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| Took this photo the other day. It's the Yokohama ferris wheel and a storm was rolling in. Anyway, I thought it looked cool. |
We are still in Japan and having a blast. We have been up to all sorts of course, so I thought why not share, plus I have a spare minute to do it. First up we did karaoke for the first time in Japan on Saturday night. We went out with our friend Kaoru and her friend (who is now our friend) Atz and they showed us how it was done (they could actually sing well, Matt and I...not so much). Matt stole the night with his rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the dark" (that one was for you Rebecca Liston). I prided myself on my efforts of Nirvana's "Lithium". Oh my goodness, karaoke is so much fun! I have of course done it before but I have to say it was pretty awesome here in Japan. We had our own booth and everything, so we could sing whatever we wanted and how ever we wanted. I really didn't want to go home. We are hoping to go again before we go home.
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| The stars of the night |
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| Think I may be way too into it |
Today we had an awesome day. We went to Kamakura, which is really not far from Yokohama. It was a really nice town and I want to go back there and see more. We were a bit limited on time, so only saw a couple of sights. First off we went out for lunch and had ourselves some okonomiyaki, which is probably my favourite thing to eat in Japan. It is a savoury type of pancake (fillings optional) and you cook it yourself on a hotplate that's on your own table. Yum!
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| Me cooking the okonomiyaki, see I can cook. |
Then we visited The Kamakura Daibutsu (Japan's second largest Buddha image). Which is the Amida Buddha (figure of salvation) and it's amazing to see. It is actually 11.4m tall, you probably can't tell how big it is from the photo.
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| The Kamakura Daibutsu |
Then we saw the Hase-Dera temple, which houses the Kannon Statue (goddess of mercy). It's not appropriate to take photo's inside the temple, so there is only one from the outside. But it was a 9m high carved wooden statue (but looked covered gold) that is supposed to date back to the 8th century, also amazing to see.
When we were at Hase-Dera temple we stumbled upon a look out, which we realised we weren't far from the ocean. So we decided to go down to the beach, which can you believe is the first time we have been to the beach in all the time we have spent here. The surf was amazing and Matt was chomping at the bit to hire some gear and get in there. Instead we just watched the waves roll in for an hour or so. I think we are going to have to head back again before we go.
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| Matty watching the waves |
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| Having a little dip, can't believe how warm the water was. |
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| And on our way back to Yokohama I took this photo of the storm rolling in (from the train) |
And there has been lots of tattooing of course. Matt's hands are still healing, so no pics yet. Although he did post them on instagram (@mattdeverson) last week, if you wanna see. We actually got through heaps on my arm this week and I got a lot of colour now in my phoenix, looks crazy good but I haven't taken any pictures of it yet.
Matt is now booked out for the Melbourne convention too, so thanks for the support and interest! It should be a good show and we are looking forward to it.
Jamie and Simone are still working at the shop, so we aren't closed! Remember to leave a message if no one answers the phones. I am not there to take calls and it's hard for them to get to the phone.
Also I just wanted to take a minute to acknowledge the problems that are still here in Japan. People effected by the tsunami and earthquake hit regions are still needing much help and there is still work to be done. I know that in Australia (not sure about elsewhere) we don't hear much about what is actually still happening in Japan (through media) and it is easy to think that things are all back to normal. There is still so much to be done and people are still in need of help here.
Even though we are enjoying our time here in Japan, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about what has happened or how people are still struggling here. I hope that our tourist dollars help support a struggling economy.
Japan red cross have information on how to still donate to survivors or help support their efforts at:
Ok, must go.
Matt has decided to have some input this entry. So everyone should go check out "The Flower Travelin Band". Soooooo good! Japanese prog rock. They are old but oh so good!
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