Spring Break!

This Spring I traveled to Kyoto, Ise, Kobe and Naruto. It was quite a tiring journey as I did it in four days but I had an enjoyable time. I took the night bus to Kyoto so I arrived early in the morning and headed to the Toji (東寺) Temple flea market. This was a great market for many Japanese style items. I bought quite a few Kimono's, some lovely pottery and an excellent glass sake bottle. I also had a look around the temple which was very pretty.

Afterwards I decided to walk to Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺) via a quick stop at the lockers in Kyoto station to store all my goodies. I also walked through Gion and got a glimpse of a few Maiko, Geisha in training walking in the streets. 

This was my first time at Kiyomizu-dera and I really loved it. The views over the city scape of Kyoto were beautiful and the temple was very pretty. Unfortunately, I was still a bit too early for sakura but there were some plum blossoms. 

The next day, I went to Ise which was one of the main reasons for my trip. I wanted to see the Ise Katagami museum. Ise is particularly famous for Katagami, which is Japanese paper stencil cutting. The stencils are used in Katazome, Japanese dying. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures but this is the website if you are interested, http://tourismmiejapan.com/search/spot.php?act=dtl&id=182.

In the afternoon I went to Ise-Jingu, the Grand Shrine. The shrine is rebuild every twenty years using traditional techniques and this year it will re-open. Therefore, I couldn't see much of the shrine but the grounds were very nice. There are two parts to Ise-jingu, Geku (outer shrine) and Naiku (inner shrine), but I only had time to visit Naiku.

I spent that evening in Kobe so that I could travel to Naruto the next morning. I was very excited to cross the Onaruto Bridge in to Shikoku because I had read about it before coming to Japan. I got off the bus at Naruto Park so that I could cross under the bridge to look at the whirlpools. I was a little late but caught the end of the tide changing and saw some interesting whirlpools. The attendants there spoke perfect English and they were very nice to talk to us for a little while.

I had met two of my friends there and we all went to Naruto Otsuka Museum, which is Japan's largest museum. The museum holds life-sized reproductions of some of the greatest Western art of the twentieth century, including the Sistine Chapel. Most of the work I had never seen before so it was very interesting. Luckily, my friends are art historian so they explained a lot of the paintings to me.

We were all very excited that you could touch the work because they were copies and took this picture of us touching the Mona Lisa. Apparently the real Mona Lisa is kept behind bullet proof glass.

Kobe Chinatown

I spent the next day exploring Kitano in Kobe. This area has lots of American and European style buildings, that were very pretty and actually made a nice change from Japanese style building.

I found two Japanese girls dressed as Sherlock Holms on an investigation, I thought they were so cute.

I also found the beautiful Kobe Mosque and was excited to see that in this area there was so many Middle Eastern shops. I was able to buy some of my favorite food; halloumi cheese and cous-cous.

A Weekend in the Izu

At the weekend myself and some other English teachers were invited by the Izu City Association for Friendship Relations to go to Shuzenji. They wanted us to experience Japanese culture by taking part in a Taiko Drum workshop and Onigiri making. It was a fantastic day and I'd like to thank everyone who organised the event. 

Everyone who took part in the workshop

Anna who helped organise the event with the boys from the Taiko group

 We were taught Taiko by students of the Taiko club at Izu Sogo High School. They were all brilliant teachers and we all had lots of fun learning from them. They performed for us a few times and I was really impressed. They were so energetic and cheerful in their performance that it was inspiring.

My friend and I with our sensei's

 Then we were taught how to make onigiri which was interesting because I have never been able to make perfectly shaped onigiri before. I was quite proud of my final one and it was tasty! We had a choice of fillings, which were Bonito (fish flakes), Umeboshi (sour plum) or Spinach Gomaae (sesame seed). My favourite was the Bonito.

 Afterwards, some friends and I went to Kawazu to see the cherry blossoms. The blossoms flower here a lot earlier than anywhere else in Shizuoka and there are so many that there is a festival. The blossoms were very pretty and the trees lined the river for about 2.5km. The weather was very hot and it felt like Spring was finally here!

 My friends and I enjoying the Spring weather.

 All the food was delicious and nearly everything was Sakura flavoured. I thought that the Sakura ice-cream was too sweet but the mochi was delightful. There were three types, plain, green tea and sakura. (below)

Although the strawberry filled one was definitely the best!

I was a great first cherry blossoms viewing festival but I want to see many more. I think it might be my favourite Japanese festival, but really there are so many it's impossible to choose.

Blossoms at night

Omedetou Gozaimasu

Congratulations to all the third years who graduated from Gotemba Minami on Friday. The ceremony was lovely and full of very proud parents and teachers.  I want to wish all the third years all the best in their futures. I know they will all achieve great things because they have all had a great start. Good luck to all of you!

Some of the third year teachers dressed in kimono for the occasion. I was very excited to see them, I love kimono and thought these were very beautiful.