Friday of last week me and Kotomi went shopping in Yokohama station. Before that we went to her sushi restaurant again for lunch and her boss gave us so much good food again. He even made me a custom “American California Roll” which was really huge, lol. After that we took the train to Yokohama’s main station and went to the shopping center in there. They were having a huge sale in there so there were a lot of store clerk’s screaming about sale prices. I ended up buying a dress shirt and a floral dress. Eventually we met up with Kotomi’s friend Wakako. She was really funny 
She was so glad to meet me too! After shopping a bit more we went to Krispy Kream and Wakako bought me a donut 
After that we met up with Kotomi’s friends Chinami and Rumi. We all went to an okonomiyaki restaurant. We cooked typical okonomiyaki, had a cheese fondue and then more okonomiyaki was just delicious. I had a really good time with her friends! After that we did some more shopping which was fun.
On Saturday we met Kotomi’s friend Vincent and his friend Hana. We all met up at Kamakura which is a popular tourist town a little ways out from Yokohama. First we explored a shrine near the station and after that we went to lunch at a cute restaurant up on a hill. After that we attempted to find the huge Buddha statue but ended up at another shrine on the way there. After that we tried walking to the Buddha again but ended up on a cute little shopping street where I bought a few things. After that we walked to the train station and then took a bus to the Buddha. We saw the huge Buddha statue and then walked back to the bus stop. After we got back to the station we went to Yokohama and did karaoke for about 2 hours and had a few drinks. We did some really good songs! Like Micheal Bluble and I even did Real Face in Japanese. Then we went to go to dinner and found this really good chicken place and also ordered a tea drink and rice which was great! We spent a long time talking there which was really fun. Vincent was very funny!
On Sunday, Kotomi’s whole family took me to a shopping mall. First we went to the grocery store and I bought some snacks to bring home. Then we all got crepes and lunch in the food court. We walked around the mall some more and stopped by some stores like UNIQLO. After the mall they drove me to the airport which was sad, because I didn’t want to leave Japan! We arrived at the airport a little nearly since there wasn’t much traffic and we shopped around the outside airport part for awhile and Kotomi bought me a couple things which was so nice! Her family is so nice too! They said goodbye to me at the security check point and I was pretty sad! They all said they were going to miss me. I waved good bye to them and said goodbye to Japan as well.
Well that ends my adventures in Japan! It really was a life changing experience for me. I learned a lot about myself and being in a new enviornment by myself and really experiencing something so different. I really will value this experience for the rest of my life. I really miss Japan and everyone there. I will definitely go back someday. In what capacity I will go back, we will see <3 Love you Japan! Miss you already!
July 1, 2010
Mishima, one more time.
I leave Mishima tomorrow. I am super sad to be leaving! But first, I will talk about my last week in the best place ever. 
Last Saturday, in the morning, I played Super Mario with my host brothers, which is always fun! Later in the day my host brother, Masato and my otou-san took a bike ride to the beach. When Masato asked me it was so cute! He said, “Cycling ikimasenka?” It was just adorable! This was the first time I’d ridden a bike in Japan. A lot of my friends commute to school by bike so I was excited to give it a try. The bikes are definietly a lot different than in America, including the style, and you have to ride on narrow streets without sidewalks. It was quite an adventure. We got to the beach in about 10 minutes. The beach was ok! The sand was black, which I wasn’t used to seeing and surprisingly there was a lot of garbage on it. But it was interesting to see. We walked around for a little bit but it was pretty windy and starting to rain so we biked back. We ended up getting a little soaked from the rain, but it was fun! Later in the afternoon my host mom took me to the Numazu port and we walked around for awhile and we also went into the tsunami wall tower and we got a really great view of Numazu city! That night we went to a Sushi Conveyer Belt restaurant for dinner. It was cool because you can order types of sushi on a touch screen and a little shinkansen brings you the sushi, or you can just take it off the conveyer belt. My host brothers kept ordering so many kinds of sushi it was quite funny. I tried so many different kinds, it was great!! We ended up eating like yon ju yon (44) plates but it was really cheap! That night we looked at Fuji-Q website and my host brother pointed to the Haunted House and said, “you go there!” haha, it was adorable.
