#12 - Leaving for Tokyo

Tomorrow I am leaving for Tokyo so I can do New Year's there! I am going to be goign with my friend Alice for about 4 or 5 days, coming back on the 4th January. As much as I'd like to take the Shinkansen it is too expensive so we will have to travel by night bus which will take a long time! And also because we looked for rooms kind of late, we don't have anywhere to stay for the night of the 31st (we can move in on Jan 1st afternoon), so we will have to stay out all night. This means that the ridiculously late nights I have been having the past few days may help me to stay up, as I have been going to bed around 5/6 am.

This week I've pretty much not done anything. Just playing computer games and sleeping. Right now though, I have to do some laundry as I realise I have not got that many clothes! And also, I have to try to find a suitcase to borrow from someone that is small as I only have a large suitcase to take which is way too space to fill.

I will be sure to take lots of photos and prepared to write a long entry on this! I havn't decided yet whether to take my laptop or not...so it may be a while before I type next.

Happy holidays

#11 - Japan Scrapbook #5 - Himeji Castle 姫路城

This was our first school trip as international students and it was to Himeji Castle in Himeji (duh) which is in Hyogo prefecture, so about and hour or over from Osaka. The castle itself was beautiful and large. The gardens had various different paths and it was all delicatly laid out. Sometimes the path that seemed to lead to the main castle went in a different direction - this was a defensive attempt to confuse anyone trying to invade. There are also lots of gates (which are made of metal and not wood) that you have to go through, which had two purposes - to prevent the spread of fire, and to hinder the enemy and stab them from above!

We climbed up the inside of the tower. An interesting note is that from the outside it looks as if there are 5 floors to the castle, but there actually 6. This hidden floor was once again to confuse people invading! Throughout all the castle there are signets and markings of all the different people that helped to build the castle (these are the small dark circle things).

#10 - Japan Scrapbook #4 - Arashiyama 嵐山

A selection of photos from a trip to Arashiyama, which is near Kyoto. We originally went to see the momiji / red leaves and ended up also looking at a garden and also a temple comple.

I wrote about this trip in an earlier blog, click here to go to the post : http://guesswherealexis.blogspot.com/2008/11/5-happy-birthday-jessica.html

#9 - Japan Scrapbook #3 - Mijayima

Miyajima was probably my favourite place to visit in Japan. It is not far from Hiroshima and easy to get to - just take the tram from Hiroshima and it takes up to an hour. You have to take a ferry across because it is an island, and it was fun because you got to see the island and everything as you went to the dock, which is beautiful.

On the island there is the famous floating torii (gate) and also the water shrine behind it. When we got there the tide was out so there was a mass of people on the sand underneath the torii. We decided to climb the mountain too, despite my suggestion to use the cable car to go up and walk down. It turns out we took 4 hours to get to the top, but it was worth it because the view of the moutnains and the sea was stunning. There are various little shrines and ruins as you go up the mountain and if i went back again I would go to the temple furthest away. It was a 60 minute walk out of our way and we had already been walking for 3 hours, so we decided not to go, but now I am just really curious as to what it looks like and wonder how many people who come to Miyajima have actually seen it.



If anyone visits Japan this is one place I recommend to visit! Apart from the wonderful scenery, there is a local delicacy called 'momiji manjyu' which is manjyu shaped into the shape of momiji leaves. It is basically bread like with different fillings such as chocolate, or anko, or red bean, and all are delicious. I have only been able to find these in Miyajima and Hiroshima, so if you visit - be sure to try some!

#8 - Preparing

Following suit of the returning Americans, I have started to organise and pack up my things ready to take home. I have realised that although I am leaving in January, that is about 2 weeks away, and there is quite a lot of stuff I have to try to organise into my suitcase and bags so that I don'thave to throw a lot away. So far I have done nearly all my books and papers. I think I narrowed it down alright. I'm only really keeping the text books and other sheets and folders. The rest of the class content, like quizzes and dictations etc I am throwing away - I have no need for them.

I still havn't been to Nara yet, and I really would like to go and take photos because it seems everyone else has gone, and it is close so it's not a massive way to go.

Yesterday I made some slideshow films for my youtube, so if anyone wants to see them then just go to my channel - http://jp.youtube.com/user/6atale Hope you enjoy!

#7 - Christmas time!

It may be a little delayed, but I hope everyone had a a nice Christmas! As for me, it was a fairly sad day. A few of the international students had to go home forever on Christmas day, so a lot of use went to the bus station to say goodbye. After that we went to KFC for some food, then just wandered around and looked at some shops. There were so many people out shopping so I didn't buy anything.

I have now got bus tickets and a room in Tokyo because I am going there on the 30th to be there for New Years! I am going with one other friend, and hopefully it will be fun and I anticipate I will take lots of pictures of Tokyo. I want to also meet up with the friends from home who are doing their year abroad in Tokyo.

But before I go off travelling, I need to write a short report on my time in Japan, as I had received a scholarship from the Japanese government, which I had totally forgotten about. I have now written it in English, but I will need help from a Japanese friend to translate it into Japanese because my langauge skills are not good enough for such a high register writing!

I was trying to organise my photos on my laptop yesterday and I uploaded quite a lot to my facebook account. I wanted to upload to my flickr too, but it has been too long since I have used it and i have forgotton all my login details. Hopefully I can upload the photos I havn't uploaded to facebook today.

#6 - further explorations

This weekend was quite interesting. On Saturday I went with a friend to see Morning Musume in concert. They are a jpop group of female members who are under 20 (then they get kicked out cos they are too old). I had fun, and it was funny/scary to look at all the creepers and old men that came to the concert to look at little girls......

On sunday, I went with a few other international students and visited Kinkakuji ( the golden temple). I really wanted to go here as it was one of the most famous spots in Japan, and it was fun - but cold! We explored some of the area a bit, and then went further into Kyoto and went to see the Kyoto Imperial Palace. It was closed on Sundays!!!


Later in the evening we went to some arcades, and I spent way too much money. Way too much. And all I won was a little rabbit toy thing. Meh. On the train back home we had someone teach us how to say some mandarin - interesting and fun! I want to learn chinese now, so much simpler grammar than Japanese.

Tomorrow I have to give a short presentation in class....I am trying to write it, but I really do not care very much so as you can probably guess...it's goign very slowly (and hence the prompt for another update to this blog).