Kyoto – Hozugawa River Rafting Experience

Just recently, Tina, Lauren, Shinya and I went on a day trip to Kyoto to do a rafting tour in a traditional rafting boat down the Hozugawa River.

It was such a great experience because we got to see the momiji (maple leaves) during the Autumn season when they look their best.

The boat ride was very relaxing and it was so beautiful to see all the leaves turning red during the Autumn season.

The boat ride went for about two hours and it was really peaceful. Apparently, when the water levels are high, it can be very dangerous as the river flows very quickly and it is easy to capsize. Thankfully, the water levels were low when we went and it was a beautiful day, so we had nothing to worry about!

One of the men who was helping to steer the boat looked a lot like Morgan Freeman. If Morgan Freeman was Japanese, that is exactly how he would have looked! What do you think?


During the boat ride, there were other boats that were like small delis where you could buy food. It was such a novelty, that we all shared some chips and Lauren bought some squid.

This is the traditional Japanese boat that we travelled in as we were going along the river.

Japanese Wedding

On the weekend, we were invited to a Japanese wedding. The lady who got married was one of Tina’s students at Shogai University. She knew how much Tina loves the Japanese culture and she thought it would be nice to invite Tina to her wedding. Well we all got invited (all, meaning Tina, Steve, Lauren and I). So we got to see the traditional ceremony, the traditional outfits and we even got to have our photo taken with the bride and groom and their family and friends.

This is the bride and groom during the ceremony.


This is the bride walking down the aisle.


This is the bride and groom ringing the bell after they got married.

Nara with Tess, Danny, Lauren and her family

Lauren’s dad and his partner were in Japan at the same time as Tessa and Danny were, so I decided to take a day off of work and go with Lauren and her dad to Nara with Tess and Danny. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining and warm. We saw some really cool temples and shrines in our travels. We decided to hire bikes so that we could get around and see things quicker as we only had one day to see Nara. We visited kofukuji and saw the five-story pegoda and the beautiful surroundings of the temple.

We also went to Kasuga Shrine which is one of the most beautiful-looking shrines in the whole of Japan. It is an orange building and has so many interesting decorations. These are lanterns hanging from the ceiling in Kasuga Shrine.


On our way to the shrine, we spotted a deer hiding amongst the stone lanterns. It looked so cute with its little head popping out that I just had to take a picture. In case you didn’t know, Nara is famous for deer.

There are hundreds and hundreds of deer roaming around freely in the town. They are not caged, but they just walk around wherever they like. They are so used to people that you can pat them and feed them and the deer are really friendly and especially good with children. This time, the male deer had their antlers cut off because it is the mating season for the deer so they can be dangerous if they still have their antlers. The last time I went to Nara, all the male deer still had their antlers, so it was a bit of a shock to see them without their antlers the second time around.



This is Lauren, Lauren’s dad and Lainey at one of the temples we went to.


The last temple we visited was of course, Todaiji.

It is the largest wooden structure in the world and my favourite temple in the whole of Japan. Inside the temple is the famous Daibutsu (a huge statue of a buddha which stands approximately fifteen metres high). I love looking at this statue because it is so large and amazing to look at. In this picture, you can see how big it is if you compare the statue to the people at the bottom.

In the temple, there is a wooden pole that has a hole through it that is the exact same size as the buddha’s nostril. If you can fit through it, you receive good luck.

So this is my second attempt at fitting through the buddha’s nostril (I did it once before when I went to Nara with Aleysha). It was surprisingly easier the second time around.

Osaka with Tessa and Danny

I went to Osaka for a day trip with Tessa, Danny and Shinya.

It was lots of fun showing them around and Tess and Danny really liked what they saw. We firstly went to Yodabashi so that Tess and Danny could buy a new camera and then we went to Namba which is one of the most happening places in Osaka and apart from Tokyo, it is one of the most busy places in the whole of Japan. It has a great nightlife and many different restaurants to choose from. So we spent lots of time walking down the streets looking at the people and all the beautiful neon lights.


