Icciv's notes in Japan

The 'Big Man' Cometh

This blog entry has been a long time coming, and as I'm finally getting things organised now I can write about the Big mans spectacular visit to Kamigoto. Which was nearly a month ago now but nevermind! So, Alistair came down on Thursday night as we had a long weekend. We went for Yakiniku and ended up chatting there until 1, the owners children were playing football in the restaurant and we still didnt take the hint to leave! The next morning Carrie agreed to take us sightseeing, so we picked up the Big Man from the ferry port, got some lunch snacks and headed off. I decided to go along my school route as my furthest school is nearly an hour away and the journey is quite scenic.

We stopped for a picnic at this lighthouse near Kita-uonome (where 2 of my schools are) and Carrie went home to await bed delivery. Me, Alistair and Matt explored the area.

These are the boats near the lighthouse.

Here is Matt and Alistair checking out sea creatures.

This is the view directly opposite the lighthouse, you can just make out a large rock in the bottom, named Nipple rock. It was called this by an ALt over 10 years ago and the name has been passed down by teachers to new ALT's.

Heres a lovely photo of Matt and Alistair near where we had our picnic.

This is a beautiful cove we found.

This is the Big Man exploring the cove

And here he is straddling a canon! Cool

Here is me and the Big man relaxing on a canon, oh the joys of Kamigoto

Yey, a playground, we all had a go, I miss playing on playgrounds with Cristin so it was nice to find one we could use!

Jumping off the slide, Oh such fun, such fun!

Carrie returned, and explored with Matt for a while until we wanted to leave.

I then suggested we head to a view point in Arikawa. Me and Catherine had seen the snake on the road up there but had been too scared to go up! I though with more people it would be safer to tackle, so we headed off. It took ages to find as I couldn't quite remember where is was. Eventually I found it and we drove up the cumbled road. the trees were full of giant spider webs, full of spiders. I even wound the windows up for fear of some falling in!

Here is the view point, you walk up a short path to get to it.

Unfortunately that path was also full of spiders, this is just a small example, there are 10 spiders in this picture (I checked with the zoom). We had to duck the whole way, ew, still makes me shiver.

Here is Alistair reaching the top successfully and not being killed by spiders!

This was the view, I think it was definately worth it, how beautiful is this place?

More scenic shots.

And another scenic photo.

Here is a classic Ian pose from Carrie, Matt and Alistair. This originated from this great photo of Ian (on Alistairs Island) which I try to get every else to imitate.

This is the beginning of a love story. First, Matt wasn't paying Alistair enough attention.

The Matt embraced his love, but Alistair had doubts.

Then they fell in love and all was fine. Still together now....bless.

On the Friday evening we went to find a restaurant in Aokata, but couldn't really find anywhere we fancied. We started heading to Urakuwa and then Matt spotted a little house wth 'PUB' written on the door. We persuaded him to check it out and it was a little snack bar. There was only us in there and the woman behind the bar was really sweet. She helped me and Alistair sing 2 japanese songs (as we can't read kanji it can be hard) and she was very chatty. We finally went for food in Urakuwa and then went to the 'Moon Half' (a favourite snack bar of my Kyoto sensei) to finish off the evening.

The next day was pretty relaxed, watched final fantasy and then went to George's place for dinner. He played some amazing Spanish guitar and chatted with us for ages. We had to leave pretty early as had sports day.

These are the rest of the sports day photos.

Flag marching in the opening ceremony.

Flag giving and speeches.

Boys racing, think this was 800 metres.

Some of the crowd from the day.

This was the older peoples race where you pick 5 small beans up with chopsticks, and put then in a pot.

Here is me taking part, yey.....I came last! Well they've been using them for years!

The big man, Carrie and Alistair enjoy the sporting festivities.

This is the mucade race, I have to do this next year (if I am here) at chuchi elementary. It's quite difficult.

Difficulty is demonstrated by falling racers. Hee hee.

This is the dancing, I had to join the last dance even though I had no idea what to do, it's a traditional Japanese folk dance! I tried though.

Here are the cute kindergarten kids in their race.

So, your now only a month behind my activities. This week has been busy with the big demo class day, which went well I think. I should have net access again on Thursday so I will try and put on Nagasaki photos and from the deer park on Wakamatsu, a short drive away. Anyway, it's neary lunch time and I have to prepare for my classes.

posted by Icciv @ 9:14 am