Hi Everyone!!!
Happy New Year to you all hope you had a good time however you celebrated it!! So what has Bryn been up to since his last post I hear you all shout......... Well fear not I shall inform you.
It has been a very eventful month or so for me: So before Christmas I had many Bonenki's (end of year parties) with my schools and my board of education. These were pretty different from your standard English work Christmas Party. My Bonenki's involved going to some beautiful Onsen Hotels, in amazing settings. One of the hotels was on the edge of a big gorge, and there was a sort of river that ran through the middle.
When we arrived there was a women sat on and Island in the river playing the Biwa (traditional Japanese instrument a bit like a guitar). It sounded great and combined with the sound of the flowing water made me feel instantly relaxed! Then we all went and had a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. This was a first for me, it's basically a long winded way of making a cuppa, but again it is supposed to relax you and cleanse your spirit and things. Then we were showed to our rooms which were overlooking the gorge, (one for all the men one for the women) and we all got changed into our Yakatta's (Japanese Dressing gowns) that we had been given. We then went to the onsen (Hot Spring Spa Bath) in the hotel, which was awesome as it was on the 8th floor overlooking the gorge. It was amazing having a hot bath outside with views like that!
After the Onsen we had an amazing meal, it had more than 20 dishes with fish, rice, meat, soup, vegetables, noodles and much more, though most were pretty small! Drank lots of beer wine sake and Japanese Spirit called Shochu. After the meal it was back for another soak in the Onsen, then Karaoke and more drinks and then a final soak in the Onsen before all heading to sleep on our futons. It was a really relaxing and very enjoyable style of party!!!
Christmas in Sydney:
After the party's in Japan I headed to Sydney on December 21st to Visit Mark and celebrate Christmas and New Year in the sun. However when I arrived it was pretty rainny, and apparently it was one of the coldest Christmases in Sydney for about 30 years, although it was still beach whether most of the time. The day I arrived Me, Mark and Marks friend from uni Jeni went round Sydney to see all the usual sights; the Harbour, the bridge, the opera house and the botanical gardens. We also managed to stop off at a german bar for a couple of huge beers and had a cocktail at a bar that looks out to the bridge! In the gardens mark somehow managed to get a load of suncream in his hair! We will never know how but at least his head didn't get burnt!
The next day Mark and Jenni and I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The weather wasn't as clear as hoped and unfortuneately you weren't allowed to take cameras but the views from the top were fantastic. I have got a couple of photo's that are taken of you at the top, so if I get the chance to scan them in I will add them on!
We spent the next couple of days preparing for the christmas celebrations. We got in all the food and drink we needed for christmas day and each person in the flat bought a secret santa gift for someone else so we all had presents to open! Mark and I also bought our fantastic special christmas pressents for each other that can be seen in the top photo of this post.
We went out for a really nice Thai meal one night and on the other night we headed to a place called World Bar. It was full of travellers and I actually bumped into a friend called Becky from Brock College that I hadn't seen in about 5 years, which was quite random!
Me and Hield having a civalised dinner!
Mark and I being slightly less civalised getting the drinks in!
Me and Mark playing our traditional game of statues - I'm sure I won!
Mark, Paul, Becky, Roddy and Me
Mark, Jenni, Paul, Becky, Roddy and Me
Christmas Eve turned out to be a very boozy night, we went back to world bar and everyone was in very festive spirits, with loads of cheesy christmas music being played. It was a verry funny night, though the end of it isn't especially clear for me. I unfortunately woke up early christmas morning in a Bus Stop, minus my Camera, so I lost a lot of pics including some from the Japanese parties which I'm pretty gutted about!! I will never forget waking on christmas day 2006 in a bus shelter in sydney with an old australian lady stroking my face saying "Wake up mate, it's Christmas!"
Christmas Eve Antics
I think Mark was trying to kiss me or something!
