Glen's Visit

Glen's trip was short so we had to do as much as possible in the time he was given and also around my schedule. He arrived Saturday evening, on Sunday we went to Tokyo, Monday we went to my school and then Tuesday we went to Nikko. I love Nikko, it is an escape from the concrete and rice paddies of Saitama and Tokyo. 

Nikko is the end of Japan's version of the Romantic road. Nikko is a national park (日光国立公園) that houses some UNESCO world heritage sights: Nikko Tosho-gu (a Shinto shrine built in honour of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and Rinno-ji (a Buddhist temple under repairs right now). At Tosho-gu, there are the famous monkeys: hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil, and the sleeping cat. It's beautiful and I love going to Nikko. It's too bad that we didn't get to go up to Chuzenjiko via Irohazaka. Maybe another time.

On Wednesday we went canyoning at Okutama! Okutama is a mountainous area in Tokyo prefecture. It was my first time going there, but definitely not my last. Since we were the only two people who went canyoning, we got to do things that others don't. We jumped lots, did flips and abseiled. At the end of it all, the owner of the company gave Glen the pictures and movies they took for free! Nice deal. After getting back, we carved pumpkins with my neighbours, one of which had never carved one before! That was fun. We had bought tiny orange pumpkins from Costco.

On Thursday we went surfing in Onjuku. It was pretty chilly and the surf was small, but I caught a lot of waves. I don't think Glen was so successful, but hopefully he had fun. After surfing we chatted a bit with the owner of Flying Sumo Surf shop and shared a pumpkin beer. This beer was soooo delicious! It has something ridiculous like 7 kg or 7 lb of pumpkin per barrel, it tasted like pumpkin pie! 

On Friday we met up with Cory and his wife Yuko in Tokyo. We went to Shinjuku Gyoen park, the Imperial Palace Gardens (which were closed) and Asakusa. 

That evening we had Shabu Shabu to eat with my coworker and her husband. I ate way too much, which is par for the Shabu Shabu course.

On Saturday I had to work all day at a debate tournament, so Glen went to Tokyo by himself. My students finished 8th out of over 25 teams! I was very proud of them and in awe of their abilitiy to keep doing debate.

The next day Glen had to leave stupid early, like 5:30 am or something, to get to the airport. I accompanied him part way and we said our good byes. At which point he continued on his way to Korea.