I have been extremely busy lately with school and work. It has left me little to no time for updating/keeping my blog. Fortunately, I was able to get away for a moment and present something that should have been done long ago!
November 3, 2009
OKAYAMA Welcome Party! Only a few months late, yeah? It seems like eons ago, when we first arrived to Japan. I was actually speaking to some of my fellow EPOK (Exchange Program OKAYAMA) students about the time we actually start calling: 'OKAYAMA' our home?
The census is about three months into the stay here, that is about when most of us started saying, "let's go home", rather than the "留学生会館 (international dorms)". Most of the students that started with me in October, were bored of Japan by February.
It was stated that I was one of the few that has enjoyed the stay since the beginning. I believe that it is true too, and the new batch of EPOK students that came in April will be going home in August. None of the new students will be staying for a full a year.
It is somewhat funny, because I will be staying in Japan longer than most of the new exchange students will be. Most leave from August 12 to the 31, and I will be leaving sometime undecided in September. To already be speaking of leaving is such a sad note.
This post comes after some of the participants in the party have either graduated and moved on with their lives, or have gone back to their respective countries. So much has happened since then. It is amazing going over some of these older photos.
The party was quite large and we were able to gather many people. We played bingo for prizes. There was drink and food, and an unexpected speech that all new EPOK students needed to give. A lot of them chickened out and disappeared before then.
Overall, it was a fun event and enabled us to all the exchange students. We were able to learn about where they came from and interesting facts from each student. It is nostalgic going over such old photos. Hopefully, we have a farewell party, and I will be able to post it before I leave!
This semester, I have taken a few classes that involve field trips to different areas. They have been keeping me busy, but allow me to say that I will post more on the trip in March and these other trips soon.
Thanks for staying along for the ride, click HERE for the rest of the photos!
For all the photos, Click HERE!
March 16 – 17, 2010
5th Day of Travel – SHINKANSEN and KYOTO
Okay, so I decided to combine the two days because of how short a day the 14th was. It was seriously only travel and eating. We woke up at 06:00 hrs thinking that we only needed an hour to catch the 07:00 train. I guessed wrong. Although I was up and ready at 06:20, we didn’t leave the hotel until 06:40. To make things worse, we couldn’t flag down a taxi.
We walked to the station and missed the train by about a minute. We saw the train leave the station. Well, there is no use crying over spilt milk. The next train wasn’t until 08:40. So we had some time to kill. We walked through a seafood market, where my buddy was interested in some lobster RAMEN.
It was a little too early for me to eat a meal like that, and I decided to have a cup of coffee at a café near by. After finishing up we met up at the station. We sat for about a half an hour before getting onto our train. We were able to get come good seats and move towards HACHINOHE.
HACHINOHE is the most northern town on HONSHU that has a SHINKANSEN station. The first portion of the trip was going to be three hours long. We had to go from the northern island to the main island. The train went under the ocean in a tunnel much like the tube in Europe. I fell asleep while in the tunnel.
HACHINOHE was nothing that special, and we had to rush from one platform to the next. Here, we found something that sucked. The train that we were taking from HACHINOHE to TOKYO had no open seats. If you don’t know what that means, it means that we had to stand for about the next three hours.
My buddy Ben, sat in the middle of a corridor while I just stood and watched my iPod. It was a long ride, and my legs hurt after that. When we finally got to TOKYO, I saw half of ‘HEAT’ and all of ‘Italian Job’. Ben was worried about the KYOTO train and was wondering when it would ever make it there.
Well, TOKYO is one of the few places that I didn’t really have any problems getting around and we made it to the next platform with time to spare. After getting on the train we waited about a half an hour for the next SHINKANSEN to KYOTO. That actually seemed like a long wait, even though it really wasn’t.
Luckily, we were able to get a seat to KYOTO and slept in peace until we reached our destination. Once we reached KYOTO, we took the subway to get to the station closest to our hotel: MARUTAMACHI. Once there, we got lost for about 45 minutes; walking up and down the street looking for the dam hotel.
The hotel was actually on the other side of the block that we were walking on. After walking around for the better part of an hour, we resigned and took a cab. I have to say that I was upset when I found out where the hotel was. The map on google was a little off….
After checking in, we made our way to try to see what was up with the city at night. Apparently, in KYOTO the best thing to do at night is to go see the temples that are lit up or go to a bar. After finding this out, we ate dinner at MATSUYAMA and dessert at McDonald’s.
During dessert, I planned out what to see the following day. I wanted to make sure to see some things that we could do in a day. The major event of tomorrow will be EIGAMURA. After planning out the events, we went and turned in for the night.
March 15, 2010
6th Day of Travel – KYOTO
So, because I knew that Ben was getting tired, I told him to take it easy, because tomorrow I was going to be pushing him really hard in KOBE. We woke up at about 09:00 hours. Making our way to the station so that we can get closer to EIGAMURA, (A Japanese version of UNIVERSAL Studios, [not to be mixed up with UNIVERSAL Studios Japan {USJ}] meaning that they do medieval Japan type movies) again we got lost. I couldn’t believe my luck.
I have never been this lost in my life. Even when in Korea and not speaking the language; I was able to get around just fine. Finally, asking a few people for directions we arrived at the theme park. We went on in and decided to eat lunch first. This was an interesting place. It is also my second time back.
Ben really wanted to try on the SAMURAI outfit and was adamant about finding where he could get that done. I told him that we would find it in time, and moved in a counter-clockwise rotation around the park. We were able to see a traditional Japanese courthouse, jail, and toilet!
Moving on, we saw a dragon/monster come out of the water and spray water all over the place. Also, there was a god that came out of a mountain and spoke to us. It was all good. We were having a great time. Following the god, we found a traditional theater with a play going on.
Watching the play was amazing. The acting was decent and the stunts were really cool. The main bad guy kept popping out of random areas in the theater and specifically targeting women in the audience to scare. I will have to remember to bring my friends here. Hehehe!
Exiting the theater, we were called over to a stall. My friend was hesitant at first, and was even more so when he found out it was the costume thing that he was looking for. I egged him on to do it because he was bugging me about it earlier, and I told him to think of the chances of doing it again. After that reasoning, he decided to go ahead and do it.
I have to say it would have looked awesome if he didn’t have to where the wig with the topknot. Oh well, it looked good anyway. Also, it only took three minutes from start to handing him the photo. Talk about fast! I still wish more places in the world wore KIMONOs.
After a quick photo for Ben, we moved towards the gaming area. There was archery, a toss ball game, cork gun shooting, and NINJA star throwing. We partook in all the above. It was fun. Then as we were finishing up we noticed that there were people dressed up in the traditional drab all over the place, and started taking their photos.
Souvenirs were the next stage in the trip. We walked around looking for souvenirs to buy. When we were finishing up with that; the park was closing down. We moved on to the next stage. Leaving to go to the next place, the bamboo forest. Unfortunately, after talking to an information booth agent, we found out that it was closed.
What to do? Well, lets go walk around the station and see what is there. We found a TAKOYAKI restaurant, and went in to eat dinner. Once done, we saw an arcade upstairs and decided to finish off our night playing video games. Let me mention that Ben did run into many problems while playing. A lot of the games that he wanted to play required a member card.
It always seemed that the card he wanted was always out. He kept running into that problem, and as comedic as I thought it was; he was getting upset. Therefore, I told him to stick to games that did not need the dam cards. I ended up playing a game called ‘Blaze Blue’, and played for a good hour before being defeated. It is recommended you play!
Once I was defeated, we decided to turn in being that tomorrow we have to get up early and go to KOBE!!
Stay with me for the rest of the trip! We still have weeks more to show! For the rest of KYOTO's photos click HERE!
For all the photos from KYOTO, click HERE!
