Something happened! *throws confetti*
Okay, about half an hour after my last post my host mom calls from my host grandma's and asks if I want to go for a hike with her (grandma). I said yeah despite my lack of interest in hiking; I'm not an athletic person, though I want to be. So I go and at first I was regretting it because I look and the cliff (I swear) was at at least a 70 degree angle up. Needless to say I was exhausted by the time we reached the top of the mountain.
Went we reach the top we take a rest and my host grandmother explains that we'll walk down a ways to Meijimura (a tourist spot in Inuyama...there are many of them because this is probably one of the most oldest and most famous places in Japan *cheeky smile*). So we take that route which wasn't too bad seeing as it was all down hill. But man were there a lot of bugs. I think I walked into 5 spider webs, saw a couple salamanders even. Also plenty of caterpillars and I saw a 'fullmetal' beetle (yeah, that's my own inside joke so I don't expect a laugh from you...).
When we get to the bottom we walk a bit more down a busy street; the tourist spot, Meijimura, was very full today seeing as it's 1) a national holiday and 2) the weather was gorgeous as well. We reach this restaurant that I guess my host grandmother goes to quite often when she hikes up and down the mountain with her friends. There I met a girl my age who loves studying English so we had a talk and in the end became friends and exchanged e-mails *yay*. Her name was Mari and she went to Australia last summer; she was such a sweet heart. Her younger brother (who was about a foot taller than both of us) was super shy and new barely any English. What was funny was when I went to speak in Japanese, because he was expecting all English, didn't understand me and was embarressed when I said it was in Japanese.
Afterwards we walked back and took the bus to Inuyama station and walked towards Inuyama Castle. We visited this one Samurai memorial spot. Just my luck, a magazine photographer was there and absolutely loved the idea of my (foreignor) being in every single shot. So yeah, I wrote out my address and am now getting a free copy. *smile*
We walked back to Inuyama station and took a train back home. Needless to say I'm tired, but I'm so glad I went. I made a friend, got some exercise, and am now in a magazine that is sold all over Japan. *thumbs up*