The next day in Kyoto…

Roley and I got up reasonably early the next day to go sight-seeing. We went to the Kinkakuji Temple and the Zen Buddhism Rock Gardens. They were amazing to see. It was such a beautiful sight.

At the Kinkakuji Temple, Roley and I were stopped by this young girl who said she was a university student studying English and she wanted to take us on a tour of the Kinkakuji Temple. She took us around and told us about the history of the temple. The original temple was actually burnt down by a crazy monk and rebuilt after the 1950’s.

She also told us about the small waterfall in the gardens surrounding the temple. The waterfall is actually a famous legend. The carp that swim in the pool of water below the waterfall have to aim to swim up the waterfall. If they make it to the top, they can become a dragon.


There was also a small pond near the temple. This pond was said to be very lucky because even in the droughts, the pond always holds water. It is never empty. She told us many interesting facts about the Kinkakuji Temple and it was good to have her as a guide. She had studied it and wanted to educate foreigners about the temple. We got a photo with her at the end of our tour.

Roley and I then made our way to the Zen Buddhism Rock Gardens.



They were really cool and I enjoyed sitting in front of the famous Rock Gardens which consists of fifteen rocks strategically placed in a small area surrounded by pebbles that are perfectly raked.

Simplicity is the key to Zen Buddhism and it was so simple, so perfect, yet so intriguing at the same time. I pondered over the rock garden for about twenty minutes trying to make sense of it all, and thought of about a thousand meanings to it. In the end, I came to no conclusions! I got more and more confused the more I thought about it!

At lunch, we met up with Megumi again and spent the rest of the day with her. She took us to the Kyomizu Temple.

We got a spectacular view of Kyoto from the top of the mountain and it was a beautiful day to be outside. I loved it! When we were about to leave, we saw some Japanese girls dressed up as Geisha.

They weren’t real Geisha, but in Kyoto, girls can pay to be dressed up as a geisha and walk around Kyoto so that people can see them looking beautiful - just like a porcelain doll. They really did look like little dolls. They looked so cool.

Roley and I took the last train home and didn’t get back until about 1:30am! We were so tired! There was a party at Shirasagi Residence when we got home as one of the Americans in our building, Mac, was having a party in his apartment. Roley and I ducked in for a while, Roley left early to go to bed, but I ended up partying on till 4:30am! I didn’t notice the time until I looked at my watch and my eyes nearly popped out of my head! It was a good night though! We met lots of cool Japanese people that night.

Kyoto with Roley and Megumi

On the weekend of Roley’s stay in Japan, Roley and I had planned to go on a trip to Kyoto. Kyoto is probably one of my most favourite places in Japan so far because it is such a pretty town. It has so much history and so many temples and cool sight-seeing places. When we arrived, we met up with a girl called Megumi. Roley and I met Megumi for the first time on our Contiki tour in New Zealand in 2006. She is really nice and she lives in Kyoto. Roley emailed her and told her he was coming to Japan so he organised for us to go and visit her in Kyoto. We went out for dinner with her at this cool restaurant and we had a really good time. I got really excited that I had another Japanese friend to talk to and visit while I was in Japan. Megumi is such a cool person and she is so funny!


After tea, we went for a walk around the streets of Kyoto. Kyoto has a really busy night life and there are lots of older men walking around after work enjoying themselves walking from one bar to the next! We went for a walk down the river which is where all the young university students hang out on weekends.


We were having this conversation about blood types. In Japan, knowing your blood type is so important. So much in fact, that people even write what their blood type is on their business cards! Megumi couldn’t believe it when Roley and I said that we didn’t know what our blood type was because everyone in Japan knows their blood type. It is like knowing your star sign and if you have a certain blood type it means you are a certain type of person. AB means that you are strange. I know this because Megumi is AB and it is not a common blood type.

Anyway, after our long-winded conversation on blood types, we walked past this huge group of young university students sitting by the river. I told Megumi to ask them what their blood type was. So sure enough, she went up to the entire group and said, “ketsuekigata wa nan desu ka?” (I learnt how to say ‘what is your blood type’ in Japanese just in case I needed to ask someone one day!) They all went around in a circle taking turns to tell us what their blood type was! It was crazy! I couldn’t believe it. Then they asked her if she was a professor or something because they thought she was doing a survey! She was just being her strange AB-blood type self! Then, every group of people we walked past, she would ask for their blood type. Roley and I were almost rolling around the floor laughing! It was classic! Everyone thought it was strange that we didn’t know our blood type!

