Yoshino

Next we went to Yoshino. Gotta say, longest wait in traffic ever. Up and down the winding

hills, through sakura(cherry

blossoms) and plum blossom trees! It was at least scenic.

We made it to our ryokan, to which we had to climb to reach.It was a very nice

traditional place. The one thing that was significantly different

from the other ryokan that we have stayed at: there was no room

What??!! No shower you say?!?! showe

r.

Yes, there was only the Women's bath. We had been through so much together in the last 4 months, we might as well get naked together. (^o^;) <-sweating face

So the great majority of us girls

ventured down the the outdoor onsen (hot spring) and set to being comfortable with our bodies.

We ended up singing Disney songs very loudly. We go shushed

after song 3-4. Apparently, people could hear us down the m

ountain.

We had a great time cooking away in our hot water.

The next day we climbed the Sakura covered mountain. (The Yoshino mountain Sakura bloom later than those in Nagoya). We are professional mountain walkers/climbers but this mountain

beat us down. We did not find the map telling us the real distance to the top. We only found markers

p of the mountain, dashed our spirits and we quit ~4km from the top of the mountain.to the next big temple on the mountain. Needless to say, mistaking

every marker for the to

But it was still quite a work out!

After our trek up the mountain, we decided to go in the opposite direction and check out the shops of the town. We got some tasty food and ice cream (there's green tea and sakura flavored ice cream in Japan, I got a

mix). We also followed a parade, which was a reenactment of the Diamyo returning from Tokyo after visiting the Emperor.

Yoshino was very nice! Check it out if you're in Japan!

Fancy colors!

Check out the new design, suckas! \(^3^)/



(>.>)


(<.<;)


(._.;;)




I respect each and everyone of you, my readers.
Thank you for your continued support.

Nara

Ok, I know that this is super late, but let's pretend it's still the beginning of May and I am still living it up in Japan.So the cherry blossoms have come again this spring to Japan and the IES gang and I went to Nara and Yoshino (one of the most historically filled towns and one of the nicest Sakura viewing places in Japan).
This is a two day weekend trip so we actually hit up the big spots in Nara before heading over to our Yoshino ryokan (Japanese inn).We met up at Daiichi Fuji Hotel (the place we met up when we first got to Japan and for a lot of our trips) by Nagoya Eki (Station) in the early morning for our nice bus ride!
Our first stop was this nice temples where we had traditional tea and lunch. It was a very nice and we all had the great privilege of eating purple rice! It was all very tasty, I wish I had some now!
We then went to the famous Nara Kouen! (Nara Park)!It is the site of the largest wooden house (anywhere) and the largest indoor Buddha!
Inside the gates is a very nice layout leading up to the house, with ponds, grass, and, once again, deer! (>.<) Let's just say I don't like deer very much. Especially these pushy ones! First we enter through the gates which have their ah and om guardians. The first indicator of grandeur. Gigantic! So We make our way up to the house and It. Is. HUGE! It's crazy big!! I then enter the temple directly in front of The huge Buddha (Daibutsu= Big Buddha)! It's realllllly big and you can walk all the way around him!!!! There are guardians inside surrounding him, which are also huge. I'm surprised that such a famous place also functions as a temple as well. It's really interesting. You can buy amulets on the way out as well as stamp your "I've been all over Japan" stamp book. There was a miniature of the whole building in there which I really liked. It was really intricate and I bet it was handmade! I took a picture of my hand by a butterfly sculpture at the right side of the Daibutsu for reference if you didn't believe me! Which would be pretty to scale w/ the Daibutsu. So there you go doubters! There was a big pillar with a square hole cut out of it, that if you pass through you would get good luck. One of the older gentleman standing around suggested it to me, but knowing my hip measurements, I decided to forgo getting stuck in a wooden hole. My other friends went through though, which I'm glad about: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100286280613244&subj=571501666I accidentally left the house without obtaining my stamps, so I promptly returned (through the exit)and ran into my friend from Pitt, Corey!! He was living in Kobe and had suddenly decided to visit Nara Kooen with his host-parents! It was totally guuzen(coincidence)! His parents really wanted to meet me and had invited me to visit them in Kobe, but I couldn't. I was really happy that it worked out! The deer are highly loved in Japan and at the Kooen, they actually sell crackers to feed the deer. Corey's host-father bought some for us to give to the deer. But as drivers in the Northeast (Drivers in the NE dislike deer) we declined. The deer, however, were not put off by that fact that I held no food. One cheeky one snuck up on me and bit me right in the buttocks! Needless to say, I turned around in outrage ready to hit whoever had pinched my butt, only to be surprised by those huge deer eyes right looking up at me~!! So, I made a weird sound and ran behind Corey's host mom. Next: Yoshino

Update Shimasu

So I gotta get to tellings you guys about stuff.
Liiiiiiissstt time!

Nara and Yoshino
Golden Week, Nagashima Spaland, Nakasendo
Finals
Okinawa
Judo Club
Last Nomikai
Graduation
Return home

I will get on that!!
Sorry for the delay!!!

Golf and Kids

I know I still have plenty to write about, but I figure I can tell you about this when it's still fresh in my mind.
3 days ago, my host mom and I went to Wagou Golf to see the annual golf tournament. My host mom really likes to golf and watches it on tv. So we went around the courses, saw famous players and even got within a couple feet of some. I really enjoyed going around with her. She told me their names, history, and her thoughts on them. I think it was a great bonding experience. We even saw Ishikawa Ryou! the 18 year old wonder! He actually won the tournament today! I was really happy when we looked in the newspaper to see a shot that we were actually present for!
A lot of the players have nicknames. For example, Ryou-kun, Jumbo (not related to name at all. he's just bigger than the average-sized Japanese. My host mom's words), and Maru-chan. I was actually really close to Maru-chan walking by and because he's so personable (that's why they call him -chan) this lil girl said "ganbatte, Maru-chan" (Good Luck, Maru-chan) to him as he walked by. I found it adorable.



Today on my way to pick up my friend from the bus stop. I met three boys who live by me. Today was the one day that I should have had my glasses, (but went outside without them or contacts) because there were so many neighbors I had to greet. I said hello to the kids and as I was walking away one asked me, "Gaijin desu ka? (Are you a foreigner) " And we started up a lil convo w/ him and his bros. but I was on the way to get my friend, so I told them I'd come back. Luckily, my friend had my glasses so I put them on on the way back. Then we stopped and talked to the kids some more! They were adorable. The same curious one asked to touch my and Tana's hair. We obliged. I also ended up introducing myself to their parents. Yes, I know, it's weird to just talk to someone's kids. Forgive me.
So the kids asked our names and we told them and I asked theirs' after a while and that made them shy, but the cute and courageous one introduced himself and one of his brothers. I think the oldest one got bored of us after a while. His brother was Sho and his was Yuta. He then told us a joke that together they make "shoyu" (soy sauce) Sho + Yu(ta) = Shoyu. I found that adorable!! So we talked to the kids and finally their mom came out, giving Yuta the confidence to come down the driveway. He walked right up to me and looked up at me (very tall me) for a second and was like. "Oneesan[chan, can't recall](Older sister)" which made my freaking day! It was the cutest thing ever!!!!! I wish I met them back in February or something! They were adorable. I hope I see Yuta again. I've never been called older sister, so I really look forward to it. I must have looked pleased as punch as I walked away towards my house.

Good night!
Ama

So where was I?

*Sorry but you'll have to scroll back and forth to assign pictures to words. I'll do better next time *

Kyoto!

