Three light ups and a baby...

December began with the highly anticipated arrival of Rumi's (tiny) baby 'Cocomi'. Rumi waited through the end of November and ended up being induced in the most beautiful, lacy, floral women's clinic (with the most fabulous desserts I've ever seen) on the first of December. We had the chance to head out towards Minoh to visit the tiny little darling and her mother. Cocomi is lovely. We wish the whole family well. :) xoxo December has also been ful of ample opportunities to see 'Lightups'. In Japan, fireworks and light ups seem to be very popular, the former take place in the heat of summer while the latter are all about Christmas and the New Year. What's so special about a 'light up'? Well, thousands of Japanese people (and foolish foreigners who are willing to put up with crowds) load onto trains and head to specific areas which are lit up with all sorts of things - Christmas lights, handmade lanterns, golden archways flown in from France to commemorate the rebuilding of Kobe post Earthquake..... The lightups are gorgeous and crowded and usually worth the trip - though the Nakanoshima ones were a little disappointing, especially since I couldn't get the timing right on the camera to catch that special aqua light that kept flashing on. :) I got a little obsessive. So, in December we started with Illuminarie, which I was lucky enough to go to with Yoshimi ten years ago on my first Japan trip, and desperately wanted to take Ross to. We took KJ and Rachel too and despite awful weather during the night, we were treated to a rain free evening, depleted crowds and awesome coffee and biscuits. The second light up we went to was in Arashiyama. We've been to Arashiyama a few times now; it's a beautiful area of riverside country town in Kyoto, just out of the city. The last time we visited was with Brent and Sam and on that occasion we specifically waited until nightfall so we could see the Bamboo forest lit up, as we'd seen on lots of posters and postcards. Unfortunately, we discovered that the forest isn't actually lit up on a regular basis. Unlucky for Sam and Brent but lucky for us, we read that the Bamboo Forest and surrounding streets of Arashiyama were to be lit up in December. So we headed there, in memory of Sam and Brent. :) The streets were lined with handmade lanterns (s0me better than others, though I'm going to try not to be critical since i think they were made by local Primary school students) and the forest itself was lit with both white/purpley lights and normal lighting so it had a natural and also an eery glow. It was breathtakingly beautiful. On posters advertising the light up it had said the event would take place until 8.30...midway through the forest I mused 'How do you think they end an event like this?' and I got my answer when right on 8/30 they simply switched off all the lighting in the forest and left us all, deep in the forest in pitch black darkness. It was hilarious, especially with the young women screaming all around us! The third light up was in Nakanoshima area, where Yoshimi lives and came strongly recommended by her. Basically, Nakanoshima is a central business area so wealthy companies sponsored Christmas lights to flash and look pretty and a boat lit up to look like Santa and a sleigh with reindeer to cruise the harbour area. When we were paid a visit in Osaka by the lovely Bex and Matt Ooi, we took them out for the day in Osaka, ate good local food, played Pachinko (a long awaited dream) and took in the lights.