only in japan...

I saw a middle school aged girl today on the train. Nothing crazy about that. She chatted with her friend, looked at her cell phone. Then, she started pulling up her school socks. Again, that is the style these days, socks pulled up as high as they can go. Then, to my surprise, she pulled out what looked like a giant chap stick, and put it on her leg right where her sock would come up its highest. And of course, this wasn't chap stick, but a giant stick of sock glue. Yes, sock glue. It looks like a glue stick, because, welll...that's what it is. Only you put it on your leg to keep your socks up.

I am certain it will be all the rage back home. x_x

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

Birthday and Sakura

Sorry again for the long delay.Kendra here. We've been doing nothing for a while now...we ran out of money. For reals. Like, no money. We had enough for some food and we managed to scrape by with some help from some friends, but thank goodness I get paid tomorrow!

A while back, we got to celebrate our friend Mana's birthday at a park in Kyoto while doing some Hanami, sakura flower viewing. It was a delightful time. Here are some highlights.
This is the view from Shijo bridge overlooking the famous Kamogawa river in Kyoto. It's lined with all kinds of Sakura all the way down both banks. Brilliant.

Here is Aaraon and I (check out that crooked smile I am rocking...bah!)

This is one of the more famous trees in the park where we went. It is a variety of Sakura that resembles a weeping willow. They get very big and live a long time. This one has been around for quite a while. It is roped off so no one can hurt it. It's always surrounded with tons of people taking it's picture. They even light it up at night (see picture below)

So, the basic set up of one of these hanami trips is kind of like a pic-nic. Only, drinking is encouraged. Really encouraged. It's a big tradition to sit under the Sakura and write poetry and drink sake and lament about the beauty and impermanence of human existence. Or, do like we did and be noisy, blow bubbles, and drink . Although Aaron did compose some Haiku for Mana's birthday. (see video below)

Here is the Birthday girl Mana with Aaron at the start of the day. Nice shades!

Here is Mana and Karen starting with the bubble blowing madness. We figured we spread the love and blow bubbles all over the park. We've been drinking for a while by now.

Yah, you're reading that bag right...Sandpie Assort. It translates to Assorted Cream Pie Sandwich cookies. See. Sandpie Assort is soo much easier to say!

Not sure what is going on,but Andrea has a bottle of wine in her lap and looks really embarrassed or amused by something.

So, people started leaving by 8 pm, but a bunch of us stuck it out for a few more hours (bad idea!) and stayed until it started raining. Well, once it was really coming down, we decided to leave. On the way out, we passed the weeping Sakura with its night lights on. Ohh...aahhh.

The journey home was tough. I had on flip flops and the side walk was wet and I basically slip'n'slided my way to the train station. Once there we bought tickets then realized we missed the last train we could ride. So, we got our money back then called Andrea and begged to stay at her place. Of course, being the awesome person she is, she took us in. We were all wet and all kind of drunk (minus Katherine who doesn't drink) so we were a bunch of soggy yahoos and all ended up borrowing some of Andrea's socks...

This is on the train ride home next morning...nice. But before we left, we went to the Falafel garden and pigged out on falafels....the only place you can get them properly is in Kyoto, and myself being hung-over needed some good food. It was one of those great meals you eat after a hang over and feel 100% better. Amazing.

Before we got all the way home, we had to stop at a famous theatre in Gion (an entertainment district in Kyoto...not that kind of entertainment...this street is famous for traditional Japanese arts and Geisha tea houses). Every Spring they host the Miyako Odori, which a public performance of the geisha of Gion's dancing. I'm a huge fan of geisha art so I've been wanting to go since I was about 14. So, I spent the last bit of our money on the most expensive tickets >_< butttt....you get tea ceremony and a commemorative plate! We ended up with great tickets. I'd do a post about the show but no camera allowed in. I'll try and find some official pictures online or something.

Here is our attempt at poetry under the Sakura. It starts nice...the ends with shouting. Typical!

Our next post will be about out climb of Mt. Maya, Mt. Rokko's next door neighbor. Also, Mom and Jason are coming to visit in under a week! Oh boy!
Peace and love,
Kendra

Cherry Trees at my University

Hello everyone, Kendra here. School is back in session at my University, Kwansei Gakuin. in Nishinomiya city, about 1 hour by train from where we live in Kobe. I have started back up attending my adivsor's zemi which is just Japanese for seminar...semi...zemi; see it makes sense!
Anyways, the road leading up to my school is really famous for its Sakura. The whole area is just lined with row after row of beautiful, old cheery trees.

The Sakura just keep going! Like a whole row of pretty pink clouds all along the road.

I thought this was a funny shot. A regular old bench and underneath it a whole mound of sakura petals, it just made me laugh to look at it for some reason.

Here are more blankets of Sakura petals but this time in a garden so it looks quite a bit more magical than under a bench. This is on my campus in the Japanese garden area. The whole ground was carpeted in pink petals, truly an amazing sight.

A big, old sakura tree...kind of looks like a hand, no? A little creepy.