My current team at work is named Patronus and we have just spent a week in Shirahama, Japan.
Shirahama is a coastal town in the Wakayama Prefecture, South of Osaka. For the first few days it was pretty quiet, it felt like we had the place to ourselves. It got a little busier over the weekend and once July started.
I work for Automattic, the owners of WordPress.com (among other things). Everyone at our company works remotely — that is, from wherever we want — and at least once a year we get together as a team, and as a whole company, to bond and work together. This year my team meetup was in Japan.
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The first cafe we visited: Mame No Yu -
Cheese toast at Mame No Yu -
Funky decor at Mame No Yu -
Baked cheesecake at Mame No Yu -
Building (church?) behind the Marriott -
My room at the Marriott -
Amazing sunset over Shirarahama -
Robots at Big U -
Hot coffee in a can! -
Working and learning together at Big U -
Breakfast at the Marriott -
Nagasa, the local brew -
Ramen noodle restaurant -
Not sure, but it was pretty
During a meetup we have the opportunity to work, and check out some of the local sites. In Shirahama one of the places of interest is Toretore Ichiba (fish market and shops), and we went to a delicious sushi train restaurant across the street.
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Paulo at Toretore -
Sarah at Toretore -
Adeline at Toretore -
Toretore shops -
Toretore shops -
Toretore shops -
Toretore shops -
Toretore fish market -
Toretore fish market -
Outside of Toretore Ichiba -
Above the sushi restaurant -
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Seared Salmon -
Roe sushi -
Salmon sushi
Thanks to Mr Amano at Big U, we were able to work out of the Big U facilities for some of our time, and we also helped run a workshop showing children how to create a blog. Mr Amano had an amazing idea for the workshop: we spent the morning at Banshoyama Park where the kids could take photos to use in their blog.
I loved the park! I’m so glad we had the opportunity to go there.
Teaching the children was a unique and wonderful opportunity too. There was a language barrier, but we had some great helpers interpreting and translating, and sometimes it was enough to just point at the screen and saying “hai” or “kuriku”.
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Waiting in the shade; it’s hot here! -
This is the Tiger; one of the twelve zodiac chainsaw carvings in the park -
Cicada? -
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Bull -
Engetsu Island -
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Patronus Team! -
Shrine -
Bull from the side -
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Hydrangea -
Dragon -
Engetsu Island -
Hellooo down there! -
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Pretty water! -
Rabbits & Engetsu Island -
Rabbit -
Park & Engetsu Island -
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Monkey -
Monkey -
Bell at the top of the park -
Facing North from the top of the park -
Facing South towards Engetsu Islan -
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Rat -
Paulo, our bold teacher -
The workshop!
Apart from working and workshopping we also had an adventure on the Kumano Kodo trail, which I will post about soon. We experienced a pretty full variety of Japanese meals that were delicious, and I picked up a few Japanese phrases.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time there!
If you do visit Shirahama (possibly even all of Japan), take note, a lot of places do not take credit card: take cash! Also, it is hot (in Summer)! If your skin is likely to burn, an umbrella and sunscreen is a good idea. A lovely Taiwanese lady shared an umbrella with me for part of our Banshoyama walk 😛
Farewell Japan, and thanks for all the fish!
This was my first post using the new Gutenberg editor!
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