Last month, I had the pleasure of attending Yosakoi in Kochi. It was the first time in several years that the festival was held, previous years being canceled due to Covid. It was fantastic! The colorful costumes and intricate dance routines were thrilling to watch. And every team seemed to have a different song, which made it a bit more diverse than Okayama’s Uraja festival. No offence to the Uraja fans out there!

I was lazy this time and didn’t bring my real camera, but here are a few pictures from my phone.

Dave-sensei was on "Let's Enjoy English!" on Radio MOMO (79.0 FM). Dave and D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu talk in English and Japanese about Dave’s trip to America. Click the button below to listen.

Hello September！

It's still muggy and I feel like the heat hits me like a wall whenever I go out!

How was your summer vacation?

I hope that you had a nice time with your family, friends and people around you！

さて、うだるような暑さですが皆さまの夏休みはいかがだったでしょうか？

私は行動制限の無い夏は久しぶりだったので「今年こそは！！」と意気込んで県外に旅行に友人と行く予定でしたが、感染者増加に伴い(勝手に)自粛をしこの2週間ほぼ岡山にいました。

しかし、心優しい生徒さんと友人が連れ出してくれました！

夏休みが始まる前、「BBQをする予定なんですが一緒にいかがですか？」とお誘いをTさんから頂きBBQに参加させて頂きました。

生まれて25年間、一度もBBQに行ったことのない私はどきどきしながら行きましたが、全て用意してくださっていたので非常に楽しかったです！

美味しいお肉やお料理が食べれて私は非常に幸せな気分になれました。

食材から何から何まで準備をしてくださりせっせとお肉を焼いてくださる生徒さんの姿を見ながら「いやあ、、家事力が高いなあ、、さすがだなあ、、」と思いました。

食事を楽しんだ後はたくさんお話をしました。

Yさん、Tさん、Aさんといろいろお話をし、人生の先輩方からアドバイスを頂き非常に有意義な時間を過ごすことが出来ました。

そしてお盆開けに友人と島根に旅行に行ってきました。

祖父母が島根に住んでいるので幼い頃は何度も行く機会がありましたが、大学生になってからはアルバイトや講義で忙しく(言い訳ですが..)大学を卒業してからもなかなか行く機会がありませんでした。

今回久しぶりに行ってきました！

幼い頃はどこかに連れて行ってもらっても「ほ〜すごいなあ〜」という意見しか出ませんでしたが、今回の旅行では、昔よく連れてきてもらっていた場所に行った時に「おおお！」と思ったのと同時に非常に懐かしい気分になりました。

The Japanese ryokan where we stayed was in the sedate city and I really liked it!

宿泊した旅館がとても趣があり、「老後は島根に住もう」と安易に考えたりしました。笑

島根からの帰りには大山に立ち寄り、SさんとSさんがおすすめされていたハンバーガー屋さんに行きました。

お値段は少しお高めでしたがとても美味しかったです！

ハンバーガーはもちろんとてもおいしかったです..が！なんと私のお気に入りはセットのフライドポテトでした。

今までで食べたフライドポテトの中で1番美味しかったです！（岡山にあったら週1回行きたいくらいです。。）

可愛がってくださる生徒さんと友人のおかげで久しぶりにかなりしっかりと予定が入っていた夏休みで、非常に充実した夏休みを過ごせました！

I’m looking forward to hearing about your summer vacation in class! 

では See you in my next blog post!！

During the Neo Summer Break, I spent a few days travelling in Nagasaki. The main destination I wanted to visit was Gunkanjima. A long time ago, I first discovered Gunkanjima online and I have always been interested in going there ever since. While I had been to Kyushu before, I never found the chance to go to Nagasaki, and so with this chance I finally decided to make the trip.

Gunkanjima is a nickname used for the island ‘Hashima’ because the island looks like a battleship. Hashima was set up as a coal mining facility a long time ago, and people lived on the island until around 1970 when the coal reserves dried up. At its peak, about 5300 people lived on the island. The island is small, so I think it is quite amazing so many people lived in a such a small space. While no one has lived on the island for a long time, it was opened as a tourist spot in 2009 and has since been a popular destination.

The main challenge of visiting Gunkanjima is that boat tours to the island often do not land on the island. This is because the waves around the island are often too high, and it is dangerous to land. When I visited, there had been heavy rain two days before, and so the waves were high. At the port the staff warned us that we may not be able to land on the island. Twenty minutes before we arrived at the island, the guides told us the waves were too high and that they would check one more time when we arrived. Luckily once we got there the height of the waves was safe enough to land.

I have always found old ruins, and remains of the past to be fascinating to explore. Gunkanjima has an air of sadness despite there also being many beautiful nature spots growing around the island. Sadly, there is only a small area of the island you can walk around. This is because the buildings on the island are unsafe and could fall down anytime. The guides told us that they could fall down in the next typhoon, but they do not know exactly when. We learned about the kinds of buildings they lived in, where children went to school, and where they would eat out. The island functioned like a very small city. Gunkanjima is a fascinating place to experience and a window into the past. I highly recommend you visit someday. Just be careful of getting seasick….

Dave-sensei will be on Radio MOMO (79.0FM) with D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu on Thursday, September 1st (today!), at about 5:40 pm. They will talk in English and Japanese about Dave’s trip to America.

9月1日（木）5時40分ごろにDave先生がRadio MOMO (79.0FM) に出演します（DJは上別府千晶さん）。英語と日本語の両方でアメリカの旅について話します。

• http://www.fm790.co.jp/