Aaahhhh!!
It's been too long without a post, so though it's past my bedtime and I have yet to accomplish any of the things I set out to do today, I will write a short update.
Today is my half birthday! I always liked my half birthday better than my actual birthday mostly because I tend to not be disappointed on this day and I like that it's the day after Valentine's so if you go to the store chocolate is on sale. Although I didn't eat any chocolate today it was a good day. Mostly because I remember my birthday six months ago and looking back I can see how much I and my situation have changed. In a good way. Also, today is fairly cold, but in the good getting warmer sense of the temperature, and six months ago it was still too hot and uncomforatble in the evenings.
I went to Kyoto this past weekend! I took a ferry with a friend from Shibushi, a port town on the east coast of Kagoshima. The overnight ferry took about 15 hours, but we were given futons and blankets and there was a hot spring on board so the time passed fairly quickly. It helps now that I sleep regularly on a futon. I have to admit that the thing I probably miss the most from home would be the amazing bed I had in Halifax, but I do appreciate this sleeping on the floor on futons if only for the fact that now I am a much more flexible and comfortable traveller.
Kyoto was pretty awesome. I met my friend Tim and we went to a bunch of temples and wandered around together. There are some pictures that you can find through his blog, which is linked in my last post. I thought the Golden Pavillion would be overrated, but it is not. It was awesome and amazing and very beautiful. We also saw a geisha, or at least a meiko (I think), which is an apprentice geisha. We were walking on this narrow old fashioned street behind her, and there was this huge crowd of tourists on the other side of the street taking pictures. It was a little crazy. We also ate at this delicious middle eastern restaurant, which was worth braving the rain and the little snow to get to.
It snowed in Chiran! This happened a couple of weeks ago, and it lasted for all but 5 hours, but it was beautiful while it did. I got to school to see that a bunch of students made snowmen. Snowmen in Japan are two-tiered, not three like back home. Very strange, but I guess they don't have as much snow as we do in Canada.
Last week I had a comparatives lesson with my favourite second-year junior high class. One student came up with the sentence 'Michael Jackson has the whitest skin in the world.' To all of you not living in Japan, trust me, this is much more impressive than you think.
Off to bed!
