The next day we all managed to get up around the same time, though our group got up much earlier than the rest of the group – oh well, it was better because we got to breakfast first! Our first stop along the way back was Okayama Castle (岡山城)and Korakuen Garden (後楽園庭園)! Despite the inclement bad weather, it was surprisingly gorgeous~ The large scale of the garden itself was impressive, with the enormous expanse of manicured green grass and the unique buildings scattered throughout. There were several paths running through it, along with a large stream that I do believe was man-made. The path we were on led us down and up and around until we were on a large bridge.
We finally made it to the castle, on the other side of the bridge and garden – it was amazing! Even though it was rebuilt after a fire destroyed much of the original building, it still looks awesome. The castle is very large and black, with gold fish statues at each directional point at the top. I even got to see a little bit of the original foundation. It’s too bad much of it was destroyed at that time, it would have been amazing to see the original woodwork.
The last part was visiting another part of Okayama, with old districts and an odd river running throughout. The place was filled with shops of old and weird stuff, but I managed to find some cute poodle things, so I was contented. XD I even got to see a traditional Japanese wedding, with the happy couple floating away on a boat in the little river. Still, I didn’t complain when it was time to head home, heck, I even fell asleep on the way there~ It was a very tiring and busy trip, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I wish we could have gone on even more! Haha---;;;
Due to the swine flu scare last week, our school trip to Okayama was postponed until this week. I was happy to miss a few days of school but all of the students had been looking forward to this trip and we didn’t want to miss out on it. Thankfully, the school decided we would still be able to have our trip and today we set out for Okayama! With two enormous Japanese buses loaded with exchange students, I sat next to Juen and tried to enjoy our ride down.
I was lucky that it was raining that day, because once we started reaching the countryside the rain made everything such a vivid green! If you know me, you know how much I love rainy, wet days and green landscapes! On the way I swear I saw a castle or something of that sort, though my friends tell me it was probably a theme park or special attraction to draw people into the country. Beh. I was just excited to see something relatively European-ish, it made me happy.
Eventually we made it to our first destination of the day, a Japanese sword museum in the middle of nowhere. The swords were cool and all that, but it wasn’t very interesting because I couldn’t understand the Japanese guide’s fast speech. It was pretty neat to walk around the grounds though: there were various areas set up for different parts of the sword-making process, such as the shaping and creating of the blade, the handle-fashioning, or even the delicate task of engraving the maker’s signature into the blade itself. Juen and I got bored and headed out while the rest were still mid-tour, and found some very pretty irises growing outside; they were all covered in dew and were just begging for a picture. Of course I obliged.
Our next stop was Shizutani School, an old set of buildings that was and still is the first free school in the world. Yep, students could come to classes here fee-free. It was supposedly a breakthrough at that time, whatever time that actually was. The grounds were absolutely beautiful despite the mud and puddles scattered everywhere: giant gates, green lawns, long and winding canals, and elegantly sculptured buildings. I was particularly happy one of the walls encircling the place – it was composed of very soft-edged rock and placed together in chinks, almost resembling a turtle’s shell.
Our second to last pause came at the Okayama Strawberry Picking Farm. Oh yes, Japan has farms exclusively for people to come to, to just pick and eat strawberries as they meander through the rows in each greenhouse. It was delicious but a little funny, seeing everybody stuffing their faces with those big red berries. Mmn. We each got a complimentary box of strawberries, which I decided would be part of my breakfast the next morning.
And finally, we made it to the onsen, or the hot springs. From outside appearances, it just seemed to be a hotel, and inside as well, but as we wandered around we started seeing people dressed up in yukata, the traditional clothing for summer. Our room was very interesting, all set up and very square, with traditional tatami (woven reeds) for us to walk and sleep on. Lots of nice little goodies for us to try too, teas, cookies, and various things. My roommates were Juen, Miki, Marieke, and Christa, and we made short work of getting our stuff piled into the room. A quick fix and we were fit into our yukata intended for wearing before going in the onsen, and went to dinner!
And what a dinner it was! There were so many different things to eat, it was so hard to decide what to start on first~ There was tsukemono (pickled/fermented stuff that I hate), sardines, sushi, sashimi, tempura, rice, soba, an interesting cooking pot of stuff, and dessert! The room we all sat in was rather long, and everyone sat at different tables on the floor, mostly in yukata. It was a great environment, and I must say, just about everyone looks good in yukata. After our fantabulous dinner, several of us headed out on a tour to see hotaru, or fireflies, out by the mountain streams. It was my first time to actually see a firefly (or five!) in person, and it was absolutely incredible. We would look out at the dark stream and see little lights flashing above the water and moving together. So pretty!
The rest of the night was spent hanging out with everyone, drinking incredibly low-percentage alcohol and talking about nothing and everything in general. It was pretty fun, actually, and I met a lot more people than I expected. We played several Japanese-style games that I have forgotten now, but were interesting then. :D After that, it was time for bed, only about four hours to sleep before we had to get up to leave! Oh joooyyyy-----
So today I went out with Lei and Lin, my two awesome Taiwanese girls, to Kawaramachi. Lei invited me to go to this delicious looking dessert place she found last week, and of course I agreed to come with! It took us a while but we found it, a delicious little waffle shop~~ I got mine with strawberries and yogurt on top and it was so incredibly delicious! The shop itself was very cute too, nestled on top of a Haggen Daz ice cream shop and decorated in tons and tons of dots, all to go with the shop’s name Honeybee. So adorable~
Next, we just wandered around Kawaramachi, since it seems you can always see something new when you walk around there. I saw a Godiva chocolate coffee shop, which freaked me out a bit, but the best part was when we got bubble tea together! I hadn’t had bubble tea in so long and it was just wonderful to be able to taste that familiar flavor again! I got a taro bubble as usual, and the girls tried their own flavors. Unfortunately, soon after that it started raining and I headed home to go work on some homework, though I would have much rather hung out with those girls more~
I'm sad.
it isn't the sad you think it is. It isn't dramatic, it isn't tears and cries. It's a state of functioning.
I'm
sad. I'm sad you don't see things as i do. I'm sad for the mistakes
i've made and the things i've said. I'm sad i lost even a little bit of
you. With each day i see things clearer and understand more. i see the
mistakes and the bad choices. And i see the high points and the
memories that i'll keep forever.
I'll be keep those, the high
points. There my rock now. There my proof that it wasn't always like
this. And some how i'll have faith they were real even now when there's
barely any trace of them left.
If i could trust that my words would reach you unaltered, understood and clear this is what i would say.
I
would say i never stopped caring about you, even when i acted
differently. I would apologize but i would say i know those words don't
mean much. I would say that i would do anything for you, anything you
asked. and i would listen to anything you have to say. I would say i
miss you like it's the first time i've ever said it.
Then i would say nothing and try my best to say what is really important without the words we depend to much on.
18 days
May the force be with you.
Ooops , that's not what I wanted to say.
I'm in Sidney's house now.
The reason Im here is to eat whatever Sidney's family gives me and to see their house because I'd never been here before.
It is so cool place to stay and I saw B-pod crazy annoying couple and one extra.
That's fine.
Recently, I've been sending busy life because of some crazy summer class, especially Politic Science is trying to kill me.
I still have to read more that fifty pages due to 1st of July, and the professor already gave me new assingment for the day before yesterday.
I think he's trying to burn my brain with tons of academic words which some American friends of mine didnt know. Sabbats could entertained us a little while, lol.
Yesterday, I, Pat, happy couple, and Sidney rode on Rogan's (Logan?) tiny boat. Then, we did water tube thing.
It was really fan.
Yea, I did mountain biking too.
Last night, we watched crazy firewords. I dont know how they got huge like that. I don't think normal people can buy those things leagally.
After long flying ( it took more than 16 hours!!! ), I am here in Korea. Home, home sweet home!! Ever since I arrived Korea, I has been busy due to transferring credit stuff and hanging out with my friends. Now I got part time job ( from 6:30PM to 9:30PM ) and during the daytime, I study English and things for job hunting. Right! I am senior and I need to prepare to get the job I want to do. I miss my life in the United states a lot. It was really good that I won't forget in my life. Well, however, it is time to get used to Korean life!! ^^ I will try to blog what I do in here as much as I can. But I know It is not that easy. I hope all my friends are having nice and great vacation whatever they do.
I'm waiting for Lauren's coming 'cuz she said she's gonna stop by here. Where is she now?
Probably she wanted to go Kennewick as soon as possible, then she ignored me, lol.
Btw, summer school has begun and I finished today's class.
I hope I won't drop any classes.
English class seems to be tough.
I would do that.
Today was a bit of weird day, since many of the students last night had drunk a lot, many of them slept in, through an important test, I might add. I managed to get to class on time and even took that special test, doing pretty well in my opinion. Now, our teachers had promised that if we wanted to, we could get out of class early and go to see the Aoi Matsuri (Blue Festival), the oldest festival in Japan. Now I don’t know about you, but I really didn’t want to miss this, so of course I voted to get out of class to go see it. For a while, we were gonna have everyone go together, but eventually, it just dwindled to Cho Lei Wan and I. Now, Lei-san is a really pretty Taiwanese girl, she’s the one I mentioned being like 27? Crazy. Anyway, we actually managed to make it on our own relatively well, going by bus, even though it took a while. It was really nice to be able to get to know her, we talked a lot and only in Japanese. She was really happy too because she said when she’s with her Chinese and Taiwanese friends she always just speaks in Mandarin and doesn’t bother with Japanese. Sad, really. I always try to speak Japanese unless I REALLY can’t say something in it, then I switch to English for the people who know me. Heh.
Anyway, we met up with Miki and her Japanese friends there, although we had already missed the beginning parade by the time we got there. We headed to the temple, where Lei and I took a picture together with one of the employees. The outfits were all so cool and traditional, it was really a lot of fun! Unfortunately, we really only had time for a little bit of the ceremony, heading to the track where there was supposed to be some horse exhibition.
So we waited at the track for forty-five minutes until FINALLY all these horses finally come by, with their riders wearing all this traditional clothing. SO COOL. Unfortunately, the ceremony was pretty boring in itself, just riding the horses back and forth and back and forth around the track. There was this awesome guy standing at the front of the track, though, he would do this wavy fan thing that looked neat. I took lots of pictures of him, haha!
After finishing watching most of the ceremony, Lei-san and I attempted to figure out a way to get home. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the bus station we needed to leave from and were getting really tired of not knowing what to do until this really nice older lady (obachan) was like, “Where are you girls going, do you need help?” Of course we said Yes and she was really sweet and helped us find the right bus stop to leave from. We managed to get home in one piece and I even set up a hang-out date with Lei-san for the following day. Woohoo!
