The end of August is almost upon us. Summer holidays end this week, and starting Monday I`ll be spending my time in my schools rather than the Board of Education office that I`ve been based in this month.

I have 7 schools, although I`ll only really be visiting 6 of them.

Daini Junior High is the closest thing I have to a base school. It`s about a 20-25 minute bike ride from our apartment. It`s a pretty big school by local standards- maybe 500-600 students? I`ll be there about 7-8 days a month. The school is on one edge of town, and the ride to it takes me past several sweet-potato fields. I`ll try to get a picture of the building when I go there for my first lesson next week. I visited last week to say hello to the teachers and staff I`ll be working with. The PE coach offered to give me kendo lessons, which is frankly terrifying.

Not far from Daini JHS are two of my elementary schools, Hayasaki and Satoura. They`re both a bit smaller than Daini. When I visited Satoura last week, I ran into a group of 20 or so 1st through 3rd graders who were at the school for some kind of summer program. They were shy at first, but after a bit of hiding they warmed up to me. I got my first crotch-grab within 5 minutes (no kancho attempts yet), and by the ten minute mark everyone was laughing and I was serving as a makeshift jungle gym. Good times. I visit Hayasaki 2-3 times a month, Satoura once or twice.

On the other side of town, along the ocean, is my second base school- Seto Junior High. It`s about a 40 minute bike ride from the apartment. A long ride, but the terrain is flat and the scenery is very nice. Seto`s about the same size as Daini. They get me 7-8 times a month. Near Seto JHS is another elementary school, Seto Elementary. Seto Elementary also hosts the solitary student from Shimada Elementary, which is up in the hills on one of the nearby islands. Shimada is pretty sad- it`s a lovely school building that could probably handle 250-300 students, but it`s almost empty. The school has one student, one teacher, and the principal- that`s it. That lonely kid gets driven to Seto Elementary when I`m there... I don`t think I`ll ever have to go out to Shimada again. Along the way to the two Seto schools is my last elementary, Akinokami. I stopped by there this weekend and watched baseball practice. It was pretty funny in a 1950s sort of way- all the kids out there busting their butts while the men lounged back smoking and the ladies served tea. I visit these elementary schools once or twice a month.

I have the remainder of this week to finish work on my self introduction (10-20 minutes, with pictures and visual aids) and steel myself for actual classroom work. I`ll miss the BoE office- friendly folks and lots of free time, but I`m looking forward to working with the kids.

We are scheduled to get home internet on September 5th! Yay! Hopefully they can install the cable through the air conditioning vents, if not, we have several more weeks of waiting to go.

This last weekend was pretty busy for Brent and myself. Thursday evening, we went to the beach with Brent's fellow JETs. There was lots of seaweed and potentially a jellyfish. On Friday, the last of the Naruto JETs arrived, and we all went out to an izakaiya and had a great dinner with drinks. I didn't bring my camera, though.

On Saturday, we bummed around in the morning, but in the late afternoon we went and visited some places on our street.


This shrine, Kyokai, is less than a five minute walk from our apartment. One of the priests was very nice and gave us a personal tour--in Japanese. We understood some of it, like that they just got a new copper roof. They aren't a very tourist-y spot, so I think they were a little shocked that we were there.

There are several other shrines on our street, both small roadside shrines, and larger ones. There are also lots of amazing Japanese cemeteries. It's just after Obon, the Japanese festival for remembering the dead, so there were lots of decorations on the graves.

More religious places around Naruto






On Sunday, we biked about half an hour to Bando Station, dropped off our bikes, and walked a few blocks to the first temple on the Shikoku 88 Temple pilgrimage, Ryozenji. It was amazing. It's probably not as impressive as the larger temples in Kyoto or Nara, but I loved it. It was also

From Ryozenji, we walk a couple of kilometers to the second temple on the pilgrimage, Gokurakuji. Gokurakuji is an Amida Buddhism temple, which excited me, because I remember learning a lot about those types of temples in the Japanese architecture class. (That class is also why I took so many pictures of brackets and roofs at the temples.) This temple was more impressive and beautiful than the first one, but also felt more impersonal.

More picture of Gokurakuji



After getting home from the temples, we headed out to a Tokushima Vortis soccer game. The stadium is in Naruto--it was built by the Otsuka company, the same people who make Pocari sweat, which, by the way, I find to be amazingly delicious. The company was founded in Naruto. The game itself was pretty boring, but there was an amazing sunset to watch. And a huge Sudachi-kun I got to take my picture with.

