After I did Akita last year, I thought that having been to every prefecture in Japan would mean that from now on things would get a bit boring. I’d never again fly to a new airport, and my useless knowledge of where to find the nearest Starbucks in nearly every station in Japan would increase no more.

But no, it seems there are still plenty of very strange places left in Japan to visit! And today is one of them. It’s one of the Pacific Islands south of Tokyo, that are technically part of the city, but when you look on Google Earth it’s basically two volcanoes with a runway running in between for the 737s that make the 45 minute flight from Haneda. It’s cool flying over though. Sea, sea, sea, sea, then all of a sudden this tiny little island! But nobody complains as they can reach city center Tokyo in less time than many people who live in the mainland suburbs.

I managed to get on the early flight today so was picked up by the teachers from tomorrow’s school. As I haven’t done any kids stuff in a while I agreed to do 3 demo lessons tomorrow, as well as the 3 hour teachers’ workshop. Once we’d got everything sorted and prepared we had time to have a look round the island, which is pretty cool to say the least.

Apparently people first started living here after being shipwrecked and not being able to get away, which is certainly an interesting way for the kids to trace their roots! And it seems like the whole island is a massive science lab, with volcanic lava streams having flowed down to the water’s edge, tons of amazing tropical fish and even glow in the dark mushrooms – I kid you not. The only thing I didn’t get is that the tourist leaflets call it a “Tropical Paradise in the Pacific”. Very nice, you might say.

Except today, it snowed….