Sayonara Japan

Well, it's been almost a year. Almost a whole year of living abroad. But today, I will be heading to the airport and jumping on a plane headed back for the United States. It's strange. I feel like I just got here (in some ways) but I also feel like I've been here a lot longer than a year.

But, I couldn't leave Japan without one last tour around the island. My aunts came to visit me, and for the last fourteen days we've been visiting different areas in Japan. Here's a recap!

On August 1st, we headed up to Sapporo. Which was a bit of a relief, because the temperature down in Tokyo were pretty hot (and humid). We were lucky that we went to Sapporo when we did; the Beer Festival was in full swing. We spent some time checking out the area where the festival was being held; it was pretty much all beer and tables (with some appetizer-like food thrown in for variation). My favorite part of going to Sapporo was when we did a day trip to Otaru. It's a small port town about an hour away from Sapporo, and it was really fun being a tourist for the day.

 

After our stop in Sapporo, we headed down to Nara. Nara is famous for it's deer, and I took quite a few pictures of them while I was there!!

There was also a lot of historical monuments in Nara. Nara is an old capital of Japan, and has significance in the establishment of Buddhism. So, there was a lot of interesting monuments to see while we were there. Including a lot of preserved buildings and a giant jade Buddha.

 I've been told that you have to see Kyoto if you come to Japan, and I was finally able to when we stayed in Nara. We made two day trips to Kyoto, and we made a point of seeing a little bit of everything. So, we saw a castle, a temple, and several parks/gardens.

The shrine we saw was called Fushini Inari Shrine, and I've wanted to see it for a long time. It's famous for its tori gates (those red arches you see in the pictures). I've been told that each of those gates have been donated to the shrine, and they line the walk way all the way up to the top of the mountain. 

Our trip to Nara was followed by a stop in Nagoya. I wasn't expecting much in Nagoya, but we ended up doing a lot. The first day, we went to the aquarium. And, I may have gone a little camera happy taking pictures of the marine life. There's something about taking pictures of fish that I really enjoy.

Our aquarium tickets also came with tickets to see a marine time museum of the port of Nagoya, and to see the port from an observation deck. The view was rather spectacular. 

 

The second day in Nagoya, we went to another castle. This one was a bit newer that the one we saw in Kyoto. The palace was being restored. But, the castle had been converted into a museum, and each floor told you a bit about what life was like in Japan in the feudal era.

 

Now, we're back in Tokyo. In a few hours, I will be on a plane bound for home. Better start packing!

Japanese Summer

Hello again! So my finals are now over and I thought I would take a minute to update everyone on how everything is going out here. Because, though I was studying I still found some time to have a few more adventures while I can! After all, I'll only be living in Japan for another three weeks (yikes!).

A few weekends ago, there was a festival down by my school at the Yasakuni Shrine. A bunch of us decided to go together and see the festival. It was so much fun! I think the best part was that I was finally able to wear my yukata.

We had lots of yummy food too! I had a yakisoba and a ramune (both classic Japanese summer festival foods). And we ended the evening with eating shaved ice. The shaved ice was especially good, because staying in a yukata for any length of time can get pretty warm. We're up to high 80's here most days with almost 100% humidity, so it can feel a bit like a sauna some days. 

Yakisoba

Ramune

The next day we went to the beach down in Enoshima. It's the first beach we've been to that we could swim in. We had a blast playing in the waves. 

The following Wednesday, I went to Disney Sea with a two friends from my Japanese class. 

I think I might actually like Disney Sea better than Disneyland. Sea has more roller coasters, and I like the park's design better. 

We went on tons of rides that day, and didn't have to wait in any line for more than forty five minutes. I call that a win! I even went on my first upside down roller coaster. It was really fun. I closed my eyes though, and my friend told me that that was the best part. 

I'm not sure if this is just part of going on adventures for me, but I always seem to eat lots of food when I'm out in Japan. And my day at Disney was no different. For lunch I had a pretty tasty curry in the part of the park designed to look like the Aladdin movies.

And then, I got an ice coffee and a berry tart for a snack during the middle of the day. 

And for dinner, my friend got a chicken and pesto sandwich while I had a shrimp and salmon bagel which we each cut in half to swap. I have to say that the sandwiched were my absolute favorite treat of the day.

It started to rain in the late afternoon during our trip to Disney, which meant that the rides all accrued really long lines. So, we decided to go watch the Big Band skit inside the Disney Theater instead. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the play house, but I was able to snap a quick one of the closed curtains while people were still being seated.

I think my favorite part of the day was taking pictures on board the old steam engine ship. I had lots of fun posing my friends for all the pictures.

Disney in Japan is just a little bit different than Disney in the States. For one thing, Disney Sea here has it's own mascot. His name is Duffy.

He's a teddy bear that's part of the Disney franchise, but he really didn't take off in America the same way he did here. Everywhere you went in the park had someone with either a teddy bear or a Duffy themed key chain. The Japanese love their mascots, though they don't watch the Disney movies very much. For example, the kitten Marie from the Aristocats is an extremely popular accessory here in Japan, but very few Japanese can tell you watch movie she is actually from. 

Just yesterday was the biggest fireworks show in Japan. And, I was invited to go to it with a big group of friends. It was another chance to wear my yukata! I met up with the group at 11 in the morning to get changed, and spent the whole day wearing my yukata. Let me tell you! You start to feel the cords used to keep your yukata in place after a few hours. 

We got to the location where we were going to watch fire works at about 3 pm. The fireworks didn't start until 7ish. But, we passed the time taking pictures. 

And maybe taking naps.

Finally, the fireworks started.

But only for a few minutes. Not wanting to be outdone, Mother Nature let out a huge down pour! I mean, it was massive! I was so wet when I finally got home that I looked like I had just gone swimming! My friend's yukata's dye ran because the rain was so heavy and her legs were dyed blue by the time she finally took it off! It's an experience I will never forget! 

Hopefully, in these next two weeks I'll have just as many adventurous tales to tell before I'm headed back for the US of A!