Well, this blog has completed its purpose. It was intended to record my experiences in Japan, and now I'm home. I really, really miss Japan!!
Friday morning was difficult - when I said goodbye to Sogou I started crying, and then again when I said goodbye to Miki after my graduation ceremony. I miss them terribly, but I'm resolved to visit again!
After the graduation party, all of us said our final farewell to the Fijians, which was sad. We've known each other for such a short time but we've all become so close in that time. One day I want to go to Fiji and visit them again. We ANZACS went in to Umeda together - Trav and Dave helped Mel and I with our luggage, which was so good of them! We said our final farewell to the rest of them at JR Osaka station, where Mel and I caught the Airport train from, and there were tears all around. I've known Trav for a while, but other than that, I'd only known the rest of them for about a month - the Kiwis for less - but we all have a special bond. We saw each other pretty much every single day for the month we were there, and now we'll only see each other on Facebook! Kris and Emma said we have to come to NZ in September next year to go skiing and visit them, so hopefully I'll save up enough for it!
Mel and I caught the train to the Airport, and got there about 2 hours early! So we took turns to go looking around at the shopping centre on the third level of the airport, one of us staying with the luggage at all times. That killed time okay, and we managed to find a relatively cheap place for dinner - about $9.50 for yakisoba, which is cheap by airport standards (and quite filling, and extremely tasty, which is rare for airport food!)
So, we checked in, got our seats together, luckily, and then went off for dinner. After that, we went through customs and then wandered around the duty-free area until we were called to board.
We managed to get a window and an aisle seat together on the plane, but lucky for us, the seats behind us stayed unoccupied, so when it was time to sleep, Mel moved to the other seats so we could stretch out. We'd been giving Mel crap earlier because the scales told her she'd gained 4kg while she'd been in Japan, so we were all like, "Did you book your two seats on the plane, Mel?" and stuff - and then she ended up getting 2 seats to herself on the plane anyway. Twas amusing!!
Sleeping on the plane was, however, not amusing. At all. It was difficult, probably downright impossible. I think I got about 2 hours of broken sleep total, because every time I'd get vaguely comfortable my neck would cramp, or my foot would cramp, or something would make a noise and wake me up despite having earplugs in, so I didn't sleep very well. At about 4am I decided to give up sleeping as a bad joke and just watched movies until it was time to return the mini TV.
We landed just after 7am at the Gold Coast airport, and it took us about an hour to get out of the airport, because 3 international flights all landed at about the same time, and there's only one international baggage carousel. So it took us nearly an hour to just get our bags, then get through customs, which was actually quite painless. The only thing I had comfiscated was a bookmark made of a laminated leaf, which was fair enough, what with it being plant bits and whatnot. No biggie.
So, I crash-tackled John as soon as I saw him, and after saying a final farewell to Mel, we went off to mum's place for a bit, and then to my grandfather's, and then finally home. John kept the house really well, the place looks great!! I admit, I'd been a little worried about how the house would be on my return, but there's nothing needs doing! I'm very very happy with him :)!!
So, the things I'll miss about Japan are:
Hot cocoa from vending machines
Electric toilets with heated seats and little buttons that do various things
How polite and helpful and courteous everyone is!
Japanese food
How clean everything always is
Trains coming every 5 minutes (or less!)
My host mum!
The things I won't miss are:
Having to sit on the floor
Sleeping on a futon
It was truly an amazing experience, and I am resolved to return in the not-too-distant future - but next time, I'm bringing John with me!!
And just remember - What happens in Japan, stays in Japan ;)
Signing off
Nat
ナッツ
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
My final night...
So, tonight is the last night I spend with my family in Amagasaki. They have been the most generous, kind, patient hosts anyone could ever imagine. I will remember them forever. It's a poignant moment for me. I've spent just under a month with these people, people who were, only a short while ago, total strangers to me, and the parting will be a sad time indeed. In such a short time, they truly have become dear to me, but dearer people to me call me home.
Today started off quite well, with our final Japanese lesson for the trip. Fujiwara-sensei has been amazingly helpful throughout our entire time in Japan, and I can only hope that everyone gets a teacher like her at least once in their lifetime. People deserve that kind of pleasure.
I met Miki and her friend Mori-chan for lunch after Japanese, and we went to a little sushi bar that has cheap lunches. It was really good, for 1000 yen (about $15) I got a massive plate of sushi, a huge bowl of udon (noodles), some miso soup, coffee and green tea. It was tremendously good value for money, and the sushi store itself was incredible. There was this fantastic clock (which I stupidly didn't photograph) with that amazing plastic food the Japanese are so good at in place of numbers. I want one.
After lunch we had a "lesson" with some of the Adult Education people, where we just sat and chatted with them about differences between Australia and Japan. It was okay, but I could probably have used my time better....
Afterwards, we were going to all head off to a Karaoke bar near uni, for which I had some vouchers, and do some Karaoke. However, plans changed when Trav's friend Takeshi invited us to his place after school for drinks and Takoyaki, and then Karaoke afterwards. It was fun but left us with precious little time - most of us had to leave at 6 and we didn't get to the place til 5, then what with having to go through all the rigmarole of firstly, not really understanding the guy (he mumbled and spoke way too quickly and didn't seem to care that we were foreigners and had trouble understanding him) and then, when we finally understood what he wanted, having to all sign up - for one hour of Karaoke! We decided to forget it and just go home. I had to go anyway, I had groceries with me because I decided to cook for the family tonight.
I made my Funky Chicken, and it was a big hit! I left the recipe with Miki so she will be able to do it herself in the future, which I'm sure she will do. After that, I did my packing - some of my stuff is still damp from being washed yesterday - things take FOREVER to dry here - but hopefully it'll be dry enough to pack tomorrow. I've got it hanging up over the lounge room heater so it should be right...
After packing, Sogo, Miki and I broke out some wine and cheese and stuff, and Miki showed me the present she'd made me - a PhotoStory slideshow of photos from the Kaiyuukan (Aquarium). It was lovely. I nearly cried!
I'm really going to miss them...
Of course, I've got them friended on Facebook and I have their email addresses, so it's not like I'll never speak to them again. That's the joy of modern technology - you can make friends on the other side of the world and then when you go home, keep in touch with them in real-time, without having to wait weeks for international post. It's marvellous!
So, this time tomorrow I will be well and truly gone from Japan. The month has flown by in some ways, but in other ways it feels like I've been gone from Australia for a year.
I'll have one last update when I get back to Australia and return to some sort of normalcy, but until then, dear readers, take care, and don't forget to check out my photobucket
Today started off quite well, with our final Japanese lesson for the trip. Fujiwara-sensei has been amazingly helpful throughout our entire time in Japan, and I can only hope that everyone gets a teacher like her at least once in their lifetime. People deserve that kind of pleasure.
I met Miki and her friend Mori-chan for lunch after Japanese, and we went to a little sushi bar that has cheap lunches. It was really good, for 1000 yen (about $15) I got a massive plate of sushi, a huge bowl of udon (noodles), some miso soup, coffee and green tea. It was tremendously good value for money, and the sushi store itself was incredible. There was this fantastic clock (which I stupidly didn't photograph) with that amazing plastic food the Japanese are so good at in place of numbers. I want one.
After lunch we had a "lesson" with some of the Adult Education people, where we just sat and chatted with them about differences between Australia and Japan. It was okay, but I could probably have used my time better....
Afterwards, we were going to all head off to a Karaoke bar near uni, for which I had some vouchers, and do some Karaoke. However, plans changed when Trav's friend Takeshi invited us to his place after school for drinks and Takoyaki, and then Karaoke afterwards. It was fun but left us with precious little time - most of us had to leave at 6 and we didn't get to the place til 5, then what with having to go through all the rigmarole of firstly, not really understanding the guy (he mumbled and spoke way too quickly and didn't seem to care that we were foreigners and had trouble understanding him) and then, when we finally understood what he wanted, having to all sign up - for one hour of Karaoke! We decided to forget it and just go home. I had to go anyway, I had groceries with me because I decided to cook for the family tonight.
