Memoirs of Today: Wakayama (2007)

July 9th

2007

Naga High School, Wakayama, Japan

I feel like I should have tried to do this series years ago! For some reason I have more motivation to write about all my past activities this way-maybe I could have kept up regular posts if I had. XD

Ah, well, at least they're getting done now, right? ;)

This day in 2007 marked the first day we attended our sister school, Naga High School.

I should probably explain a little before I continue.

Students from Naga visited three schools in Washington State (USA) every March, of which our high school  and the high school of the other students we traveled with were two. It was because of this program that my friends and I asked our Japanese teacher if we could do a similar program in reverse. This trip was the second successful program for the American high schools :)

Aaaaanyway, because of this, we knew many students in varying grades before we ever arrived on campus. 

We were pleasantly surprised when a group of friends crowded in the doorway of our classroom during our break time! It was soooo nice to see them again--especially because so many of them had been our exchange students or exchange students of our friends!

 Throughout the day, we spent the morning in our own series of classes and then were invited to join our Japanese friends and host families in their classes. It was so fun to sit in with them and see what Japanese classrooms are like! At one point in a science class, a teacher surprised us all by throwing at egg at a girl!--only, it was rubber, despite how realistic it looked ;)
Once his joke had been successfully performed, he gave me the egg as a souvenir. xD


After thoroughly loving our first day of classes, some of our host siblings took us to karaoke! It  was the first time for us to visit a private-style karaoke room, and we had soooo much fun!!

After my sister's club activities had finished, she and my host brother and mother came to pick me up.

We went to a kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi restaurant) place. 

It was DELICIOUS and it was so nice being able to end the evening with my host family after a thoroughly wonderful day <3

Memoirs of Today: Himeji, Kyoto, Nara, Wakayama (2007)

Hey everyone~! 

Did you all have a nice weekend?? 

Yesterday my roommate/coworker and I went out with some of our amazing students.

It was so fun!

We went to an 居酒屋 (Izakaya) with them and ended up talking, eating, and drinking together for over 4 hours! For those of you who only know me by these posts...I'm a very "kinetic" person. Generally speaking, I maintain my energy by moving around--so for me, sitting at restaurants for so long generally makes me want to fall asleep.

But, to my pleasant surprise, it was actually reaaaaally fun! 

The room we had reserved was a Japanese-style room, complete with tatami mats and a view of a Japanese-style garden~

And, naturally, we took puricura to complete the gathering ;)

Suffice to say, I wasn't able to do a 'memoirs of today' post---but I suppose I can make up for that now, seeing as my break today is longer than usual. ;)

MEMOIRS OF TODAY

(July 6th-8th)

JULY 6th
2007

Himeji Castle, Himeji, Japan

Kyoto, Japan

The 6th was the day we returned to Kyoto after spending the previous day in Hiroshima. We had already visited the famous temples on our agenda during the first few days following our arrival (which you can read about in detail here if you're interested), so we spent this day mostly walking around town, trying to revisit places we were sure we would miss.

Before arriving in Kyoto, however, our travels brought us to the infamous Himeji Castle, which is arguably Japan's most popular castle. 

Memoirs of Today: Hiroshima (2007), Tama (2010), Hiroshima (2013)

Goooooooood afternoon, everyone!

In honor of the fact that it was exactly 7 years ago today (ironically, my lucky number) that I first came to Hiroshima, I decided it would be fitting to launch my new long-intended series: "Memoirs of Today." These will be posts written about experiences that happened on the same day in years prior.

.... So in other words, this is my way to compensate for the fact that I posted absolutely nothing during my actual travels n the post. Whoops... :x

Since I have nothing from my actual *today* to write about (just going through the motions of work here!) I present to you this day in my history....

July 5th

2007 - Hiroshima city, Hiroshima, Japan
2010 - Tama, Tokyo, Japan
2013 - Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan

2007
Hiroshima, Japan

This was the very first day I ever set foot in the place that would eventually become my home.

We had spent our first few days in Japan in Kyoto, and had traveled into the city after a one-day, one-night stay on the nearby mystical island of Miyajima. 

Our first item on the agenda was to visit the Peace Memorial Park and Museum. 

Here we saw the infamous A-Bomb dome and tried not to grimace as we read about the horrifying facts about the after effects of the atom bomb. This, alongside visiting the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia a few years before, was by far the most sobering experience I've had.

After we were all thoroughly depressed, our guide decided that Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki was just the thing to cheer us up! Unfortunately, I was one of the only people in our group who actually liked it...
While we waited for all the members of the group, I spotted this adorable gyaru and instantly fell in love with her hair!

Aaaaaaaaanyway

Next we went to Shukkeien Garden with stuffed tummies and a need for some relaxation after all the sobering things we saw.

Once we had thoroughly refreshed our minds and managed to catch a glimpse of the resident turtle, we ventured into town to spend the rest of the day shopping and exploring.
Since there were only two girls from my high school on the trip, myself included, we decided, what better way to spend the rest of the evening than by finding good bargains and making new friends?!

And so we did. And it was glorious.

And that concludes this Memoir from this day in 2007. :)

2010
Tama, Tokyo, Japan

By this time in 2010, I had thoroughly settled into my position as a volunteer English teacher at a Christian church in Tama, Japan. I was staying with the pastor of the church, an adorable widow with quite the witty sense of humor! I had been there for a month already, and we decided to go out to eat since we hadn't done so together for some time.

Isn't she adorable?!

2013
Hiroshima, Japan

And, of course, last year marked my official move to Japan. 

I had arrived in Hiroshima the night before. It was my first full day in the city, so I decided to get the feel for my new house after a brief walk along Hondoori, the shopping area in Hiroshima's city center. <3






That marks the end of my memoirs for this day~
Looking back, what have your experiences been on this day~? :)

とうかさん (Toukasan Festival)

Starting with the kick-off of Toukasan on Friday, summer festival season officially commenced in Hiroshima!

Toukasan is ( I believe) the first summer festival in Hiroshima, honoring the god Touka Daimyojin. If you're interested in the history and activities of Toukasan, you can read about it here and here. Or, if you just want the basic jist: It's a festival that includes tons of food and game vendors lining the narrow sidewalks of Chuodori (one of the major streets, if not THE major street, of Hiroshima's downtown area). Tons of people crowd the streets, many wearing yukata. It's not a great setup if you're in a hurry because there are so many people packed into such narrow walkways, but it's great if you want to experience a Japanese festival!

Unfortunately, BECAUSE there are so many people it's almost impossible to take any good pictures of the actual event. However, I did manage to take a few from last night when my roommate and I wandered around in Yukata of our own after work. 

We ran into a few friends of ours, including Serika from an izayaka we frequent~ We talked for a few minutes before her friend Kanako joined us, and then we all decided to take some puricura together! :)

After taking puricura , Lie and I wandered off. We were walking to another part of town when all the sudden we were ambushed by the staff from Big Boss, a music (especially guitar/bass) shop we've been to a number of times. Now that they were no longer restricted to the constraints of professionalism, they goofed around with us for a while. Eventually, one of them dragged me into Donki to take puricura. He was a little tipsy, but absolutely hilarious! I motioned for the others to follow as he dragged me away. 

The puricura turned out to be absolutely PRICELESS, but unfortunately he said we weren't allowed to post them for the sake of job security. It's really too bad because they're probably the funniest puricura I've ever seen xDD

After that, I walked Lie to a bar where she would be drinking for the night (I have work today). 

Tonight we're planning to attend the festival with friends, so hopefully the few, sad pictures I took yesterday will be replaced with much better ones! See you soon! <3

China 2013 ❤ 厦门 (Xiamen), Pt I

Hey, All! 

It's crazy to think that around this time last year I had just come home from one of my most memorable experiences: my INCREDIBLE trip to China! As such, I figured it was time to find some internet and actually WRITE one of these long-overdue posts.

I bet you thought i wouldn't actually get one of these posts done!

I don't blame you...I didn't think I would either.... haha~ Yay for us being wrong! 

Anyway, rather than go back and write a painstaking entry for every day of my trip, I decided to do 'broad categories' based on locations I got to visit. Some of these entries may be divided into multiple parts given the extent of activities we got to do. In Xi'an, for example, we did much more site-seeing than when we were studying in a classroom setting everyday in Xiamen. We'll see how it goes as these entries slowly trickle along. ;)

Here is the second installment of the China photo series: XIAMEN ❤

China 2013: Xiamen

PART 1

Xiamen is a beautiful island along the Southern coast of China. It is most famous for being a "honeymoon" and wedding photography capital, as well as a comparative "Hawaii" for its warm weather, gorgeous beaches, and wonderful locals.

China 2013 ❤ Hong Kong: Arrival and the Gist of it All

Hey guys! Sorry for the extended wait! 

Everything has been CRAZY since I came back, but with good reason! Aside from graduating, taking a few extra classes, and getting back into my work routine, I've also started working again and just had my wisdom  teeth pulled a few days ago. On top of that, I have a mega-ultra-super-exciting surprise that I've been devoting a lot of my time and attention to, but that will have to wait until the final details have all been ironed out. ;)

All I'll say for now, is that I never expected so many wonderful things to happen in such a short amount of time!

But that's not what you're here for, is it? ;D

Without further-ado, I present to you post one in the China Series: an introduction to Hong Kong!

HONG KONG: Arrival and the Gist of it All

― 香港 ―

Hong Kong was our point of arrival. In order to 'ease us into a new environment,' we began our orientation here. Hong Kong is an incredible mix of Western and Eastern culture. Despite the fact that most people around you speak Cantonese, there are English signs and announcements wherever you go. It's not difficult for a person who speaks English to get around the city with ease.

It's also a beautiful, exhilarating place! There are sky scrapers and modern looking buildings at every turn, with efficient subway and bus systems so you can easily get wherever you need to be. And, of course, the food is phenomenal ;)

My first day I actually had to spend the night in the airport! It wasn't horrible--I just rented a space in one of the airport's lounges. We were staying at the Wu Kai Sha YMCA camp as a group, but unfortunately they locked their gates after midnight. Since my flight didn't land until 11pm, there was no way I would have made it through customs AND the hour+ bus ride to the camp. Regardless, I slept peacefully enough, enjoyed a breakfast (though the ham tasted more like horse than pig), and set about wandering the terminal until a few other students and our group leader showed up. The nice thing about this? I got to watch the sun rise on my first day in Hong Kong, and it was BEAUTIFUL. 

Eventually I met up with a few of the other students who were scheduled to arrive that morning, and the lot of us joined our group leader on a double-deckered bus headed towards camp! It wasn't very crowded so we got to sit on the top level right in front of the window, and enjoy the sites around us!