Snow in Takasaki!

This is just a short, tidbit of exciting info i thought i'd write about cause let's face it, i'm a slackarse blogger but having already posted three blog entries this month, you could say i'm on a roll.
To give you an idea of just how cold i have been here, the other morning i awoke to another cold day in Takasaki, i looked out my window and low-and-behold, falling from the sky was a delicate sprinkling of snow! there was even a fairly decent covering of powdery white goodness on the ground (about 2mm tops...). so in my hysterical state, i ran and grabbed my camera and took a few shots there at my apartment window - it was so exciting.


Snow is pretty rare in my town. Takasaki is on a flat plain surrounded by snow capped mountain ranges. every now and again a strong wind blows the crisp mountain air and snow onto the town but there's never enough to make a winter wonderland, it's more like mountain dandruff. the snow had started to melt by midday but during the brief hours of that morning i felt like i was in an alpine ski-resort town.... well, maybe not quite.

Kelli comes to Tokyo

A few weeks ago, Kelli, one of my best friends from home came to Japan to spend two weeks living it up with her boyfriend, Brad. After a couple of crazy days skiing in Sapporo, sight seeing in Kyoto and shopping in Osaka she finally made her way to Tokyo on an early saturday afternoon. that same day i caught the late train from Takasaki and made my way through the wind and rain, to the Shinjuku Hilton where we FINALLY met up. i was so happy to see a familiar, beautiful face from home! a big hug was exchanged and after the initial excitment of seeing each other in the flesh we eventually headed out for dinner (tempura, the cousine of Tokyo - delicious but damn expensive) and shared stories of our goings-on over the past six months since my departure from Bris-vegas. it was great to get the low-down on all the dirty gossip from home - Girls if you're reading this i miss you all like crazy!
After our dinner we headed to Rappongi, Tokyo's infamous night club district (think Surfers paradise during schoolies except everyone is overage and mostly Japanese). we had a good laugh at some of the crazy people we saw, including ourselves, and made sure we got lots of photos with all of them, see here.

.... just like Patsy and Eddie. x

Yokohama and Enoshima Island

Another chapter of my holiday action was a fun filled couple of days and nights in Yokohama, an awesome city (Japan's 2nd largest) just an hour's train trip away from Tokyo and more interestingly, the birth place of my mother. i took the train from Takasaki, arrived in Yok's and met up with Sarah, who was already there with her sister Kylie and their friend Kirby, both of whom were visiting from Bris-vegas for a couple of days.

There was lots of cool stuff to do, the city isn't as bustling as Tokyo but its got its own laid back charm and being a port city it was great to just stroll on the walkways alongside the sea and breath some fresh ocean air into my lungs. our hostel was situated closeby to the Yokohama China Town, which i had previously been told was a must for our visit. so, on our first night we walked through the neon lit, restaurant-lined streets of China Town and soaked up all the city's atmosphere. we had a chinese dinner and afterwards continued our walk through the streets. to top the night off we suddenly happened across a small jazz joint named 'Wind Jammers' which i had seen listed in my Lonely Planet. since arriving in japan i hadn't seen any live jazz and was experiencing major withdrawl symptoms - so we went in, sat down right in front of the band and drank (unbeknownst to us) thoroughly over-priced cocktails all evening. the band played all the classic standards and my withdrawls were eased.


The next day consisted of some serious sight seeing. we ventured into the city centre and watched lots of street theatre, went to Cosmo World (a small theme park by the bay) and took the world's fifth fastest elevator (45km/h) to the top of Landmark Tower, Japan's tallest building to check out the amazing views. on our last day we took a train, crossed a 600m waywalk over the sea and arrived at a beautiful island named Enoshima. being the new year holiday season the island was packed with hundreds of japanese people who were there to pray and pay their respects at Enoshima's Shrine situated at the top of the mountain. it was beautiful and the ocean views from inside the island's lighthouse were spectacular, i was so happy to be close to the ocean again. there were loads of these giant sea eagles that nest on the island and when we were watching some fishermen below us on the rocks, the eagles all congregated in the skies above them, fighting the seagulls for any scaps the men caught and tossed away. they flew so fast and were right above our heads - it was amazing!

All the pretty pictures are here.

Happy holiday season festivities...

This blog is proving harder to maintain than i originally thought. well, as promised, here comes another one....

AKEMASHITE OMENDETO GOZAIMASU!!! (happy new year) i hope everyone had happy, eventful Christmas and New Years celebations, i know i did. it all started on Christmas day. the company i work for organised a Christmas party for the weekend. we loaded 120 school children onto a bus and headed to the snowy Karuizawa Mountain ski resort where over the course of the Christmas weekend we held our party. what i had originally thought would be an enjoyable, somewhat relaxing camp turned out to be a hell of a lot of work!! i think i managed to fit in about 2 hours sleep, that combined with two full days of entertaining the kids and hosting numerous activities and games proved quite exhausting and when i returned home to Takasaki the Monday after, i was shattered and even a little homesick .... hey, it was my first and only bout since arriving in Japan over 6 months ago so cut me some slack, ok! i was surprised at how much i was missing mum's Christmas dinner and the whole Thomson family-Christmas day ritual which i knew was happening without me for the first time. despite this, i soldiered on through the weekend. it wasn't all bad though, actually it was great to spend Christms day with a huge group of excited kids (some of the youngest being only 4 years old) and to reminisce about what the day meant to me when i was that age. there were lots of games like Pass the Parcel, decoration making, and even a pinyata full of chocolatey goodness (this was my favourite activity for obvious reasons). there was beautiful, thick snow outside the windows and our hotel was really lush. on the last day everyone gathered around the Christmas tree and myself, Sarah and Megan handed out hoards of presents to all the kids - needless to say their excitment was insurmountable. Japanese don't really celebrate Christmas day although you wouldn't know it, they go all out with lavish decorations and tacky 80s Christmas music everywhere you go but the day itself is usually just like any other, so for the kids, to be receiving presents was a big treat.

My real Christmas day happened on the 27th. some friends of mine who live in an apartment block together organised a Christmas dinner for a big group of us foreigners. there was chicken (couldn't find any turkey), mashed potatoes, pumpkin, delicious gravey and tastey apple crumble with vanilla icecream (mmmm, thanks Megan!). the meal was perfect, i was full and having slept the entire previous day, managed to curb any lingering homesickness, thankfully it hasn't returned but next time i'll be prepared!!

New years eve was spent in bustling Tokyo city. a small group of us headed to Shinjuku to a club called The Wire Bar which isn't dissimilar to The Press Club in Brisbane. there, after paying a cheap 2000yen entry fee, we each received complimentary candy-parcels and indulged in free sake which was flowing all night (ouch!). the Djs played really cool music and i danced my arse off to the likes of such dancefloor classics as "Fire in the Disco" and Talking Heads "Psycho Killer". needless to say i was trashed by the time we left but it was a great night out and well worth the 3 hour train trip back to Takasaki the next morning. we got back at 8am (ouch again! it was the sake....)

check out the photos here.