Day 62 in Japan - I'm leaving in a minivan

Normal day at school - nothing too exciting happened. All of the kids (and the teachers) were still a bit worn out from Sports Day, so the classes were a bit sleepy. In ESS club this afternoon, we started watching Up (Carl no o-ji-san), which meant that I cried in front of the ESS club. I think I got away with it - it was really dark, and the kids were really enthralled with the movie. I really love the feeling of leaving work for the weekend here - I ride down the hill on my bike and I can feel the wind in my hair and the potential of the next two days. It's not like leaving science on a Friday afternoon, when I know that I'll be back in to look after the cells again tomorrow, or at the very least, will be analysing data from the couch. Time off here actually means time off!

Colourful poster stuck up at school. I'm not sure, but I
think that the broadcast club are asking for requests for music
 to play. Or maybe they are having an animal collection day? With bowties.

I meant to have a quiet evening after school getting ready for the weekend ahead (last minute packing, shaving legs, charging camera battery etc.), but I got a call from Dan almost as soon as I walked in the door, asking if I wanted to go out to dinner. OF COURSE if food was involved, I wanted in! I ignored packing, exfoliation and common sense, grabbed my half-packed bag, and headed out the door - to Sannomiya, Thai food, and our Shikoku adventure!

We had good Thai food in a little place in Sannomiya - the eating and drinking district of Kobe, then wandered the streets trying to decide what we wanted for dessert. There were five of us in the end - Jodie, Dan, Brodie, Sam and I. We ended up at a fancy cake place and I got a chocolate delight of some description, then went to eat our fancy cakes in Tits Park (the standard meeting place in Sannomiya) . Then Jodie, Dan and I said our farewells to the others and headed to Tarumi, to meet up with the others who had signed themselves up for the Hyogo JET weekend of rafting on Shikoku Island.

We spent quite a while chatting at a bus stop before we realised we were waiting in the wrong place, but we didn't end up being later than the minivans that were coming to pick us up, so it was OK. Our knights in shining minivans were Simon (mans man, ladies man, man about town, as long as that town is Wellington, NZ) and Takeshi, who very kindly and very bravely volunteered to drive this weekend. Takeshi organised all of the car rentals for us, and I was really grateful to the two of them for helping us out. It would have been pretty much impossible to get to the rafting place on time if it wasn't for them. Simon was particularly brave, as this was his first time driving in Japan, he had a huge minivan to manoeuvre around, and he was going to have to do an overnighter to get us to rafting. We met up at about 11:30 at Tarumi station (in Kobe), then headed to pick up a few of the others at Sougoundokoen Stadium (where I saw Vissel Kobe play a few weeks ago). They were lost and late, and it was starting to get a little frustrating for the drivers, but we eventually all got together and got on the road.

On the way, we went over the Akashi Kaikyou Bridge, and I was so excited! It was a really cool long trip across. Even thought I didn't really expect to get any sleep, I fell asleep somewhere on Awaji Island, and dozed on and off until we got to Shikoku. We finally pulled into our destination at about 4 am, and the poor drivers got a few hours of sleep before a big day of rafting tomorrow.

FHotD: Thai food - I have a brilliant penang curry in Kobe. Of course, it wasn't a patch on Orawan's penang curry, but it was nice to have something with a bit of real chilli in it!