Okinawa Trip Part Ni ...

Next stop in Okinawa - Shuri Castle. In 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa the castle was completely destroyed but was reconstructed in 1992 at the same site and based on photographs, historical records, and memory.

The gardens leading up to the castle were great

with lots of good climbing trees. :)

The main entrance into the castle:

This is the infamous Okinawa Shisa:

The Shisa can usually be found in pairs and are a cross between a lion and a dog and are usually found in pairs. "Shisa are wards, believed to protect from various evils. When found in pairs, the shisa on the left traditionally has an closed mouth, and the one on the right, a open mouth. The open mouth to ward off evil spirits, and the closed mouth to keep good spirits in."

Since we were in southern Japan, spring was just beginning and everything was starting to bloom & there were flowers and everything beautiful. The gardens leading up to the main gate were beautiful, then again I kind of have a thing for flowers.

A couple of importants I imagine.

Today's date, that apparently they change everyday.

Cherry blossoms are a HUGE deal in Japan. These were the first ones I have seen.

This butterfly garden was pretty sweet.

Finally we made it to the top.

The grand entrance to the castle grounds.

And finally, Shuri Castle.

The castle has a strong Chinese influence and if you look close enough you can see the two shisa on the rooftop.
As usual, inside the castle there was a lot of tatami.

Don't forget to take your shoes off!

And this was the king's chair where he used to conduct business back in the day.

And no, they wouldn't let me sit in it.

Hm ... considering I only know 3 kanji, I have no idea what this says.

It probably says, "It's ok for Tara to sit in the king's chair".

I took about 1,474 more pictures of the castle but the more I looked at them the more I realized they're all the same. The castles are starting to run together. There are just so many. I swear every trip we make involves some sort of castle. No complaints, it's just tricky keeping them straight.

much love

-tara-

xx

Okinawa Trip Part Ichi ...

A group of friends and I planned a trip to Okinawa in February. Everyone was pretty excited about heading south and leaving the snow and cold back in Okayama. Kind of like the longing for the Florida sun in the dead of winter back home. Same feeling, different country. :)

We left from Osaka and flew 2 hours south to Naha, Okinawa. First thing we noticed - it wasn't so hot. It was actually kind of chilly & looked like it was about to rain. Welcome to paradise. Sorry, I can't control my sarcasm.

We booked a hostel for our stay. This was my first hostel experience and I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I knew that the accommodations were cheap and a lot of backpackers and tourist used hostels, but that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge. I checked out the website for the Sora House, one of four Okinawa hostels and it didn't look half bad.

Okinawa does not have a train network like mainland Japan, but the city of Naha does have a monorail that is quite convenient. We took the monorail to our stop & walked 2 minutes north (just as the directions had indicated) & we found the Sora House.

Yes, the sign says Sora House 4th & 5th floor.

Nothing like dragging luggage up 5 flights of stairs. :)

The stairwell wasn't the prettiest one I've ever been in, but once we got inside the hostel it was really 'homey' feeling and the people all seemed really cool & the vibes were good.

This is the community dining area, Japanese style of course:

And the kitchen which sold beer on the honor system for ￥100:

The 4 of us girls were shown to our room downstairs. We were staying in a 6 person room and the other 2 beds were unoccupied when we arrived. We crossed our fingers that we would be lucky enough not to have roomies, but didn't count on it.

Our first line of business was to make our beds. Always a fun chore:

And once we were settled in we left our baggage on our beds & headed out to see what exactly Naha had to offer. We managed to find the beach and the downtown area and, although it was on the brink of raining all day, we were able to walk around without the use of the umbrella.

Yes, that's a bridge in the background. No, I didn't have to cross it. Thankfully.

Hot or not, the beach still looked pretty amazing.

A little sun could have drastically improved this photo.

You know my style when it comes to writing about these trips, the blogs come in installments.

much love

-たら-

xx

Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Man Festival) ...

February 16th was Hadaka Matsuri (literal translation = Naked Man Festival) in a town called Saidaiji. I had heard a lot of hype about the festival and was a little curious myself, so a group of us booked tickets for the bus and prepared ourselves the best we could for what we were about to experience.

Here's what we knew beforehand:

- The festival would begin at midnight.

- It was going to be extremely cold.

- There would be hoards of crazed men wearing next to nothing.

- They would be 'dangerously fighting' for a 'spick' of some sort.