Kyoto was a lot of fun. I went to see the big Jinja (shrine) and Otera (temples) of the town. Kyoto is one of the most historically packed towns in Japan. You can't see all of the temples or shrines here in one or two days. And besides thoses there are a lot of other attractions like local foods and shops that you would like to go to.
On our first night we went to Kiyomizu-dera. It's a really cool because there's a huge temple basically on top of a bunch of, I wouldn't call them stilts， but it's supported by wood only. And at night they light it up! Sadly, I was there before they lit it but I've seen pictures and I was quite nice.
This was a three day trip Ｓｏ we went to many places big to the area, including: Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, the Kyoto palace, and so on. I really enjoyed Kinkakuji because it was as the name suggests, actually golden! It was in the middle of a nice pond filled with giant koi and I enjoyed circling it.
One other place we went to was Fushimi Inara Jinja. Now, this isn't your regular Jinja. It has the most toori (you know those orange/stone/wooden gates that everyone knows is from Japan, that's a toori)in a shrine, and oh, btw (by the way) it's a mountain. I didn't say on top of a mountain. I said it's a mountain! From the moment you start climbing you're going through toori. Small to medium to large. A lot of them were orange with dates/names inscribed on them. (We figure those are who sponsored them.) One thing about this place is that it is a breaker of wills. Just when you think you've climbed quite a mountain and you're at the top. You reach another part of the shrine. But it's nice enough to have shops where you can have ice cream and food shops all over. There was even a little waterfall. I really appreciated seeing other tourists who weren't only foreigners taking a rest on the little flats in between the innumerable steps. Oh so many steps (flashback).

But I was proud of myself after I left. My glutes had be thoroughly worked out (my butt hurt!) and I was ready to get on that bus back to Ginza (lay down and die, jk). But I was so happy when the steps finally kept going down, instead of teasing me with a kaidan (stairs) that went down followed by one going up.
Oh ya, we stayed in Ginza! You know that place with all the Geisha? Nowadays you don't use that word. It's either Maiko (apprentice geisha) or geiko (full-fledged geisha). We did go Geisha siting, but we didn't find one.

Next trip!

After a days "rest" back at Nagoya, I went on another trip to Hiroshima, Miyajima, and Himeji, but I've already told you about that.
In Hiroshima, we went to the Hiroshima Dome, which was quite an experience.
In Miyajima, we went to the floating toori, which you all know from any tour guide/CM (commercial) for Japan. When the tide gets low you can go out there and stand under it. My friend Ryan threw a coin on top (as per the custom)to get a wish. I didn't know about this and just walked around it :(.
There were deer all over that place. I dislike deer personally, but here the deer are rude and will gang up on you if you have food! But everyone goes over and pets them. But those deer are creepers. They totally came after this ojiisan (old man). I think he learned his lesson about peanuts around those suspicious animals!
My friends and I ended up going yukata (summer kimono) shopping! I bought a blue one! Along with a fan and geta! (which i found out were wrong, but w/e). Watashi ni niau 私に似合う。 I suits me. I'm told. But hopefully, my hips will get a little smaller so it doesn't look like a sexy yukata, which it sometimes ends up doing. We all looked pretty at our traditional Japanese dinner at the ryokan (Japanese Inn). It was a lot of fun!!
We ventured up a mountain in Miyajima, in search of monkeys! Which we did not find! I'm still disappointed about that. There was a great sign warning you about the monks, but aside from the cute depictions, I saw none. Sadness, I heard all the monkeys were relocated, but I have a friend who went there recently and saw some, so I guess not :'(. This mountain, we decided not to climb the whole way and we took the ropeway and then climbed up the rest of the way! It started off as a cloudy day, but it cleared up and the view from the top was great! We were on an Island so we could see in 4 different directions from the top! Simply Breathtaking! (included pictures: view from ropeway and top).

Lastly was Himeji Castle. Very famous Castle in Japan. Very cool. But I think I'm getting used to walking through castles. That must sound bad.
On the way back from Himeji, I did meet a maiko I took a picture with her!
Then back to Nagoya via Shinkansen (bullet train)! woot! Faaaaaaasttt!

Until next time,
Ama

ごめなさい （Sorry)

I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long! things have been uber-busy!!
Let's make a list of what you wanna hear!
Elaboration of Kyoto trip
Judo Nomikai
Nara and Yoshino weekend Trip
Wrapping up Life in Japan
Last month's thoughts and Feelings.

Please look forward to it!

Love,
Ama