White Trash - College Bash

23rd November, 2007

The Americans decided to hold a “white trash” party for the aussies. It was held at the residence and everyone made an effort to dress up which was fantastic. The americans organised games to play such as flippie cup, ping pong throw and there was also a beer bong. I guess it was meant to resemble a “college party”. People enjoyed playing the games and getting into the theme. It was a pretty funny theme and everyone had a good time. Here are a few photos of the night.

Lauren and I in our trashiest outfits.

Kyosuke, me, Makoto and Lauren

Maya and I

Jono and I

Jodi, Katie and I

Maya, Taube, me, Julian and Lauren

Biking Through The Countryside

23rd November, 2007

We hired a car, packed our lunch and headed to Okayama to bike along the Kibi trail. We picked a perfect day to do this trail as the sun was shining and although it was a little bit cold it wasn’t anything a jacket, beanie and scarf couldn’t fix. We spent the day riding along the trail taking in the magnificent view that surrounded us the entire way. Autumn is still here which made the bike ride even more picturesque.

All of us ready to ride.

The scenery that we got to see.

A cute little restaurant that we saw along the way.

More countryside.

We stopped along the way a few times when we came to different things. The 5-storied pergoda was amazing and could be spotted a long way away. It was surrounded by autumn trees and mountains and was just beautiful to look at.

On the way to the pergoda.



Steve, Marie and I in front of an awesome tree.

We then spotted a little cemetery in the middle of no where. It had a beautiful yellow tree to the side of it. Shinya told us that these graveyards weren’t looked after so it was kind of sad.

A little further on was a large temple with big grounds surrounding it. We went in and explored the area.

Steve walking through the long passage way to the temple.

A beautiful autumn tree surrounding some orange shrines.

A beautiful entrance way in the temple grounds.

Autumn leaves surrounding a lantern inside the temple grounds.

Across the road from the temple was a garden area with a big pond. It was very pretty so we spent a little time in there before riding back.

The beautiful pond.

Steve and I on the bridge.

I love autumn leaves as a background. May as well take as many photos with them while they are still here.

Autumn makes everything look amazing.

I really enjoyed biking along the Kibi trail. It was a very relaxing fun day. It would have been great to have done this in the spring time too to see all the cherry blossoms. I definitely recommend this bike ride.

Thanksgiving in Japan!

22nd November, 2007

As I have previously mentioned we live in a building with many American ALT’s and as Thanksgiving is a BIG holiday in America we decided to celebrate it with them this year - Japanese style! We headed to the Blue Plate which is a restaurant that we have been to many times this year to get stuck into a magnificent buffet consisting of a delicious suculent turkey.

This was the first turkey that we have had all year and it was tasty as!! Pretty much everyone from our apartment attended the dinner as well as a few of our other friends. We celebrated with around 30 people.

Everyone was pretty stuffed by the end of it. I myself had 2 and a half plates of food PLUS dessert. That didn’t stop me from having a few cocktails back at our apartment afterwards. It was a good night celebrating with our friends in Japan.

Happy Birthday To Me!!

19th November, 2007

Being able to spend a birthday in Japan was fabulous! Having fantastic people around me to spend it with was even better. I went to work for the day which was not too bad considering work is pretty easy going around here. After school I had English club with 2 girls and we played scrabble. They had just been to Okinawa for a school trip and had both bought me a little present. They didn’t actually know it was my birthday that day but we can just pretend that they gave me a present for it. One girl gave me some biscuits and the other one gave me a snoopy sticky note pad. Very cute and very nice!

I asked Makato to book an Izakaya for dinner. Izakaya’s are the best way to eat with lots of people. There were about 11 of us for dinner and I enjoyed every minute of it. We had good food, good drinks and good company!

After dinner we went back to our house to sing “Happy Birthday!” Lauren was kind enough to bake me a delicious, yummy, tasty banana cake - my favourite!! It even had chocolate icing - YUM-O!! Everyone had a piece and then people went back for more. The whole cake was eaten in one go - that’s how tasty it was.

The delicious cake Lauren made me.

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Cutting the cake.

I'm now 28......

Everyone!

I got some really nice presents from everyone and was totally spoilt!!!

Let's Enjoy Autumn

18th November, 2007

I have heard very good things about the Himeji Castle Gardens and we have been meaning to go all year but have never seemed to have the chance until today. It was the perfect opportunity and being autumn made it even more appealing, so Steve, Marie, Lauren and I headed to the Castle Gardens.

Steve and I in the entrance next to this amazing tree.

The gardens were magnificent and just as stunning as everyone kept telling us. The autumn leaves were absolutely gorgeous and I couldn’t stop taking photos.

The pond with beautiful autumn trees surrounding it.

Steve and I on the bridge.

There were so many gold fish in this pond and they were HUGE.

I love autumn.

So does Steve!

Beautiful yellow leaves.

Wow!

The four of us enjoying the amazing trees.

So beautiful!

Love this photo.

We even got to see a little performance with some very differnt musical instruments. The sound was beautiful.

What an amazing background.

I would loved to have had the chance to go more than once to these beautiful gardens. They are definitely well worth visiting.

Cocktail Party - Hawaiian Style

17th November, 2007

Well, anything goes in Japan!! Freezing cold or not, it was time for a hawaiian cocktail party. This was the theme that I decided upon for my birthday this year. Lauren’s mum was kind enough to bring over some grass skirts and shell bras from Adelaide so how could we resist!!




Best friends!

Everyone bought a bottle of alcohol to share and the mixing and blending began. It was a night of Pina Colada’s, Illusions, Mudslides, Balieybu’s and more. The Captain joined in as always too.

Lauren and Marie mixing the first lot of drinks.

More mixing and blending.

The captain up to his no good tricks...

Heaps of people got into the theme and made an effort to dress up which was great! Lauren made some cool flowers so that we could decorate the room and it looked awesome. We spent the night drinking cocktails, dancing, hanging loose and drinking more cocktails.

Aloha

Love everyones outfits

Always buddies

My other buddy

Take it easy girls

PART.....Y because I gotta!!

Lovely

We then headed to Karaoke to sing the rest of the night away. It was a really good theme and a lot of fun! A great way to spend your birthday in Japan!!