My Weekend in Wagu

It's Sunday night and I had a really good weekend. Early Saturday I went with Genivieve to stitch and .... in Matsusaka. After learning to knit and working so hard to finish presents before Christmas, I haven't knitted again since. There weren't too many of us this time so we met a coffee house. Several of us there are going on the habitat for humanity trip, so we spent lots of time talking about it and planning a fundraiser for the Valentines ball. After, Gen and I met up with Phil and Juan and went to the movies to see Marie Antionette. I know going to the movies doesn't sound like a big deal...but here it is! After, we all went back to Gen and Juan's city, Wagu. It is a small fishing town a little over an hour away. There is a small bar right down the road from their place. It has a great atmosphere and they know all the people that hang out there. We had a great time and I got to meet many new Japanese friends that I'm sure I'll see again when I go back.

We spent the night at their apartment and the next afternoon they drove us around Wagu. They have beautiful beaches there which I now can't wait to go back to during the summer. The bridge in the picture is the newest one in Wagu. When you live in a small fishing town, a new bridge is big news. Gen said everyone in the town is so proud of their new bridge, haha. Tomorrow it's back to work. I only have a few things planned for this week. Tuesday I am meeting up with John for dinner. He brought lots of books with him and he's going to let me borrow one. He got his masters degree from St. Johns in literature, so I'm sure he'll give me something great. Then on Wednesday, I am going to try to go back to taiko drum class. I haven't been since November...either because I was busy or just too lazy. So, I'm going to go with Miri again this week. Then on Friday is the Valentine's Ball. I'm sure I'll be posting lots of pictures from it. On Saturday, I'm hoping to go to the most southern part of Mie, over 3 hours by train. They are having a big festival and we are planning to set up a booth to sale baked goods as a fundraiser for habitat. I'm still not certain if I will go though because Tommy is coming in about 11 days and I need to make sure I have enough money for all the traveling we are going to do.

By the way, about 3 or 4 pictures are duplicates in the slideshow below. I used the same slide show below for this site and my myspace, sorry!

Here are the other pictures...

Sorry it's been so long....

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I've been waiting to post again until I get the pictures from a festival I went to weekend before last....but it seems as though I may not get them for a while. My camera died so I have to wait on Dave to email me his. So, here are a few pictures from when I was home and I'll post the festival ones later.

So, what's been going on since I've been back in Japan...it's been an adjustment returning here. I think I'm starting to get back in the swing of things though. Last weekend I went to Nara (another former capital of Japan) to attend the Fire Mountain Festival. They literally light a mountain on fire in hopes of a good harvest. I went with a group of friends that I haven't seen that much because they don't live in my city. Two of them just got a car however, so they will be able to come to Ise more often, which is great. The next day we went bowling. It was my first time to bowl since being in Japan and I had so much fun!

School is back in session and I remembered how much I love my students. I taught a lesson about my holidays in America and showed a slide show of pictures from when I was home. The kids love getting to see pictures!

Over the next few months I have lots of different things I'm excited about. On February 2nd is the big Valentines Ball. Although I'm not in such a mushy mood this year, I'm still looking forward to getting all dressed up. On February 9th Tommy is coming to visit. I can't wait to finally show Japan to someone from back home. I am planning to take him to Osaka, Nara, Hiroshima, Nagoya (for the Tool Concet, YAH!!), Iga (to the Ninja museum), and around my city. I should have lots of great pictures to post after I travel around with him! The weekend after he leaves, I am going to Gifu and Wakayama with the same group I went bowling with. We are going to Gifu just to play in the snow because my city doesn't get any snow. Wakayama is suppose the be a really traditional city and should be great for sight seeing. We are also planning to take some mountain hiking trips as soon as it gets a little warmer, March maybe. We want to get ready so the we can take a trip to Mt. Fuji to climb it this summer.

The trip I'm most excited about though will be the first week of May. I will be going to the Philippines to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. There are 10 JETs from Mie going and I couldn't happier. This will be such an amazing opportunity. I'll be there for around 10 days, maybe more. The JETs that went last year couldn't stop talking about what a life changing trip it was. When I went to Bolivia I was surrounded by extreme poverty, but I didn't do anything about it. Now I will have the chance to make a difference in one family's life.

I'm sure I'll be writing lots about the Philippines for the next few months! I miss you all.