Okinawa

Last week Loan, Alazene and I, went down to Okinawa a tropical island south of Japan.

The day before we left the weather forecast was thunderstorms all week, but we had great weather every day. It was extremely humid. It was an amazing trip, we visited the Shuri Castle, did some glassblowing, eat some raw goat, went snorkeling and chilled on the beach. 

This statue would chase the evil out of the Castle! 

Architecture is inspired from China, many Dragons.

The Main Castle

The Kings living room, just missing a PS3 to make it perfect!

We tried some local food! 

Raw Goat

Lobster

Volcano Rice

Seafood Sushi

American Burger with Root beer

GlassBlowing

Theres are many American army bases in Okinawa so the culture is totally different to main island Japan. It was very Hawaiian, flowery shirt, palm trees, american fast foods.

On one of the days we took the ferry to an other island, Zomami Island. It is more remote and less touristic then Naha but still many Chinese. One thing I didn't not understand is that Asian do note like to tan, Okinawa is many not the best place to go on vacation... But far enough they want to see the beautiful sea life, so they were all cover up. Shoes, wet suit and head scarf but they also wearied life jackets when snorkeling?  Do they not learn how to swim? They were very funny to watch. 

Snorkeling was the best thing I have ever done in life. I had done it before but nothing to do with this. There was probably 100 different types of fish, all sort of colors and sizes. Some fish would swim right up to you and swim between your fingers. Got to meet Nemo and Dory too ;)

Loan and I 

Paradise

An other beach on the main island.

We also found a friend, we named it after the famous french cartoon "Franklin"

Franklin and I! Chilling like Bros

  

Shirakami-Sanchi World Heritage Area and Matsushima bay

Shirakami-Sanchi is a UNESCO World Heritage Area situated on the boarder of the Akita and Aomori prefecture.

Squid Sunbathing!

The Blue Lake

The Crew

The next day we went to the East side of Japan to Matsushima bay. 

We did going swimming but have no photos. Was very cold! 

Nice Golden Hair ;) 

Unfortunately the weather was a bit foggy, but it was still great fun! Thank you Joakim for driving, you did a good job for someone who had never driven before... ;)

Winter Break

This winter I had three and a half months holiday. My original plans where to go to New Zealand and Australia and enjoy the sun, but I ran out of money. 

I found a job as a ski instructor in a Japanese resort called Niseko. The main village was called Hirafu, it was a little village of three main streets, just full of Australian's. They're a funny bunch of people the Australian's, but I do love them. I met some amazing people while working there. I have many stories to tell unfortunately I can not talk about them on this blog, some stories you just don't want your Mum to know about... 

Mont. Yotai

I was also working at night time as a waiter in an Italian restaurant called "Niseko Pizza".  I was working 14 hours a day, but it paid off... 

If only they were € notes

I'm know back at University, back to real life...

Trip To Saporo Part 2

After a long and busy winter, I have finally found time to restart my blog. If you remember last November some friends and I went to Sapporo for a long week. We spent the first couple of days skiing and decided to spend the last day in Sapporo City. We woke up to a snow storm but still decided to go and visit Sapporo's brewery.

Sapporo's brewery

Trev swimming in a beer!

Trev's best friend!

Next to the brewery was a famous lamb restaurant. Genghis Kahn, a lamb barbecue named after the Mongolian warrior. It's unique to Hokkaido and especially popular at beer halls throughout the city many with their own original sauce in which you dip the lamb in after grilled.  

Grande Chef cooking

After launch we went to visit the Nippon Ham Fighters (Sapporo's professional baseball team) training grounds. Unfortunately we were not allowed in, even thought we said we came all the way from Europe... They weren't interested!!! Maybe should have said I was a Yankee's scout! 

Sapporo is know in Japan for it's food, especially sea food. That night we decided to go and try the famous crab in Hokkaido. It was very expensive but extremely tasty.

Trev and I eating our crab and rocking the Mo!!!

The crab was delicious but unfortunately there is not a lot of meat on a crab... We finish are dinner at McDonalds!  

Trip To Sapporo Part 1

Very windy day!

Friday 23rd of November being a holiday in Japan, some friends and I decide to go to the northern island of Hokkaido, Sapporo more precisely. The journey was extremely long ten hours of ferry plus a couple of bus and train. We spent Thursday the night in the Akita train station waiting for the early bus to the harbor. After 10 hours of ferry, we jump on a bus to Tomakomai train station and then took a train to Sapporo. We are students and poor so got to do it the cheap way! Miss Easyjet in Japan ;)

Finally in Sapporo

Sapporo is a lot livelier city then Akita, 5th biggest city in Japan by population. Trev and I where sharing a hotel room in the middle of Sapporo. Unfortunately our request to have two single bed was not accepted, sharing a "double bed" Japanese size with a Norwegian giant = left with not that much room in bed! The Entertainment district was called Susukino, had many streetlight and colorful advertising panels.

On Saturday Trev and I went skiing in Sapporo Kokusai a little skiing resort one hours a way from the center city. Many slops where still not open, but they were still skiable. The weather wasn't the best but the snow was good!

That night before going out with the boys (Yassir, Loan and Trev). We all went to eat sushi! 

Sonja and I 

Trev as usual killing the sushi!

Getting back to our hotel at 6am after great night out in one of the biggest clubs in Sapporo! Trev and I missed our 8am bus to the slops... Wake up at 12! We decided to go and visit Sapporo's ski jump that hosted the Winter Olympic games in 1972. We visited the museum all afternoon and then took a chairlift to the top of the jump! It's a sport for crazy people; it's very high and steeps!

Sapporo by Night

Getting ready...