Happy Rafting in Shikoku

 Roaring waves and rafters alike!

Met up with the aforementioned Tokushima-prefecture JETs for a day of whitewater rafting last weekend; this time instead of making the trip to Akashi, which is a decenly long but still doable drive, I took the express trains to cover the 200+ km.

The weather and scenery were absolutely GORGEous; it was cloudy but not rainy, hot but not uncomfortably so. A perfect day to be out on the water (and in the water--the rapids themselves were fine but our guide had us doing all sorts of balancing acts or otherwise that left us capsized or man overboard-ed). Highlights included stopping for lunch at a bluff overlooking much of the gorge the water ran through and a point nearby where we could "surf" a raft in a rapid where the current came back towards the waterfall. We took turns going in small groups with a guide to keep us afloat, but that didn't do much to avoid the inevitable tossed person/people or capsized raft.

We followed the day of rafting with a night of camping right on the water, building a campfire and enjoying the summer night, and saw some nearby sights the following day. A beautiful weekend and a wonderful getaway.

You can find pictures on facebook here and here.

Beach Ultimate in Akashi

A few weekends ago (June 13-14) I road tripped with a fellow Tottori JET to Akashi--about a 4 hour drive--to play some beach ultimate. The group was pretty similar to the people I played with in Awaji in April; lots of JETs from other prefectures, including Tokushima on the smaller island of Shikoku and Fukuoka, which is pretty far west on the island of Kyushu (in contrast, Tottori is on the northern coast of the southern part of Honshu, Japan's main island).

Saturday's play saw us all mixed up on different teams in a Hat Tournament (where you decide teams by drawing names out of a hat--in this case, we drew our team assignments out of a hat when we registered); most of the teams in Japan are colleges, so I got to chat and play with a handful of guys and gals around my age. I helped carry my team to a 5th-place finish out of some dozen teams. We spent Saturday night in a ryokan, a Japanese-style inn where you sleep on tatami floors with futon mattresses; all 10 of us shared a room together, which made it pretty fun, very nostalgic of sharing cabins at summer camp--thankfully there weren't any big snorers.

Rising Tide!

Sunday we played together on our own team, complete with spray-painted jerseys one of the guys had made. We played hard and well, and wound up finishing 8th out of some 26 teams or so; with a better format or seeding, we could've easily been in the finals though, since we only lost to the eventual champions. Altogether it was a great weekend that left me really excited to play more ultimate! I've only got one more tourney here (and can only make part of it), but I'm looking forward to playing some more once I'm back in the US.

A Golden Week in China

Another JET and I went to China over Golden Week (a series of days off in close proximity to each other in Japan--it doesn't QUITE reach a week, but we covered the gap with a couple vacation days).  We entered and departed through Hong Kong (where you can get a visa for mainland China with about a day's turnaround), with stops in Guangzhou, Xi'an, and Beijing on the itinerary as well.  Notable stops included the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi'an (and the ensuing haggling for small miniatures and souvenirs--at one point, without us even trying, a hawker bid himself down from 180 quai to 30 quai [~$30 to ~$10] as we walked by, merely browsing), and the obligatory trip to the Great Wall of China.

My friend Crank (check out his blog recapping our visit!) lives in Beijing currently, so getting to visit him was also a big highlight--I haven't seen him in a couple years, and given that I haven't seen any Dartmouth folk for a while it was really refreshing to spend a couple days with one of my favorites.

If you want more details, a vaguely slide-show-esque recounting can be found in picture form online.

My favorite, from the great wall (click for full size):

Visiting in Iwami, Adventuring in Hyogo...

Sailing the sea of Japan, departing from the Port of Iwami-cho.

The waterfront is often very rocky, but it makes for some great formations.

They're big on squid here. This guy spins and air dries the scallywags.

They sell squid ink (or maybe octopus ink) ice cream. Tastes just like Vanilla, but...

...it blackens the tongue.


Later, we went to the beach, and got to catch a beautiful sunset (as well as throw the frisbee around, which was much needed).

On our way to Takeda castle...but somehow we wound up lost. Adventure, huzzah!

Aha! Found it!




There's many a great view to be had from this mountaintop castle.

Here's the layout of Takeda castle. Totally worth the trip.