It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve come back from my one year adventure in Japan. The last few weeks have been very quiet, and I’ve slowly been adjusting back to the British way of life. I’m from the Northern part of England, so hearing the Northern English accent took some getting use to! But there’s always a sense of comfort hearing it, as it really does remind me that I’m back home.
I’ve been dealing with my move back pretty well. I really thought that moving back to England would be really tough, and my heart would be aching from missing Japan so much. But in all weirdness, I think the climate has helped me. I’ve noticed that the climate in Japan is almost identical to England. Usually I feel a huge difference in the air from the moment I step off the plane after being abroad. But the air almost feels the same, and in a strange way it almost seems like I haven’t left Japan.
Missing Japan has been unavoidable. Seeing the pictures my friends in Japan post on Facebook and Instagram makes me wish I was still there living in my tiny town. How I miss the simplicity of life over there! But, it’s back to reality now. I need to find my next path, and the journey continues!
It’s been nice returning home to a big kitchen! I got so use to using my tiny kitchen back in Japan. I’ve been making use of it as much as I can. Eating clean and healthy!
It was also nice finally being reunited with my oven! I do wonder how I managed to survive one year without an oven, haha! The first thing I made was melon pan. Crispy on the outside, soft in the inside. It takes quite some patience to make, as the bread has to go through a few fermentation stages. But it’s worth it when the final product comes straight out of the oven. I almost feel like I’m still in Japan when I eat it and close my eyes!
It was also my girlfriend’s birthday the other week. So I set myself a task to make rilakumma cupcakes for her. It’s been a while since I last made something like this, but it was fun! Not perfect, but points for effort I guess!
It’s been a while since I last updated this blog! The last couple of months in Japan have just been a blur. Believe it or not, but I’m actually typing this on the plane bound for Amsterdam right now. My Japanese adventure has officially come to an end.
How do I feel? I can’t even explain it myself. I have said so many goodbyes over the past few weeks to people who I may not ever see again. Japan has really taught me the true meaning of goodbye. The hardest goodbyes have been with my students. Over the year I connected with them so much, and I felt so loved and welcomed by them. I knew that saying goodbye to them would be hard, but never would I have been able to prepare myself for it. To some people you will become a memory, so make sure you’re a good one!
The last week of school was tough. A lot of my classes had prepared many farewell songs and gifts for me, and there were a lot of tears involved! The appreciation Japanese students show to their teachers is very admirable. They really do know how to make you feel loved!
I attended my last ever staff party last Tuesday, and said goodbye to all of the teachers and staff I had worked with over the year. It was a mix of emotions. I was happy to be there with all of my teachers, talking, drinking and singing karaoke. However, deep down there was also a lot of sadness as I knew it would be the last ever time. The idea that I would not see some of these people ever again was too overwhelming for it to sink in.
Even now, it still hasn’t sunk in. I refuse to believe that my adventure is over. But at the same time, I have to look forward to what the future brings. Saying goodbye is hard, but it also brings new adventures. Things can never stay the same.
So the exciting part about going back to England, is that my parents have no idea that I will be back so early. I told my dad that I would be back on the 10th, but I thought it would be nice to come home a week early to give them a surprise. I’m not sure what kind of reaction I will get, but I will be sure to film it! Haha! I’m also looking forward to seeing my friends and family, and also eating good old British food! How I’ve missed it!
Yesterday I spent the day in Tokyo with a few friends, and we managed to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom at Ueno park. Ueno station was insanely busy, and we had to shuffle our way through the crowd out of the station to head to the park.
The crowds at Ueno Station
Seeing all cherry blossoms made me quite nostalgic, as it reminded me of when I first arrived in Japan. It reminded me that my year in Japan was up, and that my time here had done a full circle. It’s crazy how time flies. I miss Japan so much.
Thank you Japan for an unforgettable year. You’ve changed me as a person in so many ways. It’s been the most incredible year of my life. Never did I imagine that I would have an opportunity like this. I’ve seen so much and learned so much from this past year. Can’t believe the journey has come to an end, but I will carry it with me for the rest of my life.
So the last few months after Christmas have been very quiet around here. Japanese festivals have taken a break and don’t start up again until around April. I really miss them! The first festival of the year is actually the Yatai Matsuri in Otawara, the drum festival I posted about last year. I cannot believe it’s almost been a year! I will never forget that festival as it was my first ever festival experience. Exhilarating and spectacular. I’m already planning on making a visit to Japan next year just to attend that festival again.
Besides work, I’ve really just been taking it easy and trying to enjoy every moment here. People have asked me what I will miss the most about living in Japan. I honestly cannot give one exact thing. It’s an accumulation of many things. The smell, the atmosphere, the connection between you and the people around you. I’m going to miss LIVING in Japan.
This week I was lucky enough to have my parents and brother come over to visit me. It finally happened! After almost a year of arranging. I met up with them in Ueno, and at first it was a bit surreal. I couldn’t believe they were finally in Japan, and I had so much I wanted to share with them!
I took them to places I had already visited. Which meant that I took on the role of the tour guide. Stressful, but it was very satisfying taking them to places I had been longing to take them. We visited Kyoto, which they loved! It was my third time visiting Kyoto, but I can’t get enough of the place! It’s a very enchanting city, and I was grateful to experience it for the third time with my family.
Seeing Mount Fuji from the shinkansen
After arriving at Kyoto we took a local train around 20 minutes out of the city to Ogoto-onsen. It’s a tiny little town by Lake Biwa, the biggest lake in Japan. I had booked to stay at a ryokan for one night, I was super excited! Ryokans are super expensive, but I thought it would be great for my family to experience living in a traditional Japanese inn.
The ryokan did not disappoint. The room was beautiful, with tatami flooring. There was green tea and fresh manju upon arrival in the room. We spent the evening relaxing at the onsen, and then we had dinner prepared for us straight after. We were given a private room, and the food was so beautifully presented. Definitely the highlight of the trip! The food was so fresh, and intricately prepared. The portions were small, and very light on the stomach, but it just right to make you feel comfortably full.
Dinner banquet at the ryokan
We woke up early in the morning to take another trip to the onsen before heading down for breakfast.
After checking out of the ryokan, we made our way back to Kyoto. The weather was freezing cold! It felt even colder than up in Tochigi, but I was told it’s because Kyoto is actually located in between a valley which makes it even colder during the winter.
I’ve posted about Kyoto a couple of times now. Here are some of the photos I managed to snap during my most recent trip there.
I finally got the chance to visit Yogenin temple, the temple with the blood stained ceiling. A friend recommended this place to me, but the last couple of times I visited Kyoto I didn’t have enough time to make a trip there. The temple is around a 20 minute walk from Kyoto station. It was hidden near a residential area, and I was told that the temple is not really open to foreigners since they do not speak English. I still wanted to check it out though.
We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the temple itself. The temple was very eery, and we were given a short tour inside which was done all in Japanese. The lady had an old cassette player, and played a cassette of a man giving an explanation of the paintings, and other significant things inside the temple. I didn’t understand any of what was being said. The temple was really cold, and hearing the old cassette player being played sent chills down my spine. I was in awe of all the blood stains on the ceiling. I read that these blood stains were from samurais who fought to protect Fushimi Castle in 1600. They used this blood stained floor from Fushimi Castle as the ceiling in Yogenin Temple to help bring peace to those who died in the battle.
