Tuesday 18 January 2011
New blog
Blogspot has been saving all my pictures at full resolution so unfortunately Ive used up my 1G of free storage even though Im not yet even half way through my trip :( so the second half of this year abroad will have to be in a new blog - check out http://www.melissainsakai2011.blogspot.com/ soon for the rest of the boys trip and my adventures in 2011
Wednesday 12 January 2011
The boys come to visit Kansai for Christmas.
My lovely brothers decided that me spending Christmas on my own wasnt very nice, so they took up the offer of a free tour guide, translator and futons to crash on, and came over to visit me for 2 and a half weeks over Christmas and New Years 2010-11 - this is the first half of their story.
Saturday 18 December
Arriving an hour and a half late but not complaining about the free upgrade the business class I met them at Kansai airport at 9am and we swung by the supermarket on the way home. Headed up to Namba for a spot of shopping around Shinsaibashi and Don Qihote on Dotomburi before walking to Shinsekai to spend the afternoon at Spa World and have kushi-katsu at Daruma for dinner
Sunday 19 December
Spent the morning building a gingerbread house before a few of my workmates arrived to have nabe for lunch and then a few more workmates (with kids in tow) arrived mid afternoon for the Christmas Party. Mark made a pretty convincing santa and we played Indian gift giving and took photos with santa - everyone had a fun afternoon. That evening we went up to North Osaka (Umeda) to check out the German Christmas Market and went up the top of the Sky Building to see the Floating Observatory and a beautiful night view of the city
Monday 20 to Wednesday 22 December
I had to go to work for a couple of days and had my end of year party on Wednesday so the boys went to Nara for the day on Monday (and got terrorised by deer wanting biscuits) and left for Kyoto on Tuesday to visit temples and shrines galore (and of course the monkey park)
Thursday 23 December
I was up early-ish on this public holiday for the Emporers Birthday to meet the boys in Kyoto at 9am. We explored the lines of torii gates running through the hills at Fushimi-Inari-taisha, walked (eyes-closed) between the love stones, went down into tainai-meguri and drank from the waterfall at Kiyomizu-dera, shopped in ninnen and sannen-zaka, stood in awe looking at the Buddhas in Sanjusangen-do and explored the amazing Kyoto station before coming back to Sakai mid afternoon. There were fireworks at Harvest Hill for the Emporers Birthday and went out for all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu with Tsuda-san and Pi-chan afterwards for dinner
Friday 24 December
In Huggins tradition, the 24th was pretty chilled and we spent the day exploring Sakai. Had tonpeiyaki for lunch with a few workmates and looked out over Sakai from the 21st floor of Sakai City Hall (with my English signboards all finished). Rented bikes for the boys and cycled down to Daisen Park and enjoyed the Japanese garden and saw the entrance of Nintoko-ryo's tumulus, found the old Sakai lighthouse, some stray cats and a Yosano Akiko statue. That night we went up to Namba and had okonomiyaki with Tim at Ponpocotei and a few drinks at Dublin Garden
Saturday 25 December
Santa came and gave us lots of Japanese snacks for the train ride tomorrow and we had deluxe pancakes (with bananas and strawberries, maple and chocolate syrup) for breakfast. Everyone pitched in to make a delicious lunch of apricot glazed pork, mashed kumara and veges and of course there was Japanese Christmas cake for dessert. Talked to the parents and Stuart and his family and had a nice relxing day inside seeing as it was snowing a little bit outside
Sorry about having to cut this blog post in half. Apparently I have used up my free 1G of space already (only 5 months into my year here...) so will have to figure out what to do now....
Saturday 18 December
Arriving an hour and a half late but not complaining about the free upgrade the business class I met them at Kansai airport at 9am and we swung by the supermarket on the way home. Headed up to Namba for a spot of shopping around Shinsaibashi and Don Qihote on Dotomburi before walking to Shinsekai to spend the afternoon at Spa World and have kushi-katsu at Daruma for dinner
Sunday 19 December
Spent the morning building a gingerbread house before a few of my workmates arrived to have nabe for lunch and then a few more workmates (with kids in tow) arrived mid afternoon for the Christmas Party. Mark made a pretty convincing santa and we played Indian gift giving and took photos with santa - everyone had a fun afternoon. That evening we went up to North Osaka (Umeda) to check out the German Christmas Market and went up the top of the Sky Building to see the Floating Observatory and a beautiful night view of the city
Monday 20 to Wednesday 22 December
I had to go to work for a couple of days and had my end of year party on Wednesday so the boys went to Nara for the day on Monday (and got terrorised by deer wanting biscuits) and left for Kyoto on Tuesday to visit temples and shrines galore (and of course the monkey park)
Thursday 23 December
I was up early-ish on this public holiday for the Emporers Birthday to meet the boys in Kyoto at 9am. We explored the lines of torii gates running through the hills at Fushimi-Inari-taisha, walked (eyes-closed) between the love stones, went down into tainai-meguri and drank from the waterfall at Kiyomizu-dera, shopped in ninnen and sannen-zaka, stood in awe looking at the Buddhas in Sanjusangen-do and explored the amazing Kyoto station before coming back to Sakai mid afternoon. There were fireworks at Harvest Hill for the Emporers Birthday and went out for all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu with Tsuda-san and Pi-chan afterwards for dinner
Friday 24 December
In Huggins tradition, the 24th was pretty chilled and we spent the day exploring Sakai. Had tonpeiyaki for lunch with a few workmates and looked out over Sakai from the 21st floor of Sakai City Hall (with my English signboards all finished). Rented bikes for the boys and cycled down to Daisen Park and enjoyed the Japanese garden and saw the entrance of Nintoko-ryo's tumulus, found the old Sakai lighthouse, some stray cats and a Yosano Akiko statue. That night we went up to Namba and had okonomiyaki with Tim at Ponpocotei and a few drinks at Dublin Garden
Saturday 25 December
Santa came and gave us lots of Japanese snacks for the train ride tomorrow and we had deluxe pancakes (with bananas and strawberries, maple and chocolate syrup) for breakfast. Everyone pitched in to make a delicious lunch of apricot glazed pork, mashed kumara and veges and of course there was Japanese Christmas cake for dessert. Talked to the parents and Stuart and his family and had a nice relxing day inside seeing as it was snowing a little bit outside
Sorry about having to cut this blog post in half. Apparently I have used up my free 1G of space already (only 5 months into my year here...) so will have to figure out what to do now....
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