Gujo Hachiman

Last weekend Megan, Josh and I took a 1.5 hour bus trip to a town called Shirotori (it means white bird), for a wine party. It was held at Josh's friend, Chris' house. It was a fun night of chilling out and drinking. I met this couple of Japanese blokes. They could not speak a word of English, and I could barely understand their Japanese. Actually, I lie. They could speak a bit of English. They said "Which one? Boyfriend? Which one?". They eventually passed out from too much partying so I was pretty relieved....

These are the only photos I can salvage from the party. I was having such a good time that I didn't bother to take my camera out. These photos were taken with my mobile phone. Josh is passed out in a happy state on the left. The next dude is Akira (one of my boyfriends). Next is Megan and I posing.... Then the second boyfriend, Hinde.

The morning after the wine party, we chilled out at the local Onsen (hot baths). So I suppose it was so hot that it wasn't exactly a "chill out".... It was my second onsen. There were quite a few people bathing. You all have to get naked, and then go and wash yourself at this little individual shower. You have to sit down on a stool and throw a bucket of water over you and scrub all your dirtiness off. I didn't spend much time in the actual hot baths because they were too hot (42 degrees). The pic below is of a rock garden outside the onsen. For obvious reasons, I can't really take a photo of the onsen!

After the onsen, we trekked into the town of Gujo Hachiman. Apparently there was a festival on, but it was definitely not outside.... Here are some photos of what I did in Gujo Hachiman...

This dude was really cool. We went to an Origami museum, and he happily showed us his creations. He got such a kick out of every creation he made. It was as though he was seeing each creation for the first time, it was really cute! So here are some of the creations:

The dog was my favourite, because if you would move the sheet of paper underneath from side to side, the dog would then walk. The origami guy had magic hands. He made the freaky, scary bugs in no time.

I also visited Gujo Castle. It was a pretty castle, and the view was really nice. There was a group of five of us. There was quite a bit of discussion of whether we would drive up or walk up. Thankfully, we walked up. It was a nice walk too!

This is the group of us that toured around Gujo Hachiman for the day. They are Josh, Chris, Mario, Megan and Meeeeeee!

We also saw some carp fish in the ditch thing next to the footpath. It was cool when they jumped out of the water.

The following picture is of the river at Gujo Hachiman, I just put it in because it was pretty.

And lastly, here is a photo from my balcony. It was a cool sunset. The photo doesn't do it any justice. Also, the other apartment doesn't really do much for it either....

OK, that's enough for me. Over and out!