November walks

This past month has gone by insanely fast.  It's been so busy both at work and outside, it's hard to believe that it's already nearly December!

At work, I've been busy with various events.  I was one of the teachers in charge of our Halloween party (and with the help of some of my colleagues I set up a Halloween obstacle course that the kids seemed to really enjoy...with the exception of one or two who thought it was too scary!)  Then, I had a couple days of IB training, which while interesting, made for some very long days.  After that, we had our assessment as teachers, which meant I had other teachers coming in to observe my lessons and give some feedback.  Then we have our Thanksgiving party/open day for the parents, and then the following week, our winter performance.  So, yeah, just a little bit busy.

Outside of work, I've been trying to enjoy the fall a little bit (when I have time), and have taken a couple of walks for that purpose.  That's what I what to show today.

Cute little guy I came across on one walk...

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A couple of weeks ago, I went to visit Kitayama Botanical Garden (which is in Nishinomiya).  It was a quick walk from Koyoen station, and doesn't cost anything to get in!  It was my first time to go there, and I thought it was a nice place.

This was in mid-November, so although there was a bit of color, it hadn't really started to change quite yet....

When I went out of the garden part, there was a bit of a hiking trail...the beginning of which led to this nice pond

There was also a nice view of the city

After leaving the gardens, I walked along the river down towards Shukugawa, and then eventually all the way down to where the river empties out into the ocean area before going back home...

The variety of view walking down the river...

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Then, on Japan's labor day holiday, I took a quick walk up to the Nunobiki waterfall and continued on to the herb gardens as well.  This was not a new walk for me at all, but since the mountains have been looking very colorful recently, I wanted to go check it out for myself...

See? Looks colorful, right?

Nunobiki waterfall

Going back down, waterfall again 

I also have a kind of funny story about going back down the mountain.  On the way back, I ran into an older couple, and the wife started talking to me...she was just commenting on how fast I had been able to come back down (apparently I had passed them coming down on my way up...).  Then she wanted to know if I was from Sweden.  Now, I realize that seems kind of random, but the reason was, apparently to her, Swedes should be able to walk/hike very quickly.  Hehehe....Japanese people are adorable.  After that we talked a little bit more and then I left them to do their own thing.

That's it for now...I have a couple other places I want to go, but it all depends on the weather, and how much time I have. More soon!

Teaming up with Tyler

This week has absolutely flown by!  It was full of all kinds of fun, adventures, conversations and exploration, and I am rather sad to see it end.  Continuing on from my previous post, I want to talk about some of the adventures that I had together with my friend (Tyler) who had come to visit from Canada.  It was really interesting for me because he was more interested in normal things rather than the tourist things that people normally want to go check out....so, here goes!

As I talked about last time, one of the first things we did was visit Nara, but since I wrote a post about that already, I won't talk about that here (click here to check out the previous post if you haven't yet!)

To trust, or not to trust?

The following day, I had to go to work for our sports day, but we did meet up in the evening to grab some food and take a bit of a walk.  We checked out Nunobiki waterfall and then ended up wandering through Kitano-cho, (which is like the European village part of Kobe), and Tyler fell in love with the atmosphere and beautiful buildings, and was very thankful that I took him there.  It was nice to walk and talk with someone, instead of going alone, (especially when they appreciate it as much as I do!) so my pleasure!

The next day was a day off (for sports day), and so we headed out to go check out Arashiyama!  We wandered along the river for a while, checked out the bamboo forest, and then went into Kyoto itself.

 

 

The first thing we did there was go to Nijo Castle (I haven't been there since my first visit to Japan!) because I thought Tyler might enjoy the "nightingale flooring".  Based on the giant grin on his face in there and the fact that he said he wanted to build that kind of floor in his house...mission accomplished! 

 

 

 

We also checked out Kyoto Imperial Park, and the Handicraft center (for his art interest), and wandered around a bit more before heading back to Kobe.

