A Tour and a River

Last Friday the Jr.High/Elementary ALTs in Takayama received a tour of the old section of the city, courtesy of about 40 Jr.High/Elementary school students. They were pretty cute and a few of them spoke English quite well.

The girl on the left is Mimi. She looks all cute and innocent, but she came up to Norikura last weekend for English World, and was pretty merciless when it came to our game of Capture the Flag (she made me a prisoner!). In the background you can see some of the preserved 'traditional houses' that Takayama is famous for.

This is a mechanical puppet that lives outside of a restaurant. Everytime he lifts his box a new meal appears: it's hard to see, but in this picture he's currently advertising Hida beef, a regional specialty.

Tasting miso in a miso shop. They also sold huge bottles of shoyu (soy sauce).


But the highlight of last weekend was definitely The River. It's exactly what is sounds like, a lovely stretch of river about 15 mins outside of Takayama, with a swimming hole and waterfalls and large rocks to stretch out on and soak up the sun. It's actually one of many 'secret river' locations, but all are referred to as The River by us ALTs.

By 'ethnic' chili we assumed they meant Mexican

Oh, and how could I forget: that evening the owner of a local English coversation school threw a party. We drank lots of beer, ate lots of food and chatted with many Japanese people (many of whom were incredibly impressed that they sold Kewpie mayo in Canada - you know, the stuff that comes in the sqeezable bottles with the red cap. Angela knows what I'm talking about!!)

And of course, karaoke afterwards