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!
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 enjoyedosechi, 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!
Here is a re-post of the entire video hopefully everyone can see.
The crew including Aeon Hikarigaoka, Oizumigakuen and other friends
Two guys having a fag at 3240m..
C is for... Convenience Stores (combini)
Need a comic book, a can of beer and a salty, flavourless ready meal at 4am? Well, if you're in Japan, you can be certain that there are at least 4 convenience stores within a 5 minute walking radius of your present location. Best of all, they're all open 24 hours!
Here's an introduction to Japanese combini's, along with my official rating:
#1 Lawsons (Ro-sonzu)
An American chain. I put Lawsons in first place for its variety of alcoholic beverages choice, fruit and vegetable prices (often the same as a supermarket) and its recent 'own brand' cheap assortment. It also has a variety of stores including 'Natural Lawson' where the sandwich packaging is recycled, 'Lawson Plus' and 'Lawson 100', a ￥100 store (at today's exchange, 74p).
The staff are always friendly and happy, and the store is always clean and bright! They always have cute character promotions, and I managed to get hold of a free Lawsons flannel which made me pretty attached to the chain! It's also the closest store to my apartment ^^
#2 Family Mart (Fami-ma)
A Japanese chain store. Also clean, bright, friendly staff and a good selection of comic books. The alcoholic drinks choice isn't as good though.
#3 7- Eleven (seben ereben)
An American chain, and the most successful chain in Japan.
Also, according to my knowlegable friend Jen, 7-Eleven was apparently the first combini to sell onigiri, a staple snack consisting of rice with some filling wrapped in seaweed.
It has an ATM (very useful) and had a Pokemon stamp collectign game this summer, which was nice ^^ But I'm not such a fan of the food or drink there, and a toilet I once used there was just weird. It wasJapanese style (squat) and there was some kind of step *shudder*
#4 Daily Yamazaki (though I call it the Daily Yakuza!)
I generally try to avoid this chain unless I can't find another one. It's always empty and the staff look miserable..
#5 ampm
This store would be in at number 2 except.. it does not sell alcohol!! I don't know how this chain can possibly stay afloat in Japan. Disappointing. Shun!!
#Other- Buy the Way, Korea
This convenience store is near Ellen's house in Seoul. What an amazing name!!
C is for...Cosplay and Games Console Convention @ Tokyo Game Show 2010
On Sunday 19th, Richard (my co-worker) and I headed to Chiba (east of Tokyo) to attend the annual Tokyo Game Show, which in a nutshell is a convention for the video game industry to advertise their new software/consoles! Unfortunately, Nintendo didn't show up (which was a real shame as I wanted to see their 3D display Nintendo DS due for release next Spring). There was also a Cosplay (costume play) section, where attention-loving dress-uppers posed for the camera!
Richard and I queued for almost an hour and a half in the sun before getting in. It was pretty busy!!
First stop- the Xbox Kinect demonstration. Kinect is a controller-free game- where you move your body to play the game. In the first picture I've raised my right arm, which signals the "A button" aka "Ok". I played a snowboarding game and believe it or not, I beat the demonstrator!!! I then successfully filled out a questionnaire in Japanese ^^
Free games testing :D
Male heaven: There were endless cute and sexy women promoting the games and handing out flyers!
Cosplay
Phew! Thanks for reading such a long entry! Sayonara for now!
Driving 200km along the highway/motorway for the first time (left) and carp banners for Children's Day (right)
