Happy 4th of July!

Now that it's July I really feel like I'm in the home stretch. In less than a month I'll be home preparing to meet my first class of 7th graders for math. These two years have gone by so fast, but I still have a few more adventures before I return to the States!

On Monday I went to Colet with Megan. She wanted help picking out a yukata for the summer festivals starting soon. We grabbed dinner and a coffee and we had a great night. On Wednesday Leah came over for a drink. Jupiter and Venus were both visible and almost touching, so we went up to the top of my building for a beautiful view of the city and the stars and planets overhead. Tanya came On Friday I went to Costco with Kikumi and Shinki. We went out for sushi afterwards and even won a capsule prize!

On Saturday I was up early to clean my apartment and getting all the 4th of July food ready to travel. I headed out to meet Caol and Megan at Cha Cha town to catch the first screening of Avengers: Age of Ultron playing near us. Megan and I had already seen it in Korea, but Caol hadn't seen it yet and because of the early morning time, it was fairly cheap to see it again. We all walked back to my place afterwards and pretty soon Kazuki was there picking us up! We loaded up our rental car and headed off to Yamaguchi. The drive was a little less than two hours and we had no trouble finding the campsite. We got there a bit early, so we stopped for lunch before checking into the cabin. The cabins were beautiful and had a fully stocked kitchen, so Chris and I got started on prepping the food while Caol and Kazuki headed out to get drinks and a few extra things. Once Caol and Kazuki came back and the food was all prepped we walked back to the main camping headquarters and spend some time in the onsen there. After relaxing for a bit we headed back to the cabin to start our 4th of July celebration! We started by drinking red, white, and blue sangria (strawberries, blueberries, and white wine). Soon after I started cooking the burgers and corn. We were originally going to have a BBQ outside, but the weather didn't hold up. Thankfully the cabins had a great kitchen and we were able to cook everything without a problem! We ate and drank all night and even played truth or dare for a while. It was a ton of fun and we all had an amazing night.

The next morning we made chocolate pancakes topped with the extra fruit and whipped cream from the night before. We also had red, white, and blue sprinkles to make them extra American. We headed out around 10:00 AM and found another onsen to stop in on our way back home. There was an outside pool and the water wasn't too hot, so we ended up staying there for over an hour. We headed straight home after that to return the car, but all had lunch together. We decided to get yakiniku since that involves grilling and we wanted to get some grilling in to make the holiday official. We had a great lunch, but parted ways afterwards. Megan and Caol came back with me to pick up their bags they'd left at my place. Megan hung out and we watched some videos until she had to go home. The rest of my night was pretty quiet.

This week should be another exciting one! I'll meet Kikumi and Shinki tonight to watch movies and make hamburgers. They really wanted to come for our 4th of July trip, but had to work on Saturday, so they couldn't make it. I'll be meeting Leah and Tanya for a girls night later in the week and on Saturday I'll have another goodbye party. I'm starting to pack things up, but it doesn't quite feel real yet that I'll be leaving. These are going to be a hectic and bittersweet few weeks. And although it wasn't my best performance, here's the video from last week as promised! Sorry it took so long.

Golden Week in 愛媛

I'm back from my Golden Week vacation! Quickly, last week I had Wednesday off, so I went back to 河内富園 (Kawachi Fuji-en, Kawachi wisteria garden) with Leah and some of her Japanese friends. We had a great time and it was so nice to go back again so soon! We had lunch at a famous champon restaurant and spent the rest of the day at the natural history museum in Yahata. It was a great day off in the middle of the week!

Friday is when my real vacation stated, though! After school I went home, gathered my things, and met Juha, Kyoko, and Caol at Kokura port. We caught an overnight ferry from the port that left close to 10 PM. We stayed outside for the launch and enjoyed watching Kitakyushu's city lights before finally passing under the Kanmon Straights Bridge and leaving the city completely. The boat had a big room full of mats and everyone was assigned a number corresponding to their sleeping mat. The floor was a bit hard, but it was surprisingly comfortable! We slept until about 4 AM the next morning when the lights were turned on to prepare for our arrival. Since we couldn't check into our hotel and nothing was open that early, we stayed on the boat until about 7 AM when we ventured out for breakfast. We caught a train to Matsuyama city, had some coffee, and went to our hostel to drop off our bags. Our hostel, the Sen Guesthouse, was in Dogo, another area of the city, so we had to take a small tram. Arriving in Dogo was amazing! It's a very famous onsen area because it is the setting for a very famous book called 坊っちゃん (Botchan). The titular character Botchan frequents the onsen in Dogo, making it very famous for many Japanese people. There are many references to Botchan around Dogo including a small train that can run on the tram tracks, a clock tower, and a foot bath. After looking around the area a bit, we went to drop off our bags.

We couldn't check into the Sen Guesthouse early, but they took our bags and gave us some ideas of where to go. We started by visiting Dogo park and it was so beautiful we ended up staying there for a few hours. After leaving the park we walked through a few temples. We started at the Isaniwa Shrine. Shikoku (the island we were on) is famous in Japan for the 88 Temple Pilgrimage. It is a 750 mile long trail through 88 temples all associated with the Buddhist Monk Kukai. Because of it's length many people tour the temples via bus, but some people still walk the Pilgrimage. We were not there for the pilgrimage, but we still decided to visit one of the temples. Although the first shrine we visited was not on the pilgrimage, we next visited the Ishite Temple and it was beautiful! We saw people making the pilgrimage dressed in white robes and straw hats with walking sticks. We burned some incense at the temple before moving on. We found some caves in the back of the temple and followed them out back to a third shrine. It looked a little run down like it hadn't been maintained in a few years, but it was still very nice.