After visiting the temple we took the shinkansen back to Tochigi. The following day my parents visited my school. It was an unforgettable moment. I couldn’t believe that my parents were finally at the school I had been teaching at for the past year. It was nice to see them interact with my students, playing games and a lot of rocks, scissors paper! The staff at the school were also very happy to see my parents, and both teachers and students were so warm and welcoming.
With my parents being in Tochigi, it was perfect timing as Toshogu Shrine in Nikko had just finished its renovations. We took the Nikko line to check it out!
The newly renovated gate at Toshogu shrine
There was a lot of walking involved, but I think my parents and brother thoroughly enjoyed their time in Japan!
Happy New Year everyone!! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and hope this year is a great year for us all!
What did everyone get up to over the holidays? My original plan for Christmas Day was to stay at home and make a huge meal for myself since the majority of my friends had gone home for the holidays. On Christmas Eve, I was suddenly asked to go to an onsen hotel right up in the mountains of Nasu. Of course I couldn’t say no to an onsen, plus it included a huge buffet! The onsen was beautiful, with outdoor sulphur baths. I ended up smelling like a boiled egg for a couple of days due to the strong smell of sulphur. But I felt so relaxed afterwards, and my skin felt amazing! It was just pretty bizarre lying in a steamy outdoor onsen up in the mountains of Japan on Christmas Day, definitely a huge change to my usual Christmases. I remember lying in the onsen thinking to myself, how life has changed!
After Christmas, I was counting down the days for my girlfriend to arrive in Japan. I couldn’t believe she was visiting again, and I had planned a trip around Kansai area. That meant visiting Kyoto again, which I was excited about because it’s probably one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been to. I crammed quite a lot in our travel plan, because I wanted to make sure that my girlfriend could visit as many places possible as she was only going to be in Japan for a week. We planned on visiting Kawaguchiko, Kyoto, Osaka and Nara. My only worry was that we were travelling during the most busiest period of the year. New Year is pretty chaotic in terms of travel, as many Japanese people travel back to their hometowns to visit friends and family. Japanese people also visit temples and shrines to pray and make wishes for the New Year. That meant that the trains and shinkansen would be bombarded with people, so I was dreading the travelling.
Travelling is really fun though, I always get super excited when I’m about to embark on a mini adventure. I’m getting better at travelling light too, and above are my must need items when travelling.
11/29 Tochigi>Tokyo>Kawaguchiko I woke up really early to take the 7am train to Ueno to meet my girlfriend. The train journey was around two and a half hours, so I was really hoping I would be able to get a seat. I spent the first 45 minutes standing until we reached Utsunomiya where I was lucky enough to find a seat. The train eventually got more and more crammed, to the point where people were wedging themselves through the door. I have never been so thankful for a train seat before! Haha!
After arriving in Ueno, I took the train to Nippori to meet my girlfriend. We checked into our hotel and then made our way to Tokyo station to take a bus to Lake Kawaguchiko. After living in Japan for more than 10 months, I still hadn’t seen Mount Fuji, so I was really excited to visit Kawaguchiko to get an amazing view. Kawaguchiko is one of the five famous lakes known for viewing Mount Fuji. It’s also well known for the famous painting of Mount Fuji by Hokusai. It was a 2 hour bus journey from Tokyo station. I fell asleep for most of the bus journey, but towards the end I could see Mount Fuji in the distance and it was awe strikingly beautiful.
When we arrived at Kawaguchiko station, even the view from the station was incredible as Mount Fuji was in perfect view in the background. We made our way down to Lake Kawaguchiko, but from there we couldn’t get a view of Mount Fuji. After doing a little bit of walking, we found a trail and decided to follow it uphill. It was really tiring, but we managed to make it to the observatory deck, and the view was stunning!
Trail to the observatory deck
Unfortunately, we had arrived at Kawaguchiko quite late in the afternoon, so we didn’t really have much time before sunset. Thankfully I managed to get some nice shots from the observatory deck, and it was one of those scenes which I needed a moment to take in. After taking photos, we made our way back to the station. I was slightly disappointed that we weren’t able to explore Kawaguchiko more, and we weren’t able to see Mount Fuji from the lake view. But the view from the observatory deck still made it worthwhile. For those who are planning on visiting Kawaguchiko over the winter, I suggest taking the morning bus to allow yourself time to see everything before the sunsets.
Kawaguchiko station
We soon took the bus back to Tokyo, and headed to Shibuya to have dinner. We were ready to call it a night. A pretty exhausting first day, but I could finally say that I had seen Mount Fuji! Another thing to tick off my bucket list.
12/30 Tokyo>Kyoto The second day we were ready to head to Kyoto! I was ready for the shinkansen chaos. We checked out of our hotel very early and headed straight to Tokyo station. The station was packed with people, with long queues at the ticket offices. As we were boarding the shinkansen, the queues were insanely long. I was pretty sure that we would have to stand for the duration of the journey as we had booked non-reserved seats. I told my girlfriend to go in front of me and to go straight to a seat if she found one. Luckily, we managed to find two seats together. It was seriously a dream come true! We managed to sleep most of the two and a half hour journey to Kyoto. It felt really nice to be back in Kyoto!
The first thing we did was check into our Air bnb which was located in Arashiyama. I didn’t have enough time to visit Arashiyama on my last visit, so I was really looking forward to it. The walk to central Arashiyama was really nice, and we had a luscious view of the river as we crossed Togetsukyo bridge. We were lucky enough to spot a few geishas walking along the river. I was so excited as I wasn’t lucky enough to see any on my last visit to Kyoto. I’ve heard that spotting geishas in Kyoto is very rare, and Kyoto is the only place in Japan where geishas still remain. Their kimonos were so beautiful!
The view from Togetsukyo Bridge
Central Arashiyama was filled with tiny stores, cafes and restaurants bustling with people. Arashiyama is most famous for its bamboo grove and Tenryuji Temple, but because it was already getting quite late, we decided to come again on a different day. Walking through the streets of Arashiyama was enough to keep us occupied. The souvenir shops were really worth going into, and there were plenty matcha cafes and food stalls to try out!
12/31 Kyoto New Year’s Eve, I made sure that we were not doing any travelling on the train or shinkansen. I could only imagine it to be absolute mayhem! Instead, we started the day off by visiting Kinkakuji, probably the most famous and well known historical site in Kyoto. I visited this place on my last visit to Kyoto in October, and it was interesting to visit again during winter as the autumn leaves had all disappeared. The amount of tourists who visit Kinkakuji is insane, which can get quite frustrating when you are wanting to take a photo. You literally have to fight for a spot to squeeze into, and even when you manage to find one, some people will push you out of the way.
After we visited Kinkakuji, we made our way to Kiyomizu dera. I love this place. The cobbled streets surrounding Kiyomizu dera have a very traditional Japanese feel to it. It’s this charm which makes me love Kyoto. We made sure to try out the matcha ice cream there, and also the famously known dango!
We spent most of the afternoon walking through the streets of Higashiyama. We then visited Kiyomizu dera as the sun was setting, and I managed to get some really nice shots of the skyline.
Kiyomizu dera
With it being New Year’s Eve, we decided to visit Yasaka shrine which is just a few minutes walk from Kiyomizu dera. The place was filled with people, and there were many festival stalls! I love festival food, and my girlfriend has been wanting to try it for a long time, so the timing was perfect! We spent so much money on festival food alone. Yakitori, grilled squid, karaage, daifuku, taiyaki etc. But it was worth it!
Festival stalls at Yasaka shrineKaraageTaiyakiGrilled squid
I also noticed a lot of people buying some rope and setting the ends on fire.
We didn’t really have much planned for the countdown, as I read that the Japanese usually queue up at shrines and temples to pray rather than holding firework displays. At around 9pm, massive queues were already forming outside of temples. I had never seen anything like it!
Queue to the shrine
It was still around 9pm, and I couldn’t really imagine waiting around at Yasaka shrine until midnight. So we decided to head back to our air bnb near Arashiyama. When we got off at our station, Matsuotaisha, there was a huge crowd outside the shrine by the station. We decided to follow the crowd into the shrine, and again there were many festival stalls! The atmosphere was great, with crowds queueing up to enter the temple for midnight, and also food stalls as far as the eye could see. With it being quite a local shrine, there were hardly any foreigners around, so we really got the local experience. We tried chicken skin gyoza which was delicious, and also castella cake balls. We also bought roasted satsuma-imo (Japanese sweet potato), which was even more enjoyable on such a cold night. We managed to stay at the shrine for the countdown. As we were queueing up for food, we could just about make out people shouting the countdown in the distance followed by a few cheers.
Matsuotaisha shrine
People waiting to queue up for the shrine
1/1 Kyoto First day of 2017, we made a visit back to Arashiyama to visit the bamboo grove and Tenryuji temple. I wasn’t expecting the entrance to the bamboo grove to literally be through a side street. We followed the signs and made our way up. It was a really nice walk, and the tall bamboo put me in total zen mode.
Bamboo grove
After strolling around Arashiyama, we took the bus to Ginkakuji. It was still pretty early in the day, but the bus journey from Arashiyama to Ginkakuji seemed to take forever. When we arrived at the stop, the roads soon became familiar to me and we made our way up to Ginkakuji. The path leading up to Ginkakuji is filled with tiny food stalls selling matcha desserts, steamed buns, dango etc. I had visited Ginkakuji on my previous trip to Kyoto, and it’s also a very famous must see attraction if you plan on visiting Kyoto. You can read about it in my previous post on Kyoto.
After visiting Ginkakuji we spent our evening in Sanjo. Sanjo is the shopping district of Kyoto, and I stayed at this place on my last trip. For those who are planning a trip to Kyoto, I recommend staying in Sanjo as the location is convenient. It has a huge selection of shops and restaurants, and it is literally in the centre of Kyoto. Arashiyama was a nice location to stay in, as it was close to the bamboo grove and also the small quirky stores around the station. However it was quite a distance from a lot of the attractions.
The thing with Kyoto is that most of the attractions are very spaced out, so quite a bit of time is needed to travel from location to location. I was really surprised that bus services and train services were running until quite late over the New Year, I think some buses and trains were operating until 3am. With the number of people heading to shrines and temples, it made sense! I was worried prior to my trip that a lot of places would be closed over the New Year and transportation would be really inconvenient, but it was completely wrong. I was really impressed at how efficient the services were everywhere. You would never have thought that it was the holidays. There were many local stores and restaurants which had closed over the New Year, but finding a place to eat did not seem like too much of a problem.
1/2 Kyoto>Osaka We were due to head to Osaka in the morning but we decided to make another visit to Hirashiyama to rent yukatas! I didn’t originally plan on doing this, but my girlfriend really wanted to try so I thought why not!
Admittedly, the service we received at the rental store was pretty bad. I was quite appalled at how rude the staff were to me. They just assumed that I spoke Chinese, so spoke to me using Mandarin Chinese. When I told them that I didn’t understand, they were very blunt and rude to me in English. Also upon entering the store, we wanted to check the yukatas before renting them. But the staff took us in to get changed first before choosing our yukatas, which gave us no option but to rent them from their store. It was like a trap! And there was a lot of sitting and waiting around, and altogether it took 2 hours for us to choose and get changed into our yukatas when we were told it would take 30 minutes.
With all the negatives aside, I was quite happy overall with how the yukatas looked. It was an experience getting dressed, and it took a lot longer than I thought. I was surprised at the number of layers needed, and also the number of pins. The lady who was dressing me warned me that it would be very tight around the stomach, and boy was she right! She pulled the fabric so tight that I had to take a deep breath! My girlfriend’s yukata had even more layers, and we both left the store hobbling and struggling to breathe, haha!
Higashiyama seemed like the perfect spot to rent our yukatas from as the streets have a very picturesque, traditional Japanese style to it. It was probably my favourite part of the entire trip, walking along the narrow cobbled streets wearing a yukata. We got stares from a lot of people, and tourists were taking photos of us. The yukatas were so tight that I joked to my girlfriend saying it was probably best for us to skip lunch! We ended up going to a tiny soba restaurant, and it was a restaurant which had Japanese style seating. It was a challenge having to take off our clogs (getas) and step on to the platform where the seating was. Then we had to bend down and kneel for the duration of the meal. I’m still not use to the whole kneeling position, but I’ve found that I can endure a lot longer than when I first came to Japan!
We were also super lucky to spot more geishas!
Geishas in Higashiyama
After spending the whole day with our yukatas on and taking as many photos as we could, we returned them to the rental store and made our way back to Arashiyama to collect our things from the air bnb. We were setting off to Osaka later than planned, but the good thing about staying in Arashiyama was that we could take the train straight from our station. It was an hour train journey with one change in between, so we ended up arriving in Osaka at around 8pm. I was pretty excited, as I’ve never been to Osaka before and I was excited to try the takoyaki there!
Once we arrived at Osaka, we made our way to our air bnb apartment. We had trouble with accessing the apartment as there was some miscommunication regarding the key. This meant that by the time we entered the apartment, it was already too late to head out to the city centre to get dinner. We decided to eat local and have an early night, ready for a busy day!
1/3 Osaka>Nara We were contemplating whether to head to Nara for a day trip, since we wouldn’t have much time to see Osaka. In the end we decided to go, as we thought it would be best to see as many places as we could and Nara is so close to Osaka (an hour train journey). We woke up early and took the train to Nara. Nara is famous for its wild deer, and they’re not shy when approaching humans. I was told by a lot of my colleagues at work to be careful when approaching them as there is a chance they could attack you. I was told stories of people being bitten, and one of my teachers at school recalled being charged at by one.
Arriving at Nara, we took the bus to Todaiji Temple. This is the most famous temple in Nara, and it holds the world’s biggest bronze Buddha statue known as Daibutsu. It served as one of the seven great temples of Japan. It’s a must see if you visit Nara! The area surrounding the temple was incredibly busy, and we had to cross Ueno Park in order to reach Todaiji. There were so many deer roaming the grounds freely. I made sure to keep a distance from them! Many people were still queuing up to visit the temples in the area to pray. There were plenty festival stalls for us to try as well.
Festival stalls
As we approached the entrance gate to Todaiji Temple, I was really impressed by the two structures on each side of the gate resembling the Nio Guardian Kings. They were huge, and the detail on each statue was unbelievable. The gate itself was a beautiful, faded wooden structure, a complete contrast to some of the brightly painted shrines and pagodas in Kyoto.
