79. Matsuyama Bound + Photos!!
Osaka Castle, Main TowerSo far, for many of you, my account of this sojourn has been simply a tsunami of prose. I’d gotten behind on photos, because writing takes priority - impressions rapidly change while photos are relatively static.
Well, I’m pleased to say that I’m now “officially” opening my ongoing photo collection: “Japan 2008”
It’s a work-in-progress, of course, for a few reasons:
- I’m still in Japan.
- I haven’t had the chance to add descriptions to most of the photos. They’re categorized and dated, but there aren’t the kinds of mini-narratives that you might expect if you’re familiar with my previous works. (Case in point.) I’ll add captions and tags in earnest when I return to Canada and can justify spending a day or two just doing that.
- There are no photos from my workplace or from work-related events (such as field trips and school performances) yet, although I did upload photos from a teacher-only jaunt to Maegawa Campus to move coat-and-backpack racks - this resulted in minor injury. I’ll be sitting on the rest of the photos for a (long) while, for obvious reasons.
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This weekend we’re hitting the open road - I’ll be reserving a rental car (most likely a minivan, as there’ll probably be seven of us) and we’ll head out to Matsuyama! We’ll visit some temples, and do some other things, too.
Driving on the left for the first time should be fun. We’ll be taking the expressways to Matsuyama, so at least there’s no chance of me suddenly driving on the right wrong side, though I may forget where I am and overtake people in the wrong lane.
S. and K. and D. and… (well, everyone, really) are quite excited about this little adventure. I’m not expecting too much - for me, it’s a chance to visit some of the other temples, although going to the oldest onsen in Japan sounds good on its own merit. The others will find the fun things to do; I’ll just drive. We’ll see how much I still miss driving after umpteen hours behind the wheel, though.
Thank goodness today is payday. I’m down to my last 133 yen. It’s enough to by a 500ml can of Coke on campus and still have 23 yen left for drinking and dancing and all other joys, but I’ll still be very happy and relieved to visit the ATM tomorrow! OK, to be completely honest, I actually have 10,133 yen, but I save the last 10,000 ($100) of each monthly withdrawal as a “travel fund” - that way I can take this trip and the long trip in August without impacting my overall savings rate.
M. has stated repeatedly, “With this job, you can save money or have a social life.”
He’s right. ;-)