It was wonderful (way back in September and October, mind you) to have visits from home. First Liv and Jus arrived, exhausted and full of stories from their world trip and bunked at our place on the tatami floor for about week. It was really special to have them here to share part of our experience here. Japan is a pretty confronting place for some people, and in some ways is a difficult place to visit - culture shock is pretty inevitable in most cases; but both girls really embraced Japan; taking tons of photos, letting cats lick their hands despite severe allergies (thank you Jus), eating fried Maple leaves, meeting our friends here, trying 'chuhi' girlie drinks, shopping in the most polite department stores in the world, and for the most part, marvelling at the fabulous food. They survived Japan...except Justine who collapsed on our bathroom floor one night, dead as a doornail. Ok, not dead. Just sick but man, she looked dead! Imagine our surprise as we enter the apartment after a night of karaoke, still singing the last lines of 'Love Shack' only to find Justine collapsed on the floor of the apartment. Truly frightening! She hadn't been feeling great (and is a bit sick still now I think) but recovered enough to head to Tokyo then home to Australia the following day.
We took the girls to several sightseeing spots in Minoh, Kyoto and Osaka (then repeated the stock standard Japan tour for Ross' parents when they arrived a week later!). We headed to Fushimi Inari, where we fully embraced the beauty of the location...and the excellent dried fruit stand. We headed to Kiyomizudera where we fully appreciated the beautiful greenery and majestic view...and tourist stores leading up to it. :) It was great to go touristy shopping with Liv, as she and I have a long and very productive history of Information booth and tourist shop purchases. She proudly showed me her world magnet collection whilst here, gingerly laying each piece of fabuolousness down on the tatami for us to ooh and ahh over.
I took the girls for a day out walking in Minoh where Liv added photos to her 'Cat World Tour' collection and poor Justine was befriended by a man who placed a cat on her knee (not so bad since Justine's most severe cat allergies are to their saliva) and then promptly poured cat food on her hand (whoops. Stupid old man.) We loved our meander through Minoh, particularly the loopy old (possibly drunk) man by the chestnut stand who told us repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that we were 'vigorous' and not to be misunderstood 'full of vigour'. When he pronounced us vigorous (each time) he sort of gasped and giggled and shook a little. Difficult to explain. A pleasure to impersonate. Laughingly, I met the same man again a week later with Ross and his parents in tow. At that time he threw a live mountain mud crab at me, called me vigorous (of course, it's obvious) and trundled off again. More on their trip later. Liv, Jus and I completed our girly day with some good old fashioned naked bathing at Minoh Hot Spring. Not the most glamourous of hot springs, it makes up for a lack of serenity and tradition with neon lights and its prime position in an old shopping mall type building. The extremely frightening circus music mixed with clownlike laughter on the floor above is something that must be seen to be believed. The 'getting naked' experience was quite hysterical as it was a first hot spring experience for all of us. My Japanese students often remark on the strangeness of seeing westerners at hot springs, and now I know why. From the moment we purchased our tickets and were issued our 'mini towels' (which we later took as souvenirs) we were giggling and shaking nervously. We giggled and nervously shook our way through undressing (and accidentally locking our stuff in a locker and needing an additional 100 yen to retrieve it), we giggled and shook our way through our 'inspection of the hot spring' (research to figure out exactly how you go about 'bathing' - there are always rules for these things in Japan), which we couldn't do for too long since as we surveyed the pools, a good 50 naked Japanese women surveyed us. We plucked up the courage to bathe, figured out the system vaguely and with the help of a Japanese woman who kept nodding and encouraging Liv, we washed and showered, submerged ourselves in the communal baths, got massages from a blasting water pipe then sat outside in the more natural hot spring setting.
My friend Natalie took the girls out for a day of shopping in Umeda and Shinsaibashi, where Im sure they were as overwhelmed as I become every time I go there. Shopping in Japan is insane because everything is huge and full of 'stuff' to buy. Exciting and convenient and overwhelming. They bought some cute stuff, and of course, Liv bought candy! I have been waiting for Liv to experience Japan's candy collection all year.
