Doing things in the RAIN!

So theoretically 梅雨 (tsuyu), the Japanese rainy season, is over, but you really could never tell from how much it has been raining lately.

Last weekend, Alexis and I headed over to Mie Prefecture for a hike, and of course it rained. Which didn't really bother me all that much, as I adore hiking in the rain. . . but still. You would think just ONCE I could plan to go hiking and have it NOT rain.

First, we headed over to see the wind turbines, and they were AMAZING! They were a little smaller, I think, than the ones I've seen in Texas, but still awesome. And because of the rain and the fog, they were all creepy and mysterious. <3ed it! What made it even cooler was that they kept disappearing and reappearing, so you would be walking and not even realize at first that you were about to walk right into one.

The we headed over to 青蓮寺ダム　（Shourenji dam, I think), and it had the most AMAZING view! At first I wanted to jump into the water, but then Maranda pointed out a very large mass of floating oil, and then I no longer wanted to jump into the water. Still, the water was still and gorgeous and with the mists in the mountains, it just felt so peaceful and nice. I think that misty mountains with water in front of them has to be my favorite view in the entire world. And the Japanese know what they're doing when they throw a red bridge into the mix - sheer gorgeousness!

The we headed further into the depths of Mie for a hike (in the rain!). We were supposed to see 48 waterfalls, but, while we did see an ENORMOUS amount of waterfalls, I don't think there were that many.

The hike was super easy and breathtakingly beautiful, which I was more than grateful for, as the car ride there made me totally motion sick.
At the end of the hike, there was a salamander museum, and we got to see some of the CUTEST salamanders native to Japan. They have five fingers,and when they move them it's really just the cutest thing ever. I wanted to hug one and bring him home with me!

Then this past Friday, despite the fact that a typhoon was very obviously coming in, I went to Nagoya to meet up with Rachael to go see Skull Candy and Bunny the Party. Skull Candy played a very short set, but Bunny the Party was ON! The singer was ridiculously energetic, and just watching her up on stage filled my heart with happiness.

At one point, though, she pointed directly at me and said "あの白いお姉さん、超素敵！”　　That basically means "That white person is super awesome!" Maybe I should have felt flattered, but I think more than anything I felt embarrassed. In any case, I love Bunny the Party!

The last band to play was Splash, and they were SO amazing! Super fast totally addictive ska punk, and I was into it (unfortunately the lyrics leave much to be desired, but, well, meh). Now, I know that a lot of times this kind of band will single out one person in the audience, but after the Bunny the Party comment, it felt weird that this person should once again be me. Especially since he was speaking in super fast Japanese, and he had no way of knowing if I would understand him. He asked who I came to see and then he asked if it was my first time seeing them. . .and yeah. I guess it's normal to do that to someone in the audience. I dunno. . .

Anyhow, it was SUPER fun, and I fell in love with Splash and will definitely be seeing them again. And Bunny the Party. And Skull Candy. And the Rattle Trapz, who also played and were fab!

Last night, Martin and I once again braved the typhoon and went to Nagoya to meet up with Rachael (again!) and some of her friends! Her friends were all awesome, so we had a great time! First, we went to an izakaya, where we were practically accosted by crazy people.

Note that we didn't know about half of the people in this picture

Then we went bowling, and I feel bad for Martin, who was on a team with me. I think I must have bowled the worst game ever of my entire life. I was very consistent in bowling 0s.

Will, Tatsu, and Chiko, seen in the left of the picture, weren't much better than I was, but Stephen (picture, right) was an interesting bowler.

He would either get 0s or strikes. But there was very rarely much in between. He also had techinque, which all of the rest of us were completely lacking.

On the right, there--> Tatsu, me and Chiko.
Rachael's friends were all really amazing.

Except that, for some reason, the boys (Will, Tatsu, and Stephen) felt the need to be anti-social and go off and smoke. I hate cigarettes. I hate smoking. I eventually went over and threw their cigarettes away (yes, I actually threw them in the trashcan - why they didn't seem to hate me afterward, I'm not entirely sure), but in the meantime, I had to make some new friends.

The guys sitting across from us were ridiculously amazing bowlers, and they were also quite nice. Plus, they were eating ice cream and NOT smoking. I really don't know why I so regularly feel the need to talk to random strangers, but I do, so. . .what you gonna do?

Other things I have recently done in the rain:

I went shopping in Nagoya with Rachael, and she received an extraordinarily large number of kleenex

And that's sort of it, actually. I'm sure I've done other rainy things, but none of them are coming to mind.

In the meantime, this is getting extraordinarily long, and I've got some homework to finish.
以上です。

Term 5

This term has been INCREDIBLY eventful so far! I can't believe that I haven't written a single word about it up until now (except, yknow, the awesomeness of concerts). I also still haven't written about my couple weeks hanging out with Krist in Colorado. For now, though, this term! And then later, maybe I'll do some looking at the past and post some pictures of Colorado.

Since I missed the last test when I left Japan after the earthquake, I had to miss the first day of class to take it. It went fine (well, even, despite my twoish week break from Japanese), and I got to enter into the next level up. Yay! This would feel like more of an accomplishment if I felt like I were actually doing some Japanese advancing. . .but I think I'm really just at that level where it's impossible to see any progress.

Because of the nuclear disaster, the number of Yamasa students decreased, so there's only one class for my level this term, and there are 14 of us, with 3 new students, Kim, Zack, and Cesar, all of whom are fabulous. So yeah, new class, and I love all of us! <3 Aside from learning Japanese and working nearly 15 hours a week, I feel like I've been out and about quite a bit this term! :-) First, there was hanabi - a bunch of us went up to Okazaki Castle to observe the beautiful cherry blossoms in bloom.

