Around Tokushima!

Creative road name right?

Godzilla anyone?  I have no idea why he is on that building...and I've asked locals...they don't either!

Japan you continue to amuse me!

View from Mt. Bizan

  

So one of the Elementary English teachers and I hung out all day yesterday.  It was great, since sleeping in is impossible while living in the school apartments with the baseball team practicing all hours of the day right across the street...I had hoped that Jessica would be up and wanting to hang out.  She was making breakfast...so lucky me! scrambled eggs, toast and bacon! delicious.  We then headed for town on our bikes to do a bit of tourist siteseeing as well as some additional shopping for our apartments. 

After crossing the bridge to downtown we kind of just dwadled around for a bit exploring some areas of town we hadn't been to before and then decided to head to Mt. Bizan.  Jessica had been up to the top before, but last time she climbed up so we took the ropeway yesterday.  I hadn't gone up yet...don't know why. Its really close, and I LOVE the moutians.  I guess I just don't play tourist enough.  I still haven't gone up to Naruto to see the whirlpools either, and she has done that as well...and I've been living here for a month longer than her.  But then I read or spend my time looking for things to make my apartment more cozy..the interior designer in me I guess!  Anyways, Mt. Bizan.  The view from up there is breath taking, and the city is massive when you see it from up there...it's amazing the Japanese think of it as a small rural city, from my point of view it is huge!

After about an hour wandering the paths on the moutian and trying to find a spot we could catch a glimpse of Seiko Gakuen from the top (and failing miserably) we were both starving...even with saving ourselves the climb up.  So we stopped into the little resturaunt up on the observation area and had a light meal.  Mine was a chicken rice and vegi mixture...that because of it's reddish color I thought was going to be spicy.  So glad it turned out it wasn't, I can NOT handle spicy food in the slightest.  Jessica ordered a coca cola float and shrimp rice.  Hers looked really yummy too, and the view was spectacular.  She and I decided we are definately going back, but are bringing bento べんと with us next time we go.  There are some great little picinic areas up there.  Might even get a group together sometime and have a party.  That would be a lot of fun this summer. 

After our lunch we caught the ropeway back down and got back on our bikes to miander some more around town.  I took Jessica to the 100￥ store and got a few things for each of our rooms and then we headed to a home decor store...one I am quickly loving for it's additions to my apartment.  I'll definately have to take a picture of my room soon, its coming together sooo nicely!  anyways, after going through checkout we got back to our bikes and studied our bit of a delema:

how to get all of our purchases secured on our BIKES

we had:

(decor store)

a rug

a fairly large tray

lint roller, and hanging hooks

silverware

(100￥ store)

garbage can

2 medium sized desk organizers

A3 paper sized picture frame

roll of paper

plates

cups

office supplies

LOTS of hangers (very ackward to pack)

garden spade

notebooks

envelopes

plus a few random things that i can't remember at the moment

please keep in mind this is on 2 bicycles about 30minutes from our apartments!  We were heading back, when I pointed out a second hand clothing store I like to Jessica, who had just been mentioning her need for some jeans and skirts, so we stopped in and both bought some more clothes...to add to our already packed bikes.  My bike by this point is a little difficult to manuver..all that additional weight and all...plus since my bike has 2 baskets almost everything we baught was in my bike.  sigh.  On the way back, contemplating ways to get home without having to use the main bridge (very up hill to get to it) we found a Pizza Hut! Jessica and I agreed that it sounded like a fantastic idea for dinner and stopped in.  No tables just a waiting bench...making us stare at them in shock when they asked if we wanted our pizza "for here or to go."  We were like....where are we to eat it if we said here?  We joked how we should have stayed and offered them some.  Maybe gotten some free pizza out of it!  In the end though we said to go and headed off on our overstuffed bikes and found a little park not far away with a bench and ate it.  That pizza (basil) was SOOOO yummy.  oh Pizza Hut, how I've missed you...and I don't even really like pizza normally! 