We took the girls out for several good meals at our favourite places, ended the trip with Justine's collapse and a night of EXCELLENT karaoke in the promised leopard print room and thoroughly enjoyed the company. Thanks for coming girls, and SORRY I was sick!
Ross' parents, Nola and David arrived in Osaka the same day that Jus and Liv headed to Tokyo. They left in a taxi and I pretty much got on my bike and headed to the station to catch a train to the very closeby Itami Airport. I met Nola and David at the airport (I love airports and was able to buy my favourite gum here which had become obsolete, 'Dragonfruit flavour gum' so all in all a satisfying trip) and took them by monorail (so cool) and train back to our place where we spent time together and saw Ross
briefly before heading to work. I had taken time off to spend with Jus and Liv sand likewise Ross was to take a day off for Nola and David, but with working and having visitors, it was often a bit like that! We loved showing Nola and David Japan because they were such enthusiastic and eager and appreciative travellers! They were interested in everything (including my lengthy tour guide explanations of things) and I loved sharing time with them here. Nola and David's time in Japan was long, they stayed with us for a few days then headed to the world fsmous Takayama festival then onto Nagasaki to visit an old family friend then to Hiroshima and Miyajima then back to Osaka! Whew! Tiring but exciting and what a trip - their photos look amazing. In their time with us, we took them hiking at into Minoh to Fushimi Inari and Kiyomizudera and Ross took them out to Nara to visit beautiful gardens and the majestic Giant Buddha and Todaiji Temple grounds. They also headed to Kyoto for the day themselves (and experienced the horror that is the Kyoto Bus system). I have spoken at length with a student about the Kyoto bus system and how overcrowded and slow and unreliable it is, and essentially the problem is that the Kyoto prefecture government wants to build a world class subway system but every time they dig, they find something ancient and important. How devastating! :) I particularly loved taking Nola and David to meals - they loved the izakaya style Japanese pub dining, our favourite Italian place and our favourite Okonomiyaki 'dive' of a place on our street corner. It was wonderful to have them. I particularly loved souvenir shopping with Nola and it was wonderful to hear David rave about Japanese food. It was really great to hear how much they loved their tour of Japan. Again, sorry I was SICK!
It was wonderful (way back in September and October, mind you) to have visits from home. First Liv and Jus arrived, exhausted and full of stories from their world trip and bunked at our place on the tatami floor for about week. It was really special to have them here to share part of our experience here. Japan is a pretty confronting place for some people, and in some ways is a difficult place to visit - culture shock is pretty inevitable in most cases; but both girls really embraced Japan; taking tons of photos, letting cats lick their hands despite severe allergies (thank you Jus), eating fried Maple leaves, meeting our friends here, trying 'chuhi' girlie drinks, shopping in the most polite department stores in the world, and for the most part, marvelling at the fabulous food. They survived Japan...except Justine who collapsed on our bathroom floor one night, dead as a doornail. Ok, not dead. Just sick but man, she looked dead! Imagine our surprise as we enter the apartment after a night of karaoke, still singing the last lines of 'Love Shack' only to find Justine collapsed on the floor of the apartment. Truly frightening! She hadn't been feeling great (and is a bit sick still now I think) but recovered enough to head to Tokyo then home to Australia the following day.
We took the girls to several sightseeing spots in Minoh, Kyoto and Osaka (then repeated the stock standard Japan tour for Ross' parents when they arrived a week later!). We headed to Fushimi Inari, where we fully embraced the beauty of the location...and the excellent dried fruit stand. We headed to Kiyomizudera where we fully appreciated the beautiful greenery and majestic view...and tourist stores leading up to it. :) It was great to go touristy shopping with Liv, as she and I have a long and very productive history of Information booth and tourist shop purchases. She proudly showed me her world magnet collection whilst here, gingerly laying each piece of fabuolousness down on the tatami for us to ooh and ahh over.
