Recent Events

It's been a long time, blogging world! It seems that just when I have plenty of things to write about, I haven't been on lately. So, I'll give you a quick update on my general doings of late.

Last weekend was, a 4 day weekend. I won the lottery when it comes to national holidays + school holidays. The science school (Kagiko) had their Culture Festival on Saturday. Because it isn't my base school, I was able to go as a spectator, sample all the food stands with koroke (fried mashed potatoes), negiyaki (fried leek), and Frankfurts (hotdogs). Because this is a vocational school, I also got to see many of the things that the students have made, like benches, children's slides, and even a cardboard teahouse!

Also that afternoon was an English speech contest. I had been coaching a couple of the

students all week beforehand, so it was great to finally see them perform. And even take 2nd place, mind you.

There is an IT teacher at school who happens to

have a bluegrass band on the side. He invited me to a concert this weekend, with just about all of the Bluegrass musicians on Shikoku in attendance! It was great to hear songs that I could completely understand. Some of the English was heavily accented, but others sounded just like their US counterparts.

Among other news, I went hiking again with another group of foreigners. We didn't see any other hikers on this trail, though didn't reach the top either. It was a lovely way to spend the holiday. The next day I had my bike impounded and had to walk the ~45 trek to an abandoned schoolbuilding to retrieve it.

Also bought a dougi, karate uniform for the Aikido 'tournament' this weekend. I've been going to the Aikido club at my school every Tuesday morning for lessons. There are usually only 3 students on any given day. The other ALT at the school is also in the club, but goes on Wednesdays instead. We've had extra practices this week in preparation for the Enbutaikai this weekend, though, and I finally got to practice with Zandra. We had the match this morning. Certainly made plenty of mistakes, but overall had fun. There was a mixture of tiny kids in white belts and old men in their umpteenth degree black belt. Even got to see our sensei's sensei! He is the kind of man that would inspire George Lucas to create Yoda.