Crikey, time for a round up on what’s been going on around Gifu-Shi. I think I’ve got the hang of this town. I’ve been here for 4 weeks, I bought a bike to terrorize the pavements, I’m learning Japanese (though I still can’t write my name), and I’m in the swing of work, working on my patient plaster smile for the lower level students. I spare a though for my own Jap tutors.

So straight into it: There have been 1 or 2 notorious Karaoke incidents in downtown Gifu. Private booths, all you can drink (a lot), dancing on tables, and possibly singing some Kylie? No one can confirm or deny that. Props to Kelly for her superb effort capably ordering pizza on the phone the next day. Now, because this whole situ is likely to reoccur again (and again) I’ll take any Karaoke requests that you might have. I’ll do an intro if you like (one of those ‘this goes out to my homeboy ‘…Stan’). The song will be butchered but it might be a nice connector between absent friends. So, requests people?
We celebrated Mother Natures delicate beauty with a Hanami (Cherry Blossom) Party in Gifu Koen last week. ‘The Friendship Garden’ (friendship between Japan and China) was a surreal night stage of cherry blossom trees around a pond. It was pretty cool for so many of the Gaijin (foreign) tutors to be in the one place, listening to music, hanging out, speaking english. And as beer drops from vending machines you never have to worry about when the bottle shop’s going to close. A final word on the cherry blossoms: They are loverly, prittee and beautifil, but now sadly they’re gone. Two days after our party wind and rain decimated our beloved cherry blossom trees leaving little pink-white petals littered in every street like confetti after a wedding. Till next year I guess…

I visited Yoro yesterday, which doesn’t make a mention in the Lonely Planet, though it should for its bizarre park, ‘The Garden of Reversible Destiny’. Yes, I did visit just for the name. Set in the backdrop of Yoro Mountain, ‘The Garden’ is a micro-world of play and discovery. It’s all a bit Alice in Wonderland with random household items (kitchen ovens, sofas, baths…) mixed up with mazes, glass floors, pathways that confused my balance, and a wonderfully disorientating use of scale. In all this chaos the natural garden elements still remain quite Japanese. The pretty brochure describes it as an ‘experience park’ conceived on the theme of experiencing the unexpected. I love it because it’s the opposite of the order we traditionally expect of the Japanese. Check out more about the garden and its creators Arakawa and Gins here. I was kept company on my reversible walk-around by an interesting character with a white helmet who clearly took his job as security quite seriously and insisted on joking with me in Japanese. Really he was keeping an eye out to make sure I left by 5:00 on the dot. Ah, the order returns.

Otherwise, work is going well; I’ve had two observations which I’ve come through just fine. Golden Week (the biggest Japanese week off) is approaching which would be exiting if we had the time off like the rest of Japan (or paid in lieu). NOVA staff don’t get any public holidays which I’m feeling a little mis-informed about.

But in a happy final paragraph can I say happy Easter to you all too. The bunny didn’t make it to me this year (mum, dad, you did forward him my change of address?) but thanks Susan for sending that chocolate bunny pic that comes out every year.

Japans castles don’t give the impression of stubborn resistance that the Welsh castles gave me. Japanese castles are too… preetty, I guess. They are striking buildings of beauty that give few clues of the battles and butchery they must’ve seen. To me the oddest feature is that the Donjon (inner keep) is made of wood, which is surely asking to get razed to the ground – and exactly what happened to many of them.

I visited Hikone with Michelle, an Aussie who arrived in the ‘land of the red dot’ when I did. The cherry blossoms weren’t popping then but the town and its castle were definitely worth going out of your way for. The donjon of Hikone-jo stands in beautiful elevated grounds behind the outer walls and castle moat on the highest point in the town. I had some trouble appreciating how the defences would’ve worked here – the sloping stones walls, curved roof and manicured gardens were probably working against the fierce and booby-trapped defences I though they should have. But looking at the castle on google maps (scroll down to hikone) I can see they’d thought out the location rather more strategically. Maybe a little disappointing is the absence of decoration or carvings inside the donjon that I had expected from the graceful exterior. The view out to Lake Biwako (japans largest) with falcons circling above still made the climb up the steep steps inside worth it. (remember shoes off

So now that cherry blossom season is bursting out I took a short train out to Inuyama site of Inuyama-jo, japans oldest standing castle (1537) still in original condition. But first I was blown away by the fluffy pink strip of cherry blossoms that lined the river path and pink lanterns hanging in the trees. I bought a few skewers of unknown food from a street stall (it wasn’t meat. Surprisingly.) and looked over my Hiragana that I’m making an honest attempt to learn. The castle is up a path past a temple where I tossed all the 1Y coins I’d accumulated and repeatedly failed to offload (think kiddie play money as just as worthless). Inuyama-jo shared many of the features of Hikone-jo and even Gifu-jo though it did feature some pretty outrageous armour of the times. And how small were the characters that got into that gear?

I swung into a museum in Inuyama old town that housed some of the rolling floats that get polished up for local festivals. These are amazing multi-multi tiered rolling wagons laden with lanterns and hauled by men – I’ve got to get to a festival like this- unfortunately I’ve already missed Inuyama’s.

