Yamanashishi. The great place of my grandparents, Ojiichan and Obaachan!

I got off the train and found Ojiichan (whom I was expecting) AND Wataru (age 20), one of my cousins (whom I was definitely NOT expecting!) waiting for me! I guess Ojiichan and Obaachan had called my cousins and invited them up for a mini-cousin reunion. Taiki (23), the eldest bro, came the next day. Yoogi (18), the youngest, could not make it but I talked with him for a bit on Wataru's keitai... We went straight from the train station to the top of a nearby mountain where a famous onsen (hot springs public bath) was awaiting us. Maaaaaaaaaaaaann....I just melted in there...gorgeous view of the city below us, with mountains surrounding the city...on a clear day, you can see Mt. Fuji. The time in Yamanashi-shi was well spent; relaxing, eating, chatting...I took a bunch of videos, but not too many pics...


Ojiichan cutting up sweet Japanese pear. Yamanashi is famous for its fruits, and Ojiichan and obaachan had stocked UP.


Wataru, preparing our dinner yaki-niku style. Basically a big round electric hot plate in the middle; a whole bunch of raw food thrown on, and you get some delicious food. Try it!


Huge peaches.

Mike and Anna! Mizuho, Gifu.
Best friends from Canada, reunited in Japan. Mike and Anna are teaching at a small private English school in central Japan. I came to visit for a short ... visit. They're doing very well; sweet aparment, good friends! Some of which are pictured here.




Mike and Anna with Akira (black sleeveless shirt) and his friend on a rocky river bank, chillin'.


Same friend beside the charcoal bbq that we roasted copious amounts of beef, fish, sausages (little breakfast sausages, not like the big german sausages that I crave whenever i see the word "sausage"in print), shrimp, and other little things.



Akira holding a stick of dynamite. He's Anna's student, he drives a Camry with all the hip hop toys, and listens to snoop dogg. Has excellent English and is an awesome guy.


Best restroom in Japan yet. We went for dinner and dessert with Miki, another of Mike and Anna's friends. She took us to Grandma's Kitchen, and this is the interior of the restroom. (I don't always carry my camera with me to the toilet, by the way...it just happened to be in my pocket - so small these new cameras.)


This is Miki. She drives a tiny bright green Volkswagon, listens to J-pop and J-tech, and is a kindergarden school teacher. She graciously took us around to some different places in Gifu.

Good times!

Our camp venue had a great view. My group members, Misa, Riho, and Misato.


Group A! Here are some of them displaying their works of art.

KARYO ENGLISH CAMP
Last week I taught at an English camp - 3 days of English fun with about 70 high school and jr. high students. Most were from Karyo Sr. high (Brett and Jen's school) and there were about 25 or so from my Jr. high schools. Good times! Note: there were only 8 boys in the entire camp - I asked why and people just said girls are more into these enrichment program kind of things...boys are more into sports it seems. The 8 boys that were there seemed either asleep or deathly ill the whole time.


I had a group of 9 jr. high girls. The first session, the students made posters of their ALTs (Assistant Language teachers, that's my title). Ayami and Rina drew this awesome poster of me.


Beard is the new black.


We had a movie night ("The Iron Giant"). I fell asleep. People took liberties with my camera.


Rina and Ayami. We had a session called "This is my treasure". We were to bring in something we treasured and make a little speech about it in English. In the end, one representative from the group, plus the ALT group leader would present their speech in front of the whole assembly. Ayami, with her "chick hat", lost a round of Janken (rock/paper/scissors) and was made to be our champion, much to her chagrin. Midway through her speech she put it on: "This is now my most favourite hat among all my hats." And then, to end: "I will wear this hat for a long time". People LOVED it!


Mark and his sumo minions. The uniform you see is that of Kudamatsu Junior high, MY students!

Back to the Tokyo Orientation for a bit - this is the main room where we had our mass sessions...I don't know if the photo does justice to the glitteriness of the room and the professional-ness of attire of those in the room.

"Kanada! Kanada!"

At an "nomihoudai" and "tabehoudai" (all-you-can-drink and all-you-can-eat, respectively).

Cellphones, "keitai". EVERYONE has one.

The gentleman on the right with the streamers on his head and the large plastic flashlight with no batteries and the blue shirt is Taka, our "tour guide" for a night on the town in the famed Shinjuku area of Tokyo. This was before any beverages were embibed. Nuff said.


Mount Fuji from my hotel room window one morning. It's true what they say about Mount Fuji: it's in Japan!


The three new Kudamatsu JETs: Brett (aka Ewan MacGregor), Jennifer, and me. Fortunately for me, they are really cool people. We went to see Pirates of The Caribbean two nights ago...


Lastly, a billboard in Shinjuku, Tokyo. I just took the pic because he was playing a Marshall amp.