休み Vacation

So this past weekend was so much fun! Friday I went to the Tokyo Tower finally and it was amazing. The view was fabulous and I really like the pictures I got from it. I went to Tokyo Tower with Cameron and a Korean girl from my Japanese class named Jin. After the tower, we all went out to this small hole-in-the-wallish ramen restaurant. I think I've started to realize my tummy does not usually want to eat big soups with lots of noodles. I honestly don't know how anyone can finsih them! It's so shocking to me...
Saturday and Sunday I went on a field trip with my study abroad group to Aizu and it was so gorgeous :). We had to take 2 buses because our group was apparently the biggest they've ever had! Most of the time, the 2 buses were seperated, but I was alright with that. Our destination was pretty far from Tokyo, so we had 2 rest stops along the way -- one for strictly bathroom and one for food. The food rest stops here are a lot different than the ones you see in America. Instead of fast food places like McDonalds lined every mile across the highway, they have these little stops where they have restaurants, mini-markets that sell made-to-order noodle soups and other snacks, and food stands (my favorite one would be the ice cream stands). At the first food rest stop I ate a pastry hot dog, which was delicious but different because it was cold, and a bun with some type of curry in it. It was delicious. I also got myself a wonderful melon soda :)!
Our first real stop on our trip was at a small town called Ouchi-juku that was rebuilt to look like what a authentic old Japanese town would be. It was in a beautiful valley. The town was mostly a tourist attration, of course, but that doesn't mean it was cool. They sold a lot of traditional candies, toys, and a special type of candle that you can only get in that area of the world. Also, they had these little red cows that apparently are sold everywhere near Aizu because it's famous for something. I forgot the reasons my teacher told me, to be honest. The only down side to this part of the trip was the rain. It is the Japanese Rainy Season, of course, so there's always bound to be rain at some point in the day.
Next stop was at a Lacquer workshop and we were able to get a tour of the tiny place. From what I understood, because mostly my mind was in shock from the prices of the tiniest bowls, was that they painted to wooden items with a sort of paint that you can only get from a certain tree in Japan. Basically, it's some pretty special paint used by a pretty special artist. Essentially, this trip was the gift shop, which was full or overly expensive wooden items, like a spoon worht $30. I made a joke to a few of my friends saying "Oh, there's that 3000 yen spoon I've been looking for all over the place!" and it brought out a few giggles :). Of coures, I bought something there. It was the beautiful wall orniment and it had fall leaves painted on it. I fell in love with it from the moment my eyes saw it. It was only 800 yen too, which was an amazing price seeing as the next thing I thought was gorgeous was about 20,000 yen :O! A lot of people spent a lot of money in that gift shop. It made me laugh when everyone freaked out because they accepted credit cards at the place. Of course they did! Who walks in with 5,000,000 yen in cash planning on buying that super nicely painted table in the glass? I don't want to know who....
After the trip to the Lacquer workshop, it was off to our hotel, which was probably my absolute favorite part of the trip (isn't that sad?). Cameron and I luckily got roomed together, along with two other girls that live in my dorm (Branisha and Rebecca). I was really suprised at how well the teachers knew us and who we hung around with. It's amazing that they could remember out of 90 kids, who really enjoys who's company.
The hotel was located near a volcano and was in between 2 giant hills. We stayed in the part of the hotel complex that was cheapest. It was so cheap, the carpet in the halls was fake grass :). But that's alright, the rooms were pretty sweet. Cameron and I slept in the "Traditional Japanese" part of the room on tatami mats and Branisha and Rebecca stayed on the "Western" side of the room on couch-beds. The tatami mats were like giant fluffy pillows, but that's probably because Cameron and I piled 4 on top of each other :p. We had dinner at the hotel, which was buffet style and they had grapes! I almost cried because I was so happy to eat delicious fruit that I didn't have to pay $5 for. After dinner, Cameron and I went to the onsen, which is a bathroom that has natural hot spring water in the giant tub. It was kind of weird at first, because you have to go in naked and bathe yourself, but after you get over the awkwardness it is so relaxing. Cameron and I went to 2 of them -- one that was not so fancy and located on our side of the hotel, and another that was outside on a high-up floor where you could look at the best view while you relaxed. I have to admit, the 2nd one was my absolute favorite :D! Oh but as I told my boyfriend, don't worry -- they were not co-ed! :p
After a relaxing time at the onsens, I decided I needed some sleep because I was going to be getting up early yet again. In the morning, I had a buffet style breakfast from the hotel and it was alright. I was pretty excited to get waffles and sausage for the first time in a while, but I do miss my wonderful Holiday Inn breakfasts with sausage biscuits. Yumm.
