Bunkasai - Culture Day!

7th November

Every year Junior High Schools have a culture day which involves each class singing a song and other performances. This year I even got to perform with the English Club which consists of 12 boys! We read a play in English and had the translation and pictures showing on a slide show. It was a fun day and it always amazes me how well the students can sing and play instruments!

My amazing bento lunch!


The brass band


One class singing


My beautiful special class playing the bells - amazing!

Taube's Party in Osaka - Mexican, drinks and a lot of fun!

8th November

For Taube’s birthday she wanted to eat Mexican food so to do that we had to go to Osaka! We had delicious Mexican food and margaritas! We then went to a bar, followed by another bar and then to McDonald’s before catching the first train home at 6am! Yes I was able to stay out all night! It was the first time I have ever done that! It was a great night and we all had a lot of fun ☺

Taube and I


Mmm Margaritas!


Yum guacamole!


Enchilada set!


Kyosuke and I


The cool building where the restaurant was


The bright lights of Osaka!

Taube's Birthday!

5th November

Taube loves Nabe (a Japanese hot pot) and since the weather is cooling down she decided to have a Nabe party for her birthday. It was a great night full of yum food and good friends!

Taube opening her presents!


We had 2 pots of yum Nabe!


Yum kimichi Nabe!


The banana cake I made Taube - I did the writing too!


Happy Birthday Taube!

Kanazawa with Kyosuke!

1st - 3rd November

Kyosuke and I went to Kanazawa on the long weekend and it was our first holiday together. We had a great time and saw many things! We arrived in Kanazawa in the afternoon and then had a chance to look around the city before going out to have kaisendon for dinner. Kaisendon is a famous dish in this area which is sashimi on a bowl of rice. It not only tasted amazing but looked amazing as it had gold on it! Kanazawa produces most of Japan’s gold leaf so it goes on everything here!

Kanazawa station


Kaisen don with gold!


The next day we went to Kenroku-en which is the famous garden. It was really beautiful and the first signs of autumn could be seen.

The beautiful pond


This pine tree is really old and has supports for strength through winter


Kyosuke and I in the garden


Famous view in the garden


We then went to the Sakuda Gold Leaf shop which is where they make gold leaf and sell products. We were given tea with gold in it! I even had icecream with gold!

Tea with gold!


Expensive but amazing looking icecream!


After we went to the Higashi Pleasure District which is the old area where there are tea houses and Geisha houses. We went into the Shima Geisha House which was just beautiful.

Me in the Higashi area



Garden inside the Geisha House


The next day we went to Myoryu-ji which is known as the Ninja temple. We went on a tour of it where we saw hidden rooms, trick staircases, secret floors, suicide chamber and a look out. When it was built the law was that you could only have a building 3 stories tall. This temple was actually 4 stories but from the outside it looked like 3 and it had 7 layers within it. It was really interesting but also funny as no one ever attacked the Lord that used the temple so there were never any Ninja’s!

Ninja temple


We then went to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. It was quite amazing and my favourite exhibition was definitely the swimming pool. This pool didn't have water in it so first you could enter from underground and be “in” the pool and see people at the top and then you could go to ground level and see people below! Very cool!

Me in the pool!


The view from ground level


On our way back to the station we walked through the grounds of Kanazawa castle. Some parts of it has been rebuilt and some parts are still missing as it was destroyed by fire in the 1800’s.

Kanazawa castle


It was a great weekend and was exciting to go somewhere new and interesting!

Halloween!

31st October

This year we had a wonderful Halloween again! We had a children's party at our apartment which involved games, a haunted house and trick or treating! The kids loved it and so did we! It was a fun night which was followed with more fun at the local pub!

Kids arriving at the Halloween party


My group of kids with Julian (Dracula) and Sophie (Hermione from Harry Potter)


The corpse bride and Morticia (Ferra-Lynn and I)


The construction worker and his dog! (Richard and Kimi)


The onigiri (Japanese rice ball) and Morticia! (Taube and I)


Group shot of everyone in the apartment plus Japanese party volunteers


Gomez and Morticia Addams! (Kyosuke and I)


The onigiri, Pippi Longstockings and Morticia (Taube, Rachel and I)

International Festival

26th October

The annual International Festival was held in Himeji. We were asked to volunteer at the festival for English conversation, the American Brownie stand and the Aussie BBQ! Of course I was excited to help out at the Aussie BBQ! It was a cold rainy day but fun anyway. We thought we would be cooking but it was all taken care of by a very organised group of Japanese ladies who were cooking sausages, onion, potato and beef with chopsticks on the biggest BBQ I have seen in Japan! We just had to speak English and look Aussie - not hard to do! But it was a really fun day and once I had finished I sampled food from Brazil, Peru, Malaysia and America!

Marie-Louise and I trying our best to look Aussie!


The ladies cooking the Aussie BBQ - very Japanese style with chopsticks!


Amazing Brazilian cake and coffee!

Aboshi Cho-chin (lantern) Smashing Festival!

21st October

The Aboshi cho-chin (lantern) smashing festival was one festival I missed last year that I really wanted to see. So I am very happy that I got to see it this year! We went to the shrine in Aboshi - about 10mins by train from Himeji and walked along the street lined with all sorts of yum festival foods! Taube and I then got very close to the action as portable shrines began to come down the street and then also be shaken up and down! It was amazing to see them up close though and you could see the beads of sweat on the guys carrying them! We then went into the shrine and that is when the real fun began! Many men with lanterns came into the area and were chanting and all was calm and then it was on! Lanterns were being smashed everywhere! And even once they were smashed they still kept going until someone blew a whistle to call it off! This happened a few times! The meaning behind this festival is a little unsure but my teacher thinks that the more lanterns that are smashed or how quickly they are smashed relates to how much good health and luck the people in the community will have for the coming year and harvest. It was an amazing night and I would definitely go again!

The torii leading to the shrine and all the yum food!


The portable shrines were carried past us so close!


Up close the portable shrines look so good- especially when they are lit up at night - once again so so close!


The lanterns so calm and peaceful


Then it is all on!


And still they keep going!


Even Medama Oyaji (animae character) gets beaten!


And his eye/head is destroyed!


I met many of my students from last year here as the junior high school is nearby - they were so excited!


Yum sweets and so pretty!


Yum okonomiyaki on a stick (chopsticks)


Beautiful lanterns outside a house - not for smashing!