Tuesday, May 25 – Friday, May 28, 2010-

What a great day of fine weather, lots of exercise and even better friends. Today alone, I actually biked around 20 kilometers and kayaked another 23! The warm, breezy, 80˚ weather was just right – leaving me with a nice sunburn and one of those “I’ve had a successful summer day” feelings.

My homeroom fishery classmates and I actually got to kayak right from the backyard of our fish school (separate from the main school) right down the Nakagawa River. The water was running high and fast due to heavy rain in the beginning of the week, but that just added to the thrill of the day. We had moments of high intensity, running rapids crashing and swirling higher and deeper than myself, and moments of sheer relaxation, floating backwards on our kayaks only worrying about how sunburned we were going to get, not if we would be. As you can imagine, I wasn’t exactly going to risk bringing my camera, no matter how many ziplock bags were offered. Therefore I have sadly few pictures and none of them are that interesting! Haha, maybe I can download some from the local paper if it prints them soon.

Today being perhaps one of the last big hurrahs with my fishery classmates, I was happy to enjoy the company and laughs that inevitably occur when you allow fifteen teenagers to each captain their own little boats, each able to zip and zoom (and of course CRASH) as much as their poor paddlers can manage.

The crew all set to go

One other highlight was having a Japanese National Kayak Team Member be our guide. He and I even had a cool conversation about how he’d never been to Minnesota but that he’d kayaked through some of the Great Lakes and competed in the Kayak World Cup when it was held in Toronto, or something. He was a really funny guy who never failed to impress us with his rapid shoots and barrel rolls!

Other than kayaking my week has been pretty ordinary, lots of rain! I did get a chance to discover this cool backwoods shrine near our house (along with a four-foot long snake that scared the crap out of me when I almost stepped on it!! Don’t worry, not poisonous). The following pictures are from my escapade there.

These gateways are the symbol for the path of a god, leading them straight up into the shine

The ascent

Can you spot the tiny stone shrine buried in the undergrowth?

Crescent Moon

All alone in the woods

Ancient stone writing

One other highlight of the past few days was a tour of Koisagoyaki Pottery

The kilns

Anyone know what these are? Nope, not bear claws, they're a type of pottery thermometer. The three strips start as kind of nails, the first softer than the second which is softer than the third. When the kiln reaches a certain degree the first melts, followed by the second, and when it's finally reached the proper temperature, the third one melts, telling the potter that their wares are done firing

Random but a delicious soba and tempura lunch. I made it all by myself so I had to brag! =D