Niigata

Hello everyone,
I am back from Niigata prefecture which is in the west of Japan. I stayed in Yasuko's home town of Joetsu (joe-et-sue). The drive to Joestu took about four hours through the beautiful Japanese countryside. The Japanese countryside is a bit different to the Aussie countryside, but still just as beautiful. We stopped at Tomioka (tom-me-oh-ka)  for lunch and had a yummy traditional meal called Kamameshi (Ka-ma-mesh-ee). After lunch we ate ice cream, but not any old ice cream, konyaku (kon-ya-koo) ice cream. It was really yummy and had a completely different texture and it didn't melt. After lunch we went to the Tomioka Silk Mill. I thought it was pretty cool. When we arrived in Joetsu we received a warm welcome from Yasuko's family. After dinner we went outside and played with hanabi (han-a-bee), which are a bit like sparklers.

On our second day in Niigata we went to the beach. The beach was on the coast of the sea of Japan. The sand was a completely different colour to the sand in Oz. The waves were bigger than usual, but compared to home they were nothing. The waves were good for body surfing though. I actually ended up getting a bit sun burnt on my back, I'll have to be more careful. After the beach we went to Onsen (on-sen), which is the Japanese take on a spa. It was really awesome and relaxing.

On the third day we went to a Ninja museum. It was super cool and I learnt about the culture of the ninja. we went into a Ninja house and it was pretty much a maze to try and get out. It was really fun and we learnt all the trick that the Ninjas used. In one of the room it was slanted and you had to climb to the exit, for some reason this room made me feel sooooooo sick. After the ninja house we went into the museum and threr were lots of pictures and weapons on display. After the museum we went and did some ninja training exercises. It turns out if you want to be a ninja you have to have balance (I can't be a ninja then). We also did shuriken throwing which I'm surprisingly good at. We then wanted to go to a nearby shrine but got rained out.

Today on our way home we stopped at Safari Park. Safari Park is pretty much like a zoo but it doesn't have any cages, you drive through on a bus or in your car along a road and see lots of animals roaming free-ish. For lunch I had Kareriasu (Curry Rice), it was super yummy and it's one of my favourite foods. I saw lots of different animals such as bison, water buffalo, sun bears, monkeys, a monkey and a sun bear fighting. It was pretty cool. I think the highlights were feeding the lion and snow tiger, seeing the meerkats, patting a baby goat, feeding a llama and seeing a snow leopard.

Bye for now and enjoy the pix below (sorry they are out of order),
Chloe.

The pickles I received with my meal

Old rice cooker

This was carved from the one piece of wood

Beautiful painted folding screens

This was painted on the wall

Old primary school textbook

An old map 

Another old map of the local area

Folding screens 

I have no idea what this says

Fighting stance ninja

Ninja under water

A photo of a ninja

Ninja's Demon

This ninja is pretend but it scared the wits out
of me when I turned the corner
(wasn't really expecting it)

Another pretend ninja

Many different types of shurikens

Sharp, pointy ninja weapons

My Lunch

LLAMA!!!

Baby goats are super cute

Me feeding a llama, he slobbered all over my hand,
GROSS!!!!!

Goats being fed by me

Feeding goats

Feeding baby goats (and a big one)

Baby goat

Me feeding a tiger, she wouldn't let go

Me feeding a lion

The lion wouldn't let go either

For those who love wolves, this one's for you

This deer was looking at me for ages

Some of the lollies in the resturuant

My Meal, doesn't it look yummy?

A model to show the women who worked at the silk mill

Wakana, Yasuko and I outside the silk mill

Wakana, her grandfather, Taiga, Natsuki and Takashi playing 21
after dinner