How do you like your tuna?

 In  most countries when you see a crowd and cheers of  admiration you would assume a famous celebrity was passing by ... but not in Japan.

Here it is the carving of the tuna. And it was an impressive sight with the head being disposed of in seconds.

Prime pieces of tuna were selling for up to $39 for a sliver that might have been about 100 -150 g.

Wakayama Castle

 


Just imagine the most romantic garden with flowers, massive rocks and a curved bridge arching over water dominated by the brooding castle fortress  and you might be close to describing Wakayama castle.  An amazing palace with massive defensive walls high on a hill overlooking Wakayama Bay.

To all those fans of Ninja and martial arts films this is the setting  you dream of. 

Inside is a small museum containing many original pieces of calligraphy and armour.

We even met some modern day ninjas along the 
way although they were so friendly they were definitely not the bad guys.

Visiting the High school

After our calligraphy lesson we walked over to the Senior High school and met with the Principal who took us around to see their impressive hospital facilities. They have the capacity to convert to a hospital in an emergency.

Later we watched some karate demonstrations and played touch rugby with the team.

Calligraphy Lessons Friday Afternoon

We had wonderful calligraphy lesson this afternoon and our sensei (teacher)was complimentary  about our ability and enthusiasm.

Now we can write hirigana...easy as ABC.

Thanks to Ben Cochrane, who works as an English teacher in the Kamitonda area and is our 24/7 interpreter, we have a beginning knowledge of the symbols and how to write some words in Japanese using Hiragana script.

We are so confident we now want to sing a song in Japanese at the farewell Assembly.  Can we do it?

Yaaa me...Kendo

Taminmin  students were taught the art of Kendo
at a great club visit this afternoon.

Thank you to Higashi Sensei  the Kendo Teacher and the students of the club who made us feel welcome.

music and origami Thursday 29th

Thursday 29th

We were privileged to listen to a beautiful demonstration of a traditional music instrument, the Koto played by 3 skilled ladies. Later the students were allowed to use the instruments to  play a short tune, called Tulip.
 












Later on we were taught to make a number of origami shapes by a master of the art who also performed some very slick card tricks. His technique was excellent and although we looked hard we couldn't see the switches.