Everywhere, Japan (4)
My school trip to Japan began on a Sunday night. 10pm. We met at the airport. Of course, there had to be some stragglers. One friend went through security without asking. Another showed up extremely late (maybe Aaron Fong). I assessed who would be coming on the trip. I did not recognize that many people, especially the tall white boy (later known as Elliot) and the curly haired boy (later known as Mikey).
To be honest, I don’t really recall going through security. I just know that I have TSA Pre-check. Awesome. Everybody should have that.
Due to my United mileage, I was able to access the United lounge. Not Polaris, but its sister lounge. The slightly shittier one. I was able to guest one person in, to which I chose Matias. Matias had graduated a few hours before coming to the airport. We enjoyed around an hour of waiting before boarding our flight to Tokyo (Haneda airport).
I sat next to Angel, which was extremely peaceful as I had the window seat and she slept through the entire flight.
Okay. That part of this entire thing is the most boring and dullest part of it all.
Allow me to explain the events of the two weeks, while trying to avoid losing your attention.
Let us begin with the Haneda airport, where Aaron, Nate, Sebastian and I enjoyed vending machine ice cream while discussing what our friends back at school were doing right now. It was from Haneda where we took a short flight to Ishikawa Prefecture. We landed in the Komatsu airport. A very small, old-fashioned building.
We were chartered to go make udon. This was an agonizing experience as I noticed my ankles were on fire. Not literally. That would be really bad. It was here where Aaron and I entered our first Japanese 7/11. We stared at the goon magazines (I don’t know what else to call them) and purchased snacks. Afterwards, we went to go make pottery. This is where I realized my ankles really, really hurt. We made our way over to the Komatsu city center, and were picked up by our respective host family. Josha-san and her 2 children, Mana and Haruma. I ate the best omurice of my life, a beautiful first meal of Komatsu, Ishikawa-ken, Japan.
So then began day 2. Well, the first official day. I woke up at 5 in the morning, shaken from jetlag. Our first activity was going to a school. We hung out with the young children, which was very fun, and they knew all about Tung Tung Tung Sahur and even Fortnite. Can you believe it? I got to talk about Fortnite with Japanese schoolchildren. Afterwards was a hearty sushi train restaurant. Delicious. No notes, as they say. Afterwards, we went to Komatsu High School, where we engaged with the high schoolers of Japan. They were pretty nice. Not too much there. I ate yakiniku for dinner. This is the night I realized how bad my ankles were. Regardless, I still went on my daily nightly walk (lol).
The following day was Kanazawa. I wore a kimono in the middle of summer. Holy f*cking shit. After taking off my kimono, I realized the pain was too much to ignore. I had to go to the hospital. I am the first in my bloodline to ever have gone to a hospital in Kanazawa. Amazing work, Anya. The doctor prescribed me medicine and I went home, tired and weak. This would mark my final night with Josha-san’s family. I was sad to say goodbye, especially to their grandparents, who asked me to come back in November. Let’s see.
The next day was Fukui. We went to the wonderful Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum. What a time we had! We played hide and seek, made endless jokes about the Fukuiraptor and Fukuisauraus (both are real), and took a picture at a photobooth together. Afterwards, we made our way to Eiheiji. First, we stopped at a restaurant where I ate soba. Pretty decent, but the apple pie was good. I ordered a slice of strawberry shortcake but did not end up eating it (thanks Elliot).
Eiheiji. This is maybe the worst part of the entire trip. Though I greatly appreciate the beauty of such a place, the trees and the architecture, the actual concept of Buddhist monks was not awesome to me. Dedicating your life to Buddhism to the point you become a monk did not resonate at all whatsoever with me. I found myself judging them more than wanting to learn about them. We spent one night where we all slept in a giant room (girls separate from guys) and had to go to morning service the next day. We left very quickly as everyone wanted to go.
Now it was time to board a train. We took a ferry to Miyajima.
