Welcome to our Japanese Adventure homepage!

In July of 2003, Kim and Peter moved to Japan to begin a new life as English teachers at Japanese public high schools. This page will contain the chronicle of our journeys. Just click on pictures at the left in order to view pictures and narrative for that particular location.

We live in the prefecture (like a state in the US) of Yamagata and the city of Tsuruoka. This is how it looks in kanji (Chinese characters used for writing Japanese)...

The first three characters are "yama," "gata," and "ken." They mean "mountain," "shape," and "prefecture," respectively. The last three characters are "tsuru," "oka," and "shi." They mean "crane," "fortress," and "city," respectively.

Updates...

July 20, 2004--We made tons of new changes. 20 pages have been either added or updated. Now there are a total of 30 pages, which is just too many to list on the side bar. For ease-of-viewing, we've divided the pages into four different groups--Shonai Places, Visited Places, Special Events, and Daily Life.

These pages have been added or updated:
Shonai Places: Atsumi, Takadate, Yunohama, Zempoji, Tsuruoka Koen, Yura, 12 Falls
Visited Places: Niigata, Tokyo, Sapporo, Sendai
Events: Bara Matsuri, Nishi English Camp, Sailing, School Festival, Tea Ceremony, Wedding, Jazz Concert
Daily Life: People

April 4, 2004--Three new sections have been added. Pictures for our recent trip to Kyouto and Hiroshima are online, as well as pictures of some of the people we have met here in Tsuruoka. A webpage for our trip to the Snow Festival in Sapporo is still under construction (read: hasn't even been started). There is a sneak peak, though. I have also rearranged the navigation bar on the left to put recent events first.

March 6, 2004--Now you can see pictures from our experience with the "Kurokawa Noh," a fascinating traditional Japanese theater art.

February 11, 2004--A page with "wacky" things from Japan has been added. This page will inevitably grow larger.

January 22, 2004--A new page for our trip to Mount Yudono has been added.

January 10, 2004--"The Apartment" page has been updated to add some more recent views of how things look around here.