Advertisement
Published: March 12th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Otearai
WC, Loo, lil girls room, toilet, powder room... Whatever. Instead of being boring and studious and staying home for the weekend (did I hear someone say something about midterms next week... midterms smidterms...) I ventured when no gaijin has gone before! Almost. There was an aussie girl last year... I visited a lovely family who live out in the countryside, outside Kobe.
Kobe is a coastal city famous for Kobe Beef, just by the by. They feed their cows beer and give them massages and stuff. Then they charge a serious amount of money for the meat from these pampered cows. I'll have to get around to trying some, sometime, when I'm feeling rich...
On saturday morning I packed my life (roughly, a passport, toothbrush and clean underwear) into a backpack and boarded a train to Sannomiya with Makiko, a local student from my university. In Sannomiya we enjoyed some window shopping in the modern city, followed by a sojourn through the local Chinatown. It was amass of red painted chinese gables, bright yellow lanterns and every sumptuous kind of Chinese food being cooked along the street. Beeg Attraction: THE-TOILET-THAT-DOESN'T-LOOK-LIKE-A-TOILET! Yep. I took photos of a public restroom. How many people can say they have done that?? Piece
View form City Hall
Complete with Port Alfredesque bridge... of useless information I'd like to share: The dragon behind the glass is used in a chinese festival once a year, then it goes back to the loo for the rest of the year. Hmmm........
In Chinatown I tried out a drink made with strawberries, coconut milk and sago. As in whole sago that you suck up with a thick straw. All I can say is... Omoshiroi.... (Interesting...).
Next stop: The City Hall. IF we can find it. I think my blondeness was rubbing off on poor Makiko! After consulting many maps, asking random people for directions and almost walking into the wrong building, we found it. From the top floor (24 or 34 I think) the view was amazing, spectacular... and free! Ii tenki desu, yo! The weather was perfect and we could see across the harbour to an island of reclaimed land and and new airport on the one side, and up the mountains on the otherside! After resting my shoulders (toothbrush, underwear and passport prived to be very heavy) we got back on a train and headed into the mountains, bound for Makiko's house. FINALLY, I was out of the city. So far the
House
The real Japanese house that I stayed at! Japan I have seen has been a beeg homogenous mass of built up, urban land. We rode the train uphill, which was kinda weird, and saw vast tracts of agricultural land, mountains (up close - you can always see mountains in Japan) and forests of bamboo. It was great.
At Makiko's house I was welcomed warmly by her parents. Then, the feast began. For the record, I would like to announce that I take back many of the the derrogatory comments I have made concerning Japanese food. This meal was awesome. Flavours from heaven and variety like never before! Makiko's mom cooked up a specatular traditional Japanese meal including small helpings of at least 10 different things! There was sashimi with shoyu and wasabi (raw fish with soy and horseradish) rice, rape blossom (similar to broccolli), cooked fish - bream in fact -, tradtional Japanese boiled egg thingy that is hard to explain, pickled radish and many many more... The selection was served on many different little plates that were as beautiful as the food itself!
We ended the meal with freshly brewed coffee (my kinda family, this lot) and Melktert. The melktert was a result of me
playing bake-bake in the seminar house kitchens on thursday morning. It went very well, thank goodness.
The after dinner conversation revolved around SA and Japan, as can be expected. I also proudly explained the story about the new SA Flag as they only had an old one on the map in the lounge. We discussed tenki ( the weather ) of Japan and SA at length and travel and many other things, but the most entertaining topic was Guinea Fowl (I gave Makiko a beaded guinea fowl as a gift) and just what exactly they are and are they tasty? Almost equal in entertainment value was teaching them greetings in Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans. "Goeiemore" proving to be the most difficult and Sawubona the biggest tongue twister.
I was very nervous about the language barrier, but since Mr Fukada was well travelled, Makiko is studying english at uni and Mrs Fukada was very enthuisastic about speaking english, for the most part we managed to keep the conversation flowing. With a little help form our friend, jisho (dictionary) too!
I had a the priveledge of being first to bath. And it was my first Japanese bath, besides the
Garden Gnome
Me in the garden, gloveless... Onsen... And a real treat this was! Hot water up to the chest! - This is standard practice in Japan! I just know my mother would love it here!
Today (Sunday) we drove to Himeji, another city, to go sightseeing. Himejijo (Himeli castle) was amazing, the best castle in Japan by far! It is a world heritage sight (the Japanese won't let you forget that!) and is colossal. We had to trek through a vast network of passages and courtyards to reach the imposing central tower - I'm glad I'm not an ancient warrior trying break into that! Pity about the weather though! It was freezing cold and a bit rainy... Clever Kim takes this opportunity to leave her gloves in the top drawer of her dorm cupboard... Nice.
Lunch included sushi made with Unagi - eel (cooked though).... Metcha umai desu, yo! - "Mega delicious" in Kansaiben. Kansaiben is the local dialect of Japanese. I am learning standard Japanese at Uni but the Fukadas were trying to teach me a lil Kansaiben. Throwing in the odd phrase in Kansaiben, is the best way to be taken seriously as a foreigner in Japan!
Then, heaven for the
Nog 'n blommetjie.
I've fallen in love with photographing flowers, please forgive me. eyes arrived in the form of Japanese gardens. We took a long stroll through the nearby gardens all landscaped and beautiful, complete with gorgeous Ume - plum- blossoms, ornanamental ponds full of Koi, Japanese Trained pine trees (like beeg bonsai) and displays of very very old bonsai plum trees. The fragrance of the flowers was beautiful. All the stuff you have ever imagined to be growing in Japan, plus more! My mom would have loved it to bits... except that I thought my fingers just might fall off, don't think my mom would have been too keen on that! Us three women managed to get ouselves almost lost in the gardens, to the amusement of Mr F.
We then took a looong walk around the castle complex (much to the dismay of Mr Fukada!) and I imagined I was walking through there during Sakura time... Right now, the many cherry trees along the moat edge were barron skeletons. The castle is pure self indulgence - think Koi swimming in the moat! Hmmm a leetle bit extravagant, perhaps.
I could continue to ramble on for a lot longer about this family(mostly coz I'm procrastinating again, Bob), but you lot
Fishy
Himejijo with a replica of one of the fishy thingys on the top of the roof. are probably tired of reading my ramblings... but it really was a very special weekend, with a very special family whom I will never forget and hope to see again soon!
Before I get busy... I'm not sure I wrote about it in my Blogs, but the Japanese Railway system is close to perfect from an efficiency point of view - a fresh breathe of air for me, coming from SA, with it's notorious public transport, but I found a fault today.... Somewhere between Himeji eki and Kyobashi eki my train STOPPED. Not at a station, but just somewhere on the tracks... After about half an hour we were moving again, and since the conductor started explaining in uber polite fancy Japanese (that I cannot even get the general gist of) I still have no idea why we stopped.... I have this theory that I must have contaminated their public transport system by virtue of being from SA...
It was kinda exciting anywho.... Something different to put a lil adrenaline through Japanese veins instead of the sound of Pachinko machines...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0531s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
MUM
non-member comment
Gardens and deep baths
Absolutely my thing KIM. Enjoyed the blog. Love Mum