Awaji Antics

*blogspot and I aren't quite friends yet, hence the lack of organization of photos.. I will assume you can match them up to what I talk about*

This weekend I headed down to Awaji Island with the hopes of spotting monkeys in the monkey park and good beach times. My school had it's Sports Day (I can't think of anything in Canada to compare it to except a combination of track and field day, marching, and Japanese line dancing), so I didn't make it there till Sunday, but it was OK as I had Monday (a national holiday) and Tuesday (because I worked Saturday) off.

Awaji,
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/9/94/Japan_prov_map_awaji.png I made it with only vague directions and my little phrase book. I got a little confused in Kobe, and confused some Kobe-ians when I asked them for directions, but then got it sorted. It feels really nice to be able to travel solo. Awaji is connected to the rest of the Hyogo prefecture via the world's longest suspension bridge (take that San Fransisco) which was very snazzy. Once on the Island I met up with Gabrielle, Myrie and Paul and we headed to the famed Monkey Center. While driving I got to hear of their amazing adventures setting up a tent in the dark while it was raining, which made me feel better about the "American"* pizza I ordered. Another person's misery always puts your own into perspective, yes?

* Somehow "American" translates into potato, corn, sausage, and mayo. VERY disappointing.

S0, we finally made it to the Monkey Center (after many deceiving signs) only to find out that in September the monkeys go to farther into the mountains to eat nuts. Nowhere in anything we read was this mentioned. We took a lot of photos of us frowning, and some of 2 deer that showed up. No monkeys.

After that let down, we admired the beautiful coast and then decided it would be a good idea to set up camp before it got dark. We parked ourselves on a beach where some other people were camping and wound up randomly meeting another JET who was there with a "drinking club that has a running problem". Paul cracked open his unbelievably large jug of whiskey and after happily finding some ginger ale (Canada Dry!) there were happy glasses of rye and ginger.

After a restless night's sleep on the hard sand we hiked up the mountain that was next to us and found some castle ruins, went to an amazing "theme park" that consisted of random rides and, best of all, famous landmarks in 1/25th their size! Sadly, no Canada love, but oddly the Christchurch Cathedral in NZ made it in. Many ridiculous photos were taken.

As Gabrielle, Myrie and Paul all had to work on Tuesday, I bid them farewell and headed to Kobe for some shopping and the visited Luke, revelling in the 2 days of good ol' English conversation. Today Suzie and I went to Himeji to try and obtain a re-entry permit for our visas, only to be distracted by buying Yukata and then realizing that the bus we needed to take wasn't going to leave for another 90 minutes. Suzie had just returned from adventures in Kyoto so she headed home. I wanted to stop by Gabrielle's on my way home, but as she didn't finish school for a while I amused myself shopping, perusing the 100Yen store, foreign food store (yea, real cheese!) etc. I met Gabrielle at her apartment in Fukusaki, we bought some groceries, chatted and then she went off to teach english to some adults and I home to unpack my goodies and do the laundry that I had been avoiding. All in all, a pretty decent Awaji adventure and fake long weekend.