On Monday after class we went to the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park. We had a pass for 3 rides so I went on the park’s 3 rollercoasters. The first one sped up super fast (i believe it has the fastest acceleration in the world) at like 4.2 Gs. It felt so surreal because it was pushing on you so hard! Overall the ride was only like 40 seconds but the beginning was just insane! After that we went on Fujiyama which holds some records for the longest track. Literally the coaster kept going and going it was ridic. The last one we went on was one where your feet dangle and the cart spins in like every direction and goes upside down. It was just CRAZY. We all felt delirious after going on it lol. After the 3 coasters it was time to head back to the bus so we all grabbed ice cream first and then left. That night at dinner Masato-kun asked me what I did today in Japanese and it was adorable because his mouth was full of food so I was surprised I understood what he was even saying. After that Ta-chan/sensei was like lemmie do your homework! Then we watched part of Harry Potter 4 in Japanese
On Tuesday after class me, Laura and Jess took the bus to Sun to Moon, a shopping center in Mishima. I bought a few things at the UNIQLO there. When we got back to Nichidai, we went to calligraphy club which was fun! 2 girls asked me to take a picture with them and kept saying how cute I was I’m def not used to all the attention I get over here. Our friend whose nickname was Pokemon, also gave us a candy present lol.
Wednesday was an interesting day. Well, I guess I’ll just say I’d been havinng some ‘boy’ issues during this part of the week. I knew someone had liked me from the first week and it was fine, I didn’t really ackonledge it. But then I noticed he started to avoid me/ignore/turn his bike in the opposite direction when he say me. Laura had Sandy talk to him and he basically said he was just nervous around me and didn’t know what to say. Anyways, during the morning TA session me Laura and Fred were sitting with Akira. Akira was just talking and then said he lived across the hall from this person. Fred was like,…ohh! he likes Sara! Then Akira started joking about SATC Mishima and Fred said, ohh RW:Mishima! lol. I just found it funny. Fred and Akira kept writing kanji like “pure love” and other things that they were laughing about 
; After class we had an open discussion with the American Culture class and it was akward and boring. After that me, Fred and Laura met up with Akira and went out for Chinese food. Well, we tried to go to the Chinese restaurant but it was closed so we went next door and got gyoza. Of course Fred and Akira were continuing to joke and I was telling Akira I really wasn’t interested back. But of course he made the joke that he, laura, said person, who LOVES sara () and me should go on a double date which I found to be absolutely hilarious. After that we had to head back to Koto Club. I loved playing the Koto! The sensei was really impressed with my playing and Nagase sensei even said that she was surprised how fast I picked it up! Afterwards was a little akward because said person was waiting there and I completely ignored him. Laura tried to pull me back to go talk to him but I refused because I had no idea what was going on at this point. It was after the club that Sandy told me what was really going down.Then later that night we had an intense Skype convo about how he wasn’t trying to avoid me and he really wanted to see me the next day o_0
On Thrusday…boy was it interesting. After class we had lunch with our friend Keita finally. We hadn’t seen him since Tokyo because he had some exams. After that we had to go to a mini-birthday party in sensei’s office. After that we called Keita to meet up with him again and went to his apartment. We just drank coke and he played guitar for us. It was so nice! After that we went to a ramen shop and got gyoza with rice. We then met people at a karaoke place where we went with a lot of TAs and SBU people. While we were waiting, me Keita Laura and Jess went to 7-11 to get drinks which we basically chugged on the way back to the karaoke place. At this point, we had told Keita I didn’t want to be near said person so when I was near said person Keita was like, Come over here! During karaoke I sat and talked with Keita the whole time. He is soooo sweet and nice!!!! Karaoke was fun! We did a mixuture of Japanese and American songs and even 1 Chinese and 1 Korean song. The best was All the Small Things! Keita was so surprised and happy that I like Blink Keita really is the sweetest. He was helping us find all the songs we wanted on the karaoke machine and talking to me a lot! At the end of the night he gave me a ‘friendship bracelet” and even a hug! Which is unusual in Japan, lol.
