a long weekend

Well it was really that long. On Saturday I slept in and then ventured outside and played some badmietten, or however you spell it and then saw my Japanese tutor. On Sunday my tutor and I visited some nearby towns here in the mountains. Ryujin-mura is right next door to me. It is ryu is dragon. So it is sort of the dragon village. It was a big place and is popular for its onsens, or hot spas. I have yet to go get naked with a bunch of other people in a tub of hot mountain water. I sure it will happen someday. I saw one sad site in Miyama. We crossed this cool cable suspension bridge to this hill that has this park. Well the park has been neglected and is full of weeds and is falling apart. Landslides have taken out parts of the walkway going down the back side of the park. In the park there is a big outdoow clock that is suppose to have flowers all around it and grass in the middle. In its current state the clock is broken and is covered in weeds.
On Monday I ventured into the prefecture(state) capitol for a ALT/JET meeting. All the ALTs in Wakayama had to congregate at the Big Ai building in Wakayama City for Monday and Tuesday to go to a few workshops. Only one of the workshops was somewhat helpful. I did get to meet a few other ALTs in the area and from other places. I didn't really talk to too many people though. Everyone seemed pretty friendly though. Lots of people went out for dinner and drinking afterwards in the city. I instead went back home and watched some West Wing and studied a bit. I would have hung out, but I had driven and having a car is nice, but it is hard to dump it in the city. Plus I had no money with me. Not enough to buy dinner, so I opted to go home.
These ALTs are from all over the world. Most ALTs are American, but I'd say that would be about 50 or 55% of them. The rest are from Ireland, Britian, Jamiaca, Australia, New Zeland, and of course Canada. Japanese English Teachers attended the conference too. I saw one Japanese English Teacher who was speaking English with a slight Aussie accent. It was cool.
On Tuesday, me and a girl who lives in the near-by city of Gobo, ditched out half-way through the last workshop to drive over to the prefecture immigration office to get our Re-Entry stamps placed in our passports. With out these little stamps you can't back into the country, even if you still have a valid visa. So it was an important visit. We the drove back home. Candice got sick half way home and tried to puke out of my car while on the highway. She left some brachalli on the window. After dropping here off I went to Miyoko's for the big dinner. Only a few ALTs showed up. It was a pleasant meal. I nearly forgot I drove and started to drink too much wine. Someone stopped me in time and I was fine.
So tomorrow I go to the junior high school. I saw the JH English teacher in the lunch room at the conference on Tuesday. She was there for a different conference on teaching. It was surprising to see here and a few other teachers from Miyama there.