Matt, Asha, Kim and I  left on Friday night after work. Matt drove us to Kumamoto city. We checked into a hotel and walked around the downtown area.

The next morning, we went to Kumamoto castle. The castle looked beautiful with the cherry blossoms around it. We sat on a bench outside of the castle and ate our lunch. It was really relaxing and lovely.

We wanted to relax some more and maybe take a nap under some cherry blossoms, so we decided to go to Suizen-ji Park. We laid down in the sun and enjoyed the sights although truthfully, we were expected more from it.

After relaxing, we went back on the road. Our next stop was Kurokawa, an onsen village in Kumamoto prefecture. Onsens are hot spring baths that have many minerals. Japan has many onsens throughout the country and you have to follow certain rules when you go to them. For example, you must wash yourself before you get in. There are usually showers & soap for people to wash themselves well before they get into the onsen. You must also go in naked. You can take a small towel, but when you are in the onsen, you must put it to the side or on top of your head.

Kurokawa is a well known onsen village, so we were really excited to go there.

Before we even reached Kurokawa, we saw an interesting sight on the road. Literally, in the middle of nowhere, there were all these  shapes, like birds, bears, statue of liberty and so on cut out of plants. It was like Edward Scissorhands went there on vacation and spent a month making different pieces. It was the strangest thing ever. We had to stop and take pictures.

Kim was surprised when she noticed that this bear even had a set of…well you know.

When we finally arrived at Kurokawa, it was already almost 7 PM. We had to look for a place to stay because we didn’t make a reservation. We soon found out that although there were many ryokans, they fill up pretty fast on the weekend. There were only a couple of places that had vacancy, which we learned about at the information center. We took down their numbers and parked the car in a little alley. Kim used her Japanese skills to make the calls for us. The first number didn’t respond, but the 2nd number told us that there were rooms available and it would be 9000 yen per person. It seems like a high price but most places around there are more than 10,000 yen per person. We were extremely happy. When we went searching for the place, we realized that the car was parked right beside the ryokan. It was like fate.

We ate dinner there and then walked outside for a bit. Although it’s a touristy village, it still looks like an old, small village that you are lucky to fall upon on your travels. Because of this, everything was closed at night, except for the convenience store. We also had to be back early because the ryokan’s curfew time before they closed up was 10:30 PM.

Once we got back, we soaked in the private onsen of our ryokan and then we went to our rooms for some much needed sleep.

The next morning, I woke up and looked out the window. I felt like I was in the movie Spirited Away.

We checked out and made our way to the information center. At the information center, we were able to buy a pass for 1200 Yen that would allow us to go to 3 different onsens in the village. We also got a map with all of the different onsens, which included pictures of those onsens.

We sat down at a coffee/ ice cream shop and picked out the ones we wanted to go to. Once we picked the onsens, we began walking in the direction of the first one.

To tell you the truth, the first onsen didn’t work out that well. We were about to walk inside the ryokan that had the onsen. The map said that there was a public onsen there and it even had a picture of it. Before we even got to the door, one of the guys that worked there ran out and he said in English "No Public Bath Here". We were kind of taken by surprise. We weren’t even inside. The guy just ran outside to block us from going inside and to tell us that there was no public bath, which didn’t even make sense because the map that the information desk gave us said that there was. When we said in Japanese that we had onsen passes. The guy responded in Japanese "Oh, you speak Japanese? Uhhhh…no  public bath here". We just walked away. The whole thing seemed strange and he probably did it because we were foreigners. We weren’t too happy, but we walked to the onsen next to it and it was FABULOUS! We even thanked the jerk for turning us away because we had such a great experience in the other one.

Actually, all 3 onsens we went to that day were great. 

Onsen Picture:

One of my favorites was the last one we went to. It was called Yamamizuki (　山みず木　)  .  There was an only female section and a mixed gender section. Matt went to the mixed gender onsen and Asha, Kim and I went to the only female onsen. There was an indoor onsen that didn’t have a fourth wall. Because of that, we could look out to a water fall. There was also an outdoor onsen. It was so relaxing to be soaking in mineral rich water with nature all around you. The girls and I also chatted as we enjoyed our "spa" experience. We were only supposed to be there for half an hour, but we ended up staying there for an hour. I felt bad when we got out and we realized Matt had been waiting for us for  over half an hour. Oopps!

All in all, our road trip was one of my favorite trips this year in Kyushu. All of us really enjoyed Kurokawa and we want to go back.

