Kino no shoppingu!

Yesterday, my friends Aja and Maya took me and Sean to a big shopping mall called Aeon. We took the bus, and holy shit, the bus driver was funny. I`m still laughing about it now. But its a Japanese language thing, so I can`t really explain. Ask me about it person... Onegaishmaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu....

Anyway, heres some pics form yesterdays shopping!

Yes Debra, those are Rilakkuma sweat shorts!!!! Cute huh!

Its weird, certain things are hugely popular over here, like Nightmare Before Christmas and Lilo and Stitch... not sure why!

And yes Debra, that is Pokemon Ramune!

I bought 2 CD`s which was a silly thing today considering Studylink are fucking me around something cronic, but I couldn`t help myself. I actually had 4 but made myself put back 2. Hows that for control!?!?!

Then after a hard days shopping, I came home to this!!! YUSS!

Fieldtrip! (Part 2 - Yanagawa)

Holy crap! Just had dinner and it was so delicious I forgot to take a photo of it!! Tofu steak! Oishikatta!!

Anyway, back to today....

The second place we visited was a town called Yanagawa. It is a town with HEAPS of canals runnign everywhere... it was extremely beautiful to say the least. Here are but a few of the pics I took...

Here are Chin (from China) and Pen (from Vietnam) from my class!

Here are EXTREMELY delicious looking, EXTREMELY massive strawberries.... I didnt buy any though cause they were like 650 yen, which is like $13 with the extchange rate as terrible is it is.

Pic of a canal from the street.

I think this was a temple of sorts... not sure. Actually, don`t think so haha. But it was a lovely building all the same.

This was definately a temple... so beautiful. Looked VERY old.

Here are Pen, Colleen, Chin, Wei (I hope I got your name right!) and Mai all from my class!

Check out this naughty guy!!! He is a Kappa. So cool! I`m such a nerd!

This is an unagi (eel) restaurant... Yanagawa is very famous for its eel... but I wasn`t about to find out haha

Tanukis!

THEN! We got to ride on a canal boat, or donko-bune... It was so awesome. They had kotatsu (little tables covered with thick blankets, which usually have a heater underneath) on the boats, it was so cozy! Also, the weather completely fined up for us too!

Here was the guy steering the boat (I know thats not the right term, can`t think of the word... ponting? Ponter? haha)... he was hardcase and really nice too... every now and then he would say (in Japanese) "Who wants to hear a song about...", then we would clap, and he would bust into song. He was seriously amazing... his voice was beautiful. Sounded like a lot or singing from old Japanese and Chinese movies... hahah, but you know the old man kinda voice, voice breaking singing... hmmm.. don`t think I can explain. Well Mum, you will know what i`m talking about. Anyway, long story short, he was awesome.

On the boat...

Jesus. No comment.

Me and Sean... god I look like a cheesey bastard.

Here is me and.. uh... Anmei (?) from Mongolia. Too many names to remember! Gomen! She is really nice. PS I can`t believe I pull faces like this...

We went under quite a few bridges which was cool.

I took about a million photos of trees and sky, so just imagine this times about a hundred.

It really was such a pretty place.

Again.. this guy was THE man. Here he is mid song.

Some of the bridges were REAL low. Exciting stuff.

Haha ran out of steam, hence the no comments for the last buncha photos... i`m bushed! I`m going to bed! Ja ne!

Fieldtrip! (Part 1 - Yane)

Ok... phew!!

Had an AMAZING day today! We went on a field trip to Yane and Yanagawa with both mine and Sean`s class from Universty. it was really cool, I got to know a lot of my classmates and had a REALLY good time.

Firstly, Yane... Now I took almost 200 pics today, so its gonna take me a while to sort through them and then blog... ganbaru!! I will only put a selection of pics up, when I get home I can show you all the whole lot!

Yane is a town (is it a town?) or a place anyway, where there is a very old paper making facility that has been then for hundreds of years. Here is a photo outside.. As you can see (or actually maybe you can`t haha) the weather wasn`t the best early on in the day...

We were lucky enough to get to make paper ourselves!! We had the choice between making a placemat, bookmarks or postcards. I went with bookmarks!

Firstly we got given a tray and had to swish it through these throughs filled with water and paper pulp. Then After thatm we had to select a bunch of stuff to decorate the paper - there were pressed flowers, leaves, all kinds of bits and pieces..

Then we had to decorate the paper... here is Sean!

Here is Mai, a Vietnamese girl from my class, designing her paper!

Here are my designs haha, actually quite lame. Some peoples totally blew me away, they were seriously hardout! My hands shake too much haha

Then they covered the paper in a cloth and dried it over this blower... here is me drying mine!

All the staff there were SO NICE. Here is a nice old man who is brushing the paper flat, and then heating the paper is dry it completely.

Here is everyone working hard!



And here is the finished product! Pretty cute!! Was heaps of fun to make too!

Here is a cute guy who was hanging out the front!

We were then taken on a short tour around the city which seemed steeped in history.

We were then taken into this very old house, somethign akin to an Ocha (or Green Tea) museum. The house was VERY traditonal and very old, my head touched the ceiling in parts because Japanese people used to be even smaller than they are now!!

Here is me with Chin, form China and Colleen from Fiji! Colleen is actually a nurse and has been practicing for almost 20 years. She told me some amazing stories about her nursing experiences as she has worked on remote islands off Fiji and in Africa too (Debra, remind me to tell you about them!)

Here`s some dickhead gaijin out the front.

Here is this creepy as abandoned place we walked past, doesn`t look so creepy in the pic, but it was really awesome!

PHEW! Ok, on to part 2!