SMALL WORLD

How small the world is! i live in japan, Eric lives in Seattle, coming out of the subway tunnel in Taipei and crossing the street Cheryl spotted Eric. what a coincidence to meet Eric of all places. I didn't know he was in Taiwan, and Eric didn't know i was in Taiwan too. anyways its always great to bump into any friends in part of the world.

HOLY SMOKES!

One day I was driving through Ako, and holy smokes it was a huge fire! The fire just ate up the hillside, and it also went throughout the night. Guess smoking and hiking don't go good together.

UNDER THE CHERRY TREES

Its the Japanese tradition of families, friends, and co-workers from the company to sit under the cherry tree and enjoy bentos and plenty of alcohol. Day or late late into the night.

SOAKING UP THE SIGHTS

Trying to go into ninja mode.

FUNNY TREE

I think its a female tree for some reason. But hey it was growing near the shrine for marriage???

A SPRING REFLECTION

A CLOUD OF SAKURA

How beautiful it is looking up.

姫路城と桜

Just enjoying the view of Himeji castle and cherry blossoms.

姫路城と桜

It was said in the history books back in the 1920s that Himeji Castle was to be destroyed by the army for materials. But when the general looked at how difficult it would be to take the castle apart, stone by stone, they decided to put it up for sale. For a mere 23 yen it sold for, which is about 25 cents USA. Of course its worth alot more now. Its such a beauty, glad they didn't destroy it.

HIMEJI CASTLE 姫路城

A couple weeks back (April 7th) the sakura (cherry blossoms) and people were out and about.

ENJOYING SPRING

A walk with a friend under the cherry blossoms is the best spring thing to do.

TAIWANESE PEOPLE

Taiwanese people are really cool and nice. Much different than the hustle and bustle of HK or mainland China. Cheryl took me to this great Beef Noodle Shop near her apartment. Had some great Beef Noodle Soup and even chatted with the shop owner. Really nice guy and even invited me into the kitchen to check things out. He visited Hawaii before and was proud of his hula picture in the back, and if he wasn't busy enough with the restaurant he even sold insurance on the side. Really nice guy.

FIRST CLASS

Started work at my new high school in Himeji called Toyo Himeji High School, just over a week ago. But really didn't get to any classes til today. Honestly a bit nervous, but not too much, because well thats just me. First class was the 3-1 class, the brains class, where most of these kids will go to a good University and are the best of the best of the 3rd graders. Wow! Their English was really good, and Yoshikura Sensei had the whole class taught pretty much all in English! The one rule was to only speak English, so this will be very interesting, but I think the kids can do it. They all gave good answers about their dreams and hobbies. Very interesting to see compared to junior high school where sometimes I was happy that the kid even answered with a word. But then that first class was probably the best, the rest is WIP, work in progress for all the other classes, as probably the rest of the kids can't speak very well. But I will do my best to make these kids my little evil English project. The 2-4 class I also visited today, the have class two times a week with me, but doesn't mean they are twice as good. They either signed up to learn more English, or their friends signed up to, or they just didn't like math or science either. But the kids were nice and friendly and I think they showed me some hope to work with. So I am crossing my fingers. And hey they got their own motivation, they are going to do a 1 week homestay in Australia in June, how cool is that. Overall a good class day. Then even took out some time to visit some of the clubs around school, soccer, boys softball, badminton, basketball, and the really cool one Japanese archery called "Kyudo" the way of the bow. Kids were really nice and invited me in. The backdrop was full of cherry trees with the pedals flying off the trees as the kids shot the arrows. Kinda gave me a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon moment, haha. Anyways back to school, more stories coming soon!

A WALK UNDER THE CHERRY TREES

before they bloom