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I've wished so many times this travel could come true, and here I am.

I've been 21 days in Japan.

I took my plane from Paris and landed on the morning at Kansai airport, near Osaka at 8h30 am more or less.
The flight's 11 hours killed me but I was enough strong to go to Matsusaka, in Mie prefecture were my japanese friend lived and where I was supposed to stay on my first week.

Matsusaka is a calm place. I had the opportunity to live in a Japanese style house with a japanese family.
The dad collected a sort of strange bugs with long legs. I hate bugs but I have to admit that they made a very beautiful sound at night. Looked like little bells.
The mum gave me breakfast every morning. She was so kind. At the first time I felt like I couldn't eat meat nor vegetables in the morning as I'm used to sweet things. But when I left Matsusaka I missed her breakfast so much! and even right now...
I ate Matsusaka beef too! One night with the family we did a yakiniku and it was delicious. That's also when I felt in love for Kabocha (japanese pumpkin). *I even bought seeds later haha*
Before leaving Matsusaka the father took me to the city museum. There, a gentle man gave me a bell and said to me "make it sound, so it will bring back memories of matsusaka". It moved me.
I also bought some wind bells. I'm crazy of wind bells so I took 3 or 4. Crazy. Ah, and I also broke one. I still feel bad for this...

Ise. Would have loved to get there earlier as it's full of typicall japanese shops and it's very calm. I also went to one of the main shrines. It was raining, but the rain sounds on the top of the trees was delightful.

Nara is a very weird place. Maybe because I haven't been in the city side but I felt very strange by walking next to the deers just like that. Anyway, I found it super interesting. I went to the Todaiji and I loved the two guardians of the main entrance. Just sublime. I felt very little next to them and to those that were able to made those magnific creations.
I couldn't make it to see the kasuga buildings... but I will for sure.

Kyôto was full of tourists. I felt quite disappointed about it. I think I idealized the city as an old, japanese, wooden city. Haha. But then I found out it was a huge city. I couldn't see everything. Just kinkajuji, pontô-cho, and the buses! yes, I spent my life in the buses. Getting confused. I also returned there with my class to see the Toei animation studios which was pretty cool.

So the first week was really fast. I did one day site-seeings in Ise, Nara and Kyôto.

I stayed one morning at Maizuru. We swam in the beach and had a lot of fun. I also got sunburn yay!

Then Ôsaka. I stayed around 10 days at the JICA, doing a program of "japanese art" at Osaka University.
My dormitory was just perfect. The problem was visiting Osaka from there. Not very close.
But one sunday I met two japanese girls and they took me to a karaoke. We ate okonomiyaki and then I went to the aquarium on my own. It was huge! As the amount of souvenirs. Only japanese can do thousands of cute merchandising just basing on sea animals. I went as crazy as all the kids over there. No way!
With the class we went to restaurant twice or even 3 times. The first time we ate yakiniku, the second omuraisu and the last night shabu-shabu. That was just paradise. Japanese food is really good.

From there I also went to Sakai. I visited the museum and got to see (more or less) from a 40th floor, Nintoku's kofun. I also bought to myself a book about kofun. 100YEN only, but in japanese.

Then, the last days I went to Tôkyô. What to say about it? It's not what you hear or see in the pictures. There are no skycrapers everywhere. In fact the first time I got out from the train in harajuku, there was a big garden, with trees and plants. I was like "I should have missed the stop".
I went to karaoke at 3am, to discoteque in shinjuku, ate in a izakaya in shibuya..
Tôkyô is so big. There are so many things to do. I really want to spend some more time over there.

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