Realising that the time I have left in Japan will be gone before I know it and with very little annual leave left the only option is to make the most of my weekends (until I have work on Saturday afternoons in June/July and it gets too hot) so April adventures included Iga, Kyoto and Nagahara
Iga (Sat 2 April)
Louise's friends Marc and Fish were visiting from the UK and heading to Iga to check out the Ninja town so Mindy, Drew and I tagged along for the day trip. It was the first weekend of the Iga-Ueno Ninja Festival so there were so many cute kids (and entire families) dressed up as ninjas for their visit so it was a pretty cool vibe around the town. We spent the afternoon at the Ninja Museum (which included a ninja house and show) and Louise picked up a ninja outfit so we dressed her in that and then checked out Iga-Ueno Castle
Kyoto (Sun 3 April)
The main reason for going to Kyoto was to check out the Kiyomizu-dera Spring Light Up which was amazing and definitely a recommendation if you are planning to be anywhere aroung Kansai when they are on (happens every year for a few weeks in spring and a few in autumn). Pretty amazing day.
Nagahara Camping (16-17 April)
A few of us stayed up all night to keep the fire going and got a couple of hours sleep when we traded fire duty with others that got up to cook breakfast (its been a while since Ive stayed up all night to see the sun rise) We had a cooked breakfast, packed up the tents and headed out just after midday.
Quite a few people went straight home but Mindy, Tom and I rented bikes from the station and cycled 7kms east of the lake underneath a blanket of cherry blossoms. It was amazing but so tired when we got home - great weekend!
Iga (Sat 2 April)
Louise's friends Marc and Fish were visiting from the UK and heading to Iga to check out the Ninja town so Mindy, Drew and I tagged along for the day trip. It was the first weekend of the Iga-Ueno Ninja Festival so there were so many cute kids (and entire families) dressed up as ninjas for their visit so it was a pretty cool vibe around the town. We spent the afternoon at the Ninja Museum (which included a ninja house and show) and Louise picked up a ninja outfit so we dressed her in that and then checked out Iga-Ueno Castle
Kyoto (Sun 3 April)
Instead of going straight home from Iga, Mindy and I took the train home halfway with everyone and then headed north to Kyoto to spend a night at the awesome Khaosan Kyoto Guest House, had dinner at a nice Thai place that looked out over the Kamogawa. The next morning we walked all the way down by a small stream on the west of Kamogawa that was lined with cherry blossoms and daffodils, to check out the second hand market (first Sunday of every month) at Toji Temple.
The main reason for going to Kyoto was to check out the Kiyomizu-dera Spring Light Up which was amazing and definitely a recommendation if you are planning to be anywhere aroung Kansai when they are on (happens every year for a few weeks in spring and a few in autumn). Pretty amazing day.
Nagahara Camping (16-17 April)
Mindy took the lead and organised a camping trip to Nagahara, Shiga (on one of the northern tips of Lake Biwa) and it was a great chance to get out of the city for a bit. It was a 2.5 hour train ride north from my house and then about a half hour walk west from the station around the lake to the campsite. Mindy and I arrived before most people so started clearing some rocks, setting up tents and collecting firewood and people pitched in as they showed up and soon we had a pretty impressive campfire going. Emily was the master chef and with Cari as her sidekick they did an amazing job and we had chicken breasts and venison kebabs for dinner followed by smores and a couple of rounds of "Completely unrelated" and "Kings Cup" around the fire.
A few of us stayed up all night to keep the fire going and got a couple of hours sleep when we traded fire duty with others that got up to cook breakfast (its been a while since Ive stayed up all night to see the sun rise) We had a cooked breakfast, packed up the tents and headed out just after midday.
Quite a few people went straight home but Mindy, Tom and I rented bikes from the station and cycled 7kms east of the lake underneath a blanket of cherry blossoms. It was amazing but so tired when we got home - great weekend!
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