We still had some time before our hostel would be ready, so we walked to Matsuyama Castle. We took a chairlift up to where the castle sat on the mountain and explored for a few hours. Some people were dressed in old gate keeping uniforms and it was really fun! After the castle we headed back to the hotel to check in. We got in and our room was amazing! It was one of the best places I've ever stayed. The owners gave us great suggestions for things to do and we decided on heading to the onsen. Dogo onsen was a bit crowded, so we decided to go next door to Tsubaki no Yu, another bath house. It was a great bath and we all decided on dinner after we met back up. We tried some sushi for dinner in the area and headed back to the guesthouse. We brought a few beers and went up to the roof, where the owners had told us about some hammocks and a great view. We relaxed and hung our for a bit enjoying the fresh air and views of the castle before finally heading to bed.

We slept in the next morning and decided what to do for the day. The owners had told us about a boat festival happening in Hojo/Kashima. Kyoko, Juha, and I all decided to go, but Caol hung back to explore the city more. We took a train out to Hojo and a ferry over to Kashima. The whole trip only took about half an hour, it was very close to the city! The island was beautiful and there were many wisteria flowers blooming. The festival started at the Kashima Shrine where people carried big bamboo springs with flags tied all over it. Children also sat on floats that men carried up to the shrine. Eventually, everything was carried down to the water and loaded onto the boats. Three festival boats were launched. The first carried the bamboo, had people drumming, and had children dancing at the front and back. The second two were not decorated, but tied to the first and carried two お神輿 (omikoshi, a divine palanquin used during ceremonies or when moving temples). We got a small boat just for the three of us to follow the festival boats. By this point, it had started raining, but thankfully our small boat had a canvas roof. The driver of our was very nice and got us really close to everything! He even dropped us off near the train station instead of back on Kashima island like he was supposed to. It was a really great festival and we had a lot of fun!

By the time we went back to the hostel it was almost dinner time. We meet back up with Caol for dinner and then went back to the hostel. The owners were showing a moving and we wanted to see it! We watched 思い出のマーニー ( Omoide No Mani, When Marnie Was There), a Ghibli Movie that currently had an exhibit in the Matsuyama museum. The movie was great and it was really nice hanging out with the owners and some other people from our hostel. We were getting up early the next morning, so we decided to head to bed after the movie.

The next day we got up early and headed to Dogo Onsen. It was packed because of the holiday. Although most Japanese people know it from Botchan, Dogo Onsen was also the inspiration for the onsen in Spirited Away. The bath was beautiful and the inside does have a bit of an otherworldly feel to it. After the bath we took the tram into the city center for lunch and to see the museum. The exhibit for the movie we'd seen last night was prominently featured. The exhibit was incredible! The had perfect scale models and even entire rooms you could walk through from the movie. Throughout the exhibit there were projections of the characters that would only play for a few seconds every minute and it really felt like you were in the movie. It was one of the coolest exhibits I've ever seen and I'm so glad we went!

After the museum we went back towards the castle. We didn't go all the way back up, but we walked along the shopping street we'd missed earlier. Everyone was pretty tired so they caught the tram home, but I was still enjoying the nice weather and decided to walk. It took almost an hour at my leisurely pace, but I saw some small shrines and got side-tracked walking through a park. I finished up all my souvenir shopping on the way back and it was almost sunset by the time we got back to the hotel. We sat and talked with the owners for a while before decided to head up to the roof to watch the sunset. A bunch of other people staying in the hotel came too and we all had a great time! We met another guy from our room and after the sun was down headed out to dinner with him. We went back towards the city center and found an amazing Indian restaurant. We walked around for a bit before heading back to the guesthouse. We played cards up on the roof for a bit longer before bed.

Our last day in Ehime we decided to take the train an hour south for another festival. Ikazaki is a very small town, but they have a huge kite festival every year. There were hundreds of kites and even a giant kite that had to be lifted up with a crane! Caol and I helped hold the rope for the giant kite and tried to help it fly. After the giant kite flying, all the smaller kites came out. There is a big kite fight as part of the festival and all the kites had gagari, a cutting tool, attached to their strings. The kites would fly into each other and try to cut each others strings! It was the first time I'd ever seen a kite fight and the festival was really amazing!

By the time we got back to Matsuyama City, it was getting late. We decided to take the bus to one last onsen before we had to leave. The onsen was only ten minutes away, so we had just enough time. This last onsen was also amazing! The baths were outside and they had all different baths, almost like a spa. There was a Jacuzzi, mineral bath, and even private tubs. It was the perfect way to end the trip. We grabbed our bags from the guesthouse when we finished and had dinner near Matsuyama station. We got back to the ferry a little early and found our spots. We again went outside to say goodbye to Ehime, but went to bed pretty soon after we left the dock.

Yesterday was also a day off for me, but I mostly slept and cleaned. I had such an amazing Golden Week, but I needed a bit of a rest! Today and tomorrow I'm back at Asakawa, but Saturday I will take another ferry to Korea. This one is much shorter and will just be a one night trip! I'll let you know how it goes on Monday.

Sapporo

Well I survived all my trips and my crazy busy (but crazy fun) vacation time! I'm back in school as of today, but I can't wait to tell you all about Sapporo!

