My previous blog post showcased the amazing One Piece exhibition. But that was not all that we did this Christmas weekend to make it awesome.

Here is the amazing Christmas cake we had. Super cute!

Our Christmas lunch was just amazing.

Lobster!!! They showed us a live video with the chef who had fresh lobsters that he was using to prepare the dishes. Yummy!

The weather was beautiful, rounding off a beautiful day.

Here’s the chef preparing the roast beef.

And here’s the roast beef – with christmas decorations. It was really nice!!

Cake Buffet!!!

Yummy cakes. Did I mention a buffet. Enough said.

The Christmas dinner we had was also super yummy!

We spent a lot of time with our grandmother as she is in hospital after a stroke. But she is getting better, so that is good.

This is me wearing my Chopper hat. Chopper is a One Piece Reindeer character.

I hope you all had a great Christmas.

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The pictures really do most of the talking about how much fun it was.

The super-cute “Den-Den Mushi”!!

As you can see, the exhibition is based on the last major arc of One Piece – Impel Down and the Battle of the Great at Marineford.

Lots of characters were there to take photos with. I’ve included some of the more…interesting ones…in this blog post.

The exhibition is aimed at a younger audience, but that didn’t stop me…or others from enjoying ourselves.

One Piece is the top selling manga in Japan, breaking records with each new issue. The anime itself has been running for more than 10 years.

It was an amazing Christmas present, and a total surprise!

The exhibition runs in Hiroshima City in the Sogo building until January 9, 2012 (and I presume it is a touring exhibition).

I had heaps of fun!  And I highly recommend checking out the One Piece manga and/or anime.

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In Japan, while Christmas is relatively not a big event, nor is it a public holiday, it is definitely in evidence. Shops are playing Christmas carols, decorations are everywhere and Christmas themed food is appearing on menus. We also lit the first fire of the season last night at our place, and there’s a lot of wood to chop today to make sure we have enough for the winter>.<

With the advent of winter (and maybe even a white xmas), we went to an “autumn leaf” viewing at the World Heritage site of Miyajima island. It is an amazing beautiful place and is the location of one of the “classic” Japanese views – the red torii gate standing on water. I highly recommend that anyone travelling through Hiroshima add it to their itinerary.

We all went on this trip, and as you can see in the picture, the autumn leaves are a little late this year, but are still beautiful.

Miyajima is one area in Japan famous for deer (Nara being the other main one). They are very tame and very cute!

The hotel we stayed at is over 150 years old. And certain areas have been preserved, such as the entranceway, which still has the original stones laid out.

Oyster season has started, and we’ve been enjoying fresh, big oysters (see my blog for more photos). They are quite different from the oysters I’ve had in Australia.

What was quite special about this visit to Miyajima was that we stayed the night on the island.

Staying overnight meant we were able to see the Torii gate lit up.

We had heaps of fun!

The onsen (hotspring) is a key part of any hotel experience in Japan for me. I ninja’d these shots inside the hotspring at the hotel we stayed at. Please excuse the poor photo quality. The onsen itself is an example of a nice average onsen in Japan, with both an indoor and outdoor component, and an area to wash yourself. And yes, you don’t wear anything when you’re inside, except for a small towel for your modesty.

The following week we had some friends over. This is Ruairi, my colleague and fellow English teacher. He’s from Ireland, and his girlfriend who just arrived in Japan is from France. We had a lovely fresh lunch. All the vegetables are locally grown. The persimmons (kaki) in the persimmon salad are from our backyard, and the oysters are so fresh, they come from Oyster farms not 500m away. I made the fried oysters

Given that most of the English teachers here are American/Canadian, Thanksgiving is an important event. And so I had my first Thanksgiving dinner party!

We had a room inside a restaurant/bar, and everyone brought a plate. Kapu made a beautiful crab noodle salad. Here it is in all it’s beautiful glory and decoration.

But unfortunately, it was served out on plates, so everyone couldn’t enjoy the beauty and effort kapu put into the salad. But it was still super tasty!

We had a great time. One of the guys made mulled wine. It was my first time having mulled wine and it was very tasty! (although it was sacrilegious to the wine for our French friend).

It was also served in big plastic cups, which was a bit strange (but didn’t detract from the yumminess). Here is the party in full swing.

There were some Japanese Teachers of English as well who came along. And it was a great night had by all. My first Thanksgiving. When we left, the key question was whether we could eat any more, and the only correct answer was “not another mouthful”. Which was very true, as we had a range of food from salads to chicken to potatoes to pies.

Shinshin is also ready for winter with her new winter collection.

With Christmas drawing closer, I’m busy preparing my Aussie Christmas-themed lessons and looking forward to the new years break. Wishing you all the best, and a quick reminder that if you want a postcard from me to send me your address. Winter is coming.

I kinda wish we had these lunches back down under.

Nice variety each time.

Plus, since everyone eats the same, there’s no competition.

You read some horror stories on the JET forums, but really, I’ve never had a problem with kyuushoku.

Yum!!

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Fresh baked oysters in their shell, straight from the sea not 500m away.
Fried Oysters - also fresh, which I cooked. =)
Kaki (Persimmon) salad - straight from our garden
Fresh tomatoes from a local garden.
Tofu and Vegetable stew – using locally grown vegetables.

Yum!!

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And this is the three of us. Shinshin specially dressed up for the occasion.

This is a yearly tradition, where we take themed family photo shoots. I want the next one to be in Kimonos

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It was quite a surprise as, as far as I’m aware, we don’t have any such similar event in Western religions/culture (though admittedly don’t know much about such things).

This was my first time chanting, and I thought I did pretty well, considering I had to read it all in Japanese.

The two people on the right brought the average age of this group down.

The morning was rounded off by an amazing bento box for lunch. Words do not describe. It was enough for lunch and dinner.

Did I mention the yummy bento?

Quite the experience.

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