Matsuyama Fun

August 17th to August 28th, I enrolled in a two week Japanese language intensive course in Matsuyama City. My BOE allowed me to go there for "business trip" purposes, which mostly turned into two hours of class and the rest of the day was to myself. My main teacher was Kirino Sensei, who was a really good teacher. During the two weeks, I explored the city with my friend Heidi.



We went to "Dogo Eki" Dogo station and watched a huge clock that had a performance every half hour. Besides the clock was a foot bath area where one could soak their feet into nice hot water. While we sat, we saw this really beautiful butterfly. Heidi and I roamed the streets of Dogo area and discovered many cute little shops. One of them was a manju shop that made and packaged their own manju.




We also visited Dogo Onsen, which is known to be Japan's oldest onsen that is around 3000 years old. Although we did not get to experience the onsen, I will totally go back when it gets cooler. I found out that Dogo Onsen was used as a model onsen for the Ghibli movie "Spirited Away." It was so awesome getting to see such a historical site. After looking around the onsen area, we met up with Annie and had "mikan" orange sherbet cones. Mikans are Ehime's trademark and what the prefecture is known to be famous for. It was sure delicious!




After eating, we visited Matsuyama Castle. It was sure awesome because we had to take a one person seat chair lift to get to the entrance. The heat was killing us after we finished touring the castle, so we took a break and bought ice cream. I tried a new flavor, "kuri" chestnut soft serve ice cream, which was really good!






The night before the Language course ended, many JETs got together and had a trivia/ drinking party in one of Matsuyama's park, which was a lot of fun getting to know more JETs in the area. Over the two weeks I really got to know the area better, and become better aware of the different places within Ehime.

Imotaki

My BOE invited me to go to imotaki, a potato eating festival held along the banks of the Hijikawa River with the other Ozu JETs. I couldn't believe the setup! There must have been a couple hundred people that were all lined up to sit and eat imotaki and obento dinner. Of course, during dinner there was MORE DRINKING! I guess it's necessary for a person to pour drinks for others and never pour your own glass, which ends up that your glass is constantly filled! There was an amazing program that consisted of this really cool soccer performer, shamisen performance by a son and father, odori, and taiko. After the program was finished, there were really awesome fireworks that we watched in awe.

Exploring Ozu

I decided to go out and explore around Ozu City the first couple of days and I found such amazing sites around the city. Ozu is very beautiful and I love how it is inaka, but not TOO country side. The weather is unbelievably hot and humid, but it has been cooling down a little bit. There is a lovely river called the Hijikawa and it separates Ozu into two sides: Nishi Ozu (my area), and Higashi Ozu. If I want to get to more commercialized areas then I have to travel a cross the bridge and through the streets of Hishi. Ozu is made up of three towns: Ozu, Higikawa, and Nagahama. I was lucky enough to get placed with three very awesome JETs in the area, and when I first arrived, I was welcomed by my supervisor and the three Ozu JETs: Mary, Tim, and Dawna. I was so relieved that I wasn't alone in Ozu. As I settled into my apartment, I was able to go around town and capture some great shots on my new awesome red bike.

Matsuyama Orientation

Even though we had a Tokyo Orientation when we first arrived, we also had a separate one for Ehime JETs held in Ehime's major city Matsuyama. Matsuyama City is about 40 minutes away by Express Train and has all the big stores and is a very large city. Both days we spent in workshops that were put on by senior JETs and our Prefectorial Advisors who are Japanese. The orientation was very informative and I met a lot of new people. The first night in Matsuyama a group of us went to the streets of Matsuyama to watch a really cool matsuri, which used one of the songs from Sacramento Obon festival.








The following day, we watched an awesome performance from Matsuyama Naginata performance and watched a green tea ceremony, which they allowed to participate. At night we went to another beer garden and drank the night away. We headed to karaoke afterwards, which everyone insisted to on singing "Stacy's Mom"... oh dear. Also, even though I'm in Japan, I feel even shorter... most of the other JETs tower me!