Entrance to TodaijiNio GuardianNio Guardian
Nara really gives a feeling of nature, which makes it a place worth visiting. I was pleasantly surprised by Todaiji Temple. I honestly did not know what to expect, as I have visited many shrines and temples during my time in Japan. In all honesty, shrines and temples all seem very similar to me, so admittedly there are times when I’m not entirely sure how to appreciate them. But Todaiji Temple was enchanting, and I did not expect it to be so big! The air was filled the smell of burning incense sticks, and I was stood there gaping at how beautiful the temple was. We made our way inside, and saw the huge bronze Buddha statue inside.
Todaiji templeDaibutsu
We spent a total of around 3 hours in Nara, then decided to head back to Osaka. There really isn’t much to do in Nara besides visiting the park and its famous temples, so if anyone is planning a trip to Nara I recommend making it an afternoon trip.
Arriving back in Osaka, we took the train to the famous Dontonbori. This street is famous for its food! It reminded me a lot of Tokyo, but a lot busier. There were many restaurants along this street, and also many takoyaki restaurants! Some with insane queues. We decided to have lunch at a sushi restaurant, the sushi was so good!
Dotonbori, OsakaDontonbori
Takoyaki stalls
We spent the rest of the day wondering around Nanba and doing some shopping. I managed to find the famous Glico man! It’s seen as the icon of Osaka, and the display was installed in 1935 and advertises Glico candy, a Japanese confectionary company.
Famous Glico advertisement
We ate a lot of ramen during our trip, but the best ramen were the ones we ate at local ramen bars. There was one particular ramen bar on the main street of Dontonbori which we queued up for a while to try. The tonkotsu ramen was delicious! I’m really going to miss this when I go back home!
1/4 Osaka>Tokyo>Tochigi This was the day I was dreading the most. Our task was to travel back to Tochigi from Osaka. I was not looking forward to carrying our heavy suitcase from station to station, and also fighting for a shinkansen seat! We visited Osaka Castle before starting our journey back home. There was no way we could leave Osaka without seeing the castle!
Since we had very little time, we didn’t spend much time at the castle. We literally went there, took a few photos then went straight back to the station to take the shinkansen to Tokyo. We didn’t have time to go inside the castle, but seeing it from outside was already impressive.
Osaka Castle
We then made our way to Osaka station to take the shinkansen to Tokyo. We were lucky enough to get a seat again, and we bought bento to eat! Again, I felt like we were very lucky being able to sit for the duration of the journey as the shinkansen started to fill up quick. A lot of people were standing with their suitcases. After arriving at Tokyo station, we took the next shinkansen back to Tochigi. Altogether, it took us around 4 hours to head back home.
Bento on the shinkansen
As soon as we arrived back in my town, we went to a yakiniku restaurant with my Japanese friend. The food was great, yakiniku has to be one of my favourite Japanese foods ever! I mentioned to my friend that I like to eat melon pan, so she ordered melon pan ice cream. I had no idea that they served it at the restaurant, and it was so cool placing the melon pan on the yakiniku grill to heat it up. Not only that, but it tasted amazing!
Melon pan ice cream
1/5 Tochigi One thing I wasn’t able to do with my girlfriend the last time she visited Japan was to take her to an onsen. I love onsens, and after such a busy trip I felt that it would be perfect to spend the last day relaxing in an onsen pool. We ended up going to an onsen hotel up in Nasu. We took the morning shuttle bus up to the hotel, and it was snowing on the way there. It was the same onsen I went to on Christmas Day. It was nice to have a change in scene and spend time in the countryside. Japan has a lot more to offer than just the big cities like Tokyo, Osaka etc. The countryside is beautiful, and for those travelling to Tochigi, I really recommend visiting Nikko or Nasu.
We really couldn’t have planned our trip any better, as we were feeling fresh and fully recharged after the onsen. My whole body was aching from all the travelling and carrying our luggage, but the onsen really does wonders in relaxing your muscles and helping your skin. We took it easy for the rest of the day, and then I took my girlfriend to the train station for her to head to Haneda airport. The trip went by so fast, but I had a lot of fun. It was fun cramming as much stuff as we could into one week, and travelling and seeing so many different places. I have to say that we were incredibly lucky with travelling. I mentioned that I was dreading travelling during winter break, but all in all it wasn’t bad at all.
I honestly never thought that I would be able to spend 2017 travelling Japan with my girlfriend. It is such a big difference to my usual New Year celebrations at home. Every year I would spend my New Year working at my parent’s takeaway, and then hurrying home to catch the countdown on TV before heading to bed. All I can say is that I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to live and work in Japan. It took a lot of courage to make the decision to come here, but taking that first step can really change your life completely. I really hope that 2017 is a great year for you all. Don’t be afraid of taking chances and going for opportunities which may never arise again. Life is too short, so we need to make the most of it! All the best guys!
Merry Christmas everyone! Can’t believe it’s Christmas already! This year has really flown by. I’ll be spending Christmas and New Year in Japan this year, as I can’t really afford to go back home for winter break. Instead I have plans to travel to Osaka and Nara next week which should be good fun! My girlfriend is coming over again to visit next week, so I’m super super excited!
Christmas in Japan is a lot different to Christmas back home. I’ve been struggling to feel the Christmas spirit here, as it’s not a holiday which people go crazy over like back in England. There are Christmas lights out in the streets, and the occasional Christmas tunes in stores (instrumentals that is), but that’s pretty much it. It’s kind of made me miss home a bit. The looking around for last minute presents in packed shopping centres, wrapping up gifts and sending cards, Christmas classics playing everywhere. Even though I get really stressed with the mayhem of what we call Christmas, I do miss it!
So this month has honestly just felt like any other month. With me living in the countryside here in Japan, there really isn’t much of a Christmas atmosphere here. I can imagine Tokyo to be the complete opposite though! At school, I’ve been playing Christmas tunes in my English room to try and get myself into the holiday mood. It wasn’t until my last day of school that I started to feel some form of the Christmas spirit, as I received a few Christmas gifts from my teachers, and I gave out dorayaki to all of my teachers.
Gifts from my teachers
Most of my friends have returned back to their own countries for Christmas, so I’ve mainly just been chilling on my own in my apartment. It does feel a little odd knowing that my friends aren’t in the area, but I’ve been enjoying my alone time! It’s the first ever Christmas I’ve spent on my own and away from home. Here in Japan, they love to eat fried chicken (particularly KFC) and Christmas cake. So today I decided to celebrate Japanese style.
Fried chicken and beerChristmas cake
I bought a huge pack of fried chicken from the supermarket yesterday, and treat myself to some Christmas cake too. A big change to my usual turkey Christmas dinner every year, but hey, fried chicken and cake? What’s there not to love about that?
I also visited Ashikaga flower park again the other week to see the Christmas lights. It was so beautiful!
It was definitely worth the visit, the lights were breathtakingly beautiful. There was a part of me which wished that my girlfriend was there to see it with me as well, as the lights were really romantic and I could see couples everywhere!
Anyways, I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and New Year! Happy Holidays everyone!
It’s November now and the weather in Japan has taken a huge dive! It’s hard to believe that just a month ago, the weather was still pretty humid. Now I’m wrapped up in so many layers of clothes, and the heating is constantly turned on in my apartment! Not that I’m complaining, I much prefer colder weather to humid sticky weather.