Patrick and I met in Hakata around 10:00 AM to head out to the airport for our 11:30 flight. The airport wasn't very crowded and we ended up with plenty of time waiting at the gate. The flight was a quick two hours and by about 3:00 PM we'd gone from the Fukuoka Airport to the New Chitose Airport and taken the train into Sapporo. We found our hotel with little trouble and settled in quickly. We talked about exactly what we wanted to do and figured out a lose schedule for our days. We decided to go out looking for dinner around 5:00 and settled on a brewery in Otaru, another city about an hour outside of Sapporo by train. We found it easily and walked around a bit before getting to the restaurant. It was so nice walking around in the snow again! We even found train tracks outside a railway museum with a snow train built out of a snowbank. We eventually got to the brewery and everything was huge! We foolishly ordered large beers and they came in glasses bigger than our heads! The food was also huge, but thankfully we didn't order much so we could finish it all. Everything was delicious and we had a great time exploring the other city. We eventually headed back to Sapporo and decided to try a bar near our hotel called Red Bar. It was a great place and we had a few drinks there before returning to our hotel for the night.

The next day we slept in pretty late and missed the hotel breakfast. We decided to get lunch at the station and explored many restaurants before settling on a かつ丼 (katsudon, fried pork and rice) restaurant. The food was good, but we hurried out to finally get a start on the day. We first went to the Asahi brewery to tour the factory. We took the subway there and noticed some odd things. First, the train made laser noises when it entered the station, which we both thought was pretty cool. Also, the subway had these big rubber wheels on them instead of the smaller, metal ones I've seen on other trains. It was really interested to see! When we did get to our stop, we had a little bit to walk to get to the factory. Unfortunately I had a hard time deciphering Google maps along the way. We found the building, but not the tour entrance and ended up walking the entire outside of the building only to find the entrance was fifty feet from where we started, but separated by a restaurant we couldn't see past from the other side. It had been a cold and rainy walk, but we were still in good spirits and excited for the tour! It was about half an hour seeing everything from the kegs to canning to vintage advertisements. They showed us the assembly lines explained how the made the beer, although the guides didn't speak any English. We were still able to understand and had a great time. At the end there was a tasting for Asahi, Asahi Black, Asahi Super Dry, and Asahi's juice and water products. We had half an hour to sit and talk and try the drinks and some snacks. Everything, the tour and the tasting, were free and really good! Once everything was over we headed back to the subway and went to the Sapporo Beer Museum. That is, a museum for the brand Sapporo, not a general beer museum in Sapporo. It was dark by the time we made it, but there were beautiful lights strung up all around! The museum itself was very cozy and made all out of wood. It almost felt like a giant log cabin. The museum showed how they make the beer as well as old marketing campaigns and models of the equipment they use. The ground floor had a big gift shop and beer tasting. This museum was free as well, but the tasting was not. It was still very reasonably priced and Patrick and I got a sampling of their different beers. We'd had a lot of fun, but it was time to head back near our hotel for dinner. We ended up catching a bus directly from the museum back to Sapporo station and found an 居酒屋 (izakaya) for dinner. We tired many little dishes and they were all great! Even though we have izakaya restaurants in Kitakyushu, the food was different because of the location. This one had different fish available and the best part was that they had real cheese. Hokkaido is known for in Japan for it's dairy products and even in Kitakyushu I buy Hokkaido brand milk and butter.

After dinner we went to our hotel to rest for an hour and put away the things we'd bought. We also tried Royce chocolate, a famous brand in Sapporo, and with the cheese before and the milk chocolate we decided Hokkaido definitely has the best dairy products in Japan. We went back out pretty quickly and walked to an area called Susukino, the "red light district" of Sapporo. We passed Odori park along the way and could see some of the White Illuminations. We also walked past the Sapporo TV tower and the Sapporo clock tower. Both are famous landmarks near the park and it was beautiful seeing them all lit up along the with illuminations. When we made it to Susukino it was amazing! It almost reminded me of Time Square because of the huge, neon billboards. Many of the billboards were even in English including Nikka, Sapporo, and Coca-Cola. We walked around to look at all the places before heading up to a bar called The Electric Sheep up on the ninth floor of one of the buildings. We had a beautiful view of the area and had a few drinks. We were feeling a bit tired and decided since it was Tuesday on a work week we probably weren't missing too much and decided to walk back to our hotel afterwards. We made sure to walk back a different way to see even more of the city, though.

On Wednesday I was up well before Patrick and decided to head out and explore a bit on my own. I explored the underground paths under the station and surrounding area for a little while before getting hungry. I found a cute little place to get I had a rice bowls. I had one topped with カニ (kani, crab), ウ二 (uni, sea urchin), and イクラ (ikura, salmon roe). Crab and sea urchin, crab especially, are very popular in Hokkaido. It also came with noodles in curry broth, one of the specialties of the area. It was all very delicious! After lunch I explored a little bit more before meeting up with Patrick at the bus stop. We caught a 12:30 PM bus out to the Hoheikyo onsen. The bus was called the かっぱライナー (Kappa Liner). It is an express bus to Jozankei, the town the Hoheikyo onsen is in. Jozandie's mascot is a kappa, a mischievous animal from Japanese folk-lore that lives in ponds and rivers. The bus was really nice, which was good because the ride was a little over an hour. Despite the long drive in snowy weather and the short walk from the bus stop to the onsen in probably two feet of snow, the onsen was completely worth it! It is probably the best onsen I've ever gone to. There were two indoor pools, both of which were very warm (104°F and 108°F).

The best part by far, though, was the outside pool. It was pretty cold going from the very warm inside baths to the snowy weather outside, but there were two very large pools connected to each other with a small, underwater staircase that were amazing. There was probably about a foot of snow on the rocks near the pool and quite a few feet farther back from the warmth of the water. It also snowed the entire time we were there. There were little waterfalls along the rocks and a small roofed section still sporting New Years decorations. The whole thing was just beautiful and I stayed in the bath for far longer then I usually do. I had some milk after the bath before meeting up with Patrick again downstairs. I had some ジンギスカン (Genghis Khan) BBQ lamb, another Sapporo specialty, at the onsen's restaurant before we caught the bus back to Sapporo station. When we got back Patrick decided to check out some of the places I'd found on my walk earlier and I decided to head to the Pokemon Center to do a bit of shopping. I got a new game and had fun looking around the store and the arcade on the same floor. Patrick and I eventually met up again at the hotel. We had a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant before heading to bed early.

