Memoirs of a Gaijin- Kyoto Part 1

Asia » Japan » Kyoto
July 17th 2006

Published: August 26th 2006

I am in Japan!!! A long way from Adelaide, Australia, but here I am in Shizuoka for a year teaching at an English Kindergarten while seeing and experiencing as much of this crazy, mixed up, amazing country as I can! And this truly will be a stretch of the memoirs, as I have a major back blog (ha ha get it!!) of journals to write and since this trip to Kyoto I have been to Disneyland, Tokyo, Hokka... Read Full Entry

Photos are below

Photos: 66, Displayed: 21

With my Mummy and Daddy

Arashiyama

Hozu River- Arashiyama

The closest we got to a monkey this trip

Do you promise?

Just a little wet!

Romantic train

Dad in the Rice Paddies

Giving us a lesson on how rice grows

The cripple

Using umbrellas as crutches- but still smiling!!!

Tanuki- raccoon dog

Tanuki have been part of Japanese mythology since ancient times. The mythical tanuki is reputed to be mischievous and jolly, a master of disguise and shapeshifting, but somewhat gullible and absent-minded.

Tanuki

This is hilarious- copied from the internet!! The wild tanuki has unusually large testicles, a feature often comically exaggerated in artistic depictions of the creature. Tanuki may be shown with their testicles flung over their backs like a traveller's pack, or using them as drums. Tanuki are also typically depicted as having large bellies. They may be depicted drumming on their bellies instead of their testicles, especially in children's art. A common schoolyard song in Japan makes explicit reference to the tanuki's anatomy: Tan Tan Tanuki no kintama wa Kaze mo nai no ni Bura bura bura Roughly translated, this means "Tanuki's testicles swing back and forth even when there is no wind blowing".