May madness - Golden Week getaway, Design Festa, Gyoza Town and the Sumo

Well I'm pretty sure I mentioned May was a busy month for us.  Every weekend of May we did something different, and it was fantastic, despite the exhaustion we felt at the start of June.

We did FOUR BIG THINGS in May

BIG THING NUMBER ONE - OSHIMA ISLAND

At the start of May it was Golden Week, a bunch of public holidays squeezed in together.  It's the busiest travel time in Japan, and with this in mind, I booked accommodation for our trip back in February to make sure we had a place to rest our heads.  Our destination was Oshima island, about 2 hours by ferry from Tokyo.  Oshima is the closest island to Tokyo, and is a really popular spot for Tokyoites wanting to get away.

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Wikipedia says that Oshima has a population of about 8,500.  Every person we came into contact with was kind, warm and friendly and went the extra mile to help us out.  We stayed in a pension, which is like a guesthouse or a bed and breakfast.  Bathroom facilities are shared and breakfast is provided, dinner too if you pay extra.  The couple running the pension were amazingly helpful, and had a really good grasp of English.  Even if we had gone to the island in May of last year with our terrible Japanese, we probably would have been A-okay.  If you ever go to Oshima, I recommend this place - here's a link.


During our stay in Oshima we checked out Habuminato harbour, on the south side of the island.

Watched some fishermen hack into a giant sunfish.

Checked out the back streets of the harbour.

After a walk around, we had Japan's equivalent to fish and chips on the beach: potato croquettes and pork cutlets by the harbour.  No pictures, but trust me, they were delicious.

We were in Oshima for a total of 4 days, and we managed to climb Mt Mihara, the island's active volcano, in the centre of the island.  The last eruption was in 1986, and the heat that emanated from the ground around the crater was obvious once we got close.

Volcano shelters:

There are two ports on Oshima island, the main port is Motomachi, where most of the shops, eateries and car hire places are.  In the gardens outside the local onsen there is a pretty great little Godzilla statue.

        

Oshima island has been the setting for a couple of Godzilla movies because of its volcano.  In one film, Godzilla is lured to Mt Mihara by a homing beacon and falls into the volcano.  Apart from the Godzilla statue, there is also a beautiful waterfront, perfect as a backdrop for looking serene at sunset.

The other port on Oshima island, Okata port, is pretty cool too.

The last big highlight of our trip was Oshima Park, with its gigantic collection of Camelia plants (not flowering unfortunately) and its surprising zoo.  The zoo was great fun.

(A lot) more photos are here.

We loved Oshima island, and would highly recommend it.  And without further ado, onto the next big thing.

BIG THING NUMBER TWO - UTSUNOMIYA TRIP

We had originally planned to go a festival over the second weekend in May - Tokyo Rocks looked like it was going to be great.  My Bloody Valentine were playing, along with a lot of Japanese bands.  Then, out of nowhere, it was cancelled, leaving a weekend free and a nice big refund on the 2 day tickets.  We decided to go Utsunomiya, locally known as "gyoza town"because of its....gyoza.  

A frog for some reason, and also Venus de Milo if she were coming out of a gyoza rather than a shell.

We ate a whole bunch of dumplings at the best place in town, Min Min.

Definitely the best gyoza we've had since we've been here, and given that it was raining the weekend we were in Utsunomiya, we needed some warming comfort food.  It delivered.

BIG THING NUMBER FOUR - TOKYO DESIGN FESTA

I know, I wrote about this last year.  This time I took a group of year 11 and 12 students out on an excursion to it, and had been in communication with some of the organisers for information beforehand.  Still had a great time, seems like the kids did too.  We went relatively early, it opened at 11 and we were there in line at 11.10.  It's a two day event, but we just went for the Saturday, and saw some great stuff.

I had my year 12 students base an assessment task on the artistic, creative and logistical ideas they came into contact with at the Design Festa, and they came up with their own ideas too in completing the task.  A great day, and one I hope to repeat when it comes around again in November.

More pictures here!

LAST BIG THING - SUMO

We went to the sumo tournament in Tokyo on the second last day, so there was still a lot at stake for the wrestlers.  The feeling from the crowd in the final bouts was incredible, and the wrestlers themselves have a lot of personality that comes through in their wrestling.

We got in pretty early and watched the second highest level of sumo wrestlers - the juuryoo.  The crowd wasn't so big at that point, but it picked up massively when the big guns came out.  The highest level sumo wrestlers - the makuuchi - came out later and the vibe in the crowd really picked up.  We were up in the nosebleed section and the calls from behind us could be heard by the people down in the thick of it.

The second last bout was between two sumo wrestlers who had both been undefeated for the entirety of the 13 preceding days of the tournament.  The crowd went mental during the bout, and as soon as the result was announced, around a quarter of the crowd started to file out.  The result of the champion was all but decided, with one day left of the tournament to go.

More photos here.

The day after the sumo we collapsed on the couch and surveyed the mess that had accumulated over the course of May.  Now that we're a bit over a week out of May, things have settled down and our apartment has become more livable.  I can't see another month like May coming up for a while, but we will keep ourselves occupied and continue to see whatever we can.

Until next time!

April wrap-up

I knew it would happen.  The new academic year starts, and all the relaxation goes out the window.  This blog entry will be fairly brief, and will only cover April.  Our May has been crazy so far, there has been something on every single weekend.

Something exciting happened in April.  We had a visit from Jason's family!

As with all exciting things, there was some drama.  This time, it took the form of their plane being delayed, and then finally cancelled for the day we expected them to arrive.  They arrived the day after they had planned, which threw a spanner in the works of having some time to relax and get a feel for Tokyo.

We met them at the airport, caught the airport bus to their hotel and had room service with them, spesh.

Before we had had a chance to show them the ropes like how to buy a train ticket, or where the best place to get milk and juice was, they were up and about on a guided tour of Hakone and surrounding areas near Mount Fuji.  A full day's tour is a pretty intense way to start in Japan, but the next day we were able to catch up with them properly.

After a morning tour, we went out to dinner at an izakaya restaurant called Yama chan, pretty famous in Nagoya for their wings (see my Nagoya post for a pretty terrible photo of them).  We had a private room and were able to spread ourselves out.

Jason and I both took a Wednesday and Thursday off to spend time exploring different areas.  On Tuesday night we spent the night at their hotel in Shinjuku to make an early start out for the Tsukiji fish markets, and wow haven't times changed.  Jason and I visited the fish markets on one of our first trips to Tokyo in 2008.  Back then, we showed up on the first train, wandered through the wholesale market, found our way to the tuna auctions, no sweat.

This time, yeah, different story.  You now have to show up at about 4 am to get in line for the tuna auctions, and if you don't get into one of the two groups assigned for the day, you can't get access to the wholesale market until mid-morning.  The end result of this is, if you catch the first train that gets you in to Tsukiji at 5.30, you're out of luck for the wholesale market until then.  Nonetheless, we waited, looked at the outside markets, and had a sushi breakfast.

Gotta get that fish home in one piece.

The next day we headed to Asakusa, an area originally famous for its temple and shrines, and now probably more famous for its shops and crowds.  Luckily, Jeffrey and our niece Elizabeth found a rabbit to pat.

After battling the crowds and doing some souvenir shopping, we headed to Ueno park to have a picnic.  The ground was pretty wet from the previous day's rain, but we managed, and ate our lunches bought from the nearby convenience store.  Generally speaking, lunch wasn't as interesting as feeding the pigeons.

Or teaching me how to do push-ups.

We also made a trip out to Kamakura on the Saturday that Jason's folks were here to visit the giant Buddha (Daibutsu) and the temples in the area.  I haven't got many photos of this trip; my Golden Week post from last year has a few.  The area is beautiful, and it was a gorgeous day.

Jeffrey, me, Elizabeth and Sophia hanging out in the shade.

Jason's dad Keith at the entrance to Kotoku-in temple.

After the weekend, it was back to work for me, but Jason had one more day with his folks.  He headed to Shibuya with them, looked around Harajuku, and finished up in Yoyogi Park, where there was a lot of space to run through the flowers.

Lots of room to play ball with Jeffrey and Denise.

And conveniently, someone to help with blowing gigantic bubbles.

It was wonderful to catch up with Jason's family, and great to show them our little corner of the world over here.  After they finished up in Tokyo, I saw them off at the shinkansen station Shin-Yokohama before they headed to Osaka for another few days.  All in all I hope they had a great trip, we had a great time showing them around.

Next update will be our May wrap-up, and what a wrap-up it will be.

Til early June (I'm guessing!),

Bye!