Hakari Beach & The Music Playing Windmill.

Just to prove I have actually left my apartment since I arrived here (sorry, these few blog posts have been remarkably uninteresting), here are a few photos from this past weekend. The local Yamaguchi JETs had a beach party in Hikari. I got bored on Saturday morning so I headed to Hikari a bit early and found a Shinto Shrine. Briefly:
The Stairway.

The Temple.

And this dripping water thing that would make a sweet bathroom sink.

Then there was a beach party... beach parties are internationally identical:

After the beach party a few of us crashed at Michael’s (kiwi JET on the right) apartment and the next day decided to climb the hill to a windmill the supposedly played music.

There is the climb.

There is the windmill.

And lo and behold, it actually did play music. Check it out, it’s like one of those old piano/organ dealies; but has cymbals, bass drum, and puppets with little bells to go with it. 

A couple of Japanese dudes who worked at the wind mill really got a kick out of us, played us more songs on the puppet organ thingy, and then the dude on the left taught us how to walk on Japanese stilts while the dude on the right carved us each a Japanese puzzle game and a “helicopter” out of wood. Nice guys.

Japan is kind of like Alice in Wonderland; after climbing to a music playing windmill to be met by old Japanese men who carve you puzzles you don’t walk down the mountain, no that would be too predictable, you take the slide down (yes, there was a slide back down the mountain). I didn’t take a picture of this for some reason; was too busy sliding.

I will be getting internet at my apartment on the 11th, so hopefully I’ll be better about sharing pictures and stories once that happens. Also, I’ll be able to Skype folks once I get that. Hopefully get to see/talk to you then. Cheers.