Friday was our last day of classes. Everyone was getting really sad at this point because none of us wanted to leave Mishima! We had a great last lunch and ate with Keita, Take and Sena. All sooo nice~ After lunch me Laura, Jess and Take all went to Numazu to do a bit of last minute shopping. I had to head back early because I had to get ready for the farwell party. My host mom gave me a yukata as a present and her obaa-chan was coming over to help dress me in it. After I was all dressed up in the most wonderful yukata ever (a little tight, lol) me, my host mom and ta-chan went to Nichidai for the farwell party. My host dad and Masato would be coming later on. The farwell party was pretty emotional First we walked into building 15 and saw Nakayama-san and she gave me some presents! so nice! I passed by a group of TAs in the lobby and all they could say was KAWAII! KAWAII! I really am not used to all the attention. After that we walked over the the cafereria for the party. At this point, we thought it would be the last time we would see Keita. Laura called me on the phone and told me to come out of the cafeteria so me, Laura and Jess could say bye to him. When I came out, his expression was just so funny. He really was just staring at me with his mouth a little open. It was the cutest thing ever!! Everyone kept saying how pretty I looked in the yukata and, as I said, I’m not used to this attention at all. We eventually had to say bye to Keita, Laura and Jess were crying, so I said bye and went inside. At the party, we all ate dinner and eventually all gave a little speech about our time in Japan, I was trying so hard not to cry!! Unexpectedly, Yuki made an announcement that the TAs made us all a little something special. All the sudden I hear Akira-san saying “Sara! Sara!” in his cute little accent and he hands me a wonderful photo of the group and TAs messages on the back. It was so adorable and nice, it took a lot not to cry!! After that I took many pictures with all my friends and everyone kept saying how cute and beautiful I looked and everyone wanted a pic with me . Saori said the yukata color suited me so well! <3 Joe even said my yukata pattern was the prettiest, lol. One of he TAs gave me a friendship bracelet and Shunsuke gave everyone the cutest letter! SO sweet and nice! I hugged so many of my friends that I would have to say good-bye too, and they said they were going to miss me too. ;( Leaving the cafeteria was really hard, I had to say goodbye to sooo many of my friends.
The next day was sooo hard~ I played video games with Masato in the morning and soon we had to leave to go to Nichidai. The ride to the school was really tough. It was a gloomy rainy day and Masato said, “The rain is like his heart” and I was going to cry. It was the sweetest thing he every said and it made me so emotional I couldnt help it. Everyone was waiting in the lobby leave. All the sudden I felt a tap on the shoulder and I turn around and Keita says “surprise!” Keita came in the morning to say good-bye to us, it was sooooo sweet!!!!! I was so happy I got to say goodbye to him one last time. Eventually, everyone had to board the bus but I stayed behind with all the TAs and Sandy. It was so sad waving good-bye to the entire bus with a lot of my friends on it. Then I said good-bye to Keita and Take for good. 
After that I put my suitcases in Kotomi’s car and said good bye to Masato and my host mom. I hugged them both and they said they were going to miss me a lot. I was soooo sad to leave them behind, but I was heading off to Yokohama with Kotomi.
