伊勢ヨイ夜ナ(Ise Illuminations) and名古屋城 (Nagoya Castle)

Okay folks, sorry I haven’t written in a while. Let’s see….classes are going okay. There is this game called rows and columns that I play in my ES and JHS where the students all have to stand up and I ask them questions. If they answer correct then they get to sit down and pick their row or column. The ES kids are always so excited to play this game and get mad when their friends pick their row to sit down. They what to keep answering the questions, but for the JHS students this is a painful ritual to get them to participate. It’s interesting. 

Right now the schools are preparing for their 文化祭(Bunkasai; Culture Festival). From what I gather the JHS and HS bunkasai are a little different. The JHS does a song festival and some dances/stuff that clubs put together, but I believe that at the HS bunkasai, each class puts together some kind of event/display. So classes are getting replaced with song practice time. Watching them practice kind of makes me miss music and being in ensembles. But I’m looking forward to see how these culture festivals (this is plural because I have two JHS) turn out. 

Aside from the AJET Halloween Party the other weekend, this past weekend I went to Ise since they had two illumination nights. 伊勢ヨイ夜ナ(Ise Yoiyana). Another JET in Matsusaka invited me and we went with his supervisor to Ise.  They had candles light up along the street with all the shops and what not that leads to Ise Naiku Shrine. We also ate  てこね寿司 (Tekonesushi), a specialty of Ise. It kind of reminds me of an Ahi bowl sort of because it has slices of maguro shashimi on top of rice.

てこね寿司 (Tekonesushi)

A side street to the main street leading to Naiku

World Peace

In front of the front gate to Naiku.

Pass!
Hopefully I can pass the JLPT.

I also went to Nagoya to see the castle and shopped around for a winter coat. Nagoya castle was pretty neat, but not as cool as Himeji Castle. I bought a castle book and now I want to visit all the castles in Japan; a new goal of mine. There are 48 of them and I’ve seen 4 of them already (Shurijo, Nijo, Himejijo, and Nagoyajo) and there are a few pretty near to where I am. This weekend when I visit Ingrid in Kochi, I’m going to the castle there.

Nagoya Castle

They are doing some reconstruction and we were able to see

There are 2 parts of the castle, this is leading to the main part.

大須観 (Osu Kannon Temple) in Nagoya

 

The weather is getting cooler. It’s also getting harder and harder to wake up and get out of my warm bed. The hallways and classrooms are getting kind of chilly too. It’s not really that cold, but everyone knows that I’m always cold and like to complain. The lows in the evening are about 12~14C and the highs are 18~20C. I have no idea what that is in Fahrenheit. Time is going by fast. It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for 3 months already. There is still a lot more that I want to do in school and out of school. I’ll get there.