My birthday and photos of Kyoto & Shin-Imamiya

Shinji and I came back from Tokyo (it was sad to leave, next time we will stay longer:) to Osaka for Shinji’s training with a company called Berlitz. He is going to be teaching English to university students and business men. We stayed at a Backpackers in Shin-Imamiya as it is close to where Shinji’s training was! Now Shin-Imamiya is a dodgy part of town and there are a few homeless people around which has been interesting! Every night we can hear police sirens which has been disconcerting haha…The police and ambulance often use their mega phones to say move off the road. It reminds me of 1984 haha big brother is watching! While Shinji has been having his training I’ve been catching trains and exploring Japan all by myself!! I think this has been a great confidence booster! I’ve caught the wrong train a few times and had to ask for directions! It’s good practice even though people often look at me like I’m crazy because my Japanese is pretty awful! A little granny on the train had a long chat with me, I had no idea what she was saying but when I got off I said it was nice meeting her in Japanese! I am enjoying the weird chats I have with strangers even though a lot of the meaning is lost in translation! One amazing thing about being back in Osaka is Okonomiyaki! Okonomiyaki is a Japanese styled savory pancake and I LOVE IT!!!!! it is sooo yummy and is Osaka’s speciality!    

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A day in YOKOHAMA with Waka & Shunsuke

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Akihabara, Ghilbli museum, dinner in Shinjuku and Valentines day!!!!

The Ghibli museum was suburb. I thought it would be a commercial place but I should have known better. It was a quaint building with beautiful stain glass windows from scenes from the films. There were incredible rooms showing the animation process (Shinji was in heaven and very inspired), development sketches for characters and background artwork. It was truly amazing, I can’t praise it enough. The only downside was that it was incredibly crowded, in the gift shop you couldn’t even move! At the end we got to see a Ghibli short film I had never seen before. It was about a girl trying to find shelter. The soundtrack was all voice sounds. I loved it!

That night we had dinner with Waka and Momo in Shinjuku! Shinjuku is a busy shopping area. In the photos below I bet you would never guess that the restaurant was on the 6^th floor of a building. It had a river flowing through the restaurant! The restaurant had lots of private hut rooms. It was really cool!

Love Esmé

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Asakusa, Ginza and reuniting with Yuka!

We found the most amazing Pipe shop in Ginza. Shinji and I took a few photos for you Uncle Peter!!! It was a very cool and sophisticated shop, I think you would have liked it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day was Sunday and we met Yuka at the Nishi Kokubunji Station. For those who don’t know Yuka is my friend from high school! She went to Columba College and now lives back in Tokyo. It was great to see her again, she is so grown up now and looks beautiful! We went to Asakusa and saw Sensō-ji an amazing temple. It is Tokyo’s oldest temple! It has the most amazing entrance called the thunder and lightening gate. There were all these crazy markets leading up to the temple. There were many yummy food stalls. We tried osenbe (rice cracker), age-manjuu (sweet filling in a deep fried shell) and monaka-ice cream (ice cream between two biscuits) it was oishii (yummy).  Before the temple there was what I can only describe as an incense barrel. If you get the smoke from the incense on your head you will get smart. I stood there for quite a while trying to get smarter!! Haha but I don’t think it worked! We then entered the temple. This temple was so busy and everyone was chucking their coins at the altar to pray or make a wish. One flying coin smacked Yuka in the head!! It was crazy! Afterwards we had soba noodles for lunch and caught the train to Shibuya! Shibuya is the upper market shopping area! That means Prada, Gucci, Dior etc. There were body guards/ men in suits standing out side the shop, which was quite intimidating. We went in and pretended to be rich but to be honest just being in the shop was freaky because everything was so expensive you didn’t want to touch anything. Shinji on the other hand was picking up things left right and center and I was freaking out. We went to this amazing Shiseido store that had this digital screen that was like mirror and if you pressed a product it would put the make up on your face!!!  So cool! We ended the day with my favourite thing to do: cake and tea!

