Adventures of a new camera

Back over golden week I wrote about this terrible  horrible no good very bad thing that happened to me: my lovely and beloved Nikon d3000 had a major heat attack and stopped working. I fiddled with the screws for a few days and eventually got it to function but it was no longer reliable and as my camera quickly became my most favourite inanimate possession I knew this just wouldn't do. After much research and a major amount of luck I found a Nikon d5100 and a brand new lens for a very great price. Not wanting to miss an opportunity I bought it (stopped eating for a month) and the shooting began a new.

On our first outing, or rather our honeymoon as I'm marrying this new wonder of a camera, we went on adventure around Fujiyoshida. First I went hunting for irises and a rice field and found some beautiful ones. Too bad it was cloudy but as we're neck-deep in rainy season it is rather to be expected. Inspired by the flowers and fields I made it me assignment to shoot some good rice field photos and thought I was rather successful with my favourite being a water skitter framed by a ripple and the reflection of the sun.

In Asumi, which is where I found the nicest rice fields, there is also a pond known for water lilies in late summer. While there were none today there was some fun wood steps across the water and a pretty sky over the mountains. And at school I'd often been distracted by this lovely torii gate out the window and so today felt like a good day to go there. The shrine was up a grassy slope and through the forest to a very charming little clearing in the woods protected by a pair of guardians. it was a very poetic little place right out of a story book where I found a bit of peace.

 

The last couple shots of the day were a very typical view of rural Japan and an awesome Mt. Fuji peaking out of the clouds for the first time in days all barren of snow.

All and all it was a perfect first adventure with Nikon d5100 and I hope for many many more~

Of cherries and roses

So now its summer which mean long hot humid days and intermittent rain because rainy season is on its way. So for the first sort of  day of summer we went to Kofu to do some cherry picking much like we did in Yamagata last year. It was as awesome and delicious for all-you-can eat cherries and I won the record of us four (me, Sheena, Laura and Kelly) with 51 cherries eaten in 40 minutes. But Sheena one the record for most in the mouth at 11 or maybe it was more... anyways I just made it to 10. It was awesome.

 

 

Next we went to this place past Nirasaki called Hiedi's village which was based on the folk story and a bit strange except the roses were gorgeous. We walked through the longest tunnel of roses in Japan apparent. My favourite were the pink ones and I wore the perfect outfit to blend in. The rest of the park was nice too with some irises, water lilies and I saw a lizard.

 

As the best thing to do after a trip in the Kofu basin is a trip to the Aeon mall. We finished off the day there with pizza and Subway!

The last days with Nikki

After the golden week adventures that only left a few days left to hang out with Nikki in Japan. While she was here she got the good/bad news that her dad got an awesome new job with Boeing but this meant this was her last trip We tried to pack it full of what we could.

One day we went to my favourite shrine in Fujiyoshida. The one with the horses, koi pond and little red bridge and there was this absolutely beautiful wisteria in bloom. We hit it at the perfect time of day so the sun was streaming through the trees and the day finally felt warm and I sat on the little red bridge and fed the fish. it was wonderful.

Another time we went to Kawaguchiko to this adorable cafe that featured Dayan the cat. Dayan is a character from a cute book series called Wachifield designed by a talented Japanese artist and absolutely everything there was Dayan themed! We loved it sooooo much.

On the last day we celebrated with samurai and flower. I being the samurai and the famous Fujizakura being the flowers. I've been doing iaido for about eight months now and it was time for my first testing. I'd been working super hard and was reward by a trip to the training centre in Kofu where I'd seen Kevin test for his brown belt in judo. Now it was my turn. In Japan they call it ikyu though which means I'm the step below black belt. So Kato sensei, my lovely iaido teacher helped me out and talked me through my nerves until I was ready and then I went to kick butt and passed!

After we went with Kevin to Saizeriya to celebrate with Japanese Italian food and finally headed home to see the flower. Unfortunately it had clouded over a bit so we couldn't see Fuji but the flowers were still pretty awesome. Especially as the past two springs I've been in Japan the flowers didn't have a chance to bloom because of crazy weather and earthquakes and stuff. In English they're called pink moss because they grow close to the earth so from above it looks like grass of pinks. it was very beautiful and smelled fantastic.

Then it was home for dinner, a very brief sleep and I drove Nikki to the train station so she could head to the airport. I'll leave it at that as I'm horrible with good byes...