If you would like to see more pictures of Kumamoto city & Kurokawa, you can go to my Flickr

We went from Miyazaki to Hiroshima by plane. Hiroshima has 2 airports, but we landed in the smaller, older airport that isn’t used as much anymore – HIroshima Nishi AIrport. When we arrived, we were welcomed by Engrish signs at the bus stop.

We took a bus to HIroshima train station and then we walked to our hotel, which was the Unizo Hotel. Actually, we got a bit lost, but Asha used her iphone gps application to figure out where to go.

Since we arrived at the hotel around 6ish, we decided to just walk to the downtown area of Hiroshima in order to grab some dinner and check out the nightlife.

Since HIroshima is known for its okonomiyaki,  we decided that we had to eat some on our first night.  Okonomiyaki is kind of like a Japanese style pancake with whatever you want in it, like pork, squid, cabbage and even noodles. Of course, it was delicious.

Then, we walked to an area that seemed like it had many bars. We ended up at a salsa bar. It was fun to see people dance salsa, but we were too shy and embarrassed at our low to non-existent salsa skills to actually dance as well. We realized that the club had salsa lessons during the weekday, so the people hanging out there and dancing were regulars who also took lessons or taught there. It was interesting.

The next morning, we took the tram and then a ferry in order to get to Miyajima. Miyajima’s Itsukushima Shrine’s torii (shrine) gates on the water is one of Japan’s top tourist sites. It’s really a stunning site. There is also deer throughout the area and souvenir shops. Asha and I really loved the souvenir cake Momiji. They came in different flavors, like custard, chocolate, green tea and cheese. We bought some to eat that were really hot because they had just come out of the oven. We also bought boxes of cakes to take back to our school offices for our coworkers.

For lunch, we ate seafood okonomiaki and yakiudon. Yes, we ate A LOT of oknomiyaki on this trip.

Although we heard that it’s beautiful to see the sunset on the torii gates, the sky was really cloudy. We could tell that rain was coming, so we decided to start going back to the city. Once we got back downtown, it was raining so much. We couldn’t believe how heavy the downpour was. We were also happy that it didn’t rain during the day while we were in Miyajima.

That night , we were trying to find another club or bar to dance and have fun. We learned about a club called Chinatown. We decided to give it a try. After walking around in circles for an hour, we were able to finally find it. However, it was not what we were expecting. The club looked really shady. Even the sign was busted. Only the “China” from Chinatown was even lit. I knew that the cover charge was a bit high, but I thought “Oh why not?”. When we were about to go in, there was a scalper at the door. Yes, a scalper. He was telling us that he would let us into the club for cheaper. Huh…SHADY!!! We turned him down and then went inside. As we waited in line to pay to get in, the scalper followed us amd was trying to convince us again. I guess he didn’t take “no” easily. When it was our turn to pay,  I put a 5,000 Yen down and I said I was paying for 2 people. They looked at me and then each other. Then they asked something about if we knew any of the djs. When we said no, they said that it would be 3000 yen each. WHAT??? I snatched back my 5000 bill and turned to walk away. I couldn’t believe the price for that beat up club. When I turned, I saw Asha and remembered that she really wanted to go dancing. She had seen me snatch my money, but I still asked “Uhhhh…do you REALLY want to go in?”. I was hoping she would say no, which she thankfully did. After that, we kept trying to find a lounge, club, bar, whatever around that area. All we saw were middle aged men with really dressed up women and Mama-sans. We ended up going back to the hotel a bit sad about how our night had turned out.

The next day was our museum day. We did both the A-Bomb Museum and the HIroshima Museum of Art.

The A-Bomb Museum (Peace Memorial Museum) was of course really sad, but also informative. I couldn’t even look at many of the images displayed. The museum also has a lot of information about Hiroshima’s history before & after the bombing. It also had information about the bomb itself. You really learn a lot by going to the museum. Close to the museum is also the Children’s Peace Monument and the A-Bomb Dome. Everything is in the Peace Memorial Park.

This is the A-Bomb Dome:

The Hiroshima Museum of Art was Asha’s suggestion. They had a special exhibition called Toulouse-Lautrec Connections, which she was really excited about. She seemed really happy about the exhibition and although I didn’t know anything about it before going, I also found it interesting.

We then finished our sightseeing day at Hiroshima Castle (aka Carp Castle). This castle was rebuilt in 1958 after it was destroyed by the bomb. You can tell it’s not that old.  Asha and I were able to enter before it closed. We went all the way to the top to take pictures. It was windy and Asha is really afraid of heights but we were able to take some pictures before we left.

