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
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
1 comment:
i am highly anticipating the blog about 'the biwa-ko experience'
;)
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