Picture of the Week Hina Matsuri, Japan

Hina Matsuri (雛祭り Hina-matsuri), or Girls day, is a Japanese Doll Festival, held on March 3 in Japan. Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls called (雛人形 hina-ningyō) which represent the Emperor, Empress and other court attendants in traditional court dress of the Heian period in Japan.

Families will generally start to display the dolls in February, usually in their living rooms and take them down immediately after the festival.

This picture is of the Hina Ningyo at my home in Japan.

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Weird and Strange News

Get ready for some weird and strange news from Japan. Japan is well known for its high-tech toilets with prosterior jets and perfume bursts, but Sega has gone a step further. Sega has just installed urine-controlled games in Tokyo urinals. Each urinal has a sensor and a viewer. In one game, the urines stream`s strength decides how far a virtual girl`s skirt is lifted. Don`t know about that one, but only in Japan could it happen.


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Picture of the Week Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan

Kurashiki (倉敷市) is a historic city in Okayama Prefecture, Japan.

Kurashiki is famous for the old merchant quarter called the Bikan historical area. It contains many fine examples of 17th century wooden warehouses along a canal framed with weeping willows and filled with koi. The unique thing about this area is it has no electricity poles in order to make the area closely resemble the look of the Meji period.

This picture is of the Bikan Historical area. You can see the famous weeping willows and canal in the background and it is a beautiful area to explore.

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Sapporo Snow Festival

The annual Sapporo Snow festival also called the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri is held each winter in early February. It is Hokkaido`s major event and draws thousands of visitors each year to witness the dozens of large and amazingly elaborate ice and now sculptures. During the festival the city is transformed. The Susukino entertainment district becomes an outdoor gallery of ice sculptures, including popular cartoon characters , dinosaurs and mythological creatures. Odori Park, becomes an avenue of vast architectural models – Including Korean temples, German cathedrals and detailed large-scale replicas of world famous monuments. All these are carved from solid blocks of snow by soldiers of Japan`s Self Defence Forces.

This year the Sapporo Snow Festival is from February 7th to 13th

See www.snowfes.com/english for more details

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Stonefield

One of my favourite bands at the moment is an all girl group from the Macedon Rangers in country Victoria called Stonefield. Stonefield feature four sisters aged from 12 to 20 and play rock influenced by artists from the late 60s to early 70s. The girls grew up on a diet of Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.

They have won various awards including the recent TRIPLE J Unearthed competition and have been selected to play Glastonbury (youngest Australian band ever to play) and the Great Escape festivals in the UK. In Australia Stonefield will be playing the St Kilda Festival on Sunday, February 13th.

Stonefield recently released their debut EP called Through the Clover, which channels Zappa, Zeppelin and 70s soul. It is must listen. Check out the video below.

Picture of the Week Nijo Castle, Kyoto, Japan

Nijo Castle is one of the famous sights of Kyoto. The Castle was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns.

The castle area has several gardens and groves of cherry and ume trees.

This picture is of the Ninomaru garden which has a large pond with three islands and features numerous carefully placed stones and topiary pine trees.

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Texas Burger

The Texas Burger is one of the new McDonald`s Big America series hamburgers in Japan. It costs 400yen and looks and tastes better than most regular burgers. The Texas burger is the first one in the series and contains mustard relish, barbecue sauce, bacon, cheese and fried onions. Available as a limited edition and created to entice consumers to McDonalds.

The next burger in the series is the New Yorker with bacon, lettuce, tomato, Monterey Jack cheese and a grainy mustard.

The third burger released is the California burger with bacon, lettuce, tomato, spicy cheese and a sauce made from California red wine.

The last burger in the line is the Hawaii burger with no pineapple, which came as a big shock to me. The Hawaii burger comes with bacon, lettuce, American cheese, special gravy and a fried egg.

Let me know what you think of these burgers?

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