Also the fact that I haven't had a chance to have more frequent blog posts - this is a good way to unload a bunch of photos all at once.
Masako's dad has a small paddock nearby where he grows Parsimmons and a bunch of other vegetables. Fruit here is actually all really delicious I've found.
Masako's dad showing me how to snip Parsimmons from his tree.
Job well done!
Gambling in Japan is quite big ive noticed. Lots of huge 'Pachinko' casino's on big streets with hundreds of slot machines and various gambling endeavours. Always full of neon lights, flashing noises and people. Boat racing is a form of gambling here too. Instead of horses, you have people driving these tiny boats around a water arena. We went for a bit of a drive with Masako's sister & her husband to check out some X-mas lights and pop a few yen on these boats. Need I say? My boat came last and I didn't make another bet after that :) Smart gambling for the win!
We went for a walk around a park/river in Toyohashi. This is one of the parts of the castle that was here.
Same park as the Castle.
Grandpa is on the counsel of a school and organized Masako a project to develop some sort of pamphlet so we went for a bit of a drive around the school. Here we are in front of the old school building which was decommissioned due to being unsafe for earthquake.
Masako's Grandma (middle) is renkown as a traditional kimono/obi dresseir. She runs classes at her home and here some of them are practicing.
The thing on their back is called an Obi and it can be tied in many many different ways. Fancy, simple. Often how it's tied is a tricky art and also has subtle implications in social terms such as age, respect etc.
A few of Mako's uni friends came over for lunch
Various different foods. Not going to explain other than most of them are yum, and a good portion of them i've never heard of before :P
Caught up with Mako's friends on a beach for some lunch. Nice beach, volcanic sand. Was a bit windy though. Australias beaches are hard to beat. This one actually had large concrete wave breakers all along the coast line intended for big waves or tsunamis. Interesting to see how prevalent this kind of thing is.
