Golden Week 2012

Golden Week is the holiday in Japan at the end of every April, like Easter break I guess.
This Golden Week was busy! First I went camping in Shizuoka 200km south-west of Tokyo, and then on a family trip with Toshi's Osakan family to Wakayama, the 'Hawaii of Japan'.

Camping

Driving 200km along the highway/motorway for the first time (left) and carp banners for Children's Day (right)

 Can you see Mt Fuji faintly towering over us?

Video: I catch a very easy Sakuradai fish!

Two sakuradai fish and tempura for lunch

Two lovely-looking fish that Toshi caught (*^^*)

Campfire's burning..

The campsite

Osaka/Wakayama

 Why wasn't our plane the Pokemon one!!?? (;_;)

 Feeling motherly with Satomi-chan and singing English songs to her ♪

 At a Yakiniku restaurant, grilled meat (especially beef).

This is the most delicious beef I've ever had! But one plate of cost about £10! Luckily I wasn't paying ;P

 

 Speaking of meat, I saw whale meat for the first time at a Wakayama fish market.
And no, I certainly did'n't buy any. The price of the smallest cut you can see here is about £10.

 Beautiful Shirahama beach!

 

 We visited a cave that was the location of a secret pirate hideout several hundred years ago!

 At Senjō-jiki, a very windy rocky point and Engetsu-tō, a natural sandstone arch

 Snorkeling!

 All-you-can-eat buffet back at the hotel after my no less than third hot spring bath in three days!

Dinner

I bet my Mum wouldn’t believe I’m cooking squid (for the first time), so I’m posting this picture！ Your fussy-eater of a daughter is long gone！
Made one of my favourite dishes, Korean Kimchi soup (*^^*)

The last month or so..

Quilting Show
I got a free ticket from my student who works for a quilt shop, so I attended the Quilt Show at Tokyo Dome (the big convention centre). Here are my favourites:

 The moon made of rabbits (from a Japanese story) and the Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland

Snow!

As you probably know, I like the snow. However, I don't like driving in it! I couldn't see the markings separating the triple-lane highway :S Anyway I made it safely in one piece!

I shivered just seeing these Junior High School students walking in -1C conditions with no tights/long skirts!!!
So when my own 13 year old Jr. High School student comes into class with red-raw knees I asked her why she (and other popsicle-legged kids I see) doesn't wear tights/trousers. The answer: it's against school rules. And because the men who establish these rules want to be able to see up these teenagers' skirts.

In Japan, it's appearance (or more specifically 'cuteness') first, health and everything else second. 

Because girls huddling together complaining loudly they're freezing is really kawaii..

Outdoorsing

Despite the freezing cold, Toshi and I drove to the countryside to cook nabe, a Japanese stew on a campfire.

A video for those of you who'd like to see me driving through a stretch that reminded me of the Welsh hills :D

Carrots, chinese cabbage, noodles, tofu and ash = yum!!

Happy New Year!

It's the Year of the Dragon! Sorry for the late post, I've been busy!

遅くなってしまってごめんなさい！

This was my third New Year in Japan, and this time I spent it traditional Japanese-style with the Yoshidas.

これは３回目日本ではお正月で、今年吉田家と一緒に日本的なお正月を過ごしました。

We flew to Osaka on the 30th December, and what an amazing view of Mt Fuji!

飛行機で大阪に行って、なんてすごいいい景色でした！

What better way to spend the final day of the year than under a kotatsu (table heater) playing cards and board games?
コタツで温めながらボードゲームと花札を楽しました!

Happy birthday Toshi! トシ君お誕生日おめでとう！

It is traditional to eat special long Soba (buckwheat noodles) on New Years Eve as they symbolise longevity.

長寿のためそばを食べました。

But after 2.5 years in Japan I still can't get the slurping thing right!　まだそばをスウことできません！

At midnight on New Years morning the family gathered in front of the kamidana, a small shrine in the house itself and prayed.to the god and ancestors for a good year in 2012.１２時になったらお祈りしました。

Then we went to the local shrine to pray and have some free amazake, sweet rice wine.

On New Years Day we enjoyed osechi, traditional New Years food, which Toshi's mother had stayed up all night preparing! All the different kinds of food have a meaning, for example the sweet black beans symbolise good health. You can learn more about Japanese New Years food and the meanings HERE
We also drank sake, rice wine, from gold dished with the Japanese Emperor's seal.
はじめてお節料理を食べました。お母さんが一所懸命作ってびっくりしました！料理がいろんな意味もあって面白かった。

 I was presented with chopsticks with my name in Chinese characters: 暮亜, meaning Asian sunset.

Toshi's mother taught me to make sushi (if memory serves, it was mackerel, one of my favourites).

お母さんから寿司の作り方を学びました。

 More relatives came to visit, including a very hilarious and loud 89 year old!
親戚が増えてきました！

On the last day in Osaka, we got up early to drive to Kyoto to visit Fushimi Inari, where the family's shrine is located. I went there with Cara and Laura two summers ago.

最後の日伏見稲荷大神に行きました。

 So many torii gates, and a fantastic view of Kyoto

Praying at the family shrine

Finally, while at the World's Largest Hot Springs Bath, which was amazing and I visited many baths from Asia including a Darjeeling Tea bath in Bali (see the English website) I was blessed by a New Years' Chinese Dragon, which touches you on the head (ouch!) to give you good luck!

Remember, Remember..

..Wow! Where did November go!?

November 5th is Fireworks Day in the UK, so while doing some night time fishing, Toshi and I played with some sparklers:
１１月５日はイギリスの花火の日。釣りしながら、花火をやりました!

 <-- Before and after! -->

We made tempura, which is deep-fried battered fish (^-^)/

A GIANT pear from one of my students! (Yes, that is a pear and not an apple.)

Toshi will enter a half-marathon in Tokyo on Dec 15th, so I've been accompanying his training (on my bicycle of course!). 15.6km each way 4 times has really bulked up my leg muscles!
トシくんのマラソントレーニングに自転車でついていった。

 頑張って！

A trip to see the Autum leaves last week ^^

I now babysit a friend's baby once a week, and he's so cute! (*^^*)

And finally, I got a Japanese Driver's Licence! Woohoo!