November

It's hard to explain the feeling when you walk into a restaurant and have no idea what you've just ordered. Sometimes, it's really exciting and well, the flipside is that it can also be pretty disgusting. I still can't handle my food looking back at me while I eat so I just avoid those situations. Luckily, I haven't had to eat the food while it was still moving. (Not everyone is as fortunate as I am!) There are benefits to being completely unsure of everything. For example, trying out a new path with no clue of where it will go has lead me to sights I couldn't have imagined myself. As the famous saying goes, 'things happen for a reason!' I have at least a dozen moments every day where I feel like I have figured out why I am here. I am realizing there are too many reasons to be here to keep count!Since you can't be here with me, I hope you can enjoy Japan through these pictures! I think of you all often! Thanks for checking out the blog again!
I spent the past 4 months seeing mostly what I expected to with castles, beaches and mountains. Don't get me wrong, it was much better than I thought it would be but it is such a small part of this place. I am finally beginning to understand the cultural values that exist behind such kind people.


Thanks for all the emails and updates! I am constantly being reminded to enjoy as much as I can because I have such great family and friends come home and share it all with!

Okinawa

<

I couldn't take enough pictures for the scenary. The ocean is electric blue and flowers are still in bloom.


28 degrees celsius just doesn't seem normal for almost the end of November! I spent the weekend in Okinawa bathing in the sun with another Winnipeg JET. Christina took me sightseeing and planned an amazing trip! I saw the best sites, tried all the food and even had a day at the beach swimming in the ocean.


href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/6185/3763/1600/12153/PA0_0033.jpg">
The Aquarium and Butterfly Museum

This aquarium is apparently the second largest aquarium in the world. There was an area for petting star fish and other strange creatures. These are just a few of the pictures that I took.


The butterfly museum had more butterflies than I have ever seen in my life!

Sumo Wrestling in Fukuoka

A group of us managed to get some last minute tickets for the World Sumo Wrestling Championships. I didn't have much of an interest before I went but when I was there the event was actually pretty fascinating. I even worked up the courage to sneak a closer seat and speak to the famous Bulgarian sumo wrestler. Afterwards, we went for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I have never been so happy to see an English menu in my life. Watching everyone bite into their American style food like they were tasting it for the first time was hilarious!

Saga Balloon Festival and Karatsu Kunchi

I think that I am still recovering from this jam packed weekend! I was exhausted for at least a week when it was finished. A friend that I met on JET programme from Winnipeg, Meghan came down for a visit and we attended pretty much every event that we could. The Saga balloon festival is an annual international event. At night they light up the balloons and have a great show! Karatsu Kunchi is one of the biggest festivals in Kyushu. After the parade, local people invite anyone and everyone from the streets into their houses for an incredibly expensive dinner. It was nice having a fellow Winnipegger to reminisce with for the weekend.

Taking a Side Street on the Walk Home!

On the walk home from work, Matt decided that we should venture on a different path. He has this awesome ability to convince people to actually take risks! Sheree thought the idea was great but I had blisters on my feet and wasn't so interested. Once we started walking, we realized that after 4 months we hadn't even seen the best part of Imari! We found great statues and a zen garden! It was all in walking distance from our apartments! I guess that's the beauty of where I live, there is still so much that I have yet to see! Check out Sheree's pic and try to imagine the best Jamaican accent ever! What a fun girl! If it wouldn't be for her, I don't think I would venture in the grocery store! She gives me the much needed lady talks that I really miss from back home! If Ross hadn't been working like crazy(welcome to the world of elementary teaching) we would have had our whole Imari JET group with us! What would we do without Ross? I ask myself this everytime he translates and solves pretty much all of my problems!

Kagoshima Dragon Boat Race

After a 6 hour car ride, our boat race team finally made it to the night before the race festival. We were all really excited about putting on our costumes and attending the big party! The only problem was when we showed up, we were the only 5 people in costumes at the huge event! My worst nightmare came true! We were the attraction of the evening. Everyone had their picture taken with us! At the boat race, the entire town knew me as the strawberry! If you think that's bad, the next day we were expected to win our race, which didn't exactly go as planned. First, we couldn't get the boat moving, then we were towed to the start line(so they could laugh at us during the race). After about 10 minutes of pure agony, we were soaked and towed to the finish line. When we finally got out of the boat, there were tv cameras pointng at us and thousands(no exaggeration) of people laughing at us! What a weekend! The sightseeing made it all worth the while. We drove around an active volcano for about an hour before realizing our original 6 hour drive would now be at least 8 hours! My stomach hurt from laughing so hard by the end of it all!

