Drinking trip

On the weekend before school started, I was invited to go on a trip with the teachers from one of my schools. We got on the bus at 8 and started drinking at half past. I had a hangover already and had only had 3 hours sleep the night before, so I learnt the Japanese for 'hair of the dog'. It has come in handy since then. Anyway, we went to Oita ken, which is in the bottom island of Japan which is full of onsen (hot spring bath houses). On the way we stopped at a toy museum, several temples and other places. We stayed in a really nice hotel that evening and sat up late in one of the male teachers' rooms drinking and talking - it was great fun. On the way back, we visited a geothermal power plant and a 400m long suspension bridge. Everyone was a lot quieter on the way back . . . can't think why :)

All of us. And yes, we had been drinking. We are wearing yukatta, which are basically bathrobes with a tie around the middle.

The next day, leaving the hotel, all the guys and 3 of the women are hungover. Can you guess which women are hungover?

The first course of dinner. I'm not joking. There were 7 courses; I could barely manage 1.

The suspension bridge.

Come on, who doesn't want a room full of buttons. This is at the geothermal power plant. Don't ask me why we went there!

Eigo de asobo

A few weeks before school started, the ALTs were asked to run a 'play in english' seminar for a group of children aged 5 to 11. Not the easiest mix to cater to, but I had fun doing it. The other ALTs only had to go twice during the week. I had the joy of attending every day. I reckon being the only 2nd year ALT left at the Board of Education, I seem to have drawn the short straw. On the bright side, I got to hang out with some pretty cool kids.

Summer holiday

This was a little bit last minute, but Chris Mack and I decided to go to Yakushima which is an island off the bottom of Japan where 1000+ year old cedar trees grow. We drove from Yamaguchi to Kagoshima (the city at the bottom of Japan), then caught a 4 hour ferry to Yakushima. It was choice. We went swimming and snorkelling around coral, saw pillow lava, really old trees, deer and monkeys. It was cool. Only four days, and I reckon our biggest achievement was not killing each other, but it was an awesome way to end the summer.
Anyway, pictures!

Chris Mack, master navigator.

mmm, looks tasty!

I'm actually standing inside a tree - neat!

another big tree.

MONKEY!!!

Finally

Yup, I've finally gotten round to another update. This one goes back to somewhere around the start of August.

I went meteor watching a while back as we were passing through the Perseid meteor belt (or something like that). Anyway, around midnight I jumped on my bike and rode about 5 minutes out of Hagi until I found a new road that hasn't been opened yet. I sat there for a couple of hours and watched meteors. It was pretty cool. Within the first 15 minutes I saw 11 meteors! Is that geeky?

Next, the new ALTs arrived. I was busy racing around after them trying to get them sorted and settled, which wasn't the easiest task. We took them out to dinner a few times to do the whole welcome thing.

The new ALTs are: Shak (English), Nicole (kiwi), Kate (Aussie), and Alex (American).

Shak, Kate, Nicole

Matt (3rd year ALT) and Alex

We also went to a festival at one of the temples in Hagi where over 1000 stone lanterns were lit, which was pretty cool: