Back in the Land of the Rising Sun

Konnichiwa everyone,

I am finally back in Japan-Land of the rising sun. It is very humid and hot, but I'm not complaining. I flew into Narita Airport at around 6ish local time (or 7ish for those in Oz). I took 3 trains to Moriya and am now staying here for 8 weeks or so. Tomorrow I am off to Niigata, about 4 hours away. I am going to Yasuko's (Ya-soo-ko) home town of Niigata to participate in the Obon festival. Obon is a festival to visit your home town and  pay respects to your ancestors and relatives who have died. Niigata is on the western coast of Japan, so it should be different to what I've experienced so far. Enough about Niigata though, there'll be heaps of photos when I write my next post. Okay, I haven't really done anything so far that's worth mentioning really, except for the walk between the rice patties. Anyways, I'm in Japan safe and sound and I'll be reporting on everything I do.

Matane (ma-ta-ne) for now,

Chloe.

BTW Feel free to leave comments and questions, I'll happily answer them :)

Photos-Part 2

Hey everyone,
Sorry but I have more photos. They are all from our stay in Nikko, so enjoy.

Chloe.

It's a bit frozen, literally

Us at Kegon Falls, there are Icicles
in the background

Me and Kieran

The 3 Monkeys:
Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil.

The Sleeping Cat

Tilt your head, these are chains made from Paper Cranes.

Me, Kieran and Dad under a Torii (Prayer gate),
we're not paying attention to the Camera (sorry).

This is one f the Gods that protects the Temple

This is behind on of the Temples in Nikko

Turn your head to the right, this is the tomb of
Tokogawa Ieyasu (To-ku-ga-wa
EE-ya-sue)

This is me and my brother.

Photos-Part 1

Hey,
As you can tell from the title this post it will be mainly photos and little descriptions. So I'll stop writing and show you photos.

Hope you like,
Chloe.

This is me and my brother on
Giant Sliver Bugs at Tama Zoo



I have soooo many photo's of Butterflies, but this is my
favourite.



The Gold things are bugs in their cacoons

A Cheetah (sorry about my refection in the glass)



The rare heshen bag animal (jokes, it's a shy Orangutang)




Here he is.



We're riding a sliver Reindeer

Here we are in Freezing cold Lake Chezenji.

Looking at all the Snow

Those are real iclcles (please ignore the two humans in the photo,
we have know idea how they got there)

Nikko-Part 2

Hi everyone,
The day after we went to the freezing cold Lake Chizeji and Kegon falls I had food posioning and couldn't go anywhere because I couldn't get enough energy to lift myself up. If you want to read about my Dad and brother's adventure you can go to my brothers blog: http://kieransullivanblog.blogspot.com/ and click on the Nikko Part 2. On our last day in Nikko we went to all the shrines and temple that are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage list. It was really awesome and COLD!!!!! If you haven't already noticed I don't like the cold. In some of the temples and shrines we had to take off our shoes to go inside. I didn't like that part because it made my feet freeze even though I had themal socks on. We went to see the famous 3 Monkeys. You know, Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil. We also saw the Sleeping Cat, I'm not so sure what the significance of it is but it was still pretty cool. One of the coolest part of the day was seeing the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founding father and first leader of the Edo Period in Japan. The Imperial Palace in the middle of Tokyo used to called Edo castle and Tokyo used to be called Edo. It's a little bit confusing. To get to Tokugawa Ieyasu's Tomb you had to walk up a lot of stairs and because I hadn't eaten anything the day before and had a light breakfast I was really tired and not much energy was left in my body.  After we finished up at the World Heritage sites we had lunch and went home on the train. It felt like forever going home on the train. We went to Nikko the first time we came to Japan and we have a photo of me and my brother standing on some stairs. We took the same photo this time. I'll get the pictures up in my next post which will be mainly photos.

That's the end of my Nikko adventure, hope you all enjoyed,
Chloe.

