We have returned - but first - February and March update!

Hello!

Can you believe that I haven't updated this since the end of February?  Wow.  We are back on home soil, got in on May 8th, and both of us started work the following week.  Haven't had time to draw breath, but I have made a concerted effort to upload a stack of photos spanning February to May, and over the next few months, will update this blog with all of the madness and wonder that was/is Japan.

Here's what happened in February.

It snowed.  A whole lot.  Two big dumps of it, record-breaking snow, inconveniently falling over the weekends and wreaking havoc with public transport.

But oh, so pretty.  Fun to play in, scary when slippery and compacted.

The first big dump of snow fell on the 8th of February, the start of a weekend that we'd booked a hotel for.  Wonderfest was on.  I don't really feel like explaining Wonderfest in detail, but in brief, it's a big expo with craft, design, art and figures, lots and lots of figures.  The snow started to fall in the mid-afternoon, and we had already started our journey over to Makuhari, where our hotel was.  Good thing too, because trains stopped on our line a few hours later because of the snow.

Here's some shots of the snow as it fell on Saturday the 8th:

The next morning, it was absolutely beautiful overlooking the beach and the buildings below.

That afternoon, after going through the exhibitions at Wonder Fest, we played around in the snow for a while.  Couldn't resist when there's snow banks like this:

Back at work on the Tuesday after the long weekend, the snow had been cleaned up off the roads, but there was enough left for people to have some fun with.

The snow couldn't even wait a full week to start falling again, and the second big dump of snow began on Valentines day, a Friday.  We had booked time to be away again, this time not far from Akihabara, Tokyo's technological centre.  I took a half day from work and headed home to pick up our bags to head out to Tokyo.  Here's some photos to and from home that afternoon:

Overnight it rained, which made things dicy.  The snow compacted and iced up, meaning you either stepped onto black ice or into slush.  We weren't wearing shoes for snow, regrettably.

Still, there were a lot of good things to have a look at while dodging slushy puddles and black ice slicks.

Returning home on Saturday evening, it had obviously snowed pretty heavily in our area, so we got some nice stuff to walk through on our way back to the apartment.

The next day, Jason shovelled our path and the stairs up to our apartment, and while he was there, he made a snowman.  I went downstairs and got some grotty stones from the carpark to make a face, and donated a couple of crocheted reject things I'd given up on to the cause.

9 days of sunshine later:

That's the fun part of the snow, here's the less fun part of the snow.  Kofu in Japan was completely isolated by heavy snowfalls and traffic accidents along major motorways, and Japanese authorities took quite a while to get it together to help people out.  One of my colleagues wasn't able to get to work for a week because there was no way out of town.

It's hard to illustrate how massive the effects were, but here's a couple of photos of our local supermarket that was never poorly stocked until the heavy snow hit hardest.

In time, things got cleared up, and life returned to normal around Japan.

The last two months in Japan flew by for a range of reasons.  We packed up all our stuff to be sent home to Australia and also put aside things to be sold/given away/thrown out.

This took a lot of time.  I'm glossing over it because seriously, doing this kind of thing is just awful, even if you're in a country that continually excites the senses.  We have never put as much effort into any move or clean up job as the amount we put into this one.

We shifted from our lovely 3LDK (3 bedroom) apartment in residential Kawasaki, 30 minutes by train from Shinjuku.  We moved our remaining possessions and bags to a 1K (studio) apartment in Nishi-Shinjuku, 20 minutes walk from Shinjuku station, and 30 minutes walk to Yoyogi Park, 30 minutes walk to Shibuya.

Here's the view from our window.  Not bad at all.  Luckily we like each other pretty well, because the apartment took a bit of getting used to, and there was nowhere to hide!  We eased into the groove of it, and made the most of our time living in urban Tokyo.

I feel like I blathered on quite a bit there, and it might be good to break for a while, so that the next blog entry is able to have a fairly central theme.  We did other stuff in February and March too, but I'll save that for an entry not focusing on snow.

Til then, thanks for reading, more photos of the snow are here: CLICK

December and New Year 2013-2014 - Utsunomiya, Nikko and Okinawa

Better late than never...

Hello everyone!

Lovely to touch base with you all once more.  This time around I'll cover what we did in late December/early January.

Pre-Christmas in Tochigi

Just before Christmas, we took advantage of a long weekend to visit Utsunomiya again (details of the last visit are in June's blog post here.)  This time we also made it out to Nikko, something we didn't do last time because of the bad weather.  We also made a side trip to the Bandai museum just outside of Utsunomiya.

Bandai Museum
Utsunomiya is famous for its gyoza, but it's also in close proximity to some other cool stuff.  The Bandai museum is near Omochanomachi station, only about 15-20 minutes from Utsunomiya station on the Tobu line.

 

So in the museum, is a whole lot of toys.  Adjoining the museum is another museum dedicated to Thomas Edison, which was pretty interesting too, but not as shiny or photogenic as the stuff in the Bandai museum.

There were vinyl toys and playsets throughout the last century from Japan on display:

 

 

 

As well as a bunch of teddy bears and dolls dating back more than a century from Japan and around the world:

 

It was really interesting to see the evolution of characters from the 40s and 50s to the present day, and also interesting to see the parallels between Japanese, European and American toy production from the start of last century.  A great place to visit, and not too far off the beaten track.

Nikko
The following day we went to Nikko, again, not far from Utsunomiya.  We caught a taxi to Kanmangafuchi Abyss, around a 5 minute drive from the station.  Kanmangafuchi Abyss has stunning scenery because of the swiftly-flowing stream over the rocks, as well as a long line of Jizo statues, a Bodhisattva responsible for the care of the deceased.  Kanmangafuchi Abyss is located opposite Nikko Botanical Gardens, separated by the gorge and water.

 

 

 

 

We walked through a nearby cemetery after we had surveyed the length of the Jizo statues, before making our way back to Nikko on foot.

 

 

Along the way, we stopped at Shinkyo bridge, renowned as one of Japan's three most beautiful bridges.

 

More photos of Utsunomiya and Nikko are HERE.

New Year's in Okinawa

Just before new year's eve we headed to Naha, thinking we'd have a beach holiday to ring in the new year.  Naha wasn't really our cup of tea, and doesn't have a beach near the city centre, so we probably wouldn't make a repeat visit, but here are some highlights of our few days there.

Naha

We spent most of the time in Naha, Okinawa's capital, located on Okinawa island, the largest island in the group of Okinawa islands.  It's a pretty small city, in relative terms, and it's compact as a result.  There's a monorail that goes through the centre of town, ending at the airport.

The centre of Naha is Kokusai Dori, a street with most of the restaurants and bars in town.  At night there are a whole bunch of military out and about, and the vibe was kind of weird.

A highlight while we were in Naha was our visit to Makishi markets, a large covered market with clothes stalls and a section hidden away dedicated to fish and meat sales.  After visiting the fish market, if you make a purchase, you can take your seafood to one of the restaurants upstairs and ask them to prepare it for you.

 

 

Churaumi aquarium and surrounds

While in Okinawa, we took a bus tour to the Churaumi aquarium.  The bus companies have deals with a couple of tourist spots on the way there and back, so we got the pleasure of getting taken to the Ryugujo butterfly house.

 

Appearances can be deceiving though.  The place was run down like crazy, but there were some pretty butterflies inside.

The main attraction, the aquarium, was pretty cool.  Here's some photos of that.

Our last stop on the tour was Nago Pineapple Park, and here are some pictures of that for you to draw your own conclusions on.

 

It was a long day out, but we got to see some sights we wouldn't have ordinarily have stopped for if we'd been driving on our own, and got to taste some seriously awful pineapple wine, so there is that.  The aquarium was worth the trip out to the other spots too.

Zamami Island

We were keen to get to a beach, and Naha wasn't really going to do that for us, so we took a day trip to Zamami Island, easily reachable by ferry from Naha.  It was overcast and a little cool, but we made the most of it, and it was probably the high point of our trip to Okinawa.

 

  

 

  

 

Shuri Castle on new year's day

We headed to Shuri Castle the day before we left Naha, this castle is reachable from the monorail terminus and was holding new year's day ceremonies that re-enacted the traditional ceremonies done by the emperor in the past.

 

 

 

 

More photos of our Okinawa trip ARE HERE YES HERE OKAY.

So, given that this update was so belated, I'll do my darndest to get the next set of info up soon, so hopefully you'll be hearing from me again sooner rather than later.

Until then, goodbye!!