Takarazuka Hike

Hey all! Aaron here. This is a really delayed post, but a good one, so bare with me. This was probably one of the coolest things we've done in recent times, and produced a lot of great photography, as it was a scenic hike. I've actually been very sparse with the photos, but I think you'll get a good feel for our visual and physical journey along an old abandoned railway.

Little background: This is in Takarazuka, which is a more rural town near Osaka. The whole hike is on an old railway bed, which makes it flat (not counting the countless rail ties we walked over and upon.) It cuts through a pretty awesome mountainous valley.

Believe it or not, this is actually where we got off the train. This is the station. It's on top of a bridge that crosses the very valley we would be hiking through. Convenient, huh? If you notice, I shaved my mustache off that day, for the first time in years. They told me it looked weird, so I grew it back immediately.

Here's Mana, sporting her prized panda fanny pack. She truly puts my look to shame with this most sacred and powerful of accents. I dare not comment on what's happening in the background. Anyway, this next shot is what we could see from the station. It further drove our appetites for adventure.

Pretty nice.
Here's one from a boulder that jutted out into the river a ways down the trail. Because this was a train bed, there were actually several tunnels we had to pass through, some of which grew completely pitch black at points. Here's the exit to one of them.


Ooooh, tunnely.

This was the old bridge for the train. There was an iron platform just to the right that we had to walk across. It was quite a ways down, but my problem with heights proved no problem. It was an awesome sight.

Here's the whole crew, accept for Ben Sel, who had wandered off at this point. From left to right, we have: Kendra, Ben, Ben's GF Akina, Mana, Langdon, Andrea, Abel, and Katherine. That means I took this picture. What a good looking group of nerds.

That's just creepy.

Nice shot of the valley.

We climbed down from the train tracks to the riverbed for a picnic. It was really breezy, but the food, company, and views were spectacular.

Here's a couple of them contemplating the view following our meal.

Ben is apparently the king of the world in this photo. This was actually my favorite spot on the hike. We found a way down from the bank, and climbed out onto this massive boulder. There were rapids all around it, and you could see some killer views of the river from there. What an adventure.

This is sort of random, but just as we were ending the hike, Mana found an abandoned fold-up bicycle. She decided to let me keep it, since I was devoid a bike, and the thing folded up for easy passage on the train. Plus, we didn't live all that far away. I've since fixed up the bike and find it quite useful. Anyway, here's a picture of Mana giving me the bike in exchange for the fanny pack, which we had actually already given her for Christmas. It was a fitting way to end an out of the ordinary sort of day. Hope you liked the photos!

Miiiiyaaaakoooo OoodOOOriiiiiii

Hello again. Kendra Here. For those of you who want to play along, please read this entry's tittle in a kind of high pitched whine. That is what the opening line of the "Miyako Odori" always sounds like.

For a quick explanatory video, see this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAde-ZZ_URw&feature=related

For those who want to read my rambling explanation...
The Miyako Odori (Dances of the Old Capital) is a public dance concert put on every year by the Geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto. There are 4 main Geisha districts in Kyoto and Gion is considered to be one of the best; particularly for producing amazing dancers. Usually you have to be part of the "inner circle" of rich, important clientelle to be invited into one of Gion's teahouses in order to see a real Geisha party. But, once a year from April1-30 they put on a public show at the Gion theatre.

Here is the garden that is part of the theatre experience. Only people with first-class tickets get to go in. I've been wanting to see this since I was 14, so I decided to go ahead and make this a big splurge and buy the expensive tickets. Well worth it!
The garden is known for its impressive weeping Sakura, although, it was past the peak of the Sakura season so this tree is not at its full bloom sadly.

After a stroll through the garden, you get to go see a tea ceremony by the Geisha.
Here the maiko-san (the standing one) is coming over to her siting spot. The Geisha sitting behind the table to making the tea. She only makes two cups per group, so only two people get tea actually made by her, but everyone gets a cup and a sweet cake. Oh, also you get to keep your plate as a keepsake!
Here is one of the rather frazzled helper ladies telling me to kindly go sit down.

So, of course you can't take pictures inside the theatre, so I don't have any pictures of the show. But, that video link up there to that youtube.com video has actual footage. The theme of this year's show was the 1,000 anniversary of The Tale of Genji, by lady Murasaki Shikibu, considered by most people to be the world's first novel. And wouldn't you know it...it's an angsty/romantic drama!
The book is getting a lot of face time this year because of the anniversary. The dances at this years Miyako Odori were based on scenes from the novel. The best one, Aaron and I agree, was the most dramatic one wherein two of the court ladies get into an argument over- get this- parking spaces for their carriages. Anywho, the one super mean lady gets all evil curse like and is so enraged at the other court lady that her malicious spirit creates a living ghost which then proceeds to attack the other woman and her ladies in waiting. The dances were so spooky and there was even strobe lights!


Here is a video I took of the tea ceremony.

Up next...our daring adventure along the abandoned railway tracks in Takarazuka!

Take care.

Mt. Maya

Hello Dear Readers, Kendra here. This is a very late update indeed. This little mountain excursion took place around April 10 or so. So...with out further delay, here is our trip up Mt. Maya

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the flowers rejoicing, the hippopotamus chairs singing. The people coming with Aaron and I on this journey were Andrea, Abel, and Katherine. Mt. Maya is in the same chain as Mt. Rokko, which dear reader, I am sure you remember from our previous posts.

Here we are at the train station waiting for Katherine to arrive. She likes to arrive stylishly late. I'm not sure,dear reader, what Aaron is doing with his face...it is lovely though.

After finding our way to the start of the mountain path, we climbed for about 25 minutes before we decided it was lunch time! I think that perhaps our stomachs got the better of us. We found a nice pic-nic table and ate our benots(Japanese lunch box) and munched on various vegetables that Katherine had sliced.

We hiked and climbed and capered , it was a grand time. I found myself a trusty walking stick that must have been sadly abandoned by its previous owner. It served me well. After an hour of climbing we came to the start of the Stairs. The Stairs. It was the Stairwell to the top of the world...or so it seemed. Over 1,200 stone steps awaited us. We were keen on making a wager about who would make it to the top first. The bets were on! Whoever got to the top first got a free round of drinks on the losers. We were off, dear reader!

A few flights up and it seems I was beginning to feel the burn. Abel is trying a strange technique..not sure how that was going to work out for him. Katherine seems confident with her Romanesque pose of might, and Andrea seems like she doesn't care, and just wants to get this over with. We raced, struggled, sputtered, died, revived, stammered drunkenly, died again, and finally...made it to the top. Katherine won with her tortoise-like pace that she was able to keep up, while the rest of us, liken to the hare, ran up a few steps only to be beaten down by our horribly inadequate lung capacity. Katherine's victory dance was truly soul crushing.

The view from the top was indeed worth it. Beautiful tress (anybody know what they are?) in full bloom greeted us as if to say, "Those stairs are a bitch huh!" The man sitting next to us grilling delicate slices of meat was at first thought to be a mirage. But soon the smell of yakiniku (grilled meaty chunks) came wafting toward us. We had to vacate and quickly for fear that we might confront the old man and, like a pack of hungry bullies, steal his delicious foods.

But first, Katherine had to pay homage and give her hugs to a giant, beast of a tree. And of course, dear readers, it hugged back.

After even more stairs, we made it to the top of the mountain, which had been converted into a play ground/vending machine/landing spot for the cable car. We visited the vending machines and everyone bought sometime refreshing, or in Katherine's case, something corny and soupy seeing as how she bought a can of corn soup.

Then we made a side trip to the Buddhist temple that is on top of Mt. Maya. This edition of the temple was rather new, as is with the case with a lot of mountain temples, they seem to burn down frequently. This one was dedicated to Maya, the astrological, cosmological, totally-awesome mother of the Buddha. It also had these cute froggies who, if you rub them, will bring you luck of course!

This rather scary man was at the back of the parking lot...not sure if they just ran out of space or he scared the kids too much. Aaron thought was just awesome though.

And here are the Buddha's feet, dear reader! The whole place was really lovely and peaceful. Being on top of a mountain really does wonders for keeping out noisy tourists.

After we made our way down we cleaned up a bit then went to the World Buffet, a VIKING restaurant. And by viking they just mean all-you-can-eat. It's a decent place to get a meal that you will regret eating afterwards. It's got Italian, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Japanese, and a few random things I just can't place. All with unlimited juice drinks and dessert. We even took advantage of the month's promotion and got free alcohol-free cocktails ranging in flavor from Lime Surprise, Pinky Candy, Tequila Sunrise, and Apple Vanilla. They all tasted quite horrible. Even mixing Lime Surprise and Pinky Candy did not improve the taste.

Here are a few videos. I have a bunch from this trip so I will post more later. The first one is of Abel and Katherine going to investigate the playground on the top of the mountain. They quickly abandon the idea. Next video is from on the way down. We found this random park full of odd play ground equipment. So we kind of played around for a bit. If you think I look graceless on this thing, you should have seen Katherine...fell right on her butt.

Till next time dear reader! I will do my best to make sure that the next up date doesn't take forever! Take it easy,
Kendra.

they're alive!

hey sorry for the unnecessarily long delay in updating. We've been busy. By busy I mean Aaron is addicted to Tetris Attack (panel de pon) and I've been dealing with my semi-dead computer. It keeps wanting to go to the blue screen of death every time I shut it down...

Anyways, we are off to enjoy the nice weather with a bike ride. The story on how Aaron finally got his bike when we get back! We will do some major updating with lots of embarrassing picture and what not.

Check back soon!

-Kendra