Mary Newton

Typhoon = Plan B

We (ZAMM) were supposed to go to the Goto Islands this weekend, but the "typhoon" foiled our plans. I put typhoon in quotes because all we got were strong winds -- it was a rather pleasant day, actually. Sunshine and no rain, for once...which reminds me that TSUYU (the rainy season) is over! Shiyay!

With grounded planes, we had to pull out plan B. Our weekend turned out to be just as fun as a beach getaway to the Gotos would have been (and not to mention a lot cheaper).

On Saturday, Meg, Zara, Ana, and Jared came over to my place for a dinner get together. We had SOUMEN NO KAWA (Soumen -- a popular summer noodle -- "RIVER") and a lot of other yummy foods. But Sunday was where it was. We drove just south of Nagasaki to Nomozaki to enjoy the beaches -- and that we did. Check out these pictures! The beach was beautiful, we couldn't have asked for better weather, the water was welcoming, and the company (as always) was terrific.

The lighthouse of Nomozaki. The clouds (what little of them there were that day) looked to be painted on. I love this picture!

The water is gorgeous!

What a view!

FIGHTO!

The waves were huge and overpowering at times...they knocked M and Z down!! GANBARE!

We made a sand demon (砂の鬼！）

Drying off and OCEAN CRUNCHIES! :)

Oh so happy! :)

This, my friends, is GUNKANJIMA or "Battleship Island" -- as it looks like a battleship from afar. (The link is Zara's post on it -- it's interesting, you should read it.) It used to be a densely populated island coal mining city, but when the residents were told to evacuate in the 1970s, they picked up and left, leaving behind homes, household goods, and large buildings. I would LOVE to go explore this ghost town of an island, but it is illegal to go there (unless you have fisherman connections...), so pictures will have to suffice. We sat and looked at it for a good 10 minutes -- so cool!

On the way back home, we stopped at ZENZERO for one last round of delicious pizza. I came home and packed some more, but the next day, being a holiday, held more adventures in store!

Monday was "UMI NO HI" or "Marine Day." We definitely celebrated the ocean by going to it the day before, but our fun with the water wasn't done yet. First we had a delicious VIKING (buffet) at the beloved SHUSHU (the place with the tomato ice cream) and were even greeted by the owner and allowed to walk around their melon nursery. He showed us how they write words in melons to make the veins grow in letters -- he even wrote YOSAKOI 「ヨサコイ」　on a baby one for us -- it will be reattached and when it matures it will read YOSAKOI. You can pay 2,000 yen to get one made just for you (right, I refuse to pay 20 bucks for a melon, but it's still cool nevertheless).

Despite the rainy weather, we decided to go to the waterfall for a dip. My jaw dropped once we reached the bottom -- the rainy season did not let us down on this one. I have only seen the waterfall look like this:

So, you can imagine my astonishment to see THIS:

sugoi! :)

The water was much too cold for me to swim in, but that did not stop Meg, Zara, Ana, and Ryusaku. In the meantime, I was busy taking pictures of chouchou:

It was just chillin' with us...

How cute are they?! :)

Afterwards we went to PEACE CAFE where the owners LOVE Z and M. He let us go down to his basement to sing with his karaoke machine (for free!). I am always impressed by all the hospitality we get!

We even had an audience half way through! This is us doing YMCA! :)

What a weekend! And, いつのまにか、it's already Tuesday night! We went to an オススメ UNAGI (eel) restaurant tonight where we totally blew away the two little ladies that worked there with our Japanese (they were so cute!). Oh, and I love eel -- why don't we have it in the States? :)

I have a very exciting post I'm going to post within the next 10 hours, so stay on the edge of your seat!

浴衣 YUKATA

Today I had the opportunity to get professionally dressed in a beautiful blue yukata (cotton kimono) with Meg and Zara. What a fantastic experience and great company. The teacher is an amazing woman with the biggest sense of humor I have ever seen in any Japanese person (totally unexpected). The process of dressing in yukata is really like an art (like most things in Japan) -- especially the tying of the obi (sash). Our Sensei is quiet talented at making her own special ties. I loved what she did with the obi on me! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Sensei had us laughing the entire time we were together -- as you can easily tell.

My beautiful friends!

Sensei's original obi design -- I love the way she tied it! And what a beautiful obi and yukata! She let me borrow it today and she commenting on how it looks so much better on me than it does on her. hahahaha.

I learned today that in the olden days, people wore yukatas IN the bath and that's why the kanji for bath is in the name -- 浴衣. It later just turned into a more informal "bath robe" / cool summer wear. Also, dark blue is a traditional and popular color for yukata because it apparently keeps the mosquitoes away. Come to think of it, I did NOT get bit for once while walking around in it today.

