When Katie came to town

I'm gonna skip over the excuses why it has taken so long to get some pics up here & following this visit I will be adding some from when my parents came almost a year ago.

Back in December Katie 1-80 came to visit which for me was a wonderfully special & of course fun time! Aside from the fact that I would return from work to a delicious meal ready to eat, that was followed up with fresh stewed apples, we had some fun catching up, hanging around, eating, drinking & of course singing. Things had cooled down considerably by the time Kate had arrived so the winter woollens were getting a workout & cold is definitely not Kate's favourite temperature but I think it was still ok???



On our first night we celebrated
with some beer & food at my favourite little izakaya, Daruma Tei.

The usual catching up activities took place....



This was followed by some warm sake which as you can tell KT really loved.

We spent the evening talking each other's ears off & I had a wonderful time hearing about Kate's recent travel adventures.

K8, Gem & Tash Karaoke & grafitti evening

We thought we'd just got for an hour or two but we stayed until we got kicked out after several jugs of beer & who knows how many songs.

Afterwards we thought it was a really good idea to write our names in the icy windows of the car parked at Family Mart conveni... next day we were feeling guilty & thinking that was not a Japanesy thing to do by any stretch of the imagination...

Ashiyu & food...

No visit to Okaya is complete without a visit to the ashiyu/foot onsen.

Or a visit to the Yaki Niku for some delicious meat, clams & of course beer & plum sake.

Maybe the last one is the Korean restaurant???

Sightseeing in the glorious weather

It was the last day to drive up to 高ボーチー (Takabochi) before the roads closed for Winter. There was a little snow at the top & some wind & it was, well it was freezing!!!

More Karaoke

In Tokyo it's common to stay out all night in a karaoke place & catch the first train home... In Okaya everything is only 10 minutes walk away so I've never done an all night karaoke until this night.

Kate & I had an early bus planned for the next morning but this didn't stop us staying out until after 5am. We set out late after I finished work & arrived around 10:30 & went to a local chain Izakaya that has a couple of rooms with karaoke as well.

We proceeded to eat, drink & sing for almost 7 hours... Gemma lost her voice for a week after the evening & Kate & I managed to get ourselves to Tokyo feeling the effects.

Another year & Yakudoshi (Unlucky Age)

Thanks for all my birthday wishes. I was lucky to receive some packages in the post & there's more on the way I hear as well, I received a couple from students. I went out for cake & a glass of wine after my evening walk & it even came with a candle!

So I'm 33 which I think is cool, you know double numbers & all but apparently it's an unlucky age - lucky I'm not superstitious ^o^

(The following copied from http://www.japanlink.co.jp/ka/shuk2.htm)

Yakudoshi (Unlucky age)

With yakudoshi there is a big chance of encountering misfortune or injuring one's health, so it is an age when one must be careful. This happens when men turn 25, 42 and 60, and women 19 and 33, in the yakudoshi measurement. The ages of 42 for men and 33 for women are considered to be particularly bad years, and are called "great calamity." This may be just a superstition, but, because there have been many occasions when these ages actually have corresponded to turning points in people's health or jobs, there are those who go to Shinto shrines for exorcism.

Road trip with Darren Day 8

After a failed attempt to organise sea kayaking for the next day we spent last night at a very basic camp site & decided today to make the trek back to Okaya. We drove back the way we came & didn't see the whirlpools at Naruto this time but the bridge was no less spectacular.

We drove along the North West coast of Awaji-shima as the book mentioned nice beaches & we wanted one last swim. The beaches were not so spectacular but we stopped at one & Daz went for a dip but I opted out because it was cold. He made some friends with a group of guys who were paddling in the water, they were impressed at him diving right in & asked him to pose with them for a photo. We reckon they'll re-tell the story & pretend they all went swimming as the were splashing some water on themselves before the photo!

We continued on & stopped for a sashimi lunch & beer (we still had some beer in the cooler bag from last night) by the very impressive Akashi Kaikyo-Ohashi before driving across it & back to Honshu for the return journey. We had a really good run home & Darren was a great navigator the whole trip but special thanks must go to Toppo for his enormous effort of taking us on our great holiday. 3 cheers for Toppo, hip hip hooray......

Road trip with Darren Day 7

After sleeping in the car at an expressway road stop we got off to another early start. We decided to visit a famous shrine called Kompirasan which is as famous for the 1,368 steps as it is for the shrine to mariners. We arrived in the town of Kotohira well before 8am & it was already heaving with every shop trying to get us to park in their car park with an obligation to spend at least $20 on souvenirs. We opted not to & after driving down some tiny lanes found a business car park to park in - we weren't sure what company it was, maybe a bank but it was a national holiday so we thought we'd risk it.

It was definitely worth the risk as it was the closest place to the bottom of the climb where I'm pictured above.

Here is Darren at the top, oh no there's another sign & more steps, we're not at the top at all!








About 800 steps later we reached the top. There were some signs along the way letting you know how much further & the odd struggling pilgram.

It was a hazy morning but well worth the climb, I wasn't trying to look extra exhausted! Once you reach the time the huffing & puffing disappears & is replaced with a smile.






However Darren looks noticeably less tired. We were quite proud of ourselves as we went through the bowing, coin throwing, praying & clapping ritual as afterward we watched many Japanese doing a rather abridged version.

On the way down we decided to stop for a cold drink to celebrate, We had their national beverage, Asahi Super Dry.... it was almost 9am & seemed like the appropriate thing to do.




This stop was for Mum & her love of (baby) elephants.

Feeling very light headed (was that from the climb or the breakfast beer I wonder?), we were still on the way down, we stopped for a giant tacoyaki snack followed by a strong coffee before continuing on our way.






Back to where we started from! It's amazing how much you can accomplish when you get up early. It was probably only about 10am by this time & we set off on the next part of the journey.















Next we stopped in Takamatsu City to visit Ritsurin Koen, one of the most famous & very beautiful historical parks in Japan.

It was really nicely set up too with suggested paths, a map to carry & information in English.

A cute/funny thing was at the end there was a small broom for dusting off your pants & shoes, sooooo very Japanese & we enjoyed watching people intently duesting themselves down.

Road trip with Darren Day 6

Today we spent driving around beautiful Ehime-ken admiring the stunning coast line & trying to find a place to camp but everywhere we found was full - it was beautiful weather & the whole country was on holidays, so it probably shouldn't have been so surprising.

We decided to head to Matsuyama City, the capital of Ehime-ken. This city was heaving & we stopped at the station to try a couple of hotels. They were full so we headed to the very unhelpful information booth. After waiting 10 minutes or so, in my politest Japanese I said hello & that I was looking for a hotel. Well you'd think I asked the guy for money or something, every time I opened my mouth he just shouted back "NO!" in English. So I asked (in Japanese), "is everything full?" he shouts "no, no, no" so I say "ah, there are vacancies?", he says "no, no, no" so I say "why are you saying 'no' to everything?" He keeps repeating his signature phrase & then starts waving his hand. It is so rare to receive such treatment in Japan & maybe he was having a bad day or maybe he hates gaijin, who knows!!!

We left Matsuyama City & headed for the expressway & joined the hundreds of others without accommodation & spent the night in Toppo (my car)!

Road trip with Darren Day 5

We got up reasonably early & had a delicious hotel breaky & afterwards wandered to this coffee truck we had found the day before. I must admit, as it says, the coffee from Cafe-Ya was pretty delicious.









Another quick photo before heading off on the next part of the journey.

We made our way south over yet some more beautiful mountains & eventually found the coast again.

We stopped somewhere along the way at a surf beach & this place was heaving with surf goers. Everyone was decked out in steamers but Darren & I thought we'd brave the water anyway for a dip. I got cold after about 5 minutes but Daz body surfed for well over half an hour amongst the board riders.

It was so nice to swim & I wished it was just a little warmer to enjoy it longer.

I was getting pretty tired & grumpy by this point & we spotted a campsite on a map & made our way there. This turned out to be quite a bit posh & a little expensive but all in all completely worth the yen.

We made a brief stop at a lookout on the way & hoped things would be just as nice at the camp ground.

I asked for a campsite with a view & we weren't disappointed. Daz set up the hammock & the grumpiness started to slowly dissipate.

We dined gourmet style tonight with camembert & bikkies followed bbq'd sausages, made into sandwiches naturally with a side of salad. Of course this was accompanied by a few beer.






The camp ground had a few nice viewing areas & it was a great place to watch the sunset & the evening stars.