We left Kos and took the boat to Bodrum - TURKEY! After payıng 45 euros EACH for our vısa we found the bus statıon and bought tıckets to Koycegız before we left we found a fruıt and vegetable market and bought delıcıous cherrıes and some of the best peaches I have eaten so far! We arrıved ın Koycegız after the best bus rıde so far, we got snacks and drınks and were gıven lemon alcohol to clean and refresh ourselves wıth - very nıce and very comfortable. Found our hostel, Tango Pensıon, nıce place and ate Turkısh food for the fırst tıme! It ıs very good - we had a meze lpate, lots of dıfferent sauces and a gozeleme (turkısh pancake) wıth cheese and meat and potatoes and EFES - Turkısh beer! We went on a day trıp across the lake, we stopped at the mud bath\hot sprıng...very fun! We had lunch on the boat, saw some Lycıan tombs dug ınto the mountaın sıde, and stopped at Turtle beach to lay on top of the baby turtle eggs under the sand. On our way back we navıgated through the reeds that created a maze between the sea and the lake wıth lıttle wooden arrows to poınt you ın the rıght dırectıon.
We left Koycegız and went to Fethıye where we would start our four day and three nıght blue cruıse aboard a saılboat! In Fethıye we hung out by the swımmıng pool at the hotel and got our laundry done - very excıtıng cause we had only been washıng our laundry ın the sınk so to actually have ıt cleaned was a very bıg deal! We wondered up to the see the castle ruıns on the top of a hıll and on our way some lıttle kıds came and ıntroduced themselves and wıth ınterestıng hand sıgnals trıed to explaın the ımportance of the area and communıcate as much as possıble wıth us...then asked us for 10 lıra, about 8 dollars, for the tour, we fınally gave them 1 and they were not very happy about ıt. We had kabobs and koefte (turkısh meatballs) and bought a gıant watermelon for less than 2 lıra. The next day we met the people we wuld be on the boat for the next four days wıth. The boat was very nıce, the people were also very nıce, of the 19 people on board 10 of us were Canadıan and all of us were young and we all had a great tıme! The fırst day we cruısed to Butterfly Valley whıch ıs beautıful although there are not many butterflıes, stopped for swımmıng and rock skıppıng and back on the boat to escape the comıng storm. We stopped for the nıght ın a quıet bay, more swımmıng and great food - that the chef cooked ın a lıtle kıtchen on board the boat. The next day we went to Kas and saw found an amphıtheatre that was almost perfecty ın tact stıll and walked aruond the lıttle town, we got back on the boat and then trıed to saıl although the saıl rıpped after about 20 mınutes and I thınk the captaın was more of a cruıser than a saılor anyways. That nıght we stayed ın Pırates bay and went to thıs lıttle bar called the Smugglers Inn that you have to take a boat to for some good tunes and expensıve beer but lots of dancıng. On day three we back tracked to the lıttle town, we clımbed up the staırs to the castle at the top and had some awesome vıews of the area. We drove past the sunken cıty on the boat and headed back to Pırates Bay for the rest of the day to relax and swım and lay around. Our last day we went to the Pırates Cave and swam ınsıde, one crazy Canadıan jumped off the top of the clıff and we headed to Demre to offload and get on a bus. We stopped ın a cıty where there ıs a church of St. Nıcholas - yes folks you thought that Santa was from the North Pole but he ıs from Turkey - surprıse! We then went to Olympus to stay ın the treehouses and exlpore the ancıent cıty.
Olympus was so cool, there are ruıns everywhere and they are all overgrown. We just walked through, over and around thıngs that had been there for thousands of years - all for only 2 lıra a day (you have to walk through the ruıns to get to the beach)! The beach was great, the water was so warm and clean and ıt was so hot the whole tıme we were there. We took the shuttle to see the chımera (the flames that come uot of the mountaın) - very cool! The food was great and we were pretty much beach bums the three days we were there.
From Olympus we headed to Antalya - a much larger cıty than we expected and after fındıng the hostel from the LP we walked around the old town for the nıght whıch was very cool and then found the busses to take us to Asperdos the next day. Asperdos was awesome! Ruıns that are all over the place, we were almost the only people there and a huge theatre that rıvals the Collıseum for coolness. Navıgatıng the busses took the whole day and we arrıved back ın town to eat dınner and catch our overnıght bus to Goreme. Goreme was as beautıful as the pıctures, crazy rock formatıons and most of the houses and hotels are carved ınto the rocks. We stayed at Shoestrıng whıch was very nıce and breakfast was very good! We booked a hot aır balloon to fly over the amazıng landscape of Kapadokya. That same day we went on a tour that took us to the underground cıty where the people would lıve for upto two weeks when they were beıng ınvaded. It was really ınterestıng and they were very organızed. Then we walked through part of the Ilhara Gorge and went to a monestary and church carved ınto the rocks. We also explored the open aır museum, full of old cave churches. The next day we rented a scooter and crused around. We stopped to try spınnıng potery whıch resulted ın a loppy vase bowl thıng. Then we went to see the faıry chımınes and another cave monestary. Then preceded to get lost ın the country sıde where the locals were very frıendly always wavıng. Then ıt was another overnıght bus to Istambul.
Istanbul ıs a beautıful place, a huge cıty but ıt does not feel that bıg. The food ıs good and the people are frıendly and there ıs lots to see and do. We spent our fırst day vısıtıng Aya Sophıa and the Basılıca Cıstern and the Blue Mosque. They were all awesome, very dıfferent from the churches we had seen ın the rest of Europe. The call to prayer ıs even more beautıful here because there are so many mosques so close together that you can hear them all sıngıng together. We also got our fırst Turkısh bath! Very ınterestıng experıence, you are scrubbed wıth a loofah mıt and then a huge mound of bubbles are poured on you and then a massage but ıt ıs more lıke a short torture sessıon and then lots of buckets of water are dumped on you and then you get your haır washed and head scrubbed - very ınterestıng! The next day we spent the whole day at Topakı Palace and vısıted the Harem where all the concubınes lıved waıtıng to be called on. Its a very ınterestıng place and was ın use untıl 1923 when Turkey was unıfıed as a Republıc. The best part was all the turban shaped holes cut out of the walls for the Sultans head pıeces. Then we wandered throught the Egyptıan spıce market and trıed Turkısh delıght - I lıked ıt, Denıs not so much. The next day we walked forever...we went to the Fısh market walked up to the Aquaduct and then on to the Suleymanıye mosque whıch ıs more beautıful than the Blue Mosque I thınk and we walked back to the other seasıde and took the traın across to Taksım. Thıs ıs a very trendy, very busy shoppıng, cafe, pub area and stopped for a beer durıng happy hour to watch the world walk by. Yesterday we went to the Grand Bazzar - ıt ıs huge but pretty repetıtıve but very ınterestıng although I lıke the Spıce market the best I thınk. We wondered and wondered and wondered and eventually wlked through a few dıfferent markets that are mostly for Istanbulıans cause there were no other tourıst there. After beıng very lost for a long tıme we made our way back to the park besıde the palace and had a nap on the park bench before goıng for dınner and spendıng the res of the nıght playıng backgammon on our rooftop terrace. Today we went back to the Spıce market and haggled for a pashmına scarf, a shırt for Denıs to wear when he runs wıth the bulls and four peaches! We are just enjoyıng the tıme we have left ın Istanbul before we leave for Barcelona tomorrow.
Well, you are all caught up now. Turkey has been awesome and we are already plannıng our next trıp here! But we are very excıted to be headıng to Spaın and Morocco. Hope you are all doıng well - we would love to hear from you!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Thursday, May 31, 2007
A little more of Italy and then GREECE
Well...it has been a long time since we updated this so settle in for a recap of the last 20 days!
So Rome was...well, Rome in all its scaffolded, spray painted glory, we left Rome and headed to Sorrento after deciding that we needed a break and a slower pace after the craziness that is Rome so we skipped Naples and headed for the Amalfi coast straight away. Very beautiful, very small towns, we found a restaurant with very cheap but very good food and spent the day on rented beach chairs on what were suppose to be on a beach but was actually on a cement pier but it was perfect none the less. We went to Pompeii and while it was fascinating that such a large, developed city (including brothels, with picture menus) existed over 2000 years ago it was very big and tiring, after walking around Pompeii for four hours we were exhausted and headed back for relaxing beach time. After the most expensive train ride, even though we have a rail pass we had to pay for a reservation fee, was over an hour late we took a taxi that most contestants on the Amazing Race would be glad to have but we were a bit scared by, to the ferry just in time to catch the overnight ferry to Greece. We landed in Igoumensita and after forgetting or never realising that there is a time change between Italy and Greece missed our bus that we waited for three hours for and had to wait another three hours for, changed buses and then finally got to Kalambaka, found a funny old man to let us a room (Totty) and settled in for a couple of days to explore the monasteries in the skies. Meteora is beautiful, we took the bus up in the morning to the largest monastery and luckily they had skirts and pants on loan for the foreigners who didn't know the no shorts and only skirts for girls rules. There are six monasteries we went too, although only the first provided the necessary clothing we were missing so we just gazed at them from afar which is fine as they are very beautiful from farther away and a lot less stairs to climb this way. Had lunch after a hike on one of the rocks that touch the sky - the rocks are so cool, you are driving through the Greece country side thinking there is no way that this is the place from the photos and then you turn the corner and see these large rocks jutting up from the earth just like God put them there, which is why they think they are so special, although the technical reason is that the area used to be a river basin and eventually drained and left these rocks there. A monk came here to escape some persecution and out of devotion, or more likely, boredom hauled rocks up onto the rocks and built a monastery, the others followed.
After Meteora we had a travel day literally - we spent the WHOLE day on the train trying to get to Monemvasia but finally got off in Olympia after we realized the ridiculous way that the people at the train station had sent us and at the pace of Greek trains we never would have made it to Monemvasia that day. Olympia was nice, found a really cheap and very uncomfortable hostel, it rained the next day when we went to see the Museum and Ancient Olympia where the first Olympics were held. But it was International Museum day so we got in free! And managed to see everything before the rain really started to come down. Then we caught another bus and continued our quest to find Monemvasia. We finally arrived there after three bus changes and in the rain at 10pm, but luck was with us and as per Denis's de ja vue we found a nice place without getting wet right next to where the bus dropped us! The next day the rain finally stopped and the little town of Monemvasia is amazingly beautiful and has a charming old feeling. You have to walk through a little tunnel to get in, no cars, no scooters, no buses, just tourists and souvenir shops but the ruins were spectacular and the view was even better. After storming the castle for a few hours we ate a well over priced lunch and headed off for Nafplio. Unfortunately the Greece bus system does not plan farther ahead than one stop so we got from Monemvasia to Tripolia thinking that there would be a connecting bus to Nafplio but there wasn't so we found another bus station and went to Athens, reluctantly deciding to skip Nafplio.
We arrived in Athens and again it was raining, we found the subway and sought out the hotels in the LP, as we had not known we were coming we hadn't made any reservation, and as every hotel we went to explained to us the Champions soccer final was in Athens in a couple of days and the city was filled with Brits and Italians who came to see the soccer game...asa result all the hotels were full too, after two hours we had a bit of luck and stole someones room and at an outrageous price had a well deserved rest. The next day we had to find a new hotel, and went to see the Acropolis and all associated sites, Roman Forum, Ancient Agora (very cool, and very old, looked very authentic), and walked and walked and walked. The next day was MY BIRTHDAY (yes almost all of you missed it!) and Denis took me for a shopping day and we bought a new bathing suit for me, a sarong for the beach and a new pair of sunglasses for the pair Denis had left on some Greek public transportation, and again we were off on the overnight ferry to the island of Santorini.
Santorini was nice, but after sleeping in a chair on the ferry and missing the only bus to the city and sleeping a little more in the departures lounge before finally breaking down and taking a taxi to the town so we could take the bus to our hostel. We found a very cheap hostel that a guy Denis bunked with in the dorm in Olympia told us about, Youth Hostel Anna, 6 euros for a dorm bed or 8 for a bed in a smaller room away from the action of the partiers...still very cheap by European standards. We rented a quad and cruised around the island stopping at all the beaches and stopping to watch the sunset with a bottle of wine! We also took a tour which took us to the volcano, apparently Santorini is the rim of a large underwater volcano which had erupted three times and created an island in the middle which we hiked to the top of for good views, we then stopped at a bay where there are suppose to be hot springs in the ocean, I suppose as a result of the volcano, but as we jumped off the boat and swam to the hot spring it never got hot, barely warm, like a bunch of people all peed in the water cause they were all freezing in water they expected to be "quite shockingly hot" as our guide explained it would be. THEN we rode DONKEYS up a hill...highlight of the trip to a sleepy little town before going to Oia to watch the sunset that never actualized behind a veil of clouds. After a 22 hour ferry ride we arrived in Rhodes which is breath taking on arrival, very medieval, as the old town starts right from the port and you walk off the boat into a walled castle. We stayed at a hotel with a swimming pool, but spent all the time at the beach. Rented a car and went to see the castle in Rhodes town and all the other castles around the island and then went back to the beach and we got eaten by mosquitoes. We have arrived in Symi for two nights and after our first successful hotel bargaining found a hotel and boat taxied to the beach for a whole day in a little bay. Tomorrow we are off to Kos to catch the ferry to Turkey!
Well that's everything in a nutshell, hope you are all doing well, send us a note to tell us whats new with you! Can't wait to hear from you!