I took the girls for a day out walking in Minoh where Liv added photos to her 'Cat World Tour' collection and poor Justine was befriended by a man who placed a cat on her knee (not so bad since Justine's most severe cat allergies are to their saliva) and then promptly poured cat food on her hand (whoops. Stupid old man.) We loved our meander through Minoh, particularly the loopy old (possibly drunk) man by the chestnut stand who told us repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that we were 'vigorous' and not to be misunderstood 'full of vigour'. When he pronounced us vigorous (each time) he sort of gasped and giggled and shook a little. Difficult to explain. A pleasure to impersonate. Laughingly, I met the same man again a week later with Ross and his parents in tow. At that time he threw a live mountain mud crab at me, called me vigorous (of course, it's obvious) and trundled off again. More on their trip later. Liv, Jus and I completed our girly day with some good old fashioned naked bathing at Minoh Hot Spring. Not the most glamourous of hot springs, it makes up for a lack of serenity and tradition with neon lights and its prime position in an old shopping mall type building. The extremely frightening circus music mixed with clownlike laughter on the floor above is something that must be seen to be believed. The 'getting naked' experience was quite hysterical as it was a first hot spring experience for all of us. My Japanese students often remark on the strangeness of seeing westerners at hot springs, and now I know why. From the moment we purchased our tickets and were issued our 'mini towels' (which we later took as souvenirs) we were giggling and shaking nervously. We giggled and nervously shook our way through undressing (and accidentally locking our stuff in a locker and needing an additional 100 yen to retrieve it), we giggled and shook our way through our 'inspection of the hot spring' (research to figure out exactly how you go about 'bathing' - there are always rules for these things in Japan), which we couldn't do for too long since as we surveyed the pools, a good 50 naked Japanese women surveyed us. We plucked up the courage to bathe, figured out the system vaguely and with the help of a Japanese woman who kept nodding and encouraging Liv, we washed and showered, submerged ourselves in the communal baths, got massages from a blasting water pipe then sat outside in the more natural hot spring setting.
My friend Natalie took the girls out for a day of shopping in Umeda and Shinsaibashi, where Im sure they were as overwhelmed as I become every time I go there. Shopping in Japan is insane because everything is huge and full of 'stuff' to buy. Exciting and convenient and overwhelming. They bought some cute stuff, and of course, Liv bought candy! I have been waiting for Liv to experience Japan's candy collection all year.
We took the girls out for several good meals at our favourite places, ended the trip with Justine's collapse and a night of EXCELLENT karaoke in the promised leopard print room and thoroughly enjoyed the company. Thanks for coming girls, and SORRY I was sick!
Ross' parents, Nola and David arrived in Osaka the same day that Jus and Liv headed to Tokyo. They left in a taxi and I pretty much got on my bike and headed to the station to catch a train to the very closeby Itami Airport. I met Nola and David at the airport (I love airports and was able to buy my favourite gum here which had become obsolete, 'Dragonfruit flavour gum' so all in all a satisfying trip) and took them by monorail (so cool) and train back to our place where we spent time together and saw Ross briefly before heading to work. I had taken time off to spend with Jus and Liv sand likewise Ross was to take a day off for Nola and David, but with working and having visitors, it was often a bit like that! We loved showing Nola and David Japan because they were such enthusiastic and eager and appreciative travellers! They were interested in everything (including my lengthy tour guide explanations of things) and I loved sharing time with them here. Nola and David's time in Japan was long, they stayed with us for a few days then headed to the world fsmous Takayama festival then onto Nagasaki to visit an old family friend then to Hiroshima and Miyajima then back to Osaka! Whew! Tiring but exciting and what a trip - their photos look amazing. In their time with us, we took them hiking at into Minoh to Fushimi Inari and Kiyomizudera and Ross took them out to Nara to visit beautiful gardens and the majestic Giant Buddha and Todaiji Temple grounds. They also headed to Kyoto for the day themselves (and experienced the horror that is the Kyoto Bus system). I have spoken at length with a student about the Kyoto bus system and how overcrowded and slow and unreliable it is, and essentially the problem is that the Kyoto prefecture government wants to build a world class subway system but every time they dig, they find something ancient and important. How devastating! :) I particularly loved taking Nola and David to meals - they loved the izakaya style Japanese pub dining, our favourite Italian place and our favourite Okonomiyaki 'dive' of a place on our street corner. It was wonderful to have them. I particularly loved souvenir shopping with Nola and it was wonderful to hear David rave about Japanese food. It was really great to hear how much they loved their tour of Japan. Again, sorry I was SICK!
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