Action shot!

Hydrangeas -- the flower of Omura. I match!

Sensei was showing us how to pose for all sorts of pictures -- in these we are pretending to fix the obi. :)

A huge thanks to Tamana and Zara for setting all of this up! :) I had a lot of fun today with you ladies, as always!

Nagasaki Ken Road Trip!

Yesterday Zara and I decided to hit the road and do something very American -- take a road trip (or a really long drive) along the coast and through the inaka (country side) of Japan. Good way to celebrate Memorial Day, right? Thanks for the reminder, Mom!

We started our adventure around 11 in the morning and drove to Nagayo (second time for me to be there in one week's time) for a PIZZA lunch at ZenZero (best pizza around these here parts)! And what could be better than nacho chips and BBQ Chicken Pizza? Nothin'

That's cheesy refried bean goodness.

And our pizza!

Back on the road, in search for new, different things. A change of scenery. Crazy adventures.

We came across a 道の駅　"road station," got some amazing red bean filled mochi, enjoyed the scenery...

And we saw this guy, just chillin' in the air...

We came across a lot of scenic view points and beaches, as well.

Then we stumbled onto a secluded, but absolutely amazing waterfall. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip:

We had to go through the mountain to get there!

Cool  mountain passage.

And the waterfall! I love Japanese DAISHIZEN (big nature).

Lounge rocks!

When we were driving out of the waterfall area, a group of school kids stopped us (in the car) and kinda surrounded us, asking us all sorts of questions. It was really cute.

We also spotted this huge guy at some cemetery. He's cool looking:

On our way back to Nagasaki, we saw a sign for a cafe in the forest (hidden in the mountain). We had to go...and we weren't disappointed. We got bagels!!! FRESH BAGELS (trust me, it's a big deal for Japan)!!!

The waiter was cute and Zara was all googly eyed over him (or possibly...BAGELY EYED over him!)

Onward home and to YOTOKO -- a popular izakaya (bar) in Omura. The food was AMAZING! My favorite being the bacon mochi and tofu steak. I've been craving a drink and they have good beer, plus I wanted to see if all the rumors of having good food were true. Yes sir they are!

To end the night, we shot some pool!

Zara, I had an amazing day with you yesterday! I have a driver's (passenger's?) sunburn on my arm and my cheeks are a little red, too. haha =) We gotta do more random stuff like this in the next two months!!! Shiyay!

Meg's birthday weekend, taiko, and a whole lot of fun!

Somehow a week has slipped by without me writing, but I will catch you up on all the crazy adventures I have had since then!

First and foremost, a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Meg!! We have been through SO much these past 10 months and I seriously don't know what I would do without you (go crazy?). I hope you had as much fun as I did this past weekend! :)

That said, I will tell you what we did this weekend because it led us to yet another potential weekly experience.

On Saturday, Meg and I went to a taiko workshop at Seibold University in Nagayo (about 45 minutes from Omura on the slow train). Now, if you know me, you know that it is one of my dreams to play the drums, so I was really excited that I would finally get a chance to learn a little! We got there and had an AMAZING time. We saw and got to try three different types of Taiko -- standing up straight, standing on a slant, and sitting (used for festivals on floats when there is little room -- great for the abs!) on the big drums (wadaiko) -- and we got to play two other sized drums, too. There's something about the drums that excites me. Melodie, the coordinator for this, wrote this in an email to me:

"By the way, you should have seen your face when Kazuo-sensei started playing sitting style! Your eyes lit up like a Christmas tree!! I wish I'd had my camera..."

haha! :) Check out the pics!

The playing field.

Our sensei for the afternoon!

Playing the medium sized drums (I'm on the left)

So happy!

Meg and I enjoyed this so much that on Monday, I finally sat down and did some research. Took me all of 2 minutes to find the Omura taiko group. I really should have done this MONTHS ago, but better late than never, right? They had a 2 1/2 hour practice Monday night and we went to "watch" but ended up staying the whole time because we were THAT impressed and hooked. This group, made mostly out of young kids (one of them is my student!) is AMAZING!! After class we introduced ourselves and ended up being offered a ride to the practice on Sunday nights. How are Meg and I filled with so much luck? I can't wait until Sunday night!! Taiko class! A dream come true -- playing the drums!!! :D

Sunday was Meg's birthday and we had a full day of fun planned out! Zara picked up some delicious bentos from Agri (a restaurant here that we like) and we surprised Meg and took her up to the waterfall for a real picnic! It was still a bit too cold to jump in (although that didn't stop another ALT that we ran into while we were there), but we had a nice time enjoying the beautiful weather, sun, and each other's company.

