Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! Happy New Year!
Greetings from Takayama!
I arrived here last night, and I have one more night to go of my stay. The hostel I'm at has several computers to use, so I'm here in the common room with the mad mob of Italians who are also staying here for the holiday.
Today was my day for sight-seeing, and I am wholly and completely impressed with Takayama. There is so much to see and do here, and there's no way I could fit it all in to one brief day (considering I didn't leave the hostel until 10am and the sun sets around 4:30pm). Guess that just means I'll have to come back again later! I'm already trying to decide when I want to come back - maybe in the spring or autumn. I'm sure it'll be pretty crowded during those times of the year, considering that Takayama has seasonal festivals, but it'd be worth it. Maybe I'll come back at the end of the year again too.
I was warned that it would be cold, and it is. I was warned that there would be snow, and there is. This concerned me very little. I know I've made it clear to my students that I'm not used to the cold weather (and I'm not, not really), but I also realize that surviving any type of weather merely requires a certain amount of preparation. So, I prepared myself. I still don't have an appropriate pair of winter-weather boots, but the ones I do have are faring much better than my tennis shoes would. From Uni-Qlo (easily my most favorite store in Japan, even outdoing any grocery store I've been to), I have the HeatTech under-shirts, my down waterproof hooded jacket, and two pairs of men's ski pants. Doesn't matter to me that they're men's pants; they keep me warm, and that's all I care about. They also fit me, which is why I bought them and not the women's pants. Even Uni-Qlo couldn't help me there (though maybe if I could have found a pair of LL size . . .)
Anyway, I'm not only surviving, I'm really enjoying the winter weather. So far, it's snowed nearly continuously here in Takayama, and I'm fairly mesmerized by it. Of course, it's been 9 years since I last saw snow, but I'm not sure that makes much of a difference. I guess we'll find out over the next few months.
I took plenty of pictures today, and I'll be posting them as soon as I get home. I'll have the 3rd to rest and maybe work on cleaning my classroom and finishing up my lesson plans. Then I'm off on a day-trip to Nikko with Benni-sensei and the family of two of our students. Nikko is full of temples and shrines, and there's one in particular I'm interested in seeing, but I'm also under the impression that there will be skiing. Considering that my last attempt at skiing didn't go all that wonderfully, this should definitely be entertaining.
And off I go to relax a little. I wondered around Takayama for seven hours today, and I'm pretty tuckered out. I bought some soba to eat tonight, and I'll probably hang out in the common room and watch tv or read or something. Tomorrow, it's up early to find some omiyage for my students (already got Benni-sensei and Hitomi-san their gifts) and catch my train for home.
So, that's the start of my new year! If I wasn't already in love with Japan, I certainly am now. The more I see of it, the more I love it. I can't think of a better way to start off 2009.
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