Hotel Kinsenkaku Toyota

Well, the first week has gone pretty quick. I've spoken more Japanese in the last couple of days than I have in the last couple of years! It's been really fun. I thought that I would share with you some things that I have learnt about myself since arriving in Japan.

1. I am hopeless at reading maps. I always thought it was the Gregory's directory, but no... it's me. I have ...

Here I am, my final destination in Japan. Seems pretty strange that I'm only 3 days into my trip and already at my final destination, but that's how it is.

This morning I woke up really early. I'm not 100% sure of the time, but there was no light outside, nor was there any traffic - so I figure somewhere around 5ish (possibly 5 Aussie time which would have meant that it was 4am Japan time!). As I was completely ...

... bathroom, I feel like Alice when she kept growing and growing. I know I am not the tallest of women, but here in Japan, I am a GIANT!

I walked for hours yesterday. Mainly because I am hopeless at reading maps. I walked for about an hour yesterday, only to be told that the Noritake garden that I was trying to get to was a long way back in the opposite direction. *sigh* So off I walked and eventually, when I thought ...

... Mrs. Tanabe, which was a 5-minute walk from the Hanamatsuri temple.

We had a marvelous meal. I asked for a "dentou" (traditional) Japanese meal, and that's what we got. Oden, which was boiled vegetables, eggs, and other goodies in a big pot of soy-flavored broth, Japanese beer (a must), tempura (deep-fried vegatables and shrimp), miso soup, rice, and about three types of salad, were all on the menu. We ate, we drank, and then we left.

Walking along this mountain road ...

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... t look worried either. We kept the same pace, past the train station, and looping around until the tunnel the gym teacher showed me earlier.

I knew as we approached the loop point, that unless I stepped up a little, he would burn me out in the end. So taking it up a gear, I went from 60% to about 75%, and maintained that race as I took off as fast as I could past him. I heard his surprise, and kept an image of him tailing me close in my mind as I strived to maintain this ...

... and told us about a festival which celebrates the autumn leaves. We told her the remaining cities we were going to visit and she starting giving us information packets about Osaka, Kyoto, and Hiroshima. I think she even gave us her only copies! That was so kind of her. Before we left, she took kindness to another level and gave us some post cards as a present! I've heard some stories about random acts of Japanese ...

... vel ver a cidade de Toyota, mas o cenário seria bem mais belo não fosse a poluição sobre a cidade. Chegamos em um ponto onde havia uma trilha até o topo do monte Sanage e outra que descia pelo outro lado até o templo. Decidimos voltar pois o sol estava já bem baixo e nós estávamos na face leste da montanha ficando escuro em locais de mata muito fechada. Na descida passamos por um templo abandonado com uma enorme escadaria de pedras de onde era possível ver a ...

... n". The other characters are all different. To type anything that makes sense, you have to type these keys, then hit space to bring a little pull-down menu, then scroll down to find the Kanji representation of the word that you want to use (different kanji = different meaning, however, same sounding word) What a pain. As a computer geek, I sure wouldn't want to waste my time learning how to do that. it was a pain learning to touch-type ...