The next morning we got up early and had a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading out to try our hand at snowboarding. We boarded the train as part of our two-part commute to the Kiroro, the place we would rent snowboards from. Unfortunately, after a few stops the train announced that it could not go to it's intended destination because of a weather advisory. We got off and waited to see if the trains would start again in the direction we wanted to go, but to get to the mountain we also needed to catch a bus that only came once every two hours. We waited about half an hour, but turned back when we ran out of time to catch our connecting bus. We hadn't given up, though, and decided to try a mountain closer to Sapporo. There was a mountain near to a place called Teine that was on our way back to Sapporo station. We struggled finding the right bus, but eventually found other people with snowboards and decided to follow them. We waited at a bus stop for a little over an hour until a shuttle van came to pick them up. It turned out the regular shuttle buses weren't running due to the snow and without a special pass we couldn't take the van that came to pick up the other snowboarders. Defeated, we headed back to Sapporo station.

We'd taken up all of the morning trying to get to a mountain, but I decided to make the rest of the afternoon more successful. Patrick and I split ways and I went to the Chuo tour bus to book a night tour of the city before catching the 12:30 bus back towards Hoheikyo onsen. The onsen was in the opposite direction as the mountains we'd been trying to reach and thankfully the weather hadn't stopped the Kappa Liner, although the trip was much slower the second time. This time I got off the bus in the center of Jozankei to explore the little town. I found some temples and small shops before eventually heading into on of the small onsens in the area. This onsen was a bit strange because it was on the eighth floor. There were many inside pools, a steam room, and even a small outdoor pool on a balcony. I spent a relaxing afternoon in the onsen and grabbing some おみやげ (omiyage, suvenirs) before catching a bus back to Sapporo for the tour. When I went to get my reserved ticket I found out that due to the weather the cable car that was part of the tour was not running, so that tour was canceled. There was another tour they offered me, but it was all by bus with no stops and I decided not to take it. I met up with Patrick for dinner and we walked around the city for a bit before grabbing some food. We walked around a bit after dinner as well before going back to the room to pack for the flight home the next day.

On Friday I woke up again before Patrick and leisurely had breakfast at the hotel. Patrick didn't wake up in time for breakfast at the hotel, but he headed out to get some last minute souvenirs and a quick breakfast on his own. I stayed in the hotel to finish packing and double-check we hadn't left anything. After checking out we caught the train to the airport. We checked in easily and found out gate, but also found out our plane was delayed. We spent the time grabbing lunch and looking around the souvenir shops. We finally boarded our plane and said goodbye to Sapporo.

I was going to meet some friends for dinner that night, but due to the plane delays I decided to stay home instead. The next day I spent my time cleaning, doing laundry, and just enjoying being home after all my trips. I also made some final arrangements for my two trips in February. Sunday night I went over to see Caol to celebrate having Monday off. It was nice and low-key. Marc also came over around 9:00 PM and we all ended up talking until 1:00 AM. Monday was a holiday, so I met Leah for lunch. We'd both really missed each other over break and it was great catching up with her. We did a bit of shopping and caught a movie (Big Hero 6, but translated to Japanese) before each heading home. Now I'm happily back at school and ready for a quite week.

Nagoya and New Years

I know this is a bit late, sorry, I've been very busy! The day after Christmas, and my last post, Mike and I boarded the Nagoya bound train. We found our hotel easily and it was in a great location right near the station! Our room wasn't ready yet since it was still before noon, so we headed out to the zoo. It was pretty big and had a botanical garden and children's play area in it. We saw everything from bison and wolves to polar bears and penguins. After seeing everything, we headed back to our hotel to check out our room. We got hungry and stopped at a chicken place across the street from our hotel for a quick snack. We got a few different dishes from their おすすめ (osusume, specials) menu. The food was great and we happily heading off to our hotel. We ended up with a room and the 10th floor and had a great view! We got settled in to the room before wandering around the hotel area and eventually heading for dinner at a restaurant called Yagya. We had seen the restaurant on the way to the hotel. The outside of the building looks like an old temple and the food was pretty good! They were also filming a TV show called ためしてガッテン (Tameshite Gatten) at the restaurant that night. They started filming when we left, so we weren't filmed for the show, but it was still pretty cool to see all the cameras and everyone working. We were pretty tired from traveling, so we heading back to the hotel right after dinner. We had free drink tickets as a welcome gift from the hotel, so we stopped at the bar on the bottom floor for a drink before heading to bed.

The next day we got up early again and headed to the station to catch a bus to 長嶋スパーランド (Nagashima Spa Land)! The bus was a little under an hour and we were so excited! Spa Land is a combination 温泉 (onsen, hot spring), spa, and amusement park. It is home to the longest roller coaster in the world, Steel Dragon 2000. Unfortunately, the coaster was down for maintenance the day we went, but we still had a ton of fun! The park had many roller coasters and other rides that we really enjoyed. We even went on to the Pokemon Adventure Camp, a walk through game with a small touch pad and camera that interacted with images throughout the camp. They also had special deals at the spa for the holidays, so Mike and I both got massages. We grabbed a bus back to Nagoya for dinner and decided we wanted to see more of the city, so we went to the tallest building in the city for a nice view. We went to the top of the Marriott hotel by Nagoya station, which had a sky bar on the 52nd story. The view of the city was beautiful, but everything was very expensive! We ended up just getting drinks and a small appetizer. We thought we should get a new angle on the city, so we heading to another sky bar called The One and Only. This one was on the 40th floor of a different building, but the interior of the bar had very little lighting, so the lights of the city really stood out. We had a table right next to the window overlooking Nagoya castle! As you can probably guess, this place was also fairly expensive, so again we got a small salad to share and one drink each. It was an amazing view, but eventually we did get hungry from some real food so we headed off to Papanero, a place we'd seen near our hotel that looked good. It was in the basement of a building, but the interior was beautiful! It was an Italian restaurant and we had a great pizza and いのしし (inoshishi, wild boar) pasta. We checked out one more bar, Back Forty, before turning in for the night.

