Update Time!

Since I've been really quiet on the blog front recently other than that post on Kobe, I thought I should do a bit of an update about what I've been up to the past couple months for those curious souls wondering if I've been erased or not.

Right, well when did this moratorium start? September right?  Well, hmm let me see...September the weather was still wonderfully warm, so of course I spent many weekends at the beach.

There was also the much anticipated live in Takamatsu from ヨシダヒロキ, where I had an AMAZINGLY AWESOME time!!! It was a little difficult for me to find the live house, but after asking a few clueless citizens, I finally found one who knew where it was at!  When I went in, I think the thing that struck me most was how small it was.  There were maybe a dozen chairs, and they were all filled up (with me too) but I think that made it even better.  Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  That night I also bought his new CD, and he signed it for me.  Possibly the best evening in September?!

I also did a workshop through the international center here in Takamatsu where a small group of foreigners made wasanbon together (a Japanese sweet) and then we also went and made some origami as well.  Getting my culture in!



The wasanbon I made

Many kinds of origami!

Also, in the evenings throughout August and September, the night was always filled with the sounds of drums from the shishimai (Japanese lion dance) practice that was going on in the shrine behind my apartment.  We were also lucky enough to have some shishimai dancers (including one of my students!) come to our school one morning as well.  I finally got to see what all the noise was about!

Moving on to October...at the beginning of the month, my weekends were still spent enjoying the lovely weather at the beach.  At school we had our sports festival, which we'd been practicing for since September.  My duties included being MC along with the other native teachers, leading my rainbow class in marching, leading them in dancing and helping out with parent-student games.  It was really busy, but definitely fun.  The weekend of the sports festival was the weekend I went to Kobe (see the previous blog post or click here).

After visiting Kobe, I spent the next weekend hiking up Yashima, a mountain here in Takamatsu.  While I was up there, I met this pair who was dressed up in some interesting old traditional clothes, and they taught me about kawaranage, which are these little clay discs that you try to throw through hoops that they have set up -- if you get it through, whatever wish or dream you were thinking about is supposed to come true.  They gave me one to try.  I missed.



Views from the top of Yashima

My pictures from Yashima are included in this album of random photos from around Takamatsu.

The weekend following my trip to Yashima I spent my Sunday volunteering at a Halloween parade/party in Marugame-machi, with my fellow teachers.  Basically we had to dress up, get our students who had registered set up with their packages, give out treats to kids, help out in a haunted house, participate in a parade, and then clean up the whole haunted house area.  It went all day long.

Me and one of our teachers at the Marugame-machi Halloween party

 Following that, it was of course actually Halloween, which was a rather busy day for me.  In the morning, I got to see all of our students in their adorable costumes, and we of course took class photos.  Then there was the haunted house for our older students.  Myself and another native teacher took turns leading small groups of students through it.  Some of the groups were only slightly scared and worried about it although they all required a little bit of pushing to get through the rooms with the 'monsters', but I also had one group who started crying and hanging on to me before we even started!  That particular group was actually probably the most fun because they were so scared.  When we went through and the 'monsters' came out some of literally jumped on my and started climbing up me to try to get away.  Who would've thought it would be so much fun to scare little kids? 
That was followed by clean-up and then I had to rush off as I was heading out to Tokyo to meet my parents who were going to be visiting Japan for a few weeks.

The weather in Tokyo that weekend wasn't so great -- it rained the entire time, which was kind of disappointing, however, I was able to take my parents to Asakusa on Saturday, where they went on a rickshaw ride, visited the Kaminarimon temple, and then we went over to SkyTree town (we didn't go up because it was so cloudy, we wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway).  While we were wandering around in that area, we came across a pair of jugglers who were doing a live performance and stopped to watch that for a while -- it was funny!

Sunday, I took them out to Mt. Mitake (one of my favorite mountains to hike!)  Again the weather wasn't so pleasant, but at least it was only foggy not actually raining.  Regardless of the weather, it was still absolutely beautiful out there!

The river outside of Mitake station -- so pretty!

Shrine at the top of Mt Mitake

    

Cute bench end

Such bright red leaves!

The fog made for some cool pictures



At the rock garden section of the hike



Yes, I took this picture...yes, this is real

To see some more pictures from Mt. Mitake, click here.

