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.