I made my Funky Chicken, and it was a big hit! I left the recipe with Miki so she will be able to do it herself in the future, which I'm sure she will do. After that, I did my packing - some of my stuff is still damp from being washed yesterday - things take FOREVER to dry here - but hopefully it'll be dry enough to pack tomorrow. I've got it hanging up over the lounge room heater so it should be right...
After packing, Sogo, Miki and I broke out some wine and cheese and stuff, and Miki showed me the present she'd made me - a PhotoStory slideshow of photos from the Kaiyuukan (Aquarium). It was lovely. I nearly cried!
I'm really going to miss them...
Of course, I've got them friended on Facebook and I have their email addresses, so it's not like I'll never speak to them again. That's the joy of modern technology - you can make friends on the other side of the world and then when you go home, keep in touch with them in real-time, without having to wait weeks for international post. It's marvellous!
So, this time tomorrow I will be well and truly gone from Japan. The month has flown by in some ways, but in other ways it feels like I've been gone from Australia for a year.
I'll have one last update when I get back to Australia and return to some sort of normalcy, but until then, dear readers, take care, and don't forget to check out my photobucket
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Instant. Ramen.
Is the bestest in the worldest. We went to the Instant Ramen factory today, and it was heaps of fun (and tasty, too!). Ramen, for those who are wondering, is Chinese noodles. Instant Ramen is ramen that you just add water to. It tastes awesome!! We made our own, and then I ended up munching on it while we wandered around and looked at stuff. I bought some more presents - I think I have pretty much everyone bought for now - and am wondering how I can get it all back to Brisbane... lol. I'll work it out!
We were nearly late to the Instant Ramen factory, because Juusou station has two 551 shops, one on platform 1 and one on platform 3; we were meant to meet outside the one on platform 3 but two of the Fijian girls got lost and were waiting outside the one on platform 1, so we were very nearly late. It was okay though, we made it in time to do our stuff.
After that, Mel, Lisa and Stephanie went into Osaka for a day of shopping, but I didn't really feel like it so I went home with David, Trav, Kris and Emma. Picked my bike up from the station - I rode with Sogou to the station this morning - and rode it home. Did some uploading of photos - still am uploading, actually. I have somewhere between 500 and 600 photos - closer to 600, I think, and only about 300 uploaded at the moment. I've been slack...
I won't bother captioning photos, it takes too long. If you're terribly interested in knowing what they are, I'll tell, but otherwise... you know, it just takes too much effort, lolz!
K, so that's it for today.
Take care and see you all in Aussieland soon!
Love
Nat
We were nearly late to the Instant Ramen factory, because Juusou station has two 551 shops, one on platform 1 and one on platform 3; we were meant to meet outside the one on platform 3 but two of the Fijian girls got lost and were waiting outside the one on platform 1, so we were very nearly late. It was okay though, we made it in time to do our stuff.
After that, Mel, Lisa and Stephanie went into Osaka for a day of shopping, but I didn't really feel like it so I went home with David, Trav, Kris and Emma. Picked my bike up from the station - I rode with Sogou to the station this morning - and rode it home. Did some uploading of photos - still am uploading, actually. I have somewhere between 500 and 600 photos - closer to 600, I think, and only about 300 uploaded at the moment. I've been slack...
I won't bother captioning photos, it takes too long. If you're terribly interested in knowing what they are, I'll tell, but otherwise... you know, it just takes too much effort, lolz!
K, so that's it for today.
Take care and see you all in Aussieland soon!
Love
Nat
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Tales of Tajima
Lol, sounds like a game.
In my last post, last Thursday, I mentioned that I'd be going to Tajima and would be offline til I got back. I did promise you a big fat update, and here it is:
Friday
We arrived at uni at like, 8:30 or thereabouts, with intentions of leaving at 9am. It wasn't so bad for me, I live really close but some people, like Trav, had to be up at like, 6 to be there on time. We were off just on time, and once we were out of the city limits we started watching Harry Potter on the bus's TV. It was relatively uneventful. The scenery was pretty - Japanese rural scenery is SO different to Australian rural scenery. Photos coming soon, I have all afternoon tomorrow off, so I'll do a massive upload then!
The whole district we stayed in is Tajima, but each group stayed in a different town. The Kiwis stayed in Toyooka, one of the major cities in the region; the Fijians stayed in Shin-onsen, which is apparently quite famous for its hot springs. We Aussies stayed in Kami, a little town about an hour away from Tottori, a city on the coast of the Japan Sea. We met our host families at about 3pm, had coffee and a chat, and then went home. My family's home was lovely. I didn't manage to get any photos of the inside of the house, and only a couple of the outside, but it was nice. My room was massive, about 12 tatami in size (a tatami is a straw flooring mat, sleeping and sitting rooms are generally floored in tatami, and each mat is 1mx2m). It was... enormous. And a little lonely, being in this huge room on my own.
My host family, the Ueda family, were lovely. Mum's name is Midori, and dad is Michinori. She's a housewife, he's a dentist. She studied education and speaks excellent english, he speaks almost no english at all. It was fun, though.
Friday night, the moment I mentioned I had my wedding pics on my laptop (which I had bought with me on the off chance that I would get internet access) I had to show them all off. Not just once, to mum, but twice, because when dad got home from work at 8:30, I had to show them off again, and it took about 2 and a half hours because of the language barrier. It was pretty cool though.
Saturday
Saturday, we had planned to meet at the restaurant we'd met our families at the day before, at 10:30 and go from there to Tottori to the Sand Art Museum. Mel's family ended up driving past just on 10:30 and nobody was there, so they figured everyone must have already left and went back home. Everyone else must've arrived just after, or we were inside at the time having coffee and we didn't see them, because only Lisa, Stephanie and I ended up going.
Tottori is pretty cute. It has a spectacular sand dune beach, with this massive dune about 20m high that people taboggan down, and a Sand Art Museum. Sculptors have created a display of the Terracotta Warriors at Xi'an in China, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and several other pretty spectacular world heritage sites, all out of sand. The detail is incredible!! The whole thing was just amazing! We spent a little over an hour going around there, looking at all the amazing sculptures and enjoying the sea air (we were right on the coast). Afterwards, we went shopping, had lunch and I bought myself a new pair of shoes! I finally found a pair of shoes that actually fitted me in Japan! Usually Japanese shoes are tiny, so this is really awesome news! After going shopping, we went off to this really cool place with natural hot springs that are hot enough to boil eggs in 12 minutes. We tried it, and it was awesome. While you wait for your eggs to cook, you are welcome to sit on the side of the river and put your feet in hot springs that aren't quite that hot, having been cooled by the river water. It was lovely, just the perfect temperature. It was really nice, sitting there with my feet in the hot water, watching the ducks and the carp - they grow to well over 2ft long here - cavorting in the river. It was great!
