On Sunday I attended an English camp put on by the international center of Toyama. It was for the equivalent of high school-age students in America (14 and up). It was a lot of fun. We met on Sunday morning and then took a bus to the mountains, near Mt. Tate. We stayed at a ski lodge which is used as a conference center / retreat during the summer. It was gorgeous up in the mountains. However, it was still quite hot, despite the altitude change.

I co-taught a workshop with another English teacher, Rob. We did a two hour workshop on games and group communication activities. It was hard to encourage the students to only talk in English, because they are very worried about their ability level. They also really didn't want to go outside, so we had to stay inside, which limited the types of activities or games that we were able to do. I think they enjoyed the activities, and some of them provided a way to meet the other participants, since they came from many different schools.

After our workshop, there was a one hour one where we split up into groups and played a Jeopardy-esque game. My team didn't do too well though, and came in 4th place out of 5 teams.

At the same time that we were at this retreat, there were a lot of Boy Scouts there. A Japanese scouting group, and a group of Australians who were touring Japan were there at the same time. It was neat seeing them interacting. The Australians had come to Japan for a special jamboree. It was for scouts with disabilities. They all seemed to be enjoying Japan well and were excited about climbing Mt. Tate the next day.

That night I took a bath in the Japanese-style bath (i.e. public), and it was the hottest water I have ever felt in one of these baths. I had red marks on my body when I got out of the bath! I could only stay in for a minute.

The next day we had two more workshops. One was on Australia, which was very fun. The other one was on travelling to foreign countries, either on vacation or backpacking-style. It was pretty good too.

After the workshops, we left the retreat and went to a campground where they had big barbecue pits. We split up into groups and then cooked up lots of food. There was too much food at my table, and we didn't eat it all. After that we went back to Toyama. I thought it was just volunteer, but they gave us 5,000 yen ($40) worth of book gift certificates. I now have about 7,000 yen worth of those certificates. I should go buy a Japanese study book or something.

I was really glad to do the camp though, because it was a lot of fun. The kids were also very excited about English. It is great to see such kids, since so many of the kids I teach aren't very confident with their English. It has helped me be more excited about teaching again, since maybe I can inspire more of my kids to get better.

Well, it's been a long time, yet again. I've become a slacker about posting stuff, but I've also been quite busy.

I met up with my family in Kyoto, and we had a fun and successful trip where no one got killed or anything. I was quite relieved when it was over though, because it was stressful for me and Paul to try and translate everything. We have enough trouble on our own in Japan, much less trying to help everyone out.

I'll write more about the trip and put up some pictures later on. I'll just mention some of the stuff I've done since the trip ended.

Once our family left, Paul and I headed back to his hometown together. I had some extra vacation, so I thought it would be nice to relax at his place. I didn't count on getting sick though. I ended up with something like what Paul had at the beginning of the trip, a sore throat that felt like strep, but wasn't really. Luckily it went away after a little while. Paul's girlfriend, Keiko, picked us up at Izumo train station, and we went back to Paul's place. I don't remember what we did that night, but it was probably low-key. I think Keiko bought some sushi for us, and some soup since I was feeling bad. We probably watched a movie too.

On Thursday, the next day, we went to the lighthouse near Izumo. It was quite beautiful there, but very windy. Speaking of wind, they had built two windmills in Taki since I had last been there in September. They were quite cool looking, and provided almost all the power for the town, which is great. That night we went to a restaurant with Keiko and Saho, one of Paul and Keiko's friends. Unfortunately, everyone except Paul was sick, so we had to call it a night after dinner. We hoped to go to karaoke, bowling, or something.

On Friday, Paul and I went to the beach. It was a beautiful day and perfect for the beach. We started playing frisbee and some other guys joined in. It was a lot of fun. Keiko and one of her cousins came to the beach later on, but didn't get in the water. They did help bury me in sand, though. Paul and I went home and attacked lots of kudzu after that. It's taking over Paul's yard quickly. I've always heard that we imported kudzu from Japan to help with erosion in the mountains, and that it only grows so quickly in our climate, not in Japan's. However, it is just as crazy here as at home, which makes me wonder why they thought it would be a good idea to import it to America.

Friday night we went to a festival in Izumo with fireworks for thirty minutes. There weren't too many booths at the festival, but there were a lot of people out to watch the fireworks. It was an impressive show for a small city.

Saturday morning I left for home, and got back to Toyama around 5pm. It was a long trip, and rather uneventful. It was good to be home though. Plus my sickness started disappearing on Saturday, so I felt fine on Sunday.