First Weekend

My first full weekend in Japan, and first weekend in Shimanto-cho began as all weekends in Summer begin: it was hot. Mikey, the other ALT in my town, and I went to Kubokawa-cho to pick up Candice, the third ALT in our area. The three of us drove into Kochi City for the day. We went to the market for lunch and had a look around, stopping in at a bookstore to take a look.

We went to Kochi Castle. Apparently there are quite a few Japanese castles scattered around the place. This one appears to be in the middle of the city. It's a bit of a walk up the steps that surround the citadel, but even in the humid heat it is well worth the exertion and exercise. After paying to get inside the building, we had a look at all the displays, some of which were actual artifacts from the time of the ruling lord, Yamauchi.

Upon reaching the top of Kochi-jo, we were met with a spectacular view of the entire city. I had taken multiple photos around the castle and decided that to best capture what we were seeing, I would take a short video of the surrounds as seen from the peak. When I am able to upload said photos and movie, I will link to them.

After sweating our way back down to the street, Michael showed us an anime store. Candice wasn't interested, but I found it to be one of the most amazing shops I've been in, to date. It was decorated with anime posters and was chock full of OSTs, DVDs, magazines and graphic novels (manga). At least I know where to shop for my brother for Christmas. XD

We made our way back to the car and left that area of Kochi city. We drove to the local mall and spent some time looking around there. I bought a pair of much needed shorts. We left for Shimanto town after we had had a good look around the mall.

After dropping Candice off in Kubokawa, Mikey and I picked up some things at the supermarket, and drove back to his place in Taisho. We cooked up some spaghetti and watched a movie, Hot Fuzz. I went home after that.

Sunday was nice and hot, but I wasn't able to enjoy it. I woke up with a migraine, so my intentions to go to the AoG in Kubokawa resulted in failure. I spent an agonising day in bed as each second seemed to draw out in excruciating pain and discomfort.

I was finally able to get up in the evening to clean the bathroom. Michael dropped around to see how I was and since I needed some fresh air, we went back to his place to chill for a bit. We watched The Angry Videogame Nerd and Ask a Ninja podcasts before I walked through the fresh (but hot) air back home.

Weekend one over. Week one begins.

Timotheos