That weekend was also conveniently a 3-day weekend, so I was able to take the Monday to go back to Takamatsu, (although it took longer than anticipated as many of the buses from Osaka were fully booked and I had to wait for a later bus).  Not to worry though, that just meant I had time to play in Osaka and listen to a couple street lives that were happening that evening.

The next weekend, I met up with my parents in Osaka.  On Saturday, I took them on a whirlwind tour of Nara, and finished the day up with watching  ヨシダヒロキ do a street live at Grand Front.  (Yes, I may love listening to his music too much!)  Mom and Dad didn't stay for the whole thing, as they were cold and had had a long day, but I did, and as usual, had a nice little chat with him afterwards.

At Nara Park

Can't go to Nara without taking pictures of the deer!

Pretty colors in a garden

ヨシダヒロキ street live

 That Sunday, the weather was again disappointingly rainy, but we went to the Umeda Sky Building, which I think they found interesting (even if they didn't really like the height of it!)

The following weekend, my parents came to Takamatsu for the final leg of their trip.  We visited Ritsurin garden, and my apartment on the Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday, I took them hiking up Yashima and we visited Sunport afterwards.  On the Monday afternoon, they came to my school and met some of my students.

Ritsurin

Sunset view at Takamatsu Sunport

Later that week, I ended up getting myself ridiculously ill, and had to take a day off of work as a result.  But let's not talk about that.  Instead let's talk about my next adventure -- which was a trip out to Shodoshima, an island about an hour away by ferry.  I went to go see some fall leaves, as I hadn't had much of a chance to do so yet being busy with other things.  It was absolutely lovely, although I didn't stay out there long as I still wasn't feeling 100% yet.  I ended that particular day by getting a haircut (first time in Japan!), which surprisingly enough made me feel a lot better.

View on Shodoshima

Pretty maple leaves!

Amazing colors on Shodoshima!

If you are interested in seeing more photos from my adventures in November, click here.

And now, onto December.  After the past extremely busy months, I've been trying to relax a bit more and not do so many things.  Not to mention, it's rather busy at school at the moment as we're ramping up for our Christmas performance day (I'm kind of looking after both Rainbow and Sun classes' plays and teaching Rainbow class their dance, and everyone has to practice singing "Let it go"), plus there are report cards to deal with as well.

The first Sunday in December, was absolutely BRILLIANT!! (any guesses about what went on?) That's right -- ヨシダヒロキ came back to Takamatsu to do another live, just as he told me he was going to!!!  I can't even describe how much fun I have at his lives.  It's just one of my favorite things to do!  Not to mention, he's incredibly sweet -- the day before the live, he sent me an e-mail reminding me he was coming to Takamatsu and checking if I was coming.  I think part of the reason why I enjoy his lives so much is not only because of his music, but because he's just a really nice person too, and is always ready and willing to talk to the people who were listening to him afterwards.

And that brings us up to this weekend -- nothing too exciting happened, I went out and found the movie theatre in Takamatsu and watched the final part of the Hobbit, which I enjoyed as well.

Next weekend it's work on Saturday to prepare for the Christmas performance which is on the 23rd.  Christmas Day I'll be working and then I'll be heading out for my winter vacation -- going to Okinawa!  (Which is only slightly ironic as I've been saying how much I want to go skiing...)

Update complete!

Livin' it up: Kobe style

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, I really enjoyed my time in Kobe. Going out there was a gamble (since there was the looming threat of the arrival of a super typhoon), but it certainly paid off as I thouroughly enjoyed my time there.

When I first arrived, my first stop was the Shin-Kobe ropeway which took me up to the Nunobiki Herb Garden, which was quite pretty and had many different kinds of flowers (and of course, herbs) to see. Many people were even sampling some of the different herbs that they had growing there.

At the top of the ropeway -- cafes, shops, etc.

 



View of Kobe

 Following that, I decided to head back down to Shin-Kobe, stopping at the dual Nunobiki waterfalls along the way.

The Nunobiki Waterfalls

I could have visited the European village they have there, (apparently it has many different styles of European houses),but I wasn't so interested in doing that, so...

Instead, I headed back into the more central area of Kobe and wandered my way down to Chinatown. At that point it was already getting dark, but Chinatown in Kobe is really vibrant- it has tons of lanterns along the streets and many different vendors out on the street selling all different kinds of food, and there are people everywhere: sitting down, hanging with friends and wandering around. It's a pretty cool place.

                               

Next, I made my way down to the harbour area since I was considering going up into Kobe Tower.

