Family Visit

Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took in Kyoto. My mom, dad, and brother were visiting me in Japan. I met them at the airport in Tokyo and we took the train all the way down to Kyushu and then ferried to my island. On the way down, we stopped in Yokohama, Kyoto, and Nagasaki City.

Kyoto was amazing, the ryokan(Japanese Inn) we stayed at was in the Gion/Higashiyama area. We had a room that was much larger than I expected and was very comfortable for the four of us. The meals there were fantastic as well. We had all sorts of interestic dishes during our multi-course meals which were served to us in our rooms. I hope to get some of the photos of the meals from Eric, because he took some good shots of the different foods we had. It was definitely a unique experience, and I think it was a good way to start off my families introduction to Japan.

After 2 nights in Kyoto, we went to the Atomic Bomb/Peace Museum in Nagasaki City and were given a private tour by the Deputy Director of the Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace. I had met him several weeks earlier while he was visiting Ojika, and he offered to meet us when we arrived. After the tour, we were taken to the offices and introduced to the director and former mayor of Nagasaki, as well as an American intern doing some work with the foundation.

From there we continued on to Ojika and spent the rest of the time here. We made a trip to Nozaki, had dinner with several families, toured around the island, ate good food, relaxed, taught a lesson at Ooshima elementary, and overall just had a really good time!

Take a look at the photos of Kyoto... Sagano bamboo forest and Fushimi Inari shrine, and I'll try to add more pictures as I get them!

Long time, no see.

Long time since my last post. The time has been flying by in the last month. I'm not even sure exactly what I have done.
I made a trip to Nagasaki about a week ago, and although being in the city can be fun for a while, It always feels good to come back out to the island. It is much quieter and peaceful here. The people are so much more friendly and personal too.

The latest project I have started on is developing an English website for the students on Ojika. I've got some test posts up at ojikaenglish.blogspot.com
I havent let any of the students know the address yet, I'm hoping to get it a little bit more polished up first. I would really like to get a real domain and webhosting for it, because it would let me do so much more with it, including expanding it as a tourism resource for english speakers visiting the island. I dont really want to spend the money for that myself though, so I am hoping that the school will chip in for it.


It has actually been very cold on the island. Definately not as cold as back in Minnesota, but unfortunately the buildings here are not insulated. That makes for a very cold day when it is 48 degrees outside and there is no heat and no insulation inside. Most teachers sit in the staff room with insulated coats on and maybe 4 layers of clothes. As I type the vice principal is continuously blowing on his hands to keep them warm! It has been very windy too, and raining now and then. Im sure its really not so bad, I'm just losing my Minnesota thick skin too quickly.