Return to Ako City, Japan

We returned to Ako City to spend a few more days with Noriko, Fidel and Anna on their days off from running their language school. Ako is a lovely place not to far from Hemeji Castle, on the edge of the Inland Sea. Spent a bit of time around some of the bays on the coast - there are a lot of fish and oyster farms along the rocky coast. water temperatures warmer than NZ in summer and clear, relatively unpolluted looking water.

Had some fun late one evening at the local Karaoke shop. We had a little booth to ourselves and with a little food and drink had a great night.

Spent another pleasant autumn afternoon in Himeji, taking the cablecar up Mt Shosha to the temple complex of Engyoji. This temple group was used on the main pilgrammage route across Japan and parts of "The Last Samurai" were filmed here.

We also had time for a few restaurant visits and home cooked meals; notably sukiyaki, seafood down by the fishing boats and yakitori ( charcoal grilled chicken kebabs with vegetables and sauces. There was also Anna's sixth birthday to celebrate.
It will be diet time when we get to the Philippines!

Nagoya, Japan

3 years ago we hosted Ichiro Yoshida (75) who was studying at the senior university and we were able to stay with him and his wife Keiko in Nagoya. We went out to dinner with his son and his family.
Keiko`s brother drove us around and we visited Meiji Mura, a huge park where they have relocated old buildings from various parts of Japan. We dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes and wandered the streets. John could just fit the wooden shoes (geta) while I couldn`t fit the sandals they gave me.

A nephew of Ichiro`s took us to the Toyota factory where we did a tour of the assembly line. There were no people in the welding section of the line and the car bodies were all welded together by about 15 welding robots at about 12 different stations. It was an amazing sight. We weren`t allowed to take photos inside the factory. There was a robot with artificial lungs and it played a trumpet. The hybrid car was interesting with its petrol and electric motor.

We took a train with Ichiro to Nishio City to visit his daughter Kazuyo and her family. We ate at a miso restaurant and got invited by the owner to look at his miso factory which had been in his family for 10 generations. The soy beans were salted and left to ferment with a special bacteria for 3 years and huge rocks compressed the beans inside oak barrels.
Kazuyo also took us to a shrine where the leader of the 47 Samurai had a shrine and we were given green tea in a traditional room with a typical Japanese garden.

Later we ate a boxed meal called "bento". It was well laid out with raw fish, sea snails, pickles, soup, fish, vegetables and rice. It looked too beautiful to eat!

Ichiro took us to his English Conversation class and we met a few of his class mates for lunch. Two of the women were 65 and one was 75. It was a lot of fun and although they had very little English they were keen to speak. We also met two of them later and now they want to come to New Zealand and homestay with us!

We ate at a restaurant where we had to cook our own meal- a dish called okonomiyaki.
We visited a small village called Obara where they make paper in the traditional way from mulberry tree bark. A famous Japanese paper artist showed us how to make the paper. He lived in a thatched house and had persimmons drying in the sun.

We had a wonderful time in Nagoya with Ichiro and his family.

Kyoto, Japan

From Ako City we took a train to Kyoto. We stayed at JHopper guest house not far from the Kyoto Main Station. We booked the hostel online but were unable to get a double room so settled for a 9 bed dormitory. The hostel was clean and had a kitchen where we could cook and watch English TV news programmes. There were many over 60s in the hostel and they were all in Japan to visit their children who were teaching English somewhere in Japan.

We caught up with David Holman who is doing his second year of teaching English. He took us to a sushi restaurant where the food travels around the restaurant by conveyor and you choose what you want as it goes by. Each plate was about 105 yen and if you wanted a special order it would arrive at your table delivered by a model Shinkansen train at a line above the conveyor. The restaurant had no Maitre`d and there was a touch screen where you made a booking to sit at a table or at a counter. It was all in Japanese so David was able to manage that for us. We wouldn`t have been able to work out what to do at all.

