Elle's Adventures

First of all, sorry for letting my posts get so behind! I think about blogging all the time, but time doesn't allow me to get around to it. I realise I haven't made a post since around the time of my birthday, about three months ago. To tell the truth, I am still having major troubles with image hosting sites, and I don't like to post unless I have at least one photo. However, life still goes on and more exciting events happen that I want to write about. So I suppose I will add in photos later if possible. So getting to the exciting stuff!! (I hope...) On December 24th 2012, my Mum, Colin and Alex came to Japan for a wonderful holiday! I met them at Nagoya airport, and we stayed in Kani for a few days. On the 26th we headed for Tokyo. Unfortunately we weren't to experience, or even see the craziness of the city; time limits and all that. However, the reason we went to Tokyo was for Disneyland! I really love characters like Hello Kitty, but Ive never been huge on...

Back in time to the 8th of December... As I mentioned in my previous post, getting to Hikone Castle on my birthday was a major failure. However, the following weekend we made it, and quite easily I may add. First, we took a look at the museum housing the usual artifacts that Japanese castles have; samurai armour, scrolls, tea ceremony items, clothing. It was also in the museum where we were able to see Hikonyan, the cute character I had been waiting for. We were squashed into a room with about fifty other people clamouring to see this mysterious mascot. When 'it' entered, there were squeals of joy, mostly from the young and elderly women. Some men looked quite interested as well. I wasn't able to get a good photo because people constantly had their cameras and phones right in front of me, so I had to find this one online. While it was cute, I guess I was expecting a lot more (but of what, I don't really know). It posed for around five minutes, and then ...

...to me! Oops, it was 21 days ago :p So on December 1st it was was 23rd birthday. But I'm fast learning that getting older isn't fun, so I was quick to tell everyone that it was my second 22nd. I'm not the kind of person to lie about their age since I'm still young and I don't really need to, but I think I needed to slowly ease myself into the idea of being 23. Anyway! I had planned a nice drive to Hikone Castle in Shiga prefecture, next to the biggest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa. Afterwards we would return to Kani for dinner at my favourite yakitori restaurant. Suzuka arrived in Kani and we set off at about 12pm on Saturday! Unfortunately for us, I thought I could remember the directions seeing as it was only a one-road trip. However, the first turn I made put us on the wrong track. Eventually I felt like things were off, but Suzuka checked her iPhone for directions and assured us we were going the right way. We weren't. We ended up going towards Nagoya and...

Last Saturday Dede and I went to Nagoya for Halloween. A friend said that he and others were going to attend 'The Absolute Halloween', which included entry to seven different clubs, all for only 3000 yen! (about $35AU) Considering Halloween isn't really celebrated in Australia, we didn't want to miss this opportunity. On Thursday I ordered my costume, and Dede decided to be a zombie so we had to research how to do all of his makeup.  My costume arrived Friday night, thank goodness! Then we went out to buy a LOT of makeup, which funnily enough was mostly for Dede. On Saturday we got to the hotel at around 3:30pm and realised that it was located within one minute of most of the clubs! We both got ready...Dede's makeup took about four hours. At around 8:00pm we went to our first place, the Red Rock Club. Turns out it was an Australian bar so there were plenty of people to talk to. They had a deal going; 3000 yen for an all you can eat buffet and all you can dr...

After the huge meal at the ryokan, we went to bed fairly early. The futons were laid out for us at about 9:00pm, and I'm pretty sure I went straight to sleep. It was much more comfortable than my bed back at home. I woke up the next day quite early. The sun coming through the blinds looked so nice I decided to take some early morning photos while Dede was still dead to the world. Soon after getting up it was time for breakfast. While it was much smaller than dinner, I was still full from the night before. Miso cooking. We had pieces of nori, which we filled with rice and miso, which made a kind of sushi (explained to us by another nice lady). It was really nice. I love miso soup, but generally don't like miso on it's own. It's far too strong. But this way was really delicious. We stayed in our room until checkout, but I really didn't want to go. It was so relaxing, and another night there would have been ideal. But alas, it was Sunday and...

September 8th marked four years for Dede and I, so I decided on taking a trip to Takayama for the weekend. I had been wanting to go there ever since moving to Gifu. It's quite famous for it's old preserved town area. The day before leaving, Dede's present to me arrived. It was a brand new Nikon D5100! I was quite excited to get it, because I have been relying on Dede's beautiful photos for my blog for most of the time I have been in Japan. Now I can make my own! These are the first two photos I took outside of my window at home: I know I have a lot to learn but it certainly looks better than my digital camera! Of course I will still use it, because lugging a DSLR around all the time is not always practical. Anyway, back to our weekend! The train ride took quite a while, perhaps three hours? We took the longest, but cheapest train there. I wasn't willing to pay extra for a quicker trip. I'm quite happy with the river photo :) When we ...