Disney Sea!

Disney Sea!

On Tuesday we got up from our very comfortable beds at approx. 7:40 to get to breakfast at 8:30. Breakfast was really nice at the Ryokan and all Japanese food. On Tuesday, I was really excited because we were going to Disney Sea (Disney land except next to the sea and with better rides!). Dad wasn’t coming with us to Disney Sea because he was going to organise something for next year at a Japanese school. We left the Ryokan at 9:30 and got onto a train to the Disney Resort station. Disney had their own mono rail line so after we got to the station we had to go on their mono rail to get to Disney Sea. All the stations were Disney Land, Disney Resort and Disney Sea. When we got to Disney Sea J and I went to a French bakery type of place and we had a couple of pastry things with a drink. Then, we went on a boat trip to the other side of the theme park (Disney Sea was quite big). When we got off on the other side, there was a ride called Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. We decided we might as well go on it as it was just where we were. When we got in the line was HUGE!! We must have waited at least 45 minutes to get into the ride. When we were on the ride, it was very jerky and quite scary. It was really fun though. Then, we went into a place called Ariels playground with an under the sea theme which was cute. We went on a few rides there and I went on a good rollercoaster by myself. Then we decided to get some lunch and we found a good hotdog stand selling hot dogs. I bought a drink and then we went to a small café where I bought an ice-cream and J bought a hot chocolate. Then a parade started on the water and I went to look at it. It was SO loud!!! There was music blasting out of the speakers on high! Then Dad arrived, and J left

"Starbucks" はどこ？？？

On Monday, we didn’t have a very busy day but we did lots of shopping. First we went to a place Asakusa which had heaps of little souvenir shops. I bought a little key ring from outside one shop and after I bought the key ring, the lady in the shop literally pushed me into the shop so I could keep looking in the shop. She was pushing me quite hard and I wasn’t rude enough to push her back, so as soon as I got into the shop I walked out a different way. Then, we went to get a coffee/hot chocolate for afternoon tea at starbucks and I learnt how to ask in Japanese: スターバクスはどこですか。That means ‘where is starbucks?’ I also had a sausage roll (which they called a sausage pie).
After that, we went to Akihabara, where we bought G something which I wont write in case he reads this. There were lots of technology stores around where we were which were interesting to look at but strangely dressed up girls on every corner. They were wearing maids dresses and other weird things advertising café’s.
Then, we went to an internet café which was when we last updated this blog. It stank of smoke (the internet café, not the blog!) because there were people smoking there which was disgusting. Then we went to a small tempura place for lunch which was very nice tempura. We shared 1 plate because we weren’t very hungry!
That night was Dads night off taking the boys to dinner so we could go where we liked. First we went for dinner early at an Italian place which was delicious- if not very small! We had gnocchi and a small salad and shared them. I had ginger ale and dad had wine. Then we went to a really nice shop place called Tokyu Hands (ときゅうはんず). It had 8 levels all themed and interesting. We bought some stuff for people which we wont write about in case….
Then we went home and Dad posted a couple of coat-hangers and we went to bed on time for a change!!

Tokyo!!

Yesterday we arrived in Tokyo at lunch time and got lunch as soon as we arrived. The teachers got lost on the way back to our meeting place, but luckily everyone else found their way back to the train station and all the students were waiting for us when we arrived a few minutes late. We met up with our friends Kiyo and Tetsu and Ria and they took us to the Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Omotesando and Shibuya! (by L)

The Meiji Shrine was amazing, with a Korean wedding, a Japanese wedding and all these kids dressed up for Shichi-Go-San Festival! Then one of the boys got a nose bleed in the middle of it all! A very bad one, luckily someone had some water to clean the ground up...
I (Gwyn) have never seen Harajuku so busy, it was literally wall to wall people. We had to work to get from one end of Takeshita dori to the other, but we made time to get an incredible crepe on the way, I had cream, ice-cream and peach. L had chocolate ice cream, cream and thats all.

Shibuya was also V busy, but we stopped to talk to our hosts, while the boys walked around tiring themselves out. A traditional ofuro never felt so good, at the end of the day - L and I are convinced that the Ryokan traditional guesthouse is far better than Japanese hotels! We have a private garden and veranda on our room... Cheers to all, G and L.

