Scootering it to Gujo
I've been lazy with my updates... I see this now.. woops.. I hope I can catch up with them.
We're hitting the summer period of hell now... currently its the rainy season. When they say rain, its more like monsoon... as the rain just falls down from the sky as if a bucket has been tiped over. Its pretty bad. Although its usually about 30 degrees at the least during the day. This will quickly go up to 40 degrees in a few weeks. Fun for all the family. August is usually the killer. Its extremely humid here... its pretty bad.
A few weeks ago I took my scooter on a tour of Gifu. When I say a tour, I mean I just took it to where rin lives. But that in itself was a 3 hour journey (ok so I managed to get there in 2 hours as I was speeding). It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and the roads ran right into the mountains. Very nice. The next day I took a ride around the town by myself on my scooter.
On the way up to the top of the mini mountain where the castle was.
Gujo castle.
The view from the castle. It was pretty hot and I ended up sunburnt. The oval shapped building is the gym in Gujo Hachiman.
It was slightly lonely but walking about Gujo Hachiman by yourself was kind of refreshing after a while.
The town is built around the theme of water. Theres lots of areas where you can drink the water going around the town (this is not as disgusting as it sounds).
This being one of said little drinking areas.
Plenty of fresh water.
This is in the main part of the town. Pretty nice view.
Lots of people like to go swimming and jump off the bridge into the river. I'll be trying that nearer the summer I think.
Also whilst walking down the street I found a deep fried godzilla (yum). I got talking to some of the store owners who were all pretty nice and were trying to get me to drink some free sake (I didnt!!).
Gujo is pretty nice, but I wouldn't want to live there. Theres nothing open past 8-9pm every night and theres not even a Mc Donalds (something that there are far too many off in Japan).
However, seeing as both Shimpei and Rin are up there now, I'm sure that I will be visiting them alot, or at least once a month. Thankfully shimpei has a really nice new car that I wouldn't mind going to visit!
My Scooter seems tiny in comparison! Nice new mazda rx7. I'm very envious.
Currently I'm studying for my driving test to take at the end of the month. The driving test here is insane, with so many tiny rules to follow and things that you can slip up. I'm taking it easy over the next few weeks. Most people pass on the 3rd or 4th time, and the process is very expensive. Heres hoping that I can pass it. I already have a car lined up (in the form of Shimpei's family's car), so I have the incentive to drive and pass the test. I really hope I can get it on the 1st or 2nd time, but then thereafter theres the 3rd part to the test where you have to do a paper test and a driving test (after doing the same earlier only on a track course). Japan generally is stupidly expensive when it comes to the basic things like learning to drive. All of my money is going into driving just now.. which is really annoying after paying so much out in the uk already..
Other than that, life is the same old same old. I'll update later, but for now..I have to get back to work! 1 hour to go and I want to get revising again in that hour (when I say work, I say study....because I don't have work to do at this school.).