We left the hotel around 8:30am, and we were yet again in charter buses off to our next destination! Japanese people are so punctual about time -- it's great! Our first stop was at the Tsuruga-jou Samurai Castle, which I had been looking forward to since I found out about our trip to Aizu about 2 months ago. However, this was probably the biggest let down so far on the trip. Instead of a beautiful, gorgeous castle, we saw a giant blue tarp that had a cartoon picture of the castle on it. Yes that's right -- the castle was under renovation. I had never seen a more disappointed class and an even more angry Japanese teacher. When the three teachers told us all to go wander, I caught a glimpse of the head lady-sensei and she was on the phone and looked like she was about to cry and about to kill someone at the same time. As it turns out, the museum on the inside of the castle wasn't that interesting either and I felt like going to the castle was just a big waste of our time. I can say pretty strongly that the rest of my bus felt the same way. The only plus side to that stop was the delicious peach ice cream I enjoyed.
After our wonderful let down, it was off to the Samurai Mansion, which was a good chear-up after the castle. We were able to walk around it for about an hour and a half, which was the most time we were allotted at a destination so far! It was nice to be able to take pictures of everything and not feel so rushed :). Of course, because this was the end of our trip I had to get one of the little red cows I had been seeing everywhere since we got of the bus near Aizu. I got a tiny key chain with a giant red eyeball riding the cow. Cameron picked it out for me :).
Alas, after the wonderful tour of the mansion we had to leave for Tokyo. This made me a little sad, but at the same time I was really exhausted so it was good to be on a bus in the air conditioning. We had 3 stops on the way home, and 2 were for food. At one of the food stops I got what was essentially a meat pocket and it was very interesting. Apparently it was also very Chinese. We also watched Finding Nemo on the way home and reading the Japanese subtitles was just as amusing as the movie :).
Because we had Monday off for Ocean Day, Cameron and I went to go see the new Studio Ghibli movie that was written by Miyazaki. It was called The Borrowers. It was pretty cute :). I was really excited that I understood a lot of what the movie was saying! I was very impressed with myself. I also loved the experience of seeing a movie in Japan. Cameron and I had bought the tickets for the movie early through a convience store, so the tickets were 1300 yen as opposed to the 1800 yen you pay if you just show up. The stange things about Japanese movie theater are as follows:
1. They have assigned seats. I found that very efficient because that means a theater can almost, if not fully, sell out. I'm pretty sure the one we were in was definately sold out too.
2. Concessions were super cheap. I spent less that $4 on myself and I got a popcorn to share with Cameron that was a pretty good size and a medium-ish sized melon soda. I was so shocked.
3. The ushers came in right after the movie ended and picked up everyone's trash. This could be because they seperate trash 3 ways here, but I'm just be speculating.
4. The had a souvenir-type shop as you walked out the movie, where you could buy themed things that have the movie title and poster plaster on them (the favorite seemed to be the keychain).
This Friday I'm seeing Inception with Cameron too. We already bought tickets and we're so excited! I think the Japanese people really love Leonardo DeCaprio because apparently he's been doing ads here for a long time. The current one I've seen is at many gas stations. When I went to the themed restaurant with Sabrina, she told me to look out for them and the past weekend I finally saw a bunch of them!!
Anyway, school is rough this week. I had a test today and one tomorrow, so wish me luck!!