Sunday, February 13, 2005

Kinosaki

This friday is Foundation Day, another glorious public holiday!

So after my classes on Thursday I went home early and we made a 3 hour train ride to Kinosaki. Kinosaki is a little town very north of Hyogo. It's famous for it's onsens - hot springs (they have 7) and crabs!

My mate Jon lives up there and is the only foreigner there besides any other tourists. So basically everyone in town knows him and vice versa. He so kindly organised for us to stay in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese style inn, complete with crab dinner and traditional breakfast.

The place we stayed at was so nice! I'm really glad Brendon got to experience it. Tatami room, paper sliding doors, futons, yukatas - the whole shibang! Jon joined us for the crab dinner and it was a feast!!! Pretty much crab everything. I've never eated so much crab before that I felt so sick. After getting cleaned up in the ryokan's own onsen we met up with Jon at his local Shot Bar, run by the very talented and nice Yamaguchi-san. Cocktails and snacks were tasty and the karaoke box even got a hammering. Yes *sigh* Brendon and I even poorly attempted 'Land down under'.

Next day we had an amazing breakfast served in our room and it was snowing. This was the first time Brendon got to see proper snow! We headed to Jon's place and I stayed there to rest up while Jon took Brendon for a quick tour of the town. I had a fever and was feeling tired and down with the flu. We headed for lunch and went up the Kinosaki ropeway to the local temple. The view was gorgeous and we made our very first snowmen!

We went out for chinese for dinner then headed back to Jon's place. There we met up with some other JET's who live in neighbouring towns, Chris, Jason, Luke and Andy. We headed to the Shot Bar again for some more drinks and karaoke. I headed back earlier because I was still feverish while the boys continued on.

Next morning we all headed to Sento no yu onsen and relaxed. After a last tour of Kinosaki and omiyage buying, Brendon and I headed home because I felt too crap. Damn flu!

Thank you shout out to Jon! Thanks matey - you were the best tour guide, thanks for your hospitality, organising our ryokan and letting us crash! Domo arigatou gozaimasu!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home