Last weekend, 14 of us met in the big city on Shikoku and piled onto the 2:00 am bus headed North. After about five hours of half-sleep, we arrived at Mizuho, a nice little ski area near the Sea of Japan. It turned out to have great snow and pretty decent runs. We were on the mountain until the last possible chairlift and then we caught the bus to Hiroshima for the night. After refueling with the closest thing I’ve seen to Mexican food, we danced into the wee hours of the morning at a slew of ex-pat bars. In the morning, a few of us somehow managed to get up to walk the Peace Park and see the War Museum.





Models of the city before and after the A-bomb



The ferry ride back through the Inland Sea



I just had my final class and party with my beginner's English class. Although our conversations never really got beyond, “how are you?” “what are your hobbies?” “how is the weather?”…etc., I still feel like I got to know them really well and I was really sad to have it end after four months...hopefully we will reunite for a picnic in the spring.