Afterwards, when we were in the car, Midori decided that, since I'd said I wanted to try a real onsen - the one I went to in Amagasaki wasn't so much an onsen with natural hot springs, as a public bath house with man-made "hot springs" outside. Fun, but... this was heaps better. We went to Yumura, a town that is famous for its onsen complex. Yumura Onsen is a huge complex with about half a dozen springs outside, plus the bath complex, which is quite vast and includes an Olympic-size heated swimming pool. The recommended way to do things is to start at spring 1 and work your way up the side of the mountain that the onsen are located on, until you reach spring 6. Spring 1 is a warm, fairly deep and fairly clear pool, designed to just relax you and get you used to the water, which is fairly mineral-dense. Pool 2 is small - about 3m in diameter, and quite hot, nearly 50'C. We only stayed in for about 2-3 minutes, before it got too hot to bear. Pool 3 is located in a cavern (which has been modified for safety) and is quite steamy, lots of fun. Pool 4 is huge, completely massive, and has a waterfall running into it (and one from it too) so you can sit under this hot waterfall and get a massage. It was really really good. Pool 5 was naturally bubbly, smelled a bit like sulphur but was like sitting in a spa with all the bubbles. It was fun, until the smell overwhelmed us and we had to move on. Finally, pool 6 is actually a series of little rockpools dotting along a steamy, sloping, twisty tunnel, which leads back out near where pool 1 is situated.
After exploring all the outside pools, we went back inside and took off the swimmers we'd been required to wear in the outside pools (because both men and women go to the outside pools) and went to the bath house to wash off. As I mentioned before, the bath house was vast. It had a sauna room with a small, but quite deep, ice plunge pool; massage rooms; some long, shallow sloping pools that you lie in and get a bubble massage from; hot tubs, a big, waist-deep, warm bath you could just sit in for hours, and, of course, showers. We spent, all up, about 2 hours just wandering around having fun at the onsen.
After that, we went to a little tiny Sushi bar, the owners of which are friends of Midori's, and had dinner. I had raw squid, eel, prawn, octopus, tuna, salmon (which I've had before) and sea anenome (which I'm never having again!) We also had some tempura, and dessert was a dish called Triple Mango - some mango ice cream, mango jelly, and a piece of real mango. I nearly cried when I ate the real mango - it tastes of home!
So, we got home and I went straight to bed, I was so sleepy after the onsen and the late night the night before.
Sunday
On Sunday, we went to a child care centre and did Mochi-bana with the little kids. Mochi-bana is where you take mochi - sticky rice cakes, made out of rice pounded into powder and mixed with a little water until it is like glue, and you put it on sticks to resemble flowers. It was pretty fun but we couldn't take them with us. After that, we drove well over an hour to Toyooka, to a conservation park where we saw Oriental White Storks. They were all but extinct - there were only 12 left in the world about 10 years ago, but now there are a couple of hundred. It was pretty cool to see, but it was so far out of the way it felt a little like a waste of time. Anyways...
So, we went back home, did our packing to return to Amagasaki, then had our farewell party. Mel's host family own a restaurant, which is where we had the party. It was SO much fun!! We had Shabu-Shabu, which is where you get a big ceramic pot over a hotplate and you make the soup and cook your meat and veg in it. It's tasty, and you don't realise just how much you're eating because you just take a little in a small bowl and you keep going back for more until you've eaten 10 bowlsful.
Also, free drinkies. Japanese beer is gooooood!
Monday
No hangover, thank goodness. We did our final packing, and made our way out to the primary school, where we did soapstone carving. I'm not telling what I made, you'll have to wait and see! It was fun!! Afterwards, we went across to the middle school, where we learned to play Sakura Sakura on the Koto - I was pretty good at it. It turns out nobody else in the group has learned how to read music... I had a good time. We met a fellow Brisbanite who teaches English at the school, and we sat in with his English class and did some conversational English with the kids, which was good fun.
Then, it was time for a final farewell to our host familes, and we went. It was quite a teary farewell. Midori extracted a promise from me that I'll come back to Japan one day, with John, and we'll come and visit her.
We travelled by bus to Sonoda University's Ookayama campus, wherein we had a Tsukiyaki party, which turned into a rave! It was pretty mad, everyone was dancing and singing and having a good old time! That was, until about 1 in the morning, when we were all in bed and nearly asleep, and one of the Korean girls, who had just been sitting there drinking all night, until she was completely paraletic, threw up on her bed and all over herself. Then there was no sleep for anyone. These girls don't have any common sense! None of them knew how to deal with a drunk person at all. We - Mel, Lisa, Emma and I - had to take charge. Get the dirty bedding outside so it doesn't stink out the whole place. Get her in the shower with a friend, to sober her up and make sure she doesn't drown. Get her a bucket. Put her out in the other room with a friend so she's nearer the bathroom if she needs to spew again. Put her in the recovery position - to which they all asked, "What is that?". No. Common. Sense. At all. We finally got to sleep at like, 2.
Today
Got woken up at 6, after very little sleep - the smell of spew was still on the air and it was hard to ignore it. Packed, went down to breakfast, helped clean up. Madame le Spewe was all bright and happy and not at all hungover, which proves that justice doesn't exist and that there are no consequences to anything at all... we ANZAC-Fijians had to clean up everything, the other girls - from Korea and Taiwan - sat there playng on the piano. Brats. So, we left by about 9:30 for Himeji. I don't remember much of the trip - I think all 4 of us girls - Mel, Lisa, Emma and I - slept all the way there. We arrived at about 11:30, saw Himeji castle, which was really cool, and the Western Bailey, which was meant to be the Princess' Quarters, which was... not so great. It was pretty but I had been expecting a museum display there like in the castle, and there was nothing. Kinda sucked. We had lunch at this tiny little yakisoba - noodles - place, and it was really nice. Then we were back on the bus and homeward bound. Slept all the way home and am feeling somewhat better now.
So, big fat update provided. I'll be back in the land of Oz in 4 days now - nearly 3 1/2 now that I think of it.
So, I gotta go, Miki wants to use the table to make dinner.
Love y'all
Nat
In my last post, last Thursday, I mentioned that I'd be going to Tajima and would be offline til I got back. I did promise you a big fat update, and here it is:
Friday
We arrived at uni at like, 8:30 or thereabouts, with intentions of leaving at 9am. It wasn't so bad for me, I live really close but some people, like Trav, had to be up at like, 6 to be there on time. We were off just on time, and once we were out of the city limits we started watching Harry Potter on the bus's TV. It was relatively uneventful. The scenery was pretty - Japanese rural scenery is SO different to Australian rural scenery. Photos coming soon, I have all afternoon tomorrow off, so I'll do a massive upload then!
The whole district we stayed in is Tajima, but each group stayed in a different town. The Kiwis stayed in Toyooka, one of the major cities in the region; the Fijians stayed in Shin-onsen, which is apparently quite famous for its hot springs. We Aussies stayed in Kami, a little town about an hour away from Tottori, a city on the coast of the Japan Sea. We met our host families at about 3pm, had coffee and a chat, and then went home. My family's home was lovely. I didn't manage to get any photos of the inside of the house, and only a couple of the outside, but it was nice. My room was massive, about 12 tatami in size (a tatami is a straw flooring mat, sleeping and sitting rooms are generally floored in tatami, and each mat is 1mx2m). It was... enormous. And a little lonely, being in this huge room on my own.
My host family, the Ueda family, were lovely. Mum's name is Midori, and dad is Michinori. She's a housewife, he's a dentist. She studied education and speaks excellent english, he speaks almost no english at all. It was fun, though.
Friday night, the moment I mentioned I had my wedding pics on my laptop (which I had bought with me on the off chance that I would get internet access) I had to show them all off. Not just once, to mum, but twice, because when dad got home from work at 8:30, I had to show them off again, and it took about 2 and a half hours because of the language barrier. It was pretty cool though.
Saturday
Saturday, we had planned to meet at the restaurant we'd met our families at the day before, at 10:30 and go from there to Tottori to the Sand Art Museum. Mel's family ended up driving past just on 10:30 and nobody was there, so they figured everyone must have already left and went back home. Everyone else must've arrived just after, or we were inside at the time having coffee and we didn't see them, because only Lisa, Stephanie and I ended up going.
Tottori is pretty cute. It has a spectacular sand dune beach, with this massive dune about 20m high that people taboggan down, and a Sand Art Museum. Sculptors have created a display of the Terracotta Warriors at Xi'an in China, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and several other pretty spectacular world heritage sites, all out of sand. The detail is incredible!! The whole thing was just amazing! We spent a little over an hour going around there, looking at all the amazing sculptures and enjoying the sea air (we were right on the coast). Afterwards, we went shopping, had lunch and I bought myself a new pair of shoes! I finally found a pair of shoes that actually fitted me in Japan! Usually Japanese shoes are tiny, so this is really awesome news! After going shopping, we went off to this really cool place with natural hot springs that are hot enough to boil eggs in 12 minutes. We tried it, and it was awesome. While you wait for your eggs to cook, you are welcome to sit on the side of the river and put your feet in hot springs that aren't quite that hot, having been cooled by the river water. It was lovely, just the perfect temperature. It was really nice, sitting there with my feet in the hot water, watching the ducks and the carp - they grow to well over 2ft long here - cavorting in the river. It was great!
Afterwards, when we were in the car, Midori decided that, since I'd said I wanted to try a real onsen - the one I went to in Amagasaki wasn't so much an onsen with natural hot springs, as a public bath house with man-made "hot springs" outside. Fun, but... this was heaps better. We went to Yumura, a town that is famous for its onsen complex. Yumura Onsen is a huge complex with about half a dozen springs outside, plus the bath complex, which is quite vast and includes an Olympic-size heated swimming pool. The recommended way to do things is to start at spring 1 and work your way up the side of the mountain that the onsen are located on, until you reach spring 6. Spring 1 is a warm, fairly deep and fairly clear pool, designed to just relax you and get you used to the water, which is fairly mineral-dense. Pool 2 is small - about 3m in diameter, and quite hot, nearly 50'C. We only stayed in for about 2-3 minutes, before it got too hot to bear. Pool 3 is located in a cavern (which has been modified for safety) and is quite steamy, lots of fun. Pool 4 is huge, completely massive, and has a waterfall running into it (and one from it too) so you can sit under this hot waterfall and get a massage. It was really really good. Pool 5 was naturally bubbly, smelled a bit like sulphur but was like sitting in a spa with all the bubbles. It was fun, until the smell overwhelmed us and we had to move on. Finally, pool 6 is actually a series of little rockpools dotting along a steamy, sloping, twisty tunnel, which leads back out near where pool 1 is situated.
After exploring all the outside pools, we went back inside and took off the swimmers we'd been required to wear in the outside pools (because both men and women go to the outside pools) and went to the bath house to wash off. As I mentioned before, the bath house was vast. It had a sauna room with a small, but quite deep, ice plunge pool; massage rooms; some long, shallow sloping pools that you lie in and get a bubble massage from; hot tubs, a big, waist-deep, warm bath you could just sit in for hours, and, of course, showers. We spent, all up, about 2 hours just wandering around having fun at the onsen.
After that, we went to a little tiny Sushi bar, the owners of which are friends of Midori's, and had dinner. I had raw squid, eel, prawn, octopus, tuna, salmon (which I've had before) and sea anenome (which I'm never having again!) We also had some tempura, and dessert was a dish called Triple Mango - some mango ice cream, mango jelly, and a piece of real mango. I nearly cried when I ate the real mango - it tastes of home!
So, we got home and I went straight to bed, I was so sleepy after the onsen and the late night the night before.
Sunday
On Sunday, we went to a child care centre and did Mochi-bana with the little kids. Mochi-bana is where you take mochi - sticky rice cakes, made out of rice pounded into powder and mixed with a little water until it is like glue, and you put it on sticks to resemble flowers. It was pretty fun but we couldn't take them with us. After that, we drove well over an hour to Toyooka, to a conservation park where we saw Oriental White Storks. They were all but extinct - there were only 12 left in the world about 10 years ago, but now there are a couple of hundred. It was pretty cool to see, but it was so far out of the way it felt a little like a waste of time. Anyways...
So, we went back home, did our packing to return to Amagasaki, then had our farewell party. Mel's host family own a restaurant, which is where we had the party. It was SO much fun!! We had Shabu-Shabu, which is where you get a big ceramic pot over a hotplate and you make the soup and cook your meat and veg in it. It's tasty, and you don't realise just how much you're eating because you just take a little in a small bowl and you keep going back for more until you've eaten 10 bowlsful.
Also, free drinkies. Japanese beer is gooooood!
Monday
No hangover, thank goodness. We did our final packing, and made our way out to the primary school, where we did soapstone carving. I'm not telling what I made, you'll have to wait and see! It was fun!! Afterwards, we went across to the middle school, where we learned to play Sakura Sakura on the Koto - I was pretty good at it. It turns out nobody else in the group has learned how to read music... I had a good time. We met a fellow Brisbanite who teaches English at the school, and we sat in with his English class and did some conversational English with the kids, which was good fun.
Then, it was time for a final farewell to our host familes, and we went. It was quite a teary farewell. Midori extracted a promise from me that I'll come back to Japan one day, with John, and we'll come and visit her.
We travelled by bus to Sonoda University's Ookayama campus, wherein we had a Tsukiyaki party, which turned into a rave! It was pretty mad, everyone was dancing and singing and having a good old time! That was, until about 1 in the morning, when we were all in bed and nearly asleep, and one of the Korean girls, who had just been sitting there drinking all night, until she was completely paraletic, threw up on her bed and all over herself. Then there was no sleep for anyone. These girls don't have any common sense! None of them knew how to deal with a drunk person at all. We - Mel, Lisa, Emma and I - had to take charge. Get the dirty bedding outside so it doesn't stink out the whole place. Get her in the shower with a friend, to sober her up and make sure she doesn't drown. Get her a bucket. Put her out in the other room with a friend so she's nearer the bathroom if she needs to spew again. Put her in the recovery position - to which they all asked, "What is that?". No. Common. Sense. At all. We finally got to sleep at like, 2.
Today
Got woken up at 6, after very little sleep - the smell of spew was still on the air and it was hard to ignore it. Packed, went down to breakfast, helped clean up. Madame le Spewe was all bright and happy and not at all hungover, which proves that justice doesn't exist and that there are no consequences to anything at all... we ANZAC-Fijians had to clean up everything, the other girls - from Korea and Taiwan - sat there playng on the piano. Brats. So, we left by about 9:30 for Himeji. I don't remember much of the trip - I think all 4 of us girls - Mel, Lisa, Emma and I - slept all the way there. We arrived at about 11:30, saw Himeji castle, which was really cool, and the Western Bailey, which was meant to be the Princess' Quarters, which was... not so great. It was pretty but I had been expecting a museum display there like in the castle, and there was nothing. Kinda sucked. We had lunch at this tiny little yakisoba - noodles - place, and it was really nice. Then we were back on the bus and homeward bound. Slept all the way home and am feeling somewhat better now.
So, big fat update provided. I'll be back in the land of Oz in 4 days now - nearly 3 1/2 now that I think of it.
So, I gotta go, Miki wants to use the table to make dinner.
Love y'all
Nat
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Meh...
So, this will be a fairly bare-bones recital of the last few days, because it’s late, I’m tired and annoyed. Being poorly-organised must be a universal condition of most tertiary institutes...
So, Wednesday. We started the day with an intercultural communication class, which was… interesting. We just spent an hour and a half talking about the differences between Japan and Australia. Fun. We then had tennis, which actually wasn’t too bad, I didn’t nearly kill anyone this time. After lunch we went to another elementary school, met the kids and played with them – my class was doing Jump Rope and so I had to join in. I haven’t skipped since I was in grade 9! So, that was interesting.
Wednesday night, we went with the ESS – English Speaking Society – to Kobe, to see Luminarie. Luminarie is a big light display in memory of the victims of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. It’s pretty cool. We decided while we were there that, once we were finished viewing Luminarie, we’d like to go shopping – just window shopping, but we wanted to look around - this may be our only chance to see Japan. Our escort weren’t having any of that, though. Citing reasons such as “It’s too dangerous” (firstly, our home cities are all probably 50x more dangerous than Kobe, secondly, we spent 3 nights in the seediest part of Osaka, literally around the corner from the yakuza-controlled red light district, so the CBD of Kobe would be a nice, happy and friendly place by comparison) so we ended up having to just go straight home. It was nice but the restrictions made us all feel like we were about 6 years old on a school excursion, not legal adults out for a fun time. Meh…
Today was… well, not a total loss. We went to a middle school (Japan has 3 levels of school – elementary (years 1-6, ages 7-12; middle, years 7-9 equivalent, ages 13-15; and high school, years 10-12, ages 16-18) and did some cooking – we made dango – Japanese chewy dumplings in sweet soy sauce, and crepes. Then we came back to uni where we had a briefing about our homestay in Tajima. Of course, it was a very brief briefing, as Ono-sensei had very little information to give us pertaining our homestay families. We leave tomorrow.
So, after our briefing, we went off to Japanese, where Fujiwara-sensei threw us a little party, with all sorts of funky Japanese sweets and drinks, and it was fun. Afterwards, however, was not fun. We went to a class about childhood development or something. Either the teacher hadn’t been told to expect us and prepare accordingly, or he just didn’t care. Either way, we came in, sat down up the back and were totally ignored by everyone. Teacher didn’t acknowledge us come in, and when we finally got sick of being ignored, not understanding a single thing he said (it was all in rapid, highly academic Japanese) and left, he didn't acknowledge that either. It was a waste of time. No, it was a complete and total decimation of an hour, that we can’t ever get back. My gods, it was so stupid!!
Tonight, Miki had a bit of a Christmas party. I learned how to make Takoyaki (really easy if you can get real octopus) and we had Takoyaki, pizza and pasta! It was pretty cool. The neighbours from upstairs, friends of Miki and Sogo’s, came along, with their 3 small kids. It was quite fun.
So, it’s quite late here, and I need to be up relatively early tomorrow. We’re off to Tajima to the snow, and I’m not sure whether I’ll be bringing my computer with me. I’m leaning towards not, but there are some compelling reasons why I probably should. Namely being able to put my photos on the computer, and being able to update my blog as word docs and just upload the whole lot when I return on Tuesday. Hell, I might even luck out and get a place with internet… who knows? Maybe I will bring it…
Anyway, I digress. Going to bed now, or as soon as I finish my Umeshu (apricot brandy).
G’night all, and if I don’t see y’all before then, I’ll see you on Tuesday, with a big fat update!
Love
Nat
So, Wednesday. We started the day with an intercultural communication class, which was… interesting. We just spent an hour and a half talking about the differences between Japan and Australia. Fun. We then had tennis, which actually wasn’t too bad, I didn’t nearly kill anyone this time. After lunch we went to another elementary school, met the kids and played with them – my class was doing Jump Rope and so I had to join in. I haven’t skipped since I was in grade 9! So, that was interesting.
Wednesday night, we went with the ESS – English Speaking Society – to Kobe, to see Luminarie. Luminarie is a big light display in memory of the victims of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. It’s pretty cool. We decided while we were there that, once we were finished viewing Luminarie, we’d like to go shopping – just window shopping, but we wanted to look around - this may be our only chance to see Japan. Our escort weren’t having any of that, though. Citing reasons such as “It’s too dangerous” (firstly, our home cities are all probably 50x more dangerous than Kobe, secondly, we spent 3 nights in the seediest part of Osaka, literally around the corner from the yakuza-controlled red light district, so the CBD of Kobe would be a nice, happy and friendly place by comparison) so we ended up having to just go straight home. It was nice but the restrictions made us all feel like we were about 6 years old on a school excursion, not legal adults out for a fun time. Meh…
Today was… well, not a total loss. We went to a middle school (Japan has 3 levels of school – elementary (years 1-6, ages 7-12; middle, years 7-9 equivalent, ages 13-15; and high school, years 10-12, ages 16-18) and did some cooking – we made dango – Japanese chewy dumplings in sweet soy sauce, and crepes. Then we came back to uni where we had a briefing about our homestay in Tajima. Of course, it was a very brief briefing, as Ono-sensei had very little information to give us pertaining our homestay families. We leave tomorrow.
So, after our briefing, we went off to Japanese, where Fujiwara-sensei threw us a little party, with all sorts of funky Japanese sweets and drinks, and it was fun. Afterwards, however, was not fun. We went to a class about childhood development or something. Either the teacher hadn’t been told to expect us and prepare accordingly, or he just didn’t care. Either way, we came in, sat down up the back and were totally ignored by everyone. Teacher didn’t acknowledge us come in, and when we finally got sick of being ignored, not understanding a single thing he said (it was all in rapid, highly academic Japanese) and left, he didn't acknowledge that either. It was a waste of time. No, it was a complete and total decimation of an hour, that we can’t ever get back. My gods, it was so stupid!!
Tonight, Miki had a bit of a Christmas party. I learned how to make Takoyaki (really easy if you can get real octopus) and we had Takoyaki, pizza and pasta! It was pretty cool. The neighbours from upstairs, friends of Miki and Sogo’s, came along, with their 3 small kids. It was quite fun.
So, it’s quite late here, and I need to be up relatively early tomorrow. We’re off to Tajima to the snow, and I’m not sure whether I’ll be bringing my computer with me. I’m leaning towards not, but there are some compelling reasons why I probably should. Namely being able to put my photos on the computer, and being able to update my blog as word docs and just upload the whole lot when I return on Tuesday. Hell, I might even luck out and get a place with internet… who knows? Maybe I will bring it…
Anyway, I digress. Going to bed now, or as soon as I finish my Umeshu (apricot brandy).
G’night all, and if I don’t see y’all before then, I’ll see you on Tuesday, with a big fat update!
Love
Nat
Monday, December 8, 2008
Osaka revisited
So, we visited Osaka again today. First time with the school, but revisited for those of us who spent time in Osaka before coming here. Of course, we stayed in a completely different part of Osaka, so it wasn't like "Been there, done that!" or anything. We first visited Osaka castle, which was totally awesome!! It was built in the 1500s, has been rebuilt a couple of times due to damage from fire, earthquakes and so on, and is just stunning from the outside. Inside, it's a history museum and really interesting. Unfortunately we couldn't get photos of all the interesting stuff... I got some pics though. The top of the castle has been converted into a viewing platform, and the view was pretty spectacular.
After Osaka Castle, we went to the Panasonic Centre in Osaka. Naturally, we weren't allowed to take photos while we were in there either, but it was totally cool. They have a 103 inch television there, for about $50 000US. So maybe in about 30 years I'll be able to afford it. It was just incredible, the definition on the screen was breathtaking. They have a setup that links your lights, security, air-con, floor heating, and so on to a console that is linked to your TV and has a link to your car. It's completely wireless and totally amazing!!
The Eco-centre of the Panasonic centre is pretty awesome too. In Japan, the government has decreed everyone has to save 1kg of greenhouse gases per day, and Panasonic is bringing out all these incredible energy-saving, low-emissions devices - lightbulbs, fridges, little tiny benchtop dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, even stuff like hairdryers and the like. It's really amazing! Finally, we had to do a quiz to see what we do around home to conserve energy, and how much we were saving. I can't remember my total but it was pretty cool, it was heaps of fun.
The trip back was quiet, nearly everyone slept - the walk back from Panasonic Centre to the bus was fairly lengthy and we were all kinda tired from just being on the go all the time, and in a second language too! We got back to uni just now.
Okay, so that wasn't the lengthiest blog entry in the history of forever. I'm uploading photos taken over the last few days (okay, nearly a week, I've been slack!) so check out my Photobucket to see 'em!
Take care, all, I'll be home soon! (11 days, not that I'm counting or anything!)
Love
Nat
After Osaka Castle, we went to the Panasonic Centre in Osaka. Naturally, we weren't allowed to take photos while we were in there either, but it was totally cool. They have a 103 inch television there, for about $50 000US. So maybe in about 30 years I'll be able to afford it. It was just incredible, the definition on the screen was breathtaking. They have a setup that links your lights, security, air-con, floor heating, and so on to a console that is linked to your TV and has a link to your car. It's completely wireless and totally amazing!!
The Eco-centre of the Panasonic centre is pretty awesome too. In Japan, the government has decreed everyone has to save 1kg of greenhouse gases per day, and Panasonic is bringing out all these incredible energy-saving, low-emissions devices - lightbulbs, fridges, little tiny benchtop dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, even stuff like hairdryers and the like. It's really amazing! Finally, we had to do a quiz to see what we do around home to conserve energy, and how much we were saving. I can't remember my total but it was pretty cool, it was heaps of fun.
The trip back was quiet, nearly everyone slept - the walk back from Panasonic Centre to the bus was fairly lengthy and we were all kinda tired from just being on the go all the time, and in a second language too! We got back to uni just now.
Okay, so that wasn't the lengthiest blog entry in the history of forever. I'm uploading photos taken over the last few days (okay, nearly a week, I've been slack!) so check out my Photobucket to see 'em!
Take care, all, I'll be home soon! (11 days, not that I'm counting or anything!)
Love
Nat
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Kyoto and Osaka Aquarium
Yesterday marked the official coldest day I've experienced in Japan so far. We went to Kyoto as part of the uni program, and it was beautiful, but freezing cold. I was wearing 2 pairs of stockings, thermals and my jeans and my legs were still cold! We started off at Arashiyama, where we first participated in what I can best describe as traditional Japanese screen printing, then moved on to watching true professionals at work hand painting kimono. It was pretty impressive to watch. I got some pretty nice shots of the process.
After that, we moved on to Nijo-jo, the Emperor's official quarters when he visited Kyoto from Edo (modern Tokyo). Built in 1690, the castle has been brilliantly preserved and is beautiful. Unfortunately, we could only photograph the outside - in the interests of preserving the painted interior, no photography (flash, or otherwise) was permitted. We walked on the nightinggale floors - the construction is quite interesting, something about how the boards are balanced and spaced means they squeak in a rather musical fashion. This is not simply aesthetic, but provides a practical defense as well - nobody can sneak up on the nightinggale floor, even the lightest pressure causes noise. It was fascinating!
After Nijo-jo, we visited Kinkakuji, the Golden Temple. It was simply stunning. The whole upper part of the temple is made of gold! It's really amazing!! The grounds were beautiful and tranquil, and just walking around there was a peaceful experience, even if there were about 100 other tourists doing the same thing. We prayed at the shrine there, and I did a bit of Xmas shopping there, so I'm happy (but broke!!).
The schedule said we were supposed to go home after Kinkakuji, but about half a dozen of us had asked our host families if we could stay back later and had been told we could. So Mel, Lisa, Stephanie, David, Emma and I hung back in Kyoto to visit Gion, famous for maintaining a traditional appearance and for having geisha, and for the spectacularly pretty display at Kiyomizu, the Temple of Water. Kiyomizu is set back in the foothills of the mountains that surround Kyoto, so it's a bit of a climb to get there, but the street leading to the temple is lined with plenty of (overpriced) stores that were all lovely and warm. David and I went off to check out some Mochi shops and ended up sampling everything - mmm, free mochi samples for dinner! The upshot of it all was that when it was time to line up, we were all scattered up and down about 200m of shop-lined streets. Mel, Emma and Lisa found David and I waiting in line, but we couldn't find Stephanie anywhere. She managed to catch up with us eventually - when she couldn't find us she jumped in line a bit further down and caught up with us inside the temple. The view from up there was simply incredible!! My camera doesn't do very good night photos at all, so I couldn't take any, but Lisa and Emma had their cameras so I'll steal some pics off them at some stage. It was beautiful up there, and freezing cold. We were high up and exposed to the breeze, and it felt like about -3. It was probably not quite that cold but it definitely felt it. I was walking around in like, 4 layers, plus gloves and scarf and hat, but some of the others had dressed a little more lightly so I can only imagine how cold they must've been by the end of it.
We ended up having to leave in a bit of a hurry because Mel wasn't feeling so great - she'd had some garlic bread from a bakery that might've been a bit dodgy and yeah, not good. Poor Mel. We hustled our way through night-time Kyoto, back to the train station, and saw Mel, David and Stephanie onto a train home, then Emma, Lisa and I had dinner at a little ramen place just around the corner from the station. It wasn't bad. Got the train home, bought cheap cans of hot drinks to wrap our hand around so our fingers wouldn't freeze off, and yeah, all good. Walked home, nearly froze (I couldn't feel my nose or my ears, despite multiple layers of scarves and hats covering most of my head). All in all, a really awesome day out, but I'm a little worried about Tajima now - if yesterday was freezing, how cold does it have to be to snow??
Today my host family took me to Osaka Aquarium. It was pretty awesome! You get your ticket, walk in through a tunnel with fish swimming over the top - kinda like in underwater world - and then hop on this big escalator that takes you up to the top level of the aquarium. From there, you walk in a wide spiral down the levels, past all these displays - they have Great Barrier Reef, Costal Cuba, Deep Japan Sea, Adriatic, all sorts of marine regions on display. Seals, dolphins, sea otters, turtles, penguins, about a gazillion different varieties of fish, and sharks. Right down the centre is this massive tank in which there are a couple of whale sharks, and some rays that must be about 15ft across. They are just massive! It's really awesome. They have a whole room full of just jellyfish. They're actually quite beautiful, when they're behind glass and unable to sting you. I got some pretty decent photos, woo-hoo! I'll do a really big upload of photos like, Tuesday - I think we have a spare then... anyways.
Down the bottom level of the Aquarium is a display of Japanese River Otters. They are SO CUTE!! There was a heap of information on the walls, that I would have gotten some benefit out of if I could understand the Kanji. 'Twas all in Japanese. Ahh well, that's what happense when you come to a Japanese Aquarium, I guess.
We spent a fun couple of hours wandering around the attached shopping mall - had lunch in a Gyoza house. Gyoza is Japanese dumplings; I had Karaage (surprise, surprise) because Gyoza always has onion in it. Anyways, I digress.
So, we came home via the supermarket, where I met another strange creature - live crabs. They sell the crabs in their seafood section to you live, then kill them once you've bought them. It was... kinda creepy, actually. I couldn't look at them once I knew... It was scary.
Anyway, it's late (nearly 11 here, nearly midnight at home) and I've got another long-ish day tomorrow. We're going to Osaka (again) to visit Osaka castle and Panasonic Centre. I'm sure I'll be crying for my lack of funds tomorrow!! Ah well... can't always get what you want. Stuff here is expensive - especially luxuries like travel and hot cocoa from vending machines to keep your hands warm. Well, okay, the cocoa isn't that exy but travel is!! Glad I walk to uni but still...
I'll probably update tomorrow night!
I'll have photos up sometime soon too!!
