We love bike!

We've gone from driving everywhere to driving nowhere! Armed with an international drivers license and no car, we still had to get around, so when in Rome do as the Romans do... Buy a bike with a basket! Bikes for shopping, bikes for fitness, bikes to go to school, bikes to go out for dinner, bikes to go to the pub (and get home again...). On our first venture out in the real world we braved the cold and the bike shop... We had cash but no idea what to say or what the assistants were saying, but in the end we walked out/ rode out of the shop with 2 brand new, fully serviced (with a 100, 000km warranty), polished bikes (and a new, free keyring. It says "We love Bike!").

Jodi has founded her own club, the SSC (Spectacular Stack Club!). It currently only has 3 members, and whilst she is keen for more, surprisingly no one else is! Jodi plans on getting keyrings, t-shirts, bumper sticker (for the bike of course) and billboards made up. Forget Pokemon, the SSC will be the next craze in Japan!

All jokes aside, we are both loving riding... Jodi is doing around 80-100km a week just by going to school and riding around town... Jono is not doing as much, although significantly more than before. We think we will trade in the cars when we get home and get a push bike (basket of course, probably tandem too!) all becuase "We love Bike!"

What the?!?!?! January

Well, lets be honest... We are in a country that doesn't really speak English... Some would argue the same about Australia! Having said that, we do believe it is only fair we share some of these images with you over the course of the year... Hey, if its OK for Rove, its OK for us! Here are some of our favourites so far... Enjoy! Stay tuned for the Febuary edition in March... What the?!?

First things first... look after your belly!

So, on touchdown in Osaka through to now in Himeji we've had some awesome food... We've done our best to sample as many of the local delicacies as we can, requiring a lot of courage at times! At this stage, Jodi is well ahead on the bravery stakes, sampling sashimi within the first week! She has also found tempura (she is maybe not allergic to prawns!), which is quickly fried food... It can be anything from prawns to vegetables. My favourite tempura (Jono) is the broccoli, because the broccoli has so much goodness in it you'd just believe it was healthy! We have had ton-katsu (fried pork with a bbq (sort of) gravy), awesome!

The okonomyaki in Osaka was outstanding, and because we found the right place (Thanks Tina, Steve and Marie), it cost roughly 100 yen (just over 1 dollar). I ate a whole sweet potato in Osaka as well, just out of a big drum filled with coals... Awesome!

Then there's been ramen, soba and udon noodle dishes... They come in masssive bowls filled with meat and vegetables (sometimes a raw egg! (as well as the noodles)) all swimming in delicious broth! Much of the meat here is fried and fatty, so we try and stay away from it... We have discovered however that lean meat is much cheaper than fatty meat at the supermarket, so good for us! The fish is good fresh, but many Japanese eat a cured fish for lunch. Neither of us have really taken to that!

There is so much more here to try, and we've only just begun... Can't wait to get into it! For those of you coming to visit, practice using chopsticks... And be warned... we have a checklist of local delicacies waiting for you... You can't leave until you've done it all!






Okonamyaki is a trademark dish of Osaka, but on our travels in Hiroshima, Miyajima in particular, we tried this delicacy. It's a cross between an omlette and cabbage pancake filled with cabbage, meat, vegies and noodles. There is a special sauce on top (similar to BBQ sauce) and sprinkled with seaweed (that green stuff). It was delicious. A dish we endeavour to make ourselves at home. I (Jodi) was even given a bottle of the sauce by a teacher on Valentine's Day! Thanks Mr Amano.








Italian food is quite easy to come by in Japan. Here is a Margarita pizza, very tasty and just the right size for one.













NOW FOR DESSERT!!

I really don't know how these Japanese people stay so skinny because the amount of mouth-watering desserts is just amazing.









This piece of cake was given to me (Jodi) as a thank you gift after Sports Day. It was a vanilla sponge, cream and strawberries topped with shaved white chocolate and a chocolate slab. Yum, yum, yum.











This sweet biscuit is also a trademark of Hiroshima. It is a sponge cake on the outside in the shape of a maple leaf and comes in an assortment of cream fillings. This one is chocolate (what else?). We sampled a few over the day. We had warm chocolate and cream biscuits (yum), a cold chocolate biscuit (yum) and even a deep fried tempura cream biscuit (beautiful on a cold night). And this is just the tip of the ice berg!! Stay tuned!...

back on line...

Well, we finally have our own inernet at home... this means we will be updating on a far more regular basis... the technical difficulties became much greater when Jono pressed a button (in Japanese of course) at school, which appeared to lock him out... We hopefully will get our home site here turned back to English to make it easier for us, even though you guys can read it all in English... We have much to update you all on, so be sure to check over the coming days, weeks and months to see what we've been up to... Also, if you wish to contact either of us please post a message on the blogspot (if you do it makes it look like someone is reading it), or drop us an email...

Jono and Jodi (In Himeji, Japan)

The Bum Grab

Well, I think all is sorted now. We have roughly worked out which is which! So, it shall be more regular! After touching down in Osaka, we headed through Customs. One custom we weren`t expecting was to be grabbed on the bum. Whilst half expecting it at school, I(Jono) certainly did not expect this to happen in an airport! So with luggage in hand and no sign of a shuttle bus, we headed to find coffee and food. We headed in a lift and the four of us crammed our bags in, as well as two young Japanese girls. They smiled politely and held the door open for us. As I was the last one out I smiled and thanked them very much. Polite. I was pushing my bags in front of me when I felt something squeeze my bum. I thought it must have been some luggage push up aginst me, but sure enough it wasn`t! There was no luggage in sight, just two young ( or at least I assume they were) Japanese girls giggling at me! Well what do you do?!? One aspect of the culture that I don`t suggest we bring back to OZ!

difficulties

It is just a little crazy attempting this at present. Apologies for the lack of updates! Currently thsi site is in Japanese, at least until we got our own web at home! We apologise for the inconvenience!

the overview

Well, we`ve been here over a week now. Caught one wrong train, which took us completely to the wrong end of osaka. One wrong bus, which meant we had to walk further than we needed. Signed a warranty in Japanese, or at least I think thats what it was. Opened a Japanese bank account. So many adventures in just one week!