Day Off!

On our day off we went to the little town of Utazu, a suburb of Marugame.

This is how many plates of sushi we polished off. We LOVED the conveyor belt sushi bars.

Mike's "ass" candy.

Mike the pilot. Sega rocks.

Here I am riding "Anpanman," a very popular cartoon character in Japan.

Jamie outside the store "Hard Off." Okay, it's not what you think...it's a store that sells hardware at discount prices.

Mike and I liked to hang out at the Vivre Shopping Center.

Me and the stuffed animal I won from one of those claw machines. Honestly though, I didn't WIN it.  A young Japanese worker took pity on me because I tried and lost so many times that he finally came over, unlocked the game, and reached in and got it for me!  The character's name is Doraemon and very famous in Japan. It's my all time favorite manga or Japanese comic books!

Standing next to a Godzilla poster advertising the lastest movie. How many of these things will the Japanese come out with?

Fukuoka Temple

It took approximately 8 hours to drive to the Fukuoka temple. We went on a branch temple trip about twice a year, if that. We all loaded on a bus at midnight (so people could sleep) and arrived in Fukuoka at around 8:00 a.m. When we got to the temple we did 2 sessions back to back. One time a Japanese lady in our branch asked me to be the proxy for one of her ancestors,which made me feel honored. The second time we were able to attend the temple I got to perform baptisms for the dead, and Mike got to be a witness. We had a testimony meeting on the bus on the drive back.  The branch members made it a special experience. They don't get to go to the temple very often, so they make sure not to take their opportunity for granted.

Konpira-san

It was a perfectly overcast day. Cool enough to climb the 800 steps to the main shrine and approximately 500-600 more to the very top. To learn more about Konpira, the Japanese god, and more about Kotohira, the town where this attraction lies, check out these sites:

Shikoku Web Site

Japan National Tourist Organization

We met a group of nice Japanese men in a souviner shop in Kotohira, a town about 15 minutes away from Marugame where we lived.

Here is Mike on some of the stairs leading up to the main shrine.

Samurai statue

View of the Sanuki plain from the steps leading up to the inner shrine.

One of the shops along the side. I'm digging the Japanese style roof.

Mike on some of the stairs leading up to the shrine.
There behind him is an art museum that supposedly is only open once every 100 years. Isn't that crazy? It was open the day we decided to hike up the stairs of Konpira-san, but we didn't go in!!

If you want to worship at the shrine, but have a hard time climbing the steep stairs for whatever reason, you can pay some men to haul you up in one of these "taxis."

Kotohira town.

Me on some of the beginning stairs.

Trees and Rice Fields

These trees were on a street very near to our home. They remind me of trees on a Nintendo game. If you were Mario, don't you think you could totally jump on these?

This rice field was across the street from the trees, down the street from our house.

Lion Dance

My student's Mom invited us to attend a lion dance at my student's elementary school one morning. Two men in the costume danced around in a traditional fashion to the drummers' rhythm. If you can endure the lion dance and look it in the face without getting scared it's good luck and you are considered brave. A lot of the children got freaked out as the lion face got close to them, but some of them took courage and faced it without fear! It was really cute and fun to watch the dance and all the children's reactions.

Mike was allowed to put his head in the lion costume, but I wasn't because girls are forbidden for some reason.

My student Hayato.

Here is Mike putting his head in the costume. Men are treated much differently than women in Japan. Much more so than in America. But I didn't want to put my head in that sweaty thing anyway. :)

Relax at the Driving Range

Sometimes on our day off we would go to the Utazu or Tadotsu driving range. We picked up some clubs from Cleantopia a place similar to a thrift shop, only everything is free! The catch is, you can only take one thing per person per day. Mike got really good at driving and I suppose got some frustration out at the same time.

At Utazu driving range.

The Hike Up Sanuki Fuji

One day we decided to climb that big mountain close to our house, Sanuki Fuji.

View from the trail as we headed up.

View from the other side.

Mike in front of a statue located at the top of the mountain.  We encountered some pretty big spiders on our hike, not gonna lie.

Halloween

Besides just teaching English to our students, our boss Fumi wanted us to teach American customs and holidays. We played games like "Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin," bobbing for apples, Halloween bingo, and Mike also told spooky stories in one of the dark classrooms. Pumpkins are kind of a rare commodity, and if you do find one, they are very, very small. But we did have a jack-o-lantern carving contest and gave out prizes. Halloween was a fun holiday to celebrate in Japan.

Here I am with Mike and our boss Fumiyo explaining the Halloween holiday to our Japanese students.

Mike with my students Ayano and Chiaki.

Mike dressed up as a pimp and I was a pirate. Aarrgghh matey!

More Halloween

Not only did we throw a Halloween party for all of our students, but we also threw a party at our church with all the branch members and our non-member friends as well.

Mike's adult students Nobuko, Yagi-san, Mayumi, Seiko, and me with a sweet ass mustache this time.

Fumi with some of her students, along with me and my student Miyabi (to my right.)

Our students and Japanese friends loved the American tradition of making jack-o-lanterns.

Fumi as a famous Kabuki actor, Twila as a bunny, and me as a bad ass looking pirate.

Nobuko, me, Mike, Jason, Fumi, and Mayumi.

Me with Elder Fowler and Elder Morita

Ritsurin Koen

Ritsurin park is in Takamatsu city, about 45 minutes from our home in Marugame. The park is famous for it's beautiful red, orange, and gold trees in the autumn months and for it's cherry blossoms in the spring. The day we went it was perfect weather. Nice and cool and slightly overcast. It was beautiful and relaxing.