Hiroshima Training

Training was a fun little adventure that lasted from Aug 24-27th. I met some lovely people and learned a few things about teaching in Japan. Probably not nearly as much as I would have liked to learn, but that would have taken much longer than 4 days. We each got our own cute little room.

Jorgie in my bed. The headboard had a handy built in alarm.

I had to put my keys in this for the electricity to work. Very green, but I worried I'd leave without my keys and end up locked out of the room. Bet it happens a lot.

My little bathroom. they don't believe in shower curtains in Japan.

Messy luggage filled room!

The view from my balcony. A soccer field!

On our first day after training, we borrowed bikes from the facility and rode into town. Not Hiroshima, some small town outside of it. It was a bit scary with the really narrow roads and sometimes lack of sidewalks.

Ryan and Becca on our beauty bikes

 Saki's first time riding a bike since she was 5...

 We got classy helmets to go with the bikes.

The next night after training we took the shuttle bus into a shopping district to eat okonomiyaki, which is like a Japanese pancake with all sorts of stuff in it. The place we went had us make our own, which was an adventure. The pilot light for a table went out, making our cooking a little challenging, but the waitress re-lit it and saved the day! Thank goodness the other people there spoke Japanese.

 First they put down shortening so our okonomiyaki wouldn't stick.

 My bowl of raw ingredients!

 You lay the meat down first to start it grilling, then mix the rest of your bowl into a batter.

 We then poured the batter on top of the meat to make the pancake.

 

When cooked on one side, flip. This looks not very done since our pilot light went out.

 Once cooked, pull off grill and eat! They covered them in mayonnaise and some kind of okonomiyaki sauce.

 Yum!

 Look! Ford is everywhere!

Walking back to the training center! What an adventure!

This is a fancy toilet with a heated seat in the training center. :)

Our last night together we spent in the center's karaoke room. The room had everything, the lyrics on a big tv, song books in English and Japanese, even a small disco ball and flashing colored lights. The room also had a piano, drums, maracas, a guitar, and tambourines in case you wanted to play along.

We were up early Sunday morning to leave the business center at 7:45. We took taxi's to the train station where we got on the shinkansen.

After the shinkansen, we took a bus to a different station where we got on a highway bus to Matsue. We arrived in Matsue around 1pm. More to come later!