Sorry....

No real updates this week!

But everything is fine!

Last weekend was fun and romantic and interesting and special... (Sorry, ラブラブです！)

This week I have been busy at work.  Shock!  Fumi and I had to do a demonstration class in front of a lot of teachers which was a bit nerve-wracking but we were well-organised so it went okay.  The three-hour feedback meeting afterwards wasn't that fun though! 　I especially loved the part when some teachers got so excited about the science teacher using neon card with words on them and putting them on the blackboard. WOO!
Fumi's and my class watched the video clips of 'We Are The World' and 'What's Going On' (Artists Against AIDS version) and students were meant to write down what they thought the message of the songs was, and what their (students') message to the world is. One wrote that politicians are 'F**K' and steal money.  True.

Now I'm staying at school until I finish Assignment #14!  I have done #15 because it was more interesting, but have to finish #14 before I can send both!

Three weeks or less to go...頑張ります～

It's a three-day weekend but I have no big plans.  Just going to the movies, sleeping, 'winterizing' my house, getting my tyres changed, shopping, catching up on TV shows, going to a festival, hanging with friends, doing some school work, studying, Skyping...

And next week it's back to Kanto!

Waiting For The Weekend!

Not that I am doing anything special, I need to clean up my neglected pigsty of a room, plus study this TEFL course.  Not long until I have to finish and I have nine assignments to do.  Oops.

Last weekend was a blast though!

After school on Friday I headed to Kanagawa for four days with Kuni.  There was a public holiday on the Tuesday so I took the Monday off too.  He met me at Fujisawa and we went to Saizeriya for dinner.  Hey, we're both poor...and I like Saizeriya!  Then we went back to his place.  We were both tired so we watched some TV and went to bed.

The next day we woke up at a reasonable hour and went to Enoshima, an island close to Fujisawa.  It's meant to be bad luck for couples, but we are hoping that's not true!  We saw plenty of other couples and families there too!


Me and Enoshima.


We hung out at the beach for a bit and I got Kuni to do some jump shots.

Then we walked around the island for three or so hours, taking photos, talking, looking at the scenery, drinking beer...

There's a lot of stairs on that island!!!

For a lot more pics, click here.

After Enoshima, we went to Nitori so Kuni could buy another futon.  He also bought me a huge cushion for lounging around on.  After that, we had a very late lunch and headed home to do not much at all for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, we woke up early and left his house around 7:30am to head for the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka-ken.  It was decided (by me!) that I should drive.  Kuni seemed okay with that decision.  This meant he could relax and take photos (for me!).

First we stopped in Atami to see a 'famous' statue.

From japanvisitor.com ->

A visit to Atami would not be complete without taking in the statue of Omiya and Kan-ichi at the northern end of 'Sun Beach' (Atami's only beach).

The story of Omiya (a girl) and Kan-ichi (a boy) was written by one of Japan's greatest writers of the Meiji era (1868-1912), Koyo Ozaki (1868-1903) in his novel 'Konjiki Yasha', or 'Gold Demon'. The statue is of Kan-ichi kicking Omiya, his beloved who had just left him for a banker's son who had offered her a diamond, and shouting at her "You have been blinded by a diamond!" - a phrase that quickly found its way into the popular imagination.

So harsh!

We also found this silver statue thingy.

Kiss!

Atami Castle.  Nice from far away, scary close up, 500yen for parking and expensive to enter (so we didn't).

View of Atami from the carpark near the castle.  Sorry it's bad quality, I made this in autostitch.

After Atami, we continued down the coast to a lake which looked good on paper but not in real life.  Plus it was another 500 yen for parking!!  Then we went to the Jyogasaki Coast to a suspension bridge.  We parked in a carpark a kilometer away though, so had to trek up and down stairs through the bush to get there.  Actually, it was nice and had great views so the fact I was doing physical exercise kinda slipped my mind.






I'm on a bridge.

Then we went and had yakiniku for lunch before heading to a roadside omiyage shop (hey, it's obligatory!).  Finally, it was time to head to the hotel. But actually, we didn't stay in the hotel, we stayed in a cottage.  It seems that the hotel rents cottages from people out to other people.  Or something.


Hotel lobby.


The cottage.  Looks creepy from the outside.  Apparently it used to worth a million bucks.  But now is only worth a tenth of that!  It had three bedrooms, a huge living room, two toilets, a huge shower room, and a big balcony with an onsen on it.  And a view of the ocean and situated next to a volcano!


First things first, beer on the balcony while having an onsen.

In the evening we had a posh dinner which meant mostly seafood and me not eating much!  Thank goodness there was steak for one course.  And bread!

The next morning we woke up early to see sunrise, but it was cloudy so that didn't work out!  So we had an onsen and drank fruity wine instead!


6:10am?

After a buffet breakfast (cornflakes, tater tots and toast for me; fish, fish and more fish for Kuni), we checked out at 11am and headed down the coast and then across to Amagi-Toge pass to see some waterfalls.  There are seven waterfalls (Kawazu Nanadera) altogether, ranging from 2 meters high to 30 meters or so.  It is also the setting for the novel "Izu no Odoriko" (A Dancer in Izu) written by Yasunari Kawabata.  Hence, the statues!  It was a nice walk with more stairs....but we had fun!


Awww....




Jump!


Mmm, fresh water!


There was also this circular road which looked cool but serves no real purpose it seemed.  I mean, it's a real road, but I don't think they had to make it two levels or anything.  Another tourist attraction I guess!

After this we headed home.  We were tired and didn't really want to see anything else that day.  We got back to Fujisawa around 6pm and relaxed.

The next day I had to leave early because I had promised Alda we would hang out in Fukushima for the day.  So Kuni and I said goodbye and I caught the train to Tokyo, then the shinkansen to Fukushima, arriving around 1pm.


Bye!


Mt Fuji was looking good from Tsujido Station again.  Too bad about that darn Panasonic building!!

If you have nothing else to do... more photos here and here!

Alda picked me up and went to Nihonmatsu to see the Chrysanthemum Festival.  Much bigger than the local one near Yonezawa...but I still thought it was gonna be bigger!

天地人, the NHK drama, was the theme of course!








It was a lovely day!  It had snowed the previous day though, glad I missed that!


Aaaargh!!!

After that, we headed off to find the Obama Castle ruins.

The castle back in the day....


What's left now!!!

More photos here.

Then we headed back to Fukushima to find a Pizza Hut.  We asked at a couple of combinis but they had no clue!  I guess if we had asked a random gaijin they would have known straight away!  But anyway, we knew the general area and ended up finding it and pigged out on delicious but expensive pizza.

I was pretty happy to get home after that.  So tired....which has continued all week!  Rest time in 3...2...1...

Have a happy weekend!