Alex came to Aki on Friday (Tano is so small that he comes to Aki to get a taste of "city life"). We hung out and chatted, had dinner and watched part of a women's volleyball game on TV. Ironically, Japan was playing the Netherlands.
Anyway, when we were wandering around Aki looking for somewhere to eat, we passed a veterinary hospital with a sign I thought was funny.
(I'm easily amused.)
As for the weekend, I skipped out on the stone-skipping festival in Ino, but the whitewater rafting trip finally came together! I got a few people interested, so we booked a trip with HappyRaft for Monday (weekdays are cheaper than weekends, I could use my second day of summer leave, and another group of JETs planned a rafting trip for that day too, so it worked out nicely) and a stay in the guesthouse for Sunday night. Sunday afternoon, Alex, Michelle, Matt and I headed up to the mountain town of Otoyo (near the Kochi/Tokushima border) in Michelle's car.
(The Yoshino River.)
(Michelle and Matt.)
We were met by a HappyRaft employee (and his adorable dog), who showed us to the nearest grocery store and then to the Happy Guesthouse.
(Alex and Matt choosing some tunes.)
An unexpected visitor:
It rained Sunday night, but on Monday, the weather could not have been more perfect! It was sunny but cool — apparently the mountains have the advantage of being beyond humidity's grasp.
We hopped back in Michelle's car and headed to the HappyRaft office.
There, we met up with the other rafters, signed our lives away, got outfitted in wetsuits, life jackets and helmets, grabbed our paddles, hopped into a van and were driven over the border into Tokushima to the starting point.
HappyRaft has photographers follow you down the river, and you can buy a CD of the pictures at the end of the trip. Our raft consisted of Michelle, Matt, Alex, me, and the three other Kochi JETs Emma, Stephen and Rob, as well as our Irish instructor Sean. Behold, Team Gaijin!
(Smacked with one too many paddles. Thank goodness for helmets.)
(Oh, Alex.)
Getting ready for some cliff jumping:
Stephen:
Michelle:
Emma:
Matt:
Sean:
(The biggest cliff was about 33 feet and the smallest one was about 16 and a half feet. I was a wimp and jumped from the small one.)
They provided an excellent lunch of homemade bagel sandwiches for us on the rafting trip, and the people who brought lunch also brought a bag with whatever stuff of ours that we put in before we started (anything we wanted to have with us during lunch that we wanted to stay dry — phones, cameras, sunscreen, etc.) so I whipped out my camera!
(Stephen and Alex.)
(Me and Rob.)
(+Stephen.)
(Matt and me. Aki represent!)
The ladies — Michelle, me and Emma:
Team Gaijin!
I'm exhausted, slightly bruised, extremely sore, and I think I inhaled and/or swallowed half the Yoshino River, but rafting was a blast. After rafting, we retired our paddles, hopped in the van and were taken back to the HappyRaft office, where we could dry off, change and watch a slideshow of pictures. Then Michelle, Matt, Alex and I collected our belongings and headed back to Michelle's car.
On the drive back, we stopped in Motoyama to have dinner at a place called the Missy Sippy Cafe, a laid-back, blues-themed restaurant with awesome decor, food and music (Dad, get this — they even played a Tracy Chapman song).
(We were there for a while.)
My supervisor apparently forgot that I took Monday off (even though he stamped my leave sheet and gave it back to me), so Matt and I both had missed calls from Kataoka-sensei wondering where I was. When I straightened that out with her, she told me that the meeting I was supposed to have Tuesday had been moved to next week, so I was free to take Tuesday off as well. Since I figured I'd need to recuperate from rafting, and I had a third and final day of summer leave that had to be used by the end of August anyway, I took her up on it.
But now, it's back to work... a few meetings here and there but nothing exciting until next week, when I actually start teaching!
Peace,
B
Oh my gosh,it looks like you really had an awesome time rafting! Sooo cool :)
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