Shikoku - Nature

Shikoku is beautiful and it really does have it all; mountains, forests, rivers, seas, oceans, flowers, animals and insects. From the tallest mountains to the smallest bug, it was a feast for the eyes every day. Here is just a small taste – I have over 1000 Shikoku pictures on my photo site – feel free to browse :)

It was just so much easier to appreciate things when you didn’t have to worry about phone calls, emails, facebook, work, stress or anything except what was happening right at that minute.


I have to admit though the only thing I didn’t like was the nasty mosquitoes. It doesn’t matter what I wear, what anti-bug spray I use or where I try to hide, they always find me!

Shikoku - The Pilgrims

Originally done on foot, you can now do this pilgrimage by car, bike, motorbike or even book a coach tour. We have seen and met people doing the pilgrimage each of these ways and it has been nice to swap stories with them. Because we are all taking the same path we often see the same groups of people throughout the day. This has added to the feeling of being a part of something, part of a journey, and seeing these people over again keeps us going.

We have also met a lot of people only once and this is usually because these people are walking the trail. I have so much respect for the walkers, especially in this crazy summer heat. The path to Temple 12 is often called “pilgrim’s downfall” as many of the walkers literally fall down. The hike to the temple takes 5-8 hours and then they have to get back down and find somewhere to stay.

We saw many people walking the trail and felt like we really wanted to help them. I was torn because obviously they chose to walk because they wanted to walk and so offering them a ride seemed a bit useless. Also as a pilgrim, you are not supposed to turn down gifts that are offered to you and so I didn’t want them to feel like they had to accept a ride when they didn’t want to. In the end Dawn and I decided that if we saw pilgrims walking the trail we would try and give them a snack-pack to keep them going. This was basically a bottle of water, a granola bar and a fresh orange. It was just a little something but everyone we met seemed genuinely touched and grateful. Hopefully it helped them a little.

It sounds strange but during this trip I never really felt like a foreigner in Japan. On this trail, everyone is a pilgrim and you all take the time to greet each other and respect the fact that you are all doing the journey together. Of course people were interested to know where we were from and why we were doing it but we didn’t get the same “Ah! Foreigners!” reception that has become the norm.

Shikoku - The Temples

Chasing 88 temples all around Shikoku was bound to bring some wonderful sights and experiences. When I first heard about this trip, I was worried about becoming bored with the temples. Surely when you’ve seen twenty of them, they would all start to look the same?

Thankfully I never experienced this. Some temples were on top of tall mountains, others next to the sea, some were downtown in a busy street, others in the middle of rice fields, some were made of wood, others of concrete. They were all special in their own way. Just as each of them has their own history and stories, I have my own little story at each of them too. There was the temple with the cat and lizard fighting, the towel guy, the Popeye slippers, the steps, the cave, the bell stone; the list goes on and on.

As silly as it may sound, the temples weren’t the focus of the trip. It was our journey between them, the people we met, and what we learned on the way. The temples were a guide and simply gave us a path, but what a great path it was.

Shikoku Love

I am writing this after returning from Shikoku. The trip was amazing and wonderful and I am sure I will never have one like it as long as I live. I think this is the first ‘spiritual’ holiday I have even been on. There are some parts of the holiday that I am looking forward to sharing but others I will keep to myself. Enjoy the stories and if you ever get the chance to do something weird, wonderful and totally awesome, do this pilgrimage!

Summer Plans

For our summer vacation this year, Dawn and I have decided to go to Shikoku. Shikoku is the smallest of Japan’s four main islands and is most famous for its 1400km, 88-temple pilgrimage, which takes you around the entire island.

The serious pilgrims walk this entire trail which usually takes between 40-60 days. Seeing as we don’t have that much time we are going to do the pilgrimage by car. For more information:

http://www.shikokuhenrotrail.com/

So empty :(

With Cherese leaving so early, she didn’t have enough time to clean her apartment. Being the Monika that I am, I offered to do it for her and now, three days after she left I have finally finished. It wasn’t that dirty – I also cleaned my apartment from top to bottom too.

That’s the second time in two years I have cleaned 402 (memories of when Micchan left last year.) The sad part is that the BOE are not using 402 next year and so it had to be completely emptied. All the taco parties, American Idol nights, game nights, staying up to 4am with Cherese and her mum, and now it looks like this……sad.

Sayonara!

Saying goodbye at the airport is horrible! It’s bad enough when you are the one flying but I think it’s even worse when you’re the one left behind. There were tears all round as Dawn and I said goodbye to Cherese and waved her off.

I only really got to know Cherese in March and it’s so strange to me that although we’ve only been good friends for five months, I feel like I have known her for years. One of the amazing things about my whole JET experience is meeting people from around the world and I have surprised myself by keeping in touch with so many who have left. It shouldn’t be hard to keep in touch with Cherese as we were discussing Skype dates before she’s even left the country.

Have a safe flight Cherese – see you in Colorado!

Dramarama Day

I love Carrie. She is nuts and crazy and has drama wherever she goes but when she left town today, I was very sad. When she and David drove away, I thought they would at least have a drama free trip to the airport as they head to China to meet her family.

OH HOW WRONG I WAS!

Two hours later she was on the phone in tears. They had tried to check in for their flight, only to be told they were two days early. It turned out there had been a miscommunication between Carrie and the agent. Carrie wanted a flight on Friday but the agent (unable to find a Friday flight) had sent the details for a Sunday flight without explicitly saying “this is a Sunday flight” and so Carrie booked it.

