Tenjin Matsuri

I went to my first big festival in Japan this week. It's called Tenjin Matsuri and it's supposed to be one of the big 3 festivals in Japan. It takes place on the 24th and 25th of July every year and attracts 1.5 million people.I read somewhere on the internet to try and get there early so you can see everyone getting ready at Osaka Temmangu Shrine. For some reason i got there around 8:30 and nothing happened until around 10:30 so i obviously got there way too early. The drumming started at around 10:00am and was still going when i left at around 6:30pm. Apparently it doesn't stop until the end of the festival at around 10:30pm.

so apart from the horrible humidity the sunburn and being squashed together with 10,000 other tourists it was a pretty exciting festival. I'm not really sure what it was all about because i went by myself because it was on a weekday and everyone i knew was working. Apparently it's been going for 1000 years so i guess it must be something important.

Rainy Season!!!

This has been the view from my apartment since last sunday (16th). There wasn't that much rain during what was supposed to be the wet season but now that everyone has said that it's over it hasn't stopped raining. The cooler weather has been a nice change though.

The biggest pain in the ass with the rain is living in a country where i am relying on my bicycle and public transport to get eveywhere and also the fact that i can't get a raincoat in my size anywhere. I think the last week is the first time i've really missed not having a car.

Yesterday i finally got a new mobile phone and this time it's a billingual version. The phone i've had for the first 10mths i've lived here was Japanese only so a lot of guessing what i was doing. It seems like i got the only model that didnt have english available. Heads up job to the salewoman on that one. It's nothing special but it has the usual camera, video, access to the internet and one thing i think is really cool is it has built in GPS. here's a pic anyway. i got the silver one.

Hanabi (fireworks)

In Japan fireworks are legal. You can buy them everywhere. At the moment it`s summer so it`s time to celebrate after enduring a cold long winter. My new apartment is really close to a park so every night for the last few weeks i`ve been able to hear people letting of fireworks. So on Saturday aftenoon Mika and i went and bought a big bag of fireworks and beer to have our own celebration.

this bag cost us about $80

this is what was in the bag. If you click on the picture and look at the large size you can see the ones in the bottom right corner that look like they have wings. These were my favourites. you light them on the ground and they spin like crazy and take off straight up into the air about 30m and then explode into the usual crackling star things.

some of them went for over a minute and others went about 40m in the air and landed about 50 - 60m away. I was just expecting big sparklers like we put on a birthday cake. The photo below i was a bit nervous about lighting it in my hand after seeing some of the others. You light it in your hand and it starts out like a sparkler then you throw it on the ground and it goes crazy spinning and exploding everywhere.

This one was our finale!! It lasted for about a minute and was bright like this the whole time. It`s been raining since Sunday so we havent been able to go back and finish of the bag. Hopefully next weekends weather will be ok.

ten pin bowling

yesterday we were supposed to go to Kyoto for Gion Matsuri. It`s one of the 3 big festivals in Japan. When we woke up it was raining really heavy so we decided it`s a bit pointless going to an outdoor festival.

So we did the usual Sunday morning thing, hotcakes for breakfast, watched tv and slept some more. At about midday I was feeling really bored so we went bowling. It`s the first time i`ve been bowling in Japan but didn`t think it could be any different to back home and then i saw 'shoeser' apart from having a great name it`s a machine that you press a button and your shoes magically appear at the bottom.

apart from this everything else was the same. The games arcade and bowling centre is about a 2 minute ride from my house and is open 24hrs. everywhere you look in Japan you can see a giant bowling pin in the air but they never seem to be that busy.

The shoes are pretty cool. Nice velcro and pink stripes and the usual everytime you take a step you feel like you`re going to fall on your ass. I`m happy to say that i won pretty easily and Mika threw the only 2 gutter balls.

Here`s me looking great in some
stylish bowling shoes (btw you can
click on the picture to see it bigger)



Mika is about to throw the ball at me. the 2nd game was really close so everytime she went to bowl i screamed out her name. I think the people next to us were getting pretty annoyed but it worked. The ball didn`t even make it 4m before going in the gutter.

Going to the beach!!

Yesterday Mika and I went to the beach for the day. It`s the first time i`ve been to the beach in Japan and the first time Mika has been to the beach for two years. The bridge in the background is Akashi Bridge which links Awaji Isand and the mainland.

It`s been really hot the last few weeks and really really hot late last week so it was nice thinking about going for a swim. It took us about 40mins to get to the beach by train. It felt strange going to the beach by train but the train station was just across the road from the beach.

The beach wasn`t sand like the Gold Coast but the water was blue and cold so it was good enough. There was heaps of families all setup with shades, tables and lots of beer. Everywhere you go in Japan you can drink. Drinking in public is legal so everyone does it. They even had surf life savers patrolling the tiny beach.

Mt Mino Grand Yamabushi Procession

Last friday i went to Mt Mino for the Grand Yamabushi Procession and Lantern Grand Goma Ritual. It was a really nice small festival. very colourful and a great opportunity for some photos without the crowds.


I got there a bit late because i wasn`t sure where i was going. I thought i must have missed it so i thought i might as well go for a hike up the mountain to get some photos while i was there. After about 20mins of following the creek up the mountain i came across the temple and festival.

I`m not exactly sure what it was all about but there were heaps of men wearing costumes blowing into big shells around a fire. Everyone there was covered in ash from the fire in the centre of the festival. After the fire was finished the priests walked to the temple for prayers then walked across the bridge to some other temples that we wern`t allowed in.