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!