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Hisashiburi, basically means "long time, no see" but in this case long time, no write. I have been kind of busy so I am sorry but now I will get you up to date. After I last wrote to you I went home with Noriko again hoping to go to her Tea Ceremony Club meeting but it was cancelled. So she took me home to have some photos. She took a really good photo of me and a Japanese warrior helmet. There is also a good luck banner in the background. It has a heron on it which is a sign of good luck in Japanese culture. |
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Mr and Mrs Luke went to Kobe on a conference so I stayed with Noriko while they were there. First they went on a bus ride for about four hours from Kochi to Kobe. The bus was really nice with a toilet inside. Before you get to the station in Kobe you have to go through a tunnel which kind of goes underneath the city. The tunnel is 7km long. Can you believe it. It also has other tunnels going off it in other directions. When you come out of the tunnel you are in Kobe. |
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At the big station you can catch the train,bus, taxi or densha. (The densha is like a tram). They caught the densha which moves around the city in a big loop. It is high up above the city so you can see everything in Kobe. Kobe is a huge city that had a big earthquake, probably before you were born. However the city is rebuilt again and looks new. They are still rebuilding a lot of roads because of the amount of people who live there. Most people travel by public transport although they say that they also have cars. |
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There is also a man made island in Kobe called Rokko Island. It is about 5 square kilometres and it has schools, factories and everything on it. It is the place where the rugby stars from NZ go to live when they play in Japan. It also has a shop on it called the Foreign Buyers Club. You can buy foods from other countries there that you would not normally get in Japan. You can even buy Vegemite!! |
Rokko Island |
Kobe has many foreign restaurants as
well. Mr and Mrs Luke went out on the Monday night and it
was like a Friday night in downtown Auckland City. People
were out and about really late. The Japanese celebrate different
things any night of the week so there is usually no special
night, like a Friday or Saturday, to have a dinner party. Mr
and Mrs Luke went to a Mexican restaurant, Irish and
Italian. There are many foreign people living
in Kobe. There is a lot of work for them in such a big city
and it is only 50 minutes away from Osaka which is also a
major airport. When they came back they were very
tired and had to go straight back to work. Mrs Luke picked
me up from Noriko on Friday.
On Monday I went with the Luke's to
the Irish Bar in Kochi City. Mr Luke is playing music there
for Japanese people. He plays a lot of NZ songs with his
friend who is also a New Zealander from Tauranga. I have a
photo with a Japanese man and everything. I really enjoyed
listening to the NZ music as I am kind of getting
homesick.
When you go to another country for a long time you go through some feelings of what they call "culture shock". At first you are all excited because you are doing new things and meeting lots of people but then you start to feel annoyed because you can't get the things you want or the food you want or everything is too small. So at the moment I am in a little culture shock but Mrs Luke said that I will soon recover from it.
You drive your car on to the orange coloured circles, |
Also on Monday I met a group of Japanese children that Mrs Luke is going to teach in her spare time. They are the same age as you guys from Room 5. They were really excited although they didn't know where NZ was. Maybe you can send some letters explaining to them all the things that 10 year olds can do in NZ. It would also be great if you could send a photo of yourself and maybe you can have a pen pal. She is going to see them again next Monday. |
Mrs Luke took me for a walk and showed me some things. We took a photo of a car park. It is not like your normal car park it is a tall tower. The cars are parked in the bottom on to a tray. Then the cars are moved around like a ferris wheel within the tower. So you can fit a lot of cars in the tower. On the tower is a picture of a famous man from Kochi named Sakamoto, Ryoma. I can't remember why he is famous but I will find out for you.
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She also took a photo of me by a cigarette vending machine. You are not allowed to buy cigarettes in Japan until you are over 20 but they have these vending machines everywhere and no one to police them. Anybody can buy cigarettes from them and nobody would know. Also you are not allowed to drink in Japan until 20 years of age but they have beer vending machines aswell. Pretty freaky if you ask me. |
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Yesterday Mrs Luke took me to the
squatter toilet and took a photo. You would not like these toilets
especially if you are female. You don't sit on them you
squat over them like you are going to toilet in the bush
while you are camping. Yuckeeeeee!!!! So, that is what I have been doing.
I will finish my trip here when I have all the
photos. Take care Room 5 and Miss Pompallier
and I will write to you again soon, Eddie.
Mr I forgot to tell you about the
typhoon that happened here on Friday and
Saturday. A typhoon is really wet and really
windy. On Friday at school it began to get windy. First only
light winds and then by the end of the day it was really
windy, enough to blow you off your bike. After the wind
comes the rain. There was a lot of rain - 500mm of it
apparently in some areas.
The worst part only lasted around two hours and then it dies away the same way it came. Our city was okay but parts of the prefecture were flooded and cars were floating away. All the open sewers overflowed - disgusting!!!
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There were big waves and the surfers in Kochi went out on the Sunday and caught some huge waves. Wicked man. There is supposed to be another one coming but I am unsure if it will hit Kochi.
So, this typhoon was not so bad. Maybe next time. |