on Sunday we decided to extend our trip for an extra day. We spent a good part of the morning making the arrangements with the hotel and exchanging our train tickets. We did have time to grab a quick breakfast at a German cake shop and walk through Nagoya's central park while getting everything settled. We decided to try a Nagoya specialty pasta for lunch that was really delicious before heading over to the science museum. The museum was huge and even had a giant planetarium. It had exhibits on everything from mechanics to genetics to weather. Everything was hands on and we had a lot of fun looking around. After a few hours of wandering the museum, we took the subway to the movie theater to see ベイマックス (Baymax, the Japanese title for Big Hero 6). It only recently came out here in Japan and Mike and I both really wanted to see it. It was only playing in Japanese in Kokura, so we decided to see it in Nagoya where they were playing an English version. We both really enjoyed the movie! Afterwards, we went to another restaurant we'd seen from our hotel called 花火 (Hanabi, Fireworks). It was a Korean BBQ style restaurant and it was incredible! The staff was incredibly nice and it was easily the best Korean BBQ style restaurant I've ever been to in Japan. We had a few after dinner drinks at a place called Presto that Mike found. It was a coffee shop and cafe by day and a bar by night. It had some great drinks and we happily headed back to the hotel after a few.

We slept in on Monday and had an early lunch in lieu of breakfast. We decided to try another Nagoya specialty; Their most famous food, 味噌カツ (miso katsu, fried pork with a miso sauce). It was really good! After lunch we caught the subway to Osu to check out the famous shopping streets and we stopped by the temple in the area. We found some cool little shops, one of which was a place called Alice on Wednesdays that you needed a ticket to get into because the shop was so small. The door was shrunk so you had to bend over to get in and there were little peep-hole all around the inside and outside of the shop that showed different scenes from Alice in Wonderland. We ended up being able to go in and although it was mostly jewelry and ribbons and not much we wanted, we got some candy and enjoyed the novelty of it. We had a small snack at the market before jumping back on the subway to go to see Nagoya castle. Once we got there, we found out the castle was closed for the holidays and we couldn't go into the courtyard, but we walked the perimeter and could see the castle from outside. We found a craft beer restaurant, appropriately named 23 Draft Beer, and had a quick drink before deciding to head back to our hotel area for dinner. I was pretty tired and it had gotten a bit late, so we went to an Indian restaurant in the station for dinner before heading to bed.

We'd been doing a lot the past few days, so we decided to rest on Tuesday. We ventured out for lunch around noon and walked around until we found a place that was open. What we found was an English restaurant that had really great pickled tomatoes. After lunch we did a bit of souvenir shopping and some more walking around the city. We got a little snack on the way back to the hotel at the same chicken restaurant from our first day and we spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing. We went out again for dinner to an izakaya with many Nagoya specialties. This was our last night in Nagoya and we had some extra energy from our relaxing day, so we decided to try some of the different places around our hotel. First we went to a jazz bar called Baseline that had a live jazz piano player. He played a lot of jazz versions of Disney songs that were actually really good. Next we found a place called Mike's Corner that we figured we had to try. Unfortunately it was a bit disappointing, so we quickly moved on to Handcrafted. We were worried it was full, but there was an upstairs room with one table by the window still open. Handcrafted had great drinks and small food plates, plus the whole place was really cute! After a few drinks we went back to Back Forty since it was near our hotel and finished the night there.

We woke up early Wednesday to check out of the hotel. We left our bags at the front desk and caught the bus back to Nagashima Spa Land. We spent the morning at the amusement park and finally got to ride the Steel Dragon 2000! It was great fun and totally worth the wait! Thankfully there weren't many people so early in the morning and we could go on twice with almost no wait. We rode all the rides we had liked the first time around and even had time to do the Pokemon Adventure Camp again before heading back to Nagoya to catch our train back to Kokura. This was the 31st, so it was a HUGE travel day, but thankfully Mike and I both got seats on the shinkansen back. We dropped our bags off at my apartment before going out to meet some friends at KFC to celebrate New Years. I'm still not sure why they chose KFC, but we got the all-you-can-drink option and stayed there until about 10:00 PM. Patrick, Dave, Leah, Mike, and I split off a little early and went to Riverwalk to have some food from the 屋台 (yatai, traveling food stalls) set up for New Years. We had お好み焼き (okonomiyaki) and 焼き鳥 (yakitori) while we waited for the countdown. Around 11:30 PM, everyone else decided to go to another bar, but Mike and I were tired from our morning or riding roller coasters, so we stayed at Riverwalk. We ended up grabbing some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and heading home to watch a live stream of the countdown in Tokyo. We stayed up just past midnight, but feel asleep shortly after.

On New Years day we were still tired from our traveling and decided to have a quite morning. We made breakfast and rested before heading out in the afternoon to shop for a gift for one of my teachers. We grabbed lunch while we were out and then headed back home. We went out again later to meet Caol, Ruth (a friend of Caol's visiting from Ireland), and Leah at the Irish pub, Booties. Mike said he really wanted some of the fugu (pufferfish) fish and chips Booties serves and Caol wanted to bring Ruth to see the place. Dinner was delicious and after we all finished up we went over to karaoke. We sang for about two hours before going home a bit early.