So Rome was...well, Rome in all its scaffolded, spray painted glory, we left Rome and headed to Sorrento after deciding that we needed a break and a slower pace after the craziness that is Rome so we skipped Naples and headed for the Amalfi coast straight away. Very beautiful, very small towns, we found a restaurant with very cheap but very good food and spent the day on rented beach chairs on what were suppose to be on a beach but was actually on a cement pier but it was perfect none the less. We went to Pompeii and while it was fascinating that such a large, developed city (including brothels, with picture menus) existed over 2000 years ago it was very big and tiring, after walking around Pompeii for four hours we were exhausted and headed back for relaxing beach time. After the most expensive train ride, even though we have a rail pass we had to pay for a reservation fee, was over an hour late we took a taxi that most contestants on the Amazing Race would be glad to have but we were a bit scared by, to the ferry just in time to catch the overnight ferry to Greece. We landed in Igoumensita and after forgetting or never realising that there is a time change between Italy and Greece missed our bus that we waited for three hours for and had to wait another three hours for, changed buses and then finally got to Kalambaka, found a funny old man to let us a room (Totty) and settled in for a couple of days to explore the monasteries in the skies. Meteora is beautiful, we took the bus up in the morning to the largest monastery and luckily they had skirts and pants on loan for the foreigners who didn't know the no shorts and only skirts for girls rules. There are six monasteries we went too, although only the first provided the necessary clothing we were missing so we just gazed at them from afar which is fine as they are very beautiful from farther away and a lot less stairs to climb this way. Had lunch after a hike on one of the rocks that touch the sky - the rocks are so cool, you are driving through the Greece country side thinking there is no way that this is the place from the photos and then you turn the corner and see these large rocks jutting up from the earth just like God put them there, which is why they think they are so special, although the technical reason is that the area used to be a river basin and eventually drained and left these rocks there. A monk came here to escape some persecution and out of devotion, or more likely, boredom hauled rocks up onto the rocks and built a monastery, the others followed.
After Meteora we had a travel day literally - we spent the WHOLE day on the train trying to get to Monemvasia but finally got off in Olympia after we realized the ridiculous way that the people at the train station had sent us and at the pace of Greek trains we never would have made it to Monemvasia that day. Olympia was nice, found a really cheap and very uncomfortable hostel, it rained the next day when we went to see the Museum and Ancient Olympia where the first Olympics were held. But it was International Museum day so we got in free! And managed to see everything before the rain really started to come down. Then we caught another bus and continued our quest to find Monemvasia. We finally arrived there after three bus changes and in the rain at 10pm, but luck was with us and as per Denis's de ja vue we found a nice place without getting wet right next to where the bus dropped us! The next day the rain finally stopped and the little town of Monemvasia is amazingly beautiful and has a charming old feeling. You have to walk through a little tunnel to get in, no cars, no scooters, no buses, just tourists and souvenir shops but the ruins were spectacular and the view was even better. After storming the castle for a few hours we ate a well over priced lunch and headed off for Nafplio. Unfortunately the Greece bus system does not plan farther ahead than one stop so we got from Monemvasia to Tripolia thinking that there would be a connecting bus to Nafplio but there wasn't so we found another bus station and went to Athens, reluctantly deciding to skip Nafplio.
We arrived in Athens and again it was raining, we found the subway and sought out the hotels in the LP, as we had not known we were coming we hadn't made any reservation, and as every hotel we went to explained to us the Champions soccer final was in Athens in a couple of days and the city was filled with Brits and Italians who came to see the soccer game...asa result all the hotels were full too, after two hours we had a bit of luck and stole someones room and at an outrageous price had a well deserved rest. The next day we had to find a new hotel, and went to see the Acropolis and all associated sites, Roman Forum, Ancient Agora (very cool, and very old, looked very authentic), and walked and walked and walked. The next day was MY BIRTHDAY (yes almost all of you missed it!) and Denis took me for a shopping day and we bought a new bathing suit for me, a sarong for the beach and a new pair of sunglasses for the pair Denis had left on some Greek public transportation, and again we were off on the overnight ferry to the island of Santorini.
Santorini was nice, but after sleeping in a chair on the ferry and missing the only bus to the city and sleeping a little more in the departures lounge before finally breaking down and taking a taxi to the town so we could take the bus to our hostel. We found a very cheap hostel that a guy Denis bunked with in the dorm in Olympia told us about, Youth Hostel Anna, 6 euros for a dorm bed or 8 for a bed in a smaller room away from the action of the partiers...still very cheap by European standards. We rented a quad and cruised around the island stopping at all the beaches and stopping to watch the sunset with a bottle of wine! We also took a tour which took us to the volcano, apparently Santorini is the rim of a large underwater volcano which had erupted three times and created an island in the middle which we hiked to the top of for good views, we then stopped at a bay where there are suppose to be hot springs in the ocean, I suppose as a result of the volcano, but as we jumped off the boat and swam to the hot spring it never got hot, barely warm, like a bunch of people all peed in the water cause they were all freezing in water they expected to be "quite shockingly hot" as our guide explained it would be. THEN we rode DONKEYS up a hill...highlight of the trip to a sleepy little town before going to Oia to watch the sunset that never actualized behind a veil of clouds. After a 22 hour ferry ride we arrived in Rhodes which is breath taking on arrival, very medieval, as the old town starts right from the port and you walk off the boat into a walled castle. We stayed at a hotel with a swimming pool, but spent all the time at the beach. Rented a car and went to see the castle in Rhodes town and all the other castles around the island and then went back to the beach and we got eaten by mosquitoes. We have arrived in Symi for two nights and after our first successful hotel bargaining found a hotel and boat taxied to the beach for a whole day in a little bay. Tomorrow we are off to Kos to catch the ferry to Turkey!
Well that's everything in a nutshell, hope you are all doing well, send us a note to tell us whats new with you! Can't wait to hear from you!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
ITALY
Okay! Italy has been very busy, we have done A LOT of walking and have had a great time. We are in Rome now but I will recap the last 9, 10, 11, or twelve days...
we arrived in Italy and couch surfed with Matteo in La Spezia for two nights, we had a great bed in a beautiful old apartment in the center of La Spezia and after relaxing for a week in Monaco we decided to just relax for the day in La Spezia before heading off to Cinque Terra...but Italy closes on Sundays, so we walked around looking for something to do and then resigned to eating gelato on a park bench and soaking up the sun until we met Matteo and the other couch surfers at Matteo's for dinner which he cooked for us and was AMAZING! We had pasta with ricotta cheese and his home-made pesto and olive oil (it was the best thing I've eaten in Italy so far) and curry chicken with beans and home made ice cream...we got to meet one of Matteo's friends and he was very funny and very friendly. The next day we headed to Riomaggiore to start our exploration of Cinque Terra which was beautiful, we stayed in this hostel which had one double bed that we snagged, and five bunks all in one room although there was one less bed than people booked for the room and there was some confusion in the middle of the night! The hike through the five villages was awesome, the weather was great for most of it before we got to the fourth village and it started to rain, so we took the train to the last village and sat on the beach until it really started to rain and we took the train back to Riomaggiore. We took some great pictures but all the pictures are going to have to wait until we get home...after we left Cinque Terra we went to Pisa for a couple of hours and saw everything that leans, Pisa is more than just a tower apparently they let some guy build a three buildings that all lean! I guess architecture was not really what he should have been doing. We headed to Bologna after being stuck in Florence trying to get a train on the night of a long weekend and finally met up with Emily who hosted us on her couch and took us to a great little bar for beers and even scored some free beers, she was full of info about the town and took us around the next day, showing us all the secrets like the sculptor who wanted to put a larger penis on the statue but the Catholics wouldn't let him so when you look at the statue from a certain angle his hand is positioned so that he has a large erection! And the dome where you can whisper in one corner and another person can hear you PERFECTLY in another! We had great panini and gelato for lunch and went to a market and bought some fruit and headed off to Venice. Just our luck the city on water was under water with terrible rain all day when we arrived. when the rain finally broke we went on boat rides and saw the sights. The highlight was going to the OPERA! we saw a comedy about love in this little museum with gorgeous paintings and tons of history! The next day with clear skies we got to see the St. Marks's basilica and a lot of pigeons! We took the elevator to the top of the bell tower and saw Venice from the sky - an great view, even the pigeons looked good from there. We went to Murano, the glass island where all of Venice's glass makers were moved to avoid the fires that frequently happened. Sarah stopped in every shop and finally bought a pair of earrings. The last day it rained again and we left the floating city the way we came in...soaking wet. Heading to Florence, we hadn't booked a hotel and weren't sure how long we would stay but we got a great deal on a hotel from a guy who came up to us in the train station and decided to stay two nights...Florence is beautiful. The train station not so much but the area around the old bridge, the only one not blown up in WWII, is so amazing! We were super lucky and went to see the David sculpture expecting a huge line and only waited for 15 minutes with no reservation! It was pretty good, maybe the best piece of art we've seen so far. We went for lunch at this crazy little restaurant called Marios and it was really good, just a bunch of tables where everyone sits next to each other and the food comes out really fast but it is all cooked slow-food style and its only open for lunch so there are big lines but totally worth it! And the wine was only 3 euros for 1/2 litre! Then we cruised to Sienna for a night and Sienna is magical, it really feels and looks like you stepped back through time. We were even lucky enough to see the parade of all the town's people marching, drumming, waiving flags and singing the town song for the beginning of Palio where they race horses through the streets of the city at the beginning of June and in September. We went to the famous basilica in Sienna and went up the tower and into the crypt and the baptistery before leaving for San Gimignano in the heart of Tuscany. It was a beautiful little town with 13 of 72 medieval towers still standing. We rented a SCOOTER and went touring the hillsides for wineries. We found many but stopped at three, tasted some excellent wine and picked up a few bottles for our cellar back home, and soaked every minute out of the most beautiful area I've ever seen. And NOW we are in Rome, where we have walked and walked and walked in search of things that would take our breath away but EVERYTHING is covered in scaffolding for cleaning or repairs or perhaps just to piss off all the tourists who came here to see all the stuff Rome is know for only to find a large picture of it wrapped around the scaffolding. But Trevi fountain was sans scaffolding and very beautiful, number 1 fountain so far!
Wheeefff...so thats it for now we are in Rome for another couple days and then off to Naples and the Amalfi coast and then off to GREECE! Hope everyone is doing well, send us an email we'd love to know whats happening in your lives.
we arrived in Italy and couch surfed with Matteo in La Spezia for two nights, we had a great bed in a beautiful old apartment in the center of La Spezia and after relaxing for a week in Monaco we decided to just relax for the day in La Spezia before heading off to Cinque Terra...but Italy closes on Sundays, so we walked around looking for something to do and then resigned to eating gelato on a park bench and soaking up the sun until we met Matteo and the other couch surfers at Matteo's for dinner which he cooked for us and was AMAZING! We had pasta with ricotta cheese and his home-made pesto and olive oil (it was the best thing I've eaten in Italy so far) and curry chicken with beans and home made ice cream...we got to meet one of Matteo's friends and he was very funny and very friendly. The next day we headed to Riomaggiore to start our exploration of Cinque Terra which was beautiful, we stayed in this hostel which had one double bed that we snagged, and five bunks all in one room although there was one less bed than people booked for the room and there was some confusion in the middle of the night! The hike through the five villages was awesome, the weather was great for most of it before we got to the fourth village and it started to rain, so we took the train to the last village and sat on the beach until it really started to rain and we took the train back to Riomaggiore. We took some great pictures but all the pictures are going to have to wait until we get home...after we left Cinque Terra we went to Pisa for a couple of hours and saw everything that leans, Pisa is more than just a tower apparently they let some guy build a three buildings that all lean! I guess architecture was not really what he should have been doing. We headed to Bologna after being stuck in Florence trying to get a train on the night of a long weekend and finally met up with Emily who hosted us on her couch and took us to a great little bar for beers and even scored some free beers, she was full of info about the town and took us around the next day, showing us all the secrets like the sculptor who wanted to put a larger penis on the statue but the Catholics wouldn't let him so when you look at the statue from a certain angle his hand is positioned so that he has a large erection! And the dome where you can whisper in one corner and another person can hear you PERFECTLY in another! We had great panini and gelato for lunch and went to a market and bought some fruit and headed off to Venice. Just our luck the city on water was under water with terrible rain all day when we arrived. when the rain finally broke we went on boat rides and saw the sights. The highlight was going to the OPERA! we saw a comedy about love in this little museum with gorgeous paintings and tons of history! The next day with clear skies we got to see the St. Marks's basilica and a lot of pigeons! We took the elevator to the top of the bell tower and saw Venice from the sky - an great view, even the pigeons looked good from there. We went to Murano, the glass island where all of Venice's glass makers were moved to avoid the fires that frequently happened. Sarah stopped in every shop and finally bought a pair of earrings. The last day it rained again and we left the floating city the way we came in...soaking wet. Heading to Florence, we hadn't booked a hotel and weren't sure how long we would stay but we got a great deal on a hotel from a guy who came up to us in the train station and decided to stay two nights...Florence is beautiful. The train station not so much but the area around the old bridge, the only one not blown up in WWII, is so amazing! We were super lucky and went to see the David sculpture expecting a huge line and only waited for 15 minutes with no reservation! It was pretty good, maybe the best piece of art we've seen so far. We went for lunch at this crazy little restaurant called Marios and it was really good, just a bunch of tables where everyone sits next to each other and the food comes out really fast but it is all cooked slow-food style and its only open for lunch so there are big lines but totally worth it! And the wine was only 3 euros for 1/2 litre! Then we cruised to Sienna for a night and Sienna is magical, it really feels and looks like you stepped back through time. We were even lucky enough to see the parade of all the town's people marching, drumming, waiving flags and singing the town song for the beginning of Palio where they race horses through the streets of the city at the beginning of June and in September. We went to the famous basilica in Sienna and went up the tower and into the crypt and the baptistery before leaving for San Gimignano in the heart of Tuscany. It was a beautiful little town with 13 of 72 medieval towers still standing. We rented a SCOOTER and went touring the hillsides for wineries. We found many but stopped at three, tasted some excellent wine and picked up a few bottles for our cellar back home, and soaked every minute out of the most beautiful area I've ever seen. And NOW we are in Rome, where we have walked and walked and walked in search of things that would take our breath away but EVERYTHING is covered in scaffolding for cleaning or repairs or perhaps just to piss off all the tourists who came here to see all the stuff Rome is know for only to find a large picture of it wrapped around the scaffolding. But Trevi fountain was sans scaffolding and very beautiful, number 1 fountain so far!
Wheeefff...so thats it for now we are in Rome for another couple days and then off to Naples and the Amalfi coast and then off to GREECE! Hope everyone is doing well, send us an email we'd love to know whats happening in your lives.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Living in Paradise
So we left off in Dijon...while in Dijon we had great company with our couch surfing host Stephanie (thanks A LOT) found a great market and had a nice picnic and hung out French style in a cafe for the evening. We made a side trip to Beaune where we went to three caves, where they store the wine under the city - there are hectares of wine (thousands of bottles) stored under the city as it has been for HUNDREDS of years! There are bottles that are over a hundred years old! We went on three wine tastings, the first we tasted 13 wines, although some guy follwed us around he didn't speak much and we referred to him as the "mole" since he lived underground and scuttled around very mole-like, the next a girl read everything to us that was posted on the wall while we "experienced" wine through our five sences...we listened to a popping tape of wine being made, saw the different colours of wine, smelled many different things, touch different materials and finally tasted 5 wines, our last tour was hilarious - it was with a big group of old people from Whales plus a couple of couples from Canada and America and our guide was awesome and the tour was great, the old people were laughing and talking so much by the end we were holding up the tour behind us and they were kissing all us young couples and we ended up going for this amazing dinner with the Canadian couple. Denis had escargot and beef tartare and I had beef bourgonon (the area's speciality) and nuggat ice cream for dessert - and some great wine, the service was great the chef even came to check on us twice!
We left Dijon the next day and headed off to Avignon to stay with Denis's aunt - they were so nice. They took us on some hikes to old ruins and to this area where there is red soil and rock formations similar to hoodoos, they cooked AMAZING food and made their own orange wine and nuggat, and they took us to the best ice cream place so far. We went the city of Avignon for the day and saw the Palais de Papes where the Popes lived and Christianity was centered for a few hundred years, it was pretty big and they were pretty lavish, there was an audioguide but it was pretty boring. We saw the Pont de Avignon (the bridge that only goes half way across the river and then hung out French style in a cafe for the rest of the afternoon. We also went to Fort Andre and an old monastery for amazing views of Avignon. Our last day we went to Aix en Provence and saw a church that has been there since the 5th century and has been added onto almost every century...it is a mis-mosh of every style of architecture...but there is a very important carving there which is very old and we got a tour of it and all the sculptures were explained...very interesting.
We left Avignon on Tuesday and headed for Monaco! We are here now and spent all day on the beach! Yes it is that hot! We are staying with Denis's cousin Christian who has an apartment five minutes from the beach with an amazing view of the sea.
Everything has been going so well so far except I fell on the stairs and scraped my knee today but I guess if thats our biggest problem we are doing okay! We are off to explore Cinque Terra, La Spezia, Bologna, and Venice next.
We left Dijon the next day and headed off to Avignon to stay with Denis's aunt - they were so nice. They took us on some hikes to old ruins and to this area where there is red soil and rock formations similar to hoodoos, they cooked AMAZING food and made their own orange wine and nuggat, and they took us to the best ice cream place so far. We went the city of Avignon for the day and saw the Palais de Papes where the Popes lived and Christianity was centered for a few hundred years, it was pretty big and they were pretty lavish, there was an audioguide but it was pretty boring. We saw the Pont de Avignon (the bridge that only goes half way across the river and then hung out French style in a cafe for the rest of the afternoon. We also went to Fort Andre and an old monastery for amazing views of Avignon. Our last day we went to Aix en Provence and saw a church that has been there since the 5th century and has been added onto almost every century...it is a mis-mosh of every style of architecture...but there is a very important carving there which is very old and we got a tour of it and all the sculptures were explained...very interesting.
We left Avignon on Tuesday and headed for Monaco! We are here now and spent all day on the beach! Yes it is that hot! We are staying with Denis's cousin Christian who has an apartment five minutes from the beach with an amazing view of the sea.
Everything has been going so well so far except I fell on the stairs and scraped my knee today but I guess if thats our biggest problem we are doing okay! We are off to explore Cinque Terra, La Spezia, Bologna, and Venice next.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
So Far So Good!
SO we arrived in Paris last week and have been having a great time, enjoying great cheese, great wine and meeting lots of great people...its been great!
In Paris we managed to stumble upon a free walking tour (in English) around downtown Paris, after we had our bearings and better knew where we wanted to go and what to see...including Notre Dame, Louvre, Arc de Triumph, Tour Eiffel, Les Invalides, L'ecole Militaire (where Napoleon went to Military school), St.Michaels Square. The first day we didn't go in anything just walked around and got all the trips and info and lots of history. The next day we went to Chateau Versailles, and it is AMAZING! The gardens are beautiful, we packed some bread and cheese and oranges and had a picnic in front of where the royalty lived! And then we went to see the Sacred Coeur - if you come to Paris - go here! There is a beautiful view of the city and the church is breath-taking and the area around the church is full of small cafes and beautiful houses and cobblestones and the Moulin Rouge, and we saw the Eiffel tower "sparkle" when thousands of little white lights flicker all over and it is really nice! Then we went to the Louvre...well there is a lot in the Louvre and although we saw the Mona Lisa there were many more other interesting things in the Louvre. We stayed with Denis's aunt just outside of Paris and she was very kind and we had dinner with her two daughters and Bernard and their son Baptiste and they were all very kind.
We left Paris on Saturday and went east to Strasbourg, which is also very beautiful although much more relaxing than Paris. The pace of life in Paris is quite fast and the traffic is crazy but in Strasbourg it is much smaller and quieter and perfectly fit the image of France I had in my head, there is a Gothic Cathedral de Notre Dame which was INCREDIBLE and we walked all the stairs to the top for a birds eye view of the city, went on a river boat tour complete with lockes that change the water level so you can continue on different parts of the canals. We had our first couch surfing experience with Pierre and it was GREAT, he was very generous and kind and introduced us to his friends...one of whom offered to let us stay with her in Dijon, where we are now exploring the Cote D'or wine country...the vineyards aren't quite blooming yet but there is lots of wine to drink! We had a fabulous dinner with our host Stephanie last night and ate the region's fare.
Next we are off to Avignon, Marseilles, Nice and Monaco before we head to Italy!
Hope to hear from you all soon
Sarah and Denis
In Paris we managed to stumble upon a free walking tour (in English) around downtown Paris, after we had our bearings and better knew where we wanted to go and what to see...including Notre Dame, Louvre, Arc de Triumph, Tour Eiffel, Les Invalides, L'ecole Militaire (where Napoleon went to Military school), St.Michaels Square. The first day we didn't go in anything just walked around and got all the trips and info and lots of history. The next day we went to Chateau Versailles, and it is AMAZING! The gardens are beautiful, we packed some bread and cheese and oranges and had a picnic in front of where the royalty lived! And then we went to see the Sacred Coeur - if you come to Paris - go here! There is a beautiful view of the city and the church is breath-taking and the area around the church is full of small cafes and beautiful houses and cobblestones and the Moulin Rouge, and we saw the Eiffel tower "sparkle" when thousands of little white lights flicker all over and it is really nice! Then we went to the Louvre...well there is a lot in the Louvre and although we saw the Mona Lisa there were many more other interesting things in the Louvre. We stayed with Denis's aunt just outside of Paris and she was very kind and we had dinner with her two daughters and Bernard and their son Baptiste and they were all very kind.
We left Paris on Saturday and went east to Strasbourg, which is also very beautiful although much more relaxing than Paris. The pace of life in Paris is quite fast and the traffic is crazy but in Strasbourg it is much smaller and quieter and perfectly fit the image of France I had in my head, there is a Gothic Cathedral de Notre Dame which was INCREDIBLE and we walked all the stairs to the top for a birds eye view of the city, went on a river boat tour complete with lockes that change the water level so you can continue on different parts of the canals. We had our first couch surfing experience with Pierre and it was GREAT, he was very generous and kind and introduced us to his friends...one of whom offered to let us stay with her in Dijon, where we are now exploring the Cote D'or wine country...the vineyards aren't quite blooming yet but there is lots of wine to drink! We had a fabulous dinner with our host Stephanie last night and ate the region's fare.
Next we are off to Avignon, Marseilles, Nice and Monaco before we head to Italy!
Hope to hear from you all soon
Sarah and Denis
Monday, April 09, 2007
MARCH
Hello everyone!
So March went buy so quickly! We are now in Canada and are leaving for Paris tonight to start our four month tour of France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain and Morocco.
so our last month in Japan was amazing and very sad, it was very hard to say goodbye to all of our friends and students and we will miss everyone very much and look forward to seeing you all in Canada or some other part of the world! Although we didn't travel anywhere in March, other than a quick trip to Tokyo, there were a lot of karaoke parties and a lot of eating and drinking which makes for good pictures :) and great memories.
Our two weeks in Canada was great, after an excrutiating 30 hour trip from the time we left our apartment in Japan to the time we cleared customs in Canada, we tied up some loose ends in Calgary for a day and then drove to BC to see my mom, sister, Phil and the newest addition to our family my sister's baby Olivia! She is a very happy baby who loves to smile and very aware that she is so cute and almost never cries - my sister is very lucky. And after we were blessed with good weather in BC four 3 days, on the drive home it started to snow and continued to snow in both Edmonton and Calgary for the next week - NON-STOP! We spent some time in Edmonton visting friends and family and Denis was introduced to his brother's Nintendo Wii...he was a little additiced to bowling of all things but that will have to wait. Then we came back to Calgary and ate and ate and ate...I discovered our lives in Calgary revolve around food and since I couldn't drink because I had to take some meds to clear and infection I realized how much I normally drink too, sometimes in the middle of the day or even before then :) So I was the DD by default and Denis fully took advantage of it...but I traded not drinking wine in Canada for drinking in France so I think it will be a good trade. We had our fill of Tim Hortons, well Denis is sick of it but I am still going strong with one or two X-Large steeped tea double-doubles!
So thank you to everyone who hosted us back in Canada and to everyone who spared some time out of there busy schedule to make us feel special! And thank you to everyone who made us feel so at home in Japan - keep in touch!
GARY, RAY, SVEN, LEIGH...you buggers better email us - we miss you terribly! Take care of each other!
So we are off to France and I hope that I can keep up on the blog...I promise to return emails though so tell us what is happening in your lives! Happy Easter everyone!
So March went buy so quickly! We are now in Canada and are leaving for Paris tonight to start our four month tour of France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain and Morocco.
so our last month in Japan was amazing and very sad, it was very hard to say goodbye to all of our friends and students and we will miss everyone very much and look forward to seeing you all in Canada or some other part of the world! Although we didn't travel anywhere in March, other than a quick trip to Tokyo, there were a lot of karaoke parties and a lot of eating and drinking which makes for good pictures :) and great memories.
Our two weeks in Canada was great, after an excrutiating 30 hour trip from the time we left our apartment in Japan to the time we cleared customs in Canada, we tied up some loose ends in Calgary for a day and then drove to BC to see my mom, sister, Phil and the newest addition to our family my sister's baby Olivia! She is a very happy baby who loves to smile and very aware that she is so cute and almost never cries - my sister is very lucky. And after we were blessed with good weather in BC four 3 days, on the drive home it started to snow and continued to snow in both Edmonton and Calgary for the next week - NON-STOP! We spent some time in Edmonton visting friends and family and Denis was introduced to his brother's Nintendo Wii...he was a little additiced to bowling of all things but that will have to wait. Then we came back to Calgary and ate and ate and ate...I discovered our lives in Calgary revolve around food and since I couldn't drink because I had to take some meds to clear and infection I realized how much I normally drink too, sometimes in the middle of the day or even before then :) So I was the DD by default and Denis fully took advantage of it...but I traded not drinking wine in Canada for drinking in France so I think it will be a good trade. We had our fill of Tim Hortons, well Denis is sick of it but I am still going strong with one or two X-Large steeped tea double-doubles!
So thank you to everyone who hosted us back in Canada and to everyone who spared some time out of there busy schedule to make us feel special! And thank you to everyone who made us feel so at home in Japan - keep in touch!
GARY, RAY, SVEN, LEIGH...you buggers better email us - we miss you terribly! Take care of each other!
So we are off to France and I hope that I can keep up on the blog...I promise to return emails though so tell us what is happening in your lives! Happy Easter everyone!
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
FEBRUARY
Hello everyone!
So, our time in Japan is almost over and we are getting very excited to come home and see everyone and are also very busy planning our time in Europe and getting very anxious to explore everything we have been reading about. Thanks to everyone who sent us info about the places you loved or hated - any other information is always greatly appreciated.
February was pretty normal here, we did go on trips although not together. Denis went to an onsen in the snow with Gary, Ray, Masa, and Casey where they saw lots of snow, had naked snowball fights, ate strange but elaborate Japanese meals and stopped for bear and deer on a stick, and saw barbecued sparrow, which we learned is the original yaki-tori (meaning barbecued chicken but literally translates to barbecued bird) but since chickens aren't native to Japan the original bird was a sparrow.
So, our time in Japan is almost over and we are getting very excited to come home and see everyone and are also very busy planning our time in Europe and getting very anxious to explore everything we have been reading about. Thanks to everyone who sent us info about the places you loved or hated - any other information is always greatly appreciated.
February was pretty normal here, we did go on trips although not together. Denis went to an onsen in the snow with Gary, Ray, Masa, and Casey where they saw lots of snow, had naked snowball fights, ate strange but elaborate Japanese meals and stopped for bear and deer on a stick, and saw barbecued sparrow, which we learned is the original yaki-tori (meaning barbecued chicken but literally translates to barbecued bird) but since chickens aren't native to Japan the original bird was a sparrow.
I went on a girls only weekend with Alison and Leigh and although we did find a lot of snow along the mountain road as we were driving to Takayama, there wasn't any on the ground when we got there (which is very strange but it has been unusually warm this year) although we were blessed to have snow fall, but melt when it hit the ground, almost all weekend. We walked through a traditional Japanese street that looked exactly as I had pictured Japan looking, I guess we were only 200 years too late, and saw the traditional houses built 100 - 500 years ago in the Hida Village. We also were blessed to find a great little Italian restaurant with the best spaghetti I may have ever eaten and a nice bottle of wine. We also ate Mexican food which is very hard to find in Japan so we were very lucky! We too stopped at an outdoor onsens and after wondering around for awhile looking for the bathroom to wash as is required before public bathing only to find there was no bathroom and so we had to just jump in which turns out what everyone does so we didn't feel so bad. But we had beautiful mountains and snow and fresh mountain air around us it was great!
The rest of February has been pretty normal. We went to pick strawberries with the preschool class, and that was fun. For 1000 yen (about $10) we got to pick and eat as many strawberries as we could for 30 minutes. Denis and I made the most of it, so did some of the kids but eating until your going to burst and then running around apparently doesn't make your stomach very happy and some of the kids were sick.
We are starting to pack up some things and are planning on making a couple trips to Tokyo to see some things we haven't yet seen and to party all night as everyone who visits Tokyo must do! And then we are off, only 19 more days!
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
JANUARY
Well, not much exciting happened in January. The first week we spent in Okinawa but I wrote about that in our last post. The rest of the time we spent hanging out in Ashikaga, playing cards with friends 
We did book our ticket home and that was exciting. We are coming back to Canada for two weeks before flying to Paris and travelling France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Spain and maybe Portugal for four months until we fly back to Canada for Denis's little brother's wedding in August. So if you have any suggestions for must sees on our trip please send them along, we are trying to make a rough itinerary although the plan is to be pretty flexible.
So we will be arriving in Calgary March 26, spending a day doing some errands and then driving to Penticton for three days to visit my mother, sister, grandmother, Phil and our niece and soon-to-be God daughter Olivia and will drive back to Edmonton April 1st and stay until Thursday when we will go back to Calgary and visit until we leave for Paris on Monday. Hopefully we will get a chance to visit with everyone, so send us some emails and tell us when is best for you, it is going to be a pretty busy trip but we will make time for everyone! We can't wait to see you all and catch up on the past year!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
DECEMBER
Well, December was a very busy month. Starting off with Denis' birthday, we made dinner for some friends to celebrate at a friends house, because ours is far to small to have more than one guest over, and Denis had a terrible cold and wasn't feeling up to the regular ridiculously drunk birthday parties we have. It was very nice, we had champagne and got to visit with everyone before we all went our separate ways for the holiday season.Then it was a barrage of Christmas parties, we had our work party for all our adult students, the first party was at the office and was very nice and then after the official party everyone went to a karaoke bar for all you could drink and all you could sing, needless to say the all you could drink helped the singing. The next weekend we had the children's Christmas party complete with Santa although most kids were terrified of Santa but enjoyed the goodie bags and they were all very cute singing the Christmas carols we taught them. We also were invited to a Christmas party at my student, Tsugawa's house. It was very nice with GREAT wine and food that he made himself. We got to meet some very nice people and I got to practice my Japanese which seems to get better when I am drunk cause I carried on a whole conversation in Japanese with these people and Denis was astounded!
The last week before our break started on December 23 was full of Christmas parties, even one where Denis got to play Santa for 3-5 year olds! Although he was the skinniest Santa ever, but that didn't phase the kids, they really thought he was Santa and when they asked him the questions they had been practicing, "how old are you?", "where do you live?", "how do you fly?", and a whispered "kiss me"...Denis answered in his very best Santa voice, "very, very old - I forget how old I am, I've lost track", and "I live at the North Pole" which we would accept as the right answer but people in Japan think Santa lives in Finland, so the translator had to cover up for him, and "magic, and I can only fly with my magic reindeer and my sleigh" and after thinking he had misheard the request for a kiss, he picked the girl up and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Then we were on a 2 week vacation and ventured south to the southern most islands in Japan, Okinawa. We stayed at this GREAT guesthouse in Miyako (about 40 minute flight south of Okinawa's main island), it was a fluke to find the best place to stay in Miyako since the website wasn't in English but the pictures on it were really cool we decided to stay there anyways. Turns out both the guys who run the place speak great english and were super friendly. There was an older man, Amane-san, who was so kind and generous offering Denis many homemade concoctions to cure his everlasting cold, ginger tea, turmeric tea, awamori and hot water (awamori is a special Okinawa alcohol) and offering advice on where to go and what to see and helping to arrange a rental car. The other man, Hiro-san, spent time in the Netherlands and all of Europe and lived in America for a few years in New York and was really into photography and explained lots about Miyako and Japanese culture to us. The guesthouse was so warm and welcoming and relaxing it was the perfect start to our vacation. Although we were hoping for warm enough weather to go snorkeling, we weren't so lucky, but it was nice enough to hang out on the beach and read a book and build sand castles and take lots of pictures. We had a great time and the ocean in Miyako was so clear and blue and absolutely beautiful, and the town was full of many surprises. We found a great ramen shop and ate soba noodles at Koja, which has been around Miyako serving soba for over 50 years and although the lady running Koja was 76 years old she spoke great english and was very, very nice. We had half the people in the restaurant at our table talking to us after she would tell people we were from Canada and living in Japan. We also found A&W in Miyako and were so happy, it was sooo good! If you are heading to Miyako and need a place to stay check out Hiraraya http://www.miyako-net.ne.jp/~hiraraya/index2.html, just email them, they can email you back in English - it really felt like we were just at home and we were really sad to leave!
Then we flew off to the main island of Okinawa, although we were planning on taking the ferry, the ferry schedule didn't cooperate so we flew. The first hostel we stayed at looked great on the internet but sucked in actuality, it was separated men and women dorms which is fine but there was no common area to hang out in so Denis and I had to walk around or go to bed and after a whole day of walking you just want to sit and relax, a common room is very important! and no kitchen to cook in so it was McD's for breakfast everyday after three nights I couldn't take it anymore and we lied to get our money back and went to a different hostel that was way nicer! The second place we stayed was Sora House and was really nice, a little loud but it was fun, the owner's sun put on a magic show one night and we met some really nice people there, there was a great common area and a kitchen and even a roof top patio. We arrived in Okinawa on December 30, and spent the night checking out the main street Kokusai-dori which is the busiest street in Naha and has all the hot spots and a ton of souvenir shops. We found somewhere to eat and did a lot of walking around. The next day we walked to the Tsuboya pottery area of Naha, where there is a huge kiln made in the 1680's and while in this area of the city there used to be 10 kilns of this kind this is the only on left after WWII. We found out that the fighting that occurred between the Americans and the Japanese in Japan occurred in Okinawa and that Okinawa severely suffered, the island was destroyed and 1/3 of the population was killed. After browsing the pottery shops that still operate in the area, and some of Japan's finest pottery happens here, we went to the Makishi market. During WWII the Makishi market was a black market for American goods and other goods that weren't available readily because of the war but now is a crazy market divided into four sections, seafood, pork, tofu, and pickled things. Pork is very popular in Okinawa and in the market you could buy any part of the pig, in the supermarkets we had seen pigs feet (which Denis ate!) and ears and the skin from the face of the pig including the nose and ears, but at the Makishi market we saw the whole hear, whole legs for sale with the feet still attached, anything you could imagine, very interesting. After the excitement of the market we wandered to a Chinese garden and found the city beach and hung out for a while before heading back to the main strip for Indian food and some partying for New Year's Eve. We found this great place, Mike and Paul's Place a little Canadian owned bar right on the main street and decided it would be a good place to hang out for the New Year. It was pretty slow when we first got there but after meeting the bartenders, Brian, Julie and Wayne, who were super cool people poured in and it eventually turned out to be a pretty crazy party and with real beer and vodka and Red-Bull I don't even remember leaving! The next day was really rough, and we had planned to go to Shuri castle to see the traditional New Year's day ceremonies of the Ryukyu kingdom (Okinawa used to be its own country before it was invaded by Japan so it has a very different history, different culture as it had many trading partners within south-east asia including many influences from China). We saw the festivities and after returning to the hostel for a nap we saw the traditional Ryukyu dancing, which appear to be women but after the second performance we realized they were men. The next day we rented a car and drove around to all the castle ruins in Okinawa. There are seven World Heritage sites, one being Shuri castle, the rest are just ruins destroyed during the war but lots of cool stone gates! The next day we cruised the island a little more with the car and went to another pottery village, one that is still operate using the old techniques and went to the sacred rocks where it is believed that were the origin of the Ryukyu kingdom and were very prominent in their religion. We also went to Okinawa Cave World, where there is a huge underground stalactite cave, the largest in Japan. It was very cool. There were many things to see and do there, we watched a couple traditional performances and walked through a recreated old village. On our drive back we found a place that blows glass, which Okinawa is also famous for and watched that for awhile. We spent the rest of our time relaxing, eating tacos (real mexican tacos!) and other Japanese food and returned to our favorite bar for our last night where Denis was invited behind the bar to make his signature shot.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
NOVEMBER
I can't believe how fast November went by, it seems like Halloween was just a couple of weeks ago, and I don't even remember the beginning of November - good thing we have a lot of pictures to remind us :)
The first weekend in November was a long weekend, so we made a couple day trips to the mountains around us, Mt. Akagi and Nasudake (dake means volcano!). Mt. Akagi is famous for onsens, hot springs, and there are a lot of them. We found one that was very interesting, we walked in and paid and then the lady just pointed in the general direction of upstairs so we ventured up but unlike every other onsen we've been to the actual changing and bathing area was not clearly visible, after much slinking about cause we didn't want to be the stupid foreign people, we found the women’s area and I left Denis to find the men’s on his own. He eventually did, and from the pictures in the brochure his was, as always, way cooler than mine, since mine was about regular hot tub size, maybe smaller, and there were three other naked Japanese women in it...but I would rather have a small tub than talk to someone while bathing naked like Denis had to. It was a very pretty drive, although we found what seemed like all the pig farms in Tochigi, translation - it stank! The next day we went to Nasudake, It was a really nice fall day, the leaves were changing colour and the sky was blue, we took the ropeway up to almost the top of the mountain with the intentions of making the 45 minute up to the top to see the steam coming from the active volcano, but it was REALLY cold up there and REALLY windy, so we walked a little farther up, took some pictures, met a crazy Japanese man who insisted we be part of his group photo, and then went back down. Nasu is also famous for onsens, being an active volcano there is a lot of hot water and so in this little tiny town, there are 21 onsens - all of them sulphur onsens, so it was pretty smelly but the onsen we chose was great. Very old fashioned, mine for once was better than Denis' and it was the perfect day.
The next weekend my students threw a party for me, since I had to change classes and someone else was taking over their class, it was really fun. A lot of food and a lot of drinks and of course the night ended in karaoke and in my drunken state I was extra enthusiastic and my throat was so sore I couldn't speak for the next two days.
Finally the long awaited 23rd annual Ashikaga CoCo Wine Festival was here. This winery in Ashikaga provides jobs to mentally and physically handicapped people, but they make a pretty good wine and lots of other products. Grape seed oil, bread, cheese, they grow mushrooms...but every year they have a harvest festival and invite everyone to come drink wine on the hills, there is music and food and lots of alcohol. For 2000 yen you get a corkscrew, a glass, a pin and a bottle of red or white or sparkling grape juice (needless to say no one in our group picked grape juice and when someone gave us a bottle on their way out we traded it in for more wine). It was a ton of fun and it was an absolutely beautiful day. But the party didn't stop there, we came back to our apartments and after Leigh dropped and smashed two bottles of wine we were left with only two. One to drink while we attempted to play a card game but did more spilling and cleaning than playing and Casey, Leigh and Alison drank on the way to the ramen shop by themselves. Needless to say they were far more wasted than they were, falling over and knocking down the screen separating the table space onto an unsuspecting couple eating their ramen...it was ridiculous, Casey passed out on the floor and we, with strong encouragement from K-chan, the ramen shop owner and Casey's friend, drew a mustache and unibrow and started to write profanities on his face but he woke up.
We had one day of work and then we got six days off, so we flew to Hiroshima, and went to see the floating Torii gate in Miyajima about a 30 minute train ride and 10 minute ferry from Hiroshima (declared one of the top three sights in Japan, though we disagree). There are tons of deer on Miyajima and they are very tame, so we hung out with them for a bit and then moved on. The leaves were changing colour and it was absolutely gorgeous, there were a ton of people there after walking through a park loaded with yellow, red, orange, and green trees and we took the ropeway to the top of the mountain to see the sights. When we got to the top we were pleasantly surprised to see monkeys! After a 30 minute hike we reached the top and there were more deer. We watched the sunset and took the ferry back to Hiroshima. We walked around a little, had dinner and then went back to our hotel room, a real bed and a great view. The next day we went to the Peace Memorial museum and it was very sad, very touching and very honest. There were pictures taken on the day that are too gruesome to describe, there were clothes from people who were killed that day and weird things like fingernails, or skin, or hair that had fallen out from people who survived. They were pictures of what Hiroshima looked like before and what it looked like after, there were explanations and pleas for peace. After we walked through the Peace Memorial Park and saw the eternal flame that will stay lit until there are no more nuclear weapons, we saw Sadako's crane memorial, the girl who had cancer from the bomb and tried to fold 1000 cranes to receive a wish but died before she finished. There was a group of children there who had brought more cranes and said a prayer, we rang the peace bell and marveled at the A-bomb Dome.
Then we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, found our ryokan (pronounced dyo-kan) and went to sleep. The next day we woke up and walked and walked and walked. We went to the Golden Pavilion, a temple covered in GOLD! It was GORGEOUS - definitely a must see for anyone coming to Japan and Denis's favourite sight yet. The leaves were changing colour making it all the more beautiful. Then off to Ryoanji, the famous rock garden, very quiet, very interesting, very...zen. Then we went to another temple in search of more leaf changing photo ops, and another, and another and then we went downtown to eat and search out geisha. We walked and walked and walked and though we found food, we had less luck finding geisha. We returned to our ryokan, grabbed our onsen gear and went off walking in search of the onsen recommended by our Lonely Planet book. After way more walking than we thought we finally found it, we soaked, relaxed and took the bus back to bed. The next day we went to Nara, to see the seated Daibutsu. It was great, and there were a ton of dear, who were believed to be messengers of the gods - yes Marc, those are messengers of the gods you are eating - and you could by deer food for 150 yen, but we cheaped out and showed our affection by petting them rather than feeding them. After more walking and a lunch near a pond in a park full of people painting and sketching and a lovely Japanese lady who gave us some candy we headed off to Osaka to see the city at night since we were only planning on being there for the day before our flight. We went to the top of a really tall building with an outdoor observatory and watched the sun set over the Osaka delta, beautiful. Then we walked around some more interesting areas of Osaka and saw the Osaka tower and a lot of more questionable establishments...and then went back to Kyoto. Our last day in Kyoto was spent in search of geisha and souvenirs and we found them both! But when you see a geisha you had better be ready cause they walk FAST, really, really fast and they disappear quickly...but I caught a couple! Our last day we went to the Osaka castle and walked around the huge park that surrounds it, although it started to rain 4 hours before we had to get to the airport but, it's not much fun to be wet so we went to the airport to see if we could get an earlier flight...no such luck but we enjoyed some Starbucks and the final day of the sumo tournament in the Arrivals area...it was a great way to spend the day.
So that’s it, whew... one week till Denis's birthday and only three more weeks of work till our two week Christmas vacation in Okinawa!! Merry Christmas Everyone.
The first weekend in November was a long weekend, so we made a couple day trips to the mountains around us, Mt. Akagi and Nasudake (dake means volcano!). Mt. Akagi is famous for onsens, hot springs, and there are a lot of them. We found one that was very interesting, we walked in and paid and then the lady just pointed in the general direction of upstairs so we ventured up but unlike every other onsen we've been to the actual changing and bathing area was not clearly visible, after much slinking about cause we didn't want to be the stupid foreign people, we found the women’s area and I left Denis to find the men’s on his own. He eventually did, and from the pictures in the brochure his was, as always, way cooler than mine, since mine was about regular hot tub size, maybe smaller, and there were three other naked Japanese women in it...but I would rather have a small tub than talk to someone while bathing naked like Denis had to. It was a very pretty drive, although we found what seemed like all the pig farms in Tochigi, translation - it stank! The next day we went to Nasudake, It was a really nice fall day, the leaves were changing colour and the sky was blue, we took the ropeway up to almost the top of the mountain with the intentions of making the 45 minute up to the top to see the steam coming from the active volcano, but it was REALLY cold up there and REALLY windy, so we walked a little farther up, took some pictures, met a crazy Japanese man who insisted we be part of his group photo, and then went back down. Nasu is also famous for onsens, being an active volcano there is a lot of hot water and so in this little tiny town, there are 21 onsens - all of them sulphur onsens, so it was pretty smelly but the onsen we chose was great. Very old fashioned, mine for once was better than Denis' and it was the perfect day.
The next weekend my students threw a party for me, since I had to change classes and someone else was taking over their class, it was really fun. A lot of food and a lot of drinks and of course the night ended in karaoke and in my drunken state I was extra enthusiastic and my throat was so sore I couldn't speak for the next two days.
Finally the long awaited 23rd annual Ashikaga CoCo Wine Festival was here. This winery in Ashikaga provides jobs to mentally and physically handicapped people, but they make a pretty good wine and lots of other products. Grape seed oil, bread, cheese, they grow mushrooms...but every year they have a harvest festival and invite everyone to come drink wine on the hills, there is music and food and lots of alcohol. For 2000 yen you get a corkscrew, a glass, a pin and a bottle of red or white or sparkling grape juice (needless to say no one in our group picked grape juice and when someone gave us a bottle on their way out we traded it in for more wine). It was a ton of fun and it was an absolutely beautiful day. But the party didn't stop there, we came back to our apartments and after Leigh dropped and smashed two bottles of wine we were left with only two. One to drink while we attempted to play a card game but did more spilling and cleaning than playing and Casey, Leigh and Alison drank on the way to the ramen shop by themselves. Needless to say they were far more wasted than they were, falling over and knocking down the screen separating the table space onto an unsuspecting couple eating their ramen...it was ridiculous, Casey passed out on the floor and we, with strong encouragement from K-chan, the ramen shop owner and Casey's friend, drew a mustache and unibrow and started to write profanities on his face but he woke up.
We had one day of work and then we got six days off, so we flew to Hiroshima, and went to see the floating Torii gate in Miyajima about a 30 minute train ride and 10 minute ferry from Hiroshima (declared one of the top three sights in Japan, though we disagree). There are tons of deer on Miyajima and they are very tame, so we hung out with them for a bit and then moved on. The leaves were changing colour and it was absolutely gorgeous, there were a ton of people there after walking through a park loaded with yellow, red, orange, and green trees and we took the ropeway to the top of the mountain to see the sights. When we got to the top we were pleasantly surprised to see monkeys! After a 30 minute hike we reached the top and there were more deer. We watched the sunset and took the ferry back to Hiroshima. We walked around a little, had dinner and then went back to our hotel room, a real bed and a great view. The next day we went to the Peace Memorial museum and it was very sad, very touching and very honest. There were pictures taken on the day that are too gruesome to describe, there were clothes from people who were killed that day and weird things like fingernails, or skin, or hair that had fallen out from people who survived. They were pictures of what Hiroshima looked like before and what it looked like after, there were explanations and pleas for peace. After we walked through the Peace Memorial Park and saw the eternal flame that will stay lit until there are no more nuclear weapons, we saw Sadako's crane memorial, the girl who had cancer from the bomb and tried to fold 1000 cranes to receive a wish but died before she finished. There was a group of children there who had brought more cranes and said a prayer, we rang the peace bell and marveled at the A-bomb Dome.
Then we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, found our ryokan (pronounced dyo-kan) and went to sleep. The next day we woke up and walked and walked and walked. We went to the Golden Pavilion, a temple covered in GOLD! It was GORGEOUS - definitely a must see for anyone coming to Japan and Denis's favourite sight yet. The leaves were changing colour making it all the more beautiful. Then off to Ryoanji, the famous rock garden, very quiet, very interesting, very...zen. Then we went to another temple in search of more leaf changing photo ops, and another, and another and then we went downtown to eat and search out geisha. We walked and walked and walked and though we found food, we had less luck finding geisha. We returned to our ryokan, grabbed our onsen gear and went off walking in search of the onsen recommended by our Lonely Planet book. After way more walking than we thought we finally found it, we soaked, relaxed and took the bus back to bed. The next day we went to Nara, to see the seated Daibutsu. It was great, and there were a ton of dear, who were believed to be messengers of the gods - yes Marc, those are messengers of the gods you are eating - and you could by deer food for 150 yen, but we cheaped out and showed our affection by petting them rather than feeding them. After more walking and a lunch near a pond in a park full of people painting and sketching and a lovely Japanese lady who gave us some candy we headed off to Osaka to see the city at night since we were only planning on being there for the day before our flight. We went to the top of a really tall building with an outdoor observatory and watched the sun set over the Osaka delta, beautiful. Then we walked around some more interesting areas of Osaka and saw the Osaka tower and a lot of more questionable establishments...and then went back to Kyoto. Our last day in Kyoto was spent in search of geisha and souvenirs and we found them both! But when you see a geisha you had better be ready cause they walk FAST, really, really fast and they disappear quickly...but I caught a couple! Our last day we went to the Osaka castle and walked around the huge park that surrounds it, although it started to rain 4 hours before we had to get to the airport but, it's not much fun to be wet so we went to the airport to see if we could get an earlier flight...no such luck but we enjoyed some Starbucks and the final day of the sumo tournament in the Arrivals area...it was a great way to spend the day.
So that’s it, whew... one week till Denis's birthday and only three more weeks of work till our two week Christmas vacation in Okinawa!! Merry Christmas Everyone.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
OCTOBER
So October has come and gone, we went to the Philippines and that was very interesting experience (see the post below for the details) other than that we stayed around Ashikaga and hung out with friends and of course we showed the Japanese how to do Halloween.
After returning from the Philippines we went for dinner with one of my students, Tsugawa. He took us to a very nice tempura restaurant in Ashikaga and the food was great, but the wine was even better. Tsugawa always chooses great wines, I am so lucky as good wine is hard to find here. We had tempura shrimp, two kinds of mushrooms, squid, crab, onion, Denis and Tsugawa had raw squid and squid liver as an appetizer and fried shrimp legs as a crunchy treat...I ate unagi (eel) and it was not too bad.
And then there was Halloween, I made some sweet costumes. Denis was Mr. Incredible and I was Supergirl since we didn't want to scare the little kids too much we decided to be something fun and everybody loved it, especially our Japanese coworker, I am going to post the pictures on the other website, sarahanddenis.toadfire.com. So we had a Halloween party for all the preschool kids and about 80 people showed up, it was kind of a zoo but it was fun. And then we went to a friends apartment for an adult only Halloween party and that was a lot of fun, some of us had more fun than others (Denis :) It would seem that Japanese men like to dress up as women, there was a slutty one, a pregnant one, and a surfer one...it was great anyways.
That was about it, October was pretty quiet. But check out the pictures and send us an email we miss you all!
After returning from the Philippines we went for dinner with one of my students, Tsugawa. He took us to a very nice tempura restaurant in Ashikaga and the food was great, but the wine was even better. Tsugawa always chooses great wines, I am so lucky as good wine is hard to find here. We had tempura shrimp, two kinds of mushrooms, squid, crab, onion, Denis and Tsugawa had raw squid and squid liver as an appetizer and fried shrimp legs as a crunchy treat...I ate unagi (eel) and it was not too bad.And then there was Halloween, I made some sweet costumes. Denis was Mr. Incredible and I was Supergirl since we didn't want to scare the little kids too much we decided to be something fun and everybody loved it, especially our Japanese coworker, I am going to post the pictures on the other website, sarahanddenis.toadfire.com. So we had a Halloween party for all the preschool kids and about 80 people showed up, it was kind of a zoo but it was fun. And then we went to a friends apartment for an adult only Halloween party and that was a lot of fun, some of us had more fun than others (Denis :) It would seem that Japanese men like to dress up as women, there was a slutty one, a pregnant one, and a surfer one...it was great anyways.
That was about it, October was pretty quiet. But check out the pictures and send us an email we miss you all!
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Philippines
So we escaped to the Philippines for our extended weekend vacation, we booked a flight to leave Saturday but we got to the airport and it was a HUGE mess, there was a typhoon the Friday night that cancelled a few flights and there was a big backlog, not to mention we were flying with the most incompetent airline, Northwest. We waited in line for 12 hours, then had to sleep in the airport, finally got rebooked on another flight, and then left...the story is much more complicated there was no information, no updates, no one to ask, it was ridiculous and when we tried to volunteer our tickets to other people trying to get to funerals or weddings we were told no...anyways we made it to Manila and it was crazy.
We have never been anywhere like that before, we stepped out of the airport and got into a cab, that was the easy part. We got to the bus place, I can't call it a terminal since it was just a place with a lot of busses but no ticket counter just a lot of people trying to get you into their bus. After a two and a half hour bus ride with people coming on and off trying to sell us things, we got off in Batangas, a port city where we were to take a boat to Puerto Galera but when we got off the bus we were once again swallowed up by people trying to get us to go on their boat but they told us that the last boat had already left and it was going to cost A LOT, 10 times what the regular boat would cost, we were exhausted, a day late because of the airport and just wanted to hit the beach, so we paid the man and got to the boat. We had to pay them first because they needed to buy gas for the boat so we gave them the money and then they left and we were sitting in the boat, in the water, and all these people kept coming up to us asking for tips, pushing off tip, boat carrying tip, it was a little scary and I thought for sure that we were screwed but they came back and we started off for White Beach, near Puerto Galera. They said it would only take one hour, it was late and it was starting to get dark, lucky us, we saw the sunset which was really beautiful but then it was dark and we were on this little boat in the ocean and it was dark, no light and other bigger boats around, we almost got ran over by a ferry and had to go very slow because they were waves and we couldn't see them because it was dark, the ride ended up taking 2.5 hours, but we made it.
Once we were there it was beautiful, we stayed in this overpriced hotel the first night because we were exhausted and just wanted somewhere clean with a door that locked, the next day we asked the front desk what the best way to get to the smaller beach that Lonely Planet had said was much nicer, they told us it would be 1000 pesos for a boat or they could drive us for 800, so we decided to take a walk. We found the beach it was just around the corner! Less than a 10 minute walk, that was the most frustrating thing about our experience in the Philippines, everyone is trying to rip you off. So we got our stuff and went to this other hotel, it was perfect. It was a much quieter beach, no boats, no hustlers, few people, white sand, clear blue water, and we were the only people staying at the hotel so everything was just for us. We went snorkeling and it was beautiful, like looking into an aquarium and there were sooo many fish, it was great until I saw a jellyfish! I had never seen a jellyfish, and didn't know that I was TERRIFIED of them, I saw a jellyfish and started hyperventalating. We saw back to shore and I was perfectly content to stay on the beach. Denis went back out and when he came back he said that it was beautiful, and he didn't see anymore jellyfish. So the next day I decided to go again, everything was beautiful again, until the jellyfish, I again freaked out and we started swimming back to shore. And then I saw a HUGE water snake, I jumped over Denis and took off - it was the scariest thing I have ever seen. I stayed out of the water after that. I decided that was enough for me...the beach was just fine. It was very relaxing, too bad it didn't last longer...
the pictures on sarahanddenis.toadfire.com
We have never been anywhere like that before, we stepped out of the airport and got into a cab, that was the easy part. We got to the bus place, I can't call it a terminal since it was just a place with a lot of busses but no ticket counter just a lot of people trying to get you into their bus. After a two and a half hour bus ride with people coming on and off trying to sell us things, we got off in Batangas, a port city where we were to take a boat to Puerto Galera but when we got off the bus we were once again swallowed up by people trying to get us to go on their boat but they told us that the last boat had already left and it was going to cost A LOT, 10 times what the regular boat would cost, we were exhausted, a day late because of the airport and just wanted to hit the beach, so we paid the man and got to the boat. We had to pay them first because they needed to buy gas for the boat so we gave them the money and then they left and we were sitting in the boat, in the water, and all these people kept coming up to us asking for tips, pushing off tip, boat carrying tip, it was a little scary and I thought for sure that we were screwed but they came back and we started off for White Beach, near Puerto Galera. They said it would only take one hour, it was late and it was starting to get dark, lucky us, we saw the sunset which was really beautiful but then it was dark and we were on this little boat in the ocean and it was dark, no light and other bigger boats around, we almost got ran over by a ferry and had to go very slow because they were waves and we couldn't see them because it was dark, the ride ended up taking 2.5 hours, but we made it.
Once we were there it was beautiful, we stayed in this overpriced hotel the first night because we were exhausted and just wanted somewhere clean with a door that locked, the next day we asked the front desk what the best way to get to the smaller beach that Lonely Planet had said was much nicer, they told us it would be 1000 pesos for a boat or they could drive us for 800, so we decided to take a walk. We found the beach it was just around the corner! Less than a 10 minute walk, that was the most frustrating thing about our experience in the Philippines, everyone is trying to rip you off. So we got our stuff and went to this other hotel, it was perfect. It was a much quieter beach, no boats, no hustlers, few people, white sand, clear blue water, and we were the only people staying at the hotel so everything was just for us. We went snorkeling and it was beautiful, like looking into an aquarium and there were sooo many fish, it was great until I saw a jellyfish! I had never seen a jellyfish, and didn't know that I was TERRIFIED of them, I saw a jellyfish and started hyperventalating. We saw back to shore and I was perfectly content to stay on the beach. Denis went back out and when he came back he said that it was beautiful, and he didn't see anymore jellyfish. So the next day I decided to go again, everything was beautiful again, until the jellyfish, I again freaked out and we started swimming back to shore. And then I saw a HUGE water snake, I jumped over Denis and took off - it was the scariest thing I have ever seen. I stayed out of the water after that. I decided that was enough for me...the beach was just fine. It was very relaxing, too bad it didn't last longer...
the pictures on sarahanddenis.toadfire.com
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Girls Gone Wild...
So we had a house guest for five nights, although I wish it was for longer...my friend Leigh stayed with us since her apartment was broken into and she didn`t want to stay there until the locks were changed. So, we did some rearranging and squeezed her in, literally. It was so much fun, like a slumber party for five days. On Saturday we put my hair in curlers and then we went out to the local hang out (I with a scarf on my head to cover the curlers but it was still cute), and when we took the curlers out the next day it was soo cute...on Sunday night since we couldn't go out drinking as we had almost every other night, we decided to perm my hair so that it would look as cute as the curlers had made it...BIG MISTAKE. If you ever find yourself in a drug store considering a home perm, STOP...look away, do not get sucked in...needless to say I looked like a poodle, and not just any poodle, a poodle from the trailer park and my hair was dead. So I have cut it all off! I like it, its a nice change.Take Care
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
SEPTEMBER
Well, so far September is creeping along and it feels like the last two weeks have taken forever, which isn't a bad thing but usually we look back and think "my god, where did the last month, two months, six months go?"
So far in September we climbed Mt Fuji, for the second time and thank god we made it to the top. It was much easier this time and much more rewarding. We started at the fifth station, 12km up from where we started the first time, and since it was the first weekend after the season officially closed there were only two busses going up and after luck smiling in us, we got onto a bus and after a traffic jam we were at the fifth station around 2:30pm. Now most people who made the night hike leave the 5th at 7-9pm so that they don't freeze at the top. Knowing this, we waited at the fifth station but got bored and decided we would start to climb at 4:30 and just go 'really slow'. We went really slow taking lots of breaks and enjoying the view. We saw Mt. Fuji's shadow as the sun was setting cast on the thick clouds that had enveloped the bottom of the mountain and that was amazing. We continued up and marveled at the stars, since it was raining and storming the whole way up last time we didn't get a chance to see the stars, but they were clearer and closer than we've ever seen them before and they were EVERYWHERE. The path was not nearly as crowded as it had been last time and we were ahead of the snake of people we could see below us, we sat down a lot partly to waste time and partly to take it all in, it was amazing. The best part of the trip and the part I will never forget was running into a Japanese guy, about our age, dressed as a giant bowling pin and climbing Mt. Fuji. It put the biggest smile on my face and everytime we would see them I would smile. It was the greatest site, many people can say they've climbed Fuji, but not many can say they saw a walking bowling pin while they did it. We arrive to the top at 2 am, THREE hours before the sun was suppose to rise, and as we expected we would, we FROZE. Not that we weren't prepared, wearing our Canadian tried and true long underwear and layers upon layers, we froze, sitting we froze, standing we froze, doing jumping jacks we froze. Lets just say it is freezing up there, it was around 1 degree above zero but the wind would blow and cut right through every layer we had on, but the sun rose and everything warmed up immediately. The sunrise was truly amazing and can only be witnessed, but we took a lot of pictures. The hike down is as tortorous as the way up and after being awake for over 24 hours we were exhausted. But we made it down and had to wait for three hours for the bus back down. It is amazing that getting off the most famous mountain in Japan and one of the most famous in the world is so difficult, although this time we new what we were doing and what to expect I was still flabbergasted.
The next weekend we went to a friends apartment, hers is WAY bigger than ours, for a wine party and that was fun, we played cherades, and lets just say that some people have enough imagination to make the game fun! Denis was hurting the next day so I ventured out on a girls night with my friend Leigh...it was SOO much fun. We went to this bar that plays live music and they had a rockibiliy concert, it was great.
We also went to Kamakura for our long weekend and saw the archery festival which was pretty amazing, and saw a traditional Japanese lantern festival which was also really cool. The next day we walked around Kamakura and saw many temples, the beach, and the Great Buddha. It was a good day all in all, but I think we are in temple overload. Kamakura was very beautiful and thankfully the weather cooperated for the most part although another typhoon was passing by.
So that's it, that is September so far. I'll post some pictures soon - check out sarahanddenis.toadfire.com for the pics!
Take Care
Sarah and Denis
So far in September we climbed Mt Fuji, for the second time and thank god we made it to the top. It was much easier this time and much more rewarding. We started at the fifth station, 12km up from where we started the first time, and since it was the first weekend after the season officially closed there were only two busses going up and after luck smiling in us, we got onto a bus and after a traffic jam we were at the fifth station around 2:30pm. Now most people who made the night hike leave the 5th at 7-9pm so that they don't freeze at the top. Knowing this, we waited at the fifth station but got bored and decided we would start to climb at 4:30 and just go 'really slow'. We went really slow taking lots of breaks and enjoying the view. We saw Mt. Fuji's shadow as the sun was setting cast on the thick clouds that had enveloped the bottom of the mountain and that was amazing. We continued up and marveled at the stars, since it was raining and storming the whole way up last time we didn't get a chance to see the stars, but they were clearer and closer than we've ever seen them before and they were EVERYWHERE. The path was not nearly as crowded as it had been last time and we were ahead of the snake of people we could see below us, we sat down a lot partly to waste time and partly to take it all in, it was amazing. The best part of the trip and the part I will never forget was running into a Japanese guy, about our age, dressed as a giant bowling pin and climbing Mt. Fuji. It put the biggest smile on my face and everytime we would see them I would smile. It was the greatest site, many people can say they've climbed Fuji, but not many can say they saw a walking bowling pin while they did it. We arrive to the top at 2 am, THREE hours before the sun was suppose to rise, and as we expected we would, we FROZE. Not that we weren't prepared, wearing our Canadian tried and true long underwear and layers upon layers, we froze, sitting we froze, standing we froze, doing jumping jacks we froze. Lets just say it is freezing up there, it was around 1 degree above zero but the wind would blow and cut right through every layer we had on, but the sun rose and everything warmed up immediately. The sunrise was truly amazing and can only be witnessed, but we took a lot of pictures. The hike down is as tortorous as the way up and after being awake for over 24 hours we were exhausted. But we made it down and had to wait for three hours for the bus back down. It is amazing that getting off the most famous mountain in Japan and one of the most famous in the world is so difficult, although this time we new what we were doing and what to expect I was still flabbergasted.
The next weekend we went to a friends apartment, hers is WAY bigger than ours, for a wine party and that was fun, we played cherades, and lets just say that some people have enough imagination to make the game fun! Denis was hurting the next day so I ventured out on a girls night with my friend Leigh...it was SOO much fun. We went to this bar that plays live music and they had a rockibiliy concert, it was great.
We also went to Kamakura for our long weekend and saw the archery festival which was pretty amazing, and saw a traditional Japanese lantern festival which was also really cool. The next day we walked around Kamakura and saw many temples, the beach, and the Great Buddha. It was a good day all in all, but I think we are in temple overload. Kamakura was very beautiful and thankfully the weather cooperated for the most part although another typhoon was passing by.
So that's it, that is September so far. I'll post some pictures soon - check out sarahanddenis.toadfire.com for the pics!
Take Care
Sarah and Denis
Monday, September 11, 2006
Just an Update
Hello!
So it is the middle of September and not much new has happened, we are taking it easy as August was a very busy, and expensive, month. We have plans to go to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu (the Great Buddha) and the Hachiman-gu Matsuri, where they display horseback archery as samurai warriors used to. School has started again after summer break for most schools, although preschool and conversation classes went as usual but Denis' schedule is much more hectic now. All of our friends have returned from summer vacation, except one - Dave if you read this we miss you, drop us a line - and life is returning to normal. We went to a friend's house for a wine tasting party on Friday and it was the third time since I have been in Japan that we drank wine and it tasted REALLY good, Saturday Denis was recouperating and I went to a local club where they have live music and it was Rockabilly night, I have never seen so many mohawks and skinny jeans in one room. But it was great and I had so much fun. Sunday we chilled at home since it was killer hot and went for Indian food with friends for dinner.
We are approaching the six month mark, I can't believe it has been six months already it has gone so fast. We, especially me, are missing our family and friends. I miss girls nights, and Sunday brunch and BBQ's and patio dinners, or just going for coffee. I miss strolling along 17th Avenue or Stephen Ave and getting virgin mango martinis...I miss inside jokes and backyard gatherings. I really miss you guys, we really miss everyone - so write us, send us a picture, or just send a thought. But you are all in our thoughts.
Take care and we'll talk to you soon.
So it is the middle of September and not much new has happened, we are taking it easy as August was a very busy, and expensive, month. We have plans to go to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu (the Great Buddha) and the Hachiman-gu Matsuri, where they display horseback archery as samurai warriors used to. School has started again after summer break for most schools, although preschool and conversation classes went as usual but Denis' schedule is much more hectic now. All of our friends have returned from summer vacation, except one - Dave if you read this we miss you, drop us a line - and life is returning to normal. We went to a friend's house for a wine tasting party on Friday and it was the third time since I have been in Japan that we drank wine and it tasted REALLY good, Saturday Denis was recouperating and I went to a local club where they have live music and it was Rockabilly night, I have never seen so many mohawks and skinny jeans in one room. But it was great and I had so much fun. Sunday we chilled at home since it was killer hot and went for Indian food with friends for dinner.
We are approaching the six month mark, I can't believe it has been six months already it has gone so fast. We, especially me, are missing our family and friends. I miss girls nights, and Sunday brunch and BBQ's and patio dinners, or just going for coffee. I miss strolling along 17th Avenue or Stephen Ave and getting virgin mango martinis...I miss inside jokes and backyard gatherings. I really miss you guys, we really miss everyone - so write us, send us a picture, or just send a thought. But you are all in our thoughts.
Take care and we'll talk to you soon.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
AUGUST
The first weekend in August was the big fireworks (hanabi) festival in Ashikaga, the city we live in. Ashikaga is famous for its hanabi festival and we are told 200,000 - 300,000 people come every year (the city's population is about 120,000), people line the river bank, you can sit on the ground for free, people set out their tarps to reserve their spots days in advance, or you can pay to sit on the 'stage', an elevated platform. Our students, Kimiko (my student) and her grand daughter Sakura (Denis' student) invited us to join them on the platform. So we watched the fireworks from the elevated platform with their family and they were so kind, they fed us until we thought we were going to burst especially since I was wearing an obi that was holding my yukata on but squeezing the life out of me. The fireworks were great, two hours of pretty amazing fireworks, good company and good food. (check out Ashikaga festivals for the pictures).
The next weekend we left for Hachijojima. Island paradise, except a typhoon was heading straight for it and we were planning on camping...but the typhoon turned and headed away from us although we got quite a bit of rain and made for some awesome clouds and waves, and the second typhoon that was right behind it fizzled out before it got to us. The campground was great, far better than we expected for a free campground and ten steps from the ocean, with the nicest beach in Hachijojima right there...hachijojima isn't a great beach place most of the swimming spots are in harbour like areas where large cement tetras break the waves enough so you can swim but it was great all the same. The second night we were there baby sea turtles hatched, although no one was there to see them - they snuck out at 2 or 3 am although a few early birds saw the last few slowpokes at 5 am, we were still sleeping, but it was pretty cool none the less. That day we hooked up with an Australian tour guide (and pub owner) and he took us on a tour of the WWII tunnels and a waterfall. It was great, the tunnels were amazing and it was hard to believe they were dug by hand, some of the spaces were huge and supported with cement. The waterfall was quite a hike up but it was very nice and you could swim in the little pool below it which was great to cool us off and clean us up after messing about in dirty tunnels. That night we went on a glowing mushroom tour, and we got to see glowing mushrooms which grow all over Hachijo, but the pictures didn't turn out. It was really dark and I couldn't see what setting we were on - it was one time I wished we had a simple point and click camera...but we got a cool poster. We rented a car for two days and toured all around the island, checking out some more cool waterfalls and onsens (public baths - like hot springs that are segregated and no bathing suits) we also saw the traditional housing and the wall built by exiles to protect themselves from the crashing waves. We also drove up as high as we could to one of the two mountains, Hachijo Fuji, and climbed the 1277 stairs to the top. Although the top was in a cloud and we couldn't see the crater, or anything else for that matter, it was really fun. It was so humid that raindrops were forming on our eyelashes and arm hairs and sometimes Denis got too far ahead and I couldn't see him...it was that foggy. After we gave up the car we just relaxed on our beach, the weather had gotten much better and we were dying of heat now. It was SOO hot and SOOO humid, but we stayed near the ocean breeze and in the ocean and took a lot of cold showers, I wouldn't have taken a hot one even if we could. We got a great tan and then a sunburn and then a sunburn on top of our sunburn even with sunscreen on, we just didn't have anywhere to escape since we were camping and all. But we were all right. Our last day there we found a place where we could make Kihachijo, a traditional fabric made old school with a loom from silk died with plants found only on Hachijo, it was way harder than it looked but very rewarding when I was done. Well it was back to work after, but it was a much needed, very relaxing break.
The next weekend, Aug 26 -27 we went to the Dai Chochin Matsuri in Isshiki City, Aichi prefecture. We left Friday night to drive halfway there, we stopped driving around midnight and couldn't find a hotel that wasn't booked so we decided to try a love hotel. A love hotel, for those of you who don't know, can be rented for a few hours or for the night and is where Japanese people go to make love...since they live with their parents and/or grand parents and/or children in tiny apartments, they go to a love hotel when they need some privacy. The whole idea behind a love hotel is PRIVACY...you do not see or speak to anyone, you press a button or open a door which promptly locks behind you and then you are stuck until you pay and the door unlocks. Unlike regular hotels you pay after, but these hotels are awesome. They have huge beds, nice bathrooms usually with sweet jacuzzi tubs, all sorts of extras, toothbrush, hairbrush, bath stuff, condoms...a big TV with Japanese porn - which is hilarious at best...we saw a girl getting it on with some outdoor patio furniture...anyways it is a great deal, way cheaper than regular hotels. We got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Isshiki to see the giant paper lanterns. The lanterns were giant, 10 - 12 meters high and about 5m in diameter. And there were huge candles that they put in them at night to light them up. There were carnival games and carnival food, and traditional dancing and drumming...it was very cool. After the festival we drove towards Nagoya, Japan's fourth largest city, and stayed in another love hotel. The next day we went to Nagoya castle and walked around Nagoya. I have to say I think Nagoya is my favourite big city in Japan, it has everything you want but doesn't feel too big and has a very young vibe to it. There was a festival going on downtown so we walked around there and then went for dinner at a Moroccan restaurant - it was great. We then drove back to the same love hotel we stayed in the first night, neither of us had to work until Monday afternoon and since we now knew the drill we took our time before driving back to Ashikaga.
On August 31 our company had a BBQ for the preschool students and their parents, it was a lot of fun. It was in Ashikaga near the dam in the mountains. We played games and played in a little river that was much stronger than it was before, all the kids fell down and got soaked, and ate a ton of food.
That was August, super busy...lots to see...
The next weekend we left for Hachijojima. Island paradise, except a typhoon was heading straight for it and we were planning on camping...but the typhoon turned and headed away from us although we got quite a bit of rain and made for some awesome clouds and waves, and the second typhoon that was right behind it fizzled out before it got to us. The campground was great, far better than we expected for a free campground and ten steps from the ocean, with the nicest beach in Hachijojima right there...hachijojima isn't a great beach place most of the swimming spots are in harbour like areas where large cement tetras break the waves enough so you can swim but it was great all the same. The second night we were there baby sea turtles hatched, although no one was there to see them - they snuck out at 2 or 3 am although a few early birds saw the last few slowpokes at 5 am, we were still sleeping, but it was pretty cool none the less. That day we hooked up with an Australian tour guide (and pub owner) and he took us on a tour of the WWII tunnels and a waterfall. It was great, the tunnels were amazing and it was hard to believe they were dug by hand, some of the spaces were huge and supported with cement. The waterfall was quite a hike up but it was very nice and you could swim in the little pool below it which was great to cool us off and clean us up after messing about in dirty tunnels. That night we went on a glowing mushroom tour, and we got to see glowing mushrooms which grow all over Hachijo, but the pictures didn't turn out. It was really dark and I couldn't see what setting we were on - it was one time I wished we had a simple point and click camera...but we got a cool poster. We rented a car for two days and toured all around the island, checking out some more cool waterfalls and onsens (public baths - like hot springs that are segregated and no bathing suits) we also saw the traditional housing and the wall built by exiles to protect themselves from the crashing waves. We also drove up as high as we could to one of the two mountains, Hachijo Fuji, and climbed the 1277 stairs to the top. Although the top was in a cloud and we couldn't see the crater, or anything else for that matter, it was really fun. It was so humid that raindrops were forming on our eyelashes and arm hairs and sometimes Denis got too far ahead and I couldn't see him...it was that foggy. After we gave up the car we just relaxed on our beach, the weather had gotten much better and we were dying of heat now. It was SOO hot and SOOO humid, but we stayed near the ocean breeze and in the ocean and took a lot of cold showers, I wouldn't have taken a hot one even if we could. We got a great tan and then a sunburn and then a sunburn on top of our sunburn even with sunscreen on, we just didn't have anywhere to escape since we were camping and all. But we were all right. Our last day there we found a place where we could make Kihachijo, a traditional fabric made old school with a loom from silk died with plants found only on Hachijo, it was way harder than it looked but very rewarding when I was done. Well it was back to work after, but it was a much needed, very relaxing break.
The next weekend, Aug 26 -27 we went to the Dai Chochin Matsuri in Isshiki City, Aichi prefecture. We left Friday night to drive halfway there, we stopped driving around midnight and couldn't find a hotel that wasn't booked so we decided to try a love hotel. A love hotel, for those of you who don't know, can be rented for a few hours or for the night and is where Japanese people go to make love...since they live with their parents and/or grand parents and/or children in tiny apartments, they go to a love hotel when they need some privacy. The whole idea behind a love hotel is PRIVACY...you do not see or speak to anyone, you press a button or open a door which promptly locks behind you and then you are stuck until you pay and the door unlocks. Unlike regular hotels you pay after, but these hotels are awesome. They have huge beds, nice bathrooms usually with sweet jacuzzi tubs, all sorts of extras, toothbrush, hairbrush, bath stuff, condoms...a big TV with Japanese porn - which is hilarious at best...we saw a girl getting it on with some outdoor patio furniture...anyways it is a great deal, way cheaper than regular hotels. We got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Isshiki to see the giant paper lanterns. The lanterns were giant, 10 - 12 meters high and about 5m in diameter. And there were huge candles that they put in them at night to light them up. There were carnival games and carnival food, and traditional dancing and drumming...it was very cool. After the festival we drove towards Nagoya, Japan's fourth largest city, and stayed in another love hotel. The next day we went to Nagoya castle and walked around Nagoya. I have to say I think Nagoya is my favourite big city in Japan, it has everything you want but doesn't feel too big and has a very young vibe to it. There was a festival going on downtown so we walked around there and then went for dinner at a Moroccan restaurant - it was great. We then drove back to the same love hotel we stayed in the first night, neither of us had to work until Monday afternoon and since we now knew the drill we took our time before driving back to Ashikaga.
On August 31 our company had a BBQ for the preschool students and their parents, it was a lot of fun. It was in Ashikaga near the dam in the mountains. We played games and played in a little river that was much stronger than it was before, all the kids fell down and got soaked, and ate a ton of food.
That was August, super busy...lots to see...
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
JULY
We hiked Fuji, almost to the top, from the very bottom. We decided to take the traditional pilgrimage up Mt. Fuji, the way that it was meant to be done, the real way to experience the majestic beauty of Mt. Fuji and start from the very bottom on the Yoshidaguchi Trail, rather than taking a bus 2/3 up to the top. We started from the Fuji Senjen Jinja, there we bought a walking stick, that was stamped to prove we started from the bottom and took it all the way up with us. It was beautiful and rewarding to get to each of the stations (there are ten stations, 1-8, the real 8th, and 8.5 and then the summit) and we only saw four other people hiking up all the way to the sixth station, 2390 M (we started at 825 M). After the sixth station there were tons of people and it started to get much more windy. After the seventh station it started to rain, we perservered - GANBATTE in Japanese - to the real eighth station and then took a rest in a mountain hut. The mountain huts are where you can sleep before continuing, some people hike up much of the mountain during the day when it is far less crowded and then sleep in the mountain huts and leave with enough time to reach the summit in time to see the sunrise. The 'beds' in a mountain hut are very close together, it is just futon beside futon and you receive the amount of space one pillow and blanket wide, bring your ear plugs...We woke up at 1:30 am to leave for the summit but the storm had gotten much worse and I was feeling a little sick, either from exhaustion or altitude sickness or both. The wind was so bad that the whole line (yes by now there were so many people that it was a line of headlights snaking its way up and down the mountain) would stop and brace itself and the rain was so bad that it felt like it was coming up from below and it hurt. After about an hour, and reaching the 8.5 station, we decided to head back, I was feeling really sick and the weather was just too much. So we went back to our cozy beds in the mountain hut and slept there until 7 am when we left to go back down in the pouring rain. The only good thing about the rain is that everyone was wearing their rain gear and it was so colourful, other than that it was most uncomfortable. The way down was as difficult as the way up, we were exhausted and sore and tired, when we finally made it to the fifth station we took a bus back down to the city of Kawaguchiko and spent the night there. We headed back home the next day, defeated but proud of ourselves. We climber over 2500 M in one day, almost 19km, and were less that .5km from the top.
We spent a weekend at home and Denis was invited to participate in Mikoshi, which is when many people carry a portable shrine through the streets. The thing was huge and weighed one ton! It was lots of fun for me, I just walked beside and took pictures but Denis was really sore after and his shoulders were bleeding because the Japanese people like to make the Mikoshi bounce on their shoulders...it was pretty crazy. But every time that they stopped to take a break there was bunch of old ladies serving us food and drinks. It was a lot of fun!
The last weekend in July was the Fuji Rock Festival. Although the name would lead you to believe that it is near Fuji, it is not. It is actually close to wear we live, less than a two hour drive. The festival was awesome, it was everything an outdoor music festival is suppose to be and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were amazing. We camped on a hill so steep that we kept sliding to the bottom of our tent, it rained and everything was muddy, it was sunny and hot, and raining and wet, for the headliners there were people farther than you could see, and the lines for the porta potties was ridiculous - sooo much fun.
We spent a weekend at home and Denis was invited to participate in Mikoshi, which is when many people carry a portable shrine through the streets. The thing was huge and weighed one ton! It was lots of fun for me, I just walked beside and took pictures but Denis was really sore after and his shoulders were bleeding because the Japanese people like to make the Mikoshi bounce on their shoulders...it was pretty crazy. But every time that they stopped to take a break there was bunch of old ladies serving us food and drinks. It was a lot of fun!
The last weekend in July was the Fuji Rock Festival. Although the name would lead you to believe that it is near Fuji, it is not. It is actually close to wear we live, less than a two hour drive. The festival was awesome, it was everything an outdoor music festival is suppose to be and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were amazing. We camped on a hill so steep that we kept sliding to the bottom of our tent, it rained and everything was muddy, it was sunny and hot, and raining and wet, for the headliners there were people farther than you could see, and the lines for the porta potties was ridiculous - sooo much fun.
JUNE
So the first weekend of June we went to Yokohama. We had a four day long weekend and we found a super cheap hotel, only 4000 yen per night (for both of us) and it included breakfast. It was a brand new hotel so everything was nice and clean and there was a roof top patio you could hang out on and eat your free pancake breakfast. Yokohama was great. We went to see Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Yokohama and Japan! But it was cloudy the whole time we were there so we didn't pay to go up since there wouldn't be much of a view. The first night there we just walked around and checked things out, watched the river boats and the world's largest ferris wheel, there was a street performer with a pretty cool show, although we couldn't understand what he was saying he was pretty good.
The next day we went to Hakkejima, a huge aquarium, it was really cool there was every kind of sea animal you could imagine there. Also, that night in Yokohama there was the Port Opening ceremony was being held (although the port was already open, this seemed like a yearly celebration) and there was an amazing fireworks show that lasted over two hours and included music and an amazing laser lights show, they were by far the best fireworks we have ever seen.
The next day we walked more than we have ever walked...first we stumbled upon the Yokohama dragon boat festival, which was funny. Lots of people were dressed up, I don't think most people took it very seriously, and one boat dumped and that was pretty exciting. Then we walked up the stairs to Habour View park, nice view, big trees, lots of people. We continued to Foreigners Cemetary and walked around there for awhile. Then we walked to Chinatown - Yokohama has one of the best Chinatowns in the world. It was huge and packed with people. We walked around there for hours, until we were so tired we couldn't walk anymore and then we walked back to our hotel and fell asleep.
On our way home, we had to switch trains in Tokyo and decided to go to Ueno zoo, we had heard that it was a nice zoo and it was cheap, and what the hell, we were used to walking now...but the zoo was sad. All the animals were in small cages or in enclosed rooms and they all looked in such bad condition, it was more depressing than anything. But there were some animals that we had never seen before and that was neat. We also spent some time in the Ueno park, which is like Central Park I guess. A huge park in the center of Tokyo. There is a large homeless population that lives here and there are lots of street performers, we also saw a sumo wrestler, but we were too scared to take his picture.
The next weekend our friends took us to this sweet little swimming place. The water was freezing cold, raining, and we were the only people there, but we swam and jumped off the cliffs and had a barbecue and it was a lot of fun. These are some of our friends...
The last weekend in June we made an impulsive trip to Sadogajima, an island off the coast of Niigata in the Japan Sea. We took a ferry over with our car, and the ferry was very interesting. Unlike ferries at home, they don't have chairs, just large open spaces on the floor where you can lie down or sit and eat we spent most of our time on top outside to watch the seagulls that followed the ferry and took food right from peoples hands for over an hour. The water was sooo blue in that ocean behind the ferry, we'd never seen anything like it. Sado is known for being the island that many intellectuals were exiled to in medieval times, and in 1601 gold was discovered here. The island is very small, we could have driven around the whole thing in less than a day, but we took two. The first day we drove around the north half. We stopped at some huge rocks that are in the ocean that look like two turtles backs, and walked to a shrine for children who have died, it is believed that their spirit stops here on the way to heaven. We went to an onsen and then tried to find the campsite that was on all the maps but was no where to be found, and we were so exhausted that we decided to sleep in our cars, which is common in Japan, so we found a parking lot where lots of cars were parked, some people sleeping, some people setting off fireworks and went to sleep. But around 1 am we were awakened by a police officer knocking on our window. He asked for our identification and asked how long we would be on the island and then proceeded to give us tourist information, it was bizarre and I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. The next day we got up very early as the sun comes up around 4:30 am, and drove to see more jutting rocks that represent something, these rocks were called husband and wife rock. It was realy cool, that day they were having a taiko drumming performance, which Sado is also famous for. So we watched that for a while before we continued to Ogi to ride in a wooden tub boat. Traditionally women used these boats to fish for near the shore, they have a glass square in the bottom so you can see underneath you and they are extremely difficult to steer or even make move. Then we drove up to Chokoku Shrine, built in 807 AD and looked around. The shrine looks very old and there are huge, old pine trees shrouding it. Before we went home, we found a pottery place, Sado is also famous for its pottery - there are special minerals in the clay found in Sado that give it a very strong, metallic quality, and it has medicinal purposes. We found a place that lets you make your own piece, so I got my hands dirty and it was hilarious as we don't speak Japanese and the master there doesn't speak any English, but we got through it. We got the cup back and it is beautiful, I am very proud. And off we were back home.
The next day we went to Hakkejima, a huge aquarium, it was really cool there was every kind of sea animal you could imagine there. Also, that night in Yokohama there was the Port Opening ceremony was being held (although the port was already open, this seemed like a yearly celebration) and there was an amazing fireworks show that lasted over two hours and included music and an amazing laser lights show, they were by far the best fireworks we have ever seen.
