Fun in Kansai

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August 31st 2008

Published: September 14th 2008

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Spadey

The local rotemburo

Bettina and I after 2 1/2 hours in the local (but luckily one of the best I've been in!) public bath- spas, massaging water chairy things, hot and cold baths outside, 4 saunas... $6 and you can stay 24 hours, if you had more stamina than the 5 of us... So relaxed... So sleepy

One major highlight of my summer break was a camp with people from the dorm...- After a 9 hour night bus home from my Tokyo trip back to Osaka, 2 days of sleep and rotemburo (a public outdoor bath, nearby), Skyping friends and family, catching up with a couple of friends back here and having one last night out with Sarah before we said goodbye, I went off on a "camp" with 69 other people from the Kansai Uni dorms. 50 guys, of whom I knew not one, and 20 girls, who I made heaps better friends with over the three days we were together. Fantastic trip. Don't understand why me and one other foreigner are the only two exchange students ever to have gone on this annual camp! It was so good for making mates, plus you get to see the beach!

Took 5 1/2 hours on the bus to get to Ishikawa, where the girls were staying in a 20-person tatami-matted room, and the guys in tents. We all split up into 6 groups of 12, with which we spent most of our time- teams for sports, games, night time fun, and for cooking all meals. BBQ style.

Imax after the Osaka aquarium

It had Jonny Depp and Kate Winslet English voice-overs! Craziness!

mmmmm... Everyone in my group was absolutely lovely- Again, so lucky.

A lovely relaxing three days...

Here are some photos of the camp + of some of the mates I've made, and of fun times in Osaka (where I live), Kyoto, and Kobe (both under 1 hr away by train)...

Additional photos below

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Drinks and Karaoke with Yasu and co.

Shoken, Yuna, Rie Absolutely LOVE this group. All of them (except Shoken, who also did a year exchange, to Canada) met in England whilst on exchange- so they've got a similar love of exploring to me, and they're more opinionated and blunt than lots of other people I've met here. So much fun!

Drinks and Karaoke with Yasu and co.

Rie

Drinks and Karaoke with Yasu and co.

Yuna

Drinks and Karaoke with Yasu and co.

Dorm live

(right) My mate Hitomi (from the dorm)

LAUREN!!!

Lauren and I in Shinsaibashi, when Lauren came to Japan

Acapella- my band

The big day- the tempo almost doubled people were so nervous! haha Needless to say we didn't get through to the national concert...

Takoyaki Party

Shun (back), Kashi, and Ken (Yuki taking photo)- all mates from the English circle I help out with... Fried octopus balls... an Osaka speciality... oooohhh soooo goood... Spent three hours chatting, cooking and eating around Shun's (Yuki's (my host sister from Himeji) boyfriend) teeny tiny table in his teeny tiny apartment.