Japanese stairmaster deluxe, or Konpirasan

Konpirasan -- a shrine/temple sitting on top of a daunting 1368 step ascent. Well, here I am smiling at the top, so it couldn't have been that bad, right? Luckily for me (and the other swarms of people there -- mainly Japanese) the stairs are broken up by terraces, a garden and a series of toriis and gates that get more impressive the higher you climb. Getting to the top isn't so bad when you get to stop and shop every 100 or so stairs.

Today was field-trip day for the local high schools -- we ran into tons of students eager to talk to us. The group in blue was particularly, er, happy to see us.

Since sakura season, I've become a pretty big fan of flowering trees -- apparently, the Japanese are too.
And: Here is the actual temple of Konpirasan -- the picture doesn't really do it justice. There are engravings and gold leafed doors on the other side. And, best of all, there was a monk hanging out inside.

Easter-n hemisphere...

Sorry, lame pun, I know -- I swear I thought of something completely genius for the title and then totally forgot... Just in case you were wondering, since our last chat, I found myself driving up a toll road that wound around the top of Yashima Mountain and eventually ended at Yashima Temple -- I am all about accidentally finding/not finding places around here. So much of what I do seems to be the luck of the planets aligning just for me.

Here I am with my very own hot-pink Easter egg. I wrote a haiku on it in white crayon before dying it...possibly the greatest work of art I or the world has ever seen.
The haiku was about psycho burgluring rabbits.
Oh, and did I mention that Coldplay is gonna be in Osaka in July? I didn't? Well, they are. Incidentally, so will I...

(Yataaa! (Japanese shout of delight))

expat life is good

yep, sure is...
today I went to the hospital for the second time to get some bizarre skin thing looked at -- my eyelid has this bizarre thing going on...don't worry, though, I don't look totally deformed yet...anyway, the POINT is that I only had to shell out about $30 to see the doctor, and just walked in (with Meme, my translating wonder of a friend). Beautiful.
No exciting adventures out of Kanonji this weekend, but life here is pretty adventurous itself. Here are some pics of the day-to-day here...jonas perfecting the rock stance, me with konomi-chan, a sweet little girl in my branch, one of our tiny little golf-cart cars, and a picture of takamatsu...is it just me or is there a ridiculously large number of powerlines in this picture?


Yay for Japan!

oh yeah...

and for e.g.'s benefit: this is a rendering of the super-cool outfit I was wearing yesterday, ala karin, one of the students I am brainwashing... the boobs, btw, were an afterthought, added with a snicker and something about opai...




*giggle*

Sakura

Popcorn poppin ain't got nothin on this: Cherry trees in full bloom -- the blossoms here are called sakura -- and this week kagawa is full to bursting with them.

these are pictures I took at Ritsurin Park, the central park-ish type park in Takamatsu. The Japanese are out in droves to hang out, eat and enjoy the cherry blossom season -- I set up my oil paints, etc. and was about four brush strokes in before I was surrounded by Japanese people asking me if I am American, if I like Japan, what I'm doing here, and giving me food so forcefully that a bag of mixed nuts ended up covered in paint...I ended up abandoning my stuff and eating lunch with a group of 10+ happy accountants, who offered me more sushi/sashimi than I could possibly eat -- and boy, if I hadn't eaten it before yesterday, well, I've eaten it now... one word: jellyfish. Yeah. That's what I thought. This place is kickin.

Hiroshima.

Dammit, I hate blogger. I just lost all of the beautiful text I had posted with the pictures. ARGH!

So now you're getting the abbreviated version: first: Paper cranes at the Children's Peace Memorial in honor of Sadako (see the story here) second: the A-Bomb Dome, the shell of a civic building preserved in the condition it was found in after the bomb was dropped almost directly over it.
third: Miyajima's famous shrine, Itsukushima-Jinja, the floating torii here is one of the most photographed places in Japan...

fourth: do not feed the 500 resident deer in Miyajima. They will try to eat you regardless. They are fearless, purse-snatching garbage disposal-esque eaters of everything in sight. And sort of cute, too.

Monkeys! Monkeys everywhere, along with signs that warn visitors not to look the little poop-dispensers directly in the eyes. I wonder how many tourists have been injured in monkey attacks. Well, enough to post three or four signs...

And the five-storied pagoda of my dreams, complete with sakura (cherry blossoms)!

As my friend, Meme says, 'outside starts spring.'