I took them to this shrine which is in the middle of all the busy streets, but surprisingly, this particular part is very quiet and peaceful. This time, there were many priests in the shrine having a special ceremony. It was really interesting so we stayed and watched for a little while before moving on.


It was getting late, so we decided to have dinner at an Izakaya which was new so none of us had ever been there. It turned out to be the most delicious meal ever! We weren’t that hungry because we had just eaten okonomiyaki for lunch that day, but we had a nice light meal for dinner.

While we were eating our dinner, there was a group of young university students at the table next to us (there were five girls and five guys).

It was really funny because straight away we knew what they were doing. They were doing gokon. Gokon is like a dating idea where five girls and five guys get together and have a date and decide which person they like the best to possibly pursue a relationship with. We enjoyed watching them. Then they started playing a game and they could see that we were all watching so they asked if we wanted to join in. So we were sitting in this restaurant, minding our own business and then all of a sudden, we found ourselves playing this game with a group of people doing a gokon! It was hilarious, but really cool at the same time because I had always wanted to be apart of a gokon and that was my opportunity! It was lots of fun and we ended up taking a picture of them all because they were so friendly.

Kobe with Tess and Danny

During Tess and Danny’s stay in Japan, I decided to take them to Kobe. We went to many different places which they really enjoyed including China Town, Harborland and a really good yaki niku (grilled meat) restaurant.

In China Town, we got to have my most favourite Chinese sweet called goma dango.

It is a little ball covered in sesame seeds and inside it has sticky rice and bean paste. It tastes really good warm and every time I go to China Town I eat one! Tessa and Danny enjoyed walking down the China Town street lined with many Chinese restaurants and souvenir shops.

Next was Harborland. We walked around and had a look at the shops in the area and then we went on the ferris wheel. It was a really nice view – especially because we got to sit in the glass carriage so we could see everything! This is the beautiful view we had.


Tess and Danny about to ride on the ferris wheel.


On our way to the yaki niku restaurant, we saw this cute little dog which had a hat on and was just making his way down the street with his master. He was so cute that I just had to take a photo with him!


At the yaki niku restaurant, this was the first time I was able to try Kobe beef.

Kobe beef is so famous and expensive because it is such good quality meat. The farmers massage the cows every day to make the meat soft and they also feed them beer so that their muscles are relaxed. These cows get treated like kings...and then we eat them! I have never tried beef that tasted so soft and delicious before. It just melted in my mouth and I almost didn’t even have to chew it! Tess and Danny really loved the taste of it too!

Halloween

As an Australian, I have hardly ever celebrated Halloween, but due to the fact that there are many Americans who live in our building, we were able to celebrate Halloween and get all dressed up for it!

The night before our Halloween party, Tina, Tessa, Danny and I all helped to cut a pumpkin to make it look scary and cool. Danny did most of the work, but the finished product looked amazing! This was our jacko-lantern.


This is me, Tina, Tess and Danny trying to look scary with our jacko-lantern.


It was so much fun dressing up for Halloween.

I dressed up as a pumpkin witch, Tina dressed up as a cat and Lauren dressed up as Cleopatra. Everyone had really cool costumes and it was fun to have a look at how everyone else dressed up.




This is a witch (Tomi), a belly dancer (Eiko), a school girl (Katie) and a pumpkin girl (Sakura).


Every year, all the residence in our building hold a Halloween party for the local kids in the community. We provided fun games for the kids to play and encouraged them to dress up so that they could get into the spirit of Halloween. They all looked so cute dressed up in their costumes! They had a good time playing the games we organised and spending time with their friends.

After the kids’ Halloween party, we had a party of our own. That way, we could show all our friends our cool costumes!

Tess the pirate and Danny the Aussie.


Me (a pumpkin witch) and Shinya (Jack from ‘The Night Before Christmas’).

Tess and Danny come to visit!

It was good to have some more friends come and visit me from Australia. Just recently, Tessa and Danny came to visit me for a couple of weeks. We went to many cool places together and it was really nice to have them here so that I could show them how beautiful Japan really is!