umi.

For anyone who has as long in Japan to travel as I have, I would say you are missing out if you don’t head over to Okinawa. You can get ultra cheap flights with Jetstar and it’s only a couple of hours’ flight. In those two hours, you go from being in mountainous Honshu to what seems more like Fiji. The day after my last exam I ditched Gifu, hopped on a plane with my pal Jamesie and headed to the summer by the sea I had been longing for (see here). There was a little drama, with me going to the wrong airport (the airport system here makes no sense), but we got our flight, so really it was no big deal.

The first couple of days we stayed in Naha, revelling in our proximity to the beach by day and hanging out at bars at night. 

I won jenga. And darts. Seeing as there is not all that much to do in Naha itself, we took a trip out to the American Village.

Assumedly due to the number of Americans in Okinawa because of the U.S. military base there, the American Village was created to cater to their entertainment needs. Filled with everything imaginable (cinema, shops, bowling, beach, bars, restaurants), it remains a rather odd place. Despite its name, it very much felt more like an American themed park in Japan than something truly American. 

It was, however, a nice spot to watch the sun go down.

saikin.

Just a note to say I have not forgot about my poor, pathetic, lonely, little blog, but I have been busy racing around Japan (life's tough), and in my spare time have been writing assignments for my Australian university, so have not had the time to write or organise photos and whatnot. Hopefully some will be appearing soon though! Until then, happy summer to those in the north, to those in the south - keep warm! 

sanposhita.

Takayama is such a charming place. Rebecca and I woke to another overwhelming breakfast. I particularly enjoyed watching her face as she sampled umeboshi for the first time, although was unfortunately unable to capture it on film.

One of the very friendly women at the ryokan recommended we wander over to the nearby markets. The  morning markets are held next to a river, and almost exclusively sell locally made crafts or lovally grown fruits and vegetables. We bought some presents and knickknacks for friends at home and headed down to the river to say hello to the koi.

Most of the central area of Takayama is made up of stone-cobbled streets with traditional-style Japanese shop fronts selling various wares. We spent most of our day wandering, eventually returning to our ryokan to change into our yukatas.

And preparing for another feast.

The next day we had planned to hire bikes to explore more of Takayama, but decided to climb up to the park by foot instead. Too hot to face the descent, we searched for four leaf clovers instead.

My wish was the Bec would never go home, but I made the mistake of revealing my wish. Rookie error. We had one last cake together and said sad goodbyes. Overwhelmed by Rebecca’s good looks, Japanese people came up and asked to have photos with her, which were later posted on the café’s blog. Classic.

Although it was sad to say goodbye, I was so glad Bec was able to come and see some of Japan with me. I loved all the places we went together, and am excited to be travelling to Kyoto and Takayama again soon!

ryokan.

I have finished for the semester! I leave tomorrow for Okinawa, but wanted to quickly post about Bec and my trip to Takayama. Takayama is in Gifu Prefecture, but way up in the mountains. We chose to take the scenic route via train.

Rebecca wanted to stay in a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), so we checked in and changed into our yukatas. I didn’t realise how much the walls made everything glow, so didn’t change my settings accordingly, sorry everything looks a bit… yellow.

Breakfast and dinner was included in our stay, all of which was set up in our room for us. We were extremely excited when dish after dish began being placed on our table. What was a real surprise was the accompanying video camera. The owner of the ryokan came in and began speaking to me in rapid Japanese. From what I could gather, she was asking permission to do some filming for promotional material. Having agreed, I sat very self-consciously attempting to make appropriate small talk in Japanese. I did not do very well.

Nonetheless, eventually they seemed to get what they wanted and left us to enjoy our feast. It was absolutely magnificent, but I will write more of that another time.

After dinner, Bec and I sauntered off to the ryokan’s onsen. Returning to our room, like magic our dishes had disappeared to be replaced by futons. Unable to resist, we sunk into them and slept soundly. 

kyōto : part two.

I loved Kyoto. I think it is very true when people say it shows a different facet of the spirit of Japanese culture. That being said, the one thing that really marred our time there was the weather. As I have mentioned a number of times not, the heat and humidity can become quite overwhelming, in addition to which, each day we were there we had storms in the afternoon. Nonetheless, we did the best we could do get out and about! On Saturday we ventured out to Fushimi Inari, an amazing shrine within which are hundreds of shrines lining paths.

Following this, we made a valiant, yet unfortunately futile attempt to make it back to our hotel before the storm hit. Our failure was not helped by our taking a wrong turn and ending up straggling through the backstreets of Kyoto. In the evening we explored a little of Kyoto by night, catching glimpses of preparations for Gion Matsuri. We played make-believe as rockstars at karaoke and headed back.

The next day, the weather looked perhaps even more threatening, but Rebecca was determined to make it to the Arashiyama bamboo groves. It rained on us a number of times, but our spirits could not be quenched. 

Directions to the groves were seemingly non-existent, so it took us a good hour or so to simply find it. Upon our discovery, Bec was excited enough to strike a celebratory pose. The bamboo groves were worth the extensive search, they were beautiful.

Seeking relief from the heat, we headed to a cafe. I'm sure these cafes have a special name (I forget), but pretty much everything they serve is related to matcha (green tea). I played it safe with tea, and this matcha sweet that kind of tastes like green tea turkish delight, but Bec decided to go for the parfait, which upon examination ended up being everything on the menu arranged into a large cup. Don't be fooled by her excited expression, early into eating she remembered that she does not, in fact, like green tea flavoured foods. 

In the afternoon, we headed back to the district in which our hotel was, only to find the streets had been closed for cars and overtaken by people, some dressed traditionally, some not so traditionally. 

Our last stop for Kyoto was dropping into a department store to ogle at the $100 rockmelons. This is one phenomenon of Japan I still do not understand.