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Click here to see a short video tour of these grounds.

A roadside sign at the entrance to a municipal park. Things not to do in the park...

These next five are photos taken walking around the grounds of this shrine. (I'm not sure if "shrine" is the right word, but I'm gonna use it).

At the entrance...

On our ride, we happened across a fairly recently built burial ground shrine area. It was really beautiful. We spent some time walking around. This is a map of the grounds.

An auto shop that appeared to specialize in volkswagen bugs and vans.

Since Jonathan moved from Kisarazu, we had not had time to retrieve our bicycles that were being stored down there. We couldn't take them on the train and we didn't know anyone who had time to lug them up in their car for us. So over a period of two or three weekends, we rode them the 35 kilometers or so that they needed to be transported. We started here, in Kisarazu. This is a small builidng we ran across that looks like some kind of church.

More shots in wetsuits. Nice.

Our second part of the day was canyoning. This is where you actually swim down a river and slide over waterfalls completely with your body only. No boat. Our first waterfall was an 18 meter drop. So they hooked us up to a rope and lowered us to 15 meters. Then, after brief yet thorough instructions on how to position our bodies and how to stay safe, we committed our lives to the hands of God and went geronimo to the pool at the bottom of the falls. It was REALLY scary. We did some other high drops and went over other smaller waterfalls. I was pretty scared the whole time, but the guides kept us safe and it prob'ly wasn't as scary as it seemed to me. But I liked being scared. It was a LOT of fun.

Our first part of the day was whitewater rafting. We had about seven people in a yellow raft, including one professional guide. The rapids weren't incredible, but it was definitely fun. I fell out once and got sucked under the boat which was a little scary, but they prepared us for such events, so there was no problem. Here we are with some of our group members modeling our very attractive wetsuits.

Jonathan waits for some soba (a soup containing noodles made from flour and wheat)at the station while we wait to catch our connecting train.

On May 21, we went whitewater rafting and canyoning in Minakami, Gunma prefecture about four hours from us. The water was pretty cold. We had to catch the 4:30am train to make it on time. Here I am trying to wake myself up...

Here are couple of pictures of my the other English teachers I work with at Chiba Jyoshi High School. At the beginning of every year, it's typical for groups of teachers to have a formal meeting at a restaurant and have a "drinking party." It's literally called that. You eat a lot of food and drink a lot of sake and then go home. It's strange and cool and fun. It was a really good experience for me. It really helped me feel comfortable with the group of teachers I work with.

Yamane and Mitsuki sharing drinks at karaoke.

Me.

Mitsuki's older sister's (and Yamane's cousins) Miho (left) and Ayami. They're both in college.

Mitsuki (left) and Yamane. They're doing "goma suri" which is the grinding of sesame seeds into a fine powder. Incidentally, this motion of using your fist and making a circular motion over your open palm is a way of calling someone a "brown-noser" or "apple polisher." The ground sesame is poured over your main dish.

The family of some students that I teach on Monday nights took Jonathan and I out for dinner and karaoke one evening. We ate ton katsu (pork cutlets served over a thick bed of cabbage) and then sang karaoke together. Very fun. This is Michiko Nagao. She's the grandmother of the family and she definitely rules the roost.

Jonathan rocks ala Hendrix.

Nice apron.

Jonathan likes to cook. I like Jonathan to cook. He makes great curry and good mixed cooked veggie dishes.

Jonathan stands proudly next to a model of one of his many "dream cars." His main qualification for his dream car: it must have wheels 'the size of a big mac."

This very modest field wild flowers grows near our home.

One day waiting for the train to pass while walking around nearby Funabashi.

I couldn't help asking for a photo with them, though. Heh heh. They looked at me like "as if I would ever do something that uncool" but somehow I got them to geek it up for the camera anyway.

Here's an interesting sight. You see guys like this hanging out near every major station. It's not really clear WHO they work for, but it's shady dealings. They're pretty fun to watch in action. They basically stand around and wait for cute chics to walk by and then they fall into step with them and try to smooth talk them into joining whatever underground sex-trade-esque business dealing they have going. And how could you refuse? Just look at these guys. They are clearly trustworthy.

These next few photos are "candids" from things we do and see in our daily life in Chiba. This photo was taken from an upper story of the Sen-City Tower near Chiba station. This is the view of downtown Chiba city. You can see the tracks of the monorail in the bottom right corner.

The mud had a pretty profound suction effect on your feet as you walked. Jonathan briefly lost his sandal deep in the mud...

Jonathan helps load some rice onto the machine.

Mr. Fuchimoto sets out to cross the field.

The next day we planted rice! It was really fun. The main part of the field was planted with a machine (as in, the machine you see here). But the edges and parts that the machine missed we had to plant by hand. The mud was about two feet deep and you sank in up to above your shins. You had to get used to the feeling of bugs squishing around between your toes (I was barefoot) and not think about all the leeches infesting the water that could try to suck all your blood. After I got over that, it was fun. Tedious work, but a novel experience that I'd love to participate in again.

After dinner, the Fuchimotos treated us to a tea ceremony. It's an old tradition in Japan that is now practiced as an art. It consists of a special order of drinking the tea and showing respect to those you're drinking with. It's all very quiet and solemn. It was interesting. Unfortunately, it was so dark it was hard to take a good photo, but you can get a pretty good idea from this. The kettle in the center contains the special tea (called "maccha").

A caterpillar that I found in the Fuchimoto's garden. Very fuzzy.

Lots of clapping. Successes here are often followed by frantic bouts of childish-like clapping. How cute.

During dinner, Yasuko Fuchimoto taught me once again how to write the kanji for my name.

A building that sits in the Fuchimoto yard.

On May 1, Jonathan and I once again were invited to stay with our friends, the Fuchimotos in Kazusa-Minato about an hour and a half south of our place in Inage. This time it was to celebrate the begining of "Golden Week," a week in Japan that consists of four national holidays in a row so everyone gets to take work off at that time. On this weekend, the Fuchimotos were also planting rice in their rice field and invited us to help them. So the night we arrived, they served us a delicious Japanese dinner and the next day we planted rice!