Japanese loo experience

So I had my first blessful experience on a Japanese toilet at the airport on arrival, super clean (my expectations were low after India..), warmed seat, yes warmed seat to place your cold botty!

Warm seat great but that wasn't the best bit. I then noticed the remote control panel on the side. Brilliant! Inquisitively I pressed one and a toilet flush sound effect echoed the cubicle, I guess it could hide any embarassing noises..hehe.

Two more buttons indicated whether I fancied a front bottom wash and back bottom wash. Ooh choices choices! followed by lovely soft loo roll. Impressed was an understatement. I've never enjoyed being sat on the loo so much! Why the hell can't we have loos like that in the UK?

Well that's until I discovered that not EVERY loo experience is as blissful and high tech as I thought. My first day at the Edikyo centre (education centre where I spend every Monday preparing lessons) burst my bubble. I walked in with Etsuko. Lucky really as Im not sure I would have changed into the plstic toilet shoes otherwise. Yes, you have to swap your shoes (in this case my indoor shoes so already swapped once) with these teeny weeny narrow toilet shoes provided that make you feel like an utter chubby chubster.

The loo, as you can see, is set into the ground. Instead of sitting you squat. I guess it's more hygenic (no seat touching) but oh so unglam! You face the plumbing as you do the biz. The thing which I found, and still find awful is the unavoidable splashes of wee wee on your trousers/socks! Ok so not totally hygenic...

When the biz is done just remember NOT to walk out with your toilet shoes on. I nearly did and would have never lived it down with the kids at school.

Supermarket shopping: Washing Powder Experience

Well my first experience to my local supermarket has been tragic, my head left spinning with too many items to try and work out. So one of the first things I needed today was washing powder. Quite simple I thought. Dirty clothes, I'll just pick up some washing liquid. Oh boy. I had not a clue what was fabric conditioner and what was clothes washing powder. The last thing I wanted to buy was fabric softner. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, I plumped for something that said "Fresh Camomile" in Englsih on the front (although it still didn't confirm what it was) and luckily was right.

Kanazawa Kenrokuen

I had a few days to spare before my dreaded Board of Education meeting so decided I'd make the most of the gorgeous weather and be a proper tourist in my new city. So I walked into town (which takes about 20/25 mins depending on whether I sprint walk or just walk) and went to the famous Kenroku-en ("garden"). Briefly, the garden is an old private garden developed by the Maeda clan and is one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan so I felt rather privileged that I was there for cherry blossom season. No entry fee either so extra bonus there!



Oh and when I say garden, I'm talking 25 acres of garden so don't think small here (for a change) I won't post all the photos up but it really was beautiful (packed with Japanese but still beautiful). This is the famous "flower viewing bridge".

I got hungry (typical) as soon as I got inside the park grounds, actually I got grouchy hungry which is not pleasant as friends/family are aware! So as well as admiring the beautiful fountains, statues and pagodas I scoped out lunch. Now as a girl on her own in Japan I'm paranoid about committing major social faux pas and wasn't sure whether eating alone in a posh kenrokuen restaurant was the done thing. So as much as the restaurants looked sooo idyllic I carried on walking about trying to find something that wouldn't committ a social crime.

Ooooh until I saw another Japanese lady eating on her own so I took my shoes off, plumped myself at the next door table and looked at the menu which was all in hirigana with minimal food pictures, JOY! I picked something that looked like a ramen bowl which was edible but I've decided ramen isn't my fave japanese dish.

Having satisfyingly stuffed my face I took another walk around the park, took some more pics and again wished I had my SLR! Ladies below enjoying the view of the cherry blossoms from the park. Note: Moutains in background (some snowcapped but need zoom to shoot them!)

Leo Palace pad (exterior): Home for a year

OK so I had done my research before I left the UK and kind of knew I'd be spending the next year in an apartment I couldn't swing a cat in. It's how it is in Japan. So I had looked at a few studios in Kanazawa and plumped for one south of the city in a suburb called Nishi Izumi. It looked fairly easy to get to Katamatchi (main part of town) from there and also meant I could walk to Nishi Kanazawa station for my daily commute to Oyabe.

The first thing I noticed was that I was sourrounded by small fields, kind of like allotments. I'll get to those in another blog post as they turned out to be mini paddy fields, wicked! The apartment block was as I expected, a concrete block with minimal character. It didn't really faze me, I'm not in Japan to live in luxury residence! I did however immediately notice the beautiful, virbant pink cherry blossoms in a small park nearby.


Picture here shows the Leo Palace apartment block which looks so much prettier with the cherry blossoms in the forefront of the pic!

Despite looking like a prison block the inside was new, clean and very IKEA-esque. Small but not unbearably so. I was happy! (and to be no longer living out of a suitcase)

Video of outside of LeoPalace

For anyone who is looking at a Leo Palace then I've posted a video here.

Super cool Kanazawa station!

This is for people who have never been to Kanazawa but are wondering if its worth visiting. In short, yes yes yes! I feel so lucky that I'm living here. I'm sure there are some other fantastic cities in Japan but theres something really special about Kanazawa. It mixes all that is modern, massive department stores crammed with eye boggling trendy clothes stops, yes starbucks and tons of karaoke bars with the traditional (and in tact) geisha districts, temples and an old samurai area that I’ve yet to visit.

It's also cool. If arriving by train you walk through the really impressive station (金沢駅) glass interior. Damn, if only I had my SLR!!

Make sure you walk a bit further out of the station to see the huge tsuzumi gate (Tsuzimi means japanese dram so I'm guessing the design was based on the drum chords) then my favourite super cool water fountain clock. I felt like a big kid when I saw it. It's basically a water digital clock that displays the time using controlled fountains of water. The picture below just doesn't do it justice!

Check it out!