Blogs from Hyogo, Japan, Asia - page 7

Our last day in Japan. It was a good day! We headed out early to go back to Kyoto. At first it was a bit of a buzzkill to have to go back to the city we thought we finished yesterday, but it turned out to be one of the nicest days of the vacation for me. Once we got there, Nick headed off to the Kiyamizu temple (to buy something for Megumi) while Mike and I ventured out to visit the golden pavilion (Kinkaku-ji). We all started by buying a $5 all day pass for the bus. I'm actually starting to be able to get around a little bit on my own (when Mike and Nick are otherwise engaged and I actually try to do something on my own). The girl behind the bus info ... read more

A collection of facts that I've learned in Japan so far: 1) English music is everywhere. Commercials. Playing from random stereos outside stores. And it can be in many forms too, sometimes without words. 2) English *celebrities* are everywhere. Cameron Diaz, Scarlett Johanssen, Tommy Lee Jones, Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightley... tons... 3) Just about everything you can buy, you can find at a store somewhere for very cheap. Go to the mall, clothes are expensive. Find a local Avail shop or other equivalent, clothes are extremely cheap. And books? Books are already cheap, but find a used book store, and they're even cheaper! The only thing this isn't the case for is phones. Phones are friggin' expensive everywhere. 4) Traveling can be expensive... and long. But it's also kind of fun. Especially when you get lost. ... read more

A couple of weeks ago, the Wakayama JET group arranged for us all to go to a Hanshin Tiger's game... Japanese vocab yakyuu: baseball natsukashii: nostalgic It's something everyone should go to at least once while in Japan- a Hanshin Tiger's game. Who cares if you're not interested in baseball? You don't even have to watch the game, you can just watch the fans! It's all about the atmosphere. Baseball games in Japan remind me of sitting (well, more like standing) in the student section Memorial Stadium at the Cal vs. USC games...everyone stands and cheers the whole time, waving around giant flag, with their own bands playing below, and goofy mascots dancing around with oversized heads. Weeeeeeeeeeell, Japanese pro yakyu games may not have fully bands going, but they make up for it by ... read more

On Saturday, me, Lani, and her roommate Rachelle went to see the Himeji Castle, and it was one of the best "little" trips I've had this semester! Even though things didn't work out exactly as we had planned, it was still a lot of fun! And we learned an important lesson from that day...to always expect the unexpected! We planned on leaving at 11 AM Saturday morning. But let's be honest, this is me and Lani...so we took our time and had a nice breakfast in the dining room and got to talking about Okinawa and skydiving. By the time we had decided that you are more likely to die from skydiving than bungee jumping (Lani had jumped off the Macao Tower over spring break), we looked at the clock and realized it was already 12! ... read more

Section 1 We had come by shinkansen to Kyoto and our first stop would be Kinosaki. We found the platform for the JR Tokkyuu Kinosaki Express at Kyoto station, had time to buy some onigiri riceballs and we were off enjoying the long ride which brought us via the JR Sanin Honsen line passing the mountainous area to the other side of Japan. The views from the train were pretty but the weather changed before we arrived in Kinosaki and the rain started to pour down violently. From the station, the courtesy bus took us to our ryokan and it seemed that all the elderly people from the train had come to bathe in Kinosaki too. Kinosaki had been famous in the beginning of the 18th century with many well known artists, writers, and calligraphers having ... read more