Blogs from Hyogo, Japan, Asia - page 14

It's Golden Week in Japan, which means most of the country is enjoying a much deservd break from school and work, myself included. Golden Week is a series of national holidays strung togther. Japan is quite legendary for its national holidays, a few days ago was 'Greenery Day', yesterday was Constituition Day and tomorrow is Children's Day. In anticipation of Children's Day many households are flying large paper streamers of carp fish, which are meant to symbolize strength and prosperity for male children.So far nobody's been able to tell me how, or if, female children are celebrated on Children's Day. Golden Week did provide me with my first opportunity to travel around Japan for an extended period of time. My adventures began last Saturday when I decided, perhaps foolishly, that the first day of Golden Week ... read more

Greetings from Kobe, where its actually starting to feel a lot like spring. I´ve already been told by several other teachers that I´ll regret wishing these cool temperatures away once the humid South Asian heat settles in for the summer months, but right now I am enjoy the mild temps and beautiful sunshine. My ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) lessons started last Monday and although I´ve only made one arrangement to date I really am enjoying it. If I can´t find a communications gig when I get home I might just open up an ikebana shop, seems to be an untaped market right now in Eastern Ontario. I am also getting use to all my kids classes. The little kids are so adorable, that I am not sure who has more fun in the classes them or ... read more

Hi Everyone, This past week was a whirlwind of activity here in Kobe. I was very fortunate to have a visitor from home. My friend Leigh came to Japan for six days. So little time and so much to do!!! We visited several beautiful Japanese style gardens, complete with ponds, pretty fish and bonsei trees galore! Between Chinatown, the harbourfront and a lot of incredible shopping there was a lot for Leigh to see in Kobe. On Friday, we dined on sushi. I love the shrimp sushi, and I tried octopus too, but it was a little too chewy for my liking! Afterwards we headed to meet my friend Etsuco who was kind enough to treat us to an ikebana fair. Ikebana is Japanese flower arranging, and as we learned from the large crowd, really, really ... read more

After being templed out in Kyoto we decided to take in some other of Japans famed sights. First on the list was Himeji Jo Castle. Himeji Jo is universally aclaimed as the most splendid Japanese castle still standing. It has a stately white form with a 5 storey main donjon (heavily fortified central tower) and three smaller donjons. The entire structure is surrounded by moats and defensive walls punctuted with rectangular and triangular openings for firing guns and shooting arrows. So, as far as castles go, it was kind of cool. It had a real gothicy feel about it and reminded me of the castle in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This time of year, of course, the whole place is dripping with cherry blossom, which adds something to beuaty of and already very impressive building. Not ... read more

It was great!... read more