Still it didn't stop me enjoying Christmas Day, I headed back to Marks flat and got another half an hours sleep on the sofa before being woken up by Mark's housemate with another beer for me, we had a champagne breakfast. The festivities began early and we all opened up our secret santa gifts. I had also bought some random little Japanese presents for everyone and they seemed to go down pretty well.
Christmas Morning Festivities
After the pressents we got on with cooking the christmas lunch! We had 4 roast chickens, roast and mashed potato and loads of vegetables and gravy, so it was quite the christmas feast we prepared! Christmas Day turned out to be beautiful weather and was celebrated with all of Marks flat mates (Paul, Roddy, Dave, and Race Car Reber) a load of girls from liverpool and a couple of neighbours came over too. Mark got slightly annoyed by this, as there were a lot more people than we had cooked for, but we all shared and shared alike, drank some more and were very merry listening to some classic christmas songs!!
After lunch we headed down to Bondi beach. Mark and I were wearing the red spedos we had bought each other for christmas and christmas hats, so we looked exceptionally festive. Somehow I managed to lose everyone on the way down and spent a ages looking like a prize pillock by myself searching for them on Bondi beach. I did see a surfing santa though! After the beach we returned to the flat and the festive party continued well into boxing day. It was definitely a very different Christmas to any other I have ever had, but it was great fun, and the gorgeous weather certainly helped!
The end of Christmas Day
Falling asleep on the roof oppsite Mark's Balcony - Still in the Christmas Speedos!
Inbetween Christmas and New Year Mark had planned to take a bit of a road trip up to Byron Bay to visit some Family Friends of mine and see a bit more of Australia, but unfortuneately Marks car broke down just before I arrived so I didn't really make out of sydney in in the end. Instead we spent a couple of relaxing days going to the beach BBQs in the evening and just chilling out really. One day we took a boat over to Manly beach which is a great beach on the north side of the harbour. The boat ride out was also really cool as it went right past the bridge.
Sailing over to Manly Beach past the Harbour Bridge
Manly Beach
Another day Mark and I took a walk along the coast from Bondi beach, up round past a few less well known beaches. It was a really nice to chill out and relax for a bit, and there were some really nice views along the coast!
Me and Hield on the coast
Me overlooking Bondi Beach!
After a couple of days of not really accomplishing anything and inspired by seeing Mark's housemate's certificate I decided to go and book up a skydive. I've wanted to do one for ages so thought i'd take the opportunity while it was there! The first day I went to do it, it got postponed due to the weather conditions. This meant I had to come back the next day when we were going to go to the Sydney Zoo which was a bit of a shame as I never got to see a single Kangeroo or Koala whilst in Australia, but at least I got to do the jump! It was supposed to be 14,000 ft but it was still a bit cloudy at that height so we jumped from about 12,000 in the end, where you could see the ground! It was absolutely awesome but it went so quickly. I was free falling for about 45 seconds which was the most exhilarating experience of my life and then when the parachute opened it was amazingly calm and tranquil. We floated down for about 5 minutes during which time I was able to control the parachute a bit. I have a dvd of it but I don't really have anyway to put it up on here unfortunately! It is now on my facebook page though! Here are some photo's anyway.
Suited up and Ready to go!
Doing a back flip out of the plane.
Free falling what a buzz!
As we reached terminal velocity of about 200 kph I still had the thought to do some poses for the camera!!!
Me gliding us back towards the landing spot.
Coming into land - I think I was giving directions to land on Hield!
After landing - I couldn't get that smile off my face for days!
The day before New Years eve we again went out for some drinks at a bar near Mark's apartment, we stayed up pretty late and very early in the morning on New Years Eve Me, mark and Paul went to the beach at sunrise and tried a bit of surfing. I was useless though so it was a bit more fun just body boarding, but it was nice being up as the sun came up and I took the guitar to play a few tunes!
In the evening we headed to Marks friends for a bit of a house party to get the New Year celebrations started. Then went down to the harbour to watch the fireworks over the bridge. We had to get down there really early cos it was absolutely packed with people, and it was a bit of a wait til midnight so we kept ourselves amused singing songs and telling jokes in joke circle and playing some drinking games. They have some family fireworks at 9:00 pm which were quite impressive but at midnight the fireworks were spectacular and it was a great atmosphere down at the harbour. Unfortunately we didn't really have anything planned for afterwards at the night fizzled out a little early, I was pretty knackered though anyway so we headed back to Mark's.
Down by the harbour, NYE 2006
Unfortunately I can't claim any of our photos came out like this, but we saw it all!
This was about as good as ours got!
I spent New Years day recovering and watching some DVDs. Had a relaxed night as I had to leave pretty early the next day. I was sad to leave Australia and I felt the 2 weeks just wasn't enought time to see really see the country. I would have loved to have travelled out of Sydney and seen some other parts but it was time to head back to Japan. I think I could hear my liver thanking me when I said goodbye to Hield to get the train to the airport!
I've been back in Japan for 6 days now and just had another great weekend. Rich humphries was back in Tokyo from the Philippines for a few nights before he goes back home. I went down to meet up with him again, and had a couple of good nights there. On Saturday we went to the In the Kabuki (traditional japanese theatre) It was pretty weird but very interesting . Luckily they had personal radios with English commentary so we could understand! Afterwards we went and had an Onsen near our hostel, where one of the baths there was designed to give you a small but continuous electric shock which felt really strange.
Some srhines at night in Asakusa - Tokyo
The Kabuki Theatre
In the night we went to a club called Vanilla which is one of the biggest in the city. At first we couldn't find it, but we met some Japanese girls who showed us the way and stayed out with them till about 6am when we got something to eat and caught the metro home. It was a great night!
We went for some drinks in a bar before going to the club. There was a guitar so I played a few tunes, the drunk guy at the bar was loving it!
Me and Humphries in Vanilla with the girls we met.
On the sunday we went to see the Sumo as well. That was brilliant fun watching big fat men in Jock Straps push each other about a small ring. There's so much ritual and ceromony but it really builds the tension before each fight which is usually over in less than a minute. Unfortunately I had to get my train back home before the Yokozuana (Highest ranked fighter) had his bout, but I did catch most of the action!
Humphries limbering up for a fight!
I know I scared Humphries with my fearsome pose!
A big match in front of the picture of the Yokozuna
In the Sumo museum, there were lots of things about the history of the sport.
One of the bouts we watched
Some of the ceremonies before a fight
Two more fat guys pushing each other!
The Yokozuna performing his ritual entrance ceremony!
He's accompanied by two high ranking fighters that he has chosen because of their exceptional performance!
The top fighters paraded before the crowd.
Me and Humphries at the Sumo Dojo
I came back to Tadami and the snow here is amazing now. My car was pretty much buried at the train station where I had parked it! Monday was another public holiday so I spent all day snowboarding which was the first time for me! I went with Satoko - a Japanese friend of mine, Rich and Matt F and another friend of Satoko's. Satoko her friend and Rich had all snowboarded before but it was Matt and my first times. It was pretty tiring and I did spend a fair bit of time falling over but there was so much powder it was like falling on feathers. I had a great day and started to get the hang of things after a couple of runs. I can't wait to get back on it next weekend now! After the snowboarding I went for yet another onsen, which was the perfect way way to relax and soothe the aches from a hard day on the slopes.
The snow outside my apartment. Time to head to the slopes.
At first I seemed to be falling a lot........
but then I started getting the hang of it!
And I even gave a thumbs up to prove it!
At the end of a hard day learning to snowboard!
Me and Jadis - my newly christened board!
Matt burried in the powder
Rich, Satoko's friend, Satoko and Rich in the lodge!
These last few weeks have definitely been some of the best I've had since leaving England. It was great to do a bit of travelling out of Japan and have a completly different Christmas. Also got to meet up with 2 of my great friends from home again, and I had loads of new experiences. Hopefully though I will be back home in England next year to enjoy a traditional Christmas with my family and friends there!