Miss Ana drove and Zara and I were being silly in the back seat -- we switched shades (shortly before mine broke...).

Made it to the waterfall...but now we have to climb down the hill for the next 5 minutes. haha.

Birthday girl!!! <3 And the banana bread (cake?) I made for the occasion! :D

Z and Shawna looking sekushii. See Lana in the background? Yes, she jumped in. She said it wasn't as cold as it was back in March. ...

There's a purpose for this picture...I just wasn't at the right angle -- but they look silly. =)

This was the purpose -- to look like you are drinking the waterfall. "Ana, you're good. Mary...do something else..." "fine fine...CHOP" [Which, all of a sudden reminded me of something. Lauren, this is for you.... "Jeff, chop chop!" hahahahahaha]

Next we went up to ShuShu on the mountain to indulge in some special ice cream. Zara got some red bean and green tea ice cream (she said she didn't think it was very good) and the other two ladies got some MINT ice cream (as in real mint flavored vanilla ice cream -- very refreshing).

I, on the other hand, got...

TOMATO ice cream! It was tomato-y and very good. Goodness...I have WAY too many pictures of me with ice cream...

Following ShuShu, we rushed off to KARAOKE! Finally, we got to have some Sun Spa (aka CHEAP and a free drink bar) karaoke fun. Plus, we got a HUGE room all to ourselves (for less than 5 bucks each for 4 hours!!!).

Check out the size of this room!!

AND a disco ball, oh my!!

Craziness ensues (for the next three hours)...

uh hum...

We took some birthday purikura (of course) and went to Meg's and my favorite izakaya that's up the road from our house. I got this delicious lettuce sushi roll -- wow! :D

What a weekend -- what great friends! :)

On Tuesday we had our brutal but very rewarding 2 hour dance class -- why don't they air condition the dance rooms? We were soaked after both of them (I'm sure you needed to know that, too). Good times :)

Miyajima and Hiroshima Excursions

For the last couple of days on our trip, we went to Hiroshima and Miyajima (an island just off the coast of Hiroshima, accessible by JR Ferry). I think that spending the morning and early part of the day in Miyajima was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

MIYAJIMA

THE famous torii (gate) in the water is in Miyajima! Later on in the day, the tide goes down and you can walk out to the torii; unfortunately we didn't have the time to stick and around and wait for that to happen.

A view from the ferry with the Sakura trees. Personally I think it looks like snow.

A view from the shrine, with the pagoda in the backdrop.

 
A view from the main worship area and pagoda. I love the color!

The deer roam freely on the island and they are always eager to eat anything you stick in their face (especially paper). But look how cute this one is!! AWWWW! =)

April 8th is Buddha's birthday in Japan and is also called the flower festival (hana matsuri). We just happened to stumble onto a celebration and this picture is of Meg putting oil over the statue of Buddha. I think they said it was his 2005th birthday this year. I dunno, the deer ate Meg's paper. haha.

The world's largest rice paddle! Caption: "My spoon is TOO big!" Haha. The rice paddle originated in Miyajima by a Shinto priest during the Edo period. The first one was made out of bamboo and you can find paddles of all sizes all over the island. It is also supposedly a symbol of good luck...much like almost everything else in Japan. haha. =)

Meg and I took the rope way up the mountain. I bet the view is beyond spectacular in the fall from this angle!

When we got to the top of the rope way, we saw this and just "awwwwww-ed" at it for 5 minutes. Monkeys grooming a dear! How adorable is that?!

We decided to take the 30 minute hike to the top of the mountain to eat our momiji manjyu (maple leaf shaped sweets -- these had cream in them). We found our own rock and just enjoyed the weather, scenery, and fresh mountain air. There were a lot of people up there, but we were able to find a quiet space to enjoy it all.

At the summit -- along with the sakura! We then took made the long trek down the mountain, which is just about as hard as climbing. The walk was very enjoyable though. There weren't many people at all and the stream running next to us was nice to listen to. We were just grateful for having our tennis shoes!

HIROSHIMA

Hiroshima is such a great city -- it's so laid back, neat and tidy, and CLEAN. It makes some parts of Nagasaki look so dirty. But I digress. I have many pictures to tell the story for me!

   
The fountain outside Hiroshima Station, dubbed "Buns of Steel" from my last trip to Hiroshima 6 years ago. They were building it then and all we could see was the very top of it. Haha. What's even better is that it's right across from the store called "ASSE."