A couple of weeks ago we had a day holiday for Culture Day, a national holiday in Japan. Autumn has finally arrived so the trees around my area are starting to turn a beautiful red colour. I decided to head to Nikko, about an hours drive from my town to see the beautiful autumn leaves which were said to be in their peak. I was told by a few of my colleagues at work to be wary of the traffic heading to Nikko, especially with Thursday being a national holiday. I was told that many people from across Japan head to Nikko to see the autumn leaves.
Me and my friends decided to set off early at 8am, which really helped as there was zero traffic on the way there.
I visited Nikko previously in June, and I remember it being ridiculously hot. Visiting the same place again in Autumn was really nice, as it gave the place a completely different feel. Upon entering the car park, I was already taken back by the beauty of the red autumn leaves surrounding the area.
The entrance to Nikko templeRinnoji pagoda, Nikko
The red maple trees were stunning, we have similar trees in the UK during Autumn but never this red!
We decided to head to Shoyo-en Garden, a small garden nearby. The entrance to the garden was tiny.
Ticket to Shoyo-en GardenEntrance to Shoyo-en Garden
Within the first few seconds of entering the garden, me and my friends were already gasping at how beautiful it was. The colour of the leaves were incredible, and the garden was so serene.
After visiting the gardens we decided to drive to Lake Chuzenji, a 20 minute drive away. It was such a nice car journey riding up into the mountains with an incredible view of the autumn leaves. The colours along with the clear, crispy autumn weather made it feel like I was in a movie. It kind of reminded me of home, as the mountains are very similar to those at the Lake District.
As Lake Chuzenji became visible in the distance, me and my friends let out a big ‘WOW!’ as we drove closer and closer to the lake. The view was absolutely stunning, and very picturesque. The water was so blue, and the weather was perfect!
We stopped by a small restaurant by the lake to have lunch. Nikko is famous for its Yuba soba, which is soba noodles topped with thinly rolled up tofu. It was delicious, and eating such a light and clear dish on quite a nippy day made it taste even better.
Yuba soba
After having lunch, we drove further up into the mountains to get a nice view of the lake. The rustic colours of the trees made the view breathtaking. Mother nature sure is beautiful! One thing I love about Japan is that all four seasons are beautiful in their own way. Back in Spring, I was able to enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms, in Summer I was able to experience the gorgeous beaches down by the peninsula. It won’t be long till winter arrives and the place will be covered in a blanket of snow, which will add yet another side of beauty to Japan.
After taking a little drive, we decided to visit Kegon Falls, a waterfall nearby.
Kegon Falls
The park we stopped at had a lot of different food stalls. I bought a bowl of suiton dumpling soup. It was soooo nice drinking it in the freezing cold weather, and the soup was so delicious and full of flavour. It was more or less like nabe, which is a soup boiled with many different kinds of vegetables.
The whole place had such an autumn feel to it. People huddled up drinking soup, and people queueing up to buy roasted chestnuts. The chestnuts were roasted using a cool steam machine (in the picture below). Every so often, the guy would tell everyone to cover their ears whilst the machine made a deafening sound to let out the steam.
Roasted chestnutsRoasted chestnuts
Not much to write for this post, I’ll let the photos do all the talking. All I can say is that autumn in Japan is so wonderfully beautiful. I feel quite fortunate to live so near to mountainous areas like Nikko, Nasu and Shiobara. I don’t want autumn to end!
With a few days off for Autumn break, I made a pretty spur of the moment decision to travel to Kyoto on my own. I was slightly unsure at first, as I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy travelling alone. Another thing was the expensive shinkansen tickets! But I keep saying to myself to go for every opportunity there is, as I don’t want to go back to the UK with any regrets.
With all my hostels booked, it was such bad timing that the day prior to leaving I caught a fever. I had no appetite to eat, and I was constantly shivering and sweating. On the Sunday morning when I was due to leave, I wasn’t feeling any better. Curled up into a ball on my bed, wrapped up in a blanket with the air con turned on. I was very close to cancelling my trip. But the chance of travelling to Kyoto was just too much for me to cancel. I took some ibuprofen, packed my bags and made my way to the train station.
My plan was to stay in Tokyo for one night before taking the shinkansen to Kyoto the next morning. The train journey was brutal. A 2 and a half hour journey with a fever. But I managed to brave through it, and after arriving at Ueno station I ate a big bowl of ramen and made my way to the hostel. As I walked through a side street to get to my hostel, I could see Tokyo Skytree in the distance!
With me being ill, I decided to have an early night ready to wake up bright and early to start my Kyoto adventure.
10/10/16
I got up bright and early the next morning, and made my way to Tokyo station to take the shinkansen to Kyoto! It took just over 2 hours on the shinkansen, so I spent the journey reading up on all the places I was planning to visit.
I finally arrived at Kyoto station and decided to walk to Toji Temple, a 15 minute walk from the station. I stopped by a small cafe to have lunch. Kyoto is supposedly famous for it’s matcha, which is one of my favourites!
My first stop was Toji Temple, one of the oldest structures in Kyoto. I believe it is around 1,200 years old and enshrines the Buddha of Healing and his attendants.
As I approached the temple, the pagoda was clearly visible in the distance and this instantly made me feel the Kyoto vibes! The historical side of Japan which I had only previously seen in magazines and on TV. The contrast between Kyoto and Tokyo is insanely large. Tokyo is all about the city life, the LED lights, crowded and bustling streets. But it lacks the cultural side of Japan which Kyoto takes a lot of pride in offering.
Toji Temple
With it being early October, I was slightly early for the pretty autumn leaves. But the leaves were beginning to change colour a bit which was quite nice! Kyoto is said to be one of the most beautiful places in Autumn, with its red and orange leaves. For those wanting to travel to Kyoto, I think late November/early December is the best time to visit!
After visiting Toji temple, I took the subway to my hostel.
Piece Hostel, Sanjo
I was pleasantly surprised at how great this hostel was! With great reviews online, I decided to book 2 nights at this hostel. The interior was very modern and new, and the staff were incredibly helpful and friendly. At such a cheap price too, it came with free breakfast! I definitely recommend this hostel to anyone planning on visiting Kyoto.
For dinner, I decided to queue up outside a restaurant to try some Kyoto style beef!
I ordered the set, which came with miso soup and many different dips like wasabi, grated yam, curry and pepper. The rice was refillable. The beef was quite nice! But I wasn’t a huge fan of eating it with a katsu crust, as it kind of took away the flavour of the beef. But overall, it was pretty good!
With it officially being Autumn now, the days don’t last as long here now. At around 5pm, the sky already turned black. One of the things I noticed in Kyoto is that a lot of the temples/shrines close at around 5pm. So during the night, there really isn’t much to do. I read online that Yasata shrine, not far from my hostel, is a pretty place to visit at night as the shrine lights up. I decided to take an evening stroll to the shrine.
Yasata shrine
Yasata shrine was unbelievably beautiful at night, a lot of small shrines inside were brightly lit up. There were quite a few people there praying and making wishes. I’m not entirely sure what the kanji written on the lanterns are supposed to resemble. But seeing them lit up at night was pretty breathtaking.