Love Esmé

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Harajuku and Shibuya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yuki I have put these photos up asap! I’m sorry for the delay!

We took an eight-hour bus ride to Tokyo. Now you may be thinking that sounds horrible, but it was surprisingly ok and an awesome way to see the Japanese countryside, which is beautiful. The bus was luxurious with big seats that reclined! In Tokyo we stayed with Shinji’s Aunt and Uncle Fuji-Chan and Kazu-San. Their house is the house Shinji grew up in until he was eight so it was very nostalgic for him! The next day we went to see Shinji’s childhood friend Shunsuke and his lovely family! They made us lunch oyakodon which is becoming one of my favourite foods.  Oyakodon has chicken and egg in it on rice and the name means family bowl, you can guess why! Then Shunsuke took us to Harajuku!!! I have wanted to go there since I was a little. This is the place Japanese people dress in a strange fashion often called ‘Lolita’ because they wear baby doll outfits. However I feel it is baby doll crossed with punk rock! If you are unfamiliar with the Harajuku fashion I think this is a good website to understand the craze http://tokyofashion.com/harajuku-fashion-walk-pictures/. I didn’t get too many photos of people dressed up because I felt it was rude to take photos of random people but check out the dogs below! One thing I wasn’t prepared for is that Harajuku is also an INCEDIBLE shopping district. There were so many cute shops with awesome clothes. Some shops were too extreme for me but those bordering on cutsie but normal really were my style I think!! Aaah I want to go back just talking about this.  Shinji and Shunsuke did really well putting up with me and coming into all the girlie shops. I was impressed!

We then went through Shibuya on our way home. The Shibuya crossing is notorious for being busy! It was crazy! We also got our photo next to the famous Hachikō statue. Hachikō is an akito (Japanese breed of dog) and this is his story. In 1924 a professor at the University of Tokyo had a golden brown dog called Hachikō. Hachikō greeted his owner at the end of each day at the nearby Shibuya Station. But one day Professor Ueno did not return. The professor had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and died, never returning to the train station where Hachikō was waiting. Every day for the next nine years the dog waited at Shibuya station. Hachikō attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait. This continued for nine years with Hachikō appearing precisely when the train was due at the station. Hachikō’s legendary faithfulness became a national symbol of loyalty. I think this is such a sad but lovely story!

That night we also had dinner at Shunsuke’s place and we watched the movie ‘Water boys’. If you haven’t seen it, GET IT OUT NOW it was so good. It was about a group of schoolboys making a synchronized swim team. It was so funny!

Love Esmé

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Three cool things about today

The first picture is of an incredible origami squid . I was invited to participate in Miyuki-San’s English class. One of the woman in the class gave me this origami and said her daughter made it for me. I really love it! P.S sorry about my wrinkly hands! It is very cold here!

Today I saw a group of japanese guys skip rope dancing on the street near the train station. Sore wa sugoi ne! This is the second time I’ve seen something like this. On the Kyoto riverside there was also a group of guys around my age hip hop/break dancing in suits?! it was very cool!

The last image is of a book I bought today ‘my darling is a foreigner’ It is a story about a japanese girl and her western (american) boyfriend. In the book it explains all the cultural differences they have experienced as a couple and living together in japan. It is in a cartoon/manga style and it is really funny. I can really relate to some of the stories. It also has given me the heads up on some situations, such as it is not ok in japan to leave a dish to dry with even a little bit of soap suds on it if you washing the dishes! That is really gross to the Japanese all dishes have to be rinsed clean before you dry it…

Anyway, I’m off to Tokyo tomorrow! An 8 hour bus ride! Wish me luck,

Love Esmé

Bike-ride around Kyoto and the Osaka Aquarium

From the backpackers we were given free coupons to hire bicycles. So we decided to sight see around Kyoto on bikes. Many people bike everywhere in Japan because it is so flat. You are allowed to bike on the footpath, the road and you don’t need to wear a helmet! I found this interesting how people on bicycles can be considered both a pedestrian (e.g ride across a zebra crossing) and a vehicle that is following the road rules. I’m not to sure so correct me if I am wrong but I think in New Zealand if you ride a bike you are considered a vehicle and must follow the road rule. On our bikes we rode up the Kyoto riverside. There where many bridges and it was interesting to see the homeless communities under the bridge. They even had their own veggie garden! I thought to be homeless didn’t look that bad haha.