Love y'all
Nat
After that, we moved on to Nijo-jo, the Emperor's official quarters when he visited Kyoto from Edo (modern Tokyo). Built in 1690, the castle has been brilliantly preserved and is beautiful. Unfortunately, we could only photograph the outside - in the interests of preserving the painted interior, no photography (flash, or otherwise) was permitted. We walked on the nightinggale floors - the construction is quite interesting, something about how the boards are balanced and spaced means they squeak in a rather musical fashion. This is not simply aesthetic, but provides a practical defense as well - nobody can sneak up on the nightinggale floor, even the lightest pressure causes noise. It was fascinating!
After Nijo-jo, we visited Kinkakuji, the Golden Temple. It was simply stunning. The whole upper part of the temple is made of gold! It's really amazing!! The grounds were beautiful and tranquil, and just walking around there was a peaceful experience, even if there were about 100 other tourists doing the same thing. We prayed at the shrine there, and I did a bit of Xmas shopping there, so I'm happy (but broke!!).
The schedule said we were supposed to go home after Kinkakuji, but about half a dozen of us had asked our host families if we could stay back later and had been told we could. So Mel, Lisa, Stephanie, David, Emma and I hung back in Kyoto to visit Gion, famous for maintaining a traditional appearance and for having geisha, and for the spectacularly pretty display at Kiyomizu, the Temple of Water. Kiyomizu is set back in the foothills of the mountains that surround Kyoto, so it's a bit of a climb to get there, but the street leading to the temple is lined with plenty of (overpriced) stores that were all lovely and warm. David and I went off to check out some Mochi shops and ended up sampling everything - mmm, free mochi samples for dinner! The upshot of it all was that when it was time to line up, we were all scattered up and down about 200m of shop-lined streets. Mel, Emma and Lisa found David and I waiting in line, but we couldn't find Stephanie anywhere. She managed to catch up with us eventually - when she couldn't find us she jumped in line a bit further down and caught up with us inside the temple. The view from up there was simply incredible!! My camera doesn't do very good night photos at all, so I couldn't take any, but Lisa and Emma had their cameras so I'll steal some pics off them at some stage. It was beautiful up there, and freezing cold. We were high up and exposed to the breeze, and it felt like about -3. It was probably not quite that cold but it definitely felt it. I was walking around in like, 4 layers, plus gloves and scarf and hat, but some of the others had dressed a little more lightly so I can only imagine how cold they must've been by the end of it.
We ended up having to leave in a bit of a hurry because Mel wasn't feeling so great - she'd had some garlic bread from a bakery that might've been a bit dodgy and yeah, not good. Poor Mel. We hustled our way through night-time Kyoto, back to the train station, and saw Mel, David and Stephanie onto a train home, then Emma, Lisa and I had dinner at a little ramen place just around the corner from the station. It wasn't bad. Got the train home, bought cheap cans of hot drinks to wrap our hand around so our fingers wouldn't freeze off, and yeah, all good. Walked home, nearly froze (I couldn't feel my nose or my ears, despite multiple layers of scarves and hats covering most of my head). All in all, a really awesome day out, but I'm a little worried about Tajima now - if yesterday was freezing, how cold does it have to be to snow??
Today my host family took me to Osaka Aquarium. It was pretty awesome! You get your ticket, walk in through a tunnel with fish swimming over the top - kinda like in underwater world - and then hop on this big escalator that takes you up to the top level of the aquarium. From there, you walk in a wide spiral down the levels, past all these displays - they have Great Barrier Reef, Costal Cuba, Deep Japan Sea, Adriatic, all sorts of marine regions on display. Seals, dolphins, sea otters, turtles, penguins, about a gazillion different varieties of fish, and sharks. Right down the centre is this massive tank in which there are a couple of whale sharks, and some rays that must be about 15ft across. They are just massive! It's really awesome. They have a whole room full of just jellyfish. They're actually quite beautiful, when they're behind glass and unable to sting you. I got some pretty decent photos, woo-hoo! I'll do a really big upload of photos like, Tuesday - I think we have a spare then... anyways.
Down the bottom level of the Aquarium is a display of Japanese River Otters. They are SO CUTE!! There was a heap of information on the walls, that I would have gotten some benefit out of if I could understand the Kanji. 'Twas all in Japanese. Ahh well, that's what happense when you come to a Japanese Aquarium, I guess.
We spent a fun couple of hours wandering around the attached shopping mall - had lunch in a Gyoza house. Gyoza is Japanese dumplings; I had Karaage (surprise, surprise) because Gyoza always has onion in it. Anyways, I digress.
So, we came home via the supermarket, where I met another strange creature - live crabs. They sell the crabs in their seafood section to you live, then kill them once you've bought them. It was... kinda creepy, actually. I couldn't look at them once I knew... It was scary.
Anyway, it's late (nearly 11 here, nearly midnight at home) and I've got another long-ish day tomorrow. We're going to Osaka (again) to visit Osaka castle and Panasonic Centre. I'm sure I'll be crying for my lack of funds tomorrow!! Ah well... can't always get what you want. Stuff here is expensive - especially luxuries like travel and hot cocoa from vending machines to keep your hands warm. Well, okay, the cocoa isn't that exy but travel is!! Glad I walk to uni but still...
I'll probably update tomorrow night!
I'll have photos up sometime soon too!!
Love y'all
Nat
Friday, December 5, 2008
Welcome Party
Okay, so to pick up where I left off this afternoon, we had our Welcome Party. It was kinda fun - there are 11 students (6 from QUT including myself, 3 from Uni of the South Pacific in Fiji, and 2 from Canterbury College in NZ) involved in the short exchange program (the 1-month program) and about another half dozen or so that are involved in the long exchange, which as I understand, lasts about a year. So, we all got up on the stage and did a short introduction in Japanese - the Fijians and Kiwis had gotten theirs scripted during their Japanese lesson today, and they did pretty well considering they'd only been in Japan for less than a week. Then we had dinner and did our performances. Dinner was a buffet kinda thing, and it was quite tasty. They had all sorts of good food, karaage (chicken in a special batter), sushi, tempura, curry, all sorts of things.
The performances were pretty impressive. The students who were involved in the long program did traditional Japanese dances, in Kimono and everything. One girl was from Indonesia, I'm not sure where the others were from, but they did a marvellous job. The Kiwis sang their national anthem in Maori and English. We sang our anthem, and then did the nutbush, grabbing members of the audience to come up on stage and dance with us as we went. It was pretty fun. My gods, my legs are tired from the dance, but it was heaps fun.
The Fijians each did a different thing. Nitu is Indian-Fijian, and she did this amazing Indian (I think Bollywood) dance. It was just beautiful, really energetic and graceful. Qweni is from Tonga, so she did a Tongan dance, which was equally beautiful and graceful, and just flowed really smoothly. It was amazing to watch. Efremo sang a traditional Fijian song - he has an incredible voice! It was heaps of fun!!
Okay, so tomorrow I'm going to Kyoto. It's likely to be completely freezing there, it's apparently considerably colder in Kyoto than around Osaka. I'm staying there quite late, we want to see Kyomizu temple, the Temple of Water, and it's apparently quite spectacular at night! We'll be leaving Kyoto at around 9, so I expect I'll be home around 10, and will probably be just too tired to update. I'll try, though. If not, stay tuned for an update on Sunday!!
Okay, take care and be good!
Love
Nat
The performances were pretty impressive. The students who were involved in the long program did traditional Japanese dances, in Kimono and everything. One girl was from Indonesia, I'm not sure where the others were from, but they did a marvellous job. The Kiwis sang their national anthem in Maori and English. We sang our anthem, and then did the nutbush, grabbing members of the audience to come up on stage and dance with us as we went. It was pretty fun. My gods, my legs are tired from the dance, but it was heaps fun.