The next morning Mike and I headed over to Mihagino bus stop where we meet Juha and Kyoko. Takako, an old co-worker of mine who Juha now works with, came to pick us up and we drove to Beppu! She was the same teacher who drove my family down last January and I was really glad to be traveling with her again! We got in around lunch time and decided to go to the same restaurant we'd gone to last year where they cook all your food in the natural steam from the underground hot springs. We even got to try drinking a little of the hot spring water after it cooled, it was very salty. We had meat, seafood, and veggies and it was just as good as last year. After lunch we went to three of the eight "Hells" and they were extra active! We didn't know why, but they were steaming and bubbling much more than normal. We walked around the Hells for about an hour before going to our first hot spring of the day. Takako suggested this one and it was a mud onsen rather than a normal bath. There were three pools and a steam room. The first pool had minerals in it that made the water murky and was supposed to lighten your skin color. The second was full of mud to rub on yourself and the last had the same minerals as the first, but was outside. It was a very unusual onsen because the outside pool was for both men and women, without bathing suits! There was a separate outside pool for only women, but the men had to walk by to get to their pool! Thankfully the water was murky enough that you couldn't see through it. We stayed in the onsen for about an hour before meeting back up with the men in the lobby area. Mike had finished his first onsen and said he liked it! We drank the traditional coffee milk after the bath. Don't ask me why it's common to drink milk or coffee milk after onsen because I have no idea, but it was very good. We headed over to our hotel after that before meeting up with Caol and Ruth, who had come down to Beppu by train in the afternoon. It was evening by the time we met them, so we decided to grab some dinner. Caol goes to Beppu often and it is his favorite place in Japan, so he took us to a Korean BBQ restaurant he likes to go to. The food and drinks were good and we decided to go to one more onsen before heading back to the hotel. We went to a nice place on the beach. It was Ruth's first time at the onsen, so I walked her through the steps. There were a few small baths inside as well as one outside. The one outside had kabosu fruit in it and it smelled wonderful. Ruth was a bit nervous when we first got in, but really enjoyed it once she got used to it! We stayed in the bath for about an hour before meeting back up with the boys and heading back to the hotel for some sleep.

We met Juha and Takako for breakfast in the morning. Kyoko had to visit her family in Miyazaki and had taken the first train in the morning. She left close to 6:00 AM, so we had said goodbye the night before. We had a good breakfast in Beppu station despite only one shop being open and decided to head to 高崎山 (Takasaki Yama, Takasaki Mountain) next. We checked out of the hotel and Mike, Juha, and I gave Takako the presents we had gotten for her two days earlier. Takasaki Mountain was only about a ten minutes drive, so we got there fast. Over 1500 wild monkeys live there and workers feed the monkeys at the base of the mountain to keep the monkeys there instead of taking food from nearby farmers. The monkeys come down in groups and the workers know many of the monkeys' personalities and characteristics. People can visit and learn about the monkeys close to their natural habitat. Obviously we weren't supposed to touch them because they're still wild animals, but they would run around under your feet and sit close to you. We even saw one monkey sneak up behind and woman and try to get into her purse, probably looking for food. The workers feed the monkeys grains every half hour and sweet potatoes once a day. During the feeding they threw the food away from them and ran the other direction, but but the monkeys would still follow them. It was really funny and a bit scary! We had a lot of fun and stayed for over two hours before driving back to the city and meeting Caol and Ruth for lunch. We had a nice lunch and headed home afterwards with a quick stop for some pumpkin and vanilla ice cream on the way back. Mike and I got home around 5:00 PM and packed for our respective trips and set out for Hakata in Fukuoka city. We made it to Hakata by 7:00 PM and checked into the Clio Court Hotel. We were happy to find it just across the street! A great deal of a hotel and the room was really nice. We had お好み焼き (okonomiyaki) for dinner and then had an early night.

Mike's flight home was at 7:20 AM the next morning, so we woke up early to get to the airport. I went with him until security and then headed back to the hotel for breakfast. I stayed in until 10:00 AM when I met Patrick in Hakata station to head back to the airport for our trip to Sapporo. I'm finish up this post from the airport, but there's no internet here so I won't be posting this until I get to the hotel in Sapporo. I hope Mike is having a good flight home! Sorry for the length of this post, I've been very busy! Next update will probably be next Tuesday or Wednesday when I get back to school and that will be full of news from snowy Sapporo so stay tuned!

梅酒

It may be a day late in Japan, but it's still Mother's Day back home, so happy Mother's Day to all the moms who read this. I was very happy to be able to send flower home to my mom. Also a big congradulations to my brother who is graduating from Emory tonight for me (tomorrow morning for him)! Even though I can't be there in person I have the web address for the live stream and will be watching!