That day we had a viewing of an apartment at 1pm, which was really cool! It is central Kyoto and right by the museum! Lucky! It also had a rooftop patio! We have decided to take it so if anyone wants to visit, let me know because soon we will have a place of our own! We also cycled to the Emperors temple, which was stunning, but unfortunately my camera died so there are no pictures. The next day we went to Osaka. Shinji and I have made friends with Claudia an Aussie tourist, she is the one with the even redder hair in the photos! Shinji had a job interview hence how handsome he is looking in a suit haha! Claudia and I looked around the shops while we waited for Shinji and we had yummy ramen for lunch. Many buildings in Japan have amazing facades. As you can see in the photos on the rock climbing wall attached to the exterior of a shopping mall! Afterwards we went to the Osaka aquarium! The architecture of this building was incredible. The building was designed so that it interwove and wrapped around these giant tanks. Therefore you saw the same tanks on different levels of elevation. There was also traditional Japanese music being played and the fishes looked as if they were moving to the rhythm. It was an enchanting and mesmerizing experience. All the tanks were very elaborate and so beautiful. There were also dolphins from New Zealand in the aquarium, which I felt a bit cringe about being in the aquarium due to their size, playfulness and intelligence.

Love Esmé

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Osaka Castle

My third day in Osaka was also my last day in Osaka. Kuwata Papa-San very kindly said he would take Shinji and myself to Kyoto in the evening (where we will be living for the year). That day Kuwata Papa-San, Yuri-Chan, Shinji and myself went to the Osaka tower. It has a very interesting history. The original tower was bombed during WW2 and therefore this sky tower was built in it’s place to rally people’s spirits. Around the tower is Osaka’s zoo. It was built a long time ago and there are these amazing old Victorian styled aviaries.  In the photos you will see many shots of cute Billiken, an Osaka icon. It is lucky to rub his feet. I took many photos of the Osaka view and from the photos you can see the city seems endless!

Next Kuwata Papa-San took us the Osaka’s castle! Now this was mind blowing. There are two moats around the castle. The moats slope up from the group so that it gets steeper and steeper and therefore enemies cannot climb up the moat. It is a mystery how the moats where built as they can’t figure out a) how they managed to move such large rocks and b) how in the 16^th century they had the engineering technology to build the moats with the sloping sides. The moats had a stark beauty that really appealed to me and I loved walking through the grounds to the castle. I think the photos really show how amazing it is. The castle now is a museum that explains the history of the area and castle. The museum explained the Siege of Osaka also known as the ‘summer wars’ where there was series of battles undertaken by the Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, ending in the clan’s destruction. I found the his

tory a bit hard to fully understand because I kept getting confused with all the Japanese names. However their were amazing Japanese Kabuto (helmet armour) on display. They were very elaborate and decorative as each shogun wanted to be distinguished from the other and it looked good in battle. I was naughty and took a photo is the ‘no photo zone’ of a spearhead from battle that I thought was stunning. You can see it below, it has a motif of two flowers inverted into each other. The spearheads were so beautiful it is crazy to think they made their arrows and weapons so intricate when you think of its purpose. We also went out onto the viewing platform at the top of the castle. It was so high up! Kuwata Papa-San is a mountain/rock climber and has previously cleaned the rooves of the castle, as a volunteer, by abseiling down the roof!!!! It is a very honourable thing to do to preserve the castle. He said he would love to come to NZ to climb Mount Cook!

