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!

Golden Week Part 3

Sunday 2nd May

I took an early local train to Kanazawa, a traditional Samurai town which is a popular tourist destination for the Japanese. At the centre of the city is the huge white Castle, and next to that is the famous garden Kenroku-en, which is considered one of the three most beautiful Japanese gardens. There are three geisha teahouse districts, and a famous market. The city was very big, and having done a lot of mountain climbing the previous day, and due to the fact that it was another scorching day, I was thankful for the city loop bus which only cost 200 yen (£1.20) a trip.

First, I refueled with a Japanese breakfast consisting of miso soup, grilled fish, rice and tea. I had decided to only eat Japanese food for my three day vacation ^^

Myoryuji Temple, also known as Ninja Dera is a ninja-style temple with hidden traps and secret rooms. It was undeniably the coolest place I've ever been to! I joined a tour where we were shown special two-way doors, a well with a secret tunnel to the castle, hidden staircases and a magic self-locking trapdoor. There was also a secret room with only four tatami mats. Four is considered unlucky in Japan, since four is pronunced shi, the same as death. The four-tatami room was actually a suicide room for battle commanders who lost a fight.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take a camera into the temple, since it is a religious place, so this secret staircase picture is one I found online. As you can see from the left picture with me in it, it looks like a simple one or two floored building. At the time of Myoryuji's construction, it was illegal to construct a building taller than two floors. Myoryuji cunningly had four floor concealed. So cool!

As I mentioned before, there are countless temples in Kanazawa. Every dot on the above map is a Temple, and this was just the northen part of the city!

Oyama Shrine is the most famous in the city due to its Dutch-inspired stained glass gate at the entrance (remember you can click to enlarge photos).

Kanazawa Castle was unusual due to its white colour, it looked as though it had been snowed upon, which was impossible in the heat!!

Kenroku-en Gardens

 Left: Turtle Island and Right: The most iconic view in Kanazawa, Kotoji lantern

Higashi Cha-ya (Geisha District)

Many Edo period (17th century) teahouses remain in three Geisha areas in Kanazawa.

 I visited a couple of  Teahouses, and visitors were free to explore.

I was served Macha (fresh Green tea) and a sweet to take a away the bitterness.

Finally to end the day while I waited for my night bus, I made a wish at a shrine I came across.

I was told that when making a wish at a shrine, one claps twice, bows, throws a 5yen coin (~3p), and claps twice again (or something like that, many Japanese seem to do this in different orders)!! Unfortunately, while holding a camera, I didn't make the wish correctly so it probably won't come true!!

Shibuya & Omiya Shrine

Training was very tiring. We were in a classroom all day and I was just nodding off. Managed to be professional for the President`s visit, who reminded us that just about everything is "very important" in his sweet Japanese accent.
At 6 we finished, and the four of us (myself, Andrew, Ben and Tim) headed to Omiya station to catch the overground train to Shibuya. The plan was to catch a train straight there.. we ended up changing three times as we kept getting on the wrong trains!! The train platform signs are about as straightforward as a spaghetti junction... and they had English letters!!

We finally arrived- it really was everything you imagine Japan to be- people EVERYWHERE, NEON signs, loud, awesome!

We had dinner on the 7th floor of a mall, we had to take off our shoes at the entrance.

I tried fried sting ray (see above) and horse meat! Verdict- avenging Steve Irwin was tasty; the horse meat was less tasty than venison with the texture of raw beef. Not bad :)

Went to a British Pub, and then at 11.30 we decided to make our way home by train. It was an epic tale of making the last trains by seconds, running, holding the doors open and pushing into the sardine-canned carts. Madness!

I managed a near-fluent conversation with a group of Japanese businessmen too :)
Finally made it home safely at 1.30 this morning! Very lucky.. we definitely need more practice on the transport system!

Today, Andrew and I visited Hikawa Shrine, which was about a 15 minute walk from the Seminar House where we were staying. It was a super hot day, hence my newly acquired fan, and it was a very serene place, with people making wishes and taking a nice stroll with their children. Hikawa Shrine has a 2400 year history, and it is the main and largest Hikawa shrine of a further 290 daughter shrines dispersed around Japan.