Later that night, I decided to wonder around Sanjo, the area near my hostel. I was still feeling quite hungry so decided to look for somewhere to have a light snack and a beer. It took quite a lot of courage to go into a restaurant on my own to eat. Especially since people assume that I’m Japanese when they first see me. But travelling alone made me brave, either that or I would have starved to death! Haha!
One of the things I love about exploring Japan, is going through the side streets to try out the tiny local restaurants. I went into a small yakitori bar, and ordered a few sticks of yakitori and a beer. I asked the waiter for a bottle of Asahi beer, and later on saw him about to open a huge bottle. I had to quickly stop him, and asked him if he had anything smaller. In the end, I ended up getting draught beer. It was a close one! No way would I have been able to finish that huge bottle, and I probably would have been staggering my way back to hostel.
11/10/16
The next day I woke up extra early as I had a lot I wanted to see! My first stop was Kiyomizu dera, a must see in Kyoto. I took the bus there and followed some people walking uphill through a side street.
On the way to Kiyomizu Temple
The further I walked, the more people I could see. Before I knew it, I was walking through a street packed with visitors and shops. There were schoolchildren running around taking group photos, countless shops selling souvenirs, snacks and desserts! The atmosphere was really pleasant!
I could see the pagoda in the distance and knew that I was near to the temple. I stopped by a few shops to buy a few souvenirs. I also tried a steamed tofu bun with pork inside which was really delicious.
Steamed tofu pork bun
As I made my way to the top of the street, I could see the entrance to Kiyomizu dera. This is a Buddhist temple founded in 778 and serves as one of the most prominent historical structures in Kyoto.
Entrance to Kiyomizu temple
The entrance was stunning, with its vibrant red coloured gate and pagoda. The place was crowded with tourists, Japanese school children on school trips. It was pretty tough having a fever and making my way uphill and beating the crowds to reach this place, but it was totally worth it!
View from the deck
I followed the steps leading to the temple itself, and the view from the deck was quite breathtaking. Not only could you see Kyoto city in the distance, but you could also see pagodas poking out from the trees. Overlooking the city from such a beautiful temple really illustrated the rich history of Kyoto. I can only imagine this view to be even more incredible in the peak of Autumn with its red and orange leaves.
The deck of Kiyomizu temple
The wooden structure
One thing I was really impressed by was the structure itself. Kiyomizu-dera is famous for being built entirely from wood with not one single nail used. Walking down the steps and seeing how the structure was put together was fascinating. The pieces of wood all seemed to lock into one another.
Kiyomizu dera from the ground
In the photo above you can see Kiyomizu dera taken from the ground. If you look closely, you can see the tiny elementary students wearing their yellow hats!
After Kiyomizu dera, I decided to take a walk along the side streets surrounding the area which is known as Higashiyama. This was probably the highlight of my entire trip, as the narrow streets and tiny shops made me feel like I got a real taste of Kyoto.
The further I walked, the less tourists there were. It was quite steep walking down the narrow cobbly streets, and I remember reading that if you trip, it brings 3 years of bad luck! I was sure to be careful! As I continued further down the street there was a huge, black and murky pagoda visible in the distance which made the view incredibly beautiful and picturesque.
The pagoda was such a huge contrast to the one I had just seen at the entrance to Kiyomizu dera. I read that this pagoda was the only surviving structure from a fire, which burned the temple beside it. Its charcoal black colour made the pagoda seem like a huge shadow in the distance which I thought was eerily beautiful. I had to take a moment to really appreciate its beauty. It almost felt like I had transported myself thousands of years into the past.
As I walked through the narrow streets of Higashiyama, I made sure to visit the various food shops they had.
Here I stopped by a small dango shop. Dango is a sweet which is more or less like skewered mochi.
Mitarashi dango
I tried mitarashi dango, which is covered in a soy sauce glaze and served with what seemed liked brown powdered sugar. It was really nice, and not too sweet! the sauce made the dango extra sticky, and it went really well with a nice cup of matcha tea!
After walking around Higashiyama, I took the bus to my next stop, Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion). Ginkakuji was the retirement place of a former shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa in 1482 and is a zen temple.
The grounds were stunning, and I could definitely feel the zen surrounding the area. It was incredibly peaceful and well kept. The buildings were very contemporary at that time, which greatly influenced the architecture of the whole of Japan.
Sand garden
Matcha wellAutumn leaves
The garden was beautiful, surrounded by sand gardens, luscious trees, ponds and bridges. The leaves were just starting to turn red, which was nice to see. But this garden is known to be breathtakingly beautiful during the autumn when the entire garden turns red. I walked around the entire garden which was quite a nice long walk. The view from the top of the garden was gorgeous. Overlooking the garden and also the city of Kyoto.
View from the top of the gardenGinkakuji
With the name Ginkakuji, Silver Pavilion, I was expecting the structure to show some form of silver which it didn’t. I later found out that it was given the name Silver Pavilion because at night time when the moonlight reflected on the structure, it gave it its silver appearance. This building is also only one of two structures in the garden which has survived earthquakes and other incidents staying completely intact.
After walking around the gardens, I took a walk along Philosopher’s Walk, a stone footpath along a river nearby Ginkakuji. They say that one of Japan’s most famous philosophers Nishida Kitaro would take this route on his way to Kyoto University, and he also practised meditation here.
Philosopher’s walk
There are many cherry trees along Philosopher’s Walk which would make hanami season the best time to visit this place! The walk was very relaxing, and it was nice to get away from the places swarmed with tourists. There were many different shrines and temples along the way, and I decided to check them out.
As I followed a sign to a temple along Philosopher’s Walk, I came across this sign.
I forgot the name of this shrine, it was incredibly small, hidden and disguised in a moss covered forest. There were only a couple of visitors at the shrine, but it was still quite nice and worth visiting.
After a long but eventful day, I headed back to Sanjo and had dinner. I love going into the back streets and finding small local ramen bars. I never get sick of a nice bowl of tonkotsu ramen!
12/10/16
This was my last day in Kyoto! I wasn’t ready to go back to Tochigi, as I felt like I hadn’t seen enough of this beautiful city. I woke up really early and checked out of my hostel, and headed to Kinkakuji. Kinkakuji (golden pavilion) is like the sister of Ginkakuji, it’s the retirement villa of Yoshimasa’s grandfather. It was pretty far away from all the other attractions, so the bus journey took quite a while.
I was already impressed by the entrance to the villa. It was such a beautiful day and the buildings surrounding the entrance were really cool.
I bought my ticket to enter the villa, and shortly after entering I could see Kinkakuji temple just across a large pond. I didn’t expect the temple to be so beautiful! I had seen photos of this place online and in my travel books, but seeing it in person was completely different. The clear, crispy autumn day made the temple glimmer in the sunlight, and together with the yellowing leaves reflecting off the large pond made the entire scene stunning. The top two floors of the temple are made entirely of gold leaf.
Kinkakuji temple
The browning autumn leaves
It didn’t take long to walk the entire villa, but it was definitely worth travelling to the outskirts of Kyoto just to see this beautiful temple.
After visiting Kinkakuji, I took the bus to Nijo Castle. The castle was huge!! Just walking round to the entrance took a long time.
Outside Nijo CastleThe entrance to Nijo Castle
Nijo Castle was built during the Edo Period, and was used as an Imperial Palace. It took a quite a long time to walk around the entire thing. But it was very interesting to actually enter the castle and see the beautiful rooms where visitors would wait and meet the shogun. Each room was beautifully designed with their own unique paintings.