October

October passed like the blink of an eye! Some days, I feel like I just arrived yesterday. Other times, I feel a bit overwhelmed not seeing my family and friends back home. I miss you all very much! I am having the time of my life in Japan. I am slowly learning how to cook Japanese food(turning on the oven was the hard part)! I am travelling as often as I can since the world is just at my finger tips and I am meeting people from all over! It's difficult to explain all that I have been through here. I wish I could say these pictures capture everything I have seen and done in the past few months but unfortunately they are just small pieces of the excitement. When you see pictures of the top of the mountain, I wish I could tell the story of the great people we met along the way, the chain path on the way up and Ross' "detour" on the way down but I think the stories are told much better in person. Have a look and let me know what you think.
Before you continue to check out this website, I want to say “Thank You”. Your emails have been my motivation for all the photos you are about to see. I am so fortunate to have such great support! I love hearing from you! Thank you for taking the time to write! I am thinking of you!

Saga Castle and Tea Ceremony

Some of the ALTs were invited to participate in a tea ceremony at the Saga castle. We all had a chance to dress up but there was only princess costume. The lucky chosen one…..me! I have to admit when I had the headpiece on I didn’t feel so lucky. However, I learned that the headpiece is worth thousands of dollars because it is part of the castle museum. I have never taken so many pictures with people I haven’t met before. The cultural experience was incredible! The tea ceremony wasn't anything like I thought it would be. I had to learn quickly since there were many people watching!

Ton Ten Ton Festival

Imari had its famous festival from October 22-24. Ross and I participated in the parade of dancing that took place one afternoon during the festival. Since there weren’t any other foreigners involved in the dancing, we definitely stood out. People are still commenting when they see me in the grocery store or on the street. The festival has two shrines that fight over and over again for three days. I took a picture of a miniature shrine held by some children walking in the streets. The real shrines are much larger. The events are actually quite dangerous. There were people seriously injured every time they fought. The final fight, where the shrines battle into the river was cancelled this year because an 18 year old high school student was killed during one of the battles in the daytime. The last time there was a death in the festival was about 9 years ago.

Sightseeing in Karatsu

One of the teachers I work with offered to take me and a couple of friends sightseeing in her city for an afternoon. We went to a great café for lunch. After lunch, she took us to a Karatsu shrine, castle and waterfall. In the photos, you can see Megumi(the teacher), Towana(from Los Angeles) and Christine(from England). We were exhausted at the end of the day but that didn’t stop us from checking out a great place at night.

Karatsu Castle
You can see the castle from a distance. We had tons of stairs to climb to get to the top but the scenary made the whole workout worth it!

Kurokami Mountain

Ross took me hiking for an afternoon to this great mountain that’s only 20 minutes from our apartments! We climbed to the top pretty quickly but somehow managed to an unintensional detour on the way down. It was a beautiful hike and a really enjoyable afternoon. We came across a Japanese family on the way up. After Ross’ conversation with them, I learned that they drive for four hours every weekend to climb to the top of this mountain because they believe that the soil has healing power. They have a very sick daughter so they collect the soil and place it under her pillow in the hospital every week.

ALT Sports Day

Thanks to some great organizers, we had an ALT sports event on October 15. A few areas in Saga put in a team. My team won at the end of the day so we were happy. We played three different sports and calculated points when we were finished. I played touch rugby for the first time! We played soccer and ultimate frisbee too.

99 Islands in Sasebo

Ikumi, my first friend in Imari invited me to go to Sasebo with her. She took me to the top of a mountain to view the 99 islands(they don't actually know if there are 99). We went at sunset which was absolutely beautiful! Sasebo is also known for the american navy base so there were more foreigners there than I usually see. Can the view get any better than that?