Happy Golden Week

It's Golden Week here in Japan, which means 6 straight days off from work. I've taken full advantage of having no responsibilities for a week, and have spent most of that time knitting, cooking, watching dvds, and looking at pictures of Spencer. But I did manage to squeeze in a couple of day trips into my busy schedule of doing nothing.

I spent one day in Kamakura, a small tourist town just outside of Tokyo. This used to be the capital of Japan at one point, so there's dozens of cool temples and zen gardens. It's particularly famous for this giant statue of Buddha:




















It was a cool place, but unfortunately I happened to go on a day when hundreds of students were there on school trips. At one point, I went up to buy a ticket for a temple and I was surrounded by elementary school students. The woman looked at me and charged me the KID'S PRICE!! The sign said kids are supposed to be between the ages of 6 and 11!! She thought I was ELEVEN YEARS OLD!!! Geez, being mistaken for a high school student is forgiveable, but elementary school?? For crying out loud, I'm 23!

Anyway, I'm still bitter but I think I'm getting over it. Yesterday one of the teachers at my school took me and the Australian exchange student on a little road trip. We drove through the neighbouring prefectures of Niigata and Toyama and ended up in a little place called Kanazawa. Apparently this is where some of Japan's most famous samurais used to live. There was a cool castle and some really nice gardens:















But I think the best part was the drive there. We passed by some beautiful snow-covered mountains that kinda reminded me of the ones in Vancouver:















And we also drove along the coast for a little while so I got to see the Sea of Japan:
















So all in all, I've had a really nice, relaxing week away from school. But tomorrow it's back to work as usual :( Only three more months left! Gotta make the most of it. In the mean time, here's another picture of Spencer on his first day home, sternly contemplating life, the universe, and everything: