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!