After seeing the castle Papa Kuwata-San, M

iyuki-San and Yuri-Chan dropped Shinji and I off at the backpackers in Kyoto where we are staying. Osaka and Kyoto are a lot closer to each other than I realized so I am excited that I will be able to visit the Kuwata family often. The Kyoto backpackers are AMAZING! It is the cleanest and most stylish backpackers I have ever been in. That night the back packers put on a meal for free for us because February the 3^rd is a special celebration for Japan. We chatted with other backpackers, drank sake and listened to this old man who was drunk tell stories. He had traveled to 112 countries in 5 years on his motorbike and the next day he was speaking at a conference about his travels. He was so friendly and loud and he told me something I’ll never forget. He said to visit a country you don’t need to speak the language, if you use you heart to speak you can communicate with anyone. He only spoke Japanese but it was true what he said, he made me laugh a lot through using hand actions and body gestures to communicate and I believe I understood what he was saying! There is a picture below of him and his bike! He gave me his business card that shows all the places he has traveled. You can see it below in the photos, he hasn’t been to NZ though!!!

I have already met so many unforgettable people in Japan!

Love Esmé

 

 

 

 

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Nara and the Giant Buddha!

I told Miyuki-San I had never tried Ramen (Japanese Noddle soup which is popular and famous to Japan). The next morning I woke up to find she had made Ramen for Shinji and me for breakfast!!!!!! I was blown away by how kind Miyuki-San is and the Ramen was yummy! On our second day in Japan Maki-Chan, Miyuki-San, Shinji and myself went to the Nara district by train to see the Tōdai-ji temple and the giant gold Buddha that resides inside. It is winter in Japan and very cold. It is the sort of cold that reminds me of Queenstown, as it is very crisp, fresh and straight from the mountains. I definitely prefer this weather to Singapore! Nara was so beautiful with its old-fashioned Japanese shops. An amazing thing about the Nara region is that there are deer everywhere. Nobody is allowed to hurt or shoo the deer because they are thought to be ‘God’s servants’. Therefore if you are late to work and a deer is on the road you just have to wait till it is gone! They are so cute and tame as you can see from the photos below. Before we entered the temple we had to wash/cleanse our hands in the water in the temple grounds. The water had ice in it and was freezing. Then when we entered the temple we lit incense.  Miyuki-San told me that you light essence for your family members.  When we entered the temple the first thing you see is the gold Buddha. It is so impressive. Japan has really made me realize how young New Zealand’s history is. The building of the Tōdai-ji temple can be dated back to 728 in the first half of the eighth century! Inside the temple there is a hole in one of the pillars and nobody knows why it is there. People climb through this small hole for good luck. I only just managed to squeeze through the hole! The trick was to go through it on a diagonal. The hole in the pillar is said to be the size of the Golden Buddha’s nostril. Shinji didn’t try to fit through haha!

After the temple we went to lunch at a very special restaurant that Miyuki-San booked in advance. The restaurant specialized in Tofu, meaning that everything we ate was made from tofu. I had no idea there could be so many variations of tofu. We when arrived I decided I would do my very best to eat everything. Everything was in tiny proportions. In the photos below I put my finger next to the meal so you can understand the scale! I was doing so well until the waitress handed me an English description of the food. It was a set menu and we were up to number 7 of 16 tofu meals!!!!! Slowly my resolve started to crumble as I reached my maximum tofu intake. However I did try everything even the seaweed grapes! Miyuki-San and Maki-Chan said it didn’t matter if I couldn’t eat them all the point was to try new food. This meal was very different and challenging for me but at the same time it was one of the most enjoyable and memorable things I have done so far! The restaurant was traditional Japanese in style and was very beautiful.

After lunch we went for a walk and it started to snow lightly. It was beautiful. We then went to a museum that had special artefacts and I wasn’t allowed to take photographs. However I learnt some very important things I did not know. Here we saw a type of Buddha that had six arms. Many westerners think that this is Buddah but they are wrong. He is a disciple of Buddha who is the god of mercy. In the museum we knelt in front of him and his expression is supposed to show that he will help you. The eyes glitter to show that he is crying for you. Underneath in rank are 8 other gods that are disciples of Buddha. There were statues of the eight different gods. From these gods the most popular (this statue was on the promotional material and their was a crowd around it) seemed to be Asura the god of war who has three faces. This god has an angry but sad look on its face because although he is the god of war he is always remorseful and sad afterwards. I hope what I have told you is correct, I may not have my facts one hundred percent however it was very interesting to see and learn about.

