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official daine visual archive
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February - Kumamoto, Aso
Went to an art gallery in Kitakyushu.
We also went on a trip to Kumamoto and Aso....We stayed in a traditional ryokan!
We saw an active volcano in Aso..
We took a trip to Moji...
Had lunch on a boat...
Went back up the world peace pagoda and this time it was open!
Walked the tunnel from Kyushu to Honshu..
On the other side in Shimonoseki...
On the way to Tsunoshima bridge...
January - So many amazing places!
Its nearly February already! I have een to so many places the past few weeks!
Before Christmas and new years we visited some amazing beaches...
Coins in the rope....apparently 5 yen is the luckiest coin.
This beach was breathtaking..
We were lucky enough to spend the new years with a Japanese family....We all visited Dazaifu again together, we left early to beat the crowds. There was so much lovely food!
Jack and Corey decided they wanted to make some model Gundam so we went back to otaku city! I finally got around to watching some of the anime that these statues are based on too....
Apparently it's traditional to visit three shrines for new years..beautiful!
Things to burned..
I thought this shrine was particularly beautiful, i love the colours.
We also took a ride up to a temple in Moji where some of Buddhas remains are said to be kept...found an abandoned house on the way up the mountain...
The sunset at the top was out of this world....
A few days later we visited another temple which also claimed to house some of Buddhas remains. The route we took was beautiful..
Another abandoned shack in the woods...
Kitakyushu.......
We had a calligraphy class.....
Kitagata......
Another shrine visit....
Visited a beautiful lake with a Chinese pagoda...
Found another abandoned hotel and craft work shop.....
Week Fuck knows- Losing track of time...
Okay so no post in over a month i'm not very good at this..havn't really been doing many exciting things recently as the weather has been terrible with snow and we also had a bunch of mid term exams, but we are finally free!!
A few weeks ago Mike and I had a wonderful opportunity to have a homecooked meal with a lovely family who lived locally. They had two adorale children :) First stop was the supermarket!
Then we headed over to their house for some Wii and Nabe!
They had the cutest pet cockatiel called Rosie, who would fly about the house and chill on your head!
Best. Nabe. Ever! And make your own sushi for dinner...
We also made Takoyaki recently! One of my favorite Japanese foods!
Some random snaps of Kokura.......
We all got to take part in a Koto session and have a go at playing, was very fun!
Autumn Leaves,,,,,
WEEK 7 AND 8 - TIME FLIES!
Haven't had much time to do a post recently so have to double up! I can't believe i ave been here for two months already!
Took another walk up to visit Kannonsama! Such and incredible view from up there..
A few snaps of Kokura city...
Visited a wonderful shrine in Kitagata...
We briefly went to Shimonoseki 'cos i wanted to look at the pretty lights, but it was all closing down by the time we got there! This town in famous for fugu or blowfish, there was a huge fish market.
We went to the largest shrine in Kitakyushu, Dazaifu, in Fukuoka!
Fukuoka city...
So many souvenir shops..
This area is also famous for mochi which were delicious!
1000 year old tree!
Also took a trip to my first Japanese beach!
Beautiful sunset!
Inochinotabi museum....
Kawachi reservoir......
Abandoned hotel.....
Today went back to the amazing enchanted waterfall!
Week 6 - Shopping, Shrines, Cat Cafe and Bus Hike!
Another amazing week gone by...running out of words to describe these experiences....Earlier this week we did some shopping in Kokura and got shown some awesome places...
Otaku central.....
Beautiful....
Behind Kokura Station! Reiji Matsumoto tribute..
After that we headed over to Kokura castle...
Wan chan!
The next day we went to get Halloween costumes...
Mine and Shannons end result..
Afterwards Yoshi showed us some awesome make your own sushi sweets!!
And we went to a cat cafe!!
The worlds prettiest cat! I wanted to take her home!
So today we went on an amazing journey to Yanagawa and Yame... We watched Howls Moving Castle on the bus!!
We went on a magical boat trip and were serenaded!
After the boat trip we visited a stunning garden...
After that we went for a fucking feast!!
And after that i'm not to sure where we went but it was awesome!
We got to go behind the scenes of a mechanical puppet show...
And visited a papercraft workshop where we got to make our own paper postcards with dried flowers...
Week 5 - Making mochi, mountains and more of my local area...
Well the weeks are rolling by and i have been here for over a month now. I've made so many wonderful friends and seen so many amazing things! Even though this week was a bit of a rough one as our bikes were confiscated and my camera broke as well as a torrent of bills... but nothing can override my appreciation for being where I am right now! And a big thank you to Yoshi and Bogen for coming to help me exchange my camera...
And another huuuuge thank you to Yoshi for what feel like what was the best day of my life! He took us on a long drive up to mount Ohera....
On the road..
Picnic at the top :)
Yamamorisan haha ;)
Beautiful shrine at bottom of the mountain
Unfortunately my camera died at this point so I didnt take any pics of the rest of the day from me but luckily the guys snapped some. After the mountain we found and incredible forest full of shrines and statues which lead to a huge shintai waterfall..
We are going back when the leaves change colour in November :) And after that we went to another mountain which is the highest point in Kitakyusu and saw an incredible veiw of the city at night...
