Snacks

I went back home to Florida in late April. I brought some Japanese snacks for my family to try out. It was some dried fish and other seafood "jerky." So I made a video about it. And I also tried some crazy alcoholic drink.

Hanami

Some friends and I went to Tsurumai Park last weekend for Hanami (picnicking under Cherry Blossoms). There were a lot of people scattered everywhere. The day was sunny and a bit warm. I decided to download Hipstamatic for my iPhone. It's a cool app Marlow had told me about months before. I fiddled around with it and took a few photos. I should have taken pics of the food too, because it was magically delicious.

Castle Crashers

I'm finally getting around to editing some video from December when Rachel came. It was castle week for us. Rachel and I went to Inuyama, Hikone, and Nagoya Castle. Marlow and Antonette had already been to those before (maybe not Hikone). It was windy at Inuyama as you will see. I didn't take much video, which sucks. But at least I'm getting around to posting it!

Natto

Back in December, Rachel came to visit Antonette and Marlow. I'm really late with this video among others. So we went to Oasis 21 to have sushi at the rotary sushi bar (don't know the name). Like any other foreigner visiting Japan, she had to try natto.

Hounen Matsuri (豊年祭り）

I went to the Penis Festival aka Hounen Matsuri (豊年祭り）this year.

From Wikipedia:

Hōnen Matsuri (豊年祭?) (Japanese for "Harvest Festival") is a fertility festival celebrated every year on March 15 in Japan. Hōnen means rich harvest in Japanese, while a matsuri is a festival. The Hōnen festival and ceremony celebrate the blessings of a bountiful harvest and all manner of prosperity and fertility.

It's held every year on March 15, regardless of the day of the week. This year it happened to be on a Monday. And it being held on a Monday meant that everyone had to work. So, I went by myself. Anyways, I took a few pics.

Year One

No it's not about Batman. It's about my first year in Japan. It's been a year since I've been in Japan. It's been an amazing year. I've been to a lot of cool places and met interesting people. I have my own place too. I've learned how to read Hiragana and Katakana (although I really can't write them correctly). I'm currently studying words, grammar and Kanji. There's a lot more but it'd take me forever to type. Here's to another year:




-- Post From My iPhone

Okazaki visit

I went to Okazaki this past weekend which is about 30 mins south of Nagoya by train. We had some tasty udon for lunch at this popular place I forget the name of. We stopped by Okazaki Castle to add another castle visited to my list. They had some katana blades; some whole, some with only the blade remaining. They looked really gorgeous. Unfortunately they didn't allow photography inside but I did manage to snap some outside. They also had a Hiroshige woodblock print too. Pretty amazing day.







-- Post From My iPhone