Tokyo

Our train left at 6:04. It took 6 hours by the slow Shinkansen (Hikari I think the name was), but the whole distance traveled was over 1,000 miles so it was still pretty good. When we arrived, Bro. and Sis. Utagawa (Shelly's Dad's friends) met us at the station.

Right after that we performed baptisms for the dead in the Tokyo Temple, we were really lucky cause we got their just in time. The people there tried really hard to speak english for us, but they really didn't need to go to all that trouble. I was so tired that I wasn't really concious.

While Shelly's dad was still in the temple, Sis. Utagawa took Shelly and I to Shibuya (japan's most famous shopping district). Here we survived the famous Shibuya Crossing, here's a link for what we experienced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtOdSgf6Ic&feature=related

It was here that we went to the Cafe Comme Ca and had the best mango cake thing in the whole world. The mango was perfect! It was defnitely not a comme ci comme ca cafe (so-so cafe).

On Sunday, Shelly and I went to the Studio Ghibli Museum with some random girl (her name is Rachel) that we met at the hostel we're staying in. Tickets for this museum are extremely difficult to get a hold of (according to our teachers), and while easier, they aren't so easy to get in America either. In fact, Shelly and I managed to get some of the last tickets because Studio Ghibli Museum closed the next day (they do this twice a year).

It was one of the coolest museums I have ever been to, and we got to ride the special bus all the way there (from the subway station).

We went to some station to wait for Shelly's dad, but we got there about 30 mins early so we stopped at a bakery called Saint-Germaine. The best french bakery with the best croissants I have ever had outside France. It was amazing, I definitely want to go back.

Afterwards, the Utagawa's had prepared us sukiyaki, pizza, unari zushi, assorted fruit, desserts, drinks, ect. for dinner. Overall, way too much food. Really good, but waaaay too much.

This morning, Shelly's dad woke up at 6. He's not very good at being quiet. But I pretended to be asleep until Shelly and her dad went to go take a shower (at about 8). When her dad came back he said, "I woke up at six this morning." And I was like, Yeah, I know!

Today, we went a really big shrine, not to far from us, but I can't remember the name. After that, we went to Akihabara which is japan's most famous electric shopping district. There I bought a cheap japanese-english (and vice versa) machine, apparently they are really important if you want to learn jaapanese...plus it was pink! lol

Then we went to Harajuku to see the weird people all dressed up, but they weren't there (because it's Monday rather than the weekend) so we just shopped around. I bought an undershirt, but instead of putting it in a plastic sack like normal, I scored a really nice, zip up bag. It was pretty exciting. We also stopped at another shrine before getting back on the JR line.

Shibuya came next, but Shelly and I were out of money by then so we just bought some of those mango cake things again and . . . Tokyo Disney Tickets!! We're going to Disney Land tomorrow! I've heard that Disney Land sucks here (from someone who hadn't even been), but I'm really excited anyway. Plus, we have nothing else to see here except shrines and temples.

I don't really like seeing shrines or temples. I mean, people actually pray and believe that they're prayers will be answered in those things, so I feel awkward going cause I don't. Plus, they pretty much all look the same.

But that's it for Tokyo (except Disney Land) and tonight's dinner (which we have no idea what it will be). I think I've figured Tokyo out though, at first I was so amazed by how big it is and couldn't imagine how you could ever find you're way here. When you get up somewhere high, all you can see is buildings. They're never ending! But after 3 days, I feel pretty confident about finding my way. Plus, I'm really good at asking directions.

Last Week in Fukuoka (pt. 2)

I am actually in Tokyo right now (and have been since May 9/yesterday), I will tell everyone about it after we move to the next city (this wednesday). So this is gonna be a really short update.

On thursday we didn't do anything beyond go to school. We told Irene (our friend from the Philippines) that we would attend movie night, but we fell asleep and didn't wake up til really late (9pm-ish).

Friday was a sad day. Shelly and I were late to school (by about 10 mins) cause we were so busy with our last minute packing. After arriving, I realized that I had left the postcards and our remaining rice at home--we wanted to pawn the rice off to someone who would use it. We had our graduation, but I didn't prepare a speech so I pretty much had nothing to say. Shelly, Rionero-san and I graduated that day which was funny cause we're all in the same class.

Shelly went on to Hakata Station to meet her dad and get a rail pass. I went home to grab the postcards, rice and my rail pass voucher. It took me about an hour, even though I took the subway, to get to the dorm, drop off the gifts and finally arrive in Hakata. At about that same time, Shelly and her dad decided to go to the dorm to find me...

An hour later (exactly when I decided I was going home), they came back to the station and found me waiting by the JR Rail Pass office. I had Shelly's passport, so she wasn't able to get her rail pass.

While Shelly and her dad got their rail passes (I had already gotten mine), I went to the bakery and got some awesome food. Then Shelly's dad treated us to dinner--which was delicious--and then flavored ice--which was also delicious. Finally, we made it back home in one piece.

Shelly and i had bought waaaay too much junkfood for our going away party, so we had to give some of our treats away. I felt really sick afterwards and I will never look at an Oreo the same way again (Shelly's dad brought us 2 packages of Oreos).

Anyway, that's it for Fukuoka. On our 2nd to last day in Japan we will leave Hiroshima and arrive back in Fukuoka for the night. Then we will fly back in the morning. Love you all and Happy Mother's Day!!

Last Week in Fukuoka (pt. 1)

So on monday we went with Yohei-san, his wife and Utahn friends to go see Yoshigonari Historical Park. The tour we followed was in Japanese, so one of the guys (his name was Boston) translated for us. But he was being funny, so he told us all sorts of lies. Basically, I don't really know anything true about the site. I know that it's really old, the people were polygamists, man and wives slept in different houses, and that supposedly (but how anyone would know this, I don't understand) there was the rich people and the poor people side. But here's the weird part, the rich people never left their enclosure. They were too "special" or something (Yohei's wife translated this part, so we know that the tour guide said it). I don't know if I believe it though. The enclosure was really small.

It would have been really fun, but it rained a ton and my legs were soaked nearly to my knees (I'm not sure how that happened, I never step in puddles). It was really cold and Shelly and I had to share an umbrella. It sucked.

Afterwