Nikko

Nikko is breath taking. Ill write more about it soon

Hey Hey Hiroshima

We went to this strange and beautiful temple gallery today. they dressed me up like... i dunno.. a monk?
The views were amazing
It looks pretty strange from outside, kinda like a massive cult enclave
but the views are great
we went to a niku place with cut for you last weekend
And above in my work farewell party. My boss asked the chef if i could make the okonomiyaki myself. I think to her surprise he said yes. my expression is after a terrible flip. mine at this stage was about a third the size of the others
but it turned out ok. it had oysters and everything!!
my colleagues.well the blue shirt guy starts in couple of weeks.

the very charasmatic twin chefs. guess how old they are
Miyuki san. my diligent and bubbly japanese teacher. we went to dinner after my last class.

Strolling in May

I went for a stroll on my bike the other day. I bought some riceballs and a beer and sat in the park and ate. it was a beautiful day.

Carp Castle

Random Tandem

I (flic) currently find myself with excess internet access time and not alot to do with it, so I thought I would post up an array, selection, or even 'montage' if you will, of some photos old and new that have not appeared in previous posts for various time constraint reasons. So here goes....

this is just one section of the amazing meal we got at the ryokan we stayed at when we visited Dogo onsen on the island of Shikoku



This photo was taken on the sacred island of Miyajima just off Hiroshima's coast to illustrate that deer (shika in japanese) are not unlike goats in their tendency to eat whatever they can fit in their mouths.



This is a closeup of Japan's cherry blossom flowers (Sakura) that only bloom once a year and then slowly fall away little by little from their branches.



This Naka chan : owner of Fran the pug, inventor of the spinball bowling technique in tenpin bowling, known for his colour and highlighting skills at Cut For You salon, and also his amazing ability to spurt out random and amusing english phrases when drunk after two beers.



I don't think this one needs a caption, do you?



This is Take chan : the second longest-serving stylist employed by Chief at Cut For You, an avid brewer of Plum Wine(as you can see ) she enjoys travelling to Northern Europe and giggling hysterically at funny things alex or i say in either english or japanese. she also has the most individual and creative fashion sense at cut for you, and is great at throwing sushi parties!



This surprise shot captures Chief himself in front and his right hand woman Ma Chan at the back. Chief is one of Hiroshima's top hairdressers and has owned and run his own business for 18 years. Ma Chan has been working there for 12. Chief is a night-owl who loves dress-up drinking parties and playing the drums. He has proclaimed many times that Alex and I are his children and to repeat after him; "I am Nakatani" (Nakatani is his family name). Without his generosity and influence we would not be in the cushy apartment we are now. Ma Chan is cute and soft spoken but still runs the ship. She has a penchant for baggy frilly dresses and as such is often mistaken for a child.

The adventures of Snufflepug and Lazypie

This bug-eyed and slobbering but strangely adorable creature is Fran-chan, the pug that Alex and I babysat/borrowed from our friend Naka chan a couple of times. Once you have tired her out enough that she will actually sit down she is quite sociable, very cute and likes to imitate a cat and curl up on your lap. Before that point however, she is a grunting, snuffling, chewing, slobbering cyclone of 'LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME!!'. I decided that Snufflepug was a much more befitting nickname for her. We had many an adventure together, including walking to Peace park and having our photo taken by lots of old ladies and teenage girls, sitting at an outdoor cafe annoying grumpy old men, and lying on our sofa shedding incredible amounts of hair.

This is The A-Bomb dome viewed through the blooming cherry blossoms in Peace park.

Lazypie would be me, because I am being spoilt at 'work' when we're not busy because the girls get bored and want to experiment on my gaijin hair. (See below - excuse the drunken expression but you get the idea) So that is my little update on my recent adventures. I'm sorry it's not as aesthetically pleasing as Alex's contributions!

Hisashiburi

Hiroshima in all of its sunny, rivery glory!


Kareoke. Japanese people are insanely good at it. so is flic actually. i think i must be the only person in this country who cant sing
We had a dinner party. Japanese people get drunk after one beer, so it was a good night

Dougo onsen was beautiful
A huge spoon


Alex Grigg, man or moutain
aA sushi party a friend threw!
Its sakura!


Long time no see blog.

i think the longer i put off writing you the harder it got. theres a lot that has happened in the last few months, but hopefully photos will help me get this blog up to date
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS, its gunna take me a couple of sittings to get this bad boy together

Tokyo Prt... Next

Today I made the day plan. I made it massive. First we went to the Tokyo Fish markets. Unfortunately these were distinctly disapointing. The fish markets i had pictured werent open to the puplic so we were left explore the external market. It was interesting but hardly the live crabs and kicking fish i had envisioned. On the up side we had some beautiful fresh sashimi as a second breakfast. Next we headed to Ueno park. An expansive puplic park full of museums, galleries and a zoo. We went to the zoo for a couple of hours.
Flic is still getting over her illness so she went back to the hostel to rest, and i went to the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo. It was huge. It was entirely japanese art dating back to the start of the 1900s until now.
Then i made my way to Akihabara (or electric town). This is the tokyo i had expected to see. It was an expansive section of the city entirely dedicated to electronics and anime. I spent about 3 hours searching through the multi level electronics and toy shops, buying super donuts and using rocket toilets. I bought an awsome capcome art book for about $25 (it'd sell for about 60 in aus)
and i bought flic a silly little toy thing. It would have been so easy to buy heaps of stuff there. But alas the thought of not having a job or a home yet helped strengthen my self restraint.


The Markets--

Alex
A giant Salamanda
The Tokyo Modern art Museum
Akihabara--