Fail at updating this thing. So bad. Like, it's been half a month. In my defense, however, we have been extremely busy over here. たくさん宿題がありますよ。 We skipped out on club for like, a week and a half or so because we were all so busy. But now that I've got a little bit of time, I can update :)
But, I can't recall all of the past month, so I'm just going to talk about our study tour to Kobe, Hiroshima, and Kyoto. It's much easier that way. Besides, that's when all of the exciting things happened anyway.
Kobe
The night before we left for Kobe, we all stayed up late making the last of our 1000 paper cranes for the children's memorial. Most of us stayed up really late. Personally, I stayed up all night. We were folding cranes and stringing cranes and ended up watching Beauty and the Beast. Then I had to stay up in the third floor to clean the lounge, and by that time it was about 6 am. At that point it was pointless to go to sleep, really. Also, I hadn't packed yet. So I stayed up packing, and cleaned my room to the point where it was spotless. Vacuumed and everything, and the front room where I was sleeping. Then I tried to go to Fama and Post Office, but the Post Office was closed, so I couldn't go :(
We got on the bus and went to the station to go to Kyoto. We took one of the regular JR trains to Kyoto, but we had reserved seats, which was good, because it means less chance of people getting lost. I sat next to the window and John sat next to me. Actually, that was the seating for almost every train ride we took, now that I think about it. Anyhow. Because I didn’t get any sleep the night before, I slept all of, if not most of the two hour train ride to Kyoto. I think most of us did. I know Ele didn’t sleep the whole time, because she has a collection of people sleeping from the various vehicles we rode in. By the end of the trip I learned to sleep with my sunglasses on and my hood pulled over my head.
We arrived in Kyoto and then quickly transferred to the Shinkansen (!!!!) to go to 新神戸駅. 新幹線はすごいだよ！ It’s amazingly fast and travels really smooth. The ride to Kobe was… maybe 45 minutes long? I don’t think I slept on that train. I think I just finished my lunch. When we got to Kobe we dropped our things off at the hotel, then went to walk around this district where all the foreign style houses are built. These buildings are HUGE and when you’re walking there, it doesn’t feel like Japan at all. It looks like what I picture in my head when someone says “English Countryside”. I walked around with Marikriz and Reid and Fudano Sensei, and we climbed this steep street towards this thing called the fish-scale house, and this guy speaking French was coming down the street opposite us, and I said bonjour and he called me sexy and it was awkward.
The fish scale house is named such because the side of the house looks like fish scales. It’s actually really pretty. Side note: I think a million people must get married in Kobe, because they have bridal stores like ABC stores. One on every corner, it seems. We actually saw the end of a wedding while we were walking around. I thought it was a funeral, but Fudano Sensei told us it was a wedding. Apparently, you can tell because the men wear silver ties at weddings. Also, we got some delicious ice cream.
After walking around, we met up and caught this adorable little bus to the coast where the Tower of Kobe is. It seems like a little mini replica of Tokyo Tower, except smaller and a different shape. I guess the only thing that’s really the same about them is the color: red and white. Anyhow, we went up the tower and we could see EVERYTHING in Kobe. The view was pretty amazing. One thing that stood out was the fact that they have a buttload of chapels; further proof for the weddings theory. I called my people from Kobe Tower; I also dropped my camera, causing it to malfunction and absolutely refuse to work. That sucked.
From the tower we saw a Ferris Wheel and a little theme park and mall area that we wanted to go to, so Fudano Sensei said we could :) Tyler and Ele and John and I went on a grand adventure to the amusement park. They rode around on these huge stuffed animal things that walked, and I wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel but Tyler had us go into the Haunted House instead, which in retrospect could have been a lot scarier, considering it’s Japan. We didn’t ride the Ferris Wheel but I did drag everyone to Purikura ^.^ I can’t find the pictures thought T^T After that we ended up at the arcade and I raced with John and lost :( But only just. Ele is really good at that Taiko Drum game.