We made friends with one of the groups along the river and this funny girl who had had a few drinks kept on saying, “happy, happy happy!” because I guess she was happy! She kept on hugging me and jumping up and down and saying we were friends! She was really funny!

So that was the end of our crazy night in Kyoto with Megumi. It was a good start to our trip in Kyoto.

Roley’s visit

Just last week, Roley came to visit me from Australia. It was so exciting to see a familiar face from my home country! I took the day off on the Monday when he arrived and met him at the Kansai Airport in Osaka. Then we spent the day in Osaka taking a tour of the Osaka Jyo (Osaka Castle) and walking around the gardens surrounding the castle. It was a pleasant day and we both enjoyed ourselves.




There is this really cool place in Osaka called the mizukakefudou (みずかけふどう). In the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the busy streets of Osaka, there is this quaint, peaceful, yet amazing-looking shrine. It has incense and three statues covered in moss. When you go to the temple, the tradition is that you throw the water on the statues. As it is done so often, moss has begun to grow on the statues and they look amazing! I was trying to find the mizukakefudou to show Roley, but I couldn’t find it. Then, as we were walking along, Roley spotted this art gallery that was really small and you had to climb a flight of stairs to go into the building. We went to go inside to find that it was closed. As we walked back down the staircase, this little old man and this trendy looking lady came out of a little door. They ushered us back into the building and opened it up for us to see. They both spoke only Japanese, but the lady could also speak in French.

We talked to them for a little while (well as much as my Japanese held up!) and then they said they would take us to the mizukakefudou. We didn’t even ask them to, but they offered to take us. So we went there and poured the water on the statues. It was so cool. They were so friendly. Then they asked us where we wanted to go next. I told them we were going to the Osaka Castle. They took us to the train station and gave us a map and told us which train to catch and how much it was going to cost and then they sent us on our way. They were the most friendly people and they were so accommodating and helpful. I took a photo of them at the mizukakefudou and got the lady’s email address and sent her the photo. I think she would have liked that. I haven’t heard from her, but I just wanted to say thank you to her for being so kind to us.

Yozakura

The cherry blossom season is so cool! The other night, Lauren, Steve, Tina, Jono and I went to the Himeji Castle to see the cherry blossom trees at night time. Yozakura means “night time cherry blossom viewing”. All the cherry blossoms were lit up with bright colourful lights shining on them to get the full effect of their beauty.

The castle’s gardens were packed with thousands of people wanting to get a glimpse of the cherry blossom trees in the night.

It was the most beautiful sight and we spent a good hour just admiring the view. I overheard lots of Japanese people saying “suge” which means “awesome” because they were so impressed with what they saw! That has become my new favourite word. Yozakura is suge!

Shirasagi Residence

I live in a building called the Shirasagi Residence. It is a really cool, new building and my apartment is really nice. Just the other day, I took some photos of the view from my balcony on the third floor. Not bad, eh? I think it is really pretty and I love leaving my apartment everyday and looking at the view of the mountains. It is beautiful!

Lauren took a photo of the Shirasagi Residence from the top of a hill.

So this is what the building that I live in looks like. It was really funny that day because we were looking for a place to kick the footy (seeming as the footy season has just started and we felt like being all Australian!) and we stumbled across this park with a whole heap of kids playing baseball. We talked to the kids for a little while and then this older boy who looked all tough and rough started speaking to us. He told us he was in the mafia, and we told him we thought he looked scary…he didn’t really! He was wearing a flannelette shirt with black jeans and a chain and his hair do was all trendy looking. He was pretty funny though. While Lauren was taking a photo of the Shirasagi Residence, he was down below posing for the photo with his friend, so Lauren took a photo of him and his friend! I think he felt special that Lauren took a photo of him!