Nara

Today, we caught the fast train to Nara in the morning. We all had train tickets with allocated seats! It was raining all day, so when we got to Nara, we all bought umbrellas for ourselves. We walked through the absolutely packed with deer deer park. We then went to Todai-ji Temple, the largest wooden building in the world. It used to be bigger, but it burnt down and got rebuilt again - smaller - but still the largest building in the world. There was a lot of incense and candles there. Inside, there was a hole which would 'enlighten' you if you crawled through it. I crawled through it but got a bit stuck on the way because I went in headfirst. I managed to get through in the end.
By L

fears... of swine flu and...

Fears of swine flu - evident in Japan from the groups of students we saw today with face masks on. Later at Kiyomizudera, at the fountain which everyone wants to drink - of pure water - the cups they were using were being instantly purified by use of ultraviolet rays!

Still, having a great time - December not as cold as I thought as yet - but I could be speaking too soon!

Winter Japan

I've only experienced Japan in winter twice, both times whilst we were living there between 1998 and 2000. I'm pretty sure we didn't travel either, so this year is really going to be a revelation. We're off on Tuesday morning, to arrive in Japan about 9pm that night...

Our trip is going to start off in Kyoto for 5 days, including a couple of day trips to Himeji and Hiroshima. Hiroshima is the farthest south we'll venture, and then we'll head north. Three days in Tokyo, followed by Hachinohe (Aomori prefecture), Hakodate and Sapporo. I'm expecting by this stage to get out the scarf, gloves, and thermals. Most times when I've gone to Japan, its been mid summer, sweaty, Tshirts, shorts and summer festival season.

L and I are going this time, after I took G last year - it'll be fun for L to tag along I think, along with 12 students from school and another teacher.

Onsens will be the order of the day, something to warm us up, after braving the cold. At the top here is a photo of us at a most memorable onsen in our time in Japan - with friends - fun! Apparently the onsens of the north are renowned, so hopefully we'll be able to get to them up north. A brother in law of a teacher at our school happens to be a Professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute, so I'm pretty excited that he'll organise a talk with an hibakusha (Atom bomb survivor) in Hiroshima. It'll be a chance for us Aussies to hear another side of the war to Anzac Day and Gallipoli. Also, K in Tokyo has organised two friends to meet us and take us around Harajuku, Shibuya, Yoyogi park on a Sunday - Kakkoii!!

I'm meeting a Principal in Tokyo for lunch, while my students go ahead to Disneyland... hoping to set up some sort of exchange, which has eluded us for a while.

Flu tracker

Here you go, a flu tracker, to keep track of how virulent that piggy flu is... Look, Australia's got 666 cases - but most of them are in Victoria, where I live...! Its not that bad really.

'tween mountain and beach

I would recommend this campsite, between Mt Maunganui and the beach, we could watch sheep grazing, crazy guys jumping off the mountain on hang gliders during the afternoon and as late a 8.30pm in the dark, and walk across to the surf beach when we felt like it.

The bonus was the saltwater pools, on the other side, which warmed us up after an afternoon in the surf.

The top one is our photo, after our walk this morning to the top of this volcano.

Having decided this was a better place to spend our last day in NZ, we moseyed our way through a final day, and then headed up to Auckland in time to check in to a place close to the airport for our 4am start tomorrow!

Isn't this just as long as Welsh words?

The Maori 'thermal' village we visited today. We were planning originally to visit the buried village as well, which has been called NZ's pompeii, but decided against it in the end, on the basis of general prices in Rotorua, and our fast disappearing funds!

This is a shot of the geothermal forces at work in Taupo... G warming himself nicely. This was probably 20 minutes walk from our caravan park.

Our bath at the caravan park, scalds a bit on entry, we are also staying on thermal ground, just so that our backs stay warm during the night - you would have thought most caravan parks would offer this service in the 21st century?

Anyway, they also do pretty well with the showers, though the steam is a bit off putting!

Made it up Mt. Taranaki two days ago and found snow, to L and G's delight! Does it look a bit like Mt Fuji? Less people and less rubbish, though!

Easter in Aotorea - we tried to find a church, and found 5 churches. Eventually we went to the Anglican (with the Methodists) and heard 'in the name of the F,S and S' in Maori.

By the way, here is a photo of our lunch in our hotel we stayed in in Wellington.

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More photos from Wellington

Okay, so here we were today, next to Wellington harbour, quite a stunning view isn't it. Right next to us, at this point, were about 10 girls and guys, who were taking turns jumping off a diving board, about 5 metres off the water. A fairly cool day you would have thought to jump in, with a top of 14 degrees, but at least they'd waited until the warmest time of the day. You probably can't see it, but in the background behind L and G are a whole lot of snow covered mountains, which gradually came out from behind cloud.



The waterfront has skateboarders, bikers, tourists and a massive building called the Te Papa Tongarewa, an impressive museum, which you definitely need more than a half day (which we had) to see. Some of the best bits are about earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanos, which for some reason, us Oztralians don't take much notice of.


Anyway, later, we met this friendly gent, who was only too pleased to let G have a pat of his dog.

Tomorrow, we head for Mt Taranaki, a volcano (of course). Not sure when our next internet access will be available - this cafe offering in Wellington has been too convenient. We could get used to adding to the cacophony by skyping from our pub where we're eating our irish stew!

Wellington

We realised this morning, that for G and I, NZ is the first country we've gone to out of Australia that still has

English as a common language. All of us are starting to see some commonalities and some big differences between NZ and Oz. Flying in last night at about 5pm NZ time, we had an amazing view of the northern part of the South Island mountain ranges, which we saw this morning at a cartographer was a part of a 'relatively new' mountain range, due to the fault line, which goes right up NZ, and is especially pronounced on the SI. Snow capped peaks are not a common sight for us aussies.

The cable car this morning was beautiful, and up the top of the mountain, we read the narrative from Mark, and reflected on Good Friday, which must have been so different to a sunny Wellington day, especially if there was an eclipse, and three hours of darkness. Though cold here, the sun makes it feel warmer than it is. By Easter Sunday, we're hoping to be up to Mt Taranaki on the west coast. This'll probably make it harder to blog etc., but we'll see how we go.

NZ here we come...

If you were looking at this picture of the North Island of NZ, what would stand out for you and what would you want to see? There is a big lake in the middle and a massive pimple of a volcano on the Western side. These are my must sees next week when we take off to NZ.

Starting from the south and working towards the north, our plan is to tackle the North Island and to do it justice. Probably difficult to do it justice in 7 days, but anyway! Yes, I've heard of the mud beach in the north - probably also a must do with 2 kids, Rotorua and so forth and if we have time, we'll venture north of Auckland to the Bay of Isles... More to follow! (Back to parent teacher interviews!!)

back to Kyoto

I met a very interesting Jesuit priest in nagasaki, who was able to fill me in with in depth knowledge re the Christians who were called Kakure and Senpuku in Nagasaki. He is the director of the 26 martyrs monument, which is going to be added to by the beatification of 187 Japanese martyrs later this year, recognising the suffering that Japanese Christians have experienced. Still today in Nagasaki, Catholic Christians make up 5% of the population, in comparison to 0.5% in the rest of Japan. We also saw some of the icons which the Christians made to keep faith, whilst pretending that they were Buddhist type symbols... Such as the one above. Also, we found Oranda street!! There is a whole area called the Orandazaka - meaning the Dutch slopes as well.

G and I went to mass this morning at the Nakamachi Cathedral and I could vouch for this - a full church, with singing children up the front, and quite a moving liturgy. (G found it a little harder to make the distance, having little Japanese and after a late night the night before, taken out by the `Australia-Nagasaki friendship association`! I was quizzed on John Howard, whaling, Nagasaki vs Hiroshima, etc, etc!)

G has continued to enjoy the shinkansen and we got up to Kyoto late today... it is just so different to Nagasaki - crowded, full of foreign tourists, but similarly hot! He loved the escalators leading up 12 floors unidirectionally, kind of up into the sky, to the top of the Kyoto station building.

