All this and I slept in until 10:30!

So, Saturday is usually my big lay around and do nothing day but today was something different. Let me start with last night. Every few months, the teachers at my school get together and have a big drinking party (as you have seen in a few of my other posts) well last night was yet another one of those big functions. They are a pain to go to but, in the end I always end up having a great time whenever I go. The school season in Japan ends in March and starts in April. As a result, as with any school anywhere I suppose, you lose some teachers and you gain some teachers. Well, what happened last night was they had all the teachers who had left, and all those new teachers gather with everyone else and well... to make a long story short, a lot of boring speeches. They sat us all down in front of a lot of really good looking sea food and passed the mic around. 46 minutes later (I timed it) we all tipped our wine glasses to the sky and toasted something... I quit paying attention on like the 11th teachers speech. Kind of weird raising an empty glass but, I wasn't alone.

Well, as the night goes on, and everyone has had a few minutes to drink what you do is you take a beer bottle over to someone you want to talk to and sit in front of them and talk, filling up their glass whenever it gets low. Kind of fun, kind of obligatory and kind of tiring at the same time too. Well, one such instance I decided to speak to my vice principal, who I thought was a pretty cool guy already. Come to find out, he plays guitar and bass, and has been doing so since about 17 yrs old. He is getting up there so, I guesstimate he has been playing the guitar for around 40 years? Well, anyways for the past 20, he has been getting together playing with a band he started every week which plays big band hits like Glen Miller and things like Sinatra and, Armstrong, Brubeck. Just a whole lot of fun, jazzy things. Well, we spoke for a while and then the party was moved to another room, the karaoke room. Well, he and I decided to do a duet so we set up a little Elvis and knocked it way out of the stadium. All I can say is I am glad I have a pretty fun personality and not afraid to meet to and talk to new people!



So, starting in Isobe there is a bike trail which if you follow, takes you along the beach, in the middle of nowhere and after a few hours you end up at a lighthouse which is pretty famous in this region. Well, we hopped on our bikes at around half past noon, thinking we would hit this place in like an hour... at least I did. It was a really warm day, warmest we have had all year so putting on light jackets we headed out armed only with our bikes, wallets and cellphones. After about forty five minutes on the road we stopped by a convienant store where we bought a few snacks and headed out onto the road again. Well, as it turns out, we arrived at this lighthouse about three hours after leaving home. It wasn't too bad of a trip but, just a lot of up and down, up and down. The weather was favorable and upon reaching our destination, a quick climb to the top provided a few choice shots. Too bad the quality is cell-phone quality but, not bad none-the-less. Well, at the end of the day, we found ourselves in a city we frequent often but, having our bikes gave us a reason to do a little bit of shopping. We went to lunch, bought a bunch of stuff for the house and for my class and finally made it home. Looking at the map below, you can see the route we followed. Ended up being around 35-40 kilometers. It was a really, really, really fun day.



Why... what is this?