An end to May and beginning of rain

The Japanese word for rainy season is 'tsuyu,' which roughly translates into 'the time of the year in which foreigners are always wet,' or 'plum rains,' if you'd prefer. I better get some delicious plums out of this deal! Although I can't complain too much. At least it's warm and it's not like the rain really stopped this weekend adventures! After a lovely dinner on Friday with Tommy-san out for yakiniku (a restaurant where you barbeque your own food!) and dessert at my favourite cafe in Otsuki, it was off to Kofu with intention of taking in some sights along the ways but with the ultimate goal of seeing Pirates of the Caribbean! The drive to Kofu is usually an hour, we did it in three, but stopped to taking photos of some rice fields and drove up a mountain so we could go inside a tree (it's one of Otsuki's great sights apparently, I've seen almost all of them, there is a giant drum alluding me still) and then we stopped at a temple and a shrine. The temple is said to have been the place where the very first grape in Japan was grown and the shrine was really cool because tucked into a corner in a little patch of woods were the twelve zodiac animals cut from stone. I've never seen anything like that in a shrine before!




 

 

 
















Then we spent the rest of the afternoon watching the movie! It was really good and as it was in English with Japanese subtitles, I think we enjoyed it best. Rhee and I just about killed ourselves trying not too laugh but when we did we were awkwardly the only ones. Oh poor movie watchers missing all those great jokes! XD! The movie really was awesome! We did some shopping in the mall and had some pizza and then went out for curry for dinner. it was a great day. I spent the night at Rhee's for the first time in Nirasaki so we could explore her town. 

We had another late start to the day, and the sound of rain pounding on the roof didn't help matters. It poured all day! After only he first shrine I gave up trying to avoid puddles! Nirasaki was quite lovely though. Rhee showed me to the Takeda Hachimangu Shrine which was cut into the woods and was really quite atmospheric in the rain. Then we went to central Nirasaki and parked the car and wandered about her temples and shrines. She has this really cool one that has a rock tunnel carved into the wall to get to it and then the actual shrine itself is set in the rock face, it was really unique and beautiful. Then we hiked up a little hill to see the statue of the goddess of mercy, Kannon, who looks over the city. By that time we'd sloshed through the rain so it was back to down the hill for a lunch of gyoza and ramen and then crepes for dessert!



 







  


Oh and school is great! I adore my students and have lots of fun everyday! I'm starting to think that I could actually do this for the rest of my life... hmmm back to school next year? They run up and hug me all the time and the teacher's are starting to warm up to me. Funny story: a couple of weeks ago we had a fire drill. Kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) was all like "Hey Sarah sensei, something, something, something else in Japanese ne?" and I was all like "hai!" even though I had no idea what he was talking about. He must have sensed my confusion because he looked around the teacher's lounge but no one had the answer so he stood up ran on the spot and shouted "Fire!" I just about died laughing! "A Wakata!" I got it. So then he hands me a helmet and we wait for the que. Yes I helmet, but wait it gets better. A little back story: so the kids all have cushions on there chairs to sit on. Well it turns our their chair cushions can be pulled out of their pillow cased and can be strapped to their heads in case of fire or earthquake!!! XD! So out run 300 kids with metallic fire-resistant pillow hoods strapped to their heads. Just about died a second time! XD How no one else was giggling I have no idea, I had to turn away to stay serious.