- This was one of the most famous festivals in Okayama prefecture and people would come from all over to take part, including a lot of gaijins (foreigners).

And that's about it. We dressed in about 25 layers of clothes, packed some drinks, loaded up on caffeine, found our hand warmers, and headed to the train station to find the bus station to begin the journey.

あまんだ (Amanda)　& 　たら (Tara)　are bus tripping professionals.

There were so many people in Saidaiji it was crazy. There were street vendors selling beer, sake, and lots of wonderful Japanese snacks (if you didn't pick up on the sarcasm, it was pretty heavy). We made our way towards the temple and before we knew what was going on we were bum rushed by a conglomerate of nearly naked, freezing, chanting men of all ages, shapes, sizes, and nationalities.

The men in the front carry the banner & some lanterns & they blow a whistle.

And it had begun. Over the next couple of hours, as we wandered around the area, the whistle would blow about every five minutes and we would have to clear a path for another 'group' or 'team' of men heading in to the temple. They ran through the streets clinging to each other while chanting something we couldn't understand as they prepared for their chance to fight for the 'spick'.

Their outfit, if I dare call it that, is technically referred to as a fundoshi, or traditional Japanese thong-like underwear, and there are actually men hired to dress the participants for the festival. What a job, eh?

Front view:

& from the back:

Some of our freezing friends.

While waiting for the shenanigans to begin, I ran into some of the teachers that I give lessons to. Good thing they found me in the crowd because I would have never been able to find them!

Ayaka, Yoko, Keiko, Naoko & yours truly.

It was slowly (very slowly) approaching midnight and we found our way in to the temple to get a good spot. It's a shame I'm so short because from our spot I couldn't see Jack Sprat. These pictures were taken with the camera held up in the air & pointed in the general direction.

There was some sort of purification by water ritual before the fight.

At midnight all of the lights went out & the, what I later learned to be called 'shingi' (not 'spick') fell from the top of the temple & the fight was on like a Monday Night Raw Royal Rumble.

The pictures are less than impressive, but you can get the idea.

It was pretty intense, even though I had no idea what was going on.

So the fighting continued for maybe 20 minutes and in the end someone obtained the holy object and the men cleared the temple and in under an hour there wasn't a soul around. Amanda & I know because we had some slight difficulties locating our bus (most definitely our own fault) and were close to being the last 2 people left in Saidaiji after the festival. Have no fear, we knew where we were (sort of) & took the train back to where we were going without any problems.

We then spent the evening hosting the out of town foreigners & showing them the best Okayama nightlife possible, although we don't have a huge night scene. It was a late night & by the time we got home in the morning, literally, the sun was up & Starbucks was open. Needless to say, I slept for an incredibly long time on Sunday. I'm good at that.

I have videos from the festival, but right now I am on break at work (that's right, I blog at work) & I don't have the vids with me. I'll put them up asap.

much love,

-たら-

xx

Takebe International Villa ...

Way back in December my friends and I decided to spend the weekend at one of the International Villas in the Okayama prefecture (a prefecture is kind of like a county back home). In our prefecture we have 5 different International Villas that were built by the city to attract international tourists. They are kind of hostels in that you rent by the room in a huge house & share communal spaces like the kitchen, laundry room, and TV room. We decided to opt for a low key weekend of R&R so we booked the Takebe International Villa for a Saturday night.

I was pretty excited at the thought of relaxing all weekend.

The villa had two buildings and an onsen. We rented the building on the left.

The inside was nice & we learned that we would be the only people in our house for the night.

The inside of the villa looked like so:

Each bedroom had it's own bathroom, if that's what you want to call it.

This is a picture of the how the bathroom converted from just a sink

to the toilet and a shower. You had to pull the sink out from the wall to

expose the toilet, which was kind of strange. And if you looked up there was a

shower head, although none of us were brave enough to try it.

And the view from the villa looked like so:

I felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere. It was quite, the scenery was great, the weather was good. It was kind of like camping back home, minus the tent. We all pitched in to cook dinner, we exchanged Christmas presents (yes, that is how long ago this was), and then went onsening.

The onsen from the outside. If you remember exactly

what an onsen is then, obviously you know I

can't take pictures of the inside.

But there were lots of signs & rules posted.

No co-ed onsening in Takebe.

We survived our first relaxing weekend at the villa. One down, four to go.

xoxo