Miyajima was the best part of the entire trip. Seriously. The ferry ride was beautiful, as we got a great view of the Torii gate (and the shore was low tide so we were able to walk right up to it), but the hotel was nice and there was a Rilakkuma store on the island. Aaron, Nate and I went to eat lunch. I found a little cafe that had shaved ice and other things. There was a bit of a communication error and we ended up with two giant matcha shaved ice, but it was absolutely delicious and we finished both. I also tried their pizza toast. Yummy. We went for a walk afterwards and ended up in a Starbucks. The drink I got sucked. We explored as much of the island as we could, and that night, everyone was allowed to go out in pairs as long as we were back by 10 or something. I hung out with Rucy that night, sitting on a bench by the ocean, listening to the sound of the waves. We bought lettuce from the only convenience store on the island (shoutout Miyajima Lawson) and fed the deer. The next morning we returned to the mainland of Hiroshima. In the morning, we were allowed to go eat lunch in groups. We had okonomiyaki with the senseis and went shopping. Afterwards, we went to the Peace park and went to the museums. It was a really hot day. We sat in a cafe for a bit before we were allowed to go back out to the row of gacha shops and clothing stores. We found the… lewd… gachapons but I lost all my money on a Nikke trading card gachapon. Sweet.
We took the train to Kyoto. It was broiling hot. We went to the Inari shrine which was nice to look at, and Aaron and I recreated the viral 10 yen cheese coin video. It was not worth 600 yen. We took a train and walked some distance to the Nintendo museum afterwards. I wish I was there with my dad and my brother. They would’ve loved it more than I did. I went back to the hotel with a small group of people and once the rest of my friends came back, we went to the station and ate dinner together. I had a delicious slice of cake for dessert. The next day we went to another shrine on top of a hill. It was raining that day. I went to the Snoopy cafe after, and got a hot chocolate. It healed me. We went to kinkakuji afterwards and to some shrine that I can’t remember the name of. It has a lot of stones. Ryoanji. Yes. Ryoanji. I just googled that. We walked through the bamboo forest which was lame because it was pouring rain. We went to eat at some food hall later. The sashimi donburi I got was really not that great, and the crepe I got afterwards was incredibly disappointing. I did buy some Miffy bread which made me feel a little bit better.
The next day was Universal Studios Osaka. Dude. It was fucking awesome. Minionland was unreal. The rollercoasters were super fun and Nate and I went on the Jurassic Park water ride like 5 times. I bought a Snoopy shirt as well. Afterwards, we went to go take a picture with the Glico running man. The best meal I ate of the trip was at a Korean restaurant near the center of Osaka. The food was so good but so fucking expensive. I got 22,300 steps that day. W.
Finally, we were in Tokyo. I got a hotel room to myself for the last few days of the trip which was great and I got to go out alone. I went shopping, we went to a baseball game (shoutout Nakagawa-san) and got cute press-ons. We went to Senso-ji, which was okay but it was hot again. Then Sophie and I got to eat crepes. We walked to Tokyo Skytree afterwards where Rucy drank like 7 drinks just to get a themed coaster (she really wanted Luca and Miku). I went to an animal store, which I’ll admit was not good of me (those places aren’t usually ethical) but I just really wanted to pet the little bunnies. I bought a new wallet, took purikura pictures alone, and we went to Teamlabs. I genuinely did not care about Teamlabs because it was boring and not really my thing. We went to dinner on a ferry(?) and it was actually really nice to be out on the water. We did karaoke and Mikey and I cooked on Break Free. The next and final day was Meiji-jingu and free time until we had to go to the airport. I just walked around Akihabara.
The flight back was fine. I was the only person going to Narita so I was there alone. The TSA made me throw out my face wash, I ate a 50 dollar meal, and I cried in the bathroom. The usual. A 7 hour flight later and I was in Malaysia.
The summary of this entire trip was that I don’t really mix well with people. I think I really need my time alone and this trip just had way too much going on. That being said, it was fun to be in another country with my friends. The best thing I got out of this trip was a homestay experience, which I had to repeat in July. Which is a spoiler for the next thing I’ll be writing about: My study abroad in Tokyo, Japan! Shoutout Shinkoiwa. Real ones live there.
My suggestions are as follows:
Gallery Miyazato Cafe (Japan, 〒739-0554 Hiroshima, Hatsukaichi, Miyajimacho, 幸町東表476)
> The matcha shaved ice incident
Yopu no Oubutashioyaki Dotonbori (Japan, 〒542-0077 Osaka, Chuo Ward, Dotonbori, 1 Chome−1−15 清洲道頓堀ビル1.2F)
> Best place in Osaka (I haven’t been anywhere else)