After that we went to the Earthquake Memorial. It happened in 1995 (?) and pretty much destroyed all of Kobe. Knowing that, it’s pretty amazing how fast they managed to rebuild the city and get their lives back so quickly. When we were finished at the Earthquake Memorial some of us went into Chinatown with Yagi Sensei and Fudano Sensei. We ended up eating at this little restaurant that had all you could eat for 90 minutes. Except, the service kind of sucked. They were slow and didn’t bring us what we ordered, and we were on a time limit. So Fudano Sensei talked to them and went all Mama Hen on them. It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself :) Then we went back to the hotel where I met up with Sayori, who I met about a year ago in Yokohama. She lives in Kobe ^.^ I was so happy to see her! She came up to our room and hung out while we finished stringing paper cranes for Hiroshima. She also brought me TVXQ CDs ^.^ But they’re in JAPANESE!! I’m so used to them singing in Korean, so it sounds weird right now xD But I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon. Just like I’ll get used to typing on my laptop again soon. The keyboards are so different, it keeps throwing me off. After we finished stringing the cranes, we went to sleep.
Hiroshima
We woke up and went to a buffet style breakfast, which everyone was grateful for because it’s been such a long time since we had anything but Japanese-ish food. Then we went to catch the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. The train ride didn’t take that long, and we went to the hotel to drop off our luggage before going into town. Since I needed a new camera, we went to an electronics store, and I got the same camera John and Ele have, except for less than they both paid for it because the store was having a sale. Score! Then we went to eat Okonomiyaki, which was huge. And delicious. But mostly huge. I really think we should have an Okonomiyaki place in Hawaii. It would probably do really well. After that we headed for the Hiroshima A-Dome, which was once one of the government buildings in Hiroshima. The Atomic Bomb exploded almost right above the dome, so it was more preserved than many other buildings. We were walking around the building and I was trying really hard to be somber and respectful, but there was a school band across the river (the park itself is absolutely gorgeous, by the way) playing the theme song from Super Mario, so it was really hard to be sad. You can’t be sad when you hear Super Mario. Then we went to the Children’s Memorial and donated our cranes. Reading all the plaques was really emotional, and looking at the park around us it was hard to believe that it had all been completely totaled 65 years ago. They said plants would never grow again, and they have the amazing, beautiful park. It got me thinking though, what would that be like. One second you’re alive and life is going as it always does and the next second you’re not and the world is burning. I can’t imagine it. Everything changing so drastically and so quickly doesn’t seem possible. We went into the museum, which was even worse, and something I kind of don’t want to talk about, because it was so emotionally draining. The pictures speak for themselves. The thing I definitely couldn’t handle was all the pieces they had about the children that died. And there were so many of them too…
The whole day was actually kind of depressing. Coming out of the museum it seemed like everyone had aged a few years and looked really tired. We rode around on the bus looking for places to go but everything was pretty much closing, so we all went back to the hotel and took a nap. When we woke up we had dinner and just kind of stayed in that night. I found the internet connection in my hotel room so I connected to the internet for a little bit. Then to bed to get ready for the next day.
The next day we checked out of our hotel but left our luggage in the lobby and headed out for Miyajima Island. Miyajima is the home of Itsukushima Shrine, which was thought to be so sacred that people couldn’t approach the actual temple back in the day. The closest they could do was to approach the tori by boat. The tori of Itsukushima Shrine are built so that during high tide, water covers a good portion of the bottom of the tori, which makes it look like the gate is floating in the water. It is for this reason that Itsukushima is known as the “floating temple”. Backstory aside, I love this little island. People actually live here, and that sounds so tourist-y of me to say. Also, THERE ARE DEER!! They’re so adorable, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen them <3 I could possibly be in love with the deer. The whole island kind of reminded me of Hawaii. They even had sand and everything. It was so beautiful there. The specialty on Miyajima is oyster, so I had this oyster donburi for lunch, which was magically delicious. Then we went around and did a bit of shopping, and I found Daddy’s oni mask :) I think he’s going to love it. I bought a lot of presents, actually.
Kyoto
After we got back from Miyajima, we hopped a train to Kyoto, which took 4 hours, which involved more sleeping. Once we got to Kyoto, we checked into our Ryokan. A Ryokan is a Japanese-style inn, which means one room, tatami mat floors, and you sleep on a futon. So… kind of like our rooms at school. And they had a public bath. I love public baths. I went twice while we were in Kyoto. For some reason, I feel like I do a better job cleaning myself at a public bath. Might have something to do with the fact that I don’t have a time limit there; we can’t run the hot water in our apartments for more than 15 minutes or it gets shut off. Anyway. We checked in, changed clothes, and went to a different hotel restaurant to meet Kobuke Sensei for dinner. Oh, sweet reunions. Everyone was so happy to see Kobuke Sensei, and she seemed really happy to see us :) We went to eat at what is apparently a very fancy Japanese- style restaurant. All the staff was dressed in yukata, so I believe when they tell me it was high class stuff. I sat with Micaela and Reid and John and Yagi Sensei and Okamoto Sensei, and I ate a giant fish head. I kid you not. There are pictures on facebook. It was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. The meal was really delicious. There were a lot of courses that they brought one by one.
The next day we went shrine/temple hopping. It was actually really tiring, going around to so many places in one day. We visited a shrine first that I can’t remember the name of. Then we went to Kyomizutera, which is this huge temple up in the mountain. The view of the mountain from the balcony of the temple looks like Totoro’s forest. I kid you not. There’s also this huge stage that’s really high above the ground below, and in the past they said if you made a wish and jumped off and survived your wish would come true. But, they’ve since banned that, for obvious reasons. We also drank out of the spring that the temple is famous for. After we were done we went to a tofu restaurant. Kyoto is famous for tofu just like Hiroshima is famous for Okonomiyaki. There was SO MUCH TOFU.
After lunch we visited the Silver and Golden Pavilions. As it were, the Silver Pavilion isn’t actually silver. Maybe it was planned that way, but it never really happened. It is a beautiful place though. My camera died while we were there :( Not happiness. But I borrowed Tyler’s, so I still have a bunch of pictures from that day. The Golden Pavilion is actually covered in gold leaf, but it’s a replica. The original was burned down by a crazy pyro monk. True story. After that we went to the manga museum, which is a museum, but is more so a GIANT collection of manga, and people pay an entrance fee to come in and read for as long as they like. We hung out there for a bit, and Marikriz and I made plans to take pictures dressed as maiko, which are apprentice geisha. By the by, geisha are called geiko in Kyoto. After we went back to the Ryokan, our guide for the day offered to go with Marikriz and I to find the studio we were supposed to be at, since it was on her way anyway. The bus driver also gave us a ride. We’re so lucky :) When we got the studio our guide ended up staying with us the WHOLE TIME to help us with the translations and everything. Transforming into a maiko was really interesting. You close your eyes and they paint your face and neck and chest white and you open your eyes and don’t recognize the person in the mirror. And the layers! There had to be at least… 10 layers on. And the hair was ridiculous. It wasn’t our real hair, of course. That would’ve taken way too long, and I don’t think I have enough hair for that anyway. We wore wigs. Taking the pictures was difficult because we couldn’t show our teeth when we smiled. But it was really fun, and I’m glad I did it. Once in a lifetime opportunity, right?
The next day Tasha and I went with Yagi Sensei to Sanjusangendo, which is the hall of 1000 Buddha. It was really impressive. All the Buddha were different in some way. We couldn’t take pictures inside though :( Mom would’ve loved it. I bet she could’ve spent an hour in there, at least. After that we went to Kyoto station and wandered around, going shopping and having lunch. I think Yagi Sensei should come shopping with us more often. She’s really fun :)
At 1:00 we got on the train and came back to Kanazawa. And that’s the end.
Also, I fail so hard. I lost my wallet, and at the moment I’m feeling really emo about it. It must have fallen out of my bag somewhere on the train or at Kanazawa station. I really don’t want to think it was stolen :( Everything was in there too. Everything but my passport. My BoH card, my Hokkoku Bank Card and Book, my student ID for Kapiolani and Windward, my KIT ID, my alien registration card, my Hanko… The only think I didn’t lose were my keys and my passport, both of which were collected before we left.
I can’t remember the last time I fucked up so bad.
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