Golden week to the south

For the second half of golden week, which was really more of a golden weekend with two long weekends in a row... we headed south! Oh but first, here's a cool picture of Mt. Fuji with umbrella clouds on my commute to Asumi.

It was a short week: only three days, so it hardly felt like I'd worked at all before it was the weekend again. On Friday, in the warmth and the sun I donned on a dress and we went for a nice little walk around the Oshino Village in Yamanakako. The stream was really pretty with hints of sakura in the trees and at the eight little ponds we fed fish and ate peach ice cream. It was kinda crowded with tourists flocking the country side from Tokyo for the weekend.

Not yet even noon we headed south and down out of the mountains to Gotenba famous for only two things really: beer and the premium outlet mall. SInce it wasn't the beer I was after we went shopping. The mall has a Nikon store and I was hoping to find a cheap camera to replace mine but they weren't any better priced and I can find one online for cheaper. But still it's an outdoor mall and set up like a European shopping centre so it was nice just to stroll about and fancy I was actually preparing to purchase that $1500 top at Dolce and Gabanna. In the end I did splurge on a really nice knew purse and a couple of shirts. Nikki got a beautiful purple Anna Sui wallet that I want to steal! With our treasures we sat down for lunch and then headed home.

Saturday was rather uneventful. A sleep in then off to Otsuki for iaido practice. Nikki says I look like I know what I'm doing but I think it's just cause seeing anyone do iaido for the first time is super cool lol. Practised really hard for my test next weekend. Hope it goes well... and then we went out for curry.

Sunday we headed for the beach! The weather was fabulous and the traffic not as bad as it could have been. Along the way we stopped so I could show Nikki the magic of strawberry daifuku and then we headed down the peninsula to Shirahama. I've been to some nice beaches in Japan but this is by far the best with its white sand, blue waters, cliffs to climb on, brilliant torii over looking the sea and the cute little shrine with a red bridge. We explored for well over two hours, frolicking in the surf, collecting shells and watching the surfers.

 

Having been no further than Shirahama in Shimoda ever, I decided to see what the rest of the town had to offer. There was an aquarium for Nikki where we saw some cool and terrifying fish, very majestic emperor penguins that can't help but perpetually look like they're holding some sort of court and a girl surfing on a dolphin. That was awesome! She was very talented and the dolphins were super lucky as the aquarium floated on the ocean and their tank was actually the harbour.

After the aquarium we walked back to where I'd seen this pretty little canal lined with old fashion brick buildings and willow trees. It turns out it was Perry Road. As in Commodore Matthew Perry from America who in the mid 1800s forced Japan to end it's policy of isolation. At the end of the road, which was also lined with bridges and cobblestoned, there was a temple talked into the hillside where he and companions stayed while awaiting news from the shogun about their alliance.

Pretty much the rest of the day was spent driving the coastline up to our ryokan to the east in Ito City. The ryokan was a lovely historic building on the river with a newly renovated interior so it was clean and comfortable. Our room overlooked the water with this awesome window sill that you could sit on and watch the river. It had a nostalgic atmosphere and I loved it. The room smelled of fresh tatami and the bath was marble and hot. The only problem was the noise but somehow I managed to get a good night sleep. In the morning we went to McDonalds to grab breakfast to eat on the beach!

We began the trek home after breakfast along the coast. We stopped at a pretty lame castle overlooking the ocean which I had seen from the shinkansen in February, but it didn't live up to my expectations which rarely happens in Japan. So we poked around there a bit and then turned north and quite abruptly began to climb from sea level and up into the mountains to Hakone. After getting lost several times, as I was approaching it from the south rather than the north like last time, we made it. When last I was here with Rhee it was the first of the chilly days and we had the most magnificent view of Mt. Fuji, the lake and the famous floating torii gate. With Nikki and I we could see Fuji but the heat made it hazy so we settled for a walk along the lake, a visit to the shrine and went to the old check point from the Tokaido road in the Edo era. Between the 17th and 19th centuries when one wanted to travel, he or she had to have permission from the shogunate, if not that they would never make it through checkpoints like this one set up to keep track of the coming and going of samurai, merchants and pilgrims. Because wives and children were held hostage, the official were particularly suspicious of women travelers but we got through okay lol.

 

And then we went home, traversing the mountains roads, combating bad drivers and finally finding some food along the way until we settled in on a Monday evening to rest from the busy yet awesome weekend!