About Me

Ikawa-cho Miyoshi-shi, Tokushima-ken, Japan
I was recently accepted by the JET program as an assistant English teacher in Japan for one year.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

in which i spend some time at work

oh, hello blog
i just helped teach three classes today. this is the start of a very long weekend for me. 7 days long in fact. see it's "golden week" here in japan, which is basically spring break as i see it. thursday is showa day, which commemorates the last emperor's reign and is a time for people to think about the span of time and the turbulent changes that took place during that era. monday is constitution memorial day, which is the anniversary of when the 45 constitution was written, or adopted, or something. tuesday is greenery day, or green day, which i guess could be thought of as earth day. then thursday is childrens day, which is a good idea i guess and i always wanted that day when i was a kid. friday im getting off because a school is moving their lessons around and so i have a 7 day weekend. with this in mind i made a reservation at a hotel called hotel active! in hiroshima city from sunday to wednesday. i will take the train there and check in and then spend a few days wandering around, seeing nuclear bomb monuments and going to museums and stuff. there is a peace park and a shrine in the middle of the water by an island i want to go to. also they have okonomiyaki in layers, and not all mixed up, like the rest of japan has, so i want to try that and everything else they want. im not really excited because im going alone but i do get to get out of here for once, and the hotel is like $60 a night and has western style breakfasts included, so its not a bad deal. i will take lots of pictures so don't worry about that.
so i guess you want to know like what i have been up to. well my cousin sam leiter came to kotohira to see a kabuki play, because he's a kabuki scholar. kotohira is a 45 minute ride through the mountains for me, so i went up there to meet him and look at some shrines. it was really neat, and i didn't know about this little town, so i have to go back now. the photos are uploading right now.
okay let's do this.

here you can see japanese kids sorting the little tabs of aluminum cans. in japan, since they are incredibly "eco" about everything but paper and plastic bags, they recycle these little guys separately. also, the plastic colored caps of plastic bottles go in their own bin. just a little less work they need to do at the plant. keep burning your garbage though! but really who am i to judge!?

here are sam and i in kotohira. the sun just came out so im squinting. that is my new favorite hoodie. sam is my grandfather's cousin's husband. he's really smart. please buy his book if you want to know about kabuki.

cool devil masks were on display.

and they even had the tengu ask, or scary long nose guy. hes the mascot for the conveyor belt sushi place i like in the mall. i love him.

do you need cool swords? this guy has them for you. i think you need a special swords permit to buy one though. i didn't see how much they were, but you can assume they are EXPENSIVE!

a view up the steps that lead to the temple. supposedly there were like 800 steps. those two columns on sides of the steps are actually a big gate that tells you about the temple.

nice view looking down the steps.

then we got to the top of some steps and this long path just kept going. really want to go back here soon, when liz comes over in less than a month!

me and the big temple. i think this might have been the second to biggest one. not sure if we went all the way to the top. but it was a nice building. i did money throwing and hand claps and we went back down the steps.

statue of a horse. there was a real horse and a wooden horse too, at different points. sam told me people would bring horse paintings to this temple. i really thought i got that guy out of the picture, but now he is going to be in it, forever, ruining my life.

another shot from near the top, on the way down.

statue of a priest guy! composition. amateur photography. framing. ansel adams can suck an egg.

now at the playhouse, we have kabuki mascot character. how does the person inside see out? is s/he normal height or a child? what is going on?

and lastly the playhouse itself. it's the oldest kabuki house in japan, and it's awesome. just ask sam!

brian said he wanted to see a picture of my house in japan so here it is. red car, and lots of grassy weeds growing all around.
and that is about it for now. i will let you know about hiroshima, and soon my gilfriend and sister are going to come visit.
great!

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