秋吉台 - Akiyoshidai

"Slow down at the turn." For about 20 minutes on the way to Akiyoshidai we decided to take a quick detour through Rohan. 

 Peter Jackson would've been proud, though I suppose we were lacking in the excessive helicopter tracking shots department.

 This tree though.

 In Akiyoshidai there are many attractions including a zoo,

 ...that we didn't visit. Instead we went to the highest point in the town and home of the Youth Nature Center. Somewhat ironically it seems as though all the trees had been removed within maybe a 5 kilometer radius of the place, but nevertheless it was beautiful. I very much enjoyed the treelessness. Also the geography of the area was very interesting to see, as the basalt karst topography resulted in some interestingly shaped rock outcrops.

 After that windblown experience we decided that a better way to continue our journey would be to go through the mountain, somewhere Peter Jackson's helicopter could never follow. Thus we entered the Mines of Moria Akiyoshidai Dokutsu.

I didn't have tripod for this 2 sec exposure so it took me 16 tries to get this shot.

 4 tries. There was a post I could rest it on thankfully.

 3 tries (another post). It may not seem so amazing, Moria Akiyoshidai Dokutsu, but to try and give some perspective the outcrop in the distance is taller than me. Additionally, at it's deepest point, the cave is more than 50 meters (more than 160 ft.) from floor to ceiling. 

 After our adventures in the cave we left for the comfort of the car. And actually ended up going over half mountain again. (Sound familiar?)

And thus returned home to the Shire, I mean Yamaguchi, and ate some delicious dinner. 

長崎・留学フェア２０１５ Nagasaki - Exchange Student Fair 2015

On the 13th our class traveled to Nagasaki with some students from other schools to visit the Exchange Student Fair 2015. 

 I learned some pretty interesting things about exchange students in general, and I took some nice pictures.

 There were booths for each country. I visited the booths for Germany, France and Korea respectively.

 #noedit

I really enjoyed the Korean booth. I had a nice conversation with a Korean man in Japanese about the beauty of language and the process of doing foreign exchange in Korea.

 I also spoke with a women at that booth in English, which she was more confident in than Japanese.

 It was interesting to speak with a person who was Mongoloid in appearance but wasn't native Japanese.

 My experience conversing though with the other man in Japanese shows that it's not always English that's the key to opening up other cultures.

 I think that students in countries other than America, should look to experience an other culture through the eyes of it's own, unique language, as opposed to just learning English because it's common. If you want to go to France, or Russia, than you shouldn't start by learning English. First, try learning French, or Russian, because you never know how that might open up new communication.

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela. It's an overused quote, but it represents why I myself don't strive to learn a language for the sole reason that it would seem to be universal, or always practical. 

 I choose to speak the language in order to live in the culture and ideas of an other people. And because speaking a language has to change the way you think, 

maybe, 

it will help me to understand my own culture likewise in a new way.

宮島・しかを信じられない Miyajima - I Can't Believe The Deer

Two week's ago I visited Miyajima in Hiroshima, Japan. It's a very well known island and tourist attraction, particularly due to it's it's very own, very large Torii, situated about 30 meters off shore. The small island is a short 10 minute ferry ride from the mainland Hiroshima city and offers great views of the surrounding port and sea. You can also bring you car on the ferry, though it's quite expensive. On Miyajima there is one town who's economy is fueled, I'm sure, by at least 97% tourism, as there is no other industry present on the island.

Seeing as how a single-resource economy is always potentially unsustainable, I myself thought of a potential way to diversify the Miyajima island economy.
Deer.

These guys straight live on the streets in Miyajima. They're surprisingly clean, and very well tempered.

The opportunities are endless: deer-draw carriage rides, deer races, deer for the blind (guide deer), therapy deer, and so much more...

And then there was also this lamp.

And this Ginko leaf.

Oh yeah, and also the giant Torii. (As soon as I took this picture about 32 tourists immediately swarmed the spot where I had been standing.)