It was seriously gorgeous, and at night, all the lights in the trees lit up, and it was just, well, amazing!

So then we had a few days off for Golden Week, and since we had a test pretty much right when we got back, I just hung around in Okazaki pretending to study, but mostly not.

The first night, Thama had a crepes and cocktails get together in his apartment, and that was super fun!

Martin and I hanging on the balcony

Cesar used to be a bar tender, and Alexis has this uncanny ability to just mix drinks, so they both had, like, little bars set up.

Alexis, me, Kimiko

And then Sandra made crepes, which I couldn't eat, but which were apparently delicious. Joanna came over beforehand, and the two of us made a vegan curry. It was delicious!!!! Yay vegan curry!

Cesar, Joanna, me, Martin, Kimiko, and in the front, Zack

Then over the break (or was it not the break? I literally can't remember) I also went with Zack and Thama farming, which was super fun!

Thama, me, Zack

We planted onions and tomatoes and spring onions and potatoes and spinach and other things, I am sure, and, yeah, awesomeness! :-)

And then Alexis, Zack, and Thama came over to play cards, and we played spades, which filled me with immense happiness, since it is my favorite card came in the entire world, and I never get to play it.

Me and Thama and Zack reflection -

I kind of love this picture because Thama sort of looks like the cute kitty face magnet thing next to him.

Oh, and we also went hiking to Horaiji Temple, which was SUPER fun!

Us at the beginning of the hike!

At least it was super fun for me. It was raining all day, so we hiked in the rain, and I realized that, for me, there is something so calming and peaceful and wonderful about hiking in the rain. I rather love it. I don't think everyone else felt the same way, though.

Seriously, though, the rainy mist actually made the view even MORE beautiful!

Oh, and we also went to see this waterfall that's supposed to be on some list of the top 100 waterfalls in Japan.

It really was quite lovely!

And despite feeling like this term has been super exciting and fun and eventful, I feel like this post has been very boring and mostly pictureless. Sorwy. :-( Also long. Therefore, the end.

Ibuki-san and Matsuri

First things first, Guillaume finally bought his plane tickets to come visit in August! YAY! I am so excited!!!! And Rachel and Josh bought tickets to visit at the end of June. Mega mega yay!!!!

Moving on, last Saturday, some friends (Alexis, Martin, and Jenny-Lyn) and I hopped on the train and made our way over to Ibuki-san, an absolutely gorgeous mountain, for a nice day of hiking. It had been raining all week, but I guess we got lucky as the weather was absolutely fabulous (though it would have been even better if I'd had some sun block).

When we got off the train, there was no machine in which to put our tickets, and the guy seemed un-interested in dealing with foreigners, so he just looked vaguely at our tickets then let us all through. This worked out well for Martin, who hadn't actually payed for the whole way. Oups! Then we hopped on the ONLY bus in town and headed on over to the base of the mountain.

I attempted to take a picture of us at the base with my timer, but it didn't turn out too great. :-(

Now, I've hiked up many mountains in my time, but NONE of them were as steep as this one. It just went straight up the mountain side as opposed to winding around comfortably.
It was therefore hard for me to set a pace. Martin practically JOGGED up the mountain, but Alexis and Jenny-Lyn were going a little more slowly than I would have liked.


View from the first rest stop!

Because our paces were so different, we waited for each other at each of the rest stops (according to Martin, there was a 1,2,3,5,6,7,8 - no 4 because that's unlucky. I somehow didn't see a couple of them, though). On the way up, I ended up sticking mostly with Martin.


Martin and I at a rest stop!


Jenny-Lyn and Alexis hiking away!


As we got higher, the view got even more and more amazing!




After about three hours we made it to the top


and somehow we still had energy to act like idiots.

The view was absolutely breathtaking, and it was oh so totally worth it!



On the way down, Martin and Alexis both practically jogged, while Jenny-Lyn and I picked our way down doing our best (and failing) not to fall. It was so steep and rocky, I don't know how I survived. Several times, I really thought I was just going to go tumbling all the way down the mountain.

On Sunday, don't ask me how, but I managed to find the energy to get up and enjoy a bike ride with some other friends (Matan and Carla and some of their friends).


Sandra, Miji(?), Carla, and Matan

We went temple and matsuri (festival) exploring. It was actually the day of the Festival of Nomi, so we managed to find three festivals going on, and I think we saw about 5 temples.


I love the dragon fountains at all of the temples!

Temple!

We got to see some Japanese cheerleaders!

And some really weird fish!

At the last festival we went to, there were these really cool float type things that were being pulled down the road.



They had little boys and girls reenacting old Japanese stories. It was very cool!


Some friends of mine actually got to pull - Lauren and Jenny-Lyn!


There was also a temple by this last festival where I got to pour oil over this little Buddha.



It was weird and really quite disgusting, and I'm sure it was to bring some sort of luck or good thing on me, but I unfortunately don't know what that would be.

So, all in all, it was an absolutely FABULOUS weekend. Also a very active weekend. It's so nice to be able to get out and move about so much.
It also made for a VERY long post, so sorry about that!
Martin and I have started doing kanji together - we're trying to learn at least 5 kanji a day, and today I realized that I am not remembering them nearly as well as I would like to be, so now I must go study!

:-) (sorry the pictures aren't bigger or clickonable - once again, blogger is being an idiot.)