Although it hasn't been a week since my last post, I've been very busy! I only had three days of school last week because of Golden Week and they were pretty uneventful. Leah came over on Friday night and we went to Patrick's to play games and meet up with some other JETs. We had a lot of fun, but made sure to be home by midnight because the next day our friends Masato, Teppei, and Caol were coming over for breakfast. We were up early cleaning and cooking and dying Leah's hair. It was a beautiful day and our preparations didn't take very long, so we sat outside with tea and coffee for a while before the boys showed up. When they did we had our breakfast before all piling into Masato's Mini Cooper and heading out to 日田 (Hita). Hita is a small town in Oita prefecture. Another friend of ours has a guest house there and we had been invited to spend the night. It took us a while to find the house, but we did eventually and it was beautiful! It had a kitchen with a bar (similar to mine, but much bigger) and a living room with a lot of space. There were two tatami rooms and upstairs was two bedrooms. There was a bathroom with an onsen tub big enough for all eight of us to fit comfortably and there was a BBQ in the backyard. Some of the other people didn't speak English, but thankfully even after a few drinks Caol, Leah, and I could still speak to them in Japanese. We had a big BBQ for dinner and played cards for a while before going in the onsen. We had a lot of fun just talking and meeting new people and didn't get to bed until late. Instead of using the upstairs bedrooms, which didn't have enough beds for all of us, we laid out futons in the tatami room downstairs so we could all have our own sleeping spaces. The next morning I only stayed for breakfast before going to the train station back home. Everyone else was staying longer, but I had plans and had to be back in Kokura. Another girl, Yuko, was going back toward Kokura as well. We took the train together when Kyoko texted me. The place we were going needed a reservation, but her sister had just canceled and we needed another person. I invited Yuko and she came with me all the way back to Kokura (about two hours). We met Yuha, Kyoko, and some other friends of ours for lunch before catching a train to Moji.

We went to an 梅酒 (umeshu, plum wine) tasting in Moji. It was so much fun! A lot of JETs came from all around Kyushu and some even came from Honshu. They had over 100 different kinds of umeshu you could try along with beer, 焼酎 (shouchu, Japanese liquor kind of similar to vodka), and 日本酒 (nihonshu, sake). We had these tiny little cups and could try sips of anything we wanted. It was a very limited event, so although the tasting was in a small garden it wasn't too crowded. You could also buy snacks to compliment the different drinks. I tried everything from coffee banana umeshu to spicy umeshu to yogurt umeshu. I didn't like all of them, but it was fun to try all the different flavors. The spicy umeshu was my favorite, although there were many good ones! I'm really happy Yuko came even though we'd only met each other the night before. We had a lot in common and I think she will become a really good friend! (She is in the picture in the upper left.)

Many of my friends from the board game club had come to the tasting, so we decided to head back to my apartment for dinner and to play some games. Nine people ended up coming back and we ordered some pizzas before getting the games started. Mike sent me a new game for Easter called Takenoko. Even though the name of the game is Japanese for bamboo sprout, the game was English. We had a lot of fun playing and Yuko and I won! (We had too many people to play, so we played in pairs.) Everyone left a little after 10:00 and I was exhausted. It was an amazing but tiring day!

Although I had a great weekend, I'm glad it's over. I didn't sleep too much and did a lot of traveling by train! I'm happy to have some down time this week to relax. The next few weeks I'm still going to some visiting schools. This week I'm in Tsukida Junior High School, but next week I'll be in Asakawa. Next month I think I will be back to my regular schools, Ishimine and Shinozaki. I really hope so, I miss them!

Beppu: First Road Trip of Japan

I apologize in advance because this is going to be a VERY long post. As I said before, this past weekend was a long weekend and six of us decided to rent a car to drive down to Beppu. We had so many adventures, planned and not. I could not have had a better time!

I woke up at 6:30 on Saturday morning to get ready. I made some tea and Caol came over before heading to the station. We meet Vixay, Juha, and our new rental car Betsy at 8:00 A.M. and were soon joined by Leah and Emily.  Once everyone had made a final run to Family Mart for a last minute breakfast we were on our way!

We made one quick stop along the way to visit Nakatsu castle. We walked around the castle grounds, where there were many shrines and a beautiful pond. We went to the main shrine beside the castle and Caol and Leah got fortunes. The fortunes came out of a machine that had a small doll in a display case. When you put in your money, the doll would walk to the back of the display through a door, then return holding a fortune, which she dropped down a small slide that lead to your hand. No one had bad luck and we continued into the castle. There was a small museum inside where we saw swords and armor from different feudal lords and at the top we could walk around outside on a small observation deck. After walking through the castle and outside we decided to continue on our way to Beppu.

We arrived at our hostel around 1:00 P.M. and were delighted to find that we had one room all to ourselves. We all claimed our beds, then headed out in search of lunch. We walked around for a while trying to find a curry toast place that another JET had recommended to us with no luck. We eventually gave up and found a nice place near Beppu station. We had ice cream afterwards and watched a band that was preforming in the station.

We all piled back in the car and drove straight to Hell, a group of natural hot springs so hot they cannot be touched. The hot springs were many different colors because of the different minerals and clay in the soil around them and it was amazing to see them all. Many also had gardens around them as well as shrines. There were also foot baths that were run offs of these hot springs that you could put your feet into. We all sat around with our feet in the water and by the time we got out our legs had turned red from the heat, but it was incredibly relaxing!

There was a tour guide standing at one and he showed us how blowing ash into some of the hot springs would cause them to smoke, or if they were already steaming it would double or triple the amount of steam. He even went inside the gate almost into the water to show us! Juha even took a turn blowing the ash in to see if he could get the entirety of the hot spring to steam. We ended our day at the Hells with an egg that had been hard boiled in the hot springs.

After going to the Hells we decided it was time to go to a real onsen (hot spring), one we could actually sit in and enjoy (and that didn’t smell like sulfur). After making a quick stop back to the hostel for our towels and soap, we went to Takagawara only a few blocks away. Takegawara is a small onsen and is famous for being the oldest in Beppu. We were hoping to try the sand baths as well, but unfortunately they were already full for the night. We agreed on a meeting time and split up.

It was not too crowded on the women’s side and we had a great time. Before you can even go in the pool, you have to wash off. Some onsen have small shower taps on the sides of the walls, but this one didn’t. So you take a small plastic stool and a bucket and sit near the pool, scooping out water and dumping it over you to rinse off. Once you’re clean you can jump into the onsen. Although I would suggest starting off slowly rather than jumping, Takegawara’s pool was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit! After an hour and a half of relaxation we met back up with the boys and headed out.

