Spring is here

Posted: March 10th, 2008 | Author: amake | Filed under: My life, Photography, Travel | 4 Comments »

Onomichi sunset

It’s been quite a while since my last substantive update, so I’ll keep this brief.

I ran my first half marathon. It was just a practice run for an upcoming competition, but it was great. Unfortunately I soon afterward hurt my foot and had to sit out the actual race.
The last ekiden (relay race) of the season was yesterday. I managed to run 5k in 19:59, which is probably the fastest I’ve ever run.
I decided not to recontract, so some other lucky person will get to come and internationalize this pubic hair on the right testicle of Japan.
I’m thinking I want to go to China to study Mandarin for 6 months or so, but I’m having a hard time choosing a school. Any recommendations?
This weekend I’ll be biking across the Shimanami Sea Route (link fixed), a series of bridges connecting small islands in the Inland Sea between Shikoku and Hiroshima. I took the above-right picture last November from atop a mountain in Onomichi on the other end of the route. Onomichi is the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. In the future when I’m independently wealthy and have villas and vacation homes all over the world, the first place I’m going is Onomichi.

1 Ian said at 21:34 on March 10th, 2008:
Good to see you posting again.
2 Richie said at 13:51 on March 12th, 2008:
you didn’t recontract, so when are you returning back to fair Murederapolis?
3 amake said at 18:02 on March 12th, 2008:
Ian > Thanks! How’s everything going?

Richie > I don’t know. I’m meeting my family in Vancouver for spring break instead of going home. After JET I want to go to China, and then come back and find more permanent work in Japan. So… not for a while, I guess.
4 Shawn Ji said at 12:11 on March 25th, 2008:
Good luck on your trip to China! I don’t know any school in particular, but I recommend northern cities (Mandarin originated from there). I was touring southern China, particularly in the province of GuangDong(Cantonese is the local dialect there), during summer of 2006 and while they could speak Mandarin, it was at times difficult to converse. I’d imagine language schools in Beijing to be good places for learning the most-accurately-accented Mandarin, although the city itself is probably one of the most polluted in the country!

Burnable Garbage