We walked around Gion which is the old part of Kyoto and saw Geisha (over 18) and Maiko (under 18 and in training) heading off to work.

There are several temples, shrines and parks to visit in Kyoto so we selected a few to visit near the city.

We also took a train to Nara to visit the temples and shrines there.We visited the oldest wooden building in the world. There was a post in the building with a hole in it and kids lined up to crawl through it for good luck.

There were hundreds of school kids and they had to practise their English with any westerners that they saw. I had to sign their books and the lady in the group had to photograph the kids talking to me as proof that they had really asked a foreigner the questions.

Ako City, Japan

In 1989, Lil worked for an organisation that organised English classes and homestays for Japanese students from Seishin Junior High. Noriko Mandai (now Montoya), as a 14 year old, came to stay with us and now we are staying with her.

We caught a smooth riding fast train from the airport to Noriko and Fidel`s house. When we bought the train ticket at the airport station we got about 3 tickets each and there was nothing written in English!

Noriko and her American born husband have a daughter called Anna, and run an English Language School from their home. This is the first time we have seen each other since 1989 but have corresponded since this time. Anna is 5 : the age our daughter Kerri was when Noriko visited us in New Zealand.

It has been a great reunion and we will visit again when they have holidays in a few days time.

Blessing a new car at the shrine.

As well as visiting some of the local shrines, we managed a trip to Himeji Castle about an hour`s drive from Ako. The temples and shrines are so serene and peaceful after the loud colourful ones we have seen to date.

At the local shrine.

Himeji Castle

The rice in this area is nearly ready for harvesting so the temples are rehearsing for the harvest festival on 22 October.

We also visited the shrine to the 47 Samurai. The leader of the 47 Samurai was killed in Tokyo so the warriors avenged his death and then killed themselves. There were many stories, paintings, and statues in the shrine museum about the event.

A grand aunt of Noriko`s teaches students in the art of tea ceremonies so we were invited for tea. Noriko learnt this as a child so she served us and then Anna practiced and served her mum. The house was in the traditional Japanese style and she had a room just for tea.

One night we had a Japanese style BBQ. We cooked on a charcoal griller and ate straight from the grill.

We visited a local restaurant and had a tempura set meal as well.
A concert of traditional dance and music.

Taipei, Taiwan

It was Independence Day in Taiwan and managed to see some fireworks through the buildings. There were millions of people and it was impossible to get near the river where the fireworks were held.

Taitung, Taiwan

Clare`s cousin invited us to stay with him and his family to learn about Taiwanese family life.We visited Clares`s grandfather`s house and the village temple. Clare`s dad was brought up in this area and we had lots of the family members dropping in to chat. A niece and nephew came to practice their English as well.

Eating again. From left: Jenny, Jack`s mum, Clare`s dad (George) and Lil
Clare`s brother at his shop in the night market area. It opens at about 4pm and closes between 12 and 2am!
Visiting the old family home which is built in the "3 house" style around an open area. Part of the house was made from bamboo with mud, rice husks and cow dung walls.This area used to house the animals: pigs, ducks and cows.
The village temple.

Taroka Gorge and Supertyphoon Krosa - Taiwan

We arrived in Hualien just ahead of the typhoon and managed to visit the marble and granite gorge of Taroka before the weather got too bad. The colour of the rocks and water was amazing. The original east to west road through the gorge was originally cut by hand and has since been widened several times - but it is still difficult for two buses to pass.

Later in the afternoon had a look at the coast as the typhoon approached. A couple of Coastguard officers warned us against swimming!

The rain and winds picked up in the next 24 hours and hotel staff had to barricade the main doors. The trains did not run for two days and we were stranded in hotel luxury for a few days. We had around 200 mm of rain in Hualien but parts of the north near Taipei received in excess of 1000 mm of rain. More than many parts of NZ get in a whole year.

Typhoon Krosa has headed north along the China coast towards Japan where we will meet with it again next weekend.