Lach and Em's photo blog.: Shamisen

Emma in her typhoon fighting getup at Okinawa airport. They ended up being delayed for 9 hours!

Tug of war festival in Okinawa including the famous Eisa dancers.

Power Rangers theatrical performance to keep the crowd amused.

The Emma's getting dressed up in traditional Okinawan getup.

A remote northern beach where the girls camped....

which happened to be surrounded by cave tombstones!

About to depart Miyazaki for the big smoke of Osaka. We took the car and drove back through Shikoku. The following photos are from that trip!

Our drinking buddies 'Forest' and 'Old River' who did their best to get us drunk! They were heading to Kansai for a baseball tournament.

Sunrise from the boat.

A group of Japanese guys havin' a good old dig jam!

Largest used book market in the world? Somewhere at the northern end of Kyoto city.

Ramen shop in Kyoto, love all the different fonts in this snap.

Kiyomizu Dera all lit up.

Beautiful Buddhist sculptures inside one of the temples.

Staying cool under sanjo bridge with John and Liv. Good times!

Emma looking glamorous on the backstreets of Kyoto.

Emma and Yuki chatting away while we waited for a couch surfing host to pick us up.

Some dancers getting ready on the sidelines for Japan's biggest dance festival. The Awa Odori in Tokushima. They love this festival so much that they named their airport after it!

Awa Odori.

A youngin' getting in on the action!

Pretty much all of the locals in Tokushima get involved in one way or another. They dance 3 nights in a row over Obon, so by the third night a lot of them looked pretty buggered! It was probably about 35 degrees as well.

Street band playing for the drunkin' masses to dance to. So much fun!

Dancing to the street band with Yuki.

After Tokushima we headed north west to the island of Naoshima famed for its modern art collection.

Em inside one of Yayoi Kusama's famous pumpkins.

These stairs actually continue down into a subterranean chamber, pretty cool. It is actually a functioning shrine.

Once the local dental clinic, this building has been transformed into a permanent installation by Shinro Ohtake.

Another work by Shinro Ohtake, this one is actually an onsen called "I ♡ 湯" (I love you). The kanji is the symbol for hot water.

More "I ♡ 湯"

After Naoshima we caught the ferry back to the mainland and headed directly south toward the Iya Valley. After a morning of white water rafting we jumped in the car and decided to try and find Chiiori, a traditional Japanese farm house that has been restored by Alex Kerr and a team of volunteers. Unfortunately nobody was there but we still had a good look around the place. After reading 'Dogs and Demons' I can totally understand why Alex is so pissed off about what is happening in the Iya Valley, state sponsored environmental vandalism at it's finest. Thankfully Chiiori is spreading the good word about the preservation of the traditional architecture and farming practices unique to this beautiful area. Hopefully the Japanese government decides to leave a few trees (non sugi) alone!

Out the front of Chiiori.

Our camp spot for the night just down the road from the hoards of tourists gawking at a vine bridge. Didn't really get the big deal, I think this is much nicer to look at myself! That night we met a bunch of guys who had come down from Kobe to go canyoning the next day. They treated us to a fireworks display which resulted in one of the guys leaving his undies in the bin. Was quite a sight!

Emma getting things sorted in our tent.

After Iya we headed south east down through Kochi towards Sukumo where we caught the boat home. This was the closest campsite to the ferry terminal, however it was a bit creepy... pure haikyo! So we ended up camping in a random park elsewhere.

At the creepy campsite was also this onsen, which a local told us was 'chotto boro' (a little bit broken). Fair to say we'd worked that out for ourselves...


Care for a bath?

Emma managed to go and see Kayo, Lee and Kaito (WWOOFing friends) for a couple of days after we arrived home. Here's Kaito looking very spunky!

Camping at Sakurajima... this was some pre-party warm up with Sam treating us a strip show to some James Brown in the car park of the Dinosaur park we camped at.

View of Kagoshima bay from the top of a weird roller-slide thing. The night before we had ended up at an underground rave before catching the 5am ferry back to the dinosaur park where we attempted to camp.

Same lives out his childhood dream of riding on the back of a brontosaurus.

One happy boy :D

The crew at the tail end of a big night (and a diplodocus), we miss you Sam!!!

That afternoon Emma, John O'flynn and myself somehow mustered the energy to drive to Cape Toi for the much famed Toi Misaki Fire Festival. Cape Toi is well known for its wild horses. Here's Emma getting up close and personal.

After enjoying a sensational BBQ put on by the Kushima International Club it was time for the festivities to begin. At the top of that big pole is a straw basket full of kerosine.

And then lots of dudes through fire balls at it. Some of them ending up in the crowd.

And then it bursts into flames which lights some big sparklers on fire.

And then there were lots of fireworks... as well as a 3 year old in front of us having a nervous break down after almost being sconned by one of the flying fireballs. Can't blame her really!

The view from where we camped after the festival. Absolutely stunning down there. I love seeing untamed scenery in Japan, a rare treat.

Our campsite.

Then we drove back to Ebino for a shamisen gig at the Minamigata Jinja. This festival has been going for eons and basically involves these guys with big drums dancing around in a circle for half an hour a time chanting and drumming. It was actually really cool good to see something like this in Ebino. They were so tired by the end!

Emma having a crack!

Me with our drinking buddies that we met on the ferry to Osaka and one of Emma's students. Needless to say we were pretty exhausted by this stage! An epic long weekend but much fun nonetheless.

Some 'haikyo' (Japanese for 'ruins' but also refers to the plethora of abandoned buildings that litter the countryside) that Emma stumbled across one day.

Mum honing her English teaching skillz.

Gwen getting in on the action! They loved her.

Nagano and Koichi enthralled by Ted's tall tales!

English class with Ted, Robyn and Gwen.

Bishamon falls nice and full after some healthy rainfall.

Enjoying Bishamon

Gwenny having one of her laughing fits!

Experiencing the Takeuchi hospitality.

Outdoor jams.

The Takeuchi's with some of Gwen's handy work.

Ted rocking the shamisen.

Hiroko with one of mum's handmade aprons.

Me with my falafel birthday cake! Best cake ever, even better than the coles garlic break mountain covered in gravey.

Birthday dinner. Curry crapes!

On September 17 our second group of guests arrived. Sean, FJ and Mitch. We picked them up from the Miyazaki ferry port after they experienced a night on the high seas thanks to a typhoon! Took a while for the sea legs to wear off and what we are holding in the photo didn't help too much either!