That night we met up with 2 other Miyazaki JETS. They were in Hiroshima for the BOA concert and we were happy to see them. When we talked to one of them about our night before and how we were just looking for a nice club or bar, he pointed out that we were in the shady, red light district area of Hiroshima. After he said that, it all made sense. lol. With some dinner and drinks, we were able to enjoy our last night in Hiroshima.

If you would like to see more pictures of our Hiroshima & Miyajima Weekend, you can go to my Flickr

Day 3 (February 13) National Palace Museum & Miramar Entertainment Park (Actually it’s a Shopping Mall)

On my third day in Taipei, it rained all day. Since it was so nasty outside, I figured that it would be a good museum day. I went to the National Palace Museum. I recommend this museum for anyone who is interested in Chinese art and history because it has the largest collection of Chinese art in the world. My favorite gallery was the Painting & Calligraphy Gallery. If you enjoy visiting art museums, than this is the place to go. It has some really beautiful things to see.

Another great thing about the museum is that it has a free shuttle bus to the Miramar Shopping Center. For most people, this is just a mall with a big Ferris Wheel. However, for the Taiwanese Drama Lovers out there, like me, this is the setting for the drama Why Why Love (aka Huan Huan Ai) with Rainie Yang and Mike He. I feel like I have seen it in another drama too, but I can’t remember. For all you drama lovers out there, was Miramar featured in another drama?

Well, I know for sure it was in Why Why Love because it was one of the main settings of the drama. It was raining, but I was holding an umbrella with one hand and taking pictures of the mall with the other hand. I was so excited to personally see this Ferris wheel & mall. lol. I’m such a dweeb. A woman was passing by and she kept looking to try to figure out what I was taking a picture of. I think that she probably couldn’t believe that the tourist was taking a picture of the mall. (^_^)

At the mall, I went to the music store and bought Fahrenheit’s (Taiwanese boy band) Fantasy World Concert DVD and the soundtrack for the drama Autumn’s Concerto.

&         

I then took the MRT to a couple of places such as Ximending and Taipei City Hall, but everything seemed to be closing down early. Everywhere I went, the doors were closed and the lights were off. The night markets weren’t even in business and there didn’t seem to be much movement on the streets. I think it was because of New Years. I decided it was time to find something to eat and head back to the hostel.

Day 4 (February 14)  Happy New Year!
Danshui, Beitou, Maokong & Shilin Night Market

Since it was my last full day in Taiwan, I tried to pack in as much sightseeing as possible.
I began in Danshui. Yes, I went back there and I’m happy that I did. The morning was warm and nice. It was a perfect day for boardwalk fun. There was food, ice cream and games. I couldn’t believe how many people were there. I really enjoyed walking around the streets and going to the shops.

By the way, I recommend buying your souvenirs there. The shops have really cute things like keychains, phone straps, and trinkets. I bought a phone strap, Mario mirror, 2 keychains for myself and a bunch of keychains for my friends.

After spending a nice, relaxing morning in Danshui, I stopped by at Beitou (Xinbeitou MRT line). Beitou is known for its hot springs. It’s like the Oita (Japan) of Taiwan. Although I didn’t have time to go to a hot spring, I walked around Beitou Park. Then, it was time for my next stop, Maokong, which is known for tea growing. This area has many hiking trails and you can drink tea at the tea houses there.

To get there, first I took the MRT to Taiwan Zoo. The Maokong Gondola is not working at the moment, so they have free shuttle buses to take you up to Maokong. I took some pictures while I was there, but since I came too late (It was around 4:30) I couldn’t explore as much as I wanted to. If I ever go back, I would like to get there early, walk around the area and drink some tea.

After Maokong, I took the MRT to Jiantan and went to Shilin Night Market. If there is only one night market you can visit while you are in Taipei, Shilin is the one you should go to. It has a bit of everything. There is food, drinks, games, accessories, clothes, etc. It’s really fun for the whole family. However, there are a lot of people. I’m just warning you in case you happen to not like crowds.

DAY 5 (February 15) Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

On my last day, I checked out of the hostel and put my bags in a locker at Taipei Main Station. Since my plane only left in the evening, I had some time to do last minute sightseeing. I went to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. I looked around for about half an hour. Then, I went back to the station, had some lunch, bubble tea, grabbed my things and caught a bus to the airport.

On the bus, going to the airport from the station-

A little story about my flight to Fukuoka. The flight attendant’s name was Icarus. For a flight attendant, that is not a good name to have. lol If you don’t know what I’m referring to, Icarus was the character from Greek  mythology who had wax wings so he wasn’t supposed to fly too high (close to the sun). However, he was careless and didn’t care so he flew too close to the sun, his wings melted and he fell to the ocean.