The Fijians each did a different thing. Nitu is Indian-Fijian, and she did this amazing Indian (I think Bollywood) dance. It was just beautiful, really energetic and graceful. Qweni is from Tonga, so she did a Tongan dance, which was equally beautiful and graceful, and just flowed really smoothly. It was amazing to watch. Efremo sang a traditional Fijian song - he has an incredible voice! It was heaps of fun!!
Okay, so tomorrow I'm going to Kyoto. It's likely to be completely freezing there, it's apparently considerably colder in Kyoto than around Osaka. I'm staying there quite late, we want to see Kyomizu temple, the Temple of Water, and it's apparently quite spectacular at night! We'll be leaving Kyoto at around 9, so I expect I'll be home around 10, and will probably be just too tired to update. I'll try, though. If not, stay tuned for an update on Sunday!!
Okay, take care and be good!
Love
Nat
Got a chance to update...
I apologise for not updating last night - we had rather a big night out...
So, to catch up on the last couple of days... Wednesday morning saw us visit the local High School for a lesson in wearing kimono and participating in Sadou, or Tea Ceremony. It was lovely - kimono are tricky to get on and off but look great once you're done, and the tea ceremony was quite elegant. We returned to uni, did lunch, and then were off to a tennis lesson. I should be labelled as armed and dangerous when equipped with a tennis racquet, as I nearly took off one girl's head about 3 times during the lesson, by the simple expedient of not aiming when I hit the ball. It was fun but I'm pretty hopeless at ball games in general.
After tennis, we met the Kendo club for a lesson. I've finally found a sport I don't suck spectacularly at!! It was tremendous fun! We armoured up, were given a shinai (a practise sword made of bamboo, constructed in such a way that the bamboo lengths compress when used to deal a blow, so the most damage you do to your opponent is the occasional bruise) and taught some basic strokes. Then we were turned loose to spar with the club girls, who are years more experienced than we are. It was great fun. At the end of the lesson, we had a 3 on 3 match - Trav, Qweni (one of the Fijian girls) and I against Stephanie, David and Yumin. It was tonnes of fun!! My arms ached from swinging so much, my knees ached from kneeling so often on a hard floor, but I was elated! Wednesday night saw us up quite late watching some random show about samurai and geisha in the edo period, or something. It was interesting but far too long-winded and convoluted for my tastes.
Yesterday morning started off with a visit to a primary school to meet some of the year 1 and 2 students. We were split up and went off to a classroom each, where we taught the kids some Australian games, were taught some Japanese games, did some Q&A with the kids and had lunch. Japanese school lunches are excellent - healthy, hot and fresh, and really well organised! No mad crush at the tuckshop where everyone pushes and shoves to be at the front of the line and get served first. Lunch yesterday was Miso soup, a bean and vegetable stew thingy, some rice, a mandarin and a little bottle of milk. The food is delivered from the kitchens in a couple of boxes, wheeled in by kitchen staff, and served up by the day's lunch monitors. Each kid brings from home a little bag containing a napkin and some chopsticks, and the school provides everything else. It's just fantastic!
So, after returning from the school, we went off in a couple of groups. Trav, David, Ef and I went off to the 99 yen shop and bought drinks, while the others decided to get some computer time in. I bought a can that turned out to be alcoholic green tea. It was vile!! I usually like green tea but I hate canned green tea and the alcohol just made it worse. It was awful and gross and disgusting!
After our experiment with strange Japanese alcohol, we met up at the station, went to the supermarket and bought more drinks (88yen, about $1.50 AU per can) and then went off to Maccas. We bought some burgers (100 Y buys a hamburger) and sat down, eating our burgers and drinking our alcopops. It was... totally random, really. When we were done, we went off to an izakaya. Izakaya are Japanese style bars, quite cheap and lots of fun. We sat down, nibbled on interesting foods and drank quite heartily - and danced the Nutbush down the middle of the pub! The whole night out probably cost us about $50 each, if that, and I got quite plastered. Can't speak for the others, but I know I was pretty maggot when I got home. Feel a little worse for wear today, not exactly hungover but a little fragile lol.
Our welcome party is tonight; we spent this afternoon going over our plan for the evening, rehearsing, getting a CD with our song on it made up and whatnot. The night'll be over by about 8pm, so I might be able to update afterwards, fingers crossed.
Okay, so that's my exciting fun last couple of days. I'm definitely going to try and get into a Kendo club in Brisbane if I can, it's so much fun!
Love
Nat
So, to catch up on the last couple of days... Wednesday morning saw us visit the local High School for a lesson in wearing kimono and participating in Sadou, or Tea Ceremony. It was lovely - kimono are tricky to get on and off but look great once you're done, and the tea ceremony was quite elegant. We returned to uni, did lunch, and then were off to a tennis lesson. I should be labelled as armed and dangerous when equipped with a tennis racquet, as I nearly took off one girl's head about 3 times during the lesson, by the simple expedient of not aiming when I hit the ball. It was fun but I'm pretty hopeless at ball games in general.
After tennis, we met the Kendo club for a lesson. I've finally found a sport I don't suck spectacularly at!! It was tremendous fun! We armoured up, were given a shinai (a practise sword made of bamboo, constructed in such a way that the bamboo lengths compress when used to deal a blow, so the most damage you do to your opponent is the occasional bruise) and taught some basic strokes. Then we were turned loose to spar with the club girls, who are years more experienced than we are. It was great fun. At the end of the lesson, we had a 3 on 3 match - Trav, Qweni (one of the Fijian girls) and I against Stephanie, David and Yumin. It was tonnes of fun!! My arms ached from swinging so much, my knees ached from kneeling so often on a hard floor, but I was elated! Wednesday night saw us up quite late watching some random show about samurai and geisha in the edo period, or something. It was interesting but far too long-winded and convoluted for my tastes.
Yesterday morning started off with a visit to a primary school to meet some of the year 1 and 2 students. We were split up and went off to a classroom each, where we taught the kids some Australian games, were taught some Japanese games, did some Q&A with the kids and had lunch. Japanese school lunches are excellent - healthy, hot and fresh, and really well organised! No mad crush at the tuckshop where everyone pushes and shoves to be at the front of the line and get served first. Lunch yesterday was Miso soup, a bean and vegetable stew thingy, some rice, a mandarin and a little bottle of milk. The food is delivered from the kitchens in a couple of boxes, wheeled in by kitchen staff, and served up by the day's lunch monitors. Each kid brings from home a little bag containing a napkin and some chopsticks, and the school provides everything else. It's just fantastic!
So, after returning from the school, we went off in a couple of groups. Trav, David, Ef and I went off to the 99 yen shop and bought drinks, while the others decided to get some computer time in. I bought a can that turned out to be alcoholic green tea. It was vile!! I usually like green tea but I hate canned green tea and the alcohol just made it worse. It was awful and gross and disgusting!
After our experiment with strange Japanese alcohol, we met up at the station, went to the supermarket and bought more drinks (88yen, about $1.50 AU per can) and then went off to Maccas. We bought some burgers (100 Y buys a hamburger) and sat down, eating our burgers and drinking our alcopops. It was... totally random, really. When we were done, we went off to an izakaya. Izakaya are Japanese style bars, quite cheap and lots of fun. We sat down, nibbled on interesting foods and drank quite heartily - and danced the Nutbush down the middle of the pub! The whole night out probably cost us about $50 each, if that, and I got quite plastered. Can't speak for the others, but I know I was pretty maggot when I got home. Feel a little worse for wear today, not exactly hungover but a little fragile lol.
Our welcome party is tonight; we spent this afternoon going over our plan for the evening, rehearsing, getting a CD with our song on it made up and whatnot. The night'll be over by about 8pm, so I might be able to update afterwards, fingers crossed.
Okay, so that's my exciting fun last couple of days. I'm definitely going to try and get into a Kendo club in Brisbane if I can, it's so much fun!
Love
Nat
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