I went back to my old guest house, but not to pay anyone a visit, to get my bicycle that has been sitting there for the last 2 years. I put air in the flat tires and made the about 30km journey down to my new guest house in Yokohama. Honnestly, I could buy a new and better bicycle, but I also wanted to see just how long the journey would take. Now I have a bicycle again.
The good thing about being a teacher is that there are a lot of holidays. Recently, I had 5 days off for autumn vacation. For 2 of those days I took a trip up north to Sendai and Yamagata. Being a very spur of the moment trip, I really had no plans and figured out what to see as I went along. The reason I went up to Sendai, which is a little far, was simply because it was the closest place I have not been yet.
Sendai and Yamagata Photo Gallery
The first place I went was Matsushima. The first thing I noticed was that it reminded me a lot of when I used to visit a lake in Canada. Other than being on the ocean there were many islands covered with pine trees. The smell of fish and pine, the sound of the boats, and just the way the small islands looked made me want to return to Canada. I spent the day walking around the islands, and also seeing the famous temple in the area - Zuiganji. Dinner was the famous food in Sendai: beef tongue.
My new friend who recently came from China asked me to take him to the Tokyo Game Show. Since I have been to the show twice already in the past, and Tekken 6 recently came out (so no new Tekken at the show), I really didnt have any plans to go this year, but the ticket price is cheap and there is more than games to see at the show 
My friend Ri-san.
Of course there are lots of games at the show.
And the other reason to go to the show.
I went to Kayo’s cafe (9chair) to eat a wonderful and delicious fig tart.
I also made some Dorayaki, with fig attached.
Enoshima, a small island near Kamakura. The island name E-no-shima is translated to picturesque island. On his way to surfing, my friend Tatsuya dropped me and some friends at Enoshima for the day. The four of us , an international group consisting of an American, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, spent the afternoon walking along the beach and exploring the island.
On the way to Enoshima I found a shark washed ashore. It was still alive so I picked it up, played with it for a while (it wanted to bite me 
), and threw it back into the sea where a bunch of people were surfing.
The Enoshima surf rescue team!
Being a pleasant Saturday Enoshima was pretty crowded. Climbing up there are many temples and shrines, as well as many cats (to come in the next post)
The far end of Enoshima reminded me a lot of Okinawa. There were steep cliffs and tide pools where people were trying to catch crabs. I finally caught one and it pinched me really hard.
I recently joined a futsal, mini soccer, team. We play once a month in a tournament and usually place fairly well. Besides the pink uniform, it is really fun and the people I play with are all great. After the tournaments we all go out for food and drinks.
A group of people from my building got together and went to Tarzania. Tarzania is a fun place where, like Tarzan, you can climb up, walk and swing along platforms high in the trees, and take really long zip-lines down. There are many courses with different obstacles and challenges, not only for kids, and no time limit so I could have lots and lots of fun. I have always loved climbing trees, and this was just another way to do that.
