Saijo and Bunny Island

So I just came back from a week 'language training camp' in Saijo. Saijo is about 45 minutes from Onomichi and another 45 minutes away from Hiroshima City, it's also sometimes referred to as Higashi-Hiroshima. We were staying at this facility called Hiroshima International Center, honestly it felt more like I was in rehab than a language camp. It had a rec room with darts, pool tables and DVDs to watch, it also had a gymnasium where you could play basketball, soccer, ping pong and volleyball. There was a cafeteria where lunch and dinner were the equivalent to about 6$, but of course most of the time the food was repulsive. The actual language training wasn't too bad, but it focused mostly on vocabulary and situational instances. I much rather preferred they focus on grammar. Vocabulary is easier to learn on your own, whereas grammar needs to be taught in order to be fully understood. That aside, I did learn a little and now I have some great vocabulary lists I can study. In the evenings sometimes I stayed in and took advantage of their DVD selection, but after 3 nights I just needed to get out! So one night we took this free bus to a corner somewhere, got off and walked off to a mall. We walked about, some friends of mine needed western style sheets, so we found them there. For dinner we decided to try and find an Izakaya, which is a japanese style pub. Usually they have dishes for about 3-5$ and you order a bunch for the entire table. It ended up being delicious and really not too expensive. The following night we went down into the 'city' again and we found this great conveyor belt sushi place. I know I know....I hated sushi in Montreal. Every time I ate it, I felt sick or repulsed. But...when in Japan, do as the Japanese do. That motto of course led me to eating some wonderful sushi! I started off safe and ate some cooked tuna sushi, but from there I had some salmon sashimi sushi, tempura shrimp sushi which inevitably led me to the mother load of sushi.....Eel. Wow. It was all so amazing and cost under 10$. So, yes this is my official statement, I love sushi (disclosure: in Japan).

So I guess in the end Saijo was a success. I'm now a sushi convert.

I got back from Saijo on Friday and on Saturday morning I was picked up by a Japanese friend, Kyo, who organized a big camping trip. It's this island called Okunojima, but basically it's a poisonous gas, rabbit island. The island used to have a poisonous gas facility during WWII. After the facility closed down, the rabbits who used to be test subjects were set free. Of course the rabbits now own the island and are everywhere! They're really adorable and for the most part are curious enough to come right up to you. I'm not sure if they're that curious about everyone or just us foreigners (like everyone else....) but either way they were absolutely lovely. The island also had a beautiful beach, which I spent a couple hours relaxing in. The water was really salty, which made floating second nature. At night we had a humongous BBQ and cooked probably the equivalent to an entire farm. We were about 20 people, so the amount of food was quite appropriate. Someone also brought a bunch of fireworks, so we had a little show with those. But one of the most awesome things that there was, were a kind of plankton that light up when agitated. So we spent some time throwing rocks into the ocean, but only a few would glow. I saw a few Jellyfish glow, which made me a bit weary of getting into the water, but they were pretty far from the beach area. So eventually we took the walk to the beach and saw a whole bunch of the plankton light up. I only went in half way, since I didn't have my bathing suit on, but it was pretty cool.

Overall, It was a pretty good week. Now back at the office, trying my best not to procrastinate too much on working on my self-introduction for my classes. I start teaching the 4th of September! Can't wait!