Kuju Mountain

Sunday 22nd. Andria invited me to go hiking to Mt Kuju with people from her office. Andria is a new ALT who lives in Yukuhashi but works in Miyako Town. Kumi, Andria and DJ picked me up at about 6 am, we then picked up Yuko and drove to Kuju-san. The hike was very busy with people and for the start of the hike we had to go at a very slow pace. A huge change to the pace of the Yakushima hike, plus I didn't have a heavy pack. The last section was a little difficult as the ground was loose, and with many loose rocks. It was difficult to not slip on the way up, but much more difficult not to slip on the way down. We reached the peak at about 10:30. There is a photo of the group I hiked with and one of Yuko and I at the top signpost. The Autumn leaves are starting to change, which made the walk quite beautiful and scenic. The wind was also quite strong, which made seeing the clouds swirling around and flying past the mountains quite fascinating. The peak you can see in the distant behind the other mountain is Mt Kuju (where we walked to). It looks quite far, but didn't seem we walked that far. Afterwards we went to Onsen. It was the first time I have visited an onsen twice. I had visited this onsen when I went a bbq trip with my karate sensei and his family. The trip back seemed long but we were back by about 6. A long but very nice day.

5 Month Break

It has been 5 months since I have updated this thing, one excuse is laziness, the other is that I haven't had a computer for a long time. My old (only 2 yrs old) computer decided to catch a virus or 100, and then after being reprogrammed catch another one which went onto destroy it. The message "Operating System is not found" gave a good indication that the computer was BROKEN! After saving money, researching and getting annoyed for various reasons, I bought one and it finally arrived TODAY!

In short, Japan has been great. I have got through another HOT season of Japan where you sweat doing nothing and your electricity bill doubles from using the airconditioner. Now it's nice aside from the typhoons. We've had two so far. I wasn't impressed when a typhoon came on a long weekend. We've also had a few earthquakes too but nothing to worry about. As usual I am still doing karate and passing the time at work.

Please read down to learn about things I have done in the last few months.

SHIKOKU

This long weekend Joy and I went to Shikoku. Joe is a fellow Alt from the next town. She is originally from Hawaii. We caught the ferry from Beppu to Yawatahama. And then caught the train to Uwajima. Uwajima is famous for Bovine wrestling it's Sex Museum. We caught a cab to the sex museum, and when we told the driver our destination he laughed. We understood why after we went there. The museum was very interesting but it was somewhat disturbing as well. I don't think I want to see any drawings or models of private parts for a VERY long time. After that we went to the Youth Hostel. It was very out of the way, but had a fantastic view of the city. The following day we caught the train to Matsuyama. It was my second time to Matsuyama but last time I had no time to enter the castle or go to an onsen. The castle was good but because of the restoration of the main section the view was not so good. Lower down the view was very nice anyway (picture). On the way down we went to a garden, which are the old footings of the samurai's residence. That night we went to the famous Dogo onsen. It was so busy... people were waiting to wash and in the onsen we were all pretty close. I can't say I enjoyed it very much but at least I can say I went. After dinner Joy and I went to a game arcade, and threw a few balls, raced mario cars, bashed out Taiko and whacked the heads of some squirrel looking things. After that we went to Karaoke. It was my first time to do karaoke sober! It was quite fun. The following day we went to another onsen which was much nicer. It was less crowded and therefore a lot more relaxing. Sitting in an onsen on my birthday was great, much better than being a work. After some MORE shopping we made our way back to the ferry at Yawatahama and returned home. Happy Birthday to me!