 

lazy Sunday

Today was a lazy Sunday for me....well I guess I did something as I went outside! I decided to head downtown and develope some pictures I'd taken over the last couple of months to start working on a new drawing.  My friend Fuusan's birthday is coming up, and I've been thinking of doing a drawing for her as a present.  Sean, the newest English teacher at the Kindergarten (yochien) whose been in Tokushima for afew years, told me the easiest picture kiosk to get to is in the basement of Tokushima station. So I caught the train in from Yoshinari (station closest to my apartment) and set about exploring.  While I was going into town anyways, I grabbed some books I'd rented a few weeks ago from TOPIA (the international center) to return, I figure keeping them happy with me was is good idea! 

With that side errand done I found the camera printing shop and had a little adventure navigating the all Japanese machine.  Even the simplest tasks can be complicated here in Japan!  Which is half the fun I suppose.  It's also what caused me to miss Japan soo much.  Back home just didn't hold all the challenges or make me work to acomplish anything.  It was just so easy and became boring.  Printing my pictures took a while, since after I finally figured out how to work it, the machine wouldn't take my money and I had to use a different one, thus start all over.  Hopefully they found the problem and fixed it.  I like that kind....where it prints them imidiately in front of you.  The other one I had to come back later for them.  So after finding out when they'd be ready I headed upstairs to starbucks to wait and read.  Thank you grandma for the books...I'm already finished with 2 of them!  Starbucks was super crowded though so I got my sandwich and hot chocolate to go and walked to Tokushima park to sit in the sunshine and read.  It was about 5pm by this point so a little chilly, but still wonderful.  I love the park!

Tokushima park...after Sakura

I have no idea why....but I took like 6 pictures of this pigeon!

House OFF

 Well Today I was out and about exploring further afield on this side of the bridge.  I was given directions to a House OFF  (2nd hand furniature at usually great prices) and decided to take a look and see if they had a kotatsu (short heated table) for a reasonable price.  It't the only real thing I want in my apartment that I don't yet have.  I don't really need one for now, as it's mostly for winter, but I figure if I wait till then, they wont have any.  Anyways, today was extremely windy....bad day to attempt it, but the rain had stopped and I wanted to get out of my apartment and it was the only destination I could think of to look for.  The supposedly 30mins to the House OFF took me nearly an hour and I was going against the wind, I found they have 3 of them there that on a less windy day I'll go back and attempt a table tied to my bike.  I did get some speakers and picture frames for drawings I do while here...I'll probably give them all away as gifts...paper in my suitcases for the trip home probably isn't a good idea.  I also stopped at the garden center and got some soil, zuccini seeds and a pot...hopefully they will grow well once I get them planted and I can attempt zuccini bread!  My bike was filled by the time I left there....I seem to do this a lot apparently!

ramen attempt fail.

So as I've mentioned I found the perfect ramen resturaunt just a few minute bike ride from my apartment, that I have been making plans with Jessica to go and eat there for lunch sometime.  Being a teacher of 31 3 year olds takes more time than I thought it would and it seems I am never going to get out for lunch on time again.  We had originally planned to go out of Wednesday, but I didn't get out till 12:15 and that isn't enough time to ride there, order, eat and get back for her not to be late...so we decided to go the next day instead. Previous day scenario repeated, Friday?  Again fail. 

Yakiniku!

So why then do I have pictures of Yakiniku is this is about a ramen trip failure? 

Well today after work I decided to go grocery shopping at the little market that didn't involve me going over the bridge to Fuji Grand...it't annoying and with a bike full of groceries is a lot of work.  On the way back,  I was getting hungry and I (litterally) ran right into Jessica...bumping bikes with her was on purpose! After askeing if she'd eaten dinner yet and getting a negative, we decided to go out and grab something together...at which point I suggest the ramen resturant we'd been attempting to go to the week before.  It sounded delicious and she is always looking for new places to eat, so we turned our bikes towards our new destination and set off.  It was only a little ways down the street from where we were and reached it in no time. 

When we pulled up to it it was closed...turns out Wednesday is the shop holiday...I should have guessed that, but the place next door was open, so we were like "ehh what the heck, we're already here"  and went over.  Turns out it was a Yakiniku place.  Which are usually out of the way places that you need to drive to.  We were VERY pleasantly supprised to find one so close to our apartment.  I've already told the other English teachers about our discovery and they are excited about it too!!  The food was great, and the prices were awesome...I'll be going back there soon too!



Tulip Park....with the Kiddies

The second picture is essentially the entire park.  It isn't huge but made me feel a bit at home as the Tulip festival in Holland is going to be happening in Michigan in not too long.  Not anywhere close to as big as Hollands but little reminders of home are great when you live abroad.  I'm tempted to go back on my own in the next couple of weeks if the flowers are still blooming. 

Today we went as a school excursion, which I don't know why they bothered.  I mean the kids couldn't have had much fun there.  They packed everyone into 6 small busses...(note to self: get a picture of one) which are really large mini vans.  The kids had to stand around while they solider lined them up and then litterally marched them to the flower area where they had them stand around until all 6 classes did group photos, and then had them stand around more for individual shots. 

I tried asking questions and entertaining my 3 year olds but they weren't really paying attention.  I mostly played rangler as they got bored standing around and tried wandering off.  I had figured once pictures were out of the way the kids would be allowed to actually look at the flowers and wander a bit.  My mistake.  As soon as photos were done, they were lined back up, and marched right back onto the bus.  From getting on the bus at school, to getting off at school again were were gone for just over an hour, and it took 10 minutes each way to get there.  I didn't have fun, I have no idea how a group of 3~5 year olds took it.  But being Japanese (even children) when asked if they had fun on the school excursion, they enthusiastcally replied YES!  Go figure.

I finally found it!

I've been searching for an awesome cheap ramen place since I first got here...and last week on my way back to my apartment from renting videos I found the perfect place.  It was late...I was super hungry...and I knew along the route back there weren't any resturaunts I wanted to go to, so I turned down a medium sized main street figuring there would be more places to eat along it...and BINGO!! It was heaven.  I ordered miso ramen (pictured above) and gyoza....neither of which I have had in a while and have been craving desperately.  It's one of those small places where there isn't even a menu...everything is written on a sheet of paper and then thumb tacked to the wall for everyone to read.  EXACTLY what kind of ramen places I like best.  I'm going to attempt to make it the Seiko (I'm finally revealing the name of my school on this blog) ramen place. Not sure how successful it is going to be, but Jessica the new teacher from Australia is going to go with me for lunch there sometime this week....I can't wait!

Hanami in Tokushima

Hanami..continued even after the sun set

Hanami (flower viewing) in Tokushima was...interesting to say the least.  I came prepared for a party, since let's face it those of us foriegners that come to Japan to work are a crazy group!  Ingrid, owner of the local foriegner hot spot here in town has a hanami party every year and it always promises to have a great turn out.  I got there a little late and missed most of the food, hanami is about having fun in the park with friends and drinking.  Well what in Japan isn't about drinking actually?! haha, a good number of the people were already trashed when I arrived, but still great fun to talk to.  I played a drinking game with the 1 beverage (smirnoff) I'd brought with me, and made some new friends.  Not sure of the name of the game...cheers to something I think....anyone care to help me out?!  One of the Canadians was doing some juggling for a few kids that were nearby in the park.  That drew a bit of a crowd...cause I mean a foriegner is enough on his own to gain people staring....let alone one performing circus tricks?!  God help us all.

A lot of the people started leaving once it started getting chilly.  A bit of a shame actually!  Not that the cold disuaded the Austrailian guys from dropping trow right there in the park for all to see.  Thank goodness I had my back turned when they did it most of the times...but with 3 guys using any excuse they could to pull off their pants during the 6 hour interval I was there....not possible to miss all of it.  Not a pretty sight.  When they started babbling about undressing completely I was finally forced to flee the park altogther.  I should have known that was going to happen.  I'd been warned about these Austrailian guys, and what they were like.  Apparently they do it every time.  Grrr...not something I wanted to remember when I think of hanami!