Foreigner Fun

Osaka has a very famous castle (it's the single most visited sight in all of Japan - some say that's because it's the only thing to see in all of Osaka), and near the grounds is a kind of park.  We saw these hilarious people doing a "cos-play" (costume play), dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland.  The one guy collapsed at one point, but he got up and boogied again.  They were well-choreographed, but we couldn't hear any music, so it was extra funny because we could hear their feet, and their laughter.

They were videotaping it, but i don't know why.
Subway rides can be quite a relief from all the walking.  Misty and Tyler found seats, which is the key.  Tyler and i bought samurai headbands, and whenever we wore them, people laughed at...no, WITH us.  They asked us whether we knew what they meant, and we said 'yes'.  i guessed that it was the equivalent of a Japanese person coming to Canada and wearing around a coon-skin hat or snow shoes or something.  some people thought it was cool/amusing.

Tyler's means "victory", and mine means "fighting spirit".  Combining the two powers, we were invincible!  Basically, i did all the work and he got the glory.
This is the mountain that Mandy and i climbed up on our first visit to Kyoto.  The shape in the hillside is called 'dai', which means 'strength', and there are three shapes like this around the city.  Every year, during a certain festival, they light fires along the shapes and it's supposed to look amazing.  We'd like to come back for that.  
We bought noodles and okonomiyaki in Kyoto from a street-side vendor.  I really liked that okonomiyaki.  it's like an omelet/pancake with stuff inside and sauce on top.  We ate in front of a little temple.  Temples are everywhere in Kyoto.
There was a restaurant which, for some reason, had antique waterskis on the front of the building.  They reminded me of waterskiing.... so i took a picture....  

plus, look at the scooter!  

By the way, we are now back at work, almost done our first week of the new  year.  It's been ok, but somehow it's a little lackluster.  It takes some effort to keep it fresh.  No matter where you are or what you are doing, you have to accept ups and downs.  I'm pretty confident that that is a fact of life.  Just because you go to a new, exciting country, doesn't mean that everything you do is superfun.  But a lot of things are.  Sometimes, the classes get tiresome.  I don't know how teachers do it for 30+ years.  Maybe you just get used to it.  Oh ya, look who's talking...it's the guy who has never done the same thing for more than a year in a row.  Spoiled brat.

Our friend Kelly arrived in Japan!  She's working as a teacher up north in the colder, mountainous area, where she can snowboard on weekends.  We picked her up from Narita airport outside Tokyo late at night and had an unexpected taxi-ride.  It's all adventure out here.

Did i mention to have a look at that scooter?

Random Moments

This is the most splendid Japanese temple i have seen.  It's called Kinkakuji, or 'Golden Pavilion'.  It's calming to look at it and see the reflection in the pond, and the trees.  It appears to be hovering.  
On the way to Kyoto, we saw snow!  Kyoto is in central Japan, but it's surrounded by mountains, so the elevation allows for periodical snowfall.  It was nice to see it from the train window.  Actually, at Kinkakuji, it was snowing lightly and the sun was shining at the same time.  
We were invited to our friends' place (Greg and Maki), and they have a Nintendo Wii, so we played for a while.  It was hilarious, but i'm terrible at video games.  No matter how fast i shook those controllers, i couldn't win the 100m dash.  
This is the cake we ate on Christmas day with Greg and Maki.  
We couldn't help but covet this little bus.  It's just sooooo kyoot!  It's the new VW bus, and it's quite a bit smaller than the original ones.  

Christmas was very different than usual for us, but it was a treat to have some family around to hang out with and to open some gifts with.  We didn't have turkey, or even KFC, but we did make sushi for Christmas dinner.  Sometimes you just have to say, "when in Rome."

You May As Well Buy Postcards

There are only a few photos in this lot that are personal.  But to be honest, Kyoto is so beautiful at this time of year that you just have to take these postcard shots.  We saw this huge solar panel out the windows of the Shinkansen bullet train as it shot by.  Actually, Mandy feels woozy when she looks out the window, so she probably missed it.  I have never dreamed of such a huge solar panel.  It probably powers all of central Japan.
We ate at this restaurant at the foot of Daimon-jiyama, near the Silver Pavillion.  I thought of my mother when i saw the colourful ivy crawling around the wall.
This was a typical sight in Kyoto: beautiful coloured leaves.  We decided to take saturday and hike up a mountain called Daimonjiyama.  Once a year they light up these enormous fires in the shapes of Japanese written characters.  There are three or four mountains around the city that these fires are lit and you can see them from all over Kyoto.  We want to return for this festival.  Check it out here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gozan_Okuribi
These fire pits are in the shape of 'Dai', meaning large.  It was amazing to see these huge shapes even when they weren't lit up.
It was refreshing to get out into nature and see some Japanese trees and plants.  
It did rain quite a lot on our climb up and we got chilled, but luckily, at the summit, the sun peaked out and warmed us nicely.  Mandy's like a Meerkat, she's a friend of the sun. 
This is Kyoto from the summit of Daimonji-yama.  It's not a huge mountain (466m), but in flat-bottomed sneakers, in the rain, it was big enough.  The hike took us about 4 hours.  I'm pretty sure it's usually misty like this, and the city is quite obscured.
Mandy thought of her own mum when she saw these ferns.  This is the end of November!  

When we had nearly reached the bottom, near Nanzen-ji temple, we saw a sub-temple, and there were some structures, this bridge, and a little waterfall, where there was a guy having a ritual shower in the freezing water, during which time he is supposed to be saying a prayer.  I would be too distracted to pray at a time like that.  

This is Nanzen-ji temple.  I liked the mix of coloured trees, and the little family of grotesque creatures at the foot of the tree.  They're often seen outside restaurants, and are supposed to be good luck.  

A very rare sight in Japan:  an aquaduct!  Built in the style of the Roman aquaducts by an emperor to uh, well, you know... transport um...
Hey look!  A Japanese wedding procession!  The bride and groom dressed in traditional wedding kimonos were slightly bashful, and who wouldn't be bashful, getting married in the middle of a tourist trap at high tourist season!  


This is Mandy and me, having lunch at Kyoto station, a huge monstrosity that got us lost a few times trying to find our way through.