Here are some pictures of Japan! Most of these are pictures taken in and around Shimada City.



Shimada Shogyo High School. This is where I work! This is the facade of the building -- it's really quite big! There are 3 floors and it just seems to keep going and going... I haven't had a chance to fully explore the school yet.



Shimada Shogyo's backyard! Well, parts of it. Here is the tennis court and the baseball diamond. In addition to these facilites, there is also a soccer field and 3 gyms... each gymnasium is designated to a certian sport: one for kendo and judo, one for badminton, and one for everything else! The "everything else" gym also acts as the auditorium for assemblies.



Here is the river that runs through Shimada. I'm sure it has a name, but I don't know what it is. It powers the pulp and paper mill in Shimada. Don't you just LOVE the blue-gray hue of the water! At first I did... and then I realized it's that colour because of pollution... and people SWIM in this river! And FISH in it! I bike over the river every day; it's on my way to school. After a rain storm, large cement blocks come up on the "steps" (can you see the 2 steps where the water drops?), about a metre apart, to slow down the water.



Apita! It has many things! A Baskin Robbins, McDonald's, bakery, shops... I guess this would be the Japanese version of a mall. It's not as large as the ones in Canada though, and for some reason, Apita seems to have more restaurants than stores!



Just down the street from Apita, there is Horai Bridge. It's in the Guiness Book of World Records! It is the longest wooden pedestrian bridge in the world (and probably the oldest -- it was built in 1879) and measures a little more than 897 metres long. Almost a kilometre! There's some history to it... I'm not sure exactly. Something about before there was a bridge, you had to pay to cross the river... ON SOMEONE'S SHOULDERS! Now, at the Obi festival, that happens every 3 years in Shimada, they have races on who can get across the river bed the fastest with someone on their shoulders... and I don't think infants count.



Side view of Horai Bridge. The river bed is almost dry at the moment (as you can see from all the rocks under the bridge)... but just wait for a typhoon!