Osaka and Kobe with Charrissa

Last weekend I traveled with Charrissa to Osaka and Kobe. We had a three day weekend,our last for a long time so I wanted to utilize it. We decided Thursday night to head down to Osaka and Kobe. I hadn't been there yet and Charrissa was meeting a friend on Monday so we decided to be spontaneously.

I'm too tired and lazy tonight to put any real thought into this, so I am just going to put up some pics of the trip and describe each picture :)

The streets of Osaka.

If you can't read the shirt it says, "Sacramento Savings" found this beaut in the crazy streets of Osaka. I was very excited. You dont see much about Sacramento in Japan.

I thought the Statue of Liberty was in NYC-who knew it was also in Osaka. This is apparently the American Village in Osaka. I wasn't so impressed.

Really cool orange Torii Gates at a Temple in Kobe. The weird thing about this temple was that all the buildings were brand new.

China Town-Kobe; really cool little neighborhood, the story of us arriving here is a funny one-if you want to know it, email or call me but it involves; 1 mile walk in the wrong direction, a stranger hauling a cab for us and handing the cab driver 2 blue tickets=free cab ride to China Town, also very yummy, cheap food

Earthquake Memorial at the Kobe docks. Absoluetly incredible. The picture is not tilted, yes those lamps are really leaning that far over.

One funny little tidbit about Kobe: The first American Consolute in Kobe building now houses a Big and Tall clothing store, is it just me or is that a bit ironic-haha

Osaka Castle-I went sightseeing on my own on Monday and visited the castle. My first one in Japan, its a nice one. Now a museum the original castle was burned down in 1600's

Osaka Castle-amazing views of Osaka from the observatory deck.

The plum blossoms are starting to blossom. Its a bit early for them to blossom-its been a warm year

Japanese families picnicing by the plum blossoms, LOTS of photos being taken

I ended up shinking it home from Osaka all by myself. I hadn't been on teh Shinkansen so this seemed like the perfect time to try it. A three hour journey to Osaka using a local train, only took 45 minutes on the Shinkansen. Totally Awesome-I think Im in love with the Shink :)

Kyoto on the Shink-I think that is some really famous shrine

The shinkansen

Hirayu and Takayama

Did it snow in Nagakute?? Oh the anticipation is killing me...the answer-NO!!! I was soo excited for snow I ran to the window as soon as I woke up and the sky was blue and the sun was shining-ugh. I was so sad, but apparently it was snowing a 20 minute subway ride away in Sakae-grrr. Oh well, I was able to spend all weekend in snow so I didn't miss out too much.

I went on a big adventure this weekend with Saori, Lizzie and Charissa. We went skiing, onsening (I dont think thats a real word:), sight seeing and saw some snow festivals. It was a very fast paced, yet relaxing (onsens) and fun. We booked a tour that included roundtrip bus ride, accommodations at a very nice ryoken (traditional Japanese hotel) with 3 meals, one day ski pass/onsen pass and free bus rides to the festivals. All this for less than $200-Saori is the queen of booking cheap tours.

It all started on Friday night at 8:04pm (we were 4 minutes late-opps) we arrived in our bus and there were only 10 of us for a whole bus-boy was this looking good already. We had a 5 hour bus ride to Hirayu which was spent mostly reading and sleeping. We arrived in Hirayu at 1am-and did we go straight to bed-oh on, Saori is a onsen fanatic and there was an onsen in our hotel so we went to the onsen at 1:30 in the morning-crazy. Hirayu and the surrounding area is famous for its onsens. There is a lot of sulfer in the onsen water so it smelt a bit like Yellowstone :) but made my skin feel very soft. This is the view I woke up to Saturday Morning.

View from my hotel room sat. morning-BEAUTIFUL!!

The Ryoken we stayed at. I miss that place already.

The ski slopes, it was a very small ski resort with only 2 ski lifts. It was very nice and this weekend I only fell about 8 times, no bruises or sore muscles-YEAH! But I did have sore toe from my boots that were too big, then too small (You win some and you lose some :)

Our 15 course dinner-soo much food. Saori ordered me a no seafood dinner and they gave me crab legs-haha each table was one persons dinner.

I was very upset and did a Brenda. On the way to the festivals on the bus I dropped my camera on the lens so these pictures of the festival are a bit fuzzy. Saori suggested I soak the camera in the onsen to make it better-haha because according to Saori the onsen can cure anything. I finally figured out if I hold the lens at a certian angle it will take clear shots. By the next day the lens just clicked right into place, and now it can finally zoom again-ugh and the camera was less then 2 months old.


Partially frozen waterfall-very pretty. Can you see the Women Ghost?? Its typically completely frozen but its been a warm winter (more on that later)

Lizzie pounding mochi-she's the one with the big malet

An igloo we drank sake in and kept warm by the fire

It snowed ONLY 18 centimeters (about a foot) according to the hotel staff over night. We woke up and were in a winter wonderland that was covered in marshmellows. Apparently this is a very bad snow year for Japan.
Walking up to see another frozen waterfall. You can see the amount of snow that fell by looking at the path.

Can you see the frozen waterfall behind me?? Gorgeous

A nice warm foot bath after our hike to the waterfall-was sooo nice and warm

Takayama
We decided to visit Takayama Sunday, cute little touristy town and hour away.

Ninja armor in a glass window on a Takayama street

I'm making rice cakes-the poor person that has to eat it :)

Hida-Kokubun-ji Temple-Takayama

Sarubobo Charm at the Temple-the Takayama mascot-you can find them everywhere! Very cute no face dolls in many different colors. So I bought two for met-they are supposed to bring you protection from bad things, a happy home/good match and, having a easy delivery on birth (that one will have to wait a while)

It's a Small World After All...

One more thing for today. It is such a small World, that song is humming in my head right now. I just bumped into my new neighbor upstairs who works at another International School in Nagakute. You will not believe this: 1) she's from San Francisco (NorCal baby!!!) 2) went to UC Berkeley 3) she is 24 years old.

We lived 100 miles apart back home, and now that we live in Japan 5000 miles away from home we are neighbors. CRAZY!!!

SNOW...maybe

It's supposed to snow tomarrow!!!! Keep your fingers crossed-I hope it does :) I've been waiting for 2 months for snow. Every keeps talking about snow and it hasn't been coming so hopefully this is not a false alarm :)

Another random thing, I'm watching Japanese TV and I turned the channed to a travel show about the place I went sledding with my kids last Friday-CRAZY. I was just there and now its on TV. Also, "Who wants to be a Billionaire" is on in Japan (at least thats what Im guessing its called) The lady on it is already up to 2,500,000 yen-about $25,000. The host even looks like a Japanese version of Regis Philben.

Anyways, I will write back soon about the snow (hopefully) and my adventures this weekend. Hopefully I dont come back with any broken bones.