Blogs from Okayama, Japan, Asia - page 6

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Asia » Japan » Okayama June 10th 2006

With a little over a month left here in Japan, my weekends are numbered. Add to this fact, the endless "Places I Want to See in Japan" list of mine, and they're really limited! This past weekend, I crammed in a couple of day trips that I've been wanting to do for a while, and visited the city of Okayama and Mount Misen on Miyajima. Okayama is the neighbouring prefecture of Hiroshima, and the highlights of its capital city are its castle, nicknamed the "Crow Castle" due to its black colour, and Korakuen Garden, which is said to be one of the three finest gardens in Japan (I told you about these top three lists!) Although the castle is unique in the fact that its black, it had a very new, freshly-painted feel to it, and ... read more
Watching Carefully
Waving to "My Public"
Memoirs of a Suteishi

Asia » Japan » Okayama February 18th 2006

On Saturday the 18th a bunch of English teachers and I travelled to Okayama City (about 3 hours East of Hiroshima City) for a weekend of castle viewing, festivals, and yes, naked men! My weekend began with a 3 hour train ride with Casey to Okayama City. Once there we decided to go and check out Okayama Castle. The castle is usually nick-named "U-jo" or "Crow Castle" due to its "black appearance of the donjon which was actually faced with black weather-boards." "Destroyed in WWII, the exterior of the 16th Century castle was faithfully reconstructed in 1966. The interior has an authentic period collection of palanquins, samurai helmets, swords, and the like." (Okay, I just got lazy and used the castle description from the phamplet... hence the quotation marks.) After our castle viewing we met up ... read more
View of Okayama Castle from the river
Travelling like the Empresses we are!
A warrior's view of Okayama

Asia » Japan » Okayama February 18th 2006

The title of this blog alone should attract more visitors than any of my other entries! The third week of February I was lucky (unlucky?) to go to the Naked Man Festival, better known as the Hadaka Masturi. There are naked man festivals all over Japan, but I think the one in Okayama-Ken is the oldest and most famous. If you have no interest in reading the blog, check out this guy Josh's video. http://www.joshuazimmerman.com/vidblog/index.php It is very enjoyable, showing Hiroshima JETs in their finest form and parts of the festival as well. Honestly, you had to see the festival to believe it. Loads of fun!!! To begin my blog, I would like to point out how customs around the world are not that different than the Naked Man Festival. At first I though, "this is ... read more
Okayama Castle
Okayama Castle
Okayama Castle

Asia » Japan » Okayama February 18th 2006

Thousands of naked men romping around the streets near Okayama, Japan. Have I caught your attention yet?!? The Hadaka Matsuri hands down wins the spot of 'most bizarre festival'....based on what I've visited so far! The Saidaiji Naked Man Festival is one of Okayama prefecture's biggest claim to fame. The gist of the festival goes like this: ***Thousands of men run through the city streets, dressed in white nappies and cotton slippers, and enter a temple's courtyard area. They wait their for a few hours, nearly naked, in temperatures just above 0. At midnight the lights go out, and some Buddhist priests throw four sticks into the crowd. All of the participants fight to be the first guy to run out the temple gate with a sacred stick in hand. Apparently if the person with the ... read more
the parade
parading in....
getting prepped

Asia » Japan » Okayama » Tamano September 12th 2005

Oh - so before I forget I have some funny stories about classes. The first one happened the 1st day I taught. Wow - that was an experience. You talk and explain, then ask if they understand, and no response what so ever. Just a blank stare - if you frown in Japanese culture I’ve been told that it means that you are in disagreement with the speaker, or that you don’t like them. So - they never show that they don’t know what you’re talking about, just stare right back at you. And the same thing if they understand. So, you can imagine the frustration that immediately hits you in not being able to communicate in English or the little broken Japanese that I know. --- so I broke in class, got up in the ... read more

Asia » Japan » Okayama September 9th 2005

I traveled with ALT friends Dana and Uli (my fellow islanders) to Okayama prefecture on Friday. We were invited by a group of Toronto JETs to join them at a beach party....so we braved the heavy Friday night traffic and headed to Kurashiki, Okayama. The trip there was a disaster...but eventually we made it. After picking up the crew in Kurashiki, we ended up in Tomano, Okayama. It was a party at a girl's apartment....we just sat around having drinks. Around midnight there was an announcement that we were going to the ferry....which we were excited about! (to the beach, right? nope) We rode a ferry to Shikoku (one of the four main islands in Japan). It was a beautiful ride. We got to Shikoku, and stopped at the Family Mart convenience store for directions. It ... read more
Sarah and Christopher
Keisuke
Uli and Dana

Asia » Japan » Okayama » Tamano September 1st 2005

Hey guys, how ‘s life treating y’all? It better be treating you well. Life here has been crazy. And I don’t mean your everyday crazy, No, no… I could almost fathom that at this point. I’m talking about 24/7 insanity. And the f#$%ed up part is that most of the day almost feels normal, and you start to get the hang of it. Draw similarities between cultures, smile at little old ladies carrying their groceries home, and then BAMB they hit you square between the eyes with their ace/wild card flopping a huge three of a kind --- destroying your measly pocket 10s. And who knew there would be WILD CARDS?! Good God - Just yesterday I turned on the TV, I guess for background noise, and saw there was a cooking show. I’m like cool, ... read more

Asia » Japan » Okayama August 31st 2005

Okay - had some complaints about not writing anything. I thought that I had nothing to write, and I still think that I have nothing to write, but being bored at work and sitting at the computer is sooo much better than staring at my desk. So, here I go. This week has been great. On Monday night Niel and I went to the beach for a barbeque. He had a couple of Japanese friends that were cooking out and drinking beers. Turns out that it was a party of 20 Japanese around the college age. And when I say cooking out, they cooked for 4 hours straight. They grilled most of the food, beef, chicken, eggplant, and sweet potatoes on the beach in a portable griller. Humm… it was good. And quite funny to watch ... read more

Asia » Japan » Okayama » Tamano August 21st 2005

All righty, wow… so I realized today that I’ve been here for a while say like 5 weeks or so. Good Golly. I should be fluent by now, huh? Well, I’m not, but I’m trying. Anyways, I’ve accumulated a couple of stories and finally I have time at work to write them down. The first, actually is the most hilarious event so far… Was riding my bike to the store the other day when the wind caught my long skirt and blew it into the chain. Immediately, I came to a screeching halt and almost catapulted over the front of my bike. (In the process I’m sure that I mooned 1/2 of Japan!) But thankfully, I stayed on and pulled my bike to the side of the curb where I tried unsuccessfully to remove my green ... read more

Asia » Japan » Okayama August 15th 2005

Sakaiminato City, located at the tip of Yumigahama Peninsula and the opposite Shimane Peninsula. Sakaiminato is a city where you can meet Kitaro.... read more
Sunakebaba
Nezumiotoko




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