Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday isn't until the 23rd but I received a package from my family early. It is officially the start of autumn here but today was still in the thirties (Celsius). So the beanie (winter hat) and neck warmer (which mum thought it was necessary to explain what it was to me) might not get used for a little while, but man that chocolate ain't gonna last long!

Shirakawago August Holiday

I am finally getting around to writing about our trip to Shirakawago during our August holiday. This place was really amazing. It is an UNESCO world heritage sight due to its many Gassho Zukuri houses. These are huge multi-storey thatched roofed houses specifically built for raising silk worms. We were able to go into many that were set up for tourist. One even had live silk worms munching away. It was only a small display but we could hear them. I expect that when the roof was full of them it would have been surprisingly loud, just my guess.

Above is the Gassho Zukuri we stayed in. It was basically the last one in town with room. Weeks before Ana had been ringing around frantically looking for somewhere in Shirakawago and this one was the only one left. It was run by an old couple and they were a little reluctant to have people stay as they are old and it's a lot of hard work.

We were lucky as the weather was mainly clear while we were there. It rained briefly one afternoon but it was over quickly and helped to drop the temperature which was quite warm. Also there were flowers everywhere, above is just an example of the flowers around the town. I imagine this little village is always beautiful. You have flowers in spring and summer, red leaves in the autumn and snow in the winter. I highly recommend this place to anyone. It is a bit touristy in that there is a shitload of them but it's worth it.

August holiday

Well August saw us with another week off. One of our goals was to see the Sea of Japan. So we headed up to Kanazawa in Ishikawa prefecture. In Kanazawa we went to one of the most famous gardens in Japan. One of the top three. Kenroku-en is near Kanazawa castle.

Ana in Kenroku-en garden

Also in Kanazawa we went to the old Geisha district. Apparently there are still some in Kanazawa but we didn't see any like we did in Kyoto. It was an interesting area and we got to go into an old tea house where Geisha would have performed for their clients.

The view from one of the tea rooms

To see the sea of Japan Ana and I took a train to Hakui, north of Kanazawa on the Noto peninsular. It is famous as the Japanese UFO capital, although we couldn't figure out if it was because UFO's have been seen there or if it is just marketing. It was a typical small beach town and we enjoyed lunch and a beer at a beach bar.

Ana at the beach bar in Hakui

This trip was the same as the last with me wearing my trusty one dollar rubber thongs. They're still going strong.

July Holiday

Ana and I were visited by Heather and Jeremy in July for one week. It was a fast and furious trip with us visiting Inuyama, Osaka, Himeji, Nara, Kyoto and Hikone. It was good to have visitors and we had a great time and saw some great sights.


Some of the highlights were us seeing all four of the castles that are designated as national treasures in Japan. We had seen one (Matsumoto castle) last time they visited us in 2005 and this trip we saw the other three (Inuyama, Himeji and Hikone). Below is Himeji Castle.

Another highlight was seeing Geisha in Kyoto. We were there on the last day of the Gion festival, the largest in Japan. The next evening the Gion district was crawling with Geisha. It seemed whenever we turned around we saw another one. They move remarkably quickly despite their complicated get-up. This was like seeing history and spotting a celebrity at the same time.

Above is a picture of Hakketei Ryokan (Japanese guesthouse) in Hikone. Hakketei is a three hundred year old building that used to be the entertainment facilities of the lord of the castle. Around it is a famous Japanese garden. It was unusual to be sitting in our room looking out on the garden and seeing visitors looking in. Fortunately the garden closes around five so we didn't have to worry about privacy at night. The room came with dinner and breakfast. The dinner was an eleven course affair. It was some of the best Japanese food I have ever eaten. One thing that I was worried about eating was funazushi, which is fermented carp. It turned out to be rather good. It tasted like a strong aged cheese and was served with crusty garlic bread.

The weather on the trip was hot, very hot, stinking hot. Above are the shoes I wore for the entire trip. Quite a mean feat for a pair of one dollar rubber thongs. Wish I was wearing a pedometer to see how much ground these little guys covered because we did a lot of walking.

p.s. Chad I hope you appreciate the pictures ya nagging whinger.

Takayama

This last weekend Bec and Tone came to visit us in Japan. They spent two nights in Nagoya before coming to Kani for a night on Friday. Saturday we headed up to Takayama. We spent one night in a guest house. The guest house was an old building that was relocated to the center of town. It included a nice Japanese dinner and breakfast.

Takayama is also known as little Kyoto due to it's old downtown area. The weather wasn't that great, it rained almost constantly while we were there. The old area was interesting and it was good to see Bec and Tone after so long. We got there by train which was relaxing and the views were beautiful, despite the rain. In fact the rain made it all misty on the trip back. Takayama is up in the hills with steep verdant green valleys all around.

Bec and Tone left to go back to China on the Monday so it was a short but sweet weekend. We are now waiting for friends from the US to come visit in a few weeks. I hope everyone is well. Check out the pics on my flickr sight if you wish.

Come for the Tortoise, stay for the food.

It's not every cafe you walk into and step on tortoise shit, but that is what happened to us last weekend. Ana and I went to Gifu-city for the day. We walked all the way up to Gifu castle and the surrounding area. Nearby, we spotted a little cafe called Natural Cafe. It looked like an interesting place so we decided to have lunch there. The cafe is on the second floor of a century old building. The first floor is a little shop, slash, gallery. This is where the tortoise was, running loose around the ground floor and veranda. It was quite strange but very interesting. It does bring up the thought though, that this is a generational pet. The food by the way was great. We had nice Thai green curry, a standard for Japanese hippy cafes.

Gifu castle was interesting even if it is a reconstruction. It was bombed during the war. It was a significant castle in its day, and we could see why. The view from the top was extensive. We could make out Nagoya on the horizon and the views in all directions were astounding. Wish it was a little clearer, summer here is a bit hazy.

Gifu city had more of the feel Ana and I are used to. It reminded us more of where we were before, with the exception of having a lot more older buildings. I have posted some pictures so please go look, that means you Chad!

Have a good time doing whatever it is you are doing.

Taking pics

Hey everyone! I have uploaded some pictures from two weeks ago. Ana and I went back to HanaFesta to look at the roses again. I wasn't inspired to take any pictures of the flowers but I did take some pictures (hopefully interesting) on the walk back home.

One picture I would have liked to have gotten was the giant hornet we saw while we were at the park. Apparently Japan has the worlds biggest hornet. It can be over three inches long and spits flesh eating acid, no shit. We were walking on one of the many paths around the hills in the park when Ana spotted this thing that looked like a bird, no shit. These things are bigger than a humming bird, no shit. Apparently these things go into the hives of honey bees and kill them all, eat the honey and steal the baby bees to feed to their young. Did I mention that around forty people each year are killed by these things, no shit. Admittedly, you need to be allergic but still, forty people. One other thing is that the larvae of these things are considered a delicacy by some, no shit. That's probably the people who get killed, I don't think I want to be trying to steal these things babies.

Anyway, check out the pics if you wish. Have fun, be good and STAND UP BIG!

In search of observation.

Running through fields of cheese, drenched in carrots, while battleships cruise the skies blasting holes in the indifference.
Looking into the distance to see what is in front of your past, trying to comprehend the here and now.
Contemplating the similarities in the mountains while the dessert screams for your attention, crying to be painted black.
Random frogs trying to sell you Internet services and nameless salesman talking up the low down.
Looking for meaning in the frog filled paddies as blind spectators heckle your goo, ignorant of their hypocrisies.
Google your image and listen to the gravy fill your consciousness rendering your bladder apathetic.
Dancing to the alphabet while random ferrets fight to see the Romanesque prestidigitator pull tragic sequels from it's arse.
All I need is one more chance to see the green that sets me free from the tyranny of red, while the blue oranges laugh at yellow gnomes.
Raw ambition and unbridled ambition is no substitute for Garam Marsala, try it!

Birds and the Bee's, and water mammals

Well the mystery of the river mammal has been solved. If you have read Ana's Blog you will know it was a Nutria. It is a large South American rodent. It's considered a bit of a pest. So it wasn't really as interesting as I'd have hoped. We went from thinking it was a rare Japanese mammal to an introduced pest.

On other animal news we went to Hanafesta Flower Park in Kani. This time of year the roses are out. The park is huge and has one of the largest collections of roses in the world. It has many other things as well but the focus was on the roses at this time of year. One of the things we found interesting, which wasn't part of the park really, was the amount of insects and such. On a small path that you just used to go from one area to another we saw masses of caterpillars and a few lizards. I think the Japanese thought we were crazy looking at the bugs instead of the flowers.

We also saw a Mamushi (Japans most poisonous snake). Actually, we heard it is not that dangerous. It was in an area with a small water feature and there were plenty of people around. This was ironic because before when we were coming off a path that had a sign warning people that they were in that area we heard a couple decide not to go because of that. And here you have one swimming around near to people picnicking and playing with their kids.

Another animal encounter was the with swallows. A couple had started building a nest on our exhaust fan outlet but gave up. On the floor below us there is a nest we see everyday. At Hanafesta on a covered walkway there were numerous nests and birds and they didn't seem to concerned by the people. You could get to within reaching distance as they sat on the railing. You could easily touch the nests as they were a little bit above head height. It's nice to see so many animals around. I have posted pictures on my photosite. Unfortunately we didn't get one of the snake.

Mysterious Water Mammal

Well we have been going on little walks lately for exercise. On one recent jaunt around dusk we were wondering along the river near our house. We had seen a fair amount of wildlife in the area so we kept an eye on the river when we saw what seemed to be a large mammal swimming in the water. We guessed that it might be a river otter but it stayed low in the water and it was getting dark so it was hard to identify. We went home and found on the Internet that the Japanese river otter was pretty much thought extinct. It hasn't been spotted in the wild since the late seventies and in an area that is no where near us. Not to mention that we saw this mammal nearly smack bang in the middle of Kani city right outside of the supermarket next to the train line. Not really a pristine, secluded environment.

We have seen plenty of birds, some turtles and fish in the river but this was the first mammal. We went back the next afternoon and tried to spot it again. And right on sunset the little fellow was out swimming again. Like last time he was hard to identify and we lost sight of it pretty quickly. Ana did get one photo but it is pretty hard to make out. The body looks to be about half a meter long, so it isn't that small.

It is interesting that there is so much wildlife around here. I still don't really have an image of wildlife in Japan. Before coming here, if pressed, I might have thought of those monkeys that sit in natural hot springs with snow on their heads. Other than that my image of Japan has always been big cities or mountainous landscapes devoid of animals. We have seen a number of birds down by the river and elsewhere and it is nice to think that the Japanese haven't over engineered every part of the country leaving no room for animals. We have heard that there are monkeys in the hills nearby so that might be our next David Attenborough moment. I'll keep you posted on the river mammal mystery. I have to question my students to find out more info.

Let's see if I remember how to do this...

Well it has been a while since I wrote anything on here. I can't say much hasn't happened. In that time I got a promotion at work, I went to Australia for a holiday, I got a new neice, went to New York, Washington D.C. and Kentucky, sold a house, moved into my mother-in-laws basement, quit my job and moved back to Japan.

So Ana and I find ourselves back in Japan. We got here on the 15th of March and are both working at a small school with only a couple of branches. Since being here we have noticed that it is a little different ot where we lived before in Japan. It's a little more small town but admittiedly there seems to be a lot around to see and do. Unlike the Shonan area where we lived before not everthing around here was flattened in the Second World War.

We have been to a number of small little towns already and seen some interesting things. You can see picutres on my photo site. Stay tuned for more in depth explorations of the places we visit, but not too indepth. I don't want to bore anyone.

I would like to leave you with this one recent observation. WATERFALLS ROCK!!!