Tadmai Chu Bunkasai and Climbing Gamo Dake

This weekend I was asked to attend the Tadami Junior High School Bunkasai (Cultural Festival) I had helped some of the students with their English displays so it was nice to be able to see them perform. Many parents came to watch their children and there was several plays, musical performances, and dance performances. It was quite entertaining, although not being able to understand a lot of it, it did seem to drag a little bit. Here is a photo with one of my JTEs (Ikegami Sensei) and a 2nd Grade class afterwards:

And another photo of the head of the student council being thrown in the air:

It didn't really seem like work, but it did mean I had to come into school in my own time, so I got a day off on Monday. Satoko usually has her days off on Monday too so we decided to climb one of the mountains in Tadami. It's not very big only about 800m but it was quite steep and really enjoyable to climb up.

There were parts where there were ropes and it would have actually been quite difficult to climb without them. It would have been even more difficult going down without the ropes as it was a bit slippy. Satokos mum came with us as well and seemed to find it much easier than me (The big clumsy foreigner) to get down.

On the way up I somehow managed to step in some bear shit. I thought it was on Satoko's shoe at first and then felt pretty stupid when I realised it was me. There's lots of bears around Tadami but they are usually very timid and if you carry a bell they stay away from the sound. Unfortunately though it does not do anything to prevent people from stepping in their shit and it was a pretty awful smell.

Despite the smell we got to the top at a leisurely pace in just over an hour. When we got there, there was a a small wooden box with a book to write in. I thought it was a nice little touch and there was even a message from Simon who was the ALT in Tadami a few years ago. There were some great views from the top and you could really see just how many mountains there are around Tadami. Hopefully I'll climb a few more of them before I leave.