Blue Tamago

We decided to travel to Kanazawa because it was a known hotspot for great seafood. That in itself booked it's place in our itinerary. It wasn't until I was planning on how many days to stay there that I realised that there was much more to Kanazawa than just seafood. For example, this city is known for gold leaf, and you can buy several gold leaf products including gold leaf skin care products and all sorts of food items with bits of edible gold leaf thrown on top. The photo above is of a tofu/fruit pudding cup with bits of gold leaf. We took the Limited Express Thunderbird from Shin-Osaka to Kanazawa, a trip of about 2 hours. As our usual policy, we went to find our hotel so we could dump our suitcases. We were staying at Kanazawa Central Hotel for $100 for 2 nights. A bargain. Reviews of this hotel generally included how hard it was to find the hotel entrance. They were not wrong. Firstly, there are no English signs, so brush up to katakana to remember the words "

Well...what has happened in another month? Last time Buffy was valiantly wooing the chickens, but was only getting Flopsy to agree with him. Now, Buffy holds court with not just Flopsy, but with Chicky, DeeDee and Pippy. It was rather surprising with Chicky, normally she just tells Buffy to get lost (with a peck), but this sneaky little fella often jumps onto Chicky when her back is turned.  Pippy is normally too fast for any of the boys to catch her. But in this last month, Pippy would madly scramble away only to lie down on the grass a few meters away. Penguin was the first to get her to do that, but she will now lie down for Buffy too. I find it interesting that Penguin would immediately start hanging around the other Araucanas. He never looks after the other hens the same way he looks after his hens.He will often give food to them, make nests, find dust bathing places and generally follow them around the garden to look after them. He never does this with Effie or C

What?!? Yes, we are moving from the Adelaide foothills to the Adelaide Hills proper! About a 20 min drive away from our current place. Our new place has 5 acres of land for lots more chickens! Unfortunately, foxes are well known up in that region, so we'll have to keep them in a large run. There is an old chicken coop there, but it will have to be disinfected and probably bug bombed before we move ours in. Also noticed that there were no roosts in that coop, so will have to put that up. Plus digging footings for the new fence to make it fox proof and to give them an outdoor area to run around in. It will be exciting and a lot of work. We can't move in properly until the chicken palace is ready, so it will be hard work getting that ready quickly. We will also have to see how the boys handle the car ride and the new place. I hope they settle in without too much hassle. We start moving next week! Keys in my hand on Tuesday, provided all goes well.

Sakamoto Ryoma is a famous figure in Kochi. This Southern samurai was a prominent figure in trying to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. At that time, Japan was still relatively closed off to foreigners and he came to the view that Japan should embrace modernization. He was responsible for negotiating a treaty between two powerful Southern provinces to overthrow the government and create a non-feudal, more equal Japan. Successful? Yes, but he paid the price of it with is life. History lesson over! In my last post I showed you what Tosa-Yamada looked like outside of our hotel window at night. Well here it is during the early morning. Young primary school kid walking to school with her yellow hat. Just like in anime! In the distance you can see the mountain regions of Kochi.  After breakfast, we got picked up by our Kochi University of Technology friend for a day of sight seeing. First off, the beach to see a famous shrine. Rather overcast (but still ho