Kobe Tower

But instead, on my way there, I could hear some really loud music coming from the other side of the road, so I decided to check that out instead.  Turns out that there was a big Indian festival going on! The music had been coming from the stage where there were many belly dancing performances going on! I stopped and watched for a while, and then wandered around to check out the various food stalls and shopping stalls that were set up, eventually circling back to the stage to watch more of the dancing. Pretty cool event to run into!

This was when the audience started dancing along with the people on the stage

If this video doesn't work, click here to watch.

But that wasn't the end of my night! Oh no, not the end at all! As I was walking back towards my hotel through a fancy kind of shopping area, I came across a small crowd of people who were clapping for an event that had just finished. Disappointing, right? Nope, not at all, because they announced that they would start again in about 15 minutes, and being curious, I stuck around and waited it out (while I was waiting a slightly drunk man wandered by a couple times telling everyone how cool and interesting this event was :P). Anyway, it was definitely worth the wait, as it was indeed a pretty cool event. It was what I'll call a live street painting event. So, the guy started out with two large black canvases/walls and started adding one color at a time to each of them. When he was finished he had two scenes of Kobe. One of the harbor area, and the other of downtown Kobe of the streets near where we were.  It was awesome!

The painting of Kobe's harbor area

Scene of downtown Kobe

If this video doesn't work, click here to watch.

My night didn't even end there! I made one more stop and the Kobe Government Building to go up and take a look at the night scenery of Kobe. It was also quite nice although difficult to take pictures of because of the reflection on the glass from the lights inside. One really cool thing though was that on the mountains they had some lights set up in different shapes, but because it was dark you couldn't see the mountains, just the lights, so it looked like they were floating in the middle of the air!


The next day, I headed out to Harborland, as I wanted to see the monument to the 1994 earthquake that they have there (there's also a section of the port that they left as the earthquake made it).

 

Anyway down at the harbor I also found a big event -- Radio Kansai was holding a music festival! (And coincidentally as I was reading through the list of artists performing, my favourite, ヨシダ ヒロキ was also going to be there, although not until later in the day). So, since it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, I hung out there for most of the day wandering between the different stages they had set up, listening and watching different performances, going through the food stalls and also taking a stroll through the surrounding shopping areas when there were no artists that interested me.
An excellent way to spend a day, if I don't say so myself!

Kobe's pretty Harborland



One of the groups performing at the music festival

A pretty street in the shopping area of Harborland

Yes, there's a ferris wheel here too

 

  

I took the bus back to Takamatsu that evening and got back to the wind and rain that was the typhoon just starting to hit us. The next day (Monday) which was also a holiday had probably the worst of the typhoon with very strong winds and rain all day long.  But overall, it was an amazing weekend!

To see more of my photos from Kobe, click here.

ヨシダヒロキ Street Live in Osaka

This weekend was a long weekend for me, and as luck would have it, one of my favorite Japanese musicians, ヨシダヒロキ (Yoshida Hiroki), (who I met last summer in Osaka) was doing a street live on Friday night. So I had to take advantage of my day off and headed up to Osaka for an amazing evening!

On arriving at Osaka station's bus terminal, I was immediately reminded why I like Osaka.  There were already people performing their music even though it was still only early afternoon. When I think about Osaka, I always think about all the music that seems to be around all the time. (I must've walked by at least 2 or 3 guitar stores on the way to my hotel, and in the Umeda area, there always seems to be people carrying their guitars and other instruments around with them.

Before the live started I got a nice welcoming wave from Yoshida-san plus a handshake (but what do you call it when its not really a handshake but the 'cool handclasp' and shoulder bump?) (he still remembers me from last year).
That night it was unfortunately raining quite a bit and I forgot to being an umbrella, so I had to stand a little far off to stay dry-but I could still hear, and that's the important thing anyway. Because his music is wonderful!

I really enjoyed listening to him, and he came to chat in between sections (he'd sing for maybe 30 minutes, the another group would do the same and they switched back and forth the whole evening). While we were chatting, I also found out he's going to be doing a live in Takamatsu in September! Yay!!! Plus then he'll have his new CD too! Something else to look forward to! ^_^

After the live, we chatted some more and he told me that he had another live Saturday afternoon, and I should go, and he'll see me there since I hadn't decided what time I was leaving Osaka. ^_-

He also decided he'd take a picture with me, and started with the typical Asian 'V' pose, but then changed his mind and decided on this one:

And also here's a few videos from the live--listening is probably better than watching--like I said I stood a bit far off and I was paying more attention to listening than the videos, so sometimes it points to random things or you get to see my fingers ^_^;

If the video doesn't work, click here!  