The canal right outside Hondori, the main shopping arcade. I love all the sakura!

With a stunning cloud and sun setting!

For dinner we went to Okonomi-mura (Okonomiyaki village). Hiroshima is known for their okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake and literally, "grill/cook what you want"), and boy do they  know how to do it right! Okonomimura is just a building with 4 floors of nothing but back to back okonomiyaki shops. It's kinda ridiculous to have so many of the same thing in one place, but that's what makes it fun!

I'm pretty sure that I came to this shop...or one very close to it, when I was here last.

This is what the okonomiyaki looks like when it's first getting started.

And then it turns into this delicious goodness. And Hiroshima doesn't ruin it with mayo, woohoo!

The area outside Okonomimura. Geometry everywhere!

The next day we woke up early to go see Hiroshimajyo (castle) and we found THIS when we got there! A huge kendo meet...and there were kendo players of all ages, including little little kids! So cute!

The castle wasn't open yet when we got there, but we did get to see the facade!

And what is a trip to Hiroshima without visiting the A-bomb dome, peace park, and museum? Here's a shot of it at night from across the canal.

And during the day.

A structure to remember all the young people who lost their lives because they were mobilized and forced into working for the war effort instead of learning at school.

At the peace park.

A view of the A-bomb dome from the museum through this dome shaped structure. You can't see it too well, but there is an ever lasting flame there to remember those lost and to maintain hope that this kind of tragedy never occurs again.

The museum.

And finally, a scale model of the city before the bomb. The target was the T shaped bridge in the far left hand corner of the picture. You can see the A-Bomb dome to the right of that (it has a green top).

A scale model of the city after the bomb. Completely flattened. Notice that the bridge is still intact. The bomb went off right above the A-bomb dome. Something amazing that we learned was that with around the clock work, they got the street cars back up and running in only 3 days. That's unbelievable. People are able to do amazing things in the worst of conditions. It was really hard to go through the museum, even though I have already done it once and have been through the one in Nagasaki. However, we were never once looked down upon or given the impression that we did not belong there. That gives me hope that we are moving in the right direction to building more international understanding and peace.

I hope you enjoyed my stories and pictures from my trip! =) I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to see a little bit more of Japan before I leave.

Kyoto, Kyoto Kyoto!

I promised a Kyoto trip update and now I am finally getting around to it. Sorry it took me so long, but better late than never!

The whole week started off on Sunday, April 1st at the first ever Nagasaki Yosakoi Event -- and we got to be a part of it! All of our hard work paid off and we danced our hearts out. [BTW, Yosakoi is a mixture of traditional Japanese dance, hip-hop/funk dance, huge flags, and cool hand clappers.] Unfortunately we weren't able to really carry anything around with us, so the pictures that I have are limited to what we could snap...and they are also from Ana (thank you!). Our costumes are super ridiculously fun, with sea-life-like hair, kimono styled jackets, Aladdin-like pants, and fun clappers with strings dangling everywhere. The weather wasn't that favorable, but we got really lucky in out running the rain and having sunshine for our first (of three) dances. The first dance was by far my favorite. We danced by the water and were announced as the "International group" from the kakkoii announcer. At the end, I got one of the necklaces that they give to some of the group's dancers. I guess for a job well done? Very exciting! The second dance was held in the arcade and because the space was so small, only half of our group could dance; but this resulted in the other half of our group cheering very energetically for us. Before I realized it was them, I thought the crowd was really loving us! Haha =) The third and final dance was in the Nagasaki eki (station), which was great because it shielded us from the heavy rains that began to fall. This one was a bit disappointing for me because one of the ladies tugged on my hat to get the streamers uncaught from my jacket, but she pulled to hard and my hat fell off. I was dancing with my hat halfway down my neck...but I ended up getting another necklace! Haha...this time I think it was out of pity because of my hat. ;) And now, for some pictures!

The group after our first performance

No Yosakoi, No Life. YOSAKOI YOSAKOI!!!

 
The three of us with our two Senseis -- we missed you, Z!

