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!