Me taking an artistic picture of Beth on our first day. We stayed at her host-parents place. While there, we met her host-grandma who was enthralled with my arm hair....
Beth and Maya
Me and Kana (freinds from Yamaguchi)
The famous five story pagoda in Yamaguchi
Our advisor in Japan (when I studied abroad) through a Christmas party every year and so we got a chance to go back and catch up!
It was a really well done party. He is really into music and so one of his friends came over and played AMAZING live christmas music on the piano, it was pretty baller.
Yummy brownies
At the Osaka Aquarium, yes those are giant crabs. As you walked by you could hear whispers of "Oishisou" or "Looks delicious!" from young and old Japanese alike.
Same as above, it was a pretty cool place.
We then moved on to colder places. This is a place called Koyasan (高野山）, a world heritage site south of Osaka. The place is known for being the end of a long pilgrimage through various mountains and temples. It is the home of Shingo Sect of Japanese Buddhism, a more tolerant sect. While there we got to say in one of the temples for the night (yes, it was very cold) which was an amazing experience, I definitely recommend it.
On the way back from Koyasan, being on a mountain ("san" can mean mountain in Japanese), it got lots of snow. We traveled back on a rickety old railcar, some pictures from the ride.
At the oldest building in Japan. This man saw us and, seeing as we are lost foreigners, decided he was to be our tour guide. It turned out he knew about as much about the place as we did......
In Kyoto, we stayed at a really cool Hostel called IchiEnSo（一円相）, which derives its meaning from buddhist thought, the kanji mean 一(one)円(circle)相(mutual/together or aspect) so something on the lines of "Aspect of a circle". Anyway, it was a really cozy place and got to meet some really interesting people there from Korea, China, Spain, etc. A great experience.
Whilst on my hiking in Kyoto...thought this was funny.
We then went north to another small village with 200 year old "farm houses". It snowed...a lot, but we got to have some really good food, meet a cool couple (one from Singapore and the other Japan). At first we thought they were both Japanese and then it wasn't until 20 minutes into dinner (we have communal dinners) that it came out that he was from Singapore. If you're unaware, Singapore's national language is English - so we got to talking about things and hit up lunch the next day. A good experience. :)
Next was skiing (this is obviously not a picture of skiing), but after that we hit up Kanazawa which is famous for it's old Japanese district (below) and 21st century contemporary art/architecture (yea, that's what I thought too...). Now I'm not big on the whole fancy schamncy contemporary art scene, I think it's interesting stuff and all, but usually I don't think it needs to be in a museum. But this place was different, very very cool! Above is a picture of a pool the you could go underneath to make it look like you are underwater. I thought it was pretty rad.
It was the new year so people got their fortunes. If you had a bad fortune, you had to tie it up on the rope/tree to make sure that it stays away from you...or something like that.
The old "tea district" in Kanazawa. Definitely what you think of when you think of old Japan. These 'Tea Houses' were somewhat like entertainment houses. There would be Geisha walking around and you'd go in and be entertained and drink some tea. The entertainment was usually music, dance, and song, scandalous back in the day!
Some friends we met in Kanazawa. The picture isn't very good, but you get the idea, lots of fun, lots of eating. :)
