What have I got myself into?

I have one week of work left before we go to Canada!

Next Monday I will be going to Tokyo for a 3 day business trip/conference. I hope to see Shane there. After that I take the long trip back to Chunan-cho, and then off to Canada.

So in my last week of work, what do I go and plan?

A picture of a graham cracker house

Well, that’s what it should look like anyways…

That’s right. Despite the fact that I am horrible when it comes to crafts, and I can’t cook anything, I have to make 259 gingerbread houses with every elementary aged child in my town. I am very excited. Mind you, I brought this upon myself so I can’t complain too much. I have had to order everything, plan everything and starting this Tuesday carry it out. I am freaking out. I will let you know how it goes at the end of the week with pictures etc… wish me luck!

What else have I been up to recently?

Remember how I said I was a terrible cook? That didn’t stop me from organizing banana bread day (Thanks Nikki!) for the “Wives Club” in my town. It actually went pretty well… Take a look:

Banana Bread Picture #1 Banana Bread Picture #2

Banana Bread Picture #3 Banana Bread Picture #4

Japanese Castle Visiting!

Kiko and I recently went to the big city of Marugame.　As some of you may know, I think Japanese Castles are super, so we had a chance to visit the Castle that stands in the center of the town.

Marugame Castle #1 Marugame Castle #2

Japanese Chess and Ping Pong

I have been meaning to write an entry about the Japanese game of “shogi” or chess. It is absolutely fantastic. It is similar to Chess but you can capture your opponents pieces and drop them anywhere on the board, and your pieces can also be promoted in enemy territory (kind of like a pawn.) At any rate, I will write more about that soon. The important part of this entry is my good friend Jim. He tries very hard, but he still can’t stop me from destroying him in anything we do. (This includes ping pong and shogi.) I might be exaggerating, but you aren’t here so you will never know. 🙂

Ping Pong Picture Shogi Picture

That’s it for now… don’t get too excited, but I am planning another huge update for the site. Hopefuly I can get it done before I go to Canada, if not, expect it in early 2005 🙂 (And I know you will still be visitng the site daily then… right!?)

Japanese Hiking Season.

The Fall Foliage in Chunan

Yes, I am a photo taking genius.

Well, no one told me, but apparently it’s Hiking Season here in Japan.

Their tend to be many opportunities to go out and see nature at various times throughout the year. For instance, you can see the Cherry Blossoms in April, and here in Chunan, the Sun Flowers in June. As Fall approaches Japan goes out to see kouyou, the fall foliage.

So in the past three days I have been hiking twice (turned one down) and have been invited to many more.　My first hike was quite exciting.

I was invited to go with the Senior’s Club. So 18 older people and me climbed up a fairly steep mountain to the site of a castle that once existed in the area where we live (Fujime Castle). We sat on top, heard a lecture about the castle, sang town songs (!!??), drank wine and looked at the foliage. I also got to eat rice from chopsticks that I made out of a bamboo tree, and see the lone cherry blossom tree that is atop this mountain. The highlight however was when a balloon was strapped to my arm, I was given a rubber sword and told to beat the hell out of the old people. Apparently we were recreating the battles that were fought in this area. It was complete with coloured smoke bombs and old people.

My Chunan Hike #1 My Chunan Hike #2 My Chunan Hike #3

My next hiking trip (Kiko was tired… boo…) was with a bunch of JET friends. We went to Kotonami, the neighbouring town where Nicole is the leader. She took us on a hike to see red and yellow colours. She built it up to be spectacular, but forgot to mention the hike was crazy long, hard, and all the trees were finished blooming (or whatever they do in fall. Turning?). (I’m just joking Nicole!) It was actually a lot of fun and very pretty. Here, see for yourself:

My Kotonami Hike #1 My Kotonami Hike #2

I should preface this by saying two things.

1) I will be updating the site a lot more (ie. every 2 or 3 days) so if you are bored and need something to look at, come visit. Besides, it’s about david and kiko. We’re super.

2) I just went and saw Howl’s Moving Castle, the latest release by famous anime director Hayao Miyazaki. He has also done: Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and a number of other famous movies that have all won various awards. It was fantastic. When it comes out, take a look. Here is a picture below!

Howls Moving Castle

My Job & the Culture Festival

I have had more requests to talk about what exactly it is that I am doing here. So, since I am going to write this, you had better read it.

