Rambling with the 'rents

Well I just waved goodbye to my parents after a lovely couple of weeks with them. Naturally with them in town I have been neglecting this blog a bit but I hope to remedy that over the next few days.

The first weekend that they arrived I went to meet them and their friends Steve and Nabuko in Kobe after work on Saturday. We ate dinner in Sannomiya, Kobe's shopping district, and then went back to Steve and Nabuko's for the night. On Sunday Nabuko had to work so the rest of us went off to Kyoto where we watched a festival of costumes. This is a 'new' festival as it was only started in 1895. The pictures above are of some of the participants.

Then we went up in the hills to a place called Kurama for a fire festival. This is performed every year to commemorate the moving of the local shrine to the area from Kyoto. As it was performed by torchlight the locals now build huge torches (up to 50kgs!)and carry them around the town. It was an interesting and beautiful thing to see but was somewhat marred by the behaviour of the police. They were completely disorganised and rude and kept pushing and shoving the crowds. Next time someone tells me that Japan is an efficient country I will laugh, this festival has been running for years but the organisation was a complete shambles. The pictures below are of someone in traditional dress with his son carrying one of the medium sized torches and one of the large torches on display before the festival began.




On Monday the 'rents came to the Kak. I showed them around AEON and the station area and then we went to Himeji to visit the castle. The picture below is of me outside it (James Bond fans may recognise it from 'You Only Live Twice'). The castle is one of the oldest (from the 1700s) and best preserved in Japan and we really enjoyed walking around and up (sooo many stairs) it. There is no furniture or anything in the interior which was a bit disappointing but there were lots of plaques to explain the various defensive features and some great views from the top floor. We were required to take off our shoes before entering to explored the whole thing in our socks, which felt a little strange.



More soon!

Do The Hobe Kobe

Last weekend was quite a busy one. On Saturday night we had a goodbye/welcome party for our Head Teachers. The old one is going off to Australia (lucky girl) to be married and the new one is coming from a school just a few JR stops away. It was a really fun night at a local Italian restaurant and it was nice to eat some instantly recognisable food.

On Sunday I woke up to find the whole room shaking. At first I wondered if perhaps my downstairs neighbour was using a sledgehammer but then I realised that I was experiencing my first ever earth tremor, I was ridiculously excited. Probably the only person who felt it that actually got a smile on my face because of it!

In the afternoon I went to Kobe to meet up with Trish, the above photo was taken at the harbour. Kobe has a really beautiful setting, in between the mountains and the sea but the city itself is typically Japanese, functional rather than attractive. It's not particularly ugly just not gorgeous either. However it's certainly vibrant when compared with the Kak and getting off the train at Sannomiya station (one of the main Kobe hubs) was a bit of a shock for me there were so many people around.We had a really nice time wandering around, first down to the water and then up into the hills a little way. By the time we got as high up as we could go on that particular road it was pretty dark and we saw some shapes just up ahead of us. They appeared a bit menacing and we assumed that they were dogs but then as we got a little closer they ran off grunting and we realised that they were actually pigs!

On Monday I went back to Kobe, this time to meet up with John (originally the three of us were all to meet that day but Trish accidentally double booked herself Not speaking the lingo certainly complicates matters). We went for Mexican for lunch as John is from Texas and craves Tex-Mex and I had a recommendation from a Mexican I had met the week before. It was really good and we hung out at the restaurant for quite some time just talking about how things were going for us. Then we too walked down to the water but this time also along the waterfront. We ate dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, I think the novelty factor of Japanese food has now been surpassed by the novelty factor of western food, and had such a nice waiter who spoke some English. He apologised for the fact that it wasn't better and John and I both assured him it was great, it never ceases to amaze me how people can apologise for their English when you are in their country and butchering their language. We made sure we thanked him in Japanese! :)

This weekend was a bit quieter but still very nice. On Sunday my friend Yuka came to visit. We met in Texas in 2000 and haven't seen each other since but have emailed etc. She told me that she had been very nervous about speaking English as she reads and writes it at work but doesn't speak it. Again she had no reason to be ashamed of it, it was fantastic. We had a really nice time, she was my first visitor and I enjoyed showing off my place. Of course this Friday my parents fly in so I will have the opportunity to do so again, I am really excited!