Now, on to the trip part. After Yosakoi, Meg and I still had about 4 hours to kill before our train left from Nagasaki. We ended up seeing Happy Feet (in Japanese) at the nice movie theater at the eki. The seats are really nice there and in that it was the first of the month, we got our ticket at the discounted price of 1,000 yen (about 10 bucks) instead of the usual 1,800 yen (about 18 bucks). We took the kamome train to Hakata and only then realized that our shinkansen (bullet train) didn't leave for Kyoto until 6:30 the next morning (and it was about 22:30 when we arrived). OOPS! But, never fear! It didn't take us long to find an Internet cafe and our accommodations were a lot better than we could have ever hopped for! We paid a little more than 1,500 yen for about 5 hours to "sleep." (Although, I didn't get too much in. You have to have earplugs or be completely exhausted to really be able to sleep, but I will admit that the chair was much more comfortable than the futon we slept on in our guest house in Kyoto.) Look at our sweet arrangements (yes, one person per room) -- what an experience! Also, people sleep in these places all the time. I saw a news report on a girl that pretty much lived at Internet cafes...and she only got a big chair.:

The Kamome train -- niiiiice seats the lie back and have ample leg room.

The shinkansen we took was, no joke, 16 cars long! It just kept going and going!

After taking the shinkansen (bullet train), we arrived in Kyoto a short three hours later and were greeted by the following pies after walking out of the shinkansen area:

(I've never seen pies so highly stacked...mmmm fruit!)

I was really excited to be back at the Kyoto Eki. Good memories there. I made sure to sit on the stairs and just enjoy it for what it is.

Enjoying the eki.

Sweet.

(See the woman in the kimono?)

Right across from the eki is Kyoto Tower. Here is a shot of it at night. It's also the tallest thing in the whole city, as I found out later on from the many mountain views of the city.

During the day.

For the first two days, Meg and I met up with Zara and her friend Jesse for a touring of Kyoto. Zara went to school in Kyoto for a year, so she was a great tour guide! I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

At the shrine dedicated to BOARS (inoshishi)

Inoshishi fountain with the cleansing water.

At the Gosho (Imperial Palace) in Kyoto.

One of the gardens at the Gosho. Too bad it was an overcast day, though.

Beautiful sakura at the end of the tour of the Gosho.

Heianjingu -- the biggest shrine in Kyoto. Anyone remember this being in our Kimono SAN textbook from Japanese three? Mwaha, yes indeed!

The torii for Heianjingu.

Oh, and did I mention we hit the sakura dead on? It was so perfect!

花見 (hanami -- flower viewing).

MOM! You have a tearoom in Kyoto Eki!! And, also notice the HUGE ice cream sundae. Granted the bottom is just filled with cereal (common for Japanese ice cream sundaes), but look how much ice cream is on top! That's RIDICULOUS! The guy in the background polished one off himself. Shinjirarenai! I hope they gave it to him on the house "Service" style. haha

Bamboo(zooled)

Kyoto from afar.

Ok, so when we went to Arashiyama (one of my favorite parts of Kyoto), Meg and I just had to climb "Monkey Mountain." The monkeys run around freely and although you are not supposed to look at them directly in the eye (because who knows what they will do to you), it was really cool to see them so up close! If you want to feed them, you yourself have to become the caged one. Haha, but aww! Look how cute!!!

At Maruyama Kouen (Park). These lanterns at the shrine there are pretty famous and I have seen them in pictures before, so I was very excited to see it in person!

The shrine. I really like the movement of the bell rope.

In true Japanese fashion...hanami, with the eating and boozing. I love how the Japanese truly appreciate the beauty of the sakura, spring, and really, all of nature. "We are together...together in nature." (hahaha).

See, boozing! But here's the best part about going to the park... it hasn't failed yet. We always get free food! Our group was approached by a bunch of businessmen and they proceeded to give us each a chuhai. Then we found out they they are the ones that MAKE the chuhais they had just given us. Then we drank and did yosakoi under the sakura. :D

Probably the most famous sakura tree in all of Japan (in Maruyama Kouen) -- isn't it fantastic?!

The next day at Fushimi Inari -- red torii gates until...well, we didn't even get close to the end of them (even after walking up and down a mountain for about an hour) because it started to rain and it simultaneously got really cold (and this is all I had to wear that day). It was great fun, though! The toriis are really neat -- I love the color, and to see them all so close together like that was amazing!

There were foxes everywhere (at all of the many shrines). Foxes are the messengers of the God Inari from the Shinto religion.

Ok, then the REAL exciting and fun part came the next day. Meg and I became MAIKO san (Geisha in training). Look at all this make up -- yes, that's me under all that!

A picture of the professional photo I have. I really like the kimono -- the sakura a the bottom was my favorite part!

The Obi. And, really, those shoes were pretty impossible to walk in. "Falling is NOT an option!"

From the front.

