A Catchup Blog because I am Unreliable

Wassup Hoes,

I know there have been a long break in blog updates and I'm sorry. I've been really busy updating my blog I have to do for my German class and I've let this one fall to the wayside. Anyhoo, this is going to be a pretty picture heavy entry for that reason as well.
THE ZOO:

A lot of the international students and some of the Japanese students went to the zoo on October 1st. It was a lot of fun and it even had a petting zoo so I was all over those goats. It was a nice time because we also got to hang out with some of our new Japanese friends during the weekend instead of only during school. Highlight of the Day besides the goats? Little kids yelling for the Elephants to come outside. They had the kids yell "zou-san,zou-san" and it was pretty cute.

Osu Kannon:

Osu Kannon is a stop on one of the lines of the subway, but it is also a large Temple dedicated to Kannon, the Buddha of mercy. There ius a large open area in front of the temple and for just 50 yen you can get a seed plate and feed the resident Pigeons!






Osu is the actual name of the area and in addition for being the home of the temple it also has a very large shopping area that is sort of like a strip mall and outside market combined. A little ways away from that is another shopping district called Akamon and it seems to be a shopping area for mostly electronics.

Entrance to the Shopping Area

 

 

 

A Random Shopping Street

School Field Trip :

 Shirakawago:

A Shrine inside Shirakawago

On October 13th and 14th we were able to have no class and instead go on an epic bus trip through the mountains. Our first stop was Shirakawago, this is an old village that is a UNESCO world heritage site. Many people recognize it by the traditional roofs that the buildings have. It was very pretty and they gave as a nice small lunch, although I wasn't able to eat most of it. We then were turned loose on our own for three hours to explore the village and its many omiyage (souvenir) shops.

The view from the Observation point

After Shirakawago they herded us back onto the buses and it was ahead on our way again. I don't know if the Japanese were worried we couldn't hold it or something, but we stopped at a large number of service stations throughout this trip. After another hour drive we arrived at our next destination.

Takayama:

 We stayed in a tradtional(ish) Japanese inn while we were here and that includes hot springs. I didn't not go into them however. We arrived at night so we didn't have a ton of time to do stuff, but by the time we arrived the hotel staff had prepared a HUUUUGE meal for everyone. I always feel like I receive good service whenever I stay at a hotel in America, but the way that they treat you at this hotel was out of this world. I felt like I was famous or something.



The next day,after being given a large breakfast, we were given time to walk around the city and see everything and so we went to the temple, but didn't go inside as it cost money. We also walked through an area of Takayama that was like "old streets" and the area resembled a traditional Japan. It was pretty cool but we didn't get to spend much time there as we had to get back on the bus and go somewhere else.

Otaki Cave:

The Shrine

The last place we went was on the way back from Takayama. It was this small area in the mountains that housed a cave that had a shrine inside of it. The first thing we did when we got off the bus was eat a huge lunch, it was prepared like nikuyaki but with a stone slab instead of a grill and they were once again really accommodating a gave me a whole platter of vegetables to eat rather than meat. After that we took a cable car thing up the mountain and to the cave entrance.

The walk back from the cave

All in all it was a really fun trip and I'm glad that I was able to go. I haven't done anything super exciting since then and so this brings me to the end of this blog update.

Until Next Time,
~BPuddin