A nervous breakdown and one big lie later (Carrie told them her child was waiting for her in China) they had seats on the next flight and all was well….so I thought.

Just as I put the phone down on Carrie, my doorbell rang. It was Cherese and she was in floods of tears too. She had arranged for the post office to collect a big box for her to send home but they had refused to take it because it was too big. Also she had been so busy; she had forgotten to send her suitcases to the airport in time and so instead of going, suitcase free, in Dawn’s car. She would have to take the bus by herself.

I had plans tonight and I knew we had to get everything sorted fast!
I dragged Cherese to the post office to buy smaller boxes. She insisted she would need at least 5 and I said three so we bought four as a compromise. Once I had packed her one huge box into three smaller boxes, we went back to the post office to send them.

Now we just had the cases to figure out. Cherese had two huge cases, her guitar, a small carry on suitcase and a backpack. Dawn’s car is roomy for people but the boot is tiny and usually when she takes suitcases she has to put the back seats down. But they don’t call me the packer for nothing. 40 minutes later I had the guitar safely stowed in the boot, one suitcase behind my chair and the other suitcase standing up on the seat. We didn’t have inches to spare, we had millimeters but we made it work. Cherese will just have to have her small suitcase between her legs and her backpack on her lap. It won’t be comfy but at least, we’ll get to take her to the airport now!

I’m putting fires out all over the place today! And if you’re wondering why I was in such a rush to get everything done, it’s because I’m off to see Harry Potter again. Second time in two days – yay!

Pottermania!

NEW HARRY POTTER MOVIE IS AMAZING!!

I knew the story, I knew they would change parts of it, I knew things would be missing and I knew things would be added. When I left the cinema I didn’t care, it was great!

I love, love, loved it! They cast Lavender Brown and Slughorn perfectly – they were the highlights of the movie. Bellatrix was as nasty as ever. I loved the Felix Felicis scene (it was like watching a stoned Harry) and Dumbledore’s death scene made me cry!

I don’t care; call me sad, call me silly, I love Harry Potter and can’t wait to see it all over again………

Thought of the day...

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

If only everyone could remember this.

Quote taken from my organizer today as I sit in the teachers room melting from the heat. I hate summer!

Naked Ladies Party

I have yet to find out why this party is called Naked Ladies as it has absolutely nothing to do with getting naked. All those who are leaving this month bring their old clothes, books, movies, school supplies, electrics, etc and those who are staying take them home.

As this is my fourth NL party, I promised myself I wouldn’t take much but I failed miserably. Aska and co took most of the stuff and we celebrated the end of the party my playing a game of Cranium. As it was the Canadian version of the game it was Canada (Cindy and Natalee) VS the rest of the world. We won!

Twilight Night

There are some die-hard Twilight fans in and around the city and so some of the girls decided to get together for a taco/twilight party. Just for the record, I don’t count myself in the die-hard group but I cannot resist Cherese’s guacamole!

So in the end, Terry, Eunice, Cherese, Dawn and I prepared a huge feast and sat down to discuss the books. (The movie was beyond bad and didn’t merit discussion!)

What we actually ended up doing was watching spoof Twilight videos on youtube and amusing ourselves by putting Cherese’s camera timer to good use and taking silly pictures.

Here are just a few of the best ones

Let's begin!

I will be the summer test-checker this year! Basically that means I get to work with teachers from across the city to make the ken-wide junior high school English tests for all three levels. I am kind of excited to see how it’s done but I know just from today’s first meeting it is going to be tough.

Schools across Kumamoto can choose to use one of three English textbooks and so whatever words or phrases we use in the test, we have to ensure they are covered in all of the textbooks.

Just as an example, out of all the sports (volleyball, basketball, golf, tennis, badminton etc) the only two that can be used on the test are soccer and baseball as these are the only two that occur in all three books. Not only is it extremely limiting for the teachers making the tests but it might just drive me crazy, checking each word before it is used.

Oh well gambarimashou!

Ninja!

I’ve been wanting to try the new ninja restaurant in town and by a lucky chance I happened to meet the girls downtown who were in the mood for trying a new place too.

The atmosphere and set-up were interesting
The magician wowed us with his tricks
The food was good
The company was even better

I’m going to miss these girls next year : (

The best drunk video ever!

Hopefully Cherese will never find out I posted this but even if she does, I know she won’t be that mad. I have no recollection of making this video, why we made it or how it got started and so we got a (nice?) surprise when we found it the next day!

Hopefully you can understand what we are saying!

Beer Train!

Today I had one of those rare days where I wished I could be back home. Elisabeth and Chris, two great friends from school, were getting married today and I was so sad I couldn’t be there. I know we will celebrate whenever I get home next but it’s just not the same as being there. I have been thinking of you all day and wish you both so much happiness together!

Tonight I got to celebrate in style as a whole group of us heading to Yatsushiro for the Beer Train. Yes, it’s exactly how it sounds.

1. Take a group of normal, sober people

2. Put them on a train and let them drink as much beer as they want

3. Let the madness begin

Of course, today was also American Independence Day. As we waited for the return train, Cherese got all patriotic and decided to treat us to a rousing rendition of the American national anthem!

Fred is the best!

The summer is here, it’s hot and humid and my body just can’t cope with it!

Thankfully I have Fred to cheer me up : )