September in Aomori

So, I have not written recently at all. I have been very busy and have not found too much time.
I have been busy with work, after work activities and then many excursions.

Monday through Thursdays go to middle school and Fridays I go to Elementary schools, where they are always crazy. It's amazing how fascinated and excited the kids get about a foreigners. I also live near one of my middle schools that I attend once a month. The students do not think that we (the ALT) exists outside of the classroom, so when I ride past my students they get really excited and start screaming Taysha Sensei!! Which is always fun, last week I was on the way to dinner and saw two groups of kids, then at the grocery store saw another group too.

Other than work I have been busy with Japanese club, hopefully trying to get better at Japanese. Then, Christy (another JET who lives two doors down and who I am always with) and I have started running (we are running in a 3K near Towada Lake in a few weeks). We have also started a bread making class at the home of a really nice Japanese woman. And in October we are starting hip hop classes at the NHK Culture Center. So, that should be interesting.

I have filled up my weekends and long weekends. A few weekends ago was the Aomori scavenger hung and JET welcome party. The scavenger hunt took your team all over the prefecture to find things such as the oldest apple tree in Japan, Jesus' grave, and various other things like eating scallop ice cream. Last weekend I went hiking and camping with some other people at Hakkoda, it was very tiring and very cold on top of the mountains. This weekend Christy and I went to Mutsu to visit our friend Alex. Mutsu is very rural and very far north. To get there we took the train and got off at the most northern train station on Honshu. There we saw the most northern monkeys in the world, went to the most northern point on Honshu (the main island of japan and we could see Hokkaido), Oma, where we ate Japans best tuna, and had a good time!

Life in Aomori is interesting. Aomori is the second poorest prefecture in Japan and you can see it, especially when we leave the city. Aomori is also mainly comprised of old people, its hard to find younger people our age, because many leave the prefecture and those who attend college outside of Aomori usually do not return. Japan has an aging population, but it seems like they have all ended up in Aomori!





Things coming up:
- Next weekend -- Garlic and Beef Festival in Takko
- Oct 3rd weekend -- Soccer Tournament in Nagano
- Oct 10th weekend -- 3k Race in Towada