Sun Members Kobe

... lumihuippuisine vuoristomaisemineen, mutta silti kadun ettei jääty Gerossa. Siinä paikassa oli jotain todella kiehtovaa ja mielenkiintoista! Varma kohde ensi kerralla...

Pari tuntia käveltiin ympäri Takaymaa, jonka jälkeen haettiin kunnon matkaeväät kaupasta ja hypättiin takaisin Nagoyaan menevään junaan. Se oli siinä. Olipa melkoinen pikavisiitti tämä, mutta pelkkä junamatka jo teki reissusta todellakin vaivan arvoisen! Tämän junareitin voi ilman ...

... noin 10 minuuttia, eikä siinä ehtinyt kuin lyödä ahterinsa penkkiin ja avata teejuoman, niin oltiinkin jo perillä! Shin-Koben asemalta lähdettiin kävelemään (tietysti taas) kohti Kobe Lumierea ja löydettiinkin paikka parin kilometrin talsimisen jälkeen.

Ja kannatti kyllä kävellä, koska tosi komea oli tämä Lumiere ja aivan mielettömästi oli tullut ihmisiä sitä katsomaan. Valoista oli tehty ikään kuin kirkon seinät ja massiivista kirkkomusiikkia raikui ...

... for the day. Bridget, Eben and I ended up buying tickets to the sumo wrestling tournament down in Fukuoka the next day, a split second decision I will be forever grateful to have made. As a group, the result of all our pow-wowing was to yet again utilize our JR rail passes, and take the bullet train to Himeji to see the famous Himeji Castle. Of course, the train we got on to Himeji was the only train that our rail passes did not work on, as we soon found out when the ...

... all over Japan by heading down all the small side streets. It seems that this is where many of the locals head for cheaper but great little places. Usually cheaper than the main street joints as well. Nonetheless, we finished up and decided to head to a bar that the waiter had recommended down the street and have a few more before heading back to the train station for the 1000th time that day. All we had was the Japanese characters for this ...

... steps. And once you get to the main level you keep climbing to get to the other 10 or so buildings on the property. But, at the top it's gorgeous so worth it. Another cool thing is that the shrine and the temple were both built, like many structures in Japan, with no hardware in the construction. In other words, it's masterful woodworking or mortise and tenons that keeps them together. And seeing the underside and huge logs that support this temple was super cool. After we left the ...

... of money this week either - so it's a justifiable purchase. Dispite us clearly being foreign, the guy behind the still still tried to ask if we wanted to pay in installments (this took about 10 minutes to realise)! Apparently, it's not uncommon to have customer service nightmare in Japan. So that's enough for now. Next time you hear from me I will probably be in Thailand. All is going well, the people are very friendly and incredibly polite. There are a few odd things - for ...

... myself but the kids really made short work out of most of it. When that was all done and the rest of the kids had returned from recess she gave them two choices: they could work on their animal reports some more or they could listen to me play guitar and sing. I think you know what they chose. So I grabbed one of their little chairs and sat down at one end of the room. I mentioned how I wasn't sure what I should play and ...

... Funky dress sense, mature, worldly and ambitious. When she finishes uni, she has her heart set on working in sales for a big company such as Mitsubishi Industry. I really hope that she makes it but because she is a woman, chances are that she wont. A sad reality. Most women here are treated as second class citizens. There are so many housewives, and those who do work are not in positions of power. In the bank ...

... family (the Kawashima's - Akemi, Sayumi, Nanami & Rikako) who treated me like royalty (a girl could get used to that). I had 3 days to see Kyoto and 1 day for Nara so I was pretty busy. On the first day Akemi and Nanami accompanied me into Kyoto. We went to the temple with hundreds and hundreds of red gates (I forget the name) and then to Sanjusangen-do. 'San ju san' is Japanese for 33 and so this temple is named because of the 34 columns inside the temple and ...

... your grandfathers bike complete with basket up front and over-sized tires!! Pretty funny to see! Anyway, after work on Sunday some coworkers and I decide to head out to Kobe for a bite to eat. Remember how I wrote about the Japanese people and their ability to maintain balance on the trains no matter what? Well, it's not quite the same for the whities here. My friend and coworker, Liz from NY, is on the train and she's already a bit loopy to begin with, well, we ...