guns and vacation plans

Today one of the principals asked me if I knew about the shooting in Colorado, so I told him about all three of the shootings that happened in US schools in the last week. Then he pointed out that guns aren't allowed in Japan and asked me what I thought about guns in general. He said that he likes the US (he has visited once) and US culture, but somethings about US culture he just doesn't understand. I told him that I am the same way. I don't really get guns. I tried to tell him that I thought the shootings had more to do with mental health issues than gun laws, but I don't think he understood me. I think those people would have done something bad even if they didn't have guns, the events just wouldn't have been as tragic.

jya, moving on to something happier... I'm going on a big trip this weekend! The junior highs have fall break, so I'm taking an extra day or two off to make it a five day weekend. I'm going to take every form of transportation other than an airplane, which means bus, train, tram, subway, bike, taxi, ferry, and lots of walking. The highlights of my trip are a sand bath in Beppu (where everything but your head is buried under sand), a capsule hotel stay in Matsuyama, the Dogo Onsen in Dogo (oldest hot spring bath house in Japan), the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, and the Itsukushima-jinja (the famous torii gate that looks like it is floating on water) in Miyajima, and a fertility shrine and museum in Uwajima. I've done my research :)



This map is a blown up map of Shikoku (light blue island), Kyushu (red island), and western Honshu (dark blue region):


Here's the schedule:
Friday (after work): train (top right green route on map) to Tokushima, bus (pink/purple rt) to Matsuyama, stay in capsule hotel

Saturday: ferry (lower blue rt) to Beppu on Kyushu Island, take sand bath and onsen bath, ferry back to Matsuyama, maybe bathe in Dogo onsen, stay in capsule hotel again

Sunday: ferry to Hiroshima (top blue rt), see the sites, stay in a nice hotel

Monday: train and ferry to Miyajima (small blue rt southwest of Hiroshima), rent a bike and see the sites, ferry and train back to Hiroshima, ferry to Matsuyama, train (green rt) to Yawatahama, stay with Jet friend

Tuesday: train (green rt) to Uwajima, rent bike and see the sites, train back to Yawatahama, stay with Jet friend

Wednesday: train to Matsuyama, see the sites, maybe bathe in Dogo onsen, bus back to Tokushima City, train back to Naruto

Transportation and accomodations will cost $325 total, and all of the sites cost less than $10 each, so I think I'm getting a good deal. I bought a brand new backpack for the trip and I think I'm going to pack light, like two outfits, to save my back. There are laundry facilities at each place I'm staying, so I might as well. Yes, I'm going by myself, but Japan feels as safe as Wellesley did, and let's remember that there aren't guns in Japan, as one of the principals pointed out today. If the capsule hotel doesn't seem safe (it's one of the few capsule hotels that even allow women to stay there), then I know of three other hotels that I can stay at. I also know where all the information centers are with people that speak English. I also have phone numbers of English speakers that run hotels in each area. So don't worry!!!