It`s a wonderful life: Travel

Going back to Australia

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:12:56 GMT

We have tickets booked to go back to Australia on the 27th of this month. That's 11 days from now. We're both very excited. Kaori's family are very sad, though. We all knew this time would come, but it just seemed like a dream that wouldn't stop.

We're going to have a "Sayonara Party" to say goodbye to everybody. Mostly it's for Kaori's family's community, but it's also for us, as we have friendships with many of them. We won't invite any of our friends though. We'll visit them and say our goodbyes. All told there will probably be around 30 people comimg. We'll prepare foods ourself, except for the sashimi which we will buy. We were also thinking to buy oudoburu (which is like a pre-made platter) but have decided to make them ourselves. I'll make potato salad and maybe pasta, Kaori will probably make chiken nanban, and Kaori's mum will probably make tamago yaki and prawn things, as well as some other stuff. We had a family meeting last night to get the bare bones of a plan. Later this week Kaori and I will go to her mothers house for an "oudoburu meeting".

Obi Castle/ Udo Shrine

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 11:01:18 GMT

Yesterday we went to Nichinan and the castle at Obi. It's a re-constructed castle, but it was fantastic anyway. 30 odd years ago they rebuilt everything, trying to keep with the original designs. It was heaven for me. There was the entrance, main building (which now houses a museum) and two hills with the residence on one and on the other an archery range. Well, it was where they used to practice archery by releasing dogs and trying to shoot them. This was the castle the Shimazu clan from Satsuma captured in the 16th century. It was given to the Ito by Hideyoshi for helping in his Kyushu campaign. I love Japanese history.

We also went to Udo Shrine, which is a little closer to Miyazaki. It's built inside a cave, and is dedicated to many gods including Emperor Jimmu's mother.

Fukuoka

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 10:54:16 GMT

On Monday we went to Fukuoka to apply for Wataru's Australian passport. We decided to get the train, as driving would be too tiring and take longer. Wataru was very good, he loves travelling. Everywhere we go he is an idol. Random people stop to talk to him and say how cute he is. Of course we already know that, but it's nice to be told!

The guy who did the interview said there should be no problems, so we should get his passport in about 2 more weeks.