the photos are either huge or tiny, sorry.

OK, so I decided that since China was such a big trip and I took so many pictures that I would just write one huge post and put the pictures throughout it, as they become relevant. This is much different than how I normally do things, so in my opinion it’s quite a risky blog move, but I have a feeling it will turn out just fine.

Anyway, the flight to Beijing was pretty short and uneventful, and then we got picked up by someone from the hotel we stayed at, so that was really convenient. However, as soon as we got within about 5min of our hotel it was pretty clear Beijing was gonna be not quite like I expected.

I didn’t take any pictures of the actual hotel, but it really didn’t look like it belonged on that street. Aside from the really uncomfortable beds, practice of selling food, and allowing a cat and some birds into the restaurant kitchen, it was pretty nice.

The next day we just sorta wandered around a little bit, and went to Tienanmen Square. It’s a pretty huge place, and it really screams Communism. Like there are stars and Maos (pictures of the famous one, plus probably quite a few lesser known still living versions) all over the place.

Also on this day, we ate a really gross restaurant (pretty much because we got too hungry). The dishes started off oddly covered in water, the cans of Coke were covered in crud, he gave us each a handful of peanuts (from his hand), the rice was cold but burned, in which Marla found a hair.

After that Marla and Andrea tricked me into a pretty boring shopping day. They said we would go to a “market”, however neglected to read that it was entirely for women’s clothing and jewelry. Needless to say, it wasn’t really my idea of a great place, especially when you consider it was absolutely packed with pushy Chinese women, two of which actually pointed at me and laughed while I was waiting for Marla and Andrea to finish buying dresses. After that we went across the street to the Beijing Zoo, which is just a pretty sad place. I wouldn’t say its a waste of money, cause it costs like $2 or something, but it has like a dozen animals that are slowly choking to death on the Beijing smog, or just going crazy from boredom.

The next day was pretty good, although also quite sketchy, cause we took our tour to the Great Wall. This day could be a post on its own, so I will have to condense it somewhat. Anyway, the three of us, two Germans, an American and Australian, and a family that clearly hated each other all piled into the hotel “minibus” (rickety van) and drove 3 hours to the wall. At the wall the driver said something to me in Chinese, and then scratched a mark on the little back of the ticket map with his extra long pinky nail indicated where he would pick us up in 4 hours. Hate each other family had been there before, and were basically running the whole time, so we just followed them. Along the way we passed some people that said some things in Chinese to us, but we ignored them assuming they wanted to sell us crap (one or two people in Beijing want to do that). As it turns out they were telling us we were going the wrong way (for 5km). The most annoying part though is that the hate each other family spoke Chinese and just thought they knew better than the people who spend everyday working on the wall. Anyway, we turned around and went back, and then some other women led us through a shortcut so we could make it back in time. The women wanted to sell us stuff, but we kept ignoring them until they couldn’t follow us any further. It turned out that we were the only ones who could resist them the whole time. At the end we took a zip line across the river (Andrea actually had to be cranked in by hand because she was too light) and then got back on in the van.

The next day we went to the Temple of Heaven, which was pretty nice. It’s possibly the cleanest place in Beijing, although the smog does kinda ruin some of the pictures.

After that we went to a Peking Duck restaurant, and got 1.5 ducks, which was too much. Peking Duck is a lot more flavorless than I expected, and I sorta think Beijing has better food to offer.

Next we went to the Forbidden City, which was packed with people and really as nice as the Temple of Heaven. Also, there was a lot of construction and the most smog of any day, so it wasn’t the best time to go I guess. This was also the day when we probably had the most pictures of us taken by Chinese people. This was a really weird thing. Unlike in Japan, where if someone wants a picture with a tourist (pretty unlikely) they introduce themselves and ask first, in China the normal method seems to be to try to sneak a picture first, and then only if you get caught trying ask. Once this actually resulted in a whole family trying to sneak up beside us, and then follow us until someone else could take the picture. I got them back.

On the last day we went to the Pearl Market and the Dirt Market. The Pearl Market was pretty boring. The Dirt Market was pretty dirty, but the name is still misleading because I wouldn’t say it was noticeably dirtier than the rest of the city.

Oh, and I forget which day this was, but one day we ate at a kinda gross restaurant and ordered something we just assumed with pork or beef (it was all Chinese). Anyway, it came and was cold, gross tasting, and clearly not an animal we had eaten before. We decided it was snake, based on the way it looked. Then later on we went to a Korean restaurant, and in the English menu there was an item that looked suspiciously like what we ate, but was labeled “Fresh Dog Meat”. So, I definitely ate something gross, I just don’t know how gross.

Anyway, China was a pretty interesting place, but in many ways a bit disappointing. For one, the people are possibly the rudest I have ever met. While this obviously doesn’t apply to every Chinese person, I have never seen so many people unwilling to smile or be polite in ways that seem pretty universal. For example, in every country I’ve been to, waiters or waitresses tend to smile and people you pay often say thank you or at least something, and don’t yank the money out of your hand. Also, the spitting is really disgusting. I understand that is a cultural difference, but the constant sound of horking (cause it’s not just normal spitting, they make sure to get as much as possible) is pretty gross. I will be really surprised if this year’s Olympics go smoothly, because it really seems like they’re not ready. Aside from the unwelcoming people, there is just tons of work that needs to be done on buildings everywhere. They seem to have started building walls to hide a lot the mess, but I think that will just turn out more embarrassing than helpful. I can honestly say that the food is much better than in Japan though, so long as you are careful where you go and what you order.
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Last week Marla arrived in Japan for her second visit. Sorry it took so long to write this post, it was a combination of being busy and just forgetting. Anyway, her visit has been good so far. The first day she just stayed at my house and read/used the computer while I went to school, and then on Friday she went to Himeji and saw the Art Museum she had tried to see a few times on her last trip, and a confectionery festival. On Saturday Meghan and I had a BBQ with some of the people who live in our apartment building, as well as one of her teachers and her kids. It sorta rained, but the kids played for like 4 hours so it was good. Then on Sunday Marla and I went to Kobe. Yesterday Marla went to Kinosaki again to visit the onsen while I was at work. Today when I went to work she was still sleeping, but she says she later went to Wadayama and ate lunch at McDonald’s. Even though I drew her a pretty good map of both Wadayama’s streets, she got lost and needed to take a taxi. The fact that taxis even exist in Wadayama is pretty ridiculous. Anyway, she is currently sitting beside me reading Obama’s book. Tomorrow after I get back from work we’ll go pick up Andrea in Himeji, and then we’re headed to China for awhile on Saturday. Anyway, here are some pictures, sorry there aren’t many:

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