Me, Meg, Pagoda, and old man with a disgusted look on his face. Despite all the make-up, there was no fooling the Japanese people. 2 seconds after stepping onto the street, we hear (in Japanese): "Ohhhh so pretty! How cute!! Foreign maiko-san!" HAHA! HOWEVER! The B-E-S-T part was tricking the other foreigners. Two guys who had stopped to look (more like stare) at us were discussing whether or not we were real. After asking a lady IN JAPANESE to take this picture, they came to the conclusion that we were real -- or, at least Japanese. Eeeeeeeeexcellent! This was a great experience and I can honestly say that I have never gotten more stares, "oooo"s and "awwww"s before this! :D

We enjoyed some sakura shu-cream afterward. Check out my lightly colored eyebrows! haha.

Then we went up to take a look at Kiyomizu dera (temple) -- the most famous temple in Japan, I would say. I really like this one. It's really beautiful.

Especially with the sakura!!

"It's my guy! It's my guy!!" -- Meg. (She has a keitai charm of this guy. haha)

Wow.

Me and Meg. I remember taking a picture just like this some six years ago. Ah yes, here it is:

Well, at least I've grown up (some). Hi Franny!!

Meg washing her hands and spirit. :)

Let's be enjoying kurogoma (black sesame) soft cream!! We ate an impressive amount of ice cream on our trip -- all new and exciting flavors! Sakura (cherry blossom) and matcha (green tea) mix, kurogoma, annindofu flavored soft cream (a popular Japanese dessert that sorta has the consistency of jello -- it's really good), caramel (oh, and what a story behind that one!), Hiroshima mikan (orange), and satsumaimo (sweet potato). Mmmmmm Japanese soft cream, how I <3 you!

The night before we left we went to Tetsugaku no michi (Philosopher's Trail) to enjoy the sakura. We were hungry when we got there, so we had dinner (in which the restaurant smelled like my grandparent's house -- iina!! nazukashii!!!), but then it was dark. However, this made it quite nice because we were pretty much the only ones on the trail enjoying the sakura at night. And, because it is indeed known as the "philosopher's trail," we had some deep conversations...about ice cream. Oh, how wonderful (and amusing) it was! :D

SEE!! That ice cream is bigger than you, Meg!! And it's falling into you!

Meg and me at kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) -- yes, that's real gold. The weather was absolutely perfect -- and I still can't get over how perfect this next picture came out.

Sugoi. :D

A close-up.

And that was pretty much our 4 1/2 days of Kyoto in a nutshell. I still have to blog on our day trip to Osaka, Himeji, and then Hiroshima, so stay tuned!!! :)

Spring is HERE!!!

And in Japan, the best indicator of that is the multitude of sakura (cherry blossoms). I'm so excited for spring and I finally understand the reasoning behind hanami (flower viewing) -- you really do just want to sit under the trees and gaze! It's that beautiful!! Meg and I did that twice yesterday, but first a little bit about last weekend.

Zara, Jesse (Zara's friend in for a visit), Meg, and I went to Nodake park up in the hills of Omura. We played on the playground and took a long walk around the whole park (which included a small lake). It was a gorgeous day, especially on the shaded path (from Cedar, no less):

Fun with my shadow:

Ok, now on to yesterday! Omura Park is THE place to come to enjoy sakura in these parts. Our park has some 2,000 cherry blossom trees!! Since Meg and I are leaving today for our trip, we had to make sure to experience the festivities. We went to the store, bought a bento (packed lunch), and went to the park to eat it under the trees. When we got there, we witnesses all kinds of vendors (food, trinkets, pottery, etc) and lots of people everywhere! We found a table and sat down to enjoy our lunch and talk about our trip. A couple of older ladies ended sitting on the other side of the table and they gave us some of their food. We were already stuffed, so they insisted that we take it home and "share it with our friends." That was very nice of them! Time to show you some of the beauty of the park!

A line of trees down the main entrance to the castle.

Meg enjoying Hanami near some of the vendors.

Want a mask? :)

Me by the water! I saw a lady wearing my exact same outfit as me...what are the odds?!

Me and some of my students who were there to eat lunch after their basketball practice (yes, on a Saturday). They were SO excited to see me, haha.

More sakura! :D

SO excited!!

Then, we went back last night and did the very Japanese thing to go -- drank a chuhai (although we will make sure to try some sake at some point), and walked around to see the trees at  night. I got some really cool shots:

A group of friends enjoying the sakura late into the night.

We had to go back last night because people were out and about doing stuff past 6pm...were we really still in Omura? Amazing!! :) Oh, and it was free, so it was even better! Now that it's warm, I want to start spending more time outside (especially with the sakura!)

