So I'm addicated to Onigiri, Inari and Superfreaks..

---

Wow, Tokyo has everything, seriously! I haven't posted for a while and I'm finding a bit difficult to keep up with all the details of my trip here in Japan, it's a bloody amazing place! So most recently in Kyoto I went to two festivals on my last day there, the Jidai Matsuri which was a parade celebrating Kyotos history, alot of awesome old traditional costumes, some older ladies befriended me and shared their sweets with me and I talked (more listened actually) about how beautiful the costumes were. I got tired of sitting watching the parade (a very christmas pageant affair) and buggered off to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. That was sweet with three floors of manga library material for borrowing although I couldn't read any of it so I just looked at some old magazines and artwork on display. Suge!!! Later that night I travelled half an hour (sardine style on the train and back) to Kurama, it's a misty mountainside town and this particular day the whole of Kyoto and surrounds had come to celebrate the fire festival happening there. I was sore and tired from the long day so firstly I walked to the east side of town and went to soak in the outside onsen (natural hot spring) with a bunch of other relaxing naked ladies. It was magical. Later during the festival I met a group of young women who are studying Japanese culture at college outside Osaka. They were three women from Finland, one from Alabama and one from Seattle. We ended up in downtown Kyoto at a cheap sushi train before I bussed it back one my one day bus pass to Uronza Guesthouse ready to leave the next day. Next day I took a train and another train and another train from Kyoto and ended up in Inuyama, a small town i read about in the not-as-helpful-as-everyone-makes-it-out-to-be Lonely Planet. I stopped in a tiny restaurant and ate some Japanese curry and other bibs and bobs this kind old lady made for me, she showed me these longggg potatoes and I sampled them before heading off to Inuyama-Jo, Inuyama castle. It's the oldest castle in Japan and remains in its original state whereas alot of castles have been burnt down or damaged and replicated. Briefly looked at the Edo period puppet museum which was cool and then took a train to Gankuden and walked for half an hour - met up with an old guy on the way who walks 3 hours most days for exercise - He walked me half way to the Oagata-Jinja, a shrine for women to pray for marriage, fertility, healthy birth and such other things. It was peaceful there and I crawled through the stone "lucky tunnel" to improve my femininity or something like that haha. After a long walk back, past Percimen orchards and rice patties, back to Inuyama to take the train to Nagoya and stopover for one night before Going to Shizuoka to meet Kei the next day. I shared an expensive room with An african american woman Tashima, we talked all sorts -politics, music and art and various travel stories. It was great to meet and chat with another woman after so many days of solo travelling.. and another girl from Cottesloe, who went to PLC. We took a bath and I went to sleep only to wake up at 5am (I was very proud of my organisation and time management) to take a 4 hour bus ride to Shizuoka. I slept most of the way.

Yay, finally I met up with Kei, my friend (japanese) of 4 years who I met in Australia when I was canvassing in the street for TWS but to my disappointment he didn't have an afro anymore! Anyway, so he met me at the station in his home town of Hara, in Shizuoka prefecture and we went to the beach and caught up a little eating japanese sweets and TALKING. By the way, when we met 4 years ago he couldn't speak english, and now he has a great aussie accent, says "mate" alot and is turning into a bit of a smartarse actually haha. That's what you get from learning english in Australia and New Zealand! We cruised around in the car listening to reggae and he took me to a natural spring that flows from Mt Fuji. It was specTACULAR. We drank the water that melts from the snow caps of Mt Fuji and flows down through the springs. Yum! That night I stayed with his family and his mum put on a HUGE spread, it was great trying a traditional japanese meal, we had some sashimi (raw fish) some stewed potatoe things and squid, a huge vegetable and seafood soup and some other tidbits. After a restful sleep and another huge meal the next day we drove to Izu Hanto, a peninsula off the Honshu coast. It was magical, lots of cliffs, some apparently formed by lava. We went for a few walks, ate some superb Udon and found a quaint guesthouse for the night. We jammed and went to the beach led by moonlight, just how I like it at home, it's been great meeting up with Kei. Now that we can speak english we have a really different friendship, and share a deeper understanding of the world, music, people, and life in general than I thought! We really enjoy and appreciate spending time together after so many years of emailing!

Breakfast at the beach before driving through the mountains on our way back to Shizuoka. Alot of melodica, mist and wasabi farms brought us to Joren Waterfall where we walked around in the autumn leaves and speculated at all the wasabi and also sampled some of the leaves. Spicy! That night another HUGE dinner and Kei's high school friend came round and we went to the beach and let off fireworks. I felt about 5 years old and it was great fun. All of Keis friend make a big fuss over me, I guess he's told them alot about me. Sometimes I find it a bit much but meeting so many local (and excited) people is great.

Anyway, too much relaxing, off to Tokyo!! The day we arrived Tokyo had a typhoon coming! It was raining and cold and we planned to go to a festival but instead about 12 of us (japanese and me) huddled into an organic cafe soggy and freezing to wait out the rain. Which didn't stop. So, eventually like wet dogs we trekked back to Nobu's house, Keis ex-workmate. She's 21 and currently documenting a punk band and part time working at a Manga Cafe. That night we had a Hayao Miyazaki marathon with some of the other people we'd met that day. I met a fascinating guy Kotaro, who is really into Permaculture. I told him to come back to Perth! He and his girlfriend play Mbira together and they jammed a few songs for us, angelic. I showed them some of the music I'd made on the computer and they liked the concept. Tonight we will stay at Kotaros house..

Kei took me to Yoyogi Park for day two of the festival "Earth Garden". So many japanese hippies, with babies in funky clothing, drum circles, beanies and felting. It was insane. The vibes were so good and so powerful and all the people so beautiful I nearly fell over. Kei kept telling me "Calm down mate!" ahaha. I bought some hemp twine for my Asia tour scarf and watched a didgeridoo, bass guitar and djembe band for a while before munching on some organic carrots. The day was fantastic but it didn't stop there. We got to check out some of the Cos-Play - young kids dressing up in all sorts of gothic and outlandish costumes with way too much makeup. It was jaw dropping. Some actually looked a bit scary but the vibe was fun and they meet every weekend to pose for photos and hang out. We walked down one wide street just filled with busker after busker, a little difficult to hear their each of theis stylex of music because they were so close together! and then more sushi trains! after that a squeeze through the crowds in Shibuya, famous area for cos-play and tokyo renown neon madness and huge plasma screens to get back home to Nobus house.

Yesterday we visited the old town of Asakusa and the beautiful Sensoji temple. We walked around the old town and sampled some local and very interesting foods and even found a Hiyao Miyazaki store where I bought way too much stuff! I was a little put off by the storemans constant staring at me (which, even in Australia can get a bit much sometimes) so we walked down to the river and watched some guy pumicing his feets on the pillars. Interesting. Lots of homeless people down there under the bridge and Kei jammed with one guy who played a metal tin - very well actually, he said he's been playing, or busking im not sure, for 30 years! - and a harmonica hoooked up to a microphone through a little stereo. Kei told him about my recent junk percussion experiences and then we walked off to eat, past more homeless people sweeping their front porches and cats galore. We ate some more Okonimiake and did a little shopping before training it to Tokyo tower to take in the view over the city. We thought it was a bit expensive and overrated to go to the top of the tower so we went to a slightly (pfft tokyo tower is HUGE) smaller building where it was quiet and just had office workers moving in and out of elevators - we talked some more while overlooking the busy city on the other side of the glass.

Not much in between then and now! Except that we've just had a huge breakfast, i love Japanese breakfasts, it's always a combination of dishes and thanking the respected spirits and lives provided for the food and good eating! Kei has just manually blended some bananas and yoghurt and theres smoothies and reggae all round. We've just signed up for WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms) in Japan and are hoping to get some work for a few weeks at an Aigamo duck rice pattie in Kyushu after Kyoto. Yep, going there again, because Kyoto is awesome and I want to meet with Ami again and see the autumn leaves in full effect!. Oh the Aigamo ducks eat the insects in the rice patties and keep the place healthy for good rice production. Sounds like interesting work and a good chance to exeperience more of Japan.

So, I'm eating way too much Inari (sweet tofu pockets with rice inside) laughing and listening to way too much reggae with Kei-san and Nobue! Today, Tokyo Photography museum and more jamming. Japan's great!

---