Japan Trip – Week Seven – Kyoto

The first week after the camp was something a little different, and also very tiring, and although I enjoyed visiting some interesting places, such as Goryokaku, Zentsuji, Miyajima, Hiroshima, and Matsuyama-jo, the reality was that I found the constant hopping from place to place quite exhausting. If anything, I never truly felt that I had given myself enough time to explore the cities I visited, and had barely even scratched the surface, instead focussing on individual buildings, of sights to visit, rather than the cities themselves.

Japan Trip – Week six – The Journey South – Part Two

Although the garden was fascinating, my trains to Matsuyama beckoned – and while Shikoku, like most of Hokkaido, doesn’t have a Shinkansen line, it does have some very comfortable express trains that run along the north coast of the island.

Japan Trip – Week six – The Journey South – Part One

The week started in quiet fashion; the six children who had taken part in the full three-week camp had left the day before, but as I have already mentioned, their departure was rather quiet, and sedate compared to previous weeks.

Anime Fans: Obsessed with the present

A while back I was having a conversation with OtakuDan on twitter about the amazing longevity of To Heart, and how there are still companies releasing new merchandise; figures, posters etc.

Some final thoughts on Japan, its culture and society

My Final Week in Hokkaido: Kushiro and Beyond

The Kushiro Shitsugen Norokko-go

My final week in Hokkaido Part Two – Exploring Nemuro

The view out of the back of the train

My final week in Hokkaido: The end of the camp, but not the end of my travels – Part One

As far as I can remember this was the sunset during on the last full day of the camp

This was actually my fifth week in Japan, haven’t yet written anything about my first week. It was quite a turbulent week with a lot of moving around and some work to clean up the school before the kids arrive. I might write up a post about that week, although it is quite a while ago, so I am not entirely sure I remember what happened.

The Challenge camp: How we conquered Yotei-zan

The mountain that we had to conquer

Quite a long post ahead, there is just so much to write about.

The challenge camp as I mentioned in the last post was all about the kids deciding to do something ‘challenging’. Apparently there were challenges such as spending 3 days canoeing down a river, or building a raft and living on it for 3 days. The group I was assigned to however, decided on something a little different, they wanted to climb a mountain.

Hokkaido summer camp, week three

The coastline that we were playing on

So, the summer camp has ended, it was a sad moment when the kids left and the school was eerily quiet. The staff who have come from all over the world, Taiwan, Korea, different areas of Japan, Holland are all leaving one or two at a time.