Beautiful Hakone!

I went on a trip to Hakone a few weeks ago, which was really lovely. I was hoping to see the autumn leaves but I think we were a little late in season. I still had a great time as Hakone is so beautiful. I am sure I will go again as there is so much to see there and we only seen a little bit.

First, we went on the rope-way and the view over the lake were beautiful. This first stop on the rope-way was the Volcanic Sulphur Park, which smells horrible but was interesting to see. We tried the eggs that had been boiled in the hot volcanic water and the minerals turn the shell black. They were good but didn't taste much different to normal eggs, apparently they add 7 years to your life but we will have to wait and see!This is the man lifting a huge basket of eggs from the volcanic water.

The views were great and Fuji-san popped out between the clouds.

Then we continued on along the rope-way to the end were we took a cable tram to the Hakone Art Museum. This had a lovely moss garden and the trees here were beautiful, I was very happy to see some autumnal colours.

The museum was good but was mainly about pottery which isn't something I am very interested in. There was a room set up like this showing Japanese calligraphy which is something I would love to learn while living here.

We headed back towards the lake as we wanted to get the Pirate ship to the other side. This was very exciting! The boats were so beautiful and it was great sailing across Lake Ashinoko (芦ノ湖) as we had amazing views of Mount Fuji.

I hope to go back soon, I really want to visit the Hakone Open Air Museum. If there are parts of Hakone you liked please let me know as I would like to try and visit them.

Marathons...

Our school marathon was a week ago and everyone who took part did so well. Well done to everyone in first and second years! It was a lovely day but very cold and Fuji-san looked so pretty with a little bit of snow. I did my own marathon the weekend before in Tokyo, it was called the Yamathon. It is a walking marathon that follows the Yamanote line and unfortunately we didn't get good weather, it rained the whole day!! This made it so difficult and I was so happy when we reached the end.

We were all smiles at the beginning!

Ito, Kimono and Shamisen

One of my favoutie things about Japan is Japanese traditional dress, especially the Kimono, so you can understand how excited I was when I was invited to go to Ito and take part in a festival wearing a Kimono. ALT’s in the area were invited to Ito by Ito International Home-stay and I would like to thank them for the wonderful experience we had. Even though it rained a lot, we had a great time taking part in the festival.

My friends and I were very excited to get to dress in Kimono.

The boys got to dress in Kimono too.

This little boy was dancing beside me, I think seeing a western girl in a Kimono confused him!

This is everyone we danced with.

We all had amazing food afterwards at one of the members house, its was very busy around the table but we had so much fun. Then went to an Onsen.

Then next day we had a lesson on the Shamisen, I wasn’t very good but had fun learning. The lesson was about two hours and kneeling for that long meant that I lost all the feeling in my feet, it was very painful! I now have a high respect for anyone who sits for long periods of time in the traditional Japanese way.

We also got a tour around the Tokaikan, a historic three-storied wooden Japanese inn that was constructed in constructed in 1928.

There were three Geisha in training getting their picture taken and we were allowed to watch. They were very beautiful and so elegant.

Then we all then went and had amazing Tempura at the small little hidden restaurant that really looked like someones house. It was delicious!

This was an amazing experience and I hope to be able to take part again next year, I also hope that I will have many more opportunities to wear kimono while I am here in Japan. Kimono really is the most beautiful item of clothing and I plan to buy one in Japan.I hope to visit Ito again soon because it is such a beautiful place.

JUDO!!....leads me to traditional sports in Ireland

Last week was the Judo competition between the ni nensee homeroom class and it was my first introduction to Judo! I loved it! The competition was very tight and was hikiwake until the end when HR24 snatched victory from HR23. Well done and congratulations to HR24 and all of ni nensee you were all brilliant :) Thank you for introducing me to Judo! Below are some pictures and a video of the final match. (Only part 2, sorry part 1 wouldn't load.)

I also thought that it would be nice to introduce you to some Irish sports because I think sports are a huge part of Japanese culture and this is also the case in Ireland.

The first Irish sport I would like to talk about is called Gaelic Football and it is the sport that I played when I was in high school. It is played with a ball a little bigger and lighter than a soccer ball. Below is a video from youtube that shows the game and explains the rules. I love this sport and it is probably the most popular in Ireland. The All-Ireland Senior Championship is the highest achievement a team can be awarded and teams are arranged by County (Prefecture). This is a yearly event that begins in May and end in the final in September. Everyone gets together on a Sunday to watch these matches or travels down to Croke Park in Dublin to watch them live.

The second Irish sport I would like to talk about is Hurling. I never played Hurling but it is one of my favourite games to watch. My two brothers both play it and the say it is a brilliant game because it moves so fast. The game is played with a flat stick on which you must balance a small hard ball when running. Please look at the video below and you can see how fast it is, the rules are incorporated into the video. The structure of the competition is the same a Gaelic Football.

I hope these videos work if not please use these website addresses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEAbWrdB9XU&noredirect=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmzivRetelE

If you have any questions or comment please write to me as I would like to know your thoughts!

Kanazawa Jazz Festival and more

I visited Kanazawa at the beginning of September, some Irish ALT’s are there and they invited me to visit for the Kanazawa Jazz Festival. I am so glad I went because Kanazawa quickly became one of my favourite cities in Japan!

