Posters

I had been trying to look around for posters to put on my wall but could never find any nice ones that I liked. After another commented that my walls looked very bare, I decided just to purchase some posters that I liked from the internet. In the end, it was much easier this way and probably cheaper in the end. The posters I got were, the famous wave picture by Hokusai: A nice photo of a lake in autumn that looks like Ontario (but was taken in Maine):
Three Hiroshige pictures. Two of which have Mt. Fuji in them:The small pictures were easy to find cheap frames for, but I had to have this next large picture by Jackson Pollock framed at a store. I'm happy I have a large print by him in my home now:

Mt. Fuji & Yamanaka Lake trip

This past weekend, I went with some workers from my school and some Japanese friends to a lodge on a lake (Yamanaka Lake) near Mt. Fuji.

It was an older lodge and had lots of traditional things there.

There was a group of 10 of us and we had 3 rooms that we stayed in.

Here are some pictures of the lake that we stayed beside and the view of Mt. Fuji in the evening:




The staff at the lodge made us a great feast over a fire in pit in a large dining room.




We even had raw horse sushi:




The next day, we went for swan paddle boat rides around the lake:

We then went for a long drive around Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, it was very foggy and misty that day, so we couldn't see Mr. Fuji, but it made for good photos at a shrine we visited:









The last photos are by the ocean on the drive back to Hamamatsu:

Sunday drive

Today, Ayako and I took a long drive around Hamana Lake (the large lake near our city) to find the last cherry blossoms in full bloom. It was a good day for walking around and feeling that spring has arrived. Here's some photos from the day:

student party

Last night, I had some of my students from my Welding Rod class come over to my apartment for a get-together. We had good food to eat and then played some pool and had a small darts competition. Here's some photos of the fun.

View the weather in Hamamatsu

I've put a link (on the side bar under the map) to a view of ACT tower in Hamamatsu which shows the current weather. . . Enjoy!
Of course, if it's night time here, then it will be a pretty black pictures with red dots where ACT tower is...Sorry^^

Nagoya trip

On Sunday, I went on a trip to the city of Nagoya, which has about 2.5 million people in it. I went with a student of mine, Masaya, and his girlfriend, Junko. It's about 90 minutes west of Hamamatsu. Since it was raining most of the day, it became a shopping tour. We stayed in one area and went to a couple of the big department stores and some other stores. Since Masaya and I both like ska music, we often talk and trade music. He recommended a Japanese ska CD which I bought. I also got a couple of t-shirts. Here's a couple of photos from the trip in front of the Nagoya tower:

Hanami

Last Saturday, the teachers from my school had a get-together for cherry blossom viewing (hanami). We met in a park near our manager's house. We got there about 1 pm although he had been there since 8 am to save a good spot for us. We had a good picnic andwalked around looking at all the cherry blossoms. Here are some of the photos from the day: