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Blogs from Yamaguchi, Japan, Asia
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The End...The Beginning and So It Goes
Published: September 30th 2011Asia » Japan » Yamaguchi » Shimonoseki
July 24th 2011
After 3 WONDERFUL years in Japan, it was time to leave home and start a new adventure. It was much harder than I ever imagined it would, and that is when I realised how much EVERYONE there meant to me. I arrived as a stranger, but left as a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, a friend, a teacher, and a J-walking highly respected member of society. I left home!... read more
June 1st 2011
I’ve had weird, vivid dreams each night. Reminders of how much I miss everyone back home, I suppose. Yesterday we went to an elementary school in northern Japan. The school was made of a big white building that didn’t look like American schools. We met the principal and his staff. They made cubicles in one of the classrooms as their new office, since the original one was on the first floor and destroyed by the tsunami. Fukiko and the principal talked a lot. Everyone was very nice. Half way through the discussion Fukiko told me the principal said the police came and he needed to leave, to distinguish a child's body they found. That felt strange to hear, to feel, to witness. It was even stranger that after he left, we ate lunch with the staff ... read more
October 21st 2008
Hagi City is a island city just off the Honshu mainland in South-West area of Japan. It is probably best known for its fine pottery and ancient kilns that are still running. A very picturesque place that is a hot spot for romantic getaways - unfortunately I went with my friend Ryan instead of my girlfriend. Well we arrived in Hagi after quite a long train ride from Tsuwano, about three hours. The train went along the coast after Hamada city and the views were a real spectacle. It was a really nice sunny day and we turned up at Hagi station with no real clue what the place was going to be like. We took a taxi and asked to go to a hotel near the beach as a day of relaxation on the beach ... read more
Kechigan and Orei-Mairi (or, i did it!)
Published: October 5th 2008Asia » Japan » Yamaguchi » Shimonoseki
September 17th 2008
For an hour and a half I walked through the outskirts of Takamatsu, to the pling-pling-pling of railway crossings with their barriers down, and passed pachinko parlours, schools, and heaps of rubbish, waiting to be collected and stinking the streets out meanwhile. I was heading for the Yashima plateau, the mini Table Mountain I'd been seeing from my Takamatsu hotel room and trying to ignore. Temple 84, Yashimaji, is on top of it, and its also well known as the site of a great 12 century battle, the Genpei War. The path up to the top was steep and quite busy with locals getting some early morning exercise. There was mist at the top, and the temple had a red hondo (main hall) with peeling paint; I liked that about it. In front of it, an ... read more
August 28th 2008
Czas sie powoli konczy, a ja wciaz na Honshu. prawie. Czas na Shimonoseki-miasto polozone na 2 wyspach, laczy Honshu z Kyushu. Nastepne male miasto, odpowiednie aby sie zrelaksowac, odpoczac od natloku turystow. Miasto portowe, z ktorego mozna poplynac do Chin i do Korei. A jak to w miastach portowych jest tu pelno rozrywek, glownie jednego typu. Ja jednak przyjechalam, aby zobaczyc gielde rybna i na najswiezsze sashimi(surowe mieso ryby z sosem sojowym i z wasabi(wasabi=chrzan, wiec w moim przypadku bez), jakie tylko mozna dostac. Gielda zaczyna sie ok 3rano, wiec nie bylo sensu zebym szla do hotelu i jak zwykle liczylam na internet cafe. I przeszlam cale miasto w poszukiwanie, aby sie dowiedziec, ze w Shimonoseki nie ma zadnej cafejki internetowej. jako ze to bylo pierwsze miasto, w ktorym mialo jej nie byc, nie wierzylam i ... read more
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May 31st 2008
I have decided that this is too important a topic to miss, that of the TORENDI Japanese. They have the best hair cuts, and I have noticed so many beauty salons and barbers I figure there is a bit of vanity or image consciousness about. But they look so good it must work! I have not seen an overweight japanese person. They are very funky and well dressed at all ages. I have seen a lot of girls hoiking their skirts up like every girls does once, but they do it so much better than I could, with haircut and shoes to match! The women are immaculately dressed, made up, and make my practical kathmandu kiwi dress with valuables pouch look positively dowdy. The males are very talented here too, they can clean loos, and beaches. ... read more
March 14th 2008
Section 3 Later that day we continued our trip south via the JR Sanin Honsen line via Masuda where we changed trains to Nagato and finally said goodbye to the JR Sanin Honsen line that had brought us all the way from Kyoto. The scenery from the train was still very dramatic when the train passed close by the sea. From Nagato we took the bus to finally arrive in Tawarayama Onsen which had been the main target for us. It is virtually unknown onsen town, a backwater literally, with great baths and nice ryokan. I had the feeling that not many foreigners had preceded me here as people would stop to look and an old man almost fell off the roof trying to catch a glimpse of us. This had also a drawback as they ... read more
July 12th 2007
As I had time on my hands having left TAO, the previous farm, early I decided to spend the week meandering up the country to my next farm location. My stop over points were Kumamoto and Nagasaki (both on Kyushu island) and Yamaguchi, Nikko & Morioka (all Honshu island). You'll find a random selection of photos, including some taken at TAO, after this little story...... I found a really quaint ryokan (Japanese style inn) in Yamaguchi. I was fed up with the lonely existence in Business Hotels. Remember "Lost in Translation"? My room in the ryokan was a spacious tatami (reed matting) floor with paper screens; so much more character even if it was rather ancient (see photo below). But along with the 'character' comes other 'charms' such as the cockroach who visited me last ... read more
April 30th 2007
Wahooo its vacation time!!!! After finishing a ten day teaching stretch Brittany and I are now officially on vacation!!! And this is going to be one heck of a vaction! We are heading to Japan!! Becuase Japan is the most expensive country to travel in ( says the lonely planet guide ) we were a little hesitant to decide to travel there but becuase I would rather walk than fly, Japan was the perfect country to visit. We decided to take the Orient ferry which turned out to be a fraction of what a flight ticket would be and actually be an excellent experience. Being a Saskatchewan boy I had never been surrounded completely by water and had always thought it would bother me but it actually didn't bother me at all! We arrived to the ... read more
November 8th 2006
"A lot of people don't know where I'm from" she goes on and on in Chinese. "I knew where you were from in the beginning. You want to know how? You look Asian and you talk someone's ear off in Chinese, therefore you have to be Chinese. They are the only ones who talk so damn much!" I want to tell her but don't. I suppose I'm probably having some form of culture shock going back to all the Chinese. Japanese people don't talk to you unless you ask them for something and then they're generally super sweet but don't ask you too many personal things. "You might want to watch your fly" she says to me around 3 other women. Yes, I know you're Chinese now. I'm not quite used to all the talking, maybe ... read more