 

 

 

 

 The next day was full of all sorts of little adventures.  Tyler had to do a bit of shopping, so we met up in Harborland, and then headed up to the Nunobiki Gardens via the ropeway.  After wandering around on top for a while, we grabbed some delicious lavender ice-cream, and then took the hike back down to the bottom.  Since it was a beautiful day, we went to my favorite beach for a little bit, ate some snacks, enjoyed the convenience of Japan's vending machines, and wandered around for a bit, checking out the fishermen and sunset, and such things.  We had to head back into Kobe, because I had a class to get to, but when my class was finished I met up with him one more time so he didn't have to sit all alone with his beer.  Kidding! We had some more interesting conversations, catching up on the past 10 years, and me *trying* to field his million questions about things in Japan.

 

 

We were being silly...can you tell?

Following that was another mountain day!  This time we went up Rokko mountain.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't so great on that day, a little bit misty and quite cloudy and foggy.  But we did get to see a bit of the view, and we went to the Music Box Museum that they have up there, and also got to catch a music box show, which was definitely an experience.  After quite a few busy days, we were a little bit tired, and so after coming back down the mountain, we went to catch a bit of a nap before heading back out to eat some dinner, and then wander through some of Kobe's lovely parks.

 

Walking up to the cable car...

Outside the Music Box Museum

 

Friday, we both took some time to do some of our own things and met up in the evening to go for dinner.  After that we were doing a bit of wandering around, and Tyler decided he wanted to try some different types of Japanese alcohol, so we went to Pinot, and Tatsu-san helped him out with that!  It was a really fun night, and I got to work on my Japanese skills too, because I was acting like a translator between Tyler and Tatsu-san, for all of Tyler's many questions. So much fun!  A bit of a late night, but it turned out well, and Tyler got to make a new friend!

Saturday was Tyler's last full day in Japan, so we went to a few places to try to find him some souvenirs from his visit here.  After a bit of a break, we met up again to go for dinner (udon! Tyler loves udon!) and then took a walk through a game center, (just because), took a ride on the ferris wheel in Harborland (why haven't I be on that one before? It has much nicer views than the other ferris wheels I've been on. 

 

 

Then we stopped for Starbucks before wandering back through Harborland again.  As we were walking through Meriken Park, there were some giant chunks of ice on the ground...don't ask why, I don't know.  And so he had to play with them for a bit, before proving that he hasn't changed AT ALL since high school, because he snuck up on me and threw some ice down my shirt.  Exact same as high school!  Except with ice not snow.  Brat.  After that we checked out the earthquake memorial before heading back to call it a night.

This morning we met up one last time before he had to go to the airport, and spent the last little bit walking and talking.  It really was a fun week, and I am so happy that we got to spend some time exploring and enjoying these beautiful places together! I think I'm going to miss hanging out with him!  But, back to our normal lives!

Shika no Tsunokiri (鹿の角きり)

Today I went to Nara together with a friend who is currently visiting Japan from Canada.
While we were there, we saw a rare (only happens one weekend in a year) event.

I was also really happy when we stopped by the information booth. I had decided to talk in Japanese because there had just been a couple ahead of us that took FOREVER and I thought it would be faster. It was, and the woman seemed really happy that I could talk in Japanese and complimented me a lot and could tell even before she asked that I live here. Just made me happy, and I wanted to share, that's all.

**Now, since I know that some people may not agree with this particular practice, let me just say now, it doesn't actually harm the deer, but, if you don't want to keep reading or looking at this post...understood. You don't have to keep reading or look at the video.  It's your choice.**

The event is called Shika no Tsunokiri, which is a deer horn cutting event.  Apparently this event has been happening since 1671, so almost 350 years!

Anyway, so this event was created as a result of a desire to help the male deer become less aggressive at this time of year (their mating season), so that they don't cause harm to people or other things (like tress)

In Nara Park, there is a special area specifically created for this event.

The enclosure

To begin the event, 3 males are released into the enclosure, and then the group of men who are to capture it come out.

Some of them help to herd the deer to run in the direction they want, while the others attempt to catch them (by the horns with a lasso type objects).

Once the deer is caught, they can untie it and a group of men pick it up and bring it to a mat with a small pillow like thing. 