I was there for three days and we definitely did a lot in that time. When I arrived we went to the Kenrokuen (兼六園) gardens, which were very beautiful to walk around and so peaceful. There was a young couple who’d just gotten married and I was so amazed at how beautiful her dress was that I had to ask for a picture. Traditional Japanese wedding dresses are very different to Irish ones and I think I prefer the Japanese style. The colours are so stunning!In Ireland the dresses are lovely but there are always plain white/ivory/cream.

After that we had some Ramen and watched the Irish Rugby World Cup game at a friend house. The game ended in Ireland beating Australia 15-6, needless to say there were a lot of very happy Irish people jumping around that apartment!

The next day we walking around the city and found a lot of Jazz. There were small stages at different points and the music was brilliant. I have two videos below of my favourite bands.

In the evening a friend told us about a festival in a small town near Kanazawa called Tsubata. We went to see the festival and were surprised to find that the festival was different to most in Japan. It begun like shown in the video below, then two of the dragon teams took turns running at each other and fighting. We thought this wasn’t supposed to happen until we noticed there were referees. It was very unusual but I liked it a lot because it seemed so crazy but people weren’t taking it too serious. Everyone was shaking hands, hugging and laughing together at the end.

(NB. My video of this event isn't uploading, I will try and obtain another one from the ALT's I was with and upload it in the future)

A friend of mine recommended that I see the 20^th Century Museum because his favourite architect, Sanaa, designed it. This is the layout of the building, each gallery is a free standing room inside the whole circular glass frame.

I wasn’t disappointed; it is a beautiful building and has very interesting work on display. I couldn’t take pictures in the main exhibition but here are some images that I could take, the pool installation by Leandro Erlich was a highlight.

We then went to the tea district and visited the Geisha museum, which I was very excited about. I am really interested in Geisha traditions and the clothes they wear so I thought the museum very fascinating as you got to see all the items they used on display.

There was also a light festival and we went there in the evening. It was very beautiful and they had traditional Japanese music, which was breathtaking. (The video quality isn’t very good but I hope you like the music.)

I really enjoyed Kanazawa a lot and I am looking forward to visiting again in the future, I would recommend Kanazawa as a great place to visit to learn about Japanese culture both historical and modern.

Fuji-san, my first Japanese adventure!

I have been very busy traveling since I arrived in Japan because I am so excited to see as much of the country and culture as possible. I am very lucky to have come with the Irish JET’s community, which is much small than other JET groups. There are only 40 of us. We all got to know each other well at Dublin and Tokyo orientation and welcome each other to stay at our houses. This makes its a lot cheaper to travel and see more of Japan. So far I have been able to visit Kyoto, Hamamatsu, Kanazawa and of coarse Tokyo. Over the next few entries I will talk about my trips around Japan and what I have enjoyed most about being in Japan so far. I will also try to compare my life here and my life growing up in Ireland and living in Manchester.

My first and greatest achievement so far in Japan is climbing Fuji-san! We don't have mountains as big as this in Ireland, our tallest mountain is called Carrauntoohil and it is only 1038 meters. I know that most people won’t agree but I really enjoyed climbing Mount Fuji and I think that I might climbing it again next year. A few in my group got altitude sickness but thankfully I was fine. I really liked the trail of lights from other climbers on the way up and the view of the city lights below.

Unfortunately we where half way between 9.5 and the top for sunrise but it was still amazing.

Then from the top the clouds where beautiful! This was some of the other ALTs from Shizuoka who climbed with me.

It felt like I was living in a cloud.

The worst part for me was climbing back down. This is us beginning the great descent!

This is my friend from Ireland who traveled all the way from Kanazawa to climb Fuji-san. We are thinking of trying another mountain next year.

Hello, I'm the new ALT.

Hello everyone, my name is Catherine and I am the new ALT. First, I want to say thank-you to Michelle for all here help and advice when I was moving to Japan. Secondly, I want to thank all the students and staff at Gotemba Minami High School for being so welcoming and making my move to Gotemba very easy.

Now let me introduce myself, I am Catherine Quinn and I come from a small village in Ireland called Rasharkin in County Antrim. I studied in Manchester, England and I had been living there for the past six years. I studied Textile Design for Fashion and before I came to Japan I was working as a designer in Manchester. There are five members in my family and I have two younger brothers. This is a picture of us all at my leaving party in Ireland.

There is one other member in our family, our dog Teagan. He is a Chocolate Brown Labrador.

I am very excited to be living in Japan and Gotemba is such a beautiful place to live, I feel very lucky to be here. I love to travel and learn about new cultures and this is the main reason that I wanted to live in Japan. I am also interested in Japanese fashion and traditional dress; one of my main aims for my time here is to learn how to make a Kimono! I am also trying to learn Japanese and I'm attending classes in Mishima.

In my free time I like to go walking and I love to sew, I usually make some of my own clothes. I am interested in Photography and usually take pictures when I go walking. This is the River Bann which is near my house, my mum and I usually go for walks here together.


I will now keep a weekly blog on what is happening at the school and in my live in Japan. I hope to discuss the differences and similarities between life in Ireland and life in Japan. If you have any questions for me please message me, I am very excited to meet you all so please talk to me whenever you like.