Camping in Yuya

OK, we weren't exactly roughing it...there was a Chinese restaurant about a 2 minute walk from the campground...but we slept in tents!

In Crystal's fabulous house the night before camping. (I'm on the far right in orange.)

Yay, we set up the tents! We're so tough! Note the primitive tools for pounding down the tent pegs which Megan and Tammy are cleverly using as props for these pictures.


Me, Angie, Megan. Mmm..we love pickles!!! (dill pickles are a rare treat here!!) Megan, Danae, me, Becky...Danae loves them a little too much...

Selena, me, Jess, Steph.

Our whole group after the tents had been packed up.

Maya's visit!!!

Maya pulled herself away from her grueling engineering job in Vancouver long enough to visit me! We had such a fun time! As soon as she got off the train (and after a long flight and many train trips) we went out for drinks with the other partiers of the city. the next day we attended a barbecue at the house of a lady in my English club (an adult English conversation class), and the day after that we went to Kokura (in northern Kyushu) to see Kokura Castle and to go shopping at the giant mall. Hopefully I'll have some more pictures of Maya's visit soon (all the cool ones are on her camera, I didn't take nearly enough!). So stay tuned for those!

At a bar/restaurant

Me, Taka, Steph, Becky


BBQ


The cute little Shiba-inu at the BBQ


Gillian trying to communicate via hand gestures??


If you're 3 a good game is throwing a ball down a hill and waiting for your dad to retrieve it.

Maya


Little Ryotaro




Maya and a stone lion at Akama Shrine


Akama Shrine

Dancing in Fukuoka

One of our fairly regular trips down to Fukuoka (a big big city on Kyushu).

with Becky

Dancing with Cindi

with Angie

This picture is actually a different occasion at the HC (back in August, after Isla de Salsa). I somehow forgot to include this one with the other photos on that post. This is Matt in the shirt he got for winning the limbo contest.

Elementary School Visit

After only a few junior high school visits to start off my school year (these are what I will normally be teaching), I had four days in a row of elementary schools (3 different ones) and these are pictures of the 5th graders from one of them. These kids are so excited to have a foreigner there with them, and they have a lot of energy! their enthusiasm is great though because, unlike the junior high students, they are willing to participate rather than just staring blankly. I taught four classes (all 5th grade) then played dodgeball with them at lunchtime.

These boys looooved the camera!

Enjoying the delicious school lunch... (I bring my own ;)




Dodgeball divas

Saying goodbye

My keitai

My cute new phone!!
I don't think you can get a phone in Japan that's not a camera phone. Of course I had to add a few tackily cute danglies to it!

I can even surf the web on it! (Here's my website on the phone!!)

The World Shrimp Catching Championships

Lots of JETs came out to Aio for this big shrimp catching competition. I didn't participate, only took pictures (most with my other camera, so you will all have to wait to see them) but it was lots of fun, and the beach was gorgeous!


Most of the JETs who came out. (I'm on the far left)


Angie, Gillian, Becky, Selena, ready to catch some shrimp.


The gun and handcuffs make a second appearance...Anita, Steph, Jess.


A race to the best shrimping spots!


Cute kids


There was a whole family getting really into the festivities with these awesome hats!


I think this is either David or Pete's bag of shrimp; most of the JETs didn't catch quite this many.


The poor little shrimp getting cooked. Despite starting to eat fish now that I'm in Japan, I have still not become used to eating prawns or most other shelfish-type creatures...they're just too meat-like, so I've been avoiding them as much as possible.


Ruler of the BBQ





Later that night, some of us Shimonoseki folk headed out to Kokura for a night of drinking and dancing...
At around 5am we headed for the train station.

Stirling had left ahead of us and we didn't have much trouble finding him at the station...Woke him up, bought tickets, then us girls headed to the nearest convenience store for some early morning onigiri (rice triangles with various fillings with seaweed wrapper).


And this is how we found Stirling and Pete on the platform when we returned from the conbini...