TravelBlog » SaRaHinJAPAN

SaRaHinJAPAN - Sarah Jackson

I’m a 24yr old Brisbane Chick heading to the BIG SMOKE...actually not really, but I am taking the plunge and moving to Japan in March to teach English! I will be living in the Iwate prefecture in North Japan. I've herd it's extremely cold in that area, a huge difference compared to the hot & humid Brisbane. I am going with my best-friend Megan; no doubt will be doing some Karaoke (after a few sake of course) should make for some interesting pics! As we’ll be living in the snow filled Iwate we’ll be doing lots of skiing as well, I’ve never seen the snow before - YIPPIE! I’ll be sure to keep you updated on all our adventures...

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Joined on: February 22nd 2008
Last Login: January 12th 2009

Blog Entries: 13
Photos: 504

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by SaRaHinJAPAN, order by Date newest first.

By SaRaHinJAPAN
October 2nd 2008

Lake Tazawako Marathon & Mt Iwatesan Asia » Japan » Iwate » Morioka

Marathon
Crossing the finish line

Lake Tazawako Marathon A lot of decision making and ideas to conquer the world come about after you’ve had at least one nomihodai and a karaoke session. Running the Lake Tazawako Marathon was one of them! My name was down for the 10km run and before I knew I was at the starting line ready to go! I was a little nervous as running is definitely not my forte and waking up on the day of the marathon to heavy rain made me doubt my efforts even more. However all pumped and ready to go the gun fired and we were [View Full Entry]

By SaRaHinJAPAN
September 16th 2008

Morioka Matsuri Asia » Japan » Iwate » Morioka

Matsuri
Floats in Odori

As you know Japan is known for its famous festivals which you can find just about in any town in this country and nearly every weekend! Morioka is host to a few major festivals every year. The latest matsuri had women, men and children all dressed up in colourful outfits, parading down the streets with portable shrines and colourful floats all to the sounds of taiko (Japanese drums). The floats we’re so big and you could see that so much detail went into each one. It was hosted down Morioka’s main street Odori. Afterwards we made our way to the local [View Full Entry]

By SaRaHinJAPAN
August 18th 2008

Tokyo Asia » Japan » Tokyo

Bullet Trains - Tokyo Central
Shinkansen

As well as going to Tokyo to climb Mt Fuji we wanted to see all the sights as well! We left Morioka VERY early Thursday morning and made our way by Shinkansen to Tokyo. 2 1/2 hours later we were there. It's busy! It's the second busiest station, with Shinjuku being #1. Over 3 million people a day pass through it! Inner Tokyo and greater Tokyo have a population of around 58 million people! We made our way through the busy subway to K house backpackers where we were staying. I have to say I was quite impressed with the subway [View Full Entry]

By SaRaHinJAPAN
August 18th 2008

Mt Fuji Asia » Japan » Tokyo

Getting Started
View from the 5th station

I decided before coming to Japan that the one thing I was definitely going to do while I was here was climb that mountain! I had talked about it so much and the reality of actually climbing it seemed like years away. Yet here we were getting off the tour bus on the 5th station of the mountain. Looking up I knew the next couple of days were going to be tough! Megan, Renee and my self decided it would be better to go with a tour guide as appose to doing it ourselves. Manly because organizing transport to the mountain, [View Full Entry]

By SaRaHinJAPAN
August 11th 2008

Geibi - Kei Asia » Japan » Iwate » Hiraizumi

Geibi-Kei
In the car on the way

While we still had a few days off work and Renee was here on holidays we decided to hire a car and head down to Hiraizumi about 1 ½ hours drive from Morioka. It’s a pretty small town with a population of around 9,000 people. One thing that you should know is in Japan it's almost cheaper to get a train to wherever you're going then to drive. We paid around $50 just in tolls driving on the highway! No wonder people opt to catch the trains it's just way too expensive, not to mention the price of petrol as well. [View Full Entry]

By SaRaHinJAPAN
August 4th 2008

Sansa Matsuri Asia » Japan » Iwate » Morioka

Ready...
Megan, Okasan, Renee, Me & Satako

This is Morioka’s most famous ‘Matsuri’ (festival) and it has to been seen to be believed. Hundreds of locals and gaigin alike form groups and parade down Morioka’s main street - Odori. It runs over 4 nights of singing, dancing and playing a memorizing tune to the sound of banging drums. My best-friend Renee arrived in Morioka on the 2nd of August and stayed with me for nearly 3 weeks. The night we went to the festival was on the 4th. That morning we all woke up packed a bag and headed to Okasans. (My extended family) Megan came with us [View Full Entry]

By SaRaHinJAPAN
July 5th 2008

Chuson-ji Temple & Motsu-ji Temple Asia » Japan » Iwate » Hiraizumi

Megs & I
Yep Tree huggers - we couldn't resist!

My weekend was spent with Megan in her local town Kitakami. I travelled down on the local train which takes around 50 minutes from Morioka. Saturday night was spent at Crayon Karaoke Bar. A few Gin & Tonics later I found myself learning the art of Japanese Samurai Sword fighting with a few drunken locals and I’d have to say from what I remember I was pretty good! Megan and I stumbled home in the wee hours of the morning but not before stopping at the local Lawsons for some munchies. Can you believe I left my purse in the taxi [View Full Entry]

By SaRaHinJAPAN
July 5th 2008

Okasan and Otasan Asia » Japan » Iwate » Morioka

Dinner
Okasan, Me, Otasan, close friend and his daughter

My first day teaching at my new school in Daishin had me on the doorstep of probably the most generous and hospitable families I have ever met. As I was 5 hours early for my classes that day (I was only new so that’s to be expected) I met my Japanese Teacher Chikako for the first time and she was telling about the family who lived next door to the school. After preparing my lessons she offered to take me over and introduce me. We rang the door bell and this lovely older man came to the door with a very [View Full Entry]

By SaRaHinJAPAN
June 10th 2008

Lake Tazawako Asia » Japan » Akita » Tazawako

Lake Tazawako
Shrine - you make a wish and tie your wish to the shrine where is stays and hopefully comes true.

We all hoped into the car and off we headed for a day at Lake Tazawako. It was about an hour drive across the boarder into the Akita Prefecture. The lake is one of the largest in Japan and is still an active volcano. Okasan and Otasan (mother & father) are like my adopted family and love to take Megs and me anywhere tourist to show us around. The drive there was beautiful with luscious scenery of mountains still some with snow was breath taking. We passed lots of farms along our way also, it really felt like we were going [View Full Entry]

By SaRaHinJAPAN
June 10th 2008

Morioka Nites Asia » Japan » Iwate » Morioka

Kitchen Bar
The Sundae keeps going. Toku & me

One of the first Japanese words I learnt when I first moved to Morioka was Nomihodai! It means all you can drink! It’s very important for a gaigin for know this word if they want to survive. It’ll save you a lot of money if you ask any place you go to for Nomihodai. You’re looking at spending about 1800yen ($18aud) for 2 hours or more. Usually you need to order a meal as well but you can order anything you want even a side salad. Our first night out was spent at the Kitchen Bar, a loud busy place where [View Full Entry]

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