That was it! It was time to take the bus back to Kyoto station to take my shinkansen back to Tokyo. My trip to Kyoto was far better than I had imagined. Even though I was quite ill, I’m so glad that I never cancelled the trip. Travelling alone was definitely an experience. Having to be impulsive in decisions, and also having my own freedom to travel was quite a liberating feeling. It was nice going through the back streets and trying out food in local restaurants/bars. The historical sites in Kyoto were wonderful, and I felt like there was so much more to see!
I definitely need to make another trip to Kyoto, I managed to tick off most of the places on my to do list, but there were so many other places I didn’t get a chance to see. Until next time, Kyoto!
Anyways, that’s all for now. Have a great weekend!
It’s been a while! I’m so happy that September is finally over! Not only has my work schedule calmed down, but the weather has finally started to cool down too. No more humid and sweaty days at work! Hooray!
I’m currently sat in one of my favourite cafes updating this. This coffee shop not only does great coffee, but it also has a cool market at the front which sells a lot of local produce. The staff here are great too, and one waitress offered to help me with my Japanese too since I spend a lot of my days off here to study Japanese. Yesterday I signed up for the JLPT test in December, which is a Japanese language exam. Another goal to set myself before the end of the year! Ganbatte!
This month has been by far one of the busiest since being in Japan. I’ve had a lot to prepare for at work, including a huge demonstration lesson which I just got finished with last week, and a pretty hectic teaching schedule on top of that.
I was told about my demonstration lesson a few months back so had quite some time to prepare for it. I had to have quite a lot of meetings with the staff to discuss my proposed lesson. I was told that people from the Board of Education would be coming to watch my lesson, and also many teachers from across the area. I didn’t really know what to expect, but my manager kept emphasising that it was ‘important’. As the day got closer, I started to get really nervous. I went to an onsen the night before to try and calm my nerves! But as expected, I got very little sleep that night. I kept dreaming about my lesson!
When the day came, I was in my classroom pacing up and down trying to calm myself. It was quite funny as a lot of teachers would pop their heads through the door to check if I was okay, because my face looked extremely worried. I ran through my lesson a few times with one of the Japanese teachers. Just before 1pm, the people from the Board of Education started arriving at the school, and my classroom gradually filled up. I was pretty surprised at the number of people observing my lesson (there were over 50 people watching!). Since space was quite restricted, a few teachers were stood outside in the rain watching my lesson through the window.
Overall, I think my lesson went very well. The small mistakes I made, I turned into jokes and laughed about them. It was strange as all those nerves I had prior to my lesson seemed to disappear once the school bell rang and I was to start my lesson. My students could not have been better, extremely high spirited and not fazed by the number of people watching them. It was such a relief to finish my lesson knowing that I gave it my all. The feedback I got really made my day, and all the staff were shaking my hand and saying I did a great job.
After my lesson was over, I had to do a mini press conference with all the people who observed my lesson. I had no idea that the observation was going to be that serious! But it was nice gathering with all the staff in the staff room and clapping to celebrate that we had finally done it! I feel a lot more respected by the staff at my school after my demonstration lesson. I am by no means an amazing teacher, but just having people recognising your hard work is always a nice reward!
3rd September
So amidst all of the chaos that has been work last month, I did still get a chance to travel and see a few things. At the beginning of September I went to Tokyo with my boss and a few colleagues to see a baseball game! It was my first ever baseball game so I was really excited!
We started off the trip by having lunch on a Yakata bune, which is like an izikaya styled boat. The boat had hot plate tables for us to cook our food on like okinomiyaki and other dishes. The idea of it sounded fun, which it was, but sitting by a hot plate in the scorching hot weather was quite torturous!
Cooking okinomiyaki on the yakata boat
It was hilarious watching my colleagues trying to cook on this hot plate, and burning their arms from splashing hot oil around. We also burned out the surface of the hot plate and had to have the workers scrape it clean for us again. We caused such a scene, whilst all the other Japanese people on the boat seemed calm and knew what they were doing.
The boat trip was definitely worth it though. The skyline of Tokyo was beautiful!
After the boat trip, we made our way to the stadium to watch the baseball game. We watched the Yakult Swallows against the Hiroshima Carps. The atmosphere was incredible. Japanese people are definitely passionate when it comes to baseball!
As with any game, a lot of chanting was involved! We were cheering for the Yakult Swallows, and whenever they managed to win a round, people celebrated by opening mini umbrellas whilst chanting. It was pretty cool seeing half of the stadium suddenly filled with thousands of tiny umbrellas!
The game at first was really fun to watch, but then it started to drag. With it being my first ever baseball game, I wasn’t sure how long it would last for. The game in total lasted for around 4 hours. I was ready to call it a day! We made it for the first 3 hours of the game, then decided to leave to take the last train back home. Overall it was a fun day trip! Finally got to watch my first ever baseball game, although I don’t think I’ll be rushing back to watch another one! Haha!
September 11th
I was told by a few friends one Sunday that there were two festivals being held in Kuroiso and Shiobara. It’s always tough when you want to stay in your apartment and chill on a Sunday afternoon, but at the same time you don’t want to miss out on all the events happening around you. Festivals happen all year round, but its tough because you don’t want to miss out the good ones!
I decided to go to both festivals with my friend. We went to Kuroiso first, which as holding a Jazz festival. I had no idea what to expect!
The festival was a lot smaller than I imagined, and it wasn’t your typical Japanese festival. The venue was in a small park, and the food stalls were all from local businesses in Kuroiso. It was small and intimate.
It was a really nice way to spend my Sunday afternoon. Sitting at the park with my friends and listening to live jazz, which was insanely good! Some very talented musicians went on stage to perform.
Local food stores
Of course I made sure not to leave without trying the food! It was not your typical festival food. I bought a huge barbequed pork yakitori which was a challenge to eat because it was so big! But it tasted soooo good!
Sweet chilli chicken wings
After enjoying the food and live music for a few hours, we then made our way to Shiobara for the onsen festival. By the time we arrived at Shiobara, the sky had already started to turn black. But we made it just in time to see the main events!
Walking towards to festival in Shiobara
The festival in Shiobara was word of mouth, so we weren’t entirely sure where it was. After exploring the streets with my friend, we managed to see the food stalls lit up in the distance. We knew we were close!
The further we walked, the more people we saw. We could hear taiko drums being played in the distance, and we were greeted by huge mikoshi floats! The first one I noticed was a huge Pikachu mikoshi float.
As we walked further we saw even more mikoshi floats. The designs were all different, and I saw a lot of familiar looking anime characters.
Then there was one mikoshi float which really took my breath away! It was so beautifully designed that it almost did not look real.
Shiobara is very famous for its beautiful onsens, so they hold an onsen festival once a year. I was told that many of the onsens in the area were free of charge on this particular day. Too bad I didn’t bring a change of clothes and a towel, or I would have loved to have gone to one!
The people in Shiobara are very friendly too! A lot of the people were not shy in approaching me and my friend for a conversation. They also had really good English, which was a nice surprise! I recognised a few students from summer school, and they came up to me to say hello and they told me how tired they were from pushing the floats around. It was nice that they still recognised me, and were very confident in speaking English with me! That’s what makes being an English teacher here so rewarding!
