mmmm eating curry rice
I went on an overnight school trip to Friday and Saturday, passing through Echizen, Fukui prefecture to stay overnight in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, about three prefectures to the north of Aichi.
Echizen is known primarily for their influences in Japanese paper. We made postcards and then explored this tiny town a bit.
There wasn't a lot to do in Echizen, so of COURSE this is where NUFS gave us free time. (>___<) I think a lot of it had to do with waiting for everybody's postcards to finish drying though, now that I think about the reasons why. Still, at one point one of my friends said to me, "I'm trying not to think about how much money I dropped for this trip." Each semester NUFS has an overnight trip, and these big trips are always over or around 10000yen, or about $120. This one in particular was a few thousand yen more. Yes, I was sharing my friend's exact thoughts at that moment.
From there it was the long drive to Wajima, and when we saw ocean we knew we were almost there. Wajima is known for their lacquerware, and the first place we went to was their museum. Mostly, I was excited to get to the hotel. We were to stay at a ryokan, or a traditional Japanese inn, so I was expecting what I've seen in dramas and movies: the bedroom would be several tatami mats and nothing but futons. No personal bathroom, only a communal one. We already knew there was a public bath, so I figured that would be where I'd suffer through a shower.
This big building is the outside of the hotel, but I still wasn't convinced.
Oh, if only I had been video-taping immediately when I walked into room....I think I would've dropped my nano, actually.
Needless to say, I had to pick up my jaw from the floor.
About half an hour later, we all went down a floor for a traditional dinner.
This wasn't even all of it. What you can't see is the sashimi that came later, the rice cooking to my left, the vegetables and pork steaming in that black thing on the top left, this weird fish head covered by the bowl on the right, a bowl of miso soup that came out later, lots of rice refills, the rice + fish stuff that's in that white bowl, some fried fish, a sesame gelatin dessert thingie, AND maccha mochi. (Oh, and I got about two or three more pieces of unagi from a friend who doesn't like eel.) Good god. You all. My friends and I were whining so hard by the end of it all.
Here's another picture after I got the sashimi. I felt like I'd never eat again, but after the onsen Shaina and I went to the nearby conbini and I bought cheese fry chips. LOL
Speaking of onsen. This was the most important part of the trip. XD I was nervous as hell. I've said I'm comfortable with my body. I'm not comfortable with other people seeing my naked body. But dammit I wanted to try onsen. Shaina and I were equally giggly-squeamish about shedding our robes for the world (or at least the other exchange students), but we went with the two other friends staying in our room to the onsen. At least it wasn't co-ed (><) When we first walked in it's kind of like a locker room area, with several cubbies filled with wicker baskets to put your belongings in. I stood in front of one for a good minute trying to psych myself up enough to take off my hotel yukata and somehow managed it. From there...it was me trying to hide my lady parts while walking into the main onsen area, where there were only a couple of older Japanese women. The inside bath was huge and looked amazing - I got in after showering off. And suddenly, nakedness did not matter. Everyone was cool with each other, it wasn't weird at all, it was just FUN and LIBERATING and YAY NUDITY!!!!
I was SO comfortable, I felt like I could be a nudist if I really wanted to. I have to admit, this was really a changing experience for me for some reason. I suddenly felt 10x better about my naked body, and not because I was comparing myself to anyone - but because I realized that hey, women all have tits and vag, EVERYONE'S THE SAME NO BIG DEAL GUYS K. Something about this was eye-opening to me, perhaps because we were all so nervous that our insecurities suddenly cancelled themselves out.
I stayed in for about half an hour, maybe more. I alternated from the inside bath to the outside one, which was WAY nicer because we had fresh air. I can only imagine how awesome this place is in winter.
The rest of the night I stayed in the room with the other girls watching TV and generally not sleeping due to my existing sleep problems (more on that in the future, I'm sure) and the exchangers next door being loud fucking bitches even after I asked them to keep it down. The thin walls alone would drive me away from this place in the future, but I think if I was roomed next to some Japanese people it'd be okay.
In the morning I had a traditional Japanese breakfast that was so yummy <3
After that I went to the morning market with a handful of other people. It was kind of like a farmers' market. I didn't buy much aside from this cute little handmade cloth rabbit that I need to take a picture of. The obaasan who sold it to me even gave me a discount because we talked for a bit!!! :DDDD
Upon checking out from the hotel we were taken to the Kiriko lantern museum, which had some drum performers that I was really put in a good mood just by watching. Even though I'd had three hours of sleep I felt like all I needed was a coffee and the day would be EXCELLENT.
Sure enough, there was a Starbucks at the rest stop on the way back home. WIN
All in all, definitely worth it, and I would love to go again.
Also, I got some awesome, interrupted sleep last night that lasted until 8:51am. Something about sleeping after a night when you had considerable trouble sleeping is just healing...
Can we talk about how my room smells like ocean right now? My room is RIGHT next to one of the kitchens here in I-House, so whenever people cook I can usually smell it through my door. It's not Yankee Candle ocean either, more like "dead ass fish that washed up on the beach three weeks ago and won't stop rotting" ocean.
The Japanese motto/phrase meiwaku wo kakenai you ni ("don't cause annoyances for others") needs to extend to communal space cooking. I want to gag.
Echizen is known primarily for their influences in Japanese paper. We made postcards and then explored this tiny town a bit.
There wasn't a lot to do in Echizen, so of COURSE this is where NUFS gave us free time. (>___<) I think a lot of it had to do with waiting for everybody's postcards to finish drying though, now that I think about the reasons why. Still, at one point one of my friends said to me, "I'm trying not to think about how much money I dropped for this trip." Each semester NUFS has an overnight trip, and these big trips are always over or around 10000yen, or about $120. This one in particular was a few thousand yen more. Yes, I was sharing my friend's exact thoughts at that moment.
From there it was the long drive to Wajima, and when we saw ocean we knew we were almost there. Wajima is known for their lacquerware, and the first place we went to was their museum. Mostly, I was excited to get to the hotel. We were to stay at a ryokan, or a traditional Japanese inn, so I was expecting what I've seen in dramas and movies: the bedroom would be several tatami mats and nothing but futons. No personal bathroom, only a communal one. We already knew there was a public bath, so I figured that would be where I'd suffer through a shower.
This big building is the outside of the hotel, but I still wasn't convinced.
Oh, if only I had been video-taping immediately when I walked into room....I think I would've dropped my nano, actually.
Click to viewNeedless to say, I had to pick up my jaw from the floor.
About half an hour later, we all went down a floor for a traditional dinner.
This wasn't even all of it. What you can't see is the sashimi that came later, the rice cooking to my left, the vegetables and pork steaming in that black thing on the top left, this weird fish head covered by the bowl on the right, a bowl of miso soup that came out later, lots of rice refills, the rice + fish stuff that's in that white bowl, some fried fish, a sesame gelatin dessert thingie, AND maccha mochi. (Oh, and I got about two or three more pieces of unagi from a friend who doesn't like eel.) Good god. You all. My friends and I were whining so hard by the end of it all.
Here's another picture after I got the sashimi. I felt like I'd never eat again, but after the onsen Shaina and I went to the nearby conbini and I bought cheese fry chips. LOL
Speaking of onsen. This was the most important part of the trip. XD I was nervous as hell. I've said I'm comfortable with my body. I'm not comfortable with other people seeing my naked body. But dammit I wanted to try onsen. Shaina and I were equally giggly-squeamish about shedding our robes for the world (or at least the other exchange students), but we went with the two other friends staying in our room to the onsen. At least it wasn't co-ed (><) When we first walked in it's kind of like a locker room area, with several cubbies filled with wicker baskets to put your belongings in. I stood in front of one for a good minute trying to psych myself up enough to take off my hotel yukata and somehow managed it. From there...it was me trying to hide my lady parts while walking into the main onsen area, where there were only a couple of older Japanese women. The inside bath was huge and looked amazing - I got in after showering off. And suddenly, nakedness did not matter. Everyone was cool with each other, it wasn't weird at all, it was just FUN and LIBERATING and YAY NUDITY!!!!
I was SO comfortable, I felt like I could be a nudist if I really wanted to. I have to admit, this was really a changing experience for me for some reason. I suddenly felt 10x better about my naked body, and not because I was comparing myself to anyone - but because I realized that hey, women all have tits and vag, EVERYONE'S THE SAME NO BIG DEAL GUYS K. Something about this was eye-opening to me, perhaps because we were all so nervous that our insecurities suddenly cancelled themselves out.
I stayed in for about half an hour, maybe more. I alternated from the inside bath to the outside one, which was WAY nicer because we had fresh air. I can only imagine how awesome this place is in winter.
The rest of the night I stayed in the room with the other girls watching TV and generally not sleeping due to my existing sleep problems (more on that in the future, I'm sure) and the exchangers next door being loud fucking bitches even after I asked them to keep it down. The thin walls alone would drive me away from this place in the future, but I think if I was roomed next to some Japanese people it'd be okay.
In the morning I had a traditional Japanese breakfast that was so yummy <3
After that I went to the morning market with a handful of other people. It was kind of like a farmers' market. I didn't buy much aside from this cute little handmade cloth rabbit that I need to take a picture of. The obaasan who sold it to me even gave me a discount because we talked for a bit!!! :DDDD
Upon checking out from the hotel we were taken to the Kiriko lantern museum, which had some drum performers that I was really put in a good mood just by watching. Even though I'd had three hours of sleep I felt like all I needed was a coffee and the day would be EXCELLENT.
Sure enough, there was a Starbucks at the rest stop on the way back home. WIN
All in all, definitely worth it, and I would love to go again.
Also, I got some awesome, interrupted sleep last night that lasted until 8:51am. Something about sleeping after a night when you had considerable trouble sleeping is just healing...
Can we talk about how my room smells like ocean right now? My room is RIGHT next to one of the kitchens here in I-House, so whenever people cook I can usually smell it through my door. It's not Yankee Candle ocean either, more like "dead ass fish that washed up on the beach three weeks ago and won't stop rotting" ocean.
The Japanese motto/phrase meiwaku wo kakenai you ni ("don't cause annoyances for others") needs to extend to communal space cooking. I want to gag.