In about an hour, I will be leaving to go to Nagasaki for YOSAKOI!! I've been practicing with the Omura group since the end of January, but only learned this dance in the past few weeks. I'm so excited and will definitely have pictures to post later! Later tonight Meg and I will begin our long (yet comfortable ride because we are taking the shinkansen - bullet train) trip to Kyoto! We will be there and Hiroshima for a whole week! I couldn't be more excited!! Forgive the lack of posts for this coming week, but I will have more than enough to post when I get back! :)

Everyone have a great week! And, HAPPY SPRING!!! :)

Midnight Poems

It's 12:30 in the morning and I should have been in bed at least an hour ago, but instead I find myself writing poems and haiku about the weather and kotastu. Goodness, how very...Japanese...

It all started when I was talking to Ana. She decided to boil eggs at midnight and I said,

"The night easily slips from our hands"

She said it was pretty poetic and urged me to continue, so I did. (This is just silly stuff from me...thought I would share though. haha)

The cool air of late winter finds it's way through the cracks of my doors and chills my toes.
How I long for the soft warmth of the spring, the heat of the sun on my back and the wind gently blowing my air.
(I think I will attempt at writing poetry under the sakura (cherry blossom) trees when they bloom...a lot of haikus are made that way (especially b/c they usually have to do with nature).

And now my tribute to my kotatsu:

Oh kotatsu,
How do you manage to capture my very being every night?
Your warmth, your comfort, your proximity to the soft glow of the computer screen.
My body needs sleep, but you pull me under, further and further until my eyes cannot stay open and my head starts to fall ever so slightly...

In haiku form:

KOTATSU
Not able to let go
your warmth brings me such comfort
in such a cold world

And now I will fight the urge to stay under the warmth of the kotatsu and find the warmth of my bed. Good night, moon!

The Last Day

Day 3 (Monday, March 5, 2007), the final day

6:30 am. I leap up from my futon and make a mad dash for the open windows on the other side of the room without even thinking about it (like an instinct...or just from being delusional after suddenly waking up from a peaceful sleep). The rain and strong winds had woken me up (something rare...usually weather doesn't wake me up) and somehow I knew that the windows were open, so I went to close them. "Not good for our last day in Okinawa," I thought to myself and went back to bed. My hope was that it was getting the worse part over with now so that we could enjoy the rest of our time on the island. I got my wish, more or less because the rain calmed down to sporadic sprinkles for the rest of the day. And, yes, I got to the windows in time...luckily they opened outward, so nothing got wet.

We took our time in the morning to eat breakfast and pack up/leave our penthouse of a hotel room. We still had most of the day to explore and no unfavorable weather was going to stop us!

On the agenda for today: drive around the middle part of the main island. The weather had calmed down like I said, but it was still very overcast and misty, so the beaches that we came upon were out of the question. We tried to go to a couple, but they still wanted 300 and 400 yen to get on the beach. Not worth it to take sub-par pictures for 10 minutes, so we had to find alternatives. Wind and konbini umbrellas don't mix well:

(awwww poor Meg!)

Despite overcast skies, the water was still so blue and pretty!

Right before this picture was taken, we were driving on a bridge and noticed several men on the road, all with walkie talkies. During our picture taking of the water, we saw 2 motor cycles come to the bridge where the last man was stationed. One of the bikes was normal, but the other one was equipped with video cameras -- they were making some kind of movie and we got to see a little bit of it happen! That would be neat to figure out what movie it is... and I've never seen a video camera motorcycle before. It was really big and bulky!

After some more driving, we stumbled onto this hidden beach area. The tide was really low, so we were able to enjoy the rocks that are usually partially  under the water.

(Meg found a swing!)

(cool rocks!)

Then we found these stairs up to a small shrine in a cave.

And with the misty rain, it was very "rain forest" like:

(I love all the green!)

We enjoyed a very delicious (yet starchy) meal at a cute (of course!) Vegetarian cafe and then headed to Kokusai dori again for some last minute omiyage shopping (and I got bubble tea -- mmmmm!!!)

(YES those are potatoes and BROWN RICE...the first time I've had brown rice since I've been here!)

Kokusai-dori is so cool. Hahaha...skeleton Uncle Sam, some version of Godzilla, and Kitty-chan. Oh Japan... :D

And on the way back, we saw sun for the first time all day -- we just had to get ABOVE the clouds.
(How pretty!)

If you ever get the opportunity to go to Okinawa, DO IT! You won't be disappointed. I really enjoyed my short tropical getaway -- especially because of the fantastic company! :)

Soaking Up the Sun!

