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I went to Miyajima! It was really lovely.




I got to see the famous Torii gate at high and low tides, and I visited the aquarium on the island. I also got to eat fresh warm momiji manju, and it was really delicious.




The deer were so kind too! They only got a little pushy when food was involved. lol

  

Hello, all!

My Golden Week holiday was fantastic! I cycled the Shimanami Kaido, finally rode this amazing route through the mountains from Niihama to Shikokuchūō (it's perfect, because you climb a thousand meters and then coast the last 2/3s of the ride!), and made it all the way to Tokushima. My bike traveled well over 500 kilometers in a week! But I wasn't only cycling. I also took the chance to catch up on all the movies I missed while I was working. I visited theaters in Niihama, Utazu, Ayagawa, and even Fukuyama to collect 'em all. I watched good movies and bad movies both, and now that I've seen them, I thought I'd tell you about them. Since I always write too much, I also thought I'd use a haiku review format and an "equivalent cycling kilometers." The kilometers number represents how far I'd ride for the sole purpose of seeing the film. Please note that these reviews are completely useless as reviews. Let's go!

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

[Note: read the first two lines in a Batman voice for full effect.]
"Your mother's Martha?
"Mine, too! Our conflict is solved."
This movie is bad.

Equivalent cycling kilometers: -12 (I'd rather take a nap than watch this movie again.)

The Big Short

A road to great film:
Educate, exasperate,
Expose, entertain.

Equivalent cycling kilometers: Hypothetically unlimited, but I'll need to see a retainer agreement first.

Captain America: Civil War

Marvel makes money,
Again, by churning out films
No human could hate.

Equivalent cycling kilometers: 160.9344 (one "century," or one hundred miles... at least. It's really a worthwhile film.)

The Revenant

2009? No.
This is a different movie.
This one wins Oscars!

Equivalent cycling kilometers: 2,000, dragging the bicycle behind me with three broken limbs, a hole in my throat, half my skin missing, overwhelming mental trauma, and a burning desire to grunt-murder Tom Hardy.

The Sea of Trees

Can just one great scene
Save Van Sant's tone-deaf pablum?
Nay. The film is lost.

Equivalent cycling kilometers: 50, but mostly just to enjoy a nice bike ride.

Spotlight

Fight! O journalists!
Expose a corrupt system
While mourning your own.

Equivalent cycling kilometers: "A long slog"—but the movie is certainly worth it.

---

That's it for now. See you soon!

—Matthew  

My interest in history combined with my love of needlework resulted in this portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. Done with silk and metallic threads, and small pearls and beads, on congress cloth, it was challenging but very rewarding to stitch. While working on this, I did some basic research about the Tudors. I'm fascinated by the time period, but glad I didn't live then!


  

Hello! For Golden Week I spent some time in Himeji. I got to see many amazing things, like Himeji Castle! The line to get into the cstle was very long, it took me an hour to get inside! It was defintely worth the wait though, the castle was beautiful and so big! I didn't expect it to be six floors high! The view from the top was incredible. I think I visited the castle grounds about 6 times while I was in Himeji, I just couldn't stay away! What do you think about castles?
  

During Golden Week Camilo and I went to the Osaka Aquarium.

It was very different to aquariums that we had in Florida.

The only bad thing was that, since it was Golden Week there were so many people!

The aquarium had two large whale sharks, here is a picture of one:


  

Hello Everyone!

I hope you had a great time during Golden Week!

I had a special visitor during golden week. My Mom came all the way from California to see me. We haven't been able to visit each other in almost two years. It was so exciting. She has never been to Japan before so it was her first time. I took her to many places around Shikoku! We visited my home in Saijo and of course many places in Ehime. But we also went to Kochi and Kagawa!

In the picture above we went to the beach near Imabari. It was a beautiful day!

What did you do? Let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Kristen  

Another unique gem about Toronto is the famous Casa Loma. Now, North America doesn't have many buildings in this style like Europe does but the history behind this building is fantastic. The owner could never complete it though and to this day it remains unfinished in some areas. Although it wasn't finished, it's still functional and technically complete. It even has a hunters lodge!

I used to come here to do Archery, in the hunters lodge portion of the castle grounds they had targets set up and you can do Archery there. It was real cool!

What do you think? Beautiful, huh?

- James Barbosa  

For Golden week Sadie and I went to Tobe Zoo. It's been years since we last went to a zoo. We woke up early and drove about 3 hours and arrived right when it opened. We thought if we went early enough we could beat the crowd. We were wrong, the place was packed. We walked around and saw all the different animals. Right at the start we saw flamingos from Cuba. I took a picture and sent it to my mother. I wrote "mira son de tu pais." which is Spanish for look they are from your country.

By the end of the day we were both tired but happy with our excursion. In the end I had a sunburn and really just wanted to get home and sleep. That didn't happen for another five hours. We don't know enough Japanese to ask for directions and without internet we have no GPS. As a result we got up lost! We drove through the mountains and ended up going in the opposite direction. We found wi-fi in a small town in the middle of nowhere and set up our GPS. Another 2 hours to get back home. Getting lost in Japan was not bad. I felt safe at all times and enjoyed getting lost. We saw a cute little town and had some epic mountain side views.

Do you like the zoo? Have you ever been lost in a foreign country if so how was your experience?  

The trip was exhausting and hard but it's been great. I got to see my mother's new house which is coming along. I've been spending the days with my sister in her apartment and have been shopping a lot. I was also very tired for the first 3 days, which was not fun.

Today, I asked a friend or two if they wanted to go have some pie with me, and the number of people grew until we had a little party! It was so great! I'm going to see them all again in a few more days too! They asked a lot of questions about Japan and enjoyed the presents I brought them. I didn't know my friend Garrett liked kitkats so much. I would have brought more kinds!

We haven't had any thunderstorms yet, but there was some hale! Crazy Michigan!  

What do I mean by that? Well, I'm sure most people say they need a vacation to relax, or relieve some stress. Some plan to go away somewhere for a while, and some may just plan to do nothing at all. But things don't always work out that way. For me, I had planned to kinda be lazy at home, not really going out much and spending money, maybe playing some games and practicing cooking. As GW got closer and closer, more and more plans were made with friends to do things, like traveling (I went to Tokushima for a day and a half), to a night out drinking with friends, to hanging out by the river for a barbecue. I'm not really complaining, all of those things ended up being lots of fun. It just wasn't what I intended to do. And it required a bit more thinking and planning (and moving) that I had intended to avoid. Fortunately I didn't do any long distance travel for the week (and by that I mean outside Shikoku). If I had, it would have been less relaxing and more stressful. I say this because if I were to go somewhere, I would feel like I had to go sightseeing, wandering around and trying to take in as much as I can of wherever I went. That would mean I would have to research and plan out what I would do, how I would get around, and so on, and that would be so tiring. And then after doing all of that, I would return home, and have to prepare for work, and I would be exhausted. Well, that didn't happen this time, so it all worked out in the end. I hope you all had a fun vacation. But now it's time to start preparing to work again!  

The first day of Golden Week my friend and I took a trip to Himeji Castle. It was really beautiful. We went in the tenshu and climbed all the way to the top. It was a little crowded, and sometimes steep stairs like that make me nervous and dizzy, but the view was wonderful and it was so worth it. Afterwards we stopped in Kurishiki, which was absolutely beautiful.   

This golden week has been the best ever!!!! My friend and I went to so many places! There are so many so I'll just name a few! We went to rabbit island, the peace dome in Hiroshima, an amazing shrine on an island in Hiroshima, many amazing beaches, the Tottori sand dunes, some fabulous flower gardens, and some Onsen! It had been so wonderful! There was little to no traffic and because we woke up early there were very few people! I'm so happy that I was able to have this adventure!  

Hello!

If you've read any of my posts the last month or so, you'll know that I'm planning a trip back to Canada, and the day fast approaches! This week, I got ready by booking my tickets to Osaka, where I'll travel to the airport for my flight back to Canada. We'll be leaving a day early, to enjoy an afternoon in the city, and then make our way to the airport early the next morning! We have a stop in Tokyo, where we'll spend most of our time in the airport, and then it's off to Canada! I've been starting my packing and getting ready by finding all my identification documents and putting them in a safe place, so I don't lose them or forget them!

When preparing for a trip, how do you get ready? Do you pack your clothes the night before all at once, or slowly throughout the week before, to make sure you haven't forgotten anything? Do you keep everything you'll need to travel safely together, or (like me) do you have everything in a jumble until the last second? Let me know!

Have a great one,
A  

  

Hello, all!

I write this from Onomichi, Hiroshima, where I'm staying overnight after cycling the Shimanami Kaido all the way from Shikokuchūō! I guess it's the longest ride I've taken in Japan (and I'm riding back tomorrow), but it's really very easy. No mountain passes at all!

The ride was full of beautiful scenery, but my favorite moment was on Omishima Island, where a saw a lovely red fox.

Not my picture, I'm afraid. I don't often travel with a camera. But the fox looked just like this, except a bit fatter!

The fox was cheerfully walking along the cycling path. It was almost completely tame! The islanders must feed it a lot. When I pulled up alongside it and slowed down for a better look, it glanced at me and just kept on walking. It was so unafraid of me at first I was sure it must be a dog, but I got really close. It was definitely a fox!

I've now seen every interesting mammal there is to see in Japan (serows, badgers, tanuki, deer, martens, monkeys, porpoises, bats, etc.) except for bears and boars. (I heard a boar when I lived in Nagano-ken, but I didn't see it.) I'd seen a fox in the bushes near Utsukushigahara before, but this was a much closer encounter. I doubt I'll see a bear before I leave Japan, but it would be nice to spot a boar!

What interesting animals have you seen in the wild?

—Matthew  

Needlework is more than a hobby for me, it is my passion. I love creating things with thread and fabric. These three pieces - the Sun Dragon, the Moon Dragon, and the Dragon Master are among my favorites. I stitched them on canvas with silk and metallic threads.