日本２００５年琴平金毘羅三３ 034

日本２００５年琴平金毘羅三３ 034
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

先週末は香川での金毘羅山を登って来た。山と言うより世界中の一番長い階段だよ。今の写真は登り途中での神社の前で撮った。

日本２００５年琴平金毘羅三３ 144

日本２００５年琴平金毘羅三３ 144
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

先週末は香川県三豊郡仁尾町での人形祭りを見に行きました。普段は伝統的な大変お金かかったそうの人形だった。急に目にかかったのはこのディスプレイだった。小学生が使ったそうですが、面白い色をつけて、良く出来たと思った。
　　　I drove through Nio last weekend, where they were having their annual Doll Festival. The majority of them consisted of ridiculously expensive animatronic adventure scenes, but this particlar display caught my eye. It was made by early-elementary school students, but I think they did a great job.

日本２００５年財田町町民運動会 056

日本２００５年財田町町民運動会 056
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

I don't remember having to have had to do this while I was in junior highschool~ All of the 78 males of the Jr. HS that I teach part-time at had to partake in human pyramids. Lots of fun... (Except for the two students who injured themselves a week earlier during this exact same stunt... )

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日本２００５年財田町町民運動会 064
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

Here's a photo with my new Kendo team. Let's see how my progress goes. I'd already developed three blisters just from the first practice. It's intense, but a great sport to learn.

日本２００５年琴平金毘羅三4 051

日本２００５年琴平金毘羅三4 051
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

This is one of the huuuuuuuuge freaky spiders that reside in the neighboring bamboo forest, and like to come for a stroll across the rice patties and somehow find their way into my house... (I still can't figure out how/where they can get in... being so freakin' huuuge.) Anyways, this little fellow accidentally super-speed crawled (they're fast....) under my wooden clogs... which I accidentally dropped on the spider, after carelessly (whoops!) slowing it down with a whole ton of bug spray... Anyways, if anyone has any giant spider deterrent advice, I'm all ears. :D

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日本２００５年琴平金毘羅三３ 128
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

This is a giant bronze lantern at the Konpira-san (Kompira mountain) temple complex. It was a nice bright day today, which led to some interesting effects for photography.

日本２００５年財田町町民運動会 010

日本２００５年財田町町民運動会 010
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

The neighborhood cat.
This is technically my `new cat.`
She`s a stray cat that has decided to
set up shop on my front porch.
The constant supply of fresh milk,
and cat food (with meat AND fish flakes) probably helped influenced that decision. But, since she helps fend off the beetles, frogs, and giant spiders, I shall continue putting out the food.

日本２００５年姫路旅 017

日本２００５年姫路旅 017
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

A boat speeds by the gate of the Great Seto-Ohashi bridge,
connecting my island to the mainland of Japan.

Star Gate SG-2 Fukuoka

日本２００５年福岡旅行 016
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

I still don't know exactly what this is...
But I made it out to Fukuoka for a live concert a couple weeks ago.
I ran across this at one of the large Buddhist temple complexes in
Hakata, Fukuoka. I figured if I ring the bells in the proper order,
it might turn into a Star Gate of some sort.

Update: Nope... unless I messed up the
ringing order, it doesn't seem to have the ability to turn
into a giant star gate. *sigh* ...

Deka (Immigration Control) Rangers

日本２００５年国際交流経験 239
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

...and I thought I was the ONLY foreigner
in my new town. It looks like the power rangers
have stopped in for a visit.

Update: The big baddy was eventually
'vanguished' by the 'Deka Rangers' (Huge Rangers)
So it was back to just me afterwards. Uh oh..
I hope the Deka Rangers aren't part of immigration control.
I'm going to make double sure that I PROPERLY
divide my garbage into 7 separate varieties,
and distribute them on the proper days...
...just in case the Deka Rangers come back into town.

Bamboo Crab

日本２００５年国際交流経験 241
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

This is one of the bamboo crabs I made following VERY SPECIFIC directions. Essentially 'cut a piece shaped like this, and stick it in here' and then 'glue it in'
Yup... I'm a semi-pro pre-cut bamboo crab, dragonfly and frog maker.

Homemade Dragonflies~

日本２００５年国際交流経験 240
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

Making little bamboo frogs, crabs and dragonflies at the local festival. One of the kids decided to do a comparison by catching a real dragonfly and comparing it to a bamboo one. I personally think the bamboo one would win in a fight if A) it were alive, and B) if it could breath fire. Were these conditions not met, the real one would win. :D

Samurai style neighbors...

日本２００５年国際交流経験 227
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

This is one of the neighboring houses. I always imagined Ken Watanabe in his full 'Last Samurai' wardrobe would walk out the front door one of these days...

Turns out it was a middle aged couple who lives here. They offered me a ride home once, when it was pretty obvious that I was wandering around lost.. :D

My HOUSE!

日本２００５年国際交流経験 214
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

On the left...

That's my HOUSE. :D
I'll do a full introduction of the house in a later entry. :D
I've inherited what I thought was going to being 3 roaming neighborhood cats, but...

My pred asked if I'd mind putting out catfood and milk for some of the stray cats that like to visit the house. Foolishly thinking cats wouldn't go 'bat-crazy' over catfood with little meat and vegetable chunks in it, I bought the 'good stuff' from a local supermarket. Next thing you know, I've now got 7!!! cats visiting my house for grub. One of them even climbs up to the second floor of the house, and purrs until I let her in. (At which point it takes 10 minutes to chase her down the steps and out of the house.)

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日本２００５年国際交流経験 202
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

Here's a cooler shot of the previous mountain lilies. Hmm.. Anyone know what they're actually called?

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日本２００５年国際交流経験 172
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

This is the aforementioned 'Nagashi Soumen.'
Cut down wild bamboo, establish a waterflow, and
drop cold soumen noodles in at the top of the flow.
People then wait along the path of water,
try to grab the Soumen with chopsticks, and then
dip them into a serving dish (Also carved from wild bamboo!)
full of a vinegrette/soya type sauce. yum!

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日本２００５年国際交流経験 196
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

I figure this is some type of mountain lily. I ran across this when being escorted up a local mountain range to try out 'Nagashi Soumen' at the peak.

Yosui Dragon

DSC07609
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

This bamboo/twine dragon is hanging in the entryway to the Kagawa Yosui Waterpark museum.

Yosui Water Park

DSC07647
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

This is a semi-aerial shot from the local summer festival. The little pond in the background is the entry way to a huge regional water reservoir. Living next to it allowed us to escape the prefectural wide water shortage throughout July and August.

Neighboring Bamboo Forest

DSC07567
Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

This is my neighboring Bamboo forest. There're some very interesting bugs that like to make housecalls to my doorstep from time to time. Thanks to converstations with the neighborhood kids who collect the giant beetles, I can now distinguish between male and female beetles. Let's not mention the spiders that can grow as big as my hand.. *gulp*

The Kagawan Mountains

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Originally uploaded by Ryuugakusei.

This is my new neighborhood. :D
I've really grown attached to the majestic mountain ranges that surround my new home. I've taken close to ten roles of 35mm film since I've been here. (Including trips to Fukuoka, Osaka, and Himeji, though.)