中国地方

This past weekend Nisrene and I got up early on Saturday to meet each other halfway in Himeji. We began our Himeji adventure by taking a bus and cable car up Mount Shosha or Shoshazan, which is home to many temples. Some of which Tom Cruise walked across in the movie The Last Samurai! Yay yaay! It was pouring down rain when Nisrene and I got to the top, but it really set the mood for some temple viewing. We first started at Maniden (name may be incorrect) where we took pictures of a monk when he wasn't looking, and took pictures of the rain fall. It was very beautiful and peaceful. Then we continued to the Tom Cruise temples and took a million pictures. We couldn't remember exactly what the scene in the movie of this place was. We'll have to watch the movie later. Also, there were a billion elementary school kids everywhere. They were very loud and got in the way of the pictures, but it's okay. Going down the mountain, we were hungry, and we got some momo ice cream at the bottom. (Momo 桃、もも means peach)

We took the bus into town and got off near Himeji Castle. Oh yes, side note, we really lucked out in coming this particular weekend to Himeji because they were having their summer festival! This also meant we could get into the castle for free. Before going to the castle we stopped and ate (I was still hungry).

The castle was amazing! Best castle I have seen so far in Japan! Probably because it wasn't completely rebuilt or renovated because it burned down or got bombed in a war. Okay, there was some renovation but I like to think it was just to make sure you don't fall through the floor when you're walking around inside. The castle and the areas around it were magnicifient and maze-like. You could easily get lost I believe. It had lots of reinforcements and little areas to shoot things through or poor scalding hot water on the enemies. You could walk inside, and there were six floors up to the top where you could see out on the city, and in our case the beginning of the parade!

Leaving the castle we walked through an area of tents that were being set up for a light festival that night, which we unfortunately forgot about and did not see. We went to watch some of the parade. Parade's in Japan are a little different in that not everything goes on at once. One group of people is performing at a time for quite a while before another group is allowed to move down the street. It really stretches out the time, but I get really impatient. I took a video of this amazing drumming group, mostly women too! Hopefully for you, I remember to post it!

After some parade watching, we walked through the food booths to a Japanese "beer garden". I feel the need to put it in quotes, but I mean there was beer and it was well outside..haha I don't know what classifies a real beer garden. There was a stage set up for the parade performers to give another show, and we sat and watched for a while. It was getting a little late, and we still had a ways to go before getting back to Nisrene's place in Kurashiki (2 hours by train and then an hour walk), plus we wanted to see if the fireworks in Okayama were still going on.

We left to go to Okayama, and after some train delays (yes, crazy stuff! we were worried, this does not happen!) we made it to Okayama, but everyone in the train station was leaving to go home! We pushed through the crowds that were going the opposite way as us, to finally realize that we missed the fireworks. We decided to go home.

After a long journey back to Nisrene's I was starving again, so we went to her dorm's cafeteria which thankfully let me eat on one of Nisrene's meal tickets (thanks!). We were full and now very sleepy. Oh and it was around midnight by then. Some warm showers later, we went to sleep.

Sunday we got up early (ack! I never get enough sleep!) and Nisrene made me breakfast! She's so sweet, wink ;). We had omelets and toast and real fruit!! Oh and meatballs that came in a suspicious and fun looking packet. They were actually very good meatballs, maybe I'll be able to find them somewhere.

We borrowed bikes and rode to church, a different one than I had been to on my last visit. We arrived a few minutes late and sat in the back. This is when the fun began! Haha, there were a lot of restless kids, and they were really fun to watch. One boy waved to me a bunch. Another boy gave me a really dirty look and stuck his tongue out at me. I did not appreciate that. Oh and the priest was really sweet, he spoke three languages, Japanese, English, and Tagalog or Filipino (not familiar with those languages or which is the right name for what it was).

After mass, they were having a party, but we declined and left, but not before I talked to this really cool kid. There was an American family, and all of the kids came up and talked to us right when mass ended. The older boy talked to me, he was maybe around 12 years old? They had just gone to see Harry Potter the day before, so you can just imagine how good this conversation was. He basically went through the entire movie with me, and even acted it out a little. Thank goodness I had read the book already or I may have been a little angry by this! Haha noo. Now, I just really want to go see the movie! But I don't know when I'll do that. It's three hours long...

We rode our bikes back to Nisrene's place to pick up my stuff, and then after some more food eating, we rode to Shin-Kurashiki station. We took the train to Kurashiki and walked to the Bikan area. We wanted to go on the gondola type boat ride, but it was already full of reservations until after I planned on leaving. Bummer. Instead we did a little shopping before going to a cafe and getting blueberry cheesecake. It was very different from the cheesecake we're used to, but the blueberry sauce was delicious.

Soon after a quick stop to the 100 yen shop, I had to go home. :( Then 4.5 hours later on a train and some walking, I eventually did make it home very exhausted but happy. Because I get to see Nisrene on Saturday!!