Love Esmé

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JAPAN! A day of firsts

We arrived in Osaka, Japan at 4pm to be greeted by Miyuki-San and Kuwata Papa-San. For the first three nights in Japan Shinji and stayed with the Kuwata family who are very good friends of Shinji’s family. I think staying with such a lovely, warm, kind and generous family has given me such a fantastic first impression of Japan. Although my Japanese is so limited I managed to express myself with body language and using Shinji as a translator! After we were picked up from the airport we went to the Kuwata’s house. In Japan people live in apartments that are quite small. Although their house was small it had a lovely homely atmosphere and was very comfortable! The Kuwata family made me feel right at home in a country that is very different. That night we had a very traditional Japanese dinner. Japanese eat in small proportions but have a lot of different dishes. I think many people would be surprised how small the proportions are but at the end of the meal I was so full and the food was so delicious! The Kuwata family’s lounge is also traditional in the fact that they don’t have chairs they sit on the ground and there dining room table is low and we sat on cushions around the table to eat. The next surprise install for me is that the toilet seats are heated, I found this so surprising and it is constantly amusing to me! Even in cafes and public toilets they are heated. It is a neat idea! New Zealand should think about it!  I was also so surprised at all the buttons on the toilet an often it takes me a while to find the flush! Another thing that is different is people shower sitting down in japan and then have a bath. I know that doesn’t sound so unusual but when you are actually doing it is quite weird. The next day I got up and Miyuki-san had prepared a traditional Japanese breakfast with fish and miso soup! Although many people know I’m not a seafood eater I have been ignoring that over here and trying everything. And it is good!!!!!!! That night I had my first experience sleeping on a futon, my back has never felt so straight!

On our first day in Japan Shinji and I went and looked around Osaka. The shops were amazing I could feel my eyes popping out of my head as I walked around. They were also unbelievably cheap. A nice jacket was about $30 and a t-shirt $12! We went to this amazing French sweet shop, at the time we didn’t know it is actually an award-winning cafe! The cake over here is like nothing I have ever tasted it is so so so YUMMY! Japanese people have huge pride in their food and cakes. Each cake is so intricate and layered so that the flavor builds up e.g. a layer of sponge, cream, jam, chocolate. It is AMAZING, if you love food I think Japan is definitely a place to go to experience amazing flavours. During the day I asked how much something was in a shop and complimented a waitress on her uniform in Japanese. Not bad for my first day in Japan! In the photos below you can see many Osaka icons such as the ‘glico’ running man and the giant crab that was celebrating his 50^th Birthday!!!! We went back to the Kuwato family’s house with cake treats and were picked up by Miyuki-San from the train-station. Then we went to the supermarket! It was so exciting to go into a Japanese supermarket. I looked at the bread section and there was hardly anything at all. Bread came in packets no bigger than four slices and none of the bread was multi-grained it was only white. Very interesting! The next supermarket section I had to check out was the sweets section. Japanese chocolate blocks are tiny. I gave the Kuwata family two Whitaker chocolate blocks as a present and they just couldn’t believe how big and chunky they were. I didn’t think this was a good time to tell them I could eat one of those entire blocks by myself! On the way home we bought Yakitori to eat, which is kind of like kebab sticks but with different meats and amazing flavours. I tried liver, intestine and chicken cartilage. When we got home Miyuki-San made okonomiyaki (Japanese styled pancakes), which were AMAZING. Miyuki-San also has three daughters Maki-chan, Yuri-chan and Emmi-chan who are all in their 20’s and around my age. Emmi-chan is training to be a policewoman so I didn’t get to meet her because by the sounds of things she was still at boot camp. Maki-chan and Yuri-chan are so lovely. I am going to help them both improve their English and they are going to help me learn Japanese. Yay lucky me 🙂 That is all for now,

Love Esmé

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