Enoshima and weird ice cream

Recently we went to Enoshima. It is about an hour away by car from our house. Enoshima is a small island connected by a bridge that you can walk across. After we walked across the bridge we went up a hill and there was a big shrine. We went up lots of steps to the top of the island where there was a garden which a British person made. Normally Japanese gardens have wood in them but this one had bricks. Also At the top of the island is a light house called Enoshima Tower, which we went up.  It isn't so high, but because it was very windy the building was moving and you couldn't use the stairs.  Because Enoshima is a hill and the tower is at the top you could see quite far away. On a clear day you can see Mount Fuji, but we couldn't, but be could see Landmark tower in Yokohama.

There is also a cave on the island. We held some candles so we could see in front of us. Inside the cave there was a dragon and drum, you wish for something and hit the drum twice, if a light flashed twice then your wish would come true. If the light flashed once then half your wish would come true, but if the light doesn't flash or you beat the drum more than twice then your dream wouldn't come true.

When we got out of the cave we had weird flavour ice cream. I chose Black vanilla with bamboo charcoal in. You can see in the picture other weird flavours like wasabi, or whitebait!  

Here’s a list of the flavours they had.

•  Black Vanilla
• White coffee
• Banana Chocolate milk]
• Corn Pottage (corn soup)
• Jelly Fish Ice
• Japanese Sake Ice
• Tofu Milk
• Soya Bean Milk and Black Soya Bean Flour
• Wasabi Ice cream
• Mont Blanc (Chestnut)
• Whitebait (tiny fish)

We went back to the beach and there were lots of Sea Hawks looking for food to snatch off people.

Skiing

Japan in a very mountainous country and in the winter the mountains get lots of snow.  The snow stays around fro a long time. This meant we could go Skiing in the spring holidays at the beginning of April. We went to Yuzawa in the Nigata prefecture.A prefecture is like an English county.
We had to get up at 5:00am to catch a train to Tokyo.

Tokyo Station

In Tokyo we got a bullet train called MAX. MAX has 2 floors and is designed for going to snowy places.

Bullet Train MAX

Yuzawa had about 5m of snow when we went there. The weather was sunny. It is surrounded by mountains. To get up the mountains we had to use a gondola type of cable car. Going up on the ski lift we could see a small avalanche had happened.

In Yuzawa we went to a ski school as it was our first time skiing. The ski boots were heavy and stiff. It was OK to go up stairs in them but very hard to go down.

Ski School

We also had to wear weird Sponge Bob vests which we didn't particularly like to do the ski lessons, but despite the fact that we had to wear the vests we got good and so the parts which my dad went slow, we went fast.  The ski teachers weren't that strict, they even let us throw snowballs at them.
We also tried snowboarding but we mostly fell over. There were lots of other people who had fallen over and they were sitting down more than snowboarding. Almost every snowboarder had a wet bottom from sitting in the snow.  From the chair lift we saw a snowboarder in a stretcher.
After 2 ski lessons we could go down a long ski route over 1km. Here is a video of some of the things we learnt.

We could do parallel turns and go into the tuck position for steep hills. Skiing was excellent fun! We saw good views, and has nice weather.

It was also good as we found a restaurant which did cheese fondue which is unusual to have in Japan and one of my favourite foods.

Playing in Japan

I think kids in Japan have less toys than kids in England. But they probably make more things and go outside to play more than kids in England.
I have recently made a kite and bow and arrow.  As I am living in the countryside then there is lots of bamboo around.  Bamboo is strong, light and when you cut it , it can also be flexible too, this is what makes it really good for making things.  To make the kite we used a book from the library which had a pattern and instructions on how to make a kite.
We cut some bamboo and then split it into thin strips to make it very light. We then made the bamboo strips into a frame and then stuck on a plastic sheet cut from a bin bag.