Anyway, when I saw the Flight Attendant’s name- this was my face. First-  o_0   Next-  @_@  Then.  (T_T)

Advice: If you plan to go to Taiwan, a good blog that I recommend checking out is 12 Foot 3. They even explain how to use the city buses in case you need it.

If you want to see more pictures of my trip to Taiwan, you can go to my Flickr.

Ok, so I’m back from my vacation. I went to Taipei, Taiwan. For some of you, this is not a big shocker because I’ve been wanting to go there for awhile. It was a bit last minute, so I ended up going alone, but I still had fun.

Where do I begin? I guess from the top.

DAY 1 (February 11) : Taipei 101 & Shilin Station

I arrived in Taipei on the 11th. I basically checked into the hostel, dropped my bags and went sightseeing. First impression- WOW THERE ARE SOOOO MANY SCOOTERS! Yes, they are everywhere and you have to be carefully when crossing the streets. lol.

First Sightseeing Trip –  I caught the subway (MRT)  and went towards the City Hall Station. From there, I walked to Taipei 101 , which was the tallest building in the world until this year. This is a good place to begin because you get great views of Taipei on all sides. On the base of Taipei 101, there is also a shopping center with many popular & expensive stores, such as Dior and Tiffany’s.

At night, I went on the subway again. I got off at Shilin station, thinking that the Shilin night market was there. Sadly, the night market was at the stop right before it, Jiantan .  Actually, when you arrive at Jiantan Station, the signs in the subway tell you to get off and walk towards Exit 1 in order to go to Shilin night market. I should have been more attentive. However, not all was lost. I walked around the area and took in Taipei city life.

Day 2 (February 12) Ximending, Quick stop at Danshui & Night Markets

Day 1 was sunny and warm. Day 2, however, was cloudy and chilly. It looked like it could rain at any moment. I ended up taking the MRT to Ximending, which is the place to go if you want to buy some cute clothes or accessories. It’s also the perfect place to check out the latest trends. Ximending is like the Harajuku of Taiwan. It’s full of young people hanging out and shopping. I arrived there early, so only a few stores were open at the time. However, after like half an hour, everything started opening and the crowds began arriving. I ended up buying 3 pairs of earrings, YES 3 Pairs of Earrings, and a Hello Kitty bracelet. Don’t ask me why. I was on a shopping high. I also had a girl who was selling me one of the pairs of earrings who was so sweet and bubbly that I couldn’t say no. Since it was chilly and I didn’t have proper clothing for the weather, I also bought a sweater that I used for my entire trip. Oh and I  bought headphones and cute stickers for myself and my friends. Stickers? I know it sounds strange, but just look at how adorable they are:

I almost forgot the idol shop. Let me type that one more time: IDOL SHOP. There are shops full of posters, pillows, mugs, key chains, phone straps, etc with faces of idols on them. I kid you not. I also won’t lie when I tell you that I must have spent almost an hour in that shop and I felt like an old lady because I was surrounded by teenage girls screeching “SHINEEEEEEEEEE” or “SUPER JUNIOR”. Yes, k-pop is big there. I want to tell you that I walked away empty handed. That I didn’t give in to the idol shop and buy goodies, but that just wouldn’t be me. I ended up buying a Big Bang poster and pins with the faces of Taiwanese idols Rainie Yang and Jiro Wang. Hangs head down in shame. (o^_^o)

After spending a big chunk of my day in Ximending, I decided to go to Danshui. Truthfully, it was getting dark and drizzly, so it wasn’t the best time to go. I wanted to see the sunset in the Taiwan Strait, but it was cloudy and the weather was just uggghhh. I did walk around and I realized that the shops there were full of cute things. Since I came at a bad time, I decided to go back on a better day. I went back on Day 4, so stay tuned to read about my return to Danshui.

Anyway, I ended the night by going to different night markets. I went to the Ningxia Road Night Market and the DiHua Chinese New Year Market (Chinese New Year was February 14). It was crowded, lively, crazy and really interesting.

This is a video of Dihua Market that I took.

If you want to see more pictures of my trip to Taiwan, you can go to my Flickr.

My adventure started Saturday morning. A group of ALTs, including Kim, Asha, Lauren and myself, took a 7:45 AM bus from Miyazaki to Fukuoka. It takes about 4 hours to get to Fukuoka, so we couldn’t wait to get up, stretch our legs and explore the city once we got there.

