Tokamachi in interesting place shocker!!
The last week has been pretty tiring. After all the training, footy and sun in Nagano I got a coldsore on Tuesday. Coldsores are annoying enough but it was made worse by having to do interview tests at Tsunan on Tuesday and Wednesday. This meant that 140 students each had a two minutes to stare at the ugly thing on my top lip. Luckily some of them managed to ignore the distraction and score maximum points.
The easiest way to get rid of a cold sore is to eat well and sleep, which is what I did all last week. Come teh weekend, coldsore on it's way out, it was time to find something interesting to do in Tokamachi.
After spending Friday afternoon sleeping, I woke and ate in time to go for my first Japanese Language class. These classes run every Friday but I never knew about them until Tokuma-sensei rang the City Hall. She made the call after I had moaned that I wanted be doing something Japanese in my spare time but I don't know how to find out.
I went to the class on my own and was really nervious, but the people there were really friendly and made me feel welcome. There were four teachers and about nine students. The lesson was done entirely in Japanese, so I felt a lot like on of my students. The topic was tanabata, the star festival that is taking place in Tokamachi at the moment. The legend goes that there are two stars, a prince and princess, on either side of the milky way. On 7th July the two stars will align and the prince and princess will 'meet' briefly before being seperated until the next time; a kind of long-distance relationship on an astronimical scale). We made decorations and wrote wishes, which we hung on bamboo brahces outside the class, and sang songs about the prince and princess.
I got to meet a lot of people including the guy who works at the front desk. He came up to the class to speak with me and to introduce me to another class full of young people (a rare breed in Tokamachi). They invited me to a summer camp with them, but it's the same weekend as the Sayonara Party in Kashiwazaki. Which should I go to??
On Saturday Luke came down. He had a tennis tournament in Yazawa on Saturday and a footy match in Tokamachi on Sunday so, instead of going all the way to Shibata and back, he stayed at mine. On Saturday afternoon we went up into the hills to go hiking. We tried to find the trail that Erik took last week but instead we found a road-side billboard. It had a map showing a trail around 'Nabu no Mori' (Nabu Forest) so we headed for that. The trail started near a some ski-lifts so we parked up and followed the signs. It took us through lots of trees and lead us to an old shed like building with stones arranged in rows in front of it. I'm not sure what it was but it looked pretty sacred. After taking photos we made our way back to the car and we noticed that the ski-lift cabins had 'Joetsu Kokusai' signs on them. We were stood on the spot were Joetsu Kokusai crosses from one side of the mountain to the other! It seemed strange to think that come winter, the road and barriers will be covered in metres of snow with people skiing on top!
We drove back to my flat, showered then walked into town to see the tanabata festival. Eki Dori was packed with people, especially lots of cute kids in yukata! We met with Keiko, Juichi and Hiroko and wandered around the stalls. Some were run by artists from a Tokyo University. One was proposing an idea for cladding the arcade on Eki Dori in Kimono fabric to celebrate Tokamachi's kimono industry. There was a student selling t-shirts and another who sold little animals made out of nuts and screws. I bought a glider from a local artist for his'Go Flight' idea.
After we went for beers and met with Erik, Debs, Satoko and Noriko before heading home just before 1am. We managed to catch a bit of Live8 over BBC Radio when we got in but no coverage on Japanese TV .
Sunday morning I drove Luke to the Tokamachi Track and Field Stadium for his footy match with Shibara. Joe and Tomo were also playing but they had driven down Sunday morning. I stayed to watch the match and Shibara won 4-0, Tomo getting teh first goal.
I left Luke, Joe and Tomo after the match and headed home. I thought about teh weekend and was surprised that Luke and I managed to do stuff without resorting to staying in and playing Winning Eleven 8. Tokamachi really hasn't got much going for it apart lots of restaurants and izakiyas. But then, if you look outside the high street, it does have the mountains around it. I'm sure there are lots of trails to be found so maybe it's worth hanging around at the weekends and trying to find them.
And if anyone wants to join me, let me know!
The easiest way to get rid of a cold sore is to eat well and sleep, which is what I did all last week. Come teh weekend, coldsore on it's way out, it was time to find something interesting to do in Tokamachi.
After spending Friday afternoon sleeping, I woke and ate in time to go for my first Japanese Language class. These classes run every Friday but I never knew about them until Tokuma-sensei rang the City Hall. She made the call after I had moaned that I wanted be doing something Japanese in my spare time but I don't know how to find out.
I went to the class on my own and was really nervious, but the people there were really friendly and made me feel welcome. There were four teachers and about nine students. The lesson was done entirely in Japanese, so I felt a lot like on of my students. The topic was tanabata, the star festival that is taking place in Tokamachi at the moment. The legend goes that there are two stars, a prince and princess, on either side of the milky way. On 7th July the two stars will align and the prince and princess will 'meet' briefly before being seperated until the next time; a kind of long-distance relationship on an astronimical scale). We made decorations and wrote wishes, which we hung on bamboo brahces outside the class, and sang songs about the prince and princess.
I got to meet a lot of people including the guy who works at the front desk. He came up to the class to speak with me and to introduce me to another class full of young people (a rare breed in Tokamachi). They invited me to a summer camp with them, but it's the same weekend as the Sayonara Party in Kashiwazaki. Which should I go to??
On Saturday Luke came down. He had a tennis tournament in Yazawa on Saturday and a footy match in Tokamachi on Sunday so, instead of going all the way to Shibata and back, he stayed at mine. On Saturday afternoon we went up into the hills to go hiking. We tried to find the trail that Erik took last week but instead we found a road-side billboard. It had a map showing a trail around 'Nabu no Mori' (Nabu Forest) so we headed for that. The trail started near a some ski-lifts so we parked up and followed the signs. It took us through lots of trees and lead us to an old shed like building with stones arranged in rows in front of it. I'm not sure what it was but it looked pretty sacred. After taking photos we made our way back to the car and we noticed that the ski-lift cabins had 'Joetsu Kokusai' signs on them. We were stood on the spot were Joetsu Kokusai crosses from one side of the mountain to the other! It seemed strange to think that come winter, the road and barriers will be covered in metres of snow with people skiing on top!
We drove back to my flat, showered then walked into town to see the tanabata festival. Eki Dori was packed with people, especially lots of cute kids in yukata! We met with Keiko, Juichi and Hiroko and wandered around the stalls. Some were run by artists from a Tokyo University. One was proposing an idea for cladding the arcade on Eki Dori in Kimono fabric to celebrate Tokamachi's kimono industry. There was a student selling t-shirts and another who sold little animals made out of nuts and screws. I bought a glider from a local artist for his'Go Flight' idea.
After we went for beers and met with Erik, Debs, Satoko and Noriko before heading home just before 1am. We managed to catch a bit of Live8 over BBC Radio when we got in but no coverage on Japanese TV .
Sunday morning I drove Luke to the Tokamachi Track and Field Stadium for his footy match with Shibara. Joe and Tomo were also playing but they had driven down Sunday morning. I stayed to watch the match and Shibara won 4-0, Tomo getting teh first goal.
I left Luke, Joe and Tomo after the match and headed home. I thought about teh weekend and was surprised that Luke and I managed to do stuff without resorting to staying in and playing Winning Eleven 8. Tokamachi really hasn't got much going for it apart lots of restaurants and izakiyas. But then, if you look outside the high street, it does have the mountains around it. I'm sure there are lots of trails to be found so maybe it's worth hanging around at the weekends and trying to find them.
And if anyone wants to join me, let me know!
Niigata JET Blogs
1 Comments:
ill come and play!!
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