Then a smaller group of men hold the deer down while the priest cuts the antlers off. 

Once they're cut off, the horns are offered to the god of Kasuga Taisho temple, and it finishes, and they release the deer and let it back out into the park.  While this is going on, there is another group of men hold up a large banner type object across the field probably to stop the other deer from interfering with the cutting process, and for safety as well

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The process gets repeated for the other two deer as well.  The second deer was really energetic and almost kicked the man that was triying to tie him up.  The final deer got quite smart, and was able to evade the men for a good amount of time.  At one point it just stopped in front of the gate that went back to the park.  There were a lot of jokes about that, like the deer was like "I'm done." or "Can I go?"
Eventually they did catch him after he tired out a bit.  In fact, after his antlers were cut, it just got up and stood there for a minute, until one man encouraged it to move, and then it was also able to go back into the park.

You can check out a bit of video from this event here:

Tyler holding up the info pamphlet for me ;)

It has also been really nice because my friend is really excited about everything, it taking it all with wide open and sparkly and only has good things to say!! It hasn't even been 24h since he arrived and he's already said he wants to live here!! That and he also said he can't stop smiling and his face is starting to hurt, and it's an even better experience than he thought! Yay!!! It's so nice to show someone around who really enjoys and appreciates things!

More adventures soon!

Rainy long weekends, etc...

Update, update, update...
I don't really have anything particulary fantastic or interesting to talk about, but...in the past month, there have been a couple events in amongst the insanely busy normal things.

The last time I updated my blog was near the beginning of my summer vacation time...the first part of that week was definitely the more interesting part.  The second half, nothing overly exciting happened.  I spent time at the beach, talked with some interesting people.  Oh, and I went for dinner and a walk one evening with my Japanese teacher.  That was about it.  Good for me, not so interesting for you. Also, there was a couple days of rain, if I remember correctly.  So, not so much to do, although, some pretty sunsets....

I also, of course, went to some street lives.  Can't say I really took any pictures.  Well, there was this one, but it was more of the pretty colors in the sky than the live.

I also came across a really interesting event at Harborland one night when I was out walking.  (I'm sure a lot of you have seen these videos already though...). A performer was putting on a show with fire and LED lights.  Well, watch the videos, they show it better than I can explain.  I actually had really good timing to watch it though.  As I was walking by, he was just testing out his flame shooting things (and I could feel the heat walking by!), and so I got to watch the show from the very beginning!! I'd also actually seen him once last year, also randomly, but only got to catch a couple minutes of the show, and from kind of far away.  Much better view this time!! Check it out!

The fire part...if the link doesn't work, click here...

LED part...if the link doesn't work, click here....

Around about this time, we had our training week at work, which for me, was followed by a couple days with my kids, and we did a lot of fun camp related activities with the younger kids, because the older kids had actually gone camping.

Also, kind of random...but at the beginning of the month, one of my favorite bands came out with a new album!! I love it!!

After that, I had another 5 day weekend, throughout which it rained for 2 or 3 of those days.  I was sad.  But the other days had beautiful weather, so I of course, went out to the beach. 

The clouds were really interesting this day!

This picture looks so similar to one I took last year around the same time (similar type of clouds...)

I also started to do some research for my winter holidays!! It's going to be good!!  That weekend, I also went to a couple of lives.  The first one was FASE's live.  The second one was Yoshida Hiroki's (it was his last live before heading out to Australia for a month).  They set it up really nicely, and before the live started, he taught us how to make lanterns out of those cardboard milk containers.  It was interesting!!

*I didn't take either of these photos* but...this atmosphere!

I've also been having fun every week, going to a Japanese conversation group...

This weekend is also another 3 day weekend here in Japan, and I had things that I wanted to go and do, but unfortunately we are currently being hit by an extremely strong typhoon, so while I went out for a little before it started to pour, I've been stuck at home most of the time.  On the plus side, I've been able to do a lot of research, and I caught up on some sleep as well.  So, I suppose I should thank the typhoon, since it's actually helped me out a little bit.

This beast....

Stay safe (and inside if possible) Japan friends!