The First Departure

So, here I am, still in Japan. I'm certainly not unhappy about it, but I am still a little bewildered about how it all came to be! Here's the "prequel" story about how the extension came to be:

I came to Japan to visit my girlfriend, Jillian, over both of our winter breaks. Her parents were originally going to buy Jillian a ticket to return to the states for the holidays, but decided to offer the ticket to me instead. Their thought was that it would probably be a once in a lifetime opportunity for Jillian to stay in Japan and experience Christmas and New Year's here, but didn't want her to be alone either. (Not that Jillian is ever truly alone, of course. She's got Shiva, her kitten, and her family is always and Skype-call away, despite the time difference, and since she makes friends so easily, there's always someone around to keep her company!)

The trip was planned for roughly three weeks. I flew here about a week after the end of fall quarter at Evergreen, and had planned to stay until January fifth, so that I would have a few days to recover before classes started up again for winter quarter.

During the first week our adventures were pretty rigorous. Jillian's friend, Midori, who has been friends with many of the Evergreen students who have come and gone through the years at Miyazaki University, did us the huge favor of helping Jill plan the Osaka trip for us. We stayed at a marvelous, yet inexpensive hotel in the Shinsaibashi shopping district of Osaka.

Shinsaibashi Shopping District - Near our hotel in Osaka

With the help of our friend Charlie, another Evergreen student who is currently studying in Kobe, we also explored Kobe and Kyoto, since Charlie was pretty familiar with how to get around and where the best touristy sites were. He was also so kind as to let us crash at his place for a few nights while we visited Kobe! We also went to Himeji Castle, which was easy to get to, because Jillian had been there before last summer when she studied in Toyoka.

Himeji-jo, or Himeji Castle, in Himeji

In Kobe we went to places like the Kobe Tower, Sannomiya Shopping Street, the Kobe City Holiday Luminaria, and Rokko Mountain Herb Garden Ropeway. (Rokko Mountain was on the return trip to Kansai, however)

Jill, Charlie and I at the Luminaria in Kobe


Inside the Luminaria

Jill and I didn't realize what a huge deal the Luminaria was, thinking that it was just some Christmas lights downtown. In actuality, it was this HUGE light display that covered an entire park, with tons of lights that were all over structures up and down the street. There were so many people that they literally kind of had to herd people into the streets, which had been converted into a gigantic Disney-land style queue system. It was coordinated by an enormous number of police officers from what we could tell, so that traffic wouldn't be a huge nightmare. From the point where you could essentially start "lining up" to see this thing, you would walk around town for (I'm not even kidding) something like ninety minutes before you could even see the outside of the structure. Once you got there, everyone had their cameras and cell phones out to snap pictures, and there was a neat little festival near the park where you could get all kinds of tasty festival foods. We tried takoyaki, or fried octopus balls, an-taiyaki, a fish-shaped pastry with red beans inside, and these little eggy chick-shaped things that I can't remember the name of. It was really fun, but also really cold out and super crowded!

In Kyoto, we saw the Kinkakuji Temple, or "Golden Pavilion" that I had learned about in my fall quarter class, as well as a huge red archway over the street near the Heian Temple. Kyoto, despite being built in a chess-board fashion as it was modeled after the Chinese Imperial Capital when it was founded back in 794 A.D., (Abunai! History-Nerd plug!) is surprisingly difficult to navigate. We actually got a little lost later in the evening, but were lucky enough to be approached by a nice lady who could tell that we were obviously pretty lost. At the Kinkakuji Temple, a Japanese college student spotted us and took us on an impromptu tour, where she pointed out various statues and structures and explained their uses and history to us. Since we'd gotten lost and spent more time than we planned to in Kyoto, I think we were all a little cranky and hungry by the time we left, but in retrospect, it's a really beautiful place, and full of super nice people, too!

Kinkakuji Shrine, or "Golden Pavilion" in Kyoto

After our adventures in Kansai, we took the ferry back to Miyazaki from Osaka, which was an amazing experience in itself. The ferry is an overnight trip, and if you buy first-class tickets, you can get a little private room with a bed all to yourself if you want. They're pretty pricey, though, so Jill went ahead and used her student discount to get us second class tickets, which allow you to sleep in the public sleeping area.

The sleeping space in the ferry

There's also a special section reserved for women who are traveling apart from men on the ferry, which Jillian slept in on her trip to pick me up in Osaka. When we first boarded, the lady who led us on board tried to direct us into the aforementioned section, but Jillian saved me some embarrassment by explaining that didn't actually belong in that section, and that she'd be sticking with me. Whoops...

The ferry also had a cute, (but expensive) little restaurant in it, as well as an onsen or public bath. I'd never tried one before, so I was pretty nervous and shy about trying it at first, but since I felt like I really needed a bath after a long day of traveling, I thought I'd try it out. Surprisingly, I was really comfortable using it, and although I got a few awkward glances at first, (I suspect because of my long hair) I realized that nobody really pays attention to each other in the onsen, unless you're friends or something and are chatting with people already know. (As far as I could tell, at least)

Alrighties, I'm now realizing that this post is going to be much, much longer than initially anticipated, so I'll save the Miyazaki section for week 2 and 3 for later. Next time: Miyazaki University, Takachiho, and the return to Kansai... bye for now!