The Hike to Jyoumon Sugi

The sun rose after hiking for awhile in the semi-dark.

The day after Thanksgiving I went with Brittany and her friends on a hike to Jyoumon Sugi, the oldest and largest ceder on Yakushima. It's an eight hour hike plus travel time to get to the trail head so we had to get up at four.
A lot of the path is pretty easy. We started by following this old track into the mountains for about two hours.
After the tracks we climbed up into the woods. The paths are all well maintained and there is nothing too treacherous.
This is Jyoumon Sugi, though looking at a photo doesnt do it justice. I may try to post more later and get a little more detailed, I just don't have the energy right now.

House

I've been meaning to put up some pictures of my house for awhile now. I'll try to get more up in the future, its a pretty good sized house especially for just one person.

There's that cat again, hiding in the sun. This is one big room that can be divided into two with sliding doors. My bed is in the lower left corner and the desk and table is where I spend most of my time.

My house from the front. It's deeper than it is across the front.

Mid November

I haven't done anything very exciting over the last few weeks. Nor have I taken any good pictures or painted anything worth showing. I went to Kagoshima city again for a long weekend of teacher training and shopping. I ended buying lots of great stuff, like a squirrel gathering nuts for a long winter. Books, comics, paint, canvases, electonics, games, should keep me busy.

Next weekend Brittany and I are planning on having a Thanksgiving get together with our teachers and friends. We're gonna do our best to make a big dinner (neither of us cook well) and we'll see what happens. There are no turkeys in Japan and even if they're were there wouldn't be any on Yakushima. We're gonna have to get creative.