Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Somewhat of a Mystery, and Interesting Things I've Seen and Done...

Let me start this entry off with... "Somewhat of a Mystery!?" So over these couple of weeks and months, I came across some weird things that I've never seen before, ridiculous things that I found funny, and so forth. The first thing I want to talk about is this thing to the left... What on earth is this thing!? When I first saw this, I was like... "What a weird looking cocoon... and what type of winged insect will come out?" I found this "cocoon" on my visit to the farthest school out of the 17 that I go to. Its roughly an hour and a half bus ride on a hella windy road up the mountain. I have heard rumors of passengers yacking all over the bus because the roads were hella windy. Luckily for me, I did not puke nor did I feel sick at all. I enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery and took some pictures along the way. Anyhow, back to the "cocoon." After I finish my lunch with my students, I found the mysterious looking "cocoon" near the entrance gate and asked one of the teachers what it was... She responded and told me that its not a "cocoon," but instead a flower. My instant response was "WHAT!? REALLY!?" In my opinion, it really wasn't an appealing looking flower... but supposedly, this flower is very rare since it only grows in locations of high altitudes. This would be the last time I would see such a weird looking flower so I took a picture of it and decided to write about it. This mysterious flower has a Japanese name called "Kumagaisou" Or I how I remember its name.. "Kuma Ga Isou" aka "There's likely to be a bear there" (rough translation). This flower only grows in places of high altitudes and is on the endangered plant species list. I found about this later from my favorite nutrition teacher at one of my elementary schools. She told me that its super rare and I'm very lucky to have seen one. When I heard that... I just needed to write about it... plus I needed to write in general cuz it's been too long since my last post. Haha... Anyhow... if anyone gets the chance to see one... take pictures and protect it! Do environment a favor! ;)

On to the next interesting thing I found... I found this thing to the left at one of my schools... It's a cool looking pencil holder box/container? So... what is it exactly? Is it a cat? It could be... but what's up with its random rhino nose? Bizarre... well for me that it... I decided to take a picture... When do you get to see a rhino cat right?


Next thing I found one day at school is super cool! IT'S SO ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY!!! haha.. It's basically a milk carton or juice carton house... now... it needs more work with the roofing, but its cool nonetheless. This cool carton shack was made by Special Needs or Special Ed students. They're super creative and very diligent. This house was well made and its using recyclable materials. I'm very proud of them. =)

Next! Check out the picture to the left! It's an awesome looking dragon right!? But did you know this thing is made out of paper? Yeaup! It's made using special paper called Mizuhiki. I had the privilege in going to the Mizuhiki Museum in Kawanoe City of Shikokuchuo, the Paper City. I went with my friend, Stacy and her family... and we had a blast. We were able to check out all the cool paper craft they had there... a dress made out of kimono... a huge toilet paper roll... and so forth. We also got the chance to make our own postcards through the Mizuhiki process. It was super fun and I recommend it for others! In fact, I'll even go with them. We met a cool man who worked there... He gave us a grand tour of the facility and even gave us a free gift to take home with us. He was super excited when he found out that we were all from the US... He told us that he went to Washington DC before to present a Mizuhiki craft to the senator in DC, and he missed being in the states as well as miss speaking English. If opportunity permits, I definitely would love to meet him again and learn more about Mizuhiki paper and get to know locals of Shikokuchuo.





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