wot u been doing?

So you might have noticed that yamaonna has changed a little recently. Since I’m leaving this job soon I’ve started some preparation for my next adventure – the 88 Temple Pilgrimage in Shikoku! Whist I’m taking my ‘walkabout’ I plan on blogging at iHenro (link above in the menu bar), but until then yamaonna will still be my primary blog. To be honest, after I leave Japan I’m not sure if yamaonna will be continuing, and that’s why I’ve moved my Hikes page to my main page. Anyway, we’ll see how it all works out.

Also talking about preparations for leaving, I spent most of my free time in January working through my ‘Tokyo to-do list’. Part of my list included quite a number of museums, galleries and zoos in Tokyo, so I decided to take advantage of the Grutt Pass, a pass that gives you access to over 70 facilities in Tokyo for 2000 yen. In a month I was able to go to 21 different places, basically for free 😀

Not surprisingly the things I enjoyed the most have been the science museums. I had been to the National Museum of Nature and Science and the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation previously, but with the pass I revisited the first and also went to the Science Museum and Risupia. I can say all of them are top quality science museums and very engaging for kids, but unfortunately there wasn’t much English, except for Risupia. Risupia is quite unique in that it makes maths fun! It was the biggest surprise out of everything I went to. I did not expect it to be so well done, but as it’s also a showcase for Panasonic I shouldn’t have been so surprised that everything was shiny.

My other surprise was in the Tokyo Zoos. I had always heard bad reviews of Ueno Zoo, saying it only had small concrete cages and seemed quite cruel to the animals, but it’s obvious that the zoo is undergoing renovations and what has been done looks really good. And they have quite a variety of animals. Tama Zoo was also very good, with some very interesting exhibits like a huge butterfly dome, a bus ride through the lion enclosure and koalas (^-^)v Lastly was Inokashira Zoo in Kichijoji park, which is great for kids with a petting area filled with guinea pigs and a squirrel enclosure that puts you right up close with the scary little things.

ready to attack!

Other than museums and zoos, I also went to a few galleries. The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo is one that I always enjoy, although this time I was a little surprised at one display in the permanent exhibit (sorry, but a Penis Kaleidoscope is not my idea of art. really, I kid you not.). And the Domani exhibit at the National Art Centre was very enjoyable. I particularly like Kanae Toyama’s work, but unfortunately photos don’t do her work justice. The Crafts Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art was displaying a very impressive selection of it’s doll collection, and it was amazing to see what can be done with just paper in some cases.

Kiyosumi Gardens

There are a couple of places I wanted to mention lastly. Overall my best day out was at Kiyosumi, where the above mentioned Museum of Contemporary Art is located, as well as a charming little history museum – the Fukugawa Edo Museum, which shows a mock-up of life in Kiyosumi approximately 170 years ago, and the Kiyosumi Gardens, which is small, but very pretty and well priced at only 150 yen. And finally, although not part of the Grutt Pass, but free and quite interesting was the Konica Minolta Plaza in Shinjuku. At the time they had an exhibition by George Steinmetz, who is an amazing photographer for National Geographic, and takes beautiful and amazing photos. Definitely worth looking at!

So, it’s been a busy January. And there still are a few more places I want to visit. Luckily I still have over a month left in Tokyo, although I know it will fly!

Kotoshi mo yoroshiku~

I hope for your favour again in the coming year m(_ _)m

Happy New Year peeps! After more than a month of no updates, I just wanted to let you know that yamaonna will be back with regular posts shortly! Try not to pass out hyperventilating from excitement 😛

^photo taken from my parents place in Brisbane, aren’t the colours beautiful!

Lucy, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do!

So…  its been a while….  okay, yes, I’m not the most regular blogger, and I wanted to explain why. 

I blog at work.  I know, I know, not really a good thing to do.  And I’m not saying that my work is boring *cough*, but the fact is I teach 21 hours a week, but I’m required to be at work over 40 hours a week.  And in terms of preparation, it does not take me an hour to plan for every lesson I teach, because I will teach the same lesson 2, 3 or 5 times.  Which gives me a lot of free time to look busy.  And so I blog.

But I haven’t blogged in a while because my school is a private school and we have lots of vacations.  And I mean lots.  In one year I have approximately 4 months vacations, plus extra days I’m not required to go to work.  So I’m a bit irregular.

Today is my first full day back at teaching.  We have been on spring vacation for just over three weeks.  It’s difficult to get back into the swing of things, but I like being back to a regular schedule.  I do love vacations, but I tend to sleep in far too late when I don’t have any requirements imposed on my time.

So, this year mum and Aunty Lyn came to visit for a couple of weeks.  We did a lot!  We went to Nagano for a few days to see the Snow Monkeys, and toured about many places in Tokyo, including Ginza,Asakusa, Shibuya, Harajuku, Akihabara, Ueno and Rikugien Park.  Unfortunately it was a little too early for cherry blossoms to fully bloom, but there were the occasional few.

It was really nice to have visitors, and to see my mummy!  Plus it was also nice to do some tourist things that I haven’t done in quite some time. Once I’ve sorted through my photos I’ll be putting a few on Flickr.  Speaking of, mum bought my new camera over with her, so now I have D90 love!

About a week ago cherry blossoms came into full bloom.  I went with a friend and her friends to a Sakura Festival in Chiba.  It was really crowded, but I love the vibe of Japanese festivals, so it was lots of fun.  I also tried my hand at a japanese fishing game, and despite losing, I am now the proud owner of a goldfish.  Haven’t decided weather to call it Fish/Sakura/Dinner or Mullet.  I think I’ll run a poll through twitter.

I also went on a stroll along a river a few stations over.  There are over 400 cherry blossoms along the river, and it was beautiful.  It was a little windy, so the cherry blossoms were falling off the trees, but to be honest, thats my favourite time, as it reminds me of snow, but is far less chilly   Here’s a couple of pictures –

a couple more can be seen on my flickr.