It is so funny when random people come up and speak to us just because we are foreigners. It happens often, though. They get all excited that we are from a different country and want to speak English to us! One day, I was walking back from the bus station when this man came up to me. He said, “nan ji?” which means, “what is the time?” Well I was getting all stressed because I was only just starting to learn the time in Japanese and I was worried that I didn’t know how to tell him what the time was. I was looking at my watch and studying it for ages and then he said, “nani jin…Australian?” Then I realised that he didn’t want to know what the time was, but he wanted to know what nationality I was! So I must have looked so stupid studying my watch for ages trying to work out what the time was! He was probably thinking, “you’re not gonna find your answer there, buddy!” That kind of stuff happens to me often. I never know what people are talking about and always seem to be the one left looking like a fool! Oh well, at least it keeps people entertained! I don’t mind if the joke’s on me!

Shin’s band

Looking back, I have gone to see so many different bands – most of them have been Jazz. I have been really into jazz since coming to Japan. There are so many brilliant musicians here to listen to and appreciate. They are really entertaining and they look so comfortable up on stage doing their thing. That is one thing I really like about being in a big town – there are many opportunities to go out and listen to bands play.

I went to see a band at a local Irish pub last night. Lauren and I met a really nice lady called Yumi at a party we had at the beginning of the year and Yumi’s husband, Shin is a guitarist in the band. His band is a mixture of country and blues and there are nine people in the band! There were two electric guitarists, one bass guitarist, two harmonicas, a drummer, a trombonist, a singer and a keyboard player. They were all very talented and Lauren and I enjoyed listening to them. They took turns in getting on and off the stage and then in their last set, they all got up and played together. They sounded really good.



We met Shin’s friends and found out that most of them were teachers. One of them said he wasn’t a teacher, but he sells bananas in Kobe! I didn’t know whether to believe him or not, but it was funny! I asked him if he worked in a fruit shop and he replied, “no, I only sell bananas!” Then he said, “Do you like banana?” Lauren and I cracked up laughing and were too embarrassed to answer him! Then they kept on laughing about that comment the entire night!

We were the only foreigners in the pub that night. It felt weird being the odd one out, but the people there were really friendly and made us feel welcome. In a way, I kind of liked it because it was good to mix with only Japanese people and practise speaking in Japanese to them. I find it really hard to practise speaking Japanese here. It sounds weird because I live in Japan, but it is so easy to live in Japan for a year and come back not knowing a single word! I come to work, speak in English all day, I come home from work, speak in English to the people who live in my building and then I go back to work and start all over again! You have to make a real effort to learn Japanese and have conversations in Japanese. I am trying really hard, but it is very difficult to break that cycle. I hope I can meet some more Japanese people so I can learn to speak Japanese better. It would be nice to know what people are saying to each other and to me!

Himeji Festival 9th April 2007

During the first couple of weeks of Spring, Japan looks its best. This is due to the cherry blossoms which come into bloom. Thousands of cherry blossom trees surround the Himeji Castle and when they are in full bloom, they look spectacular. All Japanese people get excited when the cherry blossoms come into bloom because they only last for two weeks in the entire year. They are very delicate and beautiful flowers, but they are so precious and interesting because they live such a short life. If they were around all the time, people would tend to take them for granted, but they are very special and are appreciated more due to their rarity.

This time of year is very exciting and busy as thousands of locals and tourists surround the streets and parks. Many people have Hanami parties during Spring under the cherry blossom trees. The Himeji Castle is a very popular spot for having Hanami parties because there are so many cherry blossom trees on the grounds. I have already had three Hanami parties!

In Hanami parties, friends and family get together, bring lots of food and drinks to share and have picnics under the cherry blossom trees. Some people even have karaoke parties in the park!

On the weekend, there was a huge Spring festival at the Himeji Castle. During this festival, there was lots of entertainment including one hundred koto players, drummers, traditional Japanese dancers and lion dancers. It was very enjoyable to sit under the cherry blossom trees and listen to talented musicians produce quality music.


We spent the entire day lazing around, eating, drinking and enjoying the atmosphere at the Himeji Castle. We even got to meet the mayor of Himeji!
We gave him some quality chocolate to try: Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate, and he loved it! He even posed for a photo with us! He was really friendly and we felt special that he came up to us out of everyone and said hello.

There are so many festivals held throughout the entire year in Japan and almost every town has its own annual festival. It is great to experience Japanese culture and learn more about their ways of life.