I went to the annual Nagoya Festival which has lots of food, shops, shows and a parade. Here are some pics from the parade. This year was special because it was Nagoya's 400th anniversary.

Last week my Japanese class went to an elementary school a few blocks away and talked with the kids. We talked about various things, played games and then they performed an awesome dance for us. My class split up into country of origin and took turns teaching the kids greetings from different countries.

I made food with two Japanese friends! It was delicious (oishii) !

Here is a picture of almost everyone is the martial arts club I go to, Shorinji Kempo 少林寺. It is actually pretty difficult to learn because only a few people can speak good enough english, and they are lower belts. It is always fun though. Last weekend we went to see Phantom of the Opera produced by a famous Japanese group. It was all in Japanese, including the songs. The last picture is of some friends and I dressed up for the show.

Last Saturday I went to play softball with a co-ed recreational team of people of all ages. It mostly consisted of middle aged women and two older men aged 60 and 74 who both moved like they were 50. (Middle picture) My host father was really excited about this, so he wore his old baseball uniform from an old team he used to play for. The softballs they use are different, they are cheaper so they don't have any laces. Needless to say, pitching was pretty difficult, not only for that reason but also because I haven't pitched in four months. Now, three days later, my body is still in quite a lot of pain. However, totally worth it. It was awesome, and I hope I will be able to go again sometime soon.

More animals 色々な動物

The view from the tower was amazing. Here are some views from the top. I could see all the way to my school!

Last weekend I went with some friends to 名古屋港 (Nagoya Port). I believe the port itself is 400 years old. They have an aquarium there (which was a bit too expensive) so instead we went to the Port museum and observatory tower.

I went to this famous shopping place called Osu kannon. There is a temple and a ton of shops.

This is probably the best example that I have of the many misspelled signs/T shirts/ ads that are in english. This one is supposed to say "Please Climb Down," but as you can see, that is not what it says :)

This is from a famous Japanese style garden that we went to in Kanazawa

View of the ocean at sunset from the ride back to Nagoya from Kanazawa

In Kanazawa we went to a fish market. Here is my friend and I eating a whole squid! It wasn't bad.

Last weekend was our first IES trip to Kanazawa 金沢. Here are pictures from the drive up there. It took about 5 hours with traffic, but the scenery was stunning.

I went with Nanzan University on a field trip to go see 名古屋城 (Nagoya Castle). The real one was destroyed so this one is a reconstruction. The photo on the right is a view from the top of the castle of downtown.

Here is some food I have eaten. All delicious.

Scary and cool animals! Upper left is a dead Japanese hornet (they are about two inches long and terrifying), the spider on the right was HUGE (notice the skull design on its back), and the bottom is some type of lizard.

This is not a painting.

This isn't the most flattering picture of me, but here is my host mom! This is just outside of the old town we visited.

I can't really attempt to describle how beautiful Nagano is. All I can say is that these pictures don't do it justice. Amazing.

Here are some pictures from the town.

I went to this very old preserved town in Nagano with my host family. It was awesome.