Remember all the things I said I was going to do in the previous post? Well I did them, and then some more. The only thing that fell through was the treasure hunt in Miyazaki. A volcano erupted in that area and the hunt was cancelled. However, I did go to the lantern festival which I have pictures of below. I did go to Hiroshima for an awesome weekend of snowboarding. In fact, I became so addicted that Reiko and I, along with my friends Ian and Lionel went again a couple weeks later. That time was great too, but I ended up wiping out pretty bad and was on crutches for a week. Then most recently I took 18 middle school students to California for a short homestay program over spring vacation. Reiko was here with me for most of this. She stayed with me for almost two months all the way up until I left for California. It was nice to have company. We had a great time together.
The lantern festival was so pretty. Many organizations/companies/schools/individuals make Japanese style lanterns and they gather all of them near a temple below a mountain and light them up at night. They have food vendors and live musicians from the city performing, and everyone drinks and has a good time. Here are some pictures:
The last one is just a fire we huddled around since it was pretty cold at the time.
Snowboarding in Hiroshima was da bomb. Hiroshima has some really good mountains. Snowboarding has become one of my favorite hobbies. I have become pretty good. I can carve, maneuver, turn, control my speed and switch sides pretty well now. Trust me it’s HARD! I don’t think anyone really realizes how tedious it is to control a snowboard until they have tried it… unless they are a natural prodigy or something. Anyway I just felt myself improving everyday and couldn’t get enough of it. Reiko did much better than most of the other beginners there. I hope she continues to get better so we can snowboard together in the future. The second time we went I messed up my ankle, had to go to the hospital and was on crutches for a week. Sometimes I feel twinges of slight pain if I play any sports, but that’s going away slowly.
From March 25th to April 4th I took 18 middle school students to California for a homestay program. It was my second time in California, but first in the San Francisco area. The kids were great and I became very fond of them. They had a blast. It was their first time in America so they were naturally very excited. It was such a busy week though. We went to the Redwood Forests, Giants baseball game, toured Sebastopol (small town sister city near San Fran), toured San Francisco, went to the beach, did ice skating, and went to American Elementary Schools, Middle Schools and Universities. So it was a packed week, but the kids wanted to stay longer. There were some tears as they said goodbye to their new American friends before we left… choked me up seeing that. It was a great experience for me too, and I would love to be involved in these sorts of things in the future.
So yea… I’m doing a lot... seeing a lot… spending a lot. Jeff is coming in two weeks and I cannot wait to finally see one of my friends from back home again. I also can’t wait to show him my town, and my schools and all that Jazz.
Unfortunately while I am doing all this, people are still suffering the consequences of the March 11th tsunami disaster. It’s… indescribable what has happened up north. Fortunately I am not affected in the least. A few of my friends are going up there in two weeks as an initiative to help people rebuild. I cannot go since Jeff will be here, but I am attending the meetings and trying to help out (barely). “Hotdogs and Hugs”…lol that’s the name. They will kick off their mission by hosting a barbecue at a shelter where they will serve hotdogs and soup, and hopefully have some entertainment to help cheer people up. I would like to go but, I’m sure they will do fine without me.
I have used up almost all my vacation this year so I hope to try budgeting a bit more during the summer. I am planning on filling my time by getting a road bike and cycling around my prefecture (it’s actually pretty famous for cyclists). It’s so beautiful here and I get frustrated when I am in a car and cannot stop to take in the views. So I will bike… far… with my new camera, and I hope to show you guys how beautiful this place is.
Okay! That’s about it! I am going to make an effort to call you guys so answer your phones if it’s coming from a weird number.
Did I ever tell you guys I got E. coli poisoning and felt like I was going to die?
