April in Osaka

With all the changes in staff that happened at City Hall on 1 April (and the start of a new financial year) there were very few translation requests and I had my first real patch of downtime at work so it was the perfect timing to be able to literally stop and smell the flowers (and kind of nice not to be working overtime for a change)

This year the cherry blossoms bloomed a little later and the peak weekend was 9-10 April. On the 9th I went up to Osaka Castle Park for the AJET Hanami Party and then back down to Namba to celebrate Jen's birthday earlier that week with a couple of drinks. On the 10th I cycled to Daisen Park and then all the way down to Hamadera-koen (in the very south of Sakai City) which was a little bit more crowded to join my senior (Nagai-san) and her family for a picnic (oden) under what felt like a blanket of sakura. Despite spending a bit of time in Japan previously this was my first time to experience cherry blossoms and hanami - loved it.

Made one final dusk mission to Oizumi Ryokuchi Park after work to catch the end of the cherry blossoms in Osaka and had our 歓送迎会 on the 15th. This is pretty much one big enkai (drinking party) to welcome all the new staff and farewell all the old staff, so seeing as we had about half of the team change over, it was quite a big event. Really nice to see some old faces, and get to know some of the new people a bit better too

On the 18th we managed to book a two hour slot at the futsal fields in Tengachaya and it was great fun and I had a couple of mini games with clean sheets which was a nice confidence booster as it was the first time Ive been able to make practice in a while. It was also Eve's last practice. Am looking forward to heading to Awaji for a tournament with the Osaka Ogres Girls Team in mid May

Headed off to Seoul for Easter Weekend (see previous blog) and the rest of my time in May was spent putting the final touches on our ten day Golden Week trip plan. Organising a trip for four people rather than just one, a few things were a bit "girigiri" (last minute) but we ended up getting everything booked and planned in time to board the night ferry from Osaka to Beppu on Thursday the 28th - the blogs for that trip should be up soon ;)

Easter Weekend Trip to Seoul

Easter isn't celebrated in Japan, but it is in the Philippines, and Reichell had a 5 day weekend so suggested a catch up in Seoul. I had never been there before and it was a good chance to also catch up with so many of my Meigaku friends that now live there - Christina, Shikwan, Jung Eun, GaeYoun and Jaeman (I haven't seen the last three since we left Japan over 6 years ago!) - being able to see them again made it such a special weekend.

This was my first time to fly out of Kansai since I was in Kyoto for my high school exchange way back in 98-99 so it was nice to be going to the airport to go on holiday myself rather than picking someone up or seeing someone off. Leaving on Thursday evening I ended up with almost four full days to explore Seoul - here's what we got up to:

Day 1 (Friday 22 April)

Original plan was to go to Everland but it was a little drizzly so decided on Lotte World (the world's largest indoor theme park) instead but still had a great time especially as the rain eased in the afternoon and we could check out the outdoor rides too.

Met up with Christina around the Coex Mall area that night for a delicious samgyeopsal dinner

Day 2 (Saturday 23 April)

Gyeongbokgung Palace, Samcheong-dong, Chinese for lunch (jjajangmyeon - Noodles in Black Bean Sauce is a Chinese dish they only serve in Korea, traditionally eaten by singles on Black Day April 14) and the Seoul Museum of Chicken Art

Headed down to Insadong and spent too long shopping and chilling in Starbucks that we had to run to catch the sunset cruise on the Han River (but it was well worth it), Hanjeongsik Dinner and shopping in Jamsil.

Day 3 (Sunday 24 April)

Morning coffee with Christina and the girls in Hongdae and some shopping in Sinchon and Myeondong. Met up with Shikwan for lunch and he joined us for an afternoon in the Hanok Village and then took the cable car up to Namsan Tower.

Had fun catching up with Jungeun and GaeYoun and feeling the love around Namsan tower before heading up. We finished off the day with Samguetang for dinner and a walk down Cheonggyecheon Stream and Gwanghamun.

Day 4 (Monday 25 April)

Reichell and Trisha went to check out a gelato shop that an idol of theirs owned so Kaje and I went to the Folk Flea Market in Sinsel-dong which was great.

Tried some local delicacies (inlcuding silkworm larvae) and some final shopping in Dongdaemun before heading off to Incheon Airport and catching up with Jaeman just before my flight home to Osaka :)

Had a great long weekend in Seoul, huge thanks to Reich for planning everything, Christina for showing us around, and everyone else for meeting up with us. I had a great time - please let me know if you are ever visiting New Zealand - I would love to return the favour!

April Weekend Trips

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)

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!