We first went to look for our hostel. After putting our stuff down, we went searching for Hard Rock Cafe. OK, I know how strange that sounds. Just remember that we have been in Japan for a long time, so we were craving things like huge hamburgers, steaks & mashed potatoes. Asha also really loves the Hard Rock, so that’s why we went there. It was actually next to the Yahoo Dome and a mall. After lunch, we went shopping. A big part of our trip, besides sumo, was to go shopping in the big city. Living in Miyazaki, we rarely have the opportunity to go all out in super shopping sprees. Maybe that’s a good thing. lol.

Anyway, after the mall, we went to look around the Tenjin area. I ended up buying cute gloves and a couple of things from Muji. When things started closing, we began walking around. There were Christmas decorations everywhere already. While we were crossing a random street, we saw this cool looking place. It was like the 3rd floor of a building, but the windows had writing on them and it just looked interesting. We went to see what it was. We were happily surprised when we found out that it was a Sri Lankan restaurant. None of us had ever had food from Sri Lanka, but the restaurant smelled really good. Actually, because of the spices in the air, everyone was coughing and sneezing. A couple of people put a napkin to their nose and mouth, so that they wouldn’t cough as much. After awhile, I got use to it though.

We ordered curry noodles and a spicy rice thing with chicken (not exactly sure what it was). The food was really spicy and DELICIOUS. We enjoyed every bite.

When we finished, we had a bunch of bags, a full tummy and a decision to make. How were we going to meet up with the ALTs at a club called “Happy Cock”? Yes, “Happy Cock”. I’m not kidding. It’s an international club in the city where many foreigners go to party. We decided to just take the bags and then figure out where to put them when we got there. We knew that the club had lockers, but we didn’t know how big they were.

It took us a long time to find the club. We basically walked in circles. The funny thing is that the club was only a couple of minutes walk from the Sri Lankan restaurant. We had to wait in line to get on the elevator that would take us to the club. The girls in front of us were stupid drunk. I was not happy. I was tired and I was not enjoying the behavior of the people, who were also waiting to get to the club. Kim and I wanted to go back to the hostel, but we decided to just go with Lauren and Asha. When we got up there, I was even more hesitant. The club was packed.

Anyway, we ended up going in. We could barely move in there. At one time, I was stuck for like 10 minutes. I couldn’t walk forward, backwards or to the side. The people in back of me were trying to get to the bathroom, while the people in front of me were trying to get to the bar. NO ONE COULD MOVE. It was impossible. I got really, really scared. I started panicking. I kept thinking “What if a fight breaks out?” or “What if there is a fire?”. There was a big guy to the side of me. Once he was able to move, I just followed the path he was making.

When I made it to the other side, I stayed next to a table that they had there. It was the area that I had the most room. I basically stayed there all night with Kim and Asha. Once in awhile, someone I knew would come and I would talk to them. The night wasn’t completely horrible because I was able to talk to my friends, but I HATED that club so much. I even got groped by this random guy. He touched my chest while he asked where I was from. I was not amused.

By the time we got back to the hostel, it was almost 3 AM. We had decided on checking out at 8:30 AM, which didn’t give us much time to sleep.

On Sunday morning, we checked out of the hostel, put our stuff in lockers at Hakata Station and waited for some of our ALT friends at Starbucks. We then went all together to the sumo match. We were there really early, so we got to see most of the matches, even the ones that were not considered that important. At 4 PM, the place suddenly filled up. All of the big matches occurred after 4 PM. It was really interesting to watch the matches. There are a lot of rituals involved. The matches themselves are really quick, but there are different rituals done in the beginning, such as throwing salt to purify the area in which they fight. It was definitely interesting. I’m really happy that I got to go.

At almost 6 PM, we went back to the station. Kim and I ate some udon. It was so different from the udon we were used to because instead of thick noodles, the noodles that they used were thin. We were really surprised. By 7 PM, we were on a bus back to Miyazaki.

All in all, Sumo Weekend in Fukuoka was a good experience.

To see pictures, you can go to my Flickr account.

Seoul was amazing. We found great shopping areas everywhere. Insadong had great souvenir shops and an interesting mall with tons of cute things to see & buy.

When I was shopping in Dongdaemun, I felt like I was in the K-drama “Cinderella Man”. I thought that I was going to turn a corner and bump into Yoon Ah trying to sell me a dress. (^_-)  It was really cool. I also loved the Myeong-dong area. This area had both street vendors and regular stores like Forever 21 & Zara. It had the best of both worlds.

Just by reading this, you can tell that I did a good amount of shopping in Seoul including a sweater, winter hat, coat, souvenirs for school, a cute necklace & socks.Yes, I bought many , maybe too many,  socks. lol.

Another thing we did in Myeong-dong, besides shopping, was watching a play. It was called Nanta and it was about a group of chefs that had to prepare a variety of dishes for a wedding.  There was barely any dialogue and yet it was really funny. Most of the music in the show was performed with things found in a kitchen, such as utensils, pots, cutting boards, etc. All of us enjoyed it.

Seoul wasn’t all about shopping & entertainment. We also did a bit of sightseeing. We went to Gyeongbok Palace. It was really beautiful. The fall leaves made it even more stunning. Even the cold couldn’t damper my excitement. I took tons of pictures and videos with my camera.

We also went to the DMZ (the demilitarized zone), which is the strip of land between North and South Korea. When I was there, I kept thinking about how I was taking part in dark tourism. However, it was really interesting. We were able to walk through the third tunnel, which was a tunnel that crosses the dmz and was dug out by North Korea to invade South Korea. We were also able to see North Korea through binoculars that they have for tourists.

Another place we went to was Samcheong-dong. I loved this neighborhood. It had really cute coffee shops, restaurants, shops and galleries. We went there on our last day before we had to go to the airport. It was a nice place to have our final goodbye.

Ok, and now for the most important thing: FOOD. I love Korean food and it was one of the many reasons that I was excited to go on this trip. The food that I ate there did not let me down. Everything I ate was super DELICIOUS! My taste buds and tummy were very happy.

By the end of the trip, we were all extremely happy with our trip, sad that it was over so quick and singing along to SHINee’s “Ring, Ding, Dong” song.

What is “Ring Ding Dong” you ask, well here it is for your viewing pleasure.

You can check out my pictures of Seoul in my Flickr Account

First, let me rewind a bit. On Friday (the 9th), my friends and I went out to dinner and then we went to a karaoke bar. It was me, Asha, Matt, Kim, Alex and Sarah. We had a great time. First, we ate super delicious food. Then, we sang our lungs out in a smokey karaoke bar. What else could we have asked for?

Anyway, by Sunday, 4 of us were really sick. I was having problems with my asthma and I felt feverish. Asha, Alex and Sarah were throwing up and having flu symptoms. I went to the doctor on Monday with Paul and found out that I had bronchitis. My other 3 friends had swine flu. Whoah!

I felt really sick on Monday, but I had tickets for a Mariza concert in Tokyo on Wednesday. I was really worried that I wouldn’t feel better on time. However, I did feel better on Wednesday morning (the 14th), although not fully recovered. I rushed to the airport to catch my plane from Miyazaki to Tokyo. I arrived there right when they were boarding. Close Call!

Once I got to Haneda Airport, I had to take a bus and a train to Saitama, where my friends, Monica and Eric, live. It is also the place that I stayed at while I was there. Monica and Eric used to be my neighbors last year. They were Miyazaki ALTs, but now Eric is studying in Tokyo. Basically, Saitama is to Tokyo what New Jersey is to NYC. It’s where many families live although a lot of its residents travel daily for jobs, shopping, entertainment, etc to Tokyo.

Anyway, by the time I arrived in Saitama, it was midday. Eric, Monica and I hung out a bit in their house and ate lunch. Then, Monica and I got ready to go to the Mariza concert. Mariza is a Portuguese fado singer. We were in the third row, so we were super close to her. The concert was AMAZING!!!  The audience was mostly older Japanese people, but there were also people from all over the world. At one point, she asked where people were from. There were Portuguese people, of course, but there were also people from Russia, China, Italy, Iran, Mozambique, Angola, Sweden, etc. At one point, I grabbed Monica’s hand and raised it and said “America”. She came to us and asked us where we were from in the States. I said Jersey and Monica said California. Then, she talked about how she was going to Jersey for a concert next month. I was just super excited that she talked to me during her concert. SOOOO COOOOL!!!

I think that I used up too much of my energy on Wednesday night. On Thursday, Monica and I were tired and I still wasn’t fully recovered from my bronchitis. We just ended up hanging out in her house, watching Nana (both the movie & anime) and just catching up on what had been going on in our lives lately.

On Friday, we met up with Eric at school. Eric is in grad school at Keio University, so he showed me around the university. It’s beautiful. Then, we went to Tokyo Tower, which is nearby. When we got up to the observation deck, we were able to see great views of Tokyo from all sides.

Tokyo Tower

View from the Tower

There were also lookout windows on the floor. Scary! I was the one on the bottom that barely had her feet on the window. It was too scary for me. lol. Monica was rocking her moon boots though (^_-)
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On Saturday, Monica and I went to Harajuku to do some shopping. I went to Harajuku the last time I was in Saitama when I was helping Eric and Monica move and I really like it there. Our goal was to go to H&M & Forever 21 (I haven’t been to a Forever 21 since I left the States and I haven’t been to an H&M since I went to Hong Kong last May) , but somehow, we kept getting distracting by all of the cute stores on our way there. I bought tons of things. I bought a black hat for the winter. It was my second one that I bought that day because I bought a pink one in Saitama before getting on the train. I also bought hair accessories, 2 skirts (1 skirt was kind of tutu like), scarf, boots, and cute socks. My goal was to buy a winter coat, but I didn’t find any that I really liked. I wish I could have bought a super cute lolita outfit, but they are really expensive. Monica had to leave to go to a farewell party for a friend, so poor Eric, who had met up with us, had to follow me around while I went from store to store. lol.
Anther highlight, I ate Wendys. Why is Wendys a highlight? Well, Miyazaki doesn’t have any, so I hadn’t had Wendys since I left the States, which was over a year ago. It was mighty delicious, but they had no baked potatoes. I really wanted one.

On Sunday, I decided to do some more shopping/ sightseeing before catching a train to the airport. Monica and I went to Akihabara because I wanted some cute headphones. Akihabara is like a men’s world. It’s full of electronics stores & stores that have anime products. Because of this, there are tons of guys all over the place. At one point, we were crossing a busy intersection and it was like a sea of men walking our way from the opposite side. Do I exaggerate? I don’t think so.

Akihabara also has a lot of maid cafes, so there are girls in cute maid costumes passing out flyers for the cafes that they work at. I would have loved to go to one just to check it out. It must be really cute, but we didn’t really have that much time. In Akihabara, I did find cute, pink headphones for cheap and a nice keyboard for my laptop. Woohoo!!!

Since we had a little bit of time left, I decided to go to Ginza to buy some shoes that I saw at the Muji store on the first day I arrived in Tokyo.    ( We were window shopping before the concert. )

Picture of Harajuku:

I had fun on my trip and I bought a lot of goodies.
It was hard to leave Eric and Monica again. They are such cool people. I miss them being my neighbors. Although I think I was at their apartment way too often when they lived in Miyazaki. lol.

I want to go to Tokyo again in the future. Actually, I wouldn’t mind just living there for a year.  How cool would that be?  (^_^)

We took a plane from Miyazaki to Osaka on Saturday evening. When we arrived at Osaka, we had to figure out a way to get to the hostel. Of course we ended up getting a little bit lost. One of the directions that the hostel gave us was to turn and walk down the colorful street. By the time we arrived in Osaka, it was already dark, so the street wasn’t really all that colorful. lol. We had no idea why the hostel had written that on their website until we walked down the street in the morning and realized that it indeed was colorful. lol.

Since we arrived late, we had to look for a restaurant that was still open. This was a challenge because a lot of them were closed or were closing. Then, we happened to find a Brazilian lounge with food. This made me super happy because I hadn’t had any Brazilian food in so long. It was also really cool to hear a mixture of Portuguese and Japanese. Most of the people there were either Brazilian immigrants or children of immigrants, so they would mix both languages when they were talking. It was really cool. It was also nice to finally understand what people were saying around me. lol. (^_^)

The rest of the time we were there, we mostly tried to go to different temples in Kyoto. For example, we went to Fushimi Inari Shrine, Sanjusangen-do Temple and Kiyomizu-dera Temple. We also went to Gion where we ran into a Maiko (apprentice geisha) and we went to a flee market in To-Ji Temple. Kyoto is really an amazing place. I recommend it to anyone who is traveling to Japan.

On the last day we were in Kansai, we went to Nara. We went to Todai-ji Temple. The temple is known for having a huge bronze statue of Buddha. It was an amazing site. SInce it was our last day, we still tried to make it to Kyoto for one last temple, Kinkaku-Ji,  but it was already closed when we got there. Oopppss! I guess if we ever have a chance to go back to Kyoto in the future, that temple has to be on the top of our list of things to see.

Throughout the trip we had certain quotes that both of us said a lot. For example, Asha would usually say “I’m here for the culture and the boys” and she was right. lol. We saw a lot of cute boys. I fell in love with a waiter in Osaka. He was GORGEOUS, but if you ask Asha about him, she will say  “Uhhh…no I don’t think so. He was not cute”. lol. I thought he was soooo cute!
I also had a crush on the “Information Desk” worker at the Osaka train station. Yes, we took the trip “for the culture and the boys”.

Then, there were the boys that we didn’t want around us. In one of the trains from Tokyo to Osaka, there were a group of young guys sitting across from us, who were super obnoxious. They were trying to figure out what to say to us in English. Of course, the only thing they seemed to know and thought was appropriate to say to us was “Sex Friend? I like sex” and “I have penis”, except they pronounced it as “penes”. We ended up leaving the train and catching another one.

The quote that I kept saying on our trip was “Let’s see what happens”. A lot of times, we didn’t exactly know how to get to certain places and we weren’t sure what people were telling us, but I would just say “Let’s see what happens” and hope that the train and/or bus would get us to the right destination. It worked, for the most part. We did get lost a couple of times, but it was mostly OK.

We did have other weird moments in Kyoto that had nothing to do with the opposite sex or our bad sense of direction. Once, we were on a train from Osaka to Kyoto. Half way there, everyone was told to get off of the train. All of us had to then wait on the track for another train. We have no idea what happened.

This happened to us again, but on a bus. We were on a bus going to Kyoto Station. The bus was full. At one stop, this guy, who seemed to have special needs, put his hands to his head and ran to the front of the bus and got off. Two older people followed after him. When this happened, the bus driver decided to kick all of us off the bus. Asha and I had already commented on how stressed the bus driver looked, so it was both a surprise and yet not shocking when he told all of us to get off. lol.

All in all, it was a great trip. Osaka is a typical busy city & Kyoto and Nara are beautiful. There are so many more things that I would like to see, but I didn’t have the chance to, so I would definitely like to go back.

This is the Maiko (apprentice Geisha) we saw in Gion. Asha took this picture.

This is me at Kyoto Station.

For more pictures of my trip to Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara you can go to my Flickr Silver Week Album:
www.flickr.com/photos/stefy29/sets/72157622438285894/

On August 13th to the 16th for the Obon weekend, I took a trip to Nagasaki by myself. I caught a bus from Miyazaki to Nagasaki. It took about 5 1/2 hours, but the bus was comfortable and it stopped twice at rest stops, so that we could stretch our legs.

Once we arrived, I took the tram to get to the hostel. Of course I ended up taking the wrong tram and had to back track. Once I got out of the tram, I started looking around at my surroundings and trying to figure out which way to go next. Two girls got off the tram with luggage at the same time as me and asked if I was going to Akari hostel. We ended up walking together to the hostel and later we found out that we were placed as roommates at the hostel. Funny Coincidence! They were only there for 1 night though. The rest of the time I was there, my roommates were Interac ALTs from up north.

Overall, my trip was great. Nagasaki is a wonderful city. It reminded me a bit of Macau because it is clearly influenced by a variety of cultures from both the West and East.

One of the most important, but most emotionally difficult places to visit is the Atomic Bomb Museum. Certain images are just so painful to even witness. However it’s important for people to learn about the horrors caused by the bomb, so that we do not repeat the past.

Another great place to visit in Nagasaki is Glover Garden. It has many European resident houses from the Meiji period. There are also good views of Nagasaki city. I was surprised to see a statue of Giacomo Puccini and a statue of his opera Madame Butterfly in the garden. I did not know that Madame Butterfly was based on events that occurred in Nagasaki in the 1890s until I got there.

My hostel, Akari hostel, was great. We had an event every night. On the first night, many of the guests from the hostel got together and did fireworks together. On my second night, we took a cable car to the top of Mt. Inasa to see the Nagasaki night view.

However, the highlight of my trip was probably the Obon festival in the street. Obon or “Day of the Dead” is a custom of honoring the deceased spirit’s of one’s ancestors. In Nagasaki, families create floats with lanterns and pictures of their deceased family members. I even saw a float for deceased pets. They would walk around the streets with these floats while fire crackers were going out everywhere. It was really noisy because of all the firecrackers. Once I got there, I realized why the conbini had ear plugs at the front of the register to purchase. lol. However, it was a really interesting festival to observe. I was glad that I got to see it.

I really enjoyed my time in Nagasaki. If you are in Kyushu, you should stop by. That’s after you visit Miyazaki, of course. (^_^)

You can go to my Flickr account for pictures of Nagasaki- www.flickr.com/photos/stefy29/sets/72157621938467771/