Going to japan again

I have a lot of vacation time this winter, so I decided to go to Japan again.  I'll be there for about 10 days next month.  I'll be flying to Osaka, but I haven't really planned what I'll do yet.  I'm just going because I like Japan and it's easy for me to go there since I live in Korea.  Once I'm back in the US it's a $1000+ plane ticket and a 14 hour flight.  From Seoul it's about 2 hours and I'm paying about $250.

Visiting the US

I'll be visiting the US this month from the 20th to the 30th.  I plan to eat a lot of food and buy some stuff.  I'll also bring back a bunch of things I don't need here.  I have way too much stuff here. 

2015 plans

I think this is my last year in Korea.  I like to decide a year in advance so I will have time to do the things I wanted to do before I go.  I didn't want to just suddenly decide that I'll be leaving in a couple months. 

So my plans for this year are to keep learning CAD, keep studying Korean, and to save more money.  I was doing those things during 2014, but with this being my last year I want to try to turn up the intensity a bit.

One more year in Korea

Winter is the most stressful time for me here in Korea because that's when I find out if I can stay at my job another year or not.  Twice I have lost my job because of the budget, so then there is the stress of trying to find a new job.

I like this school and recently found out that they will have money in the budget for me next year and I can stay another year.  I'm so glad.

I am planning on this being my last year in Korea.  I liked living here much better than I ever imagined and stayed much longer than I planned when I first decided to come to Korea.  But I'm sick of the stress every year wondering if I will have a job the next year, and getting a little sick of teaching kids.  I also feel that it's about time to move on and get back to my metal work. 

Japan trip

I went to Japan August 9th - 19th.  This was my 6th trip there since 1997 and it was great, as usual.  I was going to take a boat from Busan, but it was canceled cause of the weather.  Luckily I was able to get a flight for not much more than the cost of the boat ticket.

I flew from Seoul to Fukuoka, train to Kagoshima, boat to Yakushima (an island), jetfoil back to Kagoshima, flew to Osaka (KIX), then took trains between Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara.  Flew back to Seoul from KIX.

The pics below are from my phone.  I haven't had time to go through all the photos I took with my DSLR yet.

This is what I brought.  Each trip I try to bring less than the previous trip.  I didn't like that my bag was so full and I didn't have room in my bag for my camera.

I liked this white ant sign in Kagoshima-shi.

Yakushima

Me in front of a 3000 year old tree. 

 Toudaiji.  

I was finally able to buy more of my favorite incense at Toudaiji.  Last time I was there was 2004.

Deer near Toudaiji.

Fushimi Inari Taisha 

Summer camp

I'm almost finished with my first week of summer camp.  They call it "camp" but it's really just a class.  This week I have the 1st grade class (middle school 1st grade = 7th grade in the US) which I am teaching alone.  So far this is the best camp I have ever had.  It starts at 1:30 pm, rather than in the morning, which is nice.  I also have a good group of students.  The 1st graders are mostly well behaved, and the ones in this summer class have above average English. The best thing about this camp was my co teacher told me how he wanted it to be.  He told me exactly how much time he wanted me to spend on games, activities and studying, so it was easy for me to plan. 

Next week is 2nd grade which I will teach with my co teacher. The day after it ends I will go to Japan. 

Japan trip

I'm going to Japan next month.  August 9th - 19th.  The main purpose of this trip is to go to Yakushima.  But I will also be going to Osaka and Kyoto.  This will be my 6th trip to Japan.  Living in Korea, I am so close to Japan, but this will be my first time to go there since I came to Korea.  I'll be taking a boat to Fukuoka from Busan and flying back to Seoul from Osaka.