I've had the nicest day. We only had a half day at school today because the teachers had some sort of inservice to do at another school nearby. I taught two classes, one of which included 20 minutes of playing cards with the students, did fifteen minutes of speech contest practice and then we were out of there by 12:30.

Since the weather was gorgeous and we were free, Nathan (the other ALT I work with) and I decided to make the most of it. We had lunch at my favorite cafe, where I ordered the bacon hamburger. We were both surprised when it came. First it was on a wheat bun. Wheat! You don't know how expensive and hard it is to get wheat bread around here. And the burger was huge. It looked like it could easily be served in any American restaurant. And it tasted great. I'll definitely be ordering it again soon.

With our tummies full, we jumped on our bikes and headed to Long Beach. It's about a 40 minute bike ride down the peninsula. Once there we beach combed for awhile and then climbed this big rock where we sat and talked and had a pebble throwing contest. I brought back several nice rocks that I found, although I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. Maybe start a rock garden?

I'm a little sunburnt and tired from riding, but it never ceases to amaze me how close to the ocean I live. Coming from the landlocked state of Ohio, it's truly awesome.






Check out the Shinto statue on the top of this big rock.

And not from today but last weekend when I biked up to the Eco Park to find a geocache. My town is so environmentally friendly! Check out all our windmills!