Hofu Scenery

On September 24th, I was asked to be one of the judges in an area speech contest. This was a speech contest for Junior High level students, from all over Yamaguchi Prefecture. There were four judges total. 2 JTEs (Japanese teacher of English) and 2 ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers...aka me!) The other JET/ALT (I will use these interchangeably) was Brent, my amigo in Yamaguchi city.

Yamaguchi City is only like 20 kilometers away, but it takes me an hour to get there because of the way you have to change trains and the layover in the middle is never a nice 2-5 minutes. So I don't get to see Brent and Hozumi and Eric (City Folk!) as much as I'd like to. But the speech contest was fun, and the kids were AMAZING. They had to have everything memorized! I couldn't do it. And there they were, doing it, not even their native language.

The picture is of us signing the certificates that the winners got. 10 certificates, and the top 5 went on to the National Speech and Recitation championship. Very cool feeling, having to sign a certificate...like I'm important or something. haha.

When I got home from judging the speech contest, I decided to just take a ride. I set out in a direction that I had never been. An hour out, and hour back. I love just picking somewhere I've never been, and just going. Why don't I do this when I'm at home? I bet there are plenty of beautiful areas that I don't know about when I'm in California. I need to buy a bike when I get home, and just ride freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. :)

These kinds of areas are not right in the middle of town, where I'm used to being, but if you just ride 15 minutes out in any direction, from the city center, you are bound to start seeing views like these.

Beautiful time of year! I wish perfect weather could always last. Inbetween super hot, and super cold, why do we only get like a month (tops!) of perfect beautiful weather?

This shrine is just in the middle of the city. Sort of a shanty part of town if you ask me. Car parts shop, car part shop, strange little liquor store, shrine, car parts shop. hehehe..

Its like walking by some gold on the ground...you know? Why is that there? Cool!

I found this shrine hidden away in a mountainy area. No one there at all. In the back of the shrine I found a nice hiking trail, but haven't hiked up that one yet. Wasn't wearing the right shoes at the time. :)