Monday, June 27, 2005

GP is cranking out the celebs

Check it out-More Grants Pass High Alumni in Hollywood! This person scored a spot on the show Beauty and the Geek on the WB. I haven't seen it, but supposedly this person has already been eliminated- click on the link above to see who it is!

Sunday, June 26, 2005

The Land of the Rising Sun

Fried me. Yep, got my first sunburn in Japan yesterday. I wouldn't really consider it one of my "good" experiences here. I went to the beach in Hagi with some friends. Hagi is on the northern coast of Honshu, along the Sea of Japan- which is nicer than the southern coast, along the Inland Sea - where I live. It was a nice beach and perfect for swimming. There weren't any waves though- kinda weird- so the water was pretty shallow unless you swam way out. There were few people there though- Japanese people aren't crazy about the beach and laying out and swimming, like we are. They don't normally do it. There was a lady sitting on the beach under a big umbrella, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and white gloves that went all the way up most of her arm. They reminded me of formal gloves that you would wear with a prom dress or something. I'm assuming this was to protect her from the sun. Weird though.

Then we rented bikes for only 210 Yen per hour and rode around Hagi and did some sightseeing. It was hot and humid- but it was a nice day anyway. It is rainy season here now- it started on June 10- but so far we have had only 2 days of light rain in this area of Japan. Normally we should have had hard rain almost everyday of rainy season. So, it's a problem, if we don't get some rain soon- they will have a drought, and many of the rice fields in this area will die. One of my students told me that it hasn't been this dry during rainy season in like 10 years. So, hopefully, we will get some rain soon.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Alive and Kickin'

Hi Everyone-

I have been without internet for the past few weeks, so sorry for not posting! I have been very busy- my Mom came to visit for 10 days! Last weekend we drove to Hiroshima and Kyoto and did lots of sightseeing. Hiroshima was a 2 hour drive from where I live, and Kyoto was another 4 hours- so not bad. But Japanese people think that we are crazy for driving there- they would take the train. Their highways are very, very nice and smooth- and hardly any traffic at all. It's a shame that they don't use them more. And we probably drove through about 50 tunnels during the trip. Their highway tolls are a little expensive though- it cost us 17,000 Yen rountrip (which is about $170). I got a new, nicer car too- still small, but it drives alot smoother than my old one- I will post a pic soon.

Kyoto was awesome- we visited Nijo castle that was built in 1601, the Golden Temple, and the Imperial Palace - where the emperor of Kyoto lived until 1861, when the capital of Japan changed to Tokyo. It was amazing.

Good news- I bought a digital camera today. It is a Nikon 5600 and I bought it for 23,800 Yen, about $238 USD. Pretty much the sweetest camera in the world. I am taking mad pictures and will post them soon. Bad news- I still don't have internet hooked up at my new house. I am posting from Jamie and Joe's computer- but we have yet to figure out how to setup our router. The cd that came with the router is in Japanese- so it's a problem. So either I have to learn to read Kanji soon, or find some Japanese person who will setup my router (the former is not likely).

I miss all of you and am already missing summertime in Oregon. Drink one for me!