We also made bows and arrows. To make a bow use a strip of bamboo about 2cm wide and a 60-90cm long.  Make a hole at each end to thread the string through.  Bend the bow so the string is 3-5 cm from the middle of the bow and tie the string tightly.
 The arrows are made from a straight strip of bamboo or a stick.
There are a couple of ways to fire the arrows, for example  make a notch at the side of the arrow or fire from the end of the arrow. The arrow goes about 15m (it will probably go further if you are an expert). Although the arrows don't have a point, never fire it when someone is in front of you or beside you.

Snow Home and Away

Winter Olympic Snow display

65th Hokkaido Snow Festival

Last week we went to Sapporo in Hokkaido. Hokkaido is the Northern island of Japan. This makes it cold so there is a lot of snow.

Ice Sculpture with frozen fish inside!

Ice Eagle carving

 As there is so much snow there is a snow festival . At the Snow Festival there were huge snow statues, life size snow buildings and ice carvings.

Lit up ice building

Snow slide

We also went to to a snow park where there were ice and snow slides, a raft being pulled by a snow mobile and we made bamboo skis.  In the town at night the snow statues were lit up and there were lots of stalls selling food. The best thing I had to eat was some crab. Also in town there was a big snow slope made by scaffolding so that professionals could perform skiing and snowboarding stunts

.

Our igloo

Snow at Home

This week there has been a lot of snow around home.  It snowed all day on Friday  and we came back from school before lunch. When we got home we went on our sledge down the hills round the garden, when we fell off the sledge we rolled over in the soft snow.  The next day the snow was about 80 cm deep. There were very few cars on the road, and mostly they used chains on the tyres for grip.  We made a long slide and also an igloo.

We had Monday and Tuesday off school too because of so much snow.  This much snow is very unusual here, the area has had the most snow for 100 years.

Christmas and New Year

It may be a little late but here is our description of what Christmas and New Year are like in Japan...

Christmas in Japan

In Japan Christmas is not a very big celebration. Shops and some other places have Christmas lights, but shops are open and people still work on Christmas Day because it is a normal day.
At lake near by they have a big Christmas tree and lots of Christmas lights and a Christmas market which we visited.

Children in Japan instead of having a stocking may get a big present from Santa. There isn't special food like Mince Pies and Christmas pudding, but they do have Christmas cake, but Christmas cake in Japan is a soft sponge cake and has lots of cream.

Japanese New Year

On New Years Eve we went to a Buddhist temple. We went to the temple just before midnight. At the shrine we rang a huge bell and had a drink made from fermented rice, and is a bit like thin porridge.
The day after new year we got money as a present from family and relatives. Children in Japan get money at New Year as they don't get much for presents at Christmas.

We also had a big family meal with lots of different food.

Just after New Year we went to a Shinto shrine. We put some money in a box and got a good luck charm to keep us safe. Lots of people in Japan do this and the temple was very busy.

High speed Linear motor train

In Japan they are developing the Linear motorcar. The Linear motorcar is a high speed "Linimo", a Linimo is a magnetic train that doesn't have wheels but hovers, it is also called maglev.
We went to see the test track at Otsuki, it is currently 42km long. They will try to extend it to Tokyo before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, One day it will go all the way to Osaka, which is hundreds of kilometers.
First we saw it outside, it was gone in a second and was very loud. it was so fast we couldn't even see it properly. Then we went to the exhibition center so we could see different models of it more clearly.
When we saw the Linear motorcar, it went 300km/h but it can really go up to 500km/h.

Ekiden

Recently we went to the Tokyo-Hakone Ekiden. An ekiden is like a relay marathon and instead of a baton the runners use a sash. They only allow people who are at university to do it. It is an annual event on the 2nd and 3rd of January. The race is over 100 km each day. It is a popular event to watch in Japan.  The crowds cheered when the runners came running. There were 23 teams taking part. This year was the 90th time they did it. We got up at 6:30am and got there at 8:30am. We used 2 trains to get there. The weather was sunny but cold.