The Japan Trip
This happened during the latter half of spring break, and it wasn't as special as the D.C. trip, so I'll outline it with just the cool important events.
Day 1
- my film got confiscated when I tried to take a picture of Tyler getting searched at the airport
- watched Harry Potter in Japanese (hotondo kubi nashi Nick!! Hahahaha!!)
- Ami-chan's 1st time being airsick!! Threw up:
*beef and rice
*somen
*macaroni salad
*dinner roll
*dessert that had the consistency of cheesecake but not quite
- it got stuck in the sink in the bathroom and I had to bail my vomit out with little paper cups.
Day 2
- Ami-chan survives the Walk of Death!! ...barely.
- Not too bad, except for being sweaty and thirsty and sore...
- Saw Sanjuusan (33) Gendou, the thing with all those statues and the long hall where they used to have archery tournaments or something
- Got lost @ Kiyomizu Dera (temple of pure water), had kitsune udon and a bottle of Fanta afterwards
- Went to Kinkakuji
- Saw the rock garden @ Ryoanji
* I asked a man, "Why are the rocks placed that way?" in Japanese
* He replied, "Sono question wa... Nobody knows, desu ne"
- Bought Shiina Ringo stuff! YEAH!!
- The guy @ the yakisoba place let me take a picture of him, but the girl at the crepe place was too shy
- I took more purikura (sticky pics) than I ever intended to.
Day 3
- packed up and got on the Shinkansen to Okayama
- met up with our host students and families
- they had a very nice opening ceremony for us
- we did the hokey pokey... >_<;;
- I met up with Kazuha again! Yay!
- my host student is Kanae... yeah...
- we went to a karaoke place (met up with Rika! Yay!!) and sang and had sodas and snacks.
Day 4
- went with Kanae and her parents to see an old Edo period school
- met up with everyone else and went bowling (tanoshikatta!)
- went shopping for like 20 min... I bought socks and an eyeliner
- the eyeliner was more expensive...
- I GOT MY HAIR CUT!!
- the hairstylist guy made a fuss about how my hair is a little wavy and that I should get a "straight perm"
- regardless, my hair turned out great and he gave me a little bottle of conditioner for free!
**Day 5** (today gets a gold star!)
- went to the Hiroshima Peace Park (Heiwa Kouen)
* sugoku kanashikatta! ;_;
* "mizu o kudasai"
* black rain
* shrapnel wall
- we watched Mr. Hall juggle for a bit after that, to clear our heads of the disturbing scenes
- we walked around and went shopping 'til we found a nice, tiny ramen shop
- 1st time eating real ramen!! Yum yum yum...
- it was shoyu ramen and a side order of gyoza
- went shopping some more after that... bought tape with skulls and crossbones on it, a Harry Potter book, and a really really cute t-shirt that couldn't fit me, so I gave it to Kanae
Day 6
- saw Kanae's opening school ceremony
* we sat on the floor, in rows, in another school's gym
* it was long and boring
- went to McDonald's, cuz by this time, I'm getting just a little homesick...
- had Baskin-Robbins after that.. strawberry cheesecake.. yummm..
- there was a super-cool statue of Alice and the white rabbit on chess pieces
- Anri, a Japanese student, told me that the statue gets up and walks around at 3 am... scary!! ^_^ Anri's so cool...
- We all went ice skating after that.
* I was tired, and I didn't want to make a fool of myself, so I didn't skate
* Alex didn't want to go through the trouble of finding ice skates that fit him, so he didn't skate
* we both ended up wasting like 600 yen playing air hockey >=) Heh!
- They took us to another karaoke place for about an hour, then we had to go home
- I had nikujaga. Yum.
Day 7
- woke up at 5:30 am. I just wanted everyone to know that.
- Packed up, got my hair to behave, and left Kanae's house at about 6:20
- Had a long goodbye at the train station, took a lot of pictures, had to fake a smile for like 10 minutes...
- I'm really gonna miss Anri
- I ate tempura soba at the airport with Alex
- I stealthily avoided the airline food
- The pilot wanted to mess with us, so we circled around San Francisco, like, twice before landing.
- When I got home, the fishbowl on the windowsill was empty.
The poor bastard.
Day 1
- my film got confiscated when I tried to take a picture of Tyler getting searched at the airport
- watched Harry Potter in Japanese (hotondo kubi nashi Nick!! Hahahaha!!)
- Ami-chan's 1st time being airsick!! Threw up:
*beef and rice
*somen
*macaroni salad
*dinner roll
*dessert that had the consistency of cheesecake but not quite
- it got stuck in the sink in the bathroom and I had to bail my vomit out with little paper cups.
Day 2
- Ami-chan survives the Walk of Death!! ...barely.
- Not too bad, except for being sweaty and thirsty and sore...
- Saw Sanjuusan (33) Gendou, the thing with all those statues and the long hall where they used to have archery tournaments or something
- Got lost @ Kiyomizu Dera (temple of pure water), had kitsune udon and a bottle of Fanta afterwards
- Went to Kinkakuji
- Saw the rock garden @ Ryoanji
* I asked a man, "Why are the rocks placed that way?" in Japanese
* He replied, "Sono question wa... Nobody knows, desu ne"
- Bought Shiina Ringo stuff! YEAH!!
- The guy @ the yakisoba place let me take a picture of him, but the girl at the crepe place was too shy
- I took more purikura (sticky pics) than I ever intended to.
Day 3
- packed up and got on the Shinkansen to Okayama
- met up with our host students and families
- they had a very nice opening ceremony for us
- we did the hokey pokey... >_<;;
- I met up with Kazuha again! Yay!
- my host student is Kanae... yeah...
- we went to a karaoke place (met up with Rika! Yay!!) and sang and had sodas and snacks.
Day 4
- went with Kanae and her parents to see an old Edo period school
- met up with everyone else and went bowling (tanoshikatta!)
- went shopping for like 20 min... I bought socks and an eyeliner
- the eyeliner was more expensive...
- I GOT MY HAIR CUT!!
- the hairstylist guy made a fuss about how my hair is a little wavy and that I should get a "straight perm"
- regardless, my hair turned out great and he gave me a little bottle of conditioner for free!
**Day 5** (today gets a gold star!)
- went to the Hiroshima Peace Park (Heiwa Kouen)
* sugoku kanashikatta! ;_;
* "mizu o kudasai"
* black rain
* shrapnel wall
- we watched Mr. Hall juggle for a bit after that, to clear our heads of the disturbing scenes
- we walked around and went shopping 'til we found a nice, tiny ramen shop
- 1st time eating real ramen!! Yum yum yum...
- it was shoyu ramen and a side order of gyoza
- went shopping some more after that... bought tape with skulls and crossbones on it, a Harry Potter book, and a really really cute t-shirt that couldn't fit me, so I gave it to Kanae
Day 6
- saw Kanae's opening school ceremony
* we sat on the floor, in rows, in another school's gym
* it was long and boring
- went to McDonald's, cuz by this time, I'm getting just a little homesick...
- had Baskin-Robbins after that.. strawberry cheesecake.. yummm..
- there was a super-cool statue of Alice and the white rabbit on chess pieces
- Anri, a Japanese student, told me that the statue gets up and walks around at 3 am... scary!! ^_^ Anri's so cool...
- We all went ice skating after that.
* I was tired, and I didn't want to make a fool of myself, so I didn't skate
* Alex didn't want to go through the trouble of finding ice skates that fit him, so he didn't skate
* we both ended up wasting like 600 yen playing air hockey >=) Heh!
- They took us to another karaoke place for about an hour, then we had to go home
- I had nikujaga. Yum.
Day 7
- woke up at 5:30 am. I just wanted everyone to know that.
- Packed up, got my hair to behave, and left Kanae's house at about 6:20
- Had a long goodbye at the train station, took a lot of pictures, had to fake a smile for like 10 minutes...
- I'm really gonna miss Anri
- I ate tempura soba at the airport with Alex
- I stealthily avoided the airline food
- The pilot wanted to mess with us, so we circled around San Francisco, like, twice before landing.
- When I got home, the fishbowl on the windowsill was empty.
The poor bastard.