After watching taiko performances performed by Shiobara elementary and junior high school children, we made our way back home. It was such an eventful day. Two completely different festivals, both amazing in their own ways!
After spending a few days at home recovering from my jetlag, my friends asked me to go to Sendai for a little road trip! Sendai is in the Miyagi prefecture, so it was around a 2 and a half hour drive from our town. My friends also wanted to visit the Miyagi Zao fox village on the way to Sendai.
I honestly had no idea what to expect with the fox village. I’ve never actually seen a real life fox before, and I knew that the fox village had an open area with hundreds of foxes roaming around. I was pretty nervous…
Entrance to the fox village
When we arrived at the ticket counter, we were given a sheet written in English outlining all the regulations of what and what not to do whilst inside. This included not touching any plastic bags whilst near a fox, as they would detect it as food and would probably grab it from you. They also emphasised that foxes can bite, and there was a chance that they could ‘piss on you’. Gulp.
Upon entering the fox village I actually jumped a little when I saw this fox sleeping. I was surprised to see them chained up, and the chains were very short. As I looked around I saw other foxes chained up to walls, and goats chained up too. It was pretty upsetting to see. I’m not a huge fan of zoos and seeing animals caged and chained up. There were some foxes which were placed in a cage alone and there was no space for them to move around at all. Some of them looked incredibly sad.
There were other foxes placed in big cages which weren’t chained up and had more space to move around in. Most of them were sleeping! I’m guessing these foxes needed protecting or were best separated from the other foxes due to behavioural problems.
Entrance to ‘the cage of the Fox’
Then there was the moment we had been waiting for. Entering the open fox area. I was terrified, and the sign on the door didn’t really help calm myself. I warned my friend in advance that there was a chance I would use them as a human shield.
It was terrifying walking around this open park with foxes just a few feet away from me, some sleeping and some walking and staring for food. I think I was the only person in the entire park who was on total edge. Japanese people find foxes very kawaii! I think I was scared because I had never really encountered a fox before, and I had a fear that they would suddenly pounce on me and eat me alive.
To feed the foxes we had to feed them from a deck, and we weren’t allowed to approach a fox and feed it up close. I’ve never really heard foxes make noises before, they have a very peculiar sound! Almost like a woman screaming.
The feeding deckView from the deck
After visiting the fox village, we continued our drive to Sendai. Driving into Sendai was quite cool, as our car stopped by a huge pedestrian crossing which kind of reminded me the famous pedestrian crossing in Shibuya (but obviously not as big!). I was surprised at how big the city was, and it seemed like a mini Tokyo. Whilst we drove through the city looking for a place to park, we found a huge sign advertising the Pokemon Centre (one of the main reasons why I was so excited to visit Sendai!).
The first place we visited was the Pokemon centre since the building was nearby where we had parked. It was a lot smaller than the Pokemon Centre in Tokyo, but it was still worth visiting!
Pokemon Centre in Sendai
The city of Sendai itself was really cool. A lot of shopping centres and stores! Sendai is famously known for its beef tongue (gyuu tan), which I didn’t get a chance to try, but there were beef tongue restaurants all across the city!
I was also surprised to see my first ever British pub in Japan serving fish and chips!
Mango ice cream with frozen fruit
After walking around in the city and having lunch, we decided to visit the Zuihoden Mausoleum of Date Masamune, one of the most powerful feudal lords of the Edo Period.
Entrance to the Zuihoden Mausoleum
The mausoleum was really interesting, and we visited a small museum inside which had the bones and hair remains of Date Masamune. The woodwork on the actual Zuihoden was really impressive. This place was destroyed in a fire during the Second World War, but was rebuilt in the 1970s. These buildings are an example of Momoyama style architecture.
The Nehanmon gate leading to the ZuihodenThe Zuihoden, the mausoleum of Date MasamuneIntricate woodwork of the Zuihoden
Since the place was destroyed in a fire during the war, I’m guessing that the relics below are the only surviving pieces from the original structure. I could be wrong! But the dragon below is what can be seen on all four corners of the roof of the structure.
Possible surviving piece from the original structure
We then walked into a different area and came across the Zennodens at the back of the Zuihoden complex.
Gate leading to the zennodenOne of the three decorated Zennodens
The Zennodens are the resting places of the former successors of Date Masamume. Just walking through the complex was really impressive. It was almost like walking through some sort of enchanted forest. This peaceful area was a huge contrast to the huge city we were in just moments earlier. The area was surrounded by huge cedar trees, which are supposed to symbolise the long history of the Edo Period.
That’s all for now! Hope you guys have a great week!
Travelling back to Japan was not as tiring as I thought it would be. I flew directly from Amsterdam to Narita, and fortunately I managed to sleep the entire flight! That rarely happens to me when travelling on long-haul flights, so I arrived in Tokyo feeling quite fresh! It took a good few days to recover my jetlag however. I was waking up and sleeping at the most crazy times. I would wake up at 1am not knowing whether to eat breakfast or a late supper. It feels good to be back in Japan though!
Leaving England was a lot easier than when I left in March. It was obviously still very difficult to say goodbye to my family and my girlfriend. My girlfriend was sobbing quite badly, which really made me feel guilty for going back. Distance is a difficult thing, but I know it will all be worth it in the end when we reunite again. In March, I had no idea what I was about to experience, and the feeling of not knowing was what made it terrifying. This time round, I knew where I was going and Japan almost feels like a second home to me now.
I mentioned before that travelling back to the UK made Japan feel like a dream. It felt like I had suddenly woken up from my dream and I was back to my old life in the UK. I’ve experienced this before when travelling to Korea and meeting a bunch of new friends at a summer exchange program. It’s a strange feeling, and it makes you question whether or not the trip actually happened. But this time, flying back to Japan was like re-entering a dream. You know when you suddenly wake up from a good dream, and you wish you could close your eyes and continue the dream? That’s kind of how it felt flying back. It’s making me dread the end of my contract when I have to leave Japan for good. I told myself that I wouldn’t get too attached to this place, but it’s easier said than done. I know it’s going to be super hard.
Not long after I arrived back in Japan, I went with a friend to see the Killing Stone (Sessho-seki 殺生石) in Nasu. In Japanese mythology, this stone was said to kill whoever went near it, and it was haunted by a spirit of a nine-tailed fox. Legend says that the stone killed birds and beasts which went near it. It was in fact, the volcanic gases in the air which was causing the deaths.
When arriving at the car park, we were hit by a heavy scent of what smelt like egg. I was told that the smell was from the sulphate in the air, and this was from surrounding vents and onsens.
Sign to see the Sessho sekiEntrance to the Killing Stone
There were hundreds of little stone statues of what looked like monks. They are known as Kshitigarbhas. I’m guessing that they were made to pray or protect people from the stone. Each Kshitigarbha appeared to be wearing a wooly hat of some sort.
Stone statues of KshitigarbhaThe story of Sesshou Seki
In the photo below, the Killing Stone is the stone with the rope and white tassels. I was told that if you see something with this rope around it, a God is said to live within it.
The Killing Stone
We continued walking and came across a shrine. Here are a few photos I took.
Overall it was a really nice trip! Nasu seems like a really beautiful place, and it’s not too far from where I live. It’s famous for its mountains and onsens, which I hope I can try some day!
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