Paragliding in Kagoshima

my weekend

...was pretty sweet. Went to an incredible Thai restaurant in Kijo, did 花見 (flower viewing) in Saito, saw Cloverfield at the only theater in Miyazaki, and to top it all off attended a concert in Nobeoka with no fewer than seven local bands playing.





yay!

graduation and farewell parties

To clarify, I'm staying until the end of July.

The Japanese school year starts in April and ends in March. All my 3rd year middle schoolers (the equivalent of 9th graders in the United States) are moving on up to high school.

You can't tell from the picture, but that morning there was a bit of a flu outbreak. About a third of the 1st and 2nd year kids stayed home (and these kids never stay home, that's how I keep getting sick myself) and at least half the graduating kids had the flu. Throughout the ceremony (which was entirely too long for a 40-kid class) teachers had to escort kids out that were breaking into sweats and passing out. It was worrying.

During the time of feudalism in Japan, often the local prefects had to spend every other year in the capital. This was meant to prevent revolution or somesuch. Naturally this tradition carries over to the modern school system.

Every two or three years, teachers get shuffled around. They have little more than a week to pack and move their entire families to some arbitrarily designated corner of the prefecture. About half of my coworkers have to move this week, including a couple of teachers that I do team-teaching with. So of course there was a party.
Presents were given out
Speeches were madeSome of them were pretty goofy

And afterwards there was a "second party" - we went to a karaoke place

There was a lot of singing

楽しい

ski trip

Back in February a handful of people came up to Gokase to ski.
Here I am on the edge of a cliff for no reason.

long overdue winter vacation post

I've finally got around to gathering up the pictures from my week of ambling around the Kansai region. I went to Kyoto:
...and Osaka:

I ate some obscenely good food. This is an Oyakodon from what may be the best sushi place I've ever been to. Oyakodon (親子丼) means "mother-child bowl" and commonly is a rice bowl topped with chicken and egg (and rather grotesque name if you ask me). If you're lucky you can find this version: salmon and salmon roe.
In the middle you'll notice a raw egg yolk (which is among my favorite anythings nowadays) and below that is some sort of spinach-like green that tastes like butter and fairy dust.

Saw some cool things
Met some cool people
and generally had a good time.

Also I can't seem to find any Taiwan pictures that I want to post. Sorry team.

under the weather

It's been pretty cold out here

The other week there was a local school event involving a card game called "karuta" - the kids played for hours, while I wondered what I was supposed to be doing.

old photos

haven't had much time to update in a while, mostly been planning my vacations in Osaka and Taipei (just got back yesterday)

so here are some from Takachiho gorge, about a 20 minute drive from where I live.