Japanese Roren

Monday, 12 October 2009

Moon Viewing Festival!

October 3rd

I went to the Moon viewing festival again this year as it is a nice summer night in front of the castle with all you can drink sake for only about $5! It was a fun night and much sake was consumed before heading to karaoke!

The castle and all the people at the moon viewing festival

Me, Monica, Julian, Nicole and Kyosuke enjoying sake!

Full moon!

Taube and I enjoying sake!

And karaoke after!

My Birthday!

September 26th

For my birthday a huge group of us went to Caspian restaurant which is a Turkish/Middle Eastern restaurant - the food is amazing and it is the only place to get Hummus in Himeji! We had a great dinner and the owner gave me a tequila shot on the house! We then went to the park in front of the castle for a drinking picnic and then on for some dancing at B's Box dance club! It was a great night and I was really spoilt by all my amazing friends :-)

One table at dinner

The other table

Everyone at dinner

My amazing cake made by Taube, Rachel and Julian

Me and my cake

Kyosuke and I

At the castle for drinks

At B's Box for dancing!

Silver Week - a whole week of holidays!

September 21st - 25th

We had a whole week of holidays this week as we had 2 compensation days from working the weekend for sports day and there were 3 national holidays. Unfortunately we couldn't really plan anything because if the weather was bad or too many students had swine flu sports day was going to be postponed. So we settled for a week of day trips, shopping and relaxing!

The week started with a trip to Kyoto with Taube and Rachel. Our main purpose was to visit Toji temple as there is a monthly flea market held there. We bought many old kimonos and obis and will attempt to make some cool and interesting things out of them!

cute characters in Kyoto

Toji Temple

We went to Osaka on the way home from Kyoto to enjoy some Mexican food!

Taube, Rachel and I at El Pancho's

Later in the week Taube and I decided to visit Awaji Island and the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge which is the longest suspension bridge in the world and joins the island to the mainland. You can actually go inside the bridge and look down to the ocean which is quite amazing.

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge

Inside the bridge

The floor inside - 50 metres above the sea scary!

Taube and I with the bridge

We then took a bus over the bridge to the Nojima fault (earthquake) museum. The Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 began at Nojima fault in Awaji Island and there is now a museum there where they have preserved parts of the road, earth and a house. The museum also had an earthquake simulator which created the feeling of a 7.3 earthquake!

Nojima fault line - this is part of an original road and drain

The kitchen of the house that was on the fault line - the whole house has been preserved

On the way home we decided to catch a ferry back to Akashi so we went under the bridge which was really beautiful as the sun was setting

Sports Day!

September 20th

Well it is that time of year again for the annual JHS sports day. Weeks are spent preparing for the day with many, many practices. It was a great day and the weather was good and the swine flu stayed away enough to prevent it from being cancelled! There were many events - relays, girls dancing, boys formations, marching, club marching, team dances and more marching! After the teachers and I went and had Chinese food for dinner and celebrated it all being finished and the coming week of holidays!

Girls dancing the traditional Soran dance

Boys doing their formations - this is the totem pole

and a huge pyramid!

Team dances involved pop music or the traditional taiko

Amazing lunch!

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

A Crazy Day in Tegarayama!

September 13th

It was a warm sunny day so Kyosuke and I decided to go for a bike ride around Himeji to see something new. We ended up at Tegarayama where there is a small theme park, botanical garden, castle, revolving restaurant and many monuments! We walked up the hill to find a very strange and out of place castle on the hill which we explored. There was a huge monument for all the people that were affected by the war. We kept walking as I was curious to see what this huge structure was as it looked like a UFO so Kyosuke and I went inside to discover it is a revolving restaurant! It was quite old looking and slightly strange but we enjoyed a parfait and watched Himeji as we went around! After we went to the garden before riding home. It was quite an interesting day and it is always nice to see something new no matter how strange it is!

The crazy castle on the hill