And to top it all off...we saw a wild fucking boar!
Yesterday i went on a long walk around my area and found some gems...
Amazing temple with a puss..
A mantis devouring a cricket...
Found some very sweet European style cafes...
Landscapes.....
Another stunning temple I stumbled across.....
And some other bit n pieces i saw.....
Also this week, for our course we have to take a module that basically just teaches us about different parts of Japanese culture. This week we got to make some mochi, which is a rice flour based cake stuffed with red bean paste. Tasty! Next week we'll be learning about the tea ceremony.
So unfortunately my old camera decided to die on me so these pics were taken with tablet, so the quality isn't as good....
Ingredients....
And the finished article.....was a lot more delicious than it looks!
Week 3 and 4 - Moving in and local area....
So we have now arrived and settled at our final destination! Had to double up on a post due to no internet but it has finally been installed :) We are now in Kitagata which is where we'll be living for the next year.
I love my little apartment! It's kinda small but that's something i'm already used to i suppose.
Complete with rice cooker!
The closest city is Kokura which is only 10 minutes away on the monorail.....
Kokura castle...can't wait to go and have a proper look...
We found and Indian restaurant!
View from monorail stations in Kitagata
A few snaps from Tanga market...
Some pusskins on campus.....(will do a proper campus post soon)
Around my local area, close to my apartment. Beautiful houses, river and other bits and bobs...
Beautiful garden :)
X-rated vending machine..
Cicada shell... sad they are no longer around they make an amazing sound....
We took a look at a local graveyard...
Since I arrived in Kitagata i have een very curious about this statue of Kannonsama on top of a mountain that i can see from my apartment.....
.... so today we checked it out, some amazing views from up there!
Temple and school at bottom of the mountain....the weather was incredible today..
Konnichiwaa!
Moving up...
We saw a few snakes in the forest...he seemed quite interested in us too!
So many spiders....not for the faint of heart...
At the top.....
Week 2 - Moving on....
Okay so technically this is my third week but I don't have proper access to the internet until the 5th of October so i have to make do with a free hotspot. After next week i'll be able to be slightly more consistent with my posts..
So after staying in Osaka for a few days we headed down to Fukuoka on the Shinkansen (bullet train). Such A beautiful city! Not as busy as Osaka but just as interesting with a few striking differences such as fashion etc..
A view from the Shinkansen....
In Fukuoka we stayed near a huge shopping district called canal city in a plush hotel courtesy of the lovely Shannon. I've had so much fun getting to know my classmates better, I cant wait for the year ahead!
Canal City...
Super kawaii kids playing in the fountains...
Some mandatory food porn....
A few of the local temples and shrines....
Miko ... :)
Beautiful.....
Fukuoka city....
Mega geisen (arcade)!
We hooked up with a couple of Mikes previous students who took us to a nearby park called OhoriKoen for a couple of drinks!
And of course went to an izakaiya afterwards....
More of Fukuoka city....
A pop idol and came to town........
Traditional wedding dresses....absolutely stunning!
Week 1 - Dreams really can come true...
After waiting for nearly a decade of my life, i have finally reached my destination. I arrived at Kansai int. airport a few days ago and was met by two of my classmates from Brookes - Mike and Shannon. Together we'll be studying at the university of Kitakyushu, Fukuoka. However,the semester doesn't start for a week or so, so we have plenty of time to kill exploring this beautiful country before the real hard work begins! I have already met so many wonderful people from Japan and all over the world in this short space of time, I can only imagine what and who the future holds for me here over the next 50 weeks.... (Besides a shit load of Kanji revision!!!)
The first thing we set out to do was eat some of Osaka's renowned takoyaki (octopus dumplings)........
.....needless to say they were WONDERFUL!
After that we headed over to a local Sega arcade which was overwhelmingly awesome! There are so many different types of arcade games and prizes here......
Anime Figurines....
..yes, of course....a vacuum packed corn on the cob!! (who wouldn't want to win this?)
Panda Kun.....
And loads of other crazy cool stuff..........
Tekken...
Later that night Mike and I went to a couple of clubs in town, Wax and Giraffe. It was a very different experience to partying in town in the uk, alot of the songs that are played have a dance routine which nearly everybody in the room was doing and everyone seemed to know which song was coming on next. I also witnessed a 'champagne shower' a couple of times which is when a club host stands on a podium and pours alcohol down peoples necks free of charge for about a minute...yabai!
Probably the most striking thing of this night was the fact that the club, Wax had a huge glass tank with several otters inside...(yes, OTTERS) I'm not really sure how i feel about this, but it is what it is. I was told their tank was completely sound proofed and they really didn't seem distressed in the least. They behaved much like they would in any zoo....
The next day i woke up early and took a walk around the local neighourhood where we had been staying near Namba.....
This little sweetheart gave me a bow as i took his photograph...
I met a wonderful Shingon monk who showed me around the temple and explained the mandala to me, he couldn't speak much English and my Japanese isn't great but it was still a very treasured experience for me venturing out in Japan for the first day on my own, he gave me several gifts which i will add pictures of later...
Kannon / Quan Yin the compassionate goddess....
Mandala....
Annnd just a few more pics of the wonderful Osaka.....
You are not alone....