Mos Burger

Well, last week was pretty solid. Friday was intense. After teaching two lessons and playing dodgeball twice with the kids at Shougawa Elementry school on a glarious warm and sunny day I drove 20 minutes back to the BOE office to find out that there was going to be a mochi maki in Sougawa in 30 minutes. Of course I wanted to go, so I drove all the way back to Sougawa. Not a bad drive either, it is a very scenic drive. Driving along the river with the late afternoon sun breaking breaking over the tops of the moutains. Plus it was warm. So I got back and was picked up by the kyoto sensai. She drove me and the lunch lady down into Sougawa a bit further and then we hiked up the side of this small mountain on a path that was really narrow. Passing through a mini-Torii gate only reveled more of the same steep path, but soon I was at the top and privy to a beautiful view of Sougawa. There was this really small opening with a metal stand with a small shrine near it. The kids formt he school were up there too. Most people were older folk. We waited a bit and then they candy and ramen. It was a feeding frenzy. People diving everywhere. You had to be careful to fall off the edge too. Then they threw tons of mochi. Occasionally they threw a huge mochi, which if you caught, you would get a prize. I had a decent haul and later some of the kids gave me some candy and chips. As I was drving away later, I gave some mochi to an older guy who speaks some English. On my way back I stopped at Kasamatsu Elementry school and shared some of the spoils with the teachers there. It was about 4:30 so all the kids at that school were gone already.
I saw a monkey running across the street and up a mountain when driving back home from Sougawa each time. I tried to take a picture but he was too fast.
Later that night I was suppose to meet up a play Halo 2 with another ALT, but when I got home I just fell asleep.
On Saturday I did meet up with four ALTs at Mister Donut infront of Roman City. Right as I met up with them, the two girls that are about my age that work at the Junior High drove by and said 'hello' to me from their car. From there we walked to the nearby hostpital and practiced some Tai-Chi with a Chinese teacher. The teacher is a great guy, and always laughs one of those hardy laughs. He knows Chinese and Japanese and a little English. We spent about 3 hours there and then some of went and saw Oceans 12 at Roman City. Which was a fantastic movie. I'd say it was worth the $17 I had spend for the ticket. I will probably be able to buy it for that price when it comes out on DVD. From there me and another ALT took a try at a place called Mos Burger.
This place is a healthy burger place, supposedly, with fresh meat and they cook it right there for you.
On Sunday I just hung around a lot and the met up with Tetsuji to have some Unagi at an all Unagi restaurant. It was awesome Unagi. I will definatly go back there again sometime.
And so, today's visit to Kawa-Shou was a good. Most kids enjoyed what I did, and I have took a crack at hiragana in the 5ht grade's Shoudou class.
I missed out on a fire festival down south in some town on Saturday. It is suppose to be a good festival. Hopefully I can get there another time.