It’s all on! Three days of teacher training and then we were tossed to the sharks. It was fun. Really. NOVA seems to have pretty established resources and lesson plans so it was really just getting familiar with those. Sure, the first couple of lessons were a bit daunting but hey, its English, what do I have to worry about? I’m an expert!

Ok, so there are a few students who require bags of patience and encouragement but so far I’m even quietly impressed by the level of some of the higher students. We are encouraged to improvise a little with the lessons which will no doubt be important to our sanity over the year teaching the same material. Some of the highs of my classes so far have been discussing ‘the pros and cons of genetically modified food’, ‘proposals for a mega warehouse type store to set up in a scenic town’, and ’skeptism and conviction’ where my student taught me about the Kappa - Japan’s Taniwha. That was hilarious coaxing out of my student exactly what a Kappa was and looked like, and her needing to express her absolute conviction in it. It was also interesting to get my student’s perspective on what kind of apples they would buy - the bigger the better, even if they’re white! Genetic Modification was hardly a concern for those students. For the record, apples at the local store costs Y100 (about $1.40nz) and are nothing on the good old Royal Gala. These are the good classes. The worst are the ones that can speak but are too shy to be heard above a whisper. 40 minutes can feel like a long time.
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We were still bleary eyed when we stepped onto the JR train to take us out of Gifu. There was no way Jamie, my flatmate, and I were taking the ‘Shink’, or bullet train – that day will come when I cash my first pay check. And so Selena (Jamie’s mate) bit her tongue while we idled down to Kyoto for the day.

Only 1 ½ hours later we were out of futuristic Kyoto station and walking towards our first temple, Higashi Hongan-ji just north of the station. The exterior was unfortunately under construction but we entered anyway and found what we were looking for – a display of rope used in the 1895 construction of the temple. Quality rope was in short supply in those days so what else would you use but the woven hair of believers! How many families’ heads of hair must have been shaven to produce rope thick enough to dock a ship? It’s a curious object for its physical preservation and symbolic strength. An hour here passed too quickly and soon we returned to the station to catch a bus to Arashyama.

Bad move. The bus crawled when the quite descent subway would’ve had us there in minutes. But when we got there the natural surroundings didn’t disappoint. Crossing the river we approached the bamboo forest through which a path led through towards the temples on the hills. And then ‘Geisha!’ I was off in a shot running after two would be Geisha drawn by a rickshaw running-man. Real Geisha are nearly as rare as fabled goddesses these days and these powdered white faces were merely playing dress up. But to me they were pretty convincing and they might have even been flattered by me running after them. Well they smiled for the camera at least !Crick!

The trove of temples at the foot of these hills makes it difficult to decide where to spend your yen on entrance fees. Time hangs in the very peaceful surrounds of manicured moss gardens, raked pebbles, tended gravestones and the first cherry blossom trees. Only our stomachs warned us that the afternoon was slipping away. After we recharged at a restaurant and passed through the quaintness of some small shops with everything from handmade paper to kids animal lanterns and slap bands (who can remember slap bands! Circa 1989) we headed to the SE outskirts.

This area is also rich in temples, notably Nanzen-ji with its open grounds and sub-temples. With the sun dipping we stepped onto a path leading to nowhere in particular – Tetsugaku-no-Michi, ‘The Philosophers Trail’. Any path with a name like that just calls you to it like it’s your destiny. My destiny is to return here, I’m sure. Cherry blossoms lining the cannel are just biding their time until full bloom.

A bus took us back to the city and into the famous entertainment and Geisha district of Gion. We got off outside some lantern lit lanes and slipped into the shadows where Kanji marked sliding doors to Sake bars, restaurants and who knows what else seemed to hold secrets off limits to Gaijin tourists. We did find our way into a private gallery of calligraphic paintings and bumped into the artist. When I really look at masterful calligraphy I can begin to appreciate the hand that created a stroke of blank ink with such authority and confidence. Out on the main streets we booked into a clique restaurant but had some time to wait before a table would be ready. So what else to do but find a bar to pass an hour?

I’ve forgotten the name of the bar with the circular entrance. One set of doors zipped open for us. And then we passed through the second.. ZZzzzzongDonnng! Our entrance was announced with the music of a game show framed by flashing show lights like from ‘Stars in their Eyes’. Mental. And it was a dart hall. (Electronic, of course). I should’ve got a beer. I pointed to a Margarita.. No ice in the mix. No salted rim. No straws. Maybe I asked too much.

Our restaurant DomaDoma, was an outstanding choice. Coming out of the elevator on the 6th floor in downtown Gion, the atmosphere was a fashionable mix of low lit style and mingling young socialites. The staff could’ve been pretentious but were the complete opposite and we had different dishes rolling onto the table every few minutes. Hot spot.

Our night couldn’t last forever when the danger of missing the last train would’ve been a problem. We grabbed a few travellers for the train ride back (Why did you think I wouldn’t be able to buy Asahi beer from a vending machine?) and settled back. Thanks to Jamie for giving me a nudge when to get off. Falling asleep would’ve been worse than waking up at the end of the line on the last train in London.

Is just a matter of time, or timing, when I come back to Kyoto. One day’s not enough, maybe a week isn’t enough for an ancient city that seems to have it all. Im going to say it again – bring on the cherry blossums!