Food!! Glorious Food!! July

July 2007

Once again I have tried many wonderful foods and drinks this month in Japan!

Calpis! (Yes say the name!) It tastes great though!


Yum chocolate cocktails that Marie and Aleysha made!


Strawberry snowcone! It is shaved ice with flavoured syrup. They are everywhere in summer - you can tell by the flag that hangs outside shops.


We went to an Izakiya (Japanese bar/restaurant) and had a variety of yum foods!
Yum salad and raw octopus in wasabi - it was really nice!


Yum whole fish!


Squid tentacles marinated in miso paste! These were really good!


Shrimp things which tasted really good!


There is pizza hut here but until recently I hadn't tried it but Jodi, Jono, Chelsea and I decided to give it a go! We ordered the double roll pizza which had sausage rolls and cheese rolls around the edge of the pizza and it had mini burgers on it!


Kate and a frozen chocolate coated banana - yum!


Kinako mochi - sticky rice balls with sweet soybean dust.


Okonomiyaki -one of my favourites!


My lunch at the Tofu cafe - most of it was really nice but some of the textures were not so good!


These sandwiches are from a convienience store. This one had tuna and cheese but you can buy all different fillings. I don't know how they are made as they have no crust and are sealed on all edges!


Yum desserts from the fancy hotel that Kate and I stayed in!



I have not tried this and don't think I will but I thought it was slightly overboard!

Hanabi Matsuri - Shikama and Osaka

28th July and 1st August 2007

In summer in Japan there are many Hanabi Matsuri (fireworks festivals). Many people wear yukata (summer kimono), eat yum festival food and the weather is just perfect for watching the fireworks.

I got to see two fireworks festivals - one in Shikama (near Himeji) and one in Osaka. They were both fantastic!

The festival in Shikama was good as Tina and I wore our yukata and the fireworks were over the water. The full moon was also in the perfect postion!

Tina and I in our yukata walking to the bus stop.


Everyone waiting for the fireworks.


The beautiful hanabi!






This is my favourite photo- the moon is in the perfect position!


Tina and I went out after the festival to a bar in town and as it was so hot we made "new style" yukatas! We made them short and sleeveless! (And yes I tied my own obi!)


We met up with Chelsea, Taube and Julian too (they live in our apartment block). It was a great night!


The festival in Osaka is meant to be the biggest fireworks festival in the world! and there were so many fireworks!









There were so many fireworks going off that the sky looked like it was on fire!


Both fireworks festivals were really good and I love that in Japan there are always different festivals in each season.

A night out in Osaka! Raves and Host bars!!

21st July 2007

Well I had to take Kate out in Osaka and what better way to show her the Japanese nightlife than to take her to a Host bar and a rave!

It definitely wasn't the best looking host bar but it was fun and very interesting for Kate!


This guy was called "takoyaki" (octopus ball)! He was the butt of everyones jokes! (Yes that is one tuft of hair on his head!)

Kate and I with one of the hosts!

All of us with the hosts!


Joule had a huge party night on which was cool to see all the people but the music was not quite what we were used to - trance!

Inside Joule!

Kate and I in Joule.



It was a great night though and Kate enjoyed a night out in one of the biggest cities in Japan!

Kyoto with Kate!

25th -26th July 2007

Kate and I have just spent another 2 days in beautiful Kyoto to give her a chance to see some more wonderful sights. However I think these 2 days were the hottest days yet in Japan! It was still 29 degrees when we went out at night!



On the 25th of every month there is a huge market that is held at the Kitano Tenmangu shrine. We wandered around for the morning and Kate managed to buy 3 kimonos! Then we headed to Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion) which is my favourite place in Kyoto.

Kate at the markets.


Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavillion)


I decided to take Kate to see a traditional Japanese Maiko dance however we somehow fell into a tourist trap! I have to say it was pretty bad – the tour buses should have given it away! Anyway Kate and I saw traditional dance, bunraku (Japanese puppetry), Ikebana (flower arranging), Koto (traditional Japanese instrument), Kyogen (comic plays) and a tea ceremony. It was all done especially for tourists. It was interesting but I would not recommend it . . . unless you want to see tourists sleeping and talking at the wrong times and having their unnecessary audio guides way too loud! ☺

Maiko dancers.


Gion district.


The river in the Gion district - there are so many people in this area in summer! It's a very cool place to be!


The next day we went to Fushimi Inari shrine which has the red torii gates where Memoirs of a Geisha was filmed. It is a beautiful shrine with many red torii gates leading in different directions. The shrine has many fox statues as he is the god which the shrine is dedicated to and he protects the rice fields – you pray to him for a good harvest. Kate and I re-enacted and filmed the scene from Memoirs of a Geisha only to discover that we run funny!











We then went to Ni-jo castle which I have visited before but it is such a beautiful castle that it is worth going back to. It still has all the interior screens in place so you get a feel of what it would have been like originally. The floor is amazing as it has been designed to detect intruders – it is called a nightingale floor as no matter where you step on it you make a noise like a bird. Unfortunately you are not able to take photos in order to protect the gold screens but I bought a print of one of the screens.

The gate leading to the castle.


The screen that I bought.

Amanohashidate – Rich girl holiday!

22nd – 24th July 2007

Kate and I had planned to go somewhere new for me for a few days and since it is summer we thought the perfect place to go would be Amanohashidate. Amanohashidate is 3hours north east from Himeji and is a beach town. The main attraction is Miyazu bay and the “Bridge to Heaven”. It is a lagoon that has been created by a sandbar which joins the two peninsulas. The “bridge” (sandbar) is 4 km long and has pine trees and a white sand beach.

We arrived at the train station to be greeted by a guy holding a scroll – Kate wondered if he was for us but I wasn’t sure, but he was! He then led us to a car which was like a Rolls Royce! We sat in the back with so much room! We kept laughing thinking who are we?! Rich girls! He drove us to our hotel which was really nice. We went for a short bike ride but it began to rain so we headed back to the hotel. Our dinner and breakfast was included in our package so we enjoyed a 6 course meal each night and a “biking” breakfast (I love it! It is really called a viking breakfast as it is all you can eat but the cute way Japanese people say it sounds like “biking”!)

Us with the "fancy car"!!


Our hotel.


The next day we went to the cable car which goes up a mountain to give you a full view of the sandbar. It is one of the 3 best views in Japan! Luckily the rain cleared up and we had a good view of it. The funny thing is you have to put your back to the sandbar and look through your legs! Then you get to see the “Bridge to Heaven”! It does appear to be floating when you look at it from that angle! We then went to the temple in town and hired some bikes to ride across the sandbar. We rode a little way along the sandbar and came to a shop with snow cones – Kate wanted to try one so we stopped and the man at the shop told us where to park our bikes. As we are enjoying our snow cones I look up and our bikes have disappeared! We ask the man and he explains that he just hired out 2 bikes for 20mins and they must have taken ours! So we wait and eventually they come back – luckily! We ended up riding along the whole sandbar and back and stopped to walk in the water but it was too cold to swim!

The sandbar.


Kate and I.


How you are meant to look at the "bridge to heaven"!


What it looks like from that angle!


The snowcone!


Where we rode along the sandbar.


The Beach.


For our last day in Amanohashidate we went for a short trip to a local fishing village called Ine. It is a very small village where all the houses are right on the water and they have carports for their boats which are actually parked under their house! It would be a great place to go out in a boat as the water was such a beautiful green colour. We also saw old women drying fish on bamboo screens.

Ine - the fishing village.


Fish drying.


Fishing boat.

So sadly our “rich girl” holiday had to come to an end but we both had a fantastic time!