I work for the Board of Education in Chunan Town, a small town of about 4,700 people in Kagawa Prefecture. Kagawa is located on the smallest of the four major islands that make up Japan, Shikoku. My official title is Co-Ordinator for International Relations (CIR). I plan activities that “internationalize” the community (??) but the majority of my time is spent introducing English to (very!) young children and holding English classes in the evening.

Because I work in the Board of Education, I am (for the most part) treated like a regular employee and have to partake in the Board’s activities. In Chunan-cho [仲南町] (“cho” meaning town) we have four major annual events. [Click on them for the pictures!]

(1) The Volleyball Tournament
(2) The Sports Festival
(3) The Culture Festival
(4) The Concert in the Forest

Right after I finished almost-dying from my fever, we had the culture festival. I setup a display about me (The “David” Display) and about Canada, and entertained children and adults alike with my beautiful blond hair and funny accent.

Here is a sample of the enjoyment I had. Note the picture where they dress me up in the Japanese gear and make me dance around in a traditional dance. I was thrilled and excelled in it like I excel at all of my artistic endeavours.

Various pictures from the Culture Festival

The highlight of my weekend (and I am being serious) is the whistle I carved from bamboo. That’s right, I carved it myself. It is super.

My bamboo whistle

Look at that! I wrote a whole entry about my life and what I have been up to. And you people complain that I don’t write anything important.

… while I am still debating the point of writing these things (I have decided the site serves a purpose as a picture-repository at the very least) I am in the midst of bringing davidandkiko.com 3.0 online. It will be super. Don’t get too excited, but feel free to provide input. My eventual goal is to have at least a few people check the site regularily.

Just to clear things up: I really like where I live. I don’t enjoy teaching children as much as people here think I do, but I really love the town, the scenery and the people I work with. Kiko is swell too. My colleagues on the JET program are also fantastic. I am going to showcase my friends from back home, from University and from here one day… don’t get too excited …

What I’ve been up to.

It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything. Actually, I’ve been slowly plodding along at work while trying to make time to roll out the latest changes to the website (coming soon!). I’ve also been doing my best to help Shane settle in (he’s fine). I was side-tracked by a killer fever (39.5!). I went to the hospital and it was exciting. Take a look:

A picture of me dying

See? Well I am feeling a little better now, but I will be off work until I have fully recovered which means hardly any e-mail, no website updates, and me catching up on a lot of movies. I just watched House of Flying Daggers and Ghost in the Shell 2. They were both pretty fantastic.

OK. Back to bed. At any rate, enjoy some pictures from Shodoshima Day (it’s a small island in our prefecture that we went to with some other JET‘s this weekend!). If you want to see more, check the gallery.

A picture from ShodoshimaAnother picture from Shodoshima

A great picture from Shodoshima

The Birthday Boy

My birthday is over. 誕生日でした。

Being in Japan this year I wasn’t expecting much in the way of presents or phone calls. (For those of you who did call/write, thank you very much! And for those who couldn’t, no worries! I know how it is. I’m terrible at correspondence, but I still love ya!)

I was surprised by Kiko though! We had planned to go to (the one) restaurant in town (actually I beleive it is in the neighbouring town!) and call it a night. She surprised me with a cake!

So without further ado…

The Birthday Cake that Kiko got me

Me and the cake (The cake and I?)

Back from our vacation…

A nice picture of Tanegashima

After a busy (and relaxing) week-long vacation at Kiko’s home on the island of Tanegashima in southwest Japan, we are back in Kagawa. We know you want to see the pictures. (You will note that many of them focus on Hina (5) and Kana (3) our nieces… because they are cute.)

Other than that, not much to report. We got stuck in Kagoshima on the way to Kiko’s island because of a big rain-storm and then high waves. Apparently this is a normal thing and no one seemed to concerned (!!??). We were also treated to a fairly strong Earthquake on our final night which scared the shit out of me… but again, no one seemed to concerned.

Just to wrap things up, some big news.

(1) Look for some more changes to the website! I have thought up a whole bunch of new things to implement which I hope you like… or I hope you use… or I like… or something. The point is, it should look pretty good! Feel free to let me know if things work, don’t work, look good, look like crap. Just let me know.

(2) Shane is fine.

Kiko promised me she would write something again soon… she does check everyday though, so feel free to comment, send your own pictures, write in the guestbook or whatever…