After leaving Nichidai, which was very hard, we went to Hakone to eat the famous black eggs that are boiled in a hot spring thing that smells like sulfur. I ate two of them which means I will add 14 years to my life, lol. After that we drove back to Yokohama which ended up taking nearly 6 hours (should have taken about 2 or less) because of major traffic jams, but eventually we made it to Kotomi’s house in Yokohama.We also stopped at a family style restaurant on the way to her house! For dinner we went to the sushi shop “Inase” where she has a part time job. It was about a 3 minute walk from her house. (so much different than Mishima) When we got to her sushi shop she introduced me to her co-workers. We sat down at the corner and ordered lots of kinds of sushi! Her boss also brought out many different kinds of seafood and sushi to try. Also, the boss’s son made me a custom “california roll” even though the shop doesnt sell it! The boss’ son was pretty funny because he knew the show “Maji De” and did the Maji De sign and I did it back, we were both laughing! He also made me an origami face out of a 1000 yen bill which was so cute!! The boss also gave me a rare tea cup that said Inase on it!! So fun! After that we visited Kotomi’s friend’s Lama and Satoshi and their baby Nor, who was soooo cute! They were such nice people and I[’m glad I got to visit them!
Monday we went into Harajuku to do some shopping! We did a lot of World Cup related shopping, lol and then ate lunch at another family style restaurant. After that we walked to Shibuya and drank Starbucks and then went into the big DVD/CD/book place called Tsutaya and read magazines. Later on we met up with my friend from Geneseo. We wandered around Shibuya for awhile before finding an okonomiyaki place to eat dinner. We ordered beers and 2 types of okonomiyaki and another type of yaki. We had the waiter make the first two, but then we tried to make the 3rd one, lol. It was cool saying a few things in Japanese to my friend, haha. After that we wandered around Shibuya some more before stopping at a cute little bar for some drinks. After that we all headed back to the station and said our goodbyes!
On Tuesday we headed off to Tokyo Disney Sea! It was so much fun! Since we went ona Tuesday, there were barely any lines for a lot of the rides, so we got to ride most of the rides and some of them twice! It was tons of fun! At night, we headed to our hotel. Kotomi’s friend’s boyfriend works at th hotel so some how he got us a bigger room, later checkout time and free breakfast, sooo nice! At night, we put on our Honda shirts to watch the Japan vs. Paraguay game. Unfortunately, Japan lost in a penalty kick, which jsut sucked. The next day we went to Tokyo Disneyland which was tons of fun! Again, there weren’t many lines so we went on most of the rides and Splash Mtn 3 times and Space Mtn twice lol. Also, we went the day before a Michael Jackson 3D ride opened and two girls inline in front of us at Splash Mtn had extra tickets so gave them to us! it was sooo nice!! We also watched the electrical parade. Tons of fun!
On Thursday we went to Kanagawa University to meet Kotomi’s friends for lunch. All of her friends were sooo nice! Especially Ayaka because she was practicing her English with me and she happened to be from Mishima! Her brother also went to high school where my bus stop in Numazu was, crazzzy! I ate Udon for lunch and Kotomi got me her school’s specialty ice cream with dango and anko. So good! After that we went sight seeing in Yokohama. We walked to Minmitori and did some shopping in Landmark Tower and then went up to the top to get a great view of Yokohama and you could even see Tokyo in the distance. After that we did more shopping in 109 in the building next door and got really cheap, cute shoes! After that we headed back to Kotomi’s house where we had gyoza for dinner which I helped make! So delicious! We also watched vs. Arashi. Yokohama is a lot of fun so far!
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June 20, 2010
Japan continued
I guess I will start off with where I left off last entry, with our weekend trip to Tokyo!
Last Friday after class we went over to the train station to take the Shinkansen to Tokyo. We were all a little nervous about the Shinkansen (bullet train) because we weren’t sure how fast it actually went. We’ve seen it fly by the Mishima station many times before but were nervous of what it would be like to be in the Shinkansen! It actually wasn’t bad at all. We actually took the slowest of the bullet trains because it was the cheapest. We got to our station in Tokyo in about 50 minutes which is crazy fast. If you took the regular JR line, it would take more than 2 hours. When we got to our station in Tokyo, we had to transfer to the JR line to get to our hotel in the Minato Ward. We walked from the train station to Shiba Park Hotel. The hotel was okay, a little dark inside me and Laura’s room, but it was ok! The area where we were staying was ok. Plenty of restaurants, a convienence store nearby as well as a Starbucks! <3 After we checked in, we all met in the lobby to head over to Daiba/Odaiba area. We took a farther train station stop to Odaiba. The Odaiba area is really nice. It is right on the water with a breaktaking view of part of the Tokyo skyline across the river and plenty of shopping and its own little statue of liberty! Me, Laura and Steve walked away from the water after snapping pics there. We walked across a pedestrain bridge near a ferris wheel and then walked back. We went into a shopping center to first eat. We all ate Osaka-style yakisoba noodles which were delicious. After that we went upstairs in the shopping complex to do some shopping. I bought a green jacket there. After that we managed to navigate and find our way back to the hotel where I met up with my friend Kotomi and her friend Chinami. Then we all went to Tokyo Tower! It was awesome because the tower was blue in honor of the first day of the World Cup. When would I ever get to see Tokyo Tower as blue again?? Haha. The view from atop Tokyo Tower was just breathtaking. It makes you realize how massive Tokyo really is. It was sooo beautiful. Since Tokyo Tower was within walking distance of the hotel, it was very convinient. We also passed a temple with creepy doll statues on the way there, which we made jokes about. After that Kotomi and Chinako hung out in our room for a little bit, but then we had to try and sleep because we had a very busy day coming up~
The next day was quite eventful! In the morning we had a tour of Tsuiji Fish Market which is quite an amazing place. We got to see the outside market, where the public is allowed, and the inside market, which is only for professionals. It was quite a bustling site to see. We also saw the vegetable section where a nice store owner gave a us a sample of Japanese cherries and dragonfly fruit. After that we ate a nice lunch of fresh, raw tuna in the tsuiji promotion center which was the freshest, most delciious I’ve ever had! After that we took the train to Ginza, a ritzy area of Tokyo. We looked around for a little bit (but of course didn’t buy anything lol) After that we went to Asakusa where there is a famous temple with a huge red lantern. We met our friend Keita, from Nichidai there. It was really crowded and hot so we took pictures and where on our way! At this point it was me, laura, fred, jess and keita, who would help us get around tokyo After that we all went to Shibuya. When we first got there we saw the famous Hachiko statue. After that we walked, across the famous Shibuya crossing, and got Starbucks. I got an Ocha Frappucino, which was actually quite delicious! After that we looked in the famous 109 (Ichimarukyu) center to shop. We looked around Shibuya for a little longer (most stuff was expensive) and then headed on to the station. The station was PACKED. We were literally like sardines. We all had a ‘moment’ with each other, lol. We had to physically push our way out of the train.
We got to Harajuku, which was def my favorite place. They had many ‘idol’ shops, and cute clothes and shoe shops. I bought a few pairs of socks and tights at Tutuanna. After walking around Harajuku for awhile, we stopped to eat at a Korean BBQ place. It was DELISH. You grill all of your own things. We also had Korean bopum which is hot pot and I tried pork tounge, which wasnt as bad as I thought. That was a really really fun dinner. After Harajuku we breifly went to Ikebukuro and took Purikuras. It was crowded so we had to wait a little, but it was so much fun. Keita was so awesome and nice for taking us literally all around Tokyo!
