Feb 13,2011

japan

so i just got back from a long tiring weekend exploring western japan. definitely fun, definitely an experience.

wednesday night at 8 30 pm we left from tokyo on a bus. we is a group of 27 tuj students and nahomi and paul-oss leaders. the bus was like a martz bus, and it was an overnight bus in which we didnt arrive to our destination until 7 30 am, so yeah this kind of sucked. i slept on a bus wednesday night. there was no bathroom on it but it made a rest stop e very two ours.

thursday morning at 7 30 we arrived in hiroshima. i got to eat a quick snack and brush my teeth and do my makeup haha.

hiroshima was a beautiful city but it was very quiet and very open. it had almost an eeriness too it, and after going to the museum put a lot into perspective. the way i learned about things in school you learn august 6, 1945 d day. a victory. but no. what i saw when i went to japan made me very upset. what america did was kill millions of innocent victims in a painful and cruel death, literally burning their skin off their bodies until they melt. the heat of the atomic bomb was 3,000 degrees the museum was really sad, but also really informative. i got to stand in the spot the bomb landed, and meet survivors.

a about 3 pm we left and went to get some okonomiyaki—-delicious food that hiroshima is famous for. me and kate got to sit at the bar and watch the guys make it. its basically a crepe with noodles on top, and cheese and shrimp and egg and barbeque sauce. so goood!!!!!

at 5 pm we took a ferry from hiroshima to miyajima island. this was the most beautiful spot ive ever seen in my life. its a small traditional island in japan. little msall shops are open selling gifts and food. the island is famous for its deer. hundreds of deer live on the island but they are not the deer you think of in PA. these deer come right up to you and lick your hand! i had pictures of me and the deer but somehow they got deleted! i think my grandpa would have really loved miyajima. it was calm and peaceful and full of animals. and there was a lot of old people living there. it reminded me of him a lot. i bet his heaven looks like miyajima. but with butts and cabbage! lol!!

we stayed in the ryokkan inn which is a traditional japanese inn. i took a nice hot shower after nearly 48 hrs of feeling gross (i did not mention i had to go right from my internship to the bus on wedndesay) there was an onsen downstairs-which is a traditional japanese bath. japanese are big on hottub/ group bathing. its part of culture. also japanese our not embarrassed or personal about nudity. its a big public bath wear everyones naked, but its supposdely great and relaxing. jen and megan went in it and loved it. i was tempted to go in but i didnt. that was prob my only chance to ever do so and i passed it up. ypu see, onsens have a strict rule of no tattoos. tattooos are not at all popular in japan. people are afraid of them because they are associated with the yakuza——the japanese mafia. so many places do not allow tattoed people such as an onsen. but this was just a small onses in our hotel and no one would have said anything. anywayyyyy my roomates were megan, jen, mirijam and kate. we got to wear traditional robes and got a delicious meal served to our room! fish, oysters, tempura,rice,egg,pickes…and a bunch of stuff im not even sure what it is but it was delicious!!!

the next morning we all overslep! someone our alarm didnt go off! breakfast was served at 7 downstairs but i didnt wake up until 7 05so i skipped breakfast in order to get ready. i got dressed in time for 8 am check out and took the ferry back to hiroshima. then we took the shinkansen aka bullet train. its a train that goes superfast. basically if we took the shinkansen from tokyo-hiroshima it would have taken maybe 4 hours, vs 11 on the bus.

at 11 we arrived in kyoto. i have to say, kyoto was cool but i was underwhelmed. maybe its because i always hear how beautiful it is and its talked up a lot but. eh, it was ok. maybe its because there wasnt much to do and i am a city girl who likes busy busy bustle! kyoto people were a lot more sheltered than tokyo natives. people stared a lot and were in shock to see white people. (i forgot to mention we did not stay in the group of 30 the whole time! i just hang out with 4 -5 friends). i saw some famous temples, bought some souveniers and checked into the capsule hotel for the night. this was awesome. very futuristic where you sleep in a pod in the wall! the light slowly turns on in your pod as if the sun were rising in the morning.

saturday morning me, jen, kate and megan checked out at 10 am and got breakfast at a cafe. hot milk tes and egg and bread! then we went to osaka. osaka is the 2nd largest city in japan. i was warned it was kinda like tokyo but grungier and more real….you can say that again.

i was in shock and definitely got a new mindset about japan by osaka. 1st of all they have a whole different dialect than tokyo. diff slang, accents. so i couldnt understand a lot of people. also people are not as shy, they are more upfront and not afraid. from 14 year old girl;s yelling “hello!!!” at us (aka making fun of us. people in japan know like 2 english phrases hello and thank you so by saying hello its like if you were to see a spanish person in start laughing and say hola!!) also theres a lot more punk rock kinda people. and “ghettoo thugs”. tokyo is very upper class wehere people always wear prada suits and 4 inch stillettos and carry luis vuiton bags. people in osaka are more middle class and have crazy hair and piercings. people were hello gaijin at us. i used to think that term was kinda funny, but now i think it kinda hurts. gaijin is a derogatory term that means not japanese. its basically like calling a black person the n word.

the day was fun though! we spent all day saturday shopping! i got a dress, a hot, shoes! the girls at the one mall were super cute and super nice. she helped me pick out a bunch a clothes and kept telling me how cute my ring was, asking me where i was from etc. jen, kate megan and i went to an all you can eat italian buffet which was so yummy for lunch! pizza, pasta, salad! nom nom!!

after a long nap and putting on my new outfit we decided to go out. the night life of osaka is also much shadier. we wanted to stay close to the hotel which ended up being in a shady distrcit filled with people trying to solicit us into their bars and make fun of us. its so weird to me. prob because being white and living in america i have never had to deal with racism before. or being made fun of for my race. but in osaka, people love to be rude to foreigners!

i got got ddrunk then went to bed.

today was osaka day number 2. instead of shopping we went to some temples and sight seeing. me and kate got a charicatuer taken. it is cute! the artist was so a nice! a little ojiisan (old man) whos daughter did a homestay in pennsylvania we said! people kept stopping us and asking where we are from. bit unlike people the day before they said postive thngs about us, while pointing out we were foreigners by genuinly acting intrigued and saying we were kire (pretty, beautful girls)…i talked to a buncha little kids who were adorable age 7!!!

we got sushi for lunch/ dinner than headed home.

its now midnight and im beat. i have my internship tmmmrw and have to go to the alien regitration office in the morning.