Hmmm....feeling bad that people have started to read our blog and its just the teensiest bit not updated...sorry Sam! OK, here's a bit of an update of what we've been up to. Thank you to all our die hard fans! I will deliver.
OK, so the past month or so has been getting hotter and hotter and hotter and not in a cool sexy brand new TV show 'this is hot, hot, hot kinda way'...more in a 'Oh good lord, it is so hot today, let's argue over how expensive our air conditioning bill is gonna be then get cranky as makeup literally drips off my face - I think its time to invest in a strange Japanese invention such as ice pillows - how can these people live in this heat with no deodorant for sale but crazy inventions like adhesive sweat patch thingies (yes, they do work) - how can this city be so hot - why do my students keep saying how much they hate the heat then insist on telling me it's not yet August and it will get worse' kinda way. June was hot and wet. Well, we thought it was hot. But huh! I scoff at myself, fool that I was back in June...I had no idea of the humidity and heat at the time. Fool. July is hot. August is sure to make me cry.
The good thing about summer in Japan is that HEAPS of stuff has been happening. For one, Stef came to visit us on a bargain flight from Australia. We had tons of fun taking her sightseeing and showing her special places and laughing as she tried new foods. We had a lot of fun showing her round, please, anyone keen to, come and visit us, we'll show you a good time! We promise! We went to Kyoto for sightseeing with Stef, took a morning trip to Osaka castle, shopped and shopped and ate fabulous food and had a mad night of Karaoke and bike riding along the river with our lovely neighbours, Nat and Stefan.
Summer is a time of much excitement here. Its far too hot too stay in our apartments so lots of people have been heading down to the river for fireworks and drinks and chats. Its so peaceful...until Cath, a friend from Sydney, lets loose with the fireworks. She is quite the fan of fireworks and is becoming a bit of a pro at setting them off....choreographing exciting shows and so on. Its heaps of fun! For those not in the know, fireworks are VERY popular here and along the riverfront near our apartment has been lit most nights for the past few weeks or so. You can buy them EVERYWHERE here; convenience stores, supermarkets, etc. They're amazing. On August 9th, a HUGE fireworks display happens on the river next to our apartment. Whenever I tell people where I live, they initialli cringe (Juso is known for the red light district...) then say 'How convenient (also known as being a very central transport hub for northern Kansai) then say: 'OH! The fireworks!' The one day redeeming feature of Juso for the Japanese (who don't know or care to understand the beauty that is 'The Juse') is the once a year fireworks display on Yodogawa. People come from all over and the crowd is insane. Lots of market stalls, etc and amazing fireworks for an hour or so with accompanying music on local radios that you can tune in to. Livvy, you'd love it! :) We'll take lots of photos. Our apartment block has a flat, accessible rooftop so we'll be able to have a prime viewing position for the evening...very excited.
We've been planning our Summer vacation recently! How exciting. We tossed and turned over what to do and eventually decided to head to Tokyo, Kamakura and Nikko. Kamakura and Nikko anre closish to Tokyo area and are incredible well known for amazing temples, shrines and natural beauty (ocean, mountains, etc) We're really looking forward to staying in am0ngst the madness of Tokyo city, travelling on the shinkansen (bullet train) and spending time in natural beauty too. I think we've made a great decision. Planning the trip was super hard but now Im really excited! We hve summer break from 7th to 19th august so its coming up fast! We'll head to a baseall game (should be pure madness judging on the crowds I battle with every Thursday night as I head home from work) with friends, then the fireworks are the 9th then we'll head to Tokyo early on the 11th, a monday morning.
Summer here is incredible. There are tons of summer festivals so Japanese girls and guys are dressed to the nines in their summer kimono (yukata)everyday. They look great, and we were lucky enough to give it a go ourselves this week. This week has been yukata week and Ross and i both bought one to wear to our schools, our parties and hopefully to a few festivals too. We love them! At the moment, Gion Matsuri (0ne of two major festivals each year in Japan) is being held in Kyoto, where i work. The big day was today, where massive floats are paraded down the streets of kyoto. Lots of drinking, heat, yukatas and excitement for all. I work on Shijo dori, one of the most famous of Kyoto's streets and very central to this madness but Im becoming such a local...all i can think of is whether Ill get a seat on the train home from work! :)
We headed to Arshiyama in Kyoto a couple of weeks ago to see the cormorant fishing. Its a famous practice in Arashiyama that they've been doing for hundreds of years, where men chant and wave fire and use ropes to weave cormorant birds into the water so they can collect fish. Hard to describe but amazing to watch. It takes place just in Summer here and it was a terrific night, being rowed along the river, surrounded by mountains, watching an incredible traditional display in action. Quite thrilling.........especially the but where we sat in the peace and quiet for a few moments, let in sink in...then were rudely interrupted by a boat chugging up to us selling popcorn, fried octupus and beer!
Last weekend we headed to Wakayama (southern Kansai) to run a kids summer party for ECC Jnr. They pay really well and while it was hot as hell, the kids were great and the party was lots of fun. We have one more this weekend. The money is great but what a relief itll be to have both of our days off back again. Its too hot to do extra work!
Ross' birthday yesterday - lots of fun. I gave him a gorgeous tie by a Japanese designer. I loved going to Hankyu Mens, a major department store here in Umeda (just over the river) and being given the star treatment. A really luxurious shopping experience. I also gave him new fragrance, Australian natural muesli, a tricky puzzle, a little stuffed toy, and some whisky. I think he loved the gifts and had a really nice day. I cooked a special birthday and we went our for a beautiful dinner too at one of our favourite restaurants. We'll be having another celebration on Monday with a Japanese friend of ours who also has her birthday this week. We're heading ino Umeda to the Hankyu rooftop beer garden for drinks and a meal with lots of our friends we've made here. It's really going to be a fun night I think...so nice that we all get Monday off for a public holiday and everyone is keen to catch up and hang out together. Should be fun!
OK, Ill chuck some photos up too and hopefully will get back on soon for another update. Love to all of you treasures! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
The weather here just keeps getting hotter and hotter and it can be hard not letting it get you down. It's really frustrating getting up, showering, dressing, then sweating and feeling like you need to start all over again! About once a week it makes either Ross or I really cranky, but once its out of our system, we feel a lot better. The heat is actually fine when we're not in work clothes! I've mentioned before that even though the heat and humidity is awful, Summer itself is a great season. It's a time when there are loads of festivals and parties and fireworks...lots of topics to talk to boring students about!
We've just had what could be one of the best weekends since coming here, actually. And it's all thanks to summer!
On Friday, we braved the heat to attend 'Tenjin Matsuri', the festival held at Tenjin shrine and the streets around Tenmabashi bridge in Osaka. It is one of three major festivals in city areas in Japan. There is a big festival in Tokyo, another called Gion Matsuri in Kyoto and Tenjin Matsuri here in Osaka. Needless to say, the place was jampacked with people itching to get a look at the procession and the fireworks and even more packed with people wanting to buy snowcones - it seems to be a trend here.
We headed to Tenjin Matsuri with two of our friends (and neighbours) here, Sam and Brent. Sam actually reads my blog (which also makes her my only fan) so 'Hi Sam!'. The festival was about twenty mins by train from our place; but took a bit longer for us cos I forgot the name of the station we were heading to and some train lines in Japan like to call themselves multiple names, in a bid to confuse foreigners. When we arrived we couldn't actually find the festival near the station but in the middle of asking for directions (and waiting for Ross to buy himself refreshments) we caught sight of the parade and Brent chased it down. Initially, all was pretty quiet around the shrine, and we amused ourselves by taking photos of bored teenagers all dressed up for the festival, waiting their turn in the procession. The parade has about 3000 people in it, so there poor guys had a long wait.
Initially the crowd was too big (and in some cases too rude, with a few people having come early and set up step ladders at the front of the crowd so they had the perfect view - and the perfect method of stopping anyone else from any kind of view)for us to see things clearly, but as Sam and I got closer to the action (and the boys got further away, and closer to the beer) we managed to get in front, and sit down. The perfect view of the festival! The procession was awesome - great drumming, amazing shrines, strong men (finally) and beautiful dancing. It was really exciting. I've talked about it often with my students this week and they always ask 'Oh, how were the fireworks?!' when i tell them I attended the festival...which seems odd to me cos the fireworks, in a word, sucked and the festival was colourful ad incredible! Perhaps I'm being too quick to judge the fireworks...they didn't exactly suck but what did suck was not being able to see them for the tall buildings blocking them and not being able to move (unless you count being pushed along by the ever moving, ever 'group conscious' crowd on the bridge....."What's that? Everyone seems to be moving in the same direction over there, I must follow them so I can truly belong." Hmmmmm.....cynical today aren't I?! In any case, I'm really looking forward to our own fireworks that'll be on Yodogawa right by our apartment block in about a week and a half. The area is much more open along the waterfront and we'll have a great view from our roof where we'll have a little party happening too.
On Sunday, Yoshimi and her husband Kei took us out to SSOK, a big outlet department store north of our place where you can buy socks, underwear, shoes, gym stuff etc really cheap if you're a member. It was a good chance to spend time with Yoshimi, pat her preganant stomach and catch up. They took us to an amazing kaiten zushi (sushi train) restaurant afterwards - easily the freshest sushi we've had since coming to Japan. Beautiful, and lots of fun - kaiten zushi resturants tend to be quite quirky - this one had hot water taps and tea making facilities on every table. Lots of fun!
Early on Sunday morning I had heard a ruckus in our neighbourhood, lots of chanting and drumming and so on. The streets near our apartment were blocked off and it was all very odd. I headed out onto our balcony and watched as a shrine was wheeled past our apartment, around the neighbourhood. It was amazing to see something like that right outside the apartment. I figured there would be a festival that day...but i was not prepared for it to be a block from our place that night! We rode our bkes up to the schoolgrounds near our apartment (following the drumming noises!) and came upon this big festival, right in our neighbourhood! There was tons of food and games and dancing and drumming and a guy dancing with a dragon head...really cool. It all got even better about halfway through the night when the food and drinks that had been only 100 yen each started being given away for free...free beer and yakisoba. Awesome.
We also discovered a great little cafe near our place on Sunday. We've walked past it tons of time but never bothered to take a closer look. On Sunday we went to have a good look around the shops there on the riverfront and went in for a drink. Imagine our surprise when we find that its a cafe complete with real expresso machine (a rarity here), real coffee, Australian beer and wine and New Zealand wines...including my favourite Matua Sauv blanc. The wine snob in me is thrilled. The VB lover in Ross is over the moon.
More news later xoxoxoxoxoxo
