Jim and Georgia's Expedition Overseas!!: Movin' on up

Hey Everyone,

So our one week vacation is coming to a close, but we have had a lot of fun so we're not too bad off.

Wednesday: Asamoto picked us up at the Higashi Train Station at 8 a.m. (poor guy must have been on the road at 6:30), with his surf board tied to the roof of his yellow VW Beetle. The waves were not very big at any of the beaches near Maizuru, so we drove for over 4 hours (!) to Ise. First, Asamoto put on a couple of Instructional Surfing DVD's, which would have probably been a little bit more helpful if we understood Japanese, although most of the information was demonstrated on screen. On the way we stopped by a DVD rental shop and picked up the Gundam Trilogy because he really wanted us to watch it. We also stopped to eat some lunch on the way... which was a nice break because both Georgia and I were feeling a bit of motion sickness.

We finally arrived at the beach and Asamoto first demonstrated his surfing skills (he's very good, he stands up and rides all the way to the beach pretty much every time) then he set about trying to teach us to ride. I went first and, much to my surprise, I was able to stand up... even more surprising was how swiftly I was able to fall back into the ocean. I tried a few times (we have some videos of those attempts), eventually I was able to make it all the way to the beach (a short lived success) and then Georgia gave it a shot. Like me, she had a few rough falls, but she was able to stand up and even managed to ride a couple waves all the way to the beach.

CHECK THE END OF THIS POST FOR A SURFING VIDEO

(Get a tan!!! ... and a haircut!!!)

Asamoto was a great teacher. He was incredibly patient and it was very generous of him to let us learn on his surf board. We had so much fun and agree that it is one of our top experiences in Japan so far.

After that we had a very long ride home. So long, in fact, that we had to convince Asamoto to stay at our place and get some rest before driving back to Takarazuka. The next morning wasn't great because, due to the Obon festival currently going on, the garbage trucks were not in service and our kitchen was full of disgusting garbage in 35 degree weather.

We also were faced with our last night in Higashi Maizuru and decided to go on a little bike adventure. Mark had suggested that we follow a certain road that would lead us to some interesting sights around Higashi and we finally got around to taking a look. It's fortunate that we did because we ended up finding a beautiful shrine located on the top of a big hill. It looks very late in the pictures but we left our apartment at about 7:45 pm... so they are a bit misleading. It was a creepy place with many spider webs and the sounds of a jungle, not to mention that Obon festival is a respectful celebration in honour of ancestors.

On our way back we went adventuring a little bit more and ran into a group of alley cats. At first they were a little bit rude, but they chilled out and gave us a few smiles.

It is now Saturday and we have moved to our new apartment in Nishi-Maizuru! The moving part wasn't a lot of fun... I got stuck sitting with all of our belongings in the back of Keiko's van, but it is over now and we are thrilled to be in a much larger space.

Here are the ferrets that we will be taking care of for a little while. They are pretty stinky, but at least they are friendly! (to us... they were just engaged in a fight to the death before we intervened).