Cheshire Cat Visits Japan

Himeji Castle, said to be one of the three best castles in Japan!

2 weeks ago I went away with a teacher from one of my school's and his family. They are lovely and have been so generous to me ever since I arrived. Their daughter, Maki, is studying english at university in Kyoto so we went to visit her. It was a typically gruelling Japanese itinerary but as a result I ended up seeing more Unesco World Heritage sights than you can shake a stick at and visited a lovely onsen town, nestled in the mountains north of Kobe.

However, when it came to choosing some photos to post it dawned on me that Japanese people just don't smile in photos unless it's a freak accident. So, guess who looks like the over zealous werido foreigner tourist who is being reluctantly tolerated by her Japanese hosts??!!

So, the ruthless investigative journalist inside me decided to carry out a little research...

Hannah: "Hey, why don't Japanese people smile in photos?"
Saki: "What?! Why do foreigners always show their teeth? "
Hannah: "Because the whole point of a photo is to create a happy memory. "
Saki: "You're right. We don't smile like this (pulls a cheesy/ moronic grin) but maybe it's because Japanese people don't have good teeth."

So there you have it, gound breaking research, from which I can conclude that Japanese people look miserable in photos, not because they are in fact miserable, but because they don't want to show their toothypegs, which on the whole do tend to be worse than the brits (shock horror). I think this may in part be true but I think it also has more to do with the culture of remaining composed at all times and the dissapproval of public displays of emotion and affection. It upsets me a little because on the whole, Japanese people are so kind-hearted yet in photos they look stern and serious which just seems to perpetuate our stereotype of Japanese people in the west. It comes as little surprise that "purikura" emerged from Japan- small photo booths where people take ridiculous photos and decorate them with kitsch graphics...so ridiculous that I've heard people even show a bit of incisor!

Cosmos Season

Saki and I had a lovely, if slightly nauseating looking at the photos, day larking around fields of flowers!!! I think I've finally succumbed to this whole romance/ love thing. It feels nice though!

The WORLD Shrimp Catching Competition

I think they can get away with dubbing this the "world" shrimp catching competition because I know of no other country that would seriously try and stage an event whereby hundreds of people, armed only with a pair of white gloves (Micheal Jackson would be proud) and an orange plastic net, gallavant into the sea to catch as many live shrimp as possible. Apparently, the key is to stick your index figure into the sand to lure the no doubt terrified shrimp out of hiding and into your grasp. I was absolutely rubbish and slightly disheartened at having a grand total of zero shrimp to show for 40 minutes of scrounging around the Seto Inland Sea.

The Goldfish Festival

This was way back in August. This town, Yanai (Saki's hometown), is famous for it's Goldfish papercrafts and puts on a great festival every year. Lot's of yummy food (barbecued squid and octupus amoung the delicacies) although in the photo above we're eating Japan's rival to the slush puppy- obviously. I'm yet to figure out the appeal of a rubbery octupus tentacle on a wooden stick... it's those suckers.

Long Time No Blog- Kyushu

Gosh, it's been so long since I last wrote anything. It's been a mixture of being too busy and recently feeling not so chipper.

The good stuff has been great. A month ago I spent a briliant weekend in Kyushu with Ashley (a fellow jet in Tokuyama who has become a great chum). Managed to squeeze in Nagasaki, Unzen (a quaint Hot Spring village way up in the mountains) and Fukuoka. The highlights were reaching the peak of the active volcano of Fugen-dake in Unzen in record time which comes of being a slave to bus schedules, meeting the worst waiter in Japan who tried to pour wine out of a bottle which still had half the cork lodged in the top and just being in a city.