If this video doesn't work, click here. 

If this video doesn't work, click here.

If the video doesn't work, click here.

If the video doesn't work, click here.

Kyoto for a day

So last weekend I headed up to Kyoto for one day.  A single day -- yes, that's all.  A cousin was visiting Japan and happened to be in Kyoto on the weekend, so at her request, I headed up there to meet with her and the friend she was travelling with for the afternoon.

My day started with an adventure first thing in the morning! I had gotten up early to catch an early bus to Kyoto (it takes about 3h40m to get there from Takamatsu), but when I got to the bus terminal closest to where I live, I was given the surprise of finding out that the ticket office isn't open that early and you can't buy tickets for Kyoto from the ticket vending machine at that location.  Excellent.  So, instead, I had to make my way down to Takamatsu station to the main bus terminal, and had to catch the next bus (which was about an hour later than the one I'd planned to take).

Eventually I got to Kyoto, and with only a little bit of time to spare before the cousin's train arrived, I scoped out the station (it's been a while since I've been there) to look for potential places for lunch.

Who knew the stairs at Kyoto Station lit up at night and do a little light show?

Once I met up with my cousin and her friend, we went for lunch, got them to their hotel and then wandered around for a bit in the area where their hotel was -- being Kyoto, we of course came across a few temples, which the friend took pictures of.  After that, they had to leave as they had a tour scheduled, giving me some free time before I decided to hunt for a place for supper before catching the last bus out of Kyoto in the evening. 

One of the shrines we wandered through the grounds of

I ended up going to Fushimi Inari Shrine (the shrine with THOUSANDS of torii gates) because I wanted to go through the whole thing (the last time I was there I didn't get to see much as I was with a group on a limited time schedule).  So I trekked my way up to the very top and back down and around.  It took just over an hour to do the entire course, but it was a little bit brutal because it was so HOT!

Yep, did the whole thing this time, not just the little bottom portion!

 

 

Lots and lots of torii gates everywhere

 

Cute little kitten!

 

To see some more pictures of some nice torii gates at Fushimi Inari, click here.

After a quick dinner, I hopped on the last bus which made it back to Takamatsu by about 10:30, and that was my whirlwind day trip to Kyoto (the main reason why I didn't stay for Sunday too was because for whatever reason, there were absolutely NO hotels available for the Saturday night, so there you have it).

Obon Holiday

In Japan, Obon is a national holiday that lasts about 3 days, giving pretty much everyone a beautiful 5 day weekend.  I have to say mine was absolutely BRILLIANT!!

Just before Obon, Japan got hit with a typhoon, which of course, was no fun at all, plus it had been raining for a while before as well, not to mention, I managed to get myself a bit sick, so all in all, this vacation, (which included a wonderful clearing up of the weather) was timed VERY well!

The first day of vacation I stayed in Takamatsu, visiting the beach that I like to go to during the day, and then, by chance, I found out there was a festival going on that evening as well, so I stayed around for that and it was definitely worth it!  There were TONS of food stalls plus some little activities and games like trying to scoop up little fish, or fishing balloons out of water, and of course, the highlight of the evening was the fireworks!!  They were absolutely beautiful, and the colors were very vivid -- but you don't have to take my word for it, you can watch a video if you'd like!  They also lasted for quite a long time -- maybe off and on for an hour or more...The only thing about this festival that I wasn't so much a fan of, was the MASSES of people -- they were everywhere!  All along the water edge, sitting covering the road, the park space and of course, crowded into the areas where the food and games were.  It seemed like the entire population of Takamatsu, plus more from the surrounding areas came out that night!  (although the fireworks were apparently on for three nights)  Going home, a bus ride that typically takes about 30 minutes took close to 1.5 hours due to all of the traffic and the sheer mass of pedestrians trying to get around.  Don't even get me started on the sardine tins that the trains were. Pure craziness -- that's the best way to describe it I think!

The only picture that turned out nicely from the evening's fireworks

To see some video from the fireworks, click here!

The rest of my vacation time was spent in Wakayama.  Hehehe...amusing story -- when I got back and told the staff at my school that I went to Wakayama, they were very surprised, saying things like, "Wakayama?! Wakayama?? Why? Why Wakayama? What's there?"  Well, I'll tell you what's there -- to be short and succinct -- some beautiful coastal scenery and some awesome beaches.

Some of that nice coastal scenery for you

The truth is though, I had researched about and also been recommended by a friend to go to the beach in Shirahama, and had intended to do so on my summer vacation to Japan last year, but ended up not having the time to do so, so, I decided I would try to head out there on this extra long weekend.  After all, it is relatively close to where I live -- an hourish train ride to Tokushima, then 30 minutes on the bus to the ferry terminal, then a 2 hour ferry ride puts you in Wakayama city, and Shirahama is about another 2 hours on the train from there.  Really, not bad at all!

The first day that I arrived in Wakayama, it was fairly late in the afternoon, so even though it was sunny, there wasn't really enough time to go to a beach, so instead, I checked into my hotel, then visited a temple (Kimiidera), and followed up with dinner and booking my tickets to Shirahama the next day.

This and the above are some pictures from Kimiidera in Wakayama City

View from Kimiidera

The next day was probably one of the best of my vacation.  After the 2 hour train ride to Shirahama from Wakayama (where it rained off and on, causing me a bit of worry), I finally arrived, and after picking up a map, and a day bus pass, I was off on my way to take in the sights.  The first stop was the Sandanbeki cliffs -- which have some absolutely amazing and breath-taking views.  You can pick your way over the rocks to take in the view at your own leisure.

    

 

My next stop was the Senjojiki rock formation -- a lot of colorful sandstone that has been eroded by the ocean water, has a lot of interesting little tide pools and is beautiful from a typical perspective, not to mention the added benefit that I got as a geogeek.

To see a compilation of video clips from the Sandanbeki Cliffs and Senjojiki Rock formation, click here.
 
After that I went to the 'Submarine Observation Tower' where you were supposed to be able to go down underwater and see through windows into the ocean.  This one, I think was a bit overrated -- I mean, sure it was interesting to see the fish swimming by, but it wasn't quite what I expected, and I was a little underwhelmed.  But that's ok because the ENTIRE rest of my day (before and after) was so awesome!

My next stop was the Engetsu Islet, which is this tiny little island with a hole in it -- and it is yet another one of the famous views in Shirahama.  You could also take a glass-bottom boat out to the island, but I decided not to, figuring that I was able to get nice enough views without going on a boat out to the island itself.

My last and final stop in Shirahama for the day (other than lunch and going back to the station at the end of the day, of course), was none other than Shirahama Beach, which is apparently a sister beach to Waikiki in Hawaii.  The beach itself was PACKED with people!  All kinds and colors of umbrellas, towels and tents decorated the beach, and it was somewhat difficult to find a space to fit my towel, but I did find one!  The spot I found was rather far from the water, and a bit loud, as it was right in front of this area where a local radio station was blasting music, and there were groups of people on either side of me who were playing their own music, so it was a little chaotic, but all a part of the experience!  I just chose to tune in whichever song sounded the best to me!

To see a little video clip of the craziness at the beach, click here!

While the weather stayed nice for most of that day, it did start to rain around 4 or 5, but that didn't change my plans too much -- I just took one train earlier than I'd planned to back to Wakayama and had supper there rather than in Shirahama (and a delicious meal of okonomiyaki it was too!)

For my last full day in Wakayama, I decided not to go back to Shirahama for a few reasons (the beach being packed, it was a little expensive, it took a bit of time to get there and it looked like rain), and instead found my way to a beach in Wakayama city (Kataonami Beach).  It was much less crowded (although that may have also been due to the fact that it was a little cloudy and there was light rain on and off all day).  Even though it was a lot less crowded, I ended up having a few interesting conversations with some of the other people at the beach if they stopped by me.  Some were just hellos or smiles, or in one case, a thumbs up, others were more curiousity and actual conversations, the most interesting of which, at the end of, the group decided that I was 格好いい！(basically, a cool person)

 

Kataonami Beach

 

On the Sunday, I (sadly) headed back to Takamatsu, since I had to go back to work on Monday, and that was the end of my lovely vacation full of beaches...

Oh and another short aside, interestingly enough, on the ferry back from Wakayama to Tokushima, I ended up running into the person who guided the tour I went on during my very first visit to Japan -- he was still taking tours around.  Small world, hey?

To see many more pictures from my fun in Wakayama, click here.