Enjoying May in Japan

Between getting back from the Epic Golden Week holiday on 8th and Mum arriving on the 26th I had a couple of weeks to catch up on work (and sleep). Was kept pretty busy translating stuff for the City Outline book and an introductory DVD about the city as well as writing my fifth edition of City Life and made the most of my weekends and evenings as usual.

Hamadera Rose Carnival and Concert (15 May)

Every year the Tour of Japan Cycling Race starts from Sakai "the birthplace of the bicycle in Japan" at Daisen Park close to my house so went along to check it out but turns out it had been cancelled due to the events in Tohoku but there was still a small bicycle festival going on in its place so checked that out before heading down to Hamadera Park to meet Mindy and spent the afternoon taking pictures of the roses.

That evening I met up with Nagai-san and her family for dinner at a cute local place called "A little bit cafe" and watched the concert in the rose gardens where Junko Monodane 物種純子 sang accompanied by Mona Mitsuda 三津田萌奈 and entertained us with beautiful songs amidst the roses for an hour or so.

One of my favourites was "A Letter - Greeting to a 15 year old" simply called 手紙 in Japanese, originally by Angela Aki - here's a translation of the lyrics, it really is a beautiful song.

 

Jason visits Osaka (18-19 May)

I met Jason way back at university through Nadine. He was coming over for about ten days to visit some friends in Tokyo but they turned out to be flyjins so he got a Japan Rail Pass and decided to do a bit of travelling around instead and crashed at my place for a couple of nights. It was perfect timing and he was able to join in a surprise birthday party for Edwards at Chinese Cafe 8 in Namba (with great food and interesting decor) and we checked out Yogurtland and a Video Game Bar afterwards. He went to Kyoto for the day, and it was a good excuse for me to have a couple of people (the Kiwis I know and those who love them) over for a tako-pa

Football Tournament in Awaji (21-22 May)

I missed the Autumn tournament because I had to go to Tokyo for work, so was really stoked that I got to play for the Osaka Ogres in the Spring All Japan ALT Tournament - Western Division. It was an early start (4:30am alarm for a 7am bus to Tsuna) and with six girls teams we played 4/5 pool games on Saturday winning one, drawing two and losing one...We went into Day Two 4th on the table and came out 2nd after our last pool game win against Fukui . This put us in a pretty good position and luckily we didnt have a game during the hour it poured mid morning. Being placed 2nd we skipped the quarter finals, going straight to the semis to play the Gifu Pirates who put up a good fight and we only beat them 1-0 to claim our place in the finals against Shimane (same as the previous tournament) We put in one goal against them but it wasn't enough and they won the tournament 3-1. It was a lot of fun with a great group of girls and a chance to get out of the city and run around for the weekend. Click here for more pictures of the weekend and for a video of the action check out https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150271482636885&comments