Vagabond Sara: The Kiwi Club!

Last year, I taught English to a group of adults in the community who were interested in learning or practicing their English. That group was amazing, helping me meet people in the community and doing my part. Unfortunately, as a result of the move, I had to stop going to that class because I need a car to get there. But, on a very positive note, I now belong to a new class called The Kiwi Club. This class also consists of adults in my community who want to study English. Last year, I was teaching once a week, but this year I only teach about once a month. However, I am starting up an advanced class for them, allowing me to teach them about 2-3 times a month. I'm excited for it - I really enjoy doing volunteer work and working with adults. This below picture is the majority of the class at our welcome party!

Like last year, the Kiwi Club organizes events to show us around Japan and help us get to know all the members. The first fun thing we did was a hike to a mountain called Haguro san. We went to the neighboring prefecture called Yamagata ken. In Yamagata Ken - there are three sacred peaks that are called Dewa Sanzan. Earlier in the year, I had hiked one of them called gas-san. Afterwards, we actually visited the base of Haguro, which is another one of the sacred peaks to visit the famous pagoda, but didn't do the hike up to the peak. The peak is only a mere 1,358 feet but clincher is - it's all stairs, not so much a hiking trail. You need to climb 2, 446 steps to reach the top.

Along the way, you can get beautiful views like this. I don't know if you can tell, but in the distance of this photo is the Japan Sea! There isn't any type of view from the actual top, just some shrines. We got to see people praying and chanting in the shrine when we reached the top. We also got to view two museums while here. There is one at the base of the mountain and one at the top as well! It displayed items from hundreds of years ago. You can view all the photos from this trip in this photo album, here.

More recently, we've held a moon-viewing party in a local shrine that is basically behind my house. According to my lovely student, Saito Sensei (Hi Saito Sensei!!!) - this is the reason behind a moon-viewing party. He told me that we have a moon-viewing party because long ago, Japanese people's ancestors wanted to thank God for their autumn harvest. So, they used to have a party in autumn to thank God. He said, recently Japanese people don't really thank God for their autumn harvest anymore, but it is still custom to have a moon-viewing party! We were able to enjoy lots of delicious food and spend time with eachother. Below is a silly photo of Ruth, my student, Kyoko and myself. We bought these masks and made a debut with them here!

They also had two people dress up as a dragon(in the below pictures) and dance around. Additionally, there was taiko drumming and flute playing. It was a really fun evening.