Crucifying statues!

We arrived at the Peace wing of the Nagasaki Nuclear bomb museum today at 9.45am, to discover that our interviews with nuclear bomb survivors had been moved around, to start at 1:30 in the afternoon, as one of the survivors had cancelled due to ill health. At late notice, the peace wing volunteers organised another visitor instead, and so G and I instead went off to look at the Urakami cathedral, which was only about 150 metres or so from the bomb `hypocentre`. We found here, the `crucified` statues, most having lost their heads, or at the very least having been disfigured, having survived through hell on earth.

It was later that we heard about this hell, through the voices of a male and female survivor, one who was in junior high school, and the other who was an elementary school teacher at the time of the bombing. G kicked off the interviews, asking a few questions he had prepared, and the elementary teacher, who you would not have known was 82 years old, particularly appreciated this. I could tell that at times, there was ground which was painful and difficult for both survivors, and I also quizzed them about difficult topics such as reconciliation and responsibility which they also found somewhat difficult.

Yesterday, when we arrived in Nagasaki, we had spent the afternoon touring the peace museum, the hypocentre and the peace park, so by the end of this afternoon, G and I were quite tired out. This place is full of history, and is also quite spectacular, so we enjoyed just spacing out at a restaurant overlooking the bay and ferries this evening.

Fukuoka

G and I enjoyed the climb on Tuesday am up Himeji castle, a world heritage listed castle, which manages to crown the city buildings of Himeji, built as it is on a hill, in what was a castle town. It is a little strange to make the top storey to be greeted by a Shinto shrine, but apparently this is in honour of the hill on which it is built. We were really starting to feel the heat of a Japanese summer here, and perhaps it is that the further we venture south, the hotter it actually is. G enjoyed pretending to fire arrows from the various points around the castle, looking at the wells, and it was great being the only ones there, as we got there shortly after opening at 9am.

We hopped on our bullet train at 12.30, to be spirited away through Hiroshima, and on, under the ocean through a tunnel to the third main island we have managed to visit in our time here so far, Kyushu. By 2.40pm we were in Fukuoka, and made our way to a school visit by 3.30pm. Another school visit this morning at a Jesuit school similar to the one I am now working, and then we were free for the afternoon. Considering the heat, we decided to make for Fukuoka`s network of underground shopping, under the suburb of Tenjin, until it cooled a little. We enjoyed browsing the basements of the big department stores like Daimaru and Mitsukoshi, where we were rewarded with taste tests of jellys, cakes and even freshly prepared coffee.

The food in Japan has been an ongoing revelation - smoking allowed in most restaurants has managed to turn us off quite a few times, and we have decided `family` restaurants (beer and hamburger meat) are best avoided. Today, for lunch, we decided to try a place just over the road from our hotel, a tiny one man show, which turned out to serve the best Yakisoba, and one serve at 500 yen (less than $5) served G and I easily!

Finally today, we took a JR line ( on our passes) out of the city, and then had to change once and then onto a private line for one station - on a recommendation from one of the teachers at the first school we visited, we went to a place called Mitoma, north of the city. Here after an amazing 10 minute walk, we discovered largely deserted white sand beach, where G swam and ran with abandon, and we practised our stone throwing technique. By 6.45pm, we decided the sun had sunk far enough, had our misadventure with a family restaurant and returned home, only regretting the lack thus far of bath houses.

From Tokyo to inaka

Well the contrasts were obvious when we took off to Shikoku to take G back to his birthplace. To see

so much green, was a real highlight, after the smoky, crowded subways in Tokyo. But more than that, the highlight was seeing friends, and for G, making friends. G met Shun, and after the first night, the initial nervousness of not speaking each other`s language melted away, especially when the two of them took each other on in chess.

G gave Shun a Kangaroos T-shirt, his favourite team, and then they both wore them the next day to church.

It was fantastic to see so many other friends there, and we were welcomed back, many of them saying how little things had changed. The one thing that had changed was the children, who have grown up! H, who was a Junior High student last time we were here, took us to the river near Oyu, prawn hunting, and they captured 6 or 7 prawns in an hour. We had a BBQ later that night, and discovered a couple of versions of Shogi (Japanese Chess). We stayed out at Oyu the second night, in an amazing farmhouse - thanks to all from Nakamura Fukuin Church.

