am i in california?

A beach in Ishikawa Prefecture–one of the few beaches in Japan that were wide enough to be driven on. I went swimming in September, amazing.

the garden

What came out of the garden.

neighborhood castle

A hanami (cherry blossom-viewing) party at Ueda Castle.

river bath

One of the riverside onsens at Kurokawa.

onsen heaven

During the road trip, we spent a night at the beautiful onsen village of Kurokawa Onsen, in the mountains, in a forest, by rivers and waterfalls.

Onsens are natural hot spring baths, the best of which are outdoors. The village was tiny enough that we were able to walk around in traditional yukatas from onsen to onsen. We went to four in 12 hours.

moving adventure

From 10PM Wednesday night (3/18) to 8AM Monday morning (3/23), with approximately 36 hours of driving, in a van with 8 other people, I visited Hiroshima,

Miyajima Island,

Fukuoka,

Nagasaki,

Obama (the city!),

Shimabara Hantou,

Kumamoto,

Kurokawa Onsen,

Beppu,

and several highway rest stops that were luxuriously hotel-like in quality.

Road tripping in Japan was, by far, one of my most incredible experiences ever.

More pics here.

auld lang syne

Yesterday was Graduation. It lasted about an hour and a half. There were lots of bowing and synchronization. Girls were in 300,000円 ($3,000)/day rental kimonos. Boys were in suits. I was in a suit! At the end, they played a song called Hotaru no hikari (Glow of a Firefly) to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.

The tennis club bid farewell to the 3rd grade tennis members.

they looked lonely

Trees need love (abuse?) too.

day trip to narnia

Because of the unseasonably warm weather, we couldn’t go snowboarding this weekend so instead, we decided to find a frozen waterfall. Pro-boarding practice gave way to indulging our Narnia and LotR fantasies.

mallets and international relations

Today at one of my schools, Komoro Commercial High School, 40 high school students from Taiwan came to visit. They performed a flag dance while the Japanese students and faculty performed mochitsuki, a traditional ceremony for making mochi.