Okinawa, Day 2

The four of us woke up early on Sunday morning to get an early start. First, we went downstairs to enjoy our free breakfast (it was rather good and I ended up accidentally picking up some natto, but I ate it anyway because it was the most delicious natto I have tasted yet...not to say it was addicting like chocolate). Then we hopped into a taxi and picked up our rent-a-car!! We dubbed THIS car MonkeyPod as well...it served us well throughout the whole trip!

The highways in Okinawa were not only beautiful and easy to drive on (see the palm trees in the picture below), but they were also much cheaper than in Kyushu! As a matter of fact, a lot of things seemed cheaper in Okinawa. Perhaps because we didn't go at peek tourist season.

(BIG THANKS TO ZARA AND ANA FOR DRIVING!!! =) )

We were having fun in the car!

We drove around until we came to our first good picture location. It was SO windy that day, but the sun was shining bright and it was a warm 70 or so degrees. We got lucky because rain was in the forecast, but we were able to outrun it on this day!

 

We saw some cool buildings on our drive, too. Okinawan architecture seems so different from the architecture that I have seen in other parts of Japan. The schools really have character and aren't your average four walled buildings. For example...

Next came our first beach...and this one was the best. We had it to ourselves for about 10 minutes before some friendly photographers came up and starting snapping pictures (some of me because I was being silly and trying to act like a model on the beach..heh). We even did our Yosakoi dance on this beach!

Pure bliss:

Back on the road and on to another photo-perfect beach...with an accessible island because of low tide. We conquered this one!

And, haha...on the way back through the water, we saw this glove that was giving the peace sign. Even inanimate objects give the peace sign here! HAHA! Oh Japan...

Back in the car and up the mountain for a FANTASTIC view! The water is so incredibly blue and gorgeous in Okinawa!

On a very cultural note, Okinawa has some very interesting grave sites. Instead of the usual grave stone, they build little concrete houses to bury loved ones. Here's an example of one row of them:

 

And from one of these grave sites, we got THIS view of the ocean. Incredible!!

After having our fill of beautiful ocean scenery, we headed towards the aquarium, which had been recommended many times to all four of us. The view from the aquarium was outstanding as well.

And..OH LOOK! I found an umbrella vending machine!! SWEET!

The aquarium was really fun. Here are just a few of the things we saw...

(Sand eels...aww aren't they cute? Yes, they do just chill in the sand like that.)

 
These guys were huge and kinda scary, but cool to see so close!

And we're blue from all the water!

There was also a FREE dolphin show which we enjoyed very much! The trainers and dolphins were all so happy together...it warmed my heart! I have never seen more genki dolphins than these dolphins!!

Now, for lunch. Before you look at these pictures, I will tell you that looks can be deceiving. The first picture is our salad, topped with "umi budou" or grapes of the sea seaweed. It looks disgusting, but it tasted really good...a little bit of a crunch and slightly salty. Very refreshing. And, of course...there is corn everywhere! (I loved the bowls, dishes, and cups...they were all made by the lady that owns the place! This cafe was literally in the jungle...so cute and inviting!!)

Then, the GOYA pizza. I told you goya was everywhere...and we had to find some way to enjoy this bitter gourd. The pizza was really good! I'm really glad I had the opportunity to eat both of these truly Okinawan dishes! =)

Next comes the part that I had been excited about before we even planned this trip -- PINEAPPLE PARK!

 
(I'm overjoyed!)

For a mere 500 yen (450 yen in our case because we had a coupon), we got to ride around in a SELF-DRIVING pineapple car. Yes, these cars drove themselves...and they weren't on tracks, either:

On the trail, we saw baby pineapple. Awww, so cute! They said it takes about 2 1/2 years for a pineapple to grow to it's full size. No wonder pineapple is so expensive!

The golden ticket, as I was calling it, also allowed us to walk through a shell museum (why it was there, I haven't a clue), and (the BEST part of it all) have tabe and nomi houdai (all you can eat and drink). We sampled everything from pineapple wines/juices, pineapple flavored cakes and cheeses, and fresh pineapple. Ahhhh! I was in heaven! It was GREAT and I left totally satisfied with pineapple goodness! =)

(Zara made me a pineapple!)

On the way back we watched a fantastic sunset from the car:

 

And we stopped at a cool rock.

Needless to say after 12 hours of exploring Okinawa, we were exhausted. However, we did find enough energy to go check out this really trendy restaurant called Thai Thai. We weren't very hungry, so we just got a few appetizers (mmm spring rolls). The restaurant was so cool -- we had our own little table, separated from the rest. Ana took some good pictures, so if I can get those I will share them with you. We walked back to our hotel through the club guys and went to bed in preparation for our last day in Okinawa. More to come soon!!! =)