We drove up one of the nearby mountains to get a look at the entirety of Beppu. We could even see the city of Oita across the bay! It was beautiful, but we didn’t stay too long because we were eager to get some dinner. We again went in search of curry toast. We found the curry toast restaurant across the street from Takegawara (and where we were parking the car), but unfortunately it was closed. We wondered around a found a great little restaurant. We ordered a bunch of different things from ramen to mayonnaise shrimp and had a beer to celebrate our first successful day of Beppu. We decided to call it a night after dinner since we were all so tired and by now it was well after midnight.

We started the next day by walking to Beppu station to grab some coffee. Emily and I both had ice coffee, but rather than cooling it down with ice they put ice cream in! I was surprised, but it was delicious and a great start to the morning. Vixay met us at the station with the car (he had been at the airport that morning waiting for a friend to join us, but she never showed) and we hoped in and headed to Hita for B1, a Kyushu food festival. It was about an hour away and we had gotten a late start. Vixay’s friend was supposed to arrive by 8:00 A.M., but she didn’t have a cell phone and couldn’t call to tell us she had gotten sick, so we ended up waiting and not leaving until about 10:30. We still made it to B1 in time for some food, although many had been sold out. Despite this setback, we still had a good time walking around the parks and sampling famous food from all around Kyushu.

After heading back to Beppu, we went back to the Hells to see the hot springs we had not seen the day before. On our way back to the hostel we took a wrong turn and ended up at a lookout point. It was a beautiful place to look at the city from! It was really cool to see steam rising out from all over the town from all the hot springs underground.

We tried again to have a much earlier dinner at curry toast, but again it was closed. We ended up walking to a YouMe (a nearby mall) because some of us needed to buy more soap and shampoo and had a really nice dinner there. We walked along the beach to another onsen and headed in. This time we brought bathing suits because there was a mixed outside pool at the onsen. We started by splitting up and spending about an hour in the separate rooms. This onsen was much bigger and had a separate shower area, a few indoor pools, a beautiful outdoor pool, a steam sauna, and a “squall shower.” I’d never heard of a squall shower before, but basically it was a small alcove that when you pulled a string, a bucket of warm water dumped down on you. The girls hung out inside for a bit, then went to the outdoor pool before putting on our bathing suits and meeting the boys outside. The mixed outdoor pool was amazing. It was huge, with a hot tub sectioned off by stones in the middle. The pool was also warm, it was filled by water overflowing from the hot tub. This pool was also able to be open to the city and had an amazing view. Over the edge of the pool we had an incredible view of the city, Beppu tower, and the ocean.

We walked back to the hostel along the beach and decided to stay out a little longer. We found a small bar and had a few drinks. There is a big international school in Beppu and almost everyone in the bar was foreign. Because school is still on holiday, though, it was mostly staff who had come in on their day off to celebrate a birthday. The birthday boy was from Boston originally and it was very funny to have come all the way to Beppu only to have a Sam Adams with another Bostonian. After the bar we went back to our room in the hostel where we played card games and hung out.

Our last day in Beppu was definitely our most adventurous. We woke up early because we wanted to climb a mountain in Yufuin and we needed to bring the car back to Kitakyushu by 8:00 PM. So we woke up and left around 9:00 A.M. We again tried to go to curry toast, but again it was closed. We needed to grab gas before heading to Yufuin, so we stopped at a gas station and Vixay filled up the tank. We left again, but quickly noticed our car was making a weird noise. We pulled over and got out, but couldn’t find anything wrong. The car was still making the noise and was having trouble driving over hills, so we decided to go back to the gas station to see if they knew what was wrong. We went back, but the car died at the intersection before the gas station. Turns out, Vixay filled the car with kerosene. We eventually got everything fixed and we had gotten insurance on the car so we didn’t have to pay for the damage, but we did have to get a new rental car (which the company brought to the gas station we were at very quickly). It took a tow truck about an hour and a half to get to us and we blocked a lane causing traffic for the entire time. Caol and I walked to a grocery store and bought everyone some breakfast while we were waiting. Vixay will never forget the kanji for kerosene again.

After we finally got back on the road we definitely did not have time to climb Yufudake, the mountain we were hoping to get to the top of. We did drive part of the way up and walked around for a while. We stopped at another lookout on the way down the mountain for some ice cream and a great view of Yufuin. We got down to Yufuin around lunch, so we ducked into a ramen shop. After lunch we went shopping for omiyage to bring back for our teachers. While shopping, we ran into another Kitakyushu JET (who I didn’t know, but Caol, Juha, and Vixay did). He was visiting for the long weekend as well with his wife and as it turned out he had been stuck in our traffic jam earlier that day!

He gave us a great suggestion for one last onsen and we headed there to spend our last hour. The onsen was right near a lake at the base of Yufudake Mountain and was by far the most beautiful onsen we visited. It was very small, but the pool was outdoors and the day was gorgeous. The pool was made from a natural inset in some rocks and the boy and girl pools were side by side with just a small wall in between, so we could still talk to the boys. After the onsen we quickly walked around the lake and then headed home. We got back with no problems and turned in the car about 10 minutes before our time was up.

Emily had to go straight home, but the rest of us went to the arcade and played a few rounds of jubeat. Before I got home I went to Patrick’s apartment. Patrick is my neighbor and fellow new JET. He offered to make some dinner since he had been home all day. So I came back to my neighborhood around 9:30 P.M. completely exhausted, but was lucky enough to to have dinner and video games waiting for me.

I gave out my omiyage at school today and the teachers were all so happy! I have Thursday off because I’m going to school all this weekend and Wednesday night we have plans to start figuring out our next trip together! Hopefully Kagoshima in our next long weekend in August!