Nikko-Part 1

Hey Everyone,


The next few posts will be about my holiday to Nikko just after Christmas. On the 26th of December me and my family went to a town/region area called Nikko. Nikko is about and hour or so north of Tokyo. Nikko is kind of a group of towns and villages in the same area. Parts of Nikko are listed as world heritage sites especially the Temples and Shrines in the area. We stayed at the Zen Hostel a few stops away on the train from the 'Main Part' of Nikko. On the day we arrived we didn't do much but look around the area near the station. We had to go back a few stations to get picked up by our host. We drove to the hostel and were shown to our room. Our room was a traditional Japanese room with Shoji (sho-ji) which are sliding doors made from paper and wood. The floor was covered in Tatami (Ta-ta-me) mats which are made out of rice straw wooven many times. I personally love tatami mats but we can't get them easily in Australia. The room didn't have any beds but we slept in Futon (foo-ton) mats which are, suprisingly, very comfortable. The next day we went to the mountainy bit of Nikko and it was super cold. We had snow blowing of the mountain which made it more cold. On the bus ride to the top of the mountain the on the bus ride back we passed Lake Chizenji (Chee-zen-gee) and it was frozen. We stopped half way to have lunch. Lunch was really nice and the people who ran the resturanut were glad the my dad can speak pretty good Japanese (My mum can too, but my dad was the one who ordered). After lunch we went to Kegon falls which were partly frozen. When we were trying to walk down the path to get to the Ticket office we kept slipping but we didn't fall (thank God). Kegon falls was really pretty (and COLD!!).


That's all for the first 2 days. Sayonara,
Chloe.


I'll be including Photos in Part 2.

Staying with the Fuyumuros and going to Junior High School (Part 2)

Hey Everyone,
Continuing on from Part 1. On the second day I went to the Junior High School we had to go about an hour earlier because we went to Volleyball Club. Usually in the morning and afternoon the students go to their clubs and practise their sports. I went with Wakana in the morning but not in the afternoon because I was very tired. On Tuesday I went to Volleyball club in the morning with Wakana (Wa-ka-na) and then we had school. After School Yasuko (Ya-sue-ko), Wakana's Mum, picked me up and we drove home. Wakana wasn't coming home until about 5:30ish so I hang out with her little brother Taiga (tiger) and helped him with his English class homework. On Wednesday it was the last day I was at the School and it was the last day of the semester so we had to do lots of  cleaning. At lunch because it was the last day we had chocolate Cake after we ate the meal. After school I didn't go to Volleyball club (I don't think I'm very good at it) so I looked after Wakana's little sister Natsuki  (Nat-sue-key) while Yasuko finished up at the doctors. After Wakana came home and before dinner I went out to run with her and her friends Kaho (ka-ho) and Ayano (A-ya-no). We finished running and we went into Jidokan (gee-doe-kan), an indoor play centre for a little bit. We finished up at the Jidokan and went home and had dinner. The next day we went to meet up with my parents a little way a way from Moriya (Mo-ree-ya). We went to a Suumo Beya (Bay-a), which is where sumo westlers live. We even got to eat some of the food they eat. It was a lot of fun at Moriya and I wish I could go back and do it again.

That's all for Now,
Chloe.

Staying with the Fuyumuros and going to Junior High School (Part 1)

Hi Everyone,
I am very sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I've been a little bit busy. On the 19th of December until the 23rd I stayed with our friends, the Fuyumuros (foo-you-moo-ros) and I went to the Junior High School that my friend Wakana (wa-ka-na) goes to. Wakana goes to Keyakidai (ke-ya-ki-da-i) Junior High School in Moriya (mo-ree-ya). I went to the Junior High for the last 3 days before the holidays. The class that Wakana's in is 1-2 (1 grade in Junior High School, Year 7, 2nd class). The  teacher's name was Mr. Nomura (no-mu-ra). Unlike school in Australia they stay in the same classroom with the same teacher for most of the day. The only time they changed teacher was when they had English, Japanese (Kanji) and P.E. (the went into the gym for P.E.). Every day after lunch the whole class had cleaning duties to do. Some people sweep the classroom floor others clean the bathrooms. Everyday after school the people at the school usually have after school clubs. Wakana has volleyball club. In the morning they do training so I joined in. I didn't go after school because I was so tired (they finish school at 4pm). On the Monday night Yasuko (ya-sue-ko), Wakana's mum, arranged to have most of Wakana's friends come over for dinner and that was really fun. Before dinner we went to a park and played around until some boys from their grade started bugging us so we went to the near by Jidokan (gee-doe-kan), an indoor play centre. 

Hope to hear form you all soon,
Chloe.

To be continued in Part 2.