The 3rd day in Tokyo was really fun. We went to Akihabara first thing in the morning. Akihabara was ok, but it was mostly guy stuff (maid cafe, anime, electronics) and there were mostly guys there. I was glad we were with Steve and Fred. We mainly shopped in an electronics store which was like 6 floors! It was like Best Buy on crack, seriously I bought 2 headphones, KAT-TUN’s going and a DVD for my brother. We ate lunch at a popular fast food place (with orange awing) and then left Akihabara. Next we went to Shinjuku (navigator here! haha) which was mostly high-end designer stuff. Fred and Steve wandered off to Kabuki-cho which is mad sketch After that we went back to Harajuku for more shopping. I bought I scarf there and tons of idol goods. After shopping we met up with Fred and Steve again (this time is was just me and Laura) and walked over to a shrine near Harajuku because random Japanese guy who said hello to us told us to go there, lol. The shrine was nice, and we even saw a wedding there! In Harajuku we saw a KAT-TUN bus for No More Pain!!! At this point Laura had forgot something at the hotel so it was just me Fred and Steve, lol. We wandered around for awhile trying to find a place to eat so we just ended up getting Italian and then walked a few buildings down for desseret (I had tiramisu) in a really cute cafe like place. After this we headed back to the station, where our train was delayed in front of a hot, shirtless, Kame panasonic ad. **swoon**
Monday was pretty uneventful mostly because everyone was exhausted from Tokyo. After class most of us went home and just relaxed. We really went all over Tokyo in 3 days and it was quite exhausting.
On Tuesday we had a special viewing of two katanas. One was about 800 years old and the other around 300 years old. I was surprised how well preserved they both were. We got to ‘view’ both of them by holding them and examining them. It really was never wracking because these are important artifacts After thw sword viewing we went to a small museum called Sano Museum of Art. After that we went back to Nichidai and had a discussion about fashion with some of the students.
On Wednesday, we had a trip to Kyoto! We took the Shinkansen which took a little over 2.5 hours. Kyoto is in the Kansai region of Japan which is pretty far from Mishima. When we got to Kyoto, we boarded our tour bus and were on our way. Our first stop was a famous rock garden temple. After that we went to the famous Golden Palace which was just breathtaking. It is really famous and is really a symbol of Japan. Next we went to the 1,000 statue temple. It was just me and Fred which was really cool to experience since he is Buddist. We were both awe-struck. In the temple they had 1,000 statues of a goddness and one HUGE buddha staute. It truly was amazing to see. Fred even burned insence which was really cool to see. We both bought calligraphy proverbs from here. After that we went to popular shopping area for souvenirs and ate lunch there. After that we went to another Buddist temple which was HUGE. Then we walked to another shrine and then shopped around the main street in Kyoto. We ended up eating dinner in Mc.Donalds because we were kind of in a rush to make it back to the train station on time. I finally ended up buying awesome sandals there. We took the shinkansen back to Mishima. The shinkansen was funny because we had a ‘club shinkansen party’ lol
On Thursday we were all quite tired from running around Kyoto the previous day but after class we had a four hour break so we went to Numazu Station for some shopping. I bought KAT-TUN’s new album, No More Pain, which had come out the previous day, a copy of Duet and an Ikuta Toma photobook. After that we went to our favorite center and got creaps. They were MAD delicious!! When we got back to Nichidai, we were invited to join tea ceremony club. They didnt really explain to us what to do so were were all pretty confused but we all got to eat sweets and make tea the right way! When I got home, we ate pizza and chicken wings for dinner and Masato’s friend Wataru (Wa-chan, lol) was also there, he is quite funny. After dinner we ate the egg ice cream and played Uno. We also watched Naruto and then did homework. My host Dad helped me with Katakana by reading the World Cup section of the newspaper since all the country names are in katakana, lol. Ta-chan also showed me his school project and was Tatsuya-sensei for my kanji homework .
On Friday, after class we took a taxi to a small buddist place for Zen meditation. The master showed us how to sit, which was really difficult and painful to hold. My knees were throbbing after our 20min meditation. He then gave us a lecture about Buddism and the sitting meditation we did. After that we took a bus to an Onsen we were invited to. I was quite terrified, but I got over it and was ok. lol. When I got home we watched a funny video show on TV and me and Tatsuya played Wii (Super Mario Bros) for like 2 hours, lol. It was funny when he kept saying we were playing “Survivor” version and he kept trying to kick me off the edge. When Masato got home from supplemental school they made me a Mii, which was hilarious.
This weekend was really fun! But I’ve written soooo much, I need a little break and will write about the weekend later on. Almost time for dinner too!
On Friday
☆ ♪ ☆
//pretearsasame