The next day we walked more than we have ever walked...first we stumbled upon the Yokohama dragon boat festival, which was funny. Lots of people were dressed up, I don't think most people took it very seriously, and one boat dumped and that was pretty exciting. Then we walked up the stairs to Habour View park, nice view, big trees, lots of people. We continued to Foreigners Cemetary and walked around there for awhile. Then we walked to Chinatown - Yokohama has one of the best Chinatowns in the world. It was huge and packed with people. We walked around there for hours, until we were so tired we couldn't walk anymore and then we walked back to our hotel and fell asleep.
On our way home, we had to switch trains in Tokyo and decided to go to Ueno zoo, we had heard that it was a nice zoo and it was cheap, and what the hell, we were used to walking now...but the zoo was sad. All the animals were in small cages or in enclosed rooms and they all looked in such bad condition, it was more depressing than anything. But there were some animals that we had never seen before and that was neat. We also spent some time in the Ueno park, which is like Central Park I guess. A huge park in the center of Tokyo. There is a large homeless population that lives here and there are lots of street performers, we also saw a sumo wrestler, but we were too scared to take his picture.
The next weekend our friends took us to this sweet little swimming place. The water was freezing cold, raining, and we were the only people there, but we swam and jumped off the cliffs and had a barbecue and it was a lot of fun. These are some of our friends...
The last weekend in June we made an impulsive trip to Sadogajima, an island off the coast of Niigata in the Japan Sea. We took a ferry over with our car, and the ferry was very interesting. Unlike ferries at home, they don't have chairs, just large open spaces on the floor where you can lie down or sit and eat we spent most of our time on top outside to watch the seagulls that followed the ferry and took food right from peoples hands for over an hour. The water was sooo blue in that ocean behind the ferry, we'd never seen anything like it. Sado is known for being the island that many intellectuals were exiled to in medieval times, and in 1601 gold was discovered here. The island is very small, we could have driven around the whole thing in less than a day, but we took two. The first day we drove around the north half. We stopped at some huge rocks that are in the ocean that look like two turtles backs, and walked to a shrine for children who have died, it is believed that their spirit stops here on the way to heaven. We went to an onsen and then tried to find the campsite that was on all the maps but was no where to be found, and we were so exhausted that we decided to sleep in our cars, which is common in Japan, so we found a parking lot where lots of cars were parked, some people sleeping, some people setting off fireworks and went to sleep. But around 1 am we were awakened by a police officer knocking on our window. He asked for our identification and asked how long we would be on the island and then proceeded to give us tourist information, it was bizarre and I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. The next day we got up very early as the sun comes up around 4:30 am, and drove to see more jutting rocks that represent something, these rocks were called husband and wife rock. It was realy cool, that day they were having a taiko drumming performance, which Sado is also famous for. So we watched that for a while before we continued to Ogi to ride in a wooden tub boat. Traditionally women used these boats to fish for near the shore, they have a glass square in the bottom so you can see underneath you and they are extremely difficult to steer or even make move. Then we drove up to Chokoku Shrine, built in 807 AD and looked around. The shrine looks very old and there are huge, old pine trees shrouding it. Before we went home, we found a pottery place, Sado is also famous for its pottery - there are special minerals in the clay found in Sado that give it a very strong, metallic quality, and it has medicinal purposes. We found a place that lets you make your own piece, so I got my hands dirty and it was hilarious as we don't speak Japanese and the master there doesn't speak any English, but we got through it. We got the cup back and it is beautiful, I am very proud. And off we were back home.
Friday, August 11, 2006
MAY
The first week of May was our first vacation, Golden Week, although most people only get three days off we had five off. So we went to Yudanaka in Nagano prefecture to see the monkey park, Jigokudani, which was amazing - we are planning to go back in the winter to see the monkeys soaking in the hot spring with snow all around them! We stayed in the best Japanese ryokan there as well, it was run by this cute old couple and we decided to have the meals, which is true Japanese style. The room was okay but the meal was the best meal we had eaten in Japan, it was never ending and we each got our own little hot plates to cook our meat (and in my case, fish) and there was miso soup and rice and tempura and sushi and dessert it was amazing! We also went to Nagano and sought everlasting salvation by walking through this underground tunnel inside a temple which was extremely interesting as the tunnel was long and pitch black and FULL of people, but we touched the key on the wall that brings salvation :) We then planned on going to Matsumoto and spending the night, we booked a hostel at the tourist information booth and then went to see the castle in Matsumoto, which also was really cool, you could go in the castle and climb all the way up to the sixth floor, everything was bilingual so we understood, and there were lots of old weapons and armour, it was a beautiful day so we got to take some postcard pictures. After the castle, we tried to find an outdoor museum, but got completely lost on the way and ending up driving up and down a huge mountain and were far away from Matsumoto when we figured out where we were so we just drove home.
The next day we packed up and took the train into Tokyo while everyone else was trying to escape Tokyo. We visited the Imperial Palace, although the closet you can get is the gate, although you can see the tip and take some good pictures. We also went to the imperial palace gardens, which were beautiful. We went to Mori Tower and took 360 degree pictures of Tokyo and also got to see an art exhibit about Berlin and Tokyo it was really cool. The next day we went to see the baseball game which super cool, it was so much fun and they had great food. We walked around after but Denis got really sick so we went home early. I particpated in a traditional tea ceremony at our ryokan while Denis rested, it was very interesting, everyone there (6 people) got to taste tea made by the tea master and then try to make the tea, which is much harder than it seems, specifically because it is very detailed and very right hand oriented...The next day we were both feeling better and went to Tsukiji fish market, but a little to late, we got to see big heads of fish but not the bodies...but they must have been huge. We went to Ginza and walked around the couture stores, Cartier, Channel, Louis Vouton, etc and then went home.
The rest of May we spent in Ashikaga with our friends, we had a couple of birthdays including mine which was ridiculous we walked home after the sun had come up, I was very drunk and spent the entire next day in bed, but I recovered and took it much easier the next weekend. On Sunday, we made it to the ocean for the first time, we headed east to the Pacific Ocean (it feels strange to write that the Pacific Ocean is east...) and it was very nice except for all the dead birds. Yes, some strange phenomenon happened and there were hundreds of dead birds lining the shore and dying birds being washed up, it was really sad, but we were assured that that is NOT normal, maybe the result of a typhoon...The waves were really crashing on the huge cement tetra-pods, giant cement things to break the waves, and were tried to get some pictures and just as I turned my back to leave a huge wave came and soaked me...it was a lot of fun. That was May.
The next day we packed up and took the train into Tokyo while everyone else was trying to escape Tokyo. We visited the Imperial Palace, although the closet you can get is the gate, although you can see the tip and take some good pictures. We also went to the imperial palace gardens, which were beautiful. We went to Mori Tower and took 360 degree pictures of Tokyo and also got to see an art exhibit about Berlin and Tokyo it was really cool. The next day we went to see the baseball game which super cool, it was so much fun and they had great food. We walked around after but Denis got really sick so we went home early. I particpated in a traditional tea ceremony at our ryokan while Denis rested, it was very interesting, everyone there (6 people) got to taste tea made by the tea master and then try to make the tea, which is much harder than it seems, specifically because it is very detailed and very right hand oriented...The next day we were both feeling better and went to Tsukiji fish market, but a little to late, we got to see big heads of fish but not the bodies...but they must have been huge. We went to Ginza and walked around the couture stores, Cartier, Channel, Louis Vouton, etc and then went home.
The rest of May we spent in Ashikaga with our friends, we had a couple of birthdays including mine which was ridiculous we walked home after the sun had come up, I was very drunk and spent the entire next day in bed, but I recovered and took it much easier the next weekend. On Sunday, we made it to the ocean for the first time, we headed east to the Pacific Ocean (it feels strange to write that the Pacific Ocean is east...) and it was very nice except for all the dead birds. Yes, some strange phenomenon happened and there were hundreds of dead birds lining the shore and dying birds being washed up, it was really sad, but we were assured that that is NOT normal, maybe the result of a typhoon...The waves were really crashing on the huge cement tetra-pods, giant cement things to break the waves, and were tried to get some pictures and just as I turned my back to leave a huge wave came and soaked me...it was a lot of fun. That was May.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
APRIL
So, we arrive in Japan March 29th, we survive delayed flights, play cards, sleep in the most uncomfortable positions and run through airports, have no movie on our 10 flight over the Pacific ocean and are -1 bag when we arrive at the Tokyo airport, but we survive. We take the bus two hours to this city called Ashikaga and are picked up by two normal looking, english speaking guys who take us to the convenience store and then to the smallest apartment I have ever seen...Erin, if you thought you're bachelor pad was small, our whole apartment is one third the size!
The futon lasted about three weeks until I could not stand sleeping on the floor anymore and we bought an air mattress which started to leak after one week, we now pump it up two to three times a day :) but we are in Japan...
So our first month here we climbed the hill in the middle of Ashikaga to get some pictures of the city we will call home for the next year... it is pretty nice, about 70 kms north of Tokyo, there is a big river that runs through it, small streets lots of temples and shrines and the oldest universtiy in Japan. The Ashikaga Gakko, which was a little dissapointing compared to the temple right beside it. The Gakko is a Confusious school that was founded in 832, its super old but was just redone so nothing looks old and everything was in Japanese so we didn't understand any of it.
But, the beautiful temple right next door, Ban-naji, which was even more beautiful during cherry blossom season...here are s
ome pictures.
There is also another beautiful temple on the hill, that has a million stairs on the way up, it was much more colourful...
The futon lasted about three weeks until I could not stand sleeping on the floor anymore and we bought an air mattress which started to leak after one week, we now pump it up two to three times a day :) but we are in Japan...
So our first month here we climbed the hill in the middle of Ashikaga to get some pictures of the city we will call home for the next year... it is pretty nice, about 70 kms north of Tokyo, there is a big river that runs through it, small streets lots of temples and shrines and the oldest universtiy in Japan. The Ashikaga Gakko, which was a little dissapointing compared to the temple right beside it. The Gakko is a Confusious school that was founded in 832, its super old but was just redone so nothing looks old and everything was in Japanese so we didn't understand any of it.
But, the beautiful temple right next door, Ban-naji, which was even more beautiful during cherry blossom season...here are s
ome pictures.There is also another beautiful temple on the hill, that has a million stairs on the way up, it was much more colourful...
The second weekend here we went to Nikko, which was absolutely beautiful. We got to sleep on a real bed for the first time in almost three weeks, the drive was quiet and peaceful just what you would picture Japan to be but a lot more mountainous than I had pictured. We explored the major temple in Nikko, Toshogu, 
and went for dinner at the cutest little place that is highly recommended by the Lonely Planet Guide book, the best yakiniku (barbequed meat on sticks), although I'm not a huge fan, and really good gyoza (asian dumplings) which I am a fan of, but there was this little old lady that spoke english and told us what we needed to have. The walls were covered with notes, money, business cards of foreigners from all over the world. It was pretty neat. The next day we picked up some travelling friends who were staying at the same hostel as us, we drive up to Chuzenji Lake which has Kegon falls, the pictures all looked great but it was pretty disapointing as the falls are damned so they weren't letting much water out that day it was more of a drizzle than a fall, but we saw some much more impressive water falls so it was cool. And we saw and our first snow monkey there.
So besides seeing the sights we were trying to figure out what we were buying at the grocery store or how to order food at a restaurant, and just we were suppose to survive without an oven and live together in one room...that was our first month...but we made it.
Seriously Ambitious
So, our other blog is different from what we expected and we didn't think that we should have done it in reverse order so our latest adventures would be first up...so I am going to be seriously ambitious and try to write in two blogs, the other is much easier to post pictures to but I like the format of this one much better, we'll see how it goes.
Anyways, stay tuned it will be my new project over the next few days.
Anyways, stay tuned it will be my new project over the next few days.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Hello
Hello everyone,
This is our blog, since our computer is broken and we can't choose the photos to send you we have set up this blog so we can just post all the photos to it...we're not sure how well it will work but at least you'll be able to see them and hopefully we'll be able to add explanations for them too.
Well, as per the last email, we are doing well. We are planning on hiking Mt Fuji in less than a month now - July 15 -17, since we have a long weekend then. We are planning on starting from the very bottom and hiking all the way to the top in two days as there are mountain huts you can stay in on the way up. It is the 'season' to hike Mt Fuji so we've heard and read that it will be pretty packed...should be interesting. We are also going to the Fuji Rocks Festival July 29 and 30...this is the link to the english website http://www.smash-uk.com/frf06/index.html - the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are going to be there are Franz Ferdinand, but we won't be there for Franz...
We are also very much looking forward to our summer break, August 12 -20, we have booked plane tickets to go to Hachijo-jima, a semi-tropical island south of Tokyo. This is the info page, so you can see some pictures and there is a map I think...http://www.hachijo.info/ There are also WWII tunnels all over the island so those will be fun to explore.
We also bought new bikes, which are vital in Japan...I'll post a picture of them as soon as possible too. Well take care everyone and send us an email tell us what is new in your lives.
Sarah and Denis
This is our blog, since our computer is broken and we can't choose the photos to send you we have set up this blog so we can just post all the photos to it...we're not sure how well it will work but at least you'll be able to see them and hopefully we'll be able to add explanations for them too.
Well, as per the last email, we are doing well. We are planning on hiking Mt Fuji in less than a month now - July 15 -17, since we have a long weekend then. We are planning on starting from the very bottom and hiking all the way to the top in two days as there are mountain huts you can stay in on the way up. It is the 'season' to hike Mt Fuji so we've heard and read that it will be pretty packed...should be interesting. We are also going to the Fuji Rocks Festival July 29 and 30...this is the link to the english website http://www.smash-uk.com/frf06/index.html - the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are going to be there are Franz Ferdinand, but we won't be there for Franz...
We are also very much looking forward to our summer break, August 12 -20, we have booked plane tickets to go to Hachijo-jima, a semi-tropical island south of Tokyo. This is the info page, so you can see some pictures and there is a map I think...http://www.hachijo.info/ There are also WWII tunnels all over the island so those will be fun to explore.
We also bought new bikes, which are vital in Japan...I'll post a picture of them as soon as possible too. Well take care everyone and send us an email tell us what is new in your lives.
Sarah and Denis
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