The Bekuhamu

This week has been dominated by me in bed sleeping trying to get rid of this heinous flu Ive got. Unfortunately my presence at work has still been required, so I have had to teach with this evil cough. It hasn’t been too bad, but bad enough that I want to be well again ASAP.

On Wednesday I went down to Ayes parents to visit her. She has been staying their ever since the trip to Osaka and has no plans to come back, which means for the moment Im having to look after myself in the Nagoya flat.

Going to visit Ayae was cool, I got to eat some fresh fresh sushi as usual, and got some fresh country air. Also as it was valentines day I got a present from Ayae which was an English Japanese dictionary for thr Nintendo DS. Whilst I got rid of my last one last month, this one has a kanji converter so I figured it would be better. I was right and it delivers pretty well. Theres still no good English to Japanese converter, but the kanji thing works very well although sometimes I have to write it a couple of times.

On Friday I went home, and attempted to make a “Nabe” which Ayae had told me we had in a ready made packet at home. Whilst looking through the food cupboards, I thought I found it but was unsure of the kanji on the packet. After entering it into my DS though I confirmed it was the correct packet and felt rather smug.

After my half working week was over I headed to Himeji to meet Ayae. Ayae and her Dad had decided on the spot to travel round Japan for a few days and offered me the chance to hang with them for a couple of the days. I got to Himeji (near Kobe, just past Osaka) on Wednesday morning after a short shinkansen ride.

First on the agenda was Himeji castle which is famous for being one of the most beautiful of all of Japans castles. When we got there it was proper lush. Very similar to Osaka and Nagoyas castles, except the roof had this special design which made it look even nicer. We looked round and saw all the usual exhibits from 400 years ago. It was a pretty typical castle but the weather was really sunny which made it much nicer. Also I got to see the Seppuku stage where disgraced Lords would commit ritual suicide on a special stage. Pretty nasty but kinda cool.

After the castle we had a nice lunch at a local restaurant and then went on to Mount Shosha. This is a mountain containing a massive temple complex called the Engyoji. We took a bus and then a cable car to get to the top of the mountain. When we got there it was absolutely beautiful.

As it was a weekday it was pretty much empty except for the monks that look after the buildings. The buildings were all slightly hidden amongst the heavy forest that covered most of the mountain which gave it a very peaceful atmosphere. There were lots of temple buildings but being as we were pretty strapped for time we stuck to the main ones.

They were all elaborately designed but more so than the average shrine, and looked truly astounding. In fact the temple complex was used in a couple of scenes in The Last Samurai. When we got off the bus stop I heard the person on the PA say in Japanese, “Change here for the cable car to Engyoji etc” as you do with most tourist attractions but in the middle of the next sentence randomly heard “Tomu Kuruzu” which was funny. No idea what they were saying, probably something along the lines of “Change here for the place that Tom Cruise was at this one time”.

After looking around and seeing pretty much everything we left and headed back down the mountain. The plan for that night was to make our way to Awaji-shima which is an island fairly near Himeji. We took a train to the suspension bridge connecting the island with mainland Japan (the longest suspension bridge in the world for those who are interested). We then took a bus to Awaji shima and then got a taxi to our accommodation for the night which was to be a log house. Log houses have become quite popular in Japan both for rental and living. We got very lost on the way, although the taxi driver was very nice and chatty. After going from log house to log house we eventually found the one which was to be ours.

It had a wood fire inside which was really nice and warm, and the whole place was very un-Japanese with big open rooms, and a pretty big garden. We ate some sushi we had bought from a food market in Himeji earlier and went to bed.

The next day we got up bright and early and went to a log café next to our house, for some breakfast. This consisted of a salad, a boiled egg, some bacon and some toast which was well lush.

After that we got in a taxi and headed into town. We had booked a taxi for the day to take us to all of Awaji-shimas tourist spots. The taxi driver was the same chatty one from the night before, and we started off going to see a beautiful shrine. Apparently it’s the oldest in Japan although I heard the same thing about Ise-jingu. The taxi driver said they were about the same age. Anyway I`ve seen both so I guess Im covered.

After the shrine we went to an incense shop where you could make your own incense. We participated in this and made our own incense things. We did this using a powder mixture thing then rolling it out and cutting shapes. I now have a box of air freshener things which Ill probably never use, but it was pretty fun.

After that we went to a gold museum which holds in it a gold bar worth 100 million yen. You can go in it and touch it which we did. Next to the gold bar was a huge picture of David Beckham touching the gold bar during the 2002 Japan world cup. Beckham is like a God here, and the picture of him was bigger than the display of the gold bar itself. On the wall nearby were some smaller pictures of Michael Owen and David Seaman, and another huge photo of Beckham.

On the way out I noticed a large cage which contained a monkey and a dog. The taxi driver said that dogs and monkeys never get on which is why the cage is such an attraction. OK.

After this we went to an awesome Italian restaurant. The chef came out to greet us and told us he had studied cooking in Italy. The restaurant had a very European feel which I have never really felt in Japan yet. For a starter we had fried mushrooms with a squeeze of orange. Following that we had a pumpkin soup with croutons, and after that we had a cabbage spaghetti which was a little strange but really delicious. The meal was served with Italian style bread and olive oil which was really cool. After that I had a Cassata (kind of an ice cream thing) for dessert. The whole meal was really delicious, and the chef served each course and chatted to us throughout. An awesome restaurant.

After lunch we got back into the Taxi and went to Awaji castle which was similar to other Japanese castles but about a tenth the size. Despite its shortcomings we did get a pretty good view of the Islands port which was cool.

We then headed to a museum commemorating a famous Japanese sailor called Kage, who made peace with the Russians during their war. We watched a short film about his life which I couldn’t really understand but Ayae translated the basic concept. We then saw some exhibits most of which I didn’t find that interesting but the old style Japanese drawings of the Russians were quite funny, drawing them with ridiculously oversized noses and eyes.

After that we headed home. The restaurant next door delivered to us a huge plate of cut up vegetables (such as cabbage, mushrooms, beansprouts, carrots), fresh shrimp, crab, and scallops, as well as a meat ball mixture, some rice, and some eggs. As well as this we were also given some Udon noodles and mochi. We were then given a huge pot with a nabe sauce in, and a gas cooker. I don’t know if this came as part of the deal with renting the house or whatever, but it was an absolutely epic amount of food especially for 3 people.

We cooked the nabe sauce and gradually put some of the fish and vegetables in. We then cracked the eggs into our bowls and when the Nabe was ready we helped ourselves, eating the nabe with raw egg. After we put a dent in the first lot of food we could put some of the other stuff in. After some of that was gone we could finally put the last lot in. We had no chance of finishing it although we could save it for tomorrow. The next day we all had a huge breakfast of nabe but still couldn’t finish it and had to throw quite a lot away which sucked!

Early in the morning we got a taxi to a bus terminal, and each went our separate ways. Ayae and her Dad would be heading to Shikoku to continue their trip, whilst I would be getting a bus back to Nagoya, to get back in time for work.

Ok that’s just about all for this week. Next week is wide open so I have no idea what Ill do. Until then….Peace out.

Jack