Pickles, faffing and issues with toast

Today we made it as far as Kings Cross in London. We've walked some streets three times and haven't been able to make it to places we hoped - but it has been fun.We got stuck on Oxford street with the annual pride march - crazyness. I tried to explain to L why some men were walking the street in high heels, bunny ears, tutus and pink wigs. She was very interested in going to Tottenham Court Rd (one story in Harry Potter) so we did without me asking first what the story was about (I found out later it was about Hermione having a sludgy grey coffee with Harry and Ron in a cafe and getting propositioned by a drunk man). We managed to have a lovely (though expensive) lunch and a great coffee, and also avoided the colourful street people. There are many parts that are pretty grotty though. L is exhausted this afternoon so we are going to check in now.
This morning we said goodbye to the M's. We loved spending the time with them - especially the younger two who have very developed personalities -J (4 years) is a pickle (cheeky ratbag) who faffs around (loves an audience - and is very cute), J (6 years) also has a lovely sense of humour. B (8) is an empathetic soul who has a gift for lego robotics, A (mum) has issues with the toaster (which was australian) and M (dad) is (along with A) is inspirational in the way he believes they are to enrich the community in which they live. M also volunteers and trains red cross first aid people in the area in his spare time. I had no idea he loved that so much.
We hope to walk along the Thames tomorrow - we saw the miniature version of most of the sights yesterday at Legoland (detailed - and infinitely more manageable) and also flew over it on the way to Heathrow on Wednesday. Today i've managed to stay out of too much sun after getting sunburnt at legoland (and bottles of sunscreen are £15 in london!). Tomorrow afternoon we fly to Holland - I am sooo looking forward to seeing the R family there.
Tonight we are off to stay in the Clink Hostel in KC - the old magistrates court complete with cells for bedrooms (L's request). The place we left our bags this morning resembled the room of requirement (Harry Potter) where things can be hidden forever. I hope they will be found when we get there in 15 mins. I think Clink may complete my picture of London as a little claustrophobic.

Pancakes in Harajuku

Today we met Kiyo and K in Harajuku, which we explored for a little while, coming across some dog kimonos and some pancakes, as well as some threatening police, due to the G8 summit being on at the moment in Hokkaido. Apparently that might make the populace restless in Tokyo, so the police are out in force, holding on to their batons and making threatening poses. (a bit like Ultraman on the top floor of Loft, a variety store in Shibuya). After we had walked to Shibuya, we met the four boys and teacher from my school, who are actually here for the World Children's Summit, which was also held in Hokkaido. They had had a great time from all accounts - we took them to do some shopping and then out to a 'family' restaurant - family stands in this case for a good variety of food at a good price! (and in a modern Japanese style) At the end of this time, we were able to experience 'the' intersection at Shibuya, which I hope comes up in this post, for your enjoyment - sorry, I think I moved too fast... basically there were a lot of people!

Tomorrow morning? Up at 5am, to get to Shinagawa station in South Tokyo to catch the bullet train, which will be in Shinagawa for exactly 1 minute. Woebetide us if we are late! By 3.30pm we hope to have proceeded south as far as Okinawa on Honshu and then across the inland sea on an impressive bridge to Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku. This is where we lived for 2 years. We will be staying with friends in Nakamura for the next two nights - I may be away from internet...

Shakespeare

The funny thing is, while K and L are visiting Shakespeare country, the founder of Waseda University, which owns the school I've been visiting this week, was the translator of many of Shakespeare's works into Japanese and a Prime minister of japan, perhaps at the same time! I saw some of his original translation attempts, with all the crossing out and re writing that goes along with it, at Waseda University. Waseda is like a little town, with its own subway station in Tokyo, pretty close to Shinjuku, the business hub of Tokyo. I was saying to G, 'This station has 3 million go through it every day and today we've made it 3 million and 3, because we've gone through it twice!' Its pretty hard to fathom, especially since in 1880 or so, there were only 30 people visiting the station every day!