Blogs from Shiga, Japan, Asia - page 2

I'm not sure what I expected when I went to the Otsu matsuri, but I was impressed and surprised at varying moments. Head Teacher invited me out with his mother to wander around the city, but first I was treated to a sumptuous lunch of sushi train by his mother, where i ate raw wasabi...Have you ever felt like your brain was crying? I have! The name of the sushi actually includes the word cry in it...so be warned. Saying that, I tried it twice and once you get over the confusing sensations in your head, it's rather nice. The Otsu Matsuri is similar to the Minakuchi Hikiyama Matsuri, and the Gion Matsuri,　but in size it sits somewhere between the two. There are 12 carts, each with a set of musicians wearing colourful robes with beautiful ... read more

Today marks a special milestone in this journey we call life. Well, my journey anyway. Six months ago I boarded a plane, leaving relatives, friends and loved ones behind. I journeyed to the land of the rising sun, and started a new chaper of my life on the largest of four islands the world knows as Japan. Both my heart and my head were full of questions, doubts, and a slight fear of the unknown, yet in the past six months some of those questions have been answered, my doubts have been for the most part assuaged, and the fear has been replaced with a feeling of accomplishment and pride. More questions have since appeared, and I will work on finding those answers in the days and months ahead, but for now, I will just live ... read more

Danilo's trip to Japan, would not have been complete without coming to see this little beauty. In a neighbouring city, you can visit a ninja village and a ninja estate. They are the remnants of what used to be one of the largest schools of ninjutsu in Japan. Who said living in the countryside didn't have it's merits? We hopped along to the Ninja estate, and had a good explore around the place, even beating sme of the younger Japanese children to the hidden attic entry. We threw shuriken, gaped at secret escape passage ways, and made the woman in the gift shop very happy, by purchasing almost one of everything. Of course, this is the day I decided to wear a skirt...what with all of the climbing up ladders and things....sometimes I even amaze myself. ... read more

Late Birthday Celebrations and a really amazing present. Nikky had recently turned 24, a turning point in her life. When people had asked her age in the past, she had always replied with a proud '23', only to be met eith the response 'Aww, that's so young' which she was sick of hearing. 24 was a new number, one that meant she had crossed over from that no mans land between being a teenager, and was much nearer to the golden, and somewhat frightening, magical number '25'. Sure, she still gets the 'that's so young' response at times, but in her heart she knows that she has grown more in a year than some people do in 3. Or something like that. Arrangements had meen made earlier to celebrate this grand 'coming of a new age' ... read more

"What did you do on your birthday Nikky?" "......" "Nikky?" "Manual labour." After a 2 hour nap (directly under the air conditioning machine) I woke up, got dressed, and was picked up (in searing hot 35 degree weather) to go to Shigaraki and make a torch. On the 26th, there is a fire festival. People trek up a small mountain, carrying large torches on their shoulders, and take them to the fire shrine. You can, of course buy the torches, but by venturing out on a hot day like Sunday, you could save yourself $20. In hindsight, I should have paid someone $50 to make mine for me.....no, not really. It was hard work, but I got into it, and it helped me avoid actually being hungover. I have my suspicions that I was still ... read more