Updated Naruto album, with beach and game pictures



In other news, I applied for my gaijin card last week, and will pick it up on Monday. After that, I can go to the prefectural office and apply for permission to work, which they may or may not grant. If they do, great, I plan to start going around to all the English schools with a resume and saying that I'm available for a part-time job. If not, I plan to start going around to all the English schools with a resume saying thati'm available for a full-time job, but I'll need a new visa.

But for now, I stay at home during the week and study Japanese by watching television. And using my textbooks, of course. I bought the level 2 Genki book. I used level 1 in my university Japanese class and liked it, so I thought it would be a good way to continue to study. I could have put off the purchase, though, since I'm still reviewing Genki 1. I think I know more Japanese than Brent at this point, although that doesn't matter since he's still way more comfortable than I am speaking it. I'm hoping to find a Japanese conversation partner in the next few weeks to start to feel more comfortable speaking.

Well, the are other things on the internet I need to do, and limited time in which to do them. Hopefully I can start to make posts from home soon!

Things are going fine in Japan so far. I've been here for a week, and Brent for three, and things are awesome! Except for the fact that we don't have internet at our apartment yet. We're getting it wired (is that the right word?) for fiber-optic, so we have to wait a few weeks for them to get us set up. But when we do get it, the internet will be SUPER FAST.

I have been taking tons of photos, but since I don't have internet at home (and have been unable to find a wi-fi hotspot, oddly enough) no pictures can be uploaded yet. I have taken pictures of everything from the plane I came to Japan on, a close up of my tatami-mat floor, and the huge festival that has been ongoing since I got here.

I haven't been doing much, other than watching Japanese television and working on my language skills. I haven't gotten my foreign registration card yet, and once I get that I need to apply for work permit before I can start looking for a job. Oh, and I've been cleaning. Our apartment had been empty (empty of people--the ants love it) for half a year before we moved in, so it was in desperate need of a clean. Some things don't change though--I can still watch Mariners games! At 11 in the morning, but it's still a nice bit of home in a very foreign country.

I bought a bike, and rode for the first time in, oh, 15 years or more. It's true that you don't forget, but you sure aren't graceful at first! It's nice having on though, since the nearest grocery store is half an hour on foot, but much less than that by bike.

Weather wise, it's been muggy! Muggy muggy muggy! Muggly like I have only felt on Virginia in the summer. Probably muggier than that. You don't feel self-conscious about the sweat though. Everyone walks around with a fan and a sweat towel. The bugs are killer though. Ants are everywhere in our apartment. I'm trying to combat them, but it's difficult. Cicadas are HUGE.

Anyway, public terminal, need to get off soon. Longer post (with pictures!) when I have the internet!

Information for those curious about the area in which we are living:

We will be living in Naruto, a town of just over 60,000. Naruto is located in the prefecture (basically Japan's version of a state) of Tokushima. The capital city of the prefecture is Tokushima City, our closest big city neighbor. There are about 260,000 people in Tokushima City. Tokushima Prefecture is located on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four major islands.

We're living in an area called the Inland Sea (Naruto is labeled in red.)The Inland Sea is supposed to have the nicest weather in all of Japan, with low rainfall, moderate temperatures, and little snow.

By crossing a few bridges, and the island of Awaji, we can get to the Kobe/Osaka/Kyoto metro area. It is about an hour and a half of travel time by bus, and takes us across the world's largest suspension bridge. There are over 18.5 million people in this metro area, making it second in size only to Tokyo in Japan. A bit further away is Hiroshima (about 3.5 hours away).

Some notable things in and around Naruto:Naruto is famous for it's whirlpools, which can reach up to 20 meters in diameter.

It is the start of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, a journery around the island to visit 88 Buddhist temples.

Naruto Kintoki sweet potatoes are famous around Japan.　　The picture is the regional Hello Kitty, where she is dressed up as a sweet potato.

Every summer, Tokushima City hosts the Awa Dance Festival, where people do choreographed dances while parading down the street. Many places in Japan hold dance festivals during this time, the traditional Buddhist Obon festival, a time for honoring one's ancestors. It's fairly similar to the Mexican Day of the Dead. The festival in Tokushima seems to be a little less serious than other dance festivals of its type, and Awa Odori is sometimes translated as "fool's dance." This will be our first major festival during our time in Japan, so I'm sure we'll take pictures of it.