Monday/Tuesday

More pictures! I said there would be plenty!

Yesterday, we went to Akiyoshido again. It looked very different from last time when everything was green (they burn the hills in February every year and there was still plenty of burned remains). We found it funny that some of the plastic(?) stumps melted completely away while the others around them were only blackened.





Today, we had planned to go to Omi-jima in Nagato (a large island just off the coast, nicknamed the "Sea Alps of Japan" for its tall cliffs and rugged coastal views. Unfortunately, we didn't have a map of the island and none of the signs were in Japanese, so we didn't get very far. We'll be back another time, hopefully with Sonomi as our guide!

Before and after Omi-jima we visited a park (the same one we had our School Picnic at last July) and a foot onsen, also in Nagato. The guys went down the awesome slide (on those tiny boards they're holding!) while I filmed them.





The foot onsen was much more relaxing the last time we visited - the water from the hot spring was actually hot then. Today, it was only luke warm. We did pass a smaller one near the river that was steaming on the way back to the car, so perhaps we'll go there next time!









From Jesse's perspective you can visit his site at http://alieninvasive.blogspot.com (he's a much better storyteller than I am!).

Proof

Here's proof he's safely here, haha.

This was at Asami and Michiko's farewell/welcome party Saturday night at a Japanese buffet BBQ.


Michiko, Carla, and Asami looking at pictures.


After church, I suggested we go to the 200 yen karaoke restaurant for lunch, and the WHOLE church agreed. :-)

Here is Abe-san and Minako singing a song. (No bubbles, fancy lights, or shooting fountain water this time, though.)


After lunch, Jeremy, Jesse, and I headed over to Shizuki park for some better "hanami". The cherry blossoms are in full bloom now.











We weren't exactly sure what this was. Interesting, no?


I asked him to sit on a jagged tree stump. He did.

Jesse

He made it! Everything went smoothly and we're enjoying catching up. I admit that I was quite nervous how things would turn out, as we don't have a phone where he could reach us if he needed to, or if we needed to get a hold of anyone else. Our "minica" isn't the best vehicle for traveling long-distances and we are unfamiliar with the area... But praise God we all found our way and on were on time. :-)

snow?

Sigh. They're forecasting snow flurries for tomorrow. It's officially spring now, doesn't the weather know?!

First Picnic

One of my first thoughts this morning was that we should walk to the park today as it was so beautiful outside. Funny, that as we were getting things ready to leave, one of our friends called us to invite us to a picnic she had planned at the same park that day. We would have ended up running into them there anyway! We met up and enjoyed a very satisfying, delicious lunch she had prepared (see the woman in the black sweatshirt, she's one of Carla's students AND the one who made us a cheesecake for Thanksgiving!) Thanks, Nakagawa-san! She's a great cook.




Anyway, after lunch we took a short walk through Shizuki park to view the first buds of the cherry trees. They were beautiful, but not in full bloom yet, they should be by this weekend, so we plan to take another trip back there soon.






After our bellies had settled a little bit, we started a game of badminton (my first time!). They said I didn't do too bad. :-) No net, so we stood in a circle, and then played in pairs. We had a fun time playing!




Oh, and this is a belated picture of the board some of Jeremy's students drew for him on his birthday last month. They were so sweet and had poppers and surprised him when he came to class.

Spring

Happy spring!! It's finally officially here! Kind of funny... yesterday, the last day of winter, was in the 70s and very sunny, and today, the first day of spring, was 50 and rainy (like all of winter, the rain that is!). I'm excited for the new season. And again, like I say every year, I wish it was like this all year. Spring is my favorite season only because winter follows fall. ;-)

It's also my birthday here. The day was centered around my favorite foods! Jeremy went to the store to bring back my favorite pastry for breakfast, then made a yummy salad for lunch, then a meatloaf with mashed potatoes for dinner, and THEN a cheesecake! Success!! It was wonderfully tasty - good job, hun! The food was a wonderful choice for a birthday present, as I hadn't had any of it since before we moved here.

Hagi websites

If anyone is curious... I recently found a couple of good websites about our little area. I might keep this updated as I discover more.


A brief overview, including popular tourist attractions:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/yamaguchi/hagi.html

Excellent! Has an interactive English map, lots of Hagi history, and pictures:
http://www.west-japan-travel.com/map/city_hagi.html

Very nice pictures from around Hagi:
http://www.japan-photo.de/e-hagi.htm

English map of our prefecture (Yamaguchi):
http://www.oidemase.or.jp/english/pdf/english_map.pdf

All about Yamaguchi prefecture:
http://www.pref.yamaguchi.jp/foreign/english/outline.html

Nagato website (neighboring town, also where we teach), with nice seasonal photos accurately depicting the kind of things we are seeing any given day:
http://www.city.nagato.yamaguchi.jp/season_photo/season_photo.html

And there's Wikitravel:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Hagi

Also, our city's website (Japanese):
http://www.city.hagi.yamaguchi.jp/