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Published: January 5th 2007
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Nara
The perfect end to a perfect day, priceless! Yes, you can see right, those are dogs wearing kimonos. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
It's hard to believe that it's 2007, man does time go by fast!
Anyways, the purpose of this blog is to recount my trip to Japan over the Christmas break. I got lucky, with the way the holidays worked out with my work, I had 10 days off. I say I was lucky because both Hilary and Nat had to work on the 26th-27th. So I decided to go visit Trish who is currently teaching in Osaka, Japan. Her and her family (her mom who came from Vancouver and her uncle, aunt and cousin who live there) welcomed me with open arms, they were awsome!
I must start with the longest day ever (well, tied with Halloween at best) that was Friday December 22nd. We have 54 kindergarten kids and my boss thought it'd be a good idea to dress up as Santa and Santa's helpers and go to most of the kids' houses. GREAT! So I was assigned to the full shift, 3:30 to 9:30pm dressed up in a red and white outfit too small for me and singing Christmas carrols! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures at the moment to prove it but even
Sushi
The first of the countless times we ate sushi, I went all out! 1$ a plate, can't go wrong! if I did, I wouldn't show you! To make a story short, it was hell!
I flew out of Incheon airport to Osaka on the 23rd at 2:20pm and made my way to meet Trish at at predetermined train station exit. Of course that didn't work, it's Asia! I made my way to the right station and went out the wrong exit, only to find out Trish was waiting at a different station altogether after a good samaritan helped me find my berrings and called her cellphone (since I didn't even have money to phone her). Thanks to Russell the English bloke for saving me!
Over the next few days, we proceeded to eat as much junk food as is humanly possible. We also had a lovely "family" Christmas at Trish's uncle's and I got to call most of my family members on Christmas day (great to talk to you all!). To burn off some of the calories, we hit Trish's kickboxing gym for a couple of hours on the 25th and 26th, good to get back to the sport, although I was a bit rusty.
On the 26th, we spent the day in Kyoto (the old
Nara
Nara-koen area where 1200 deer live. In pre-Buddhist times, the were considered messengers of gods and now they are National treasures. imperial capital of Japan founded in 794) which is supposedly the number 1 attraction of the Kansai area. It was a grey day and the rain poured towards the end of it which took away slightly from the sights but it was still very interesting. The pictures attached will be more useful for explanations. Some of the monuments were extremely impressive. It's hard to imagine that they have been around for hundreds and even thousands of years when coming from a brand-new country like Canada. We had lunch in the Gion district known as a stone-paved Geisha quarter symbol of what's good in life for Japanese men: wine, women and karaoke. We unfortunately did not see any geishas (female professional entertainers knowledgeable in traditional arts) or maikos (apprentice geishas).
On the 27th, we headed out to a cabin in the mountains for 3 nights of fresh air and relaxation. Final destination: Okutsu, near the city of Okayama, less than 2 hours drive away. It was bare when we got there and chilly but it started snowing non-stop the next morning and we woke up snowed in by like 25-30cms on the 2nd morning, paradise! The days were spent reading,
Kyoto
Kyomizu-dera temple overlooking the city. It's special because it is said to have belonged to everyone for over 1000 years. It's being considered to become one of the new 7 wonders of the world. writing, hiking, playing with Alysha (Trish's 1,5 year old sweet cousin), feeding the fire, hitting the onsen (thermal baths and spa) in the evening.... It was really nice.
On our way back to Osaka, we decided to make a detour to Himeji Castle, the biggest castle in Japan. It was easy navigating Japanese roads on the way to the cabin since we were following Shawn's car (Trish's mom was at the wheel. They drive on the opposite side of the road) but it was a different story trying to get somewhere on our own! Luckily, we had a GPS in the car (all in Japanese of course but we got some help from Sayuri, Trish's aunt, and from the entire crew of a gas station!). After all the trouble, it was closed. It looked good from the outside at least.
On the 31st, we were gonna go to Miie to see Ninjas and stuff but we sadly found out last minute that it was closed. So the day was spent visiting Osaka and the oldest shrine in Japan. The evening was entertaining: we roamed the streets of Americamura (Asian rappers in their jumpin old American cars, mini statue
of liberty, loads of foreigners...) and other entertainment districts and waited for the countdown. All of a sudden, it was 2007, we were surroundered by a huge crowd and people crowd-surfing and basically never saw it coming!
On my last full day in Japan, we went to Nara, definitely cool and a highlight of the trip. It was a gorgeous sunny day, we walked a lot, fed sacred deer that roam the streets and the parks, visited the biggest wooden building in the world which houses a giant Buddha; we admired many ladies in impressive kimonos coming to pay their New Year hommage to their ancesters and the gods; we sampled various specialty street foods; we crawled through a very tight hole in a wooden pole the size of one of the giant Buddha's nostrils to be ensured of enlightenment (actually, more to look silly in front of the crowd when me and Trish had to pull each other out of the hole!); we shopped for used kimonos and the perfect end of the day can be seen in a picture below.
My flight back was at 5pm on the 2nd. I wanted to do some last minute
shopping before I left. Not a good idea, the biggest size at Gap was a very tight 10 and we got interesting faces from shoestore worker when they saw us walk in. Oh well...
A few quick things about Japan before I let you go:
It is against etiquette to eat or drink in public places (very hard for me) except for beer at nighttime. People will buy snacks and stand and eat them by the store and Starbucks packages your coffee when it is to go.
Sushi is excellent and still one of my favorites but the rest of Japanese food is kindof boring and not nearly as good as Korean food.
Even 7/11 sells sushi!
The California look is in right now, everybody (women and men) has died and very pouffy hair (many laughs were had!) and the clothing is outrageously ugly, you could never pay me enough to go out with a trendy, skinny Japanese boy.
Everything is terribly expensive in Japan! I would be absolutely broke if it wasn't for Trish and her family's hospitality!
OK, I better stop, sorry for the novel, enjoy the pics!!
Love y'all,
Marie-Eve
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MoBechard
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Vive la vie
Nous somme tous tellement chanceux de te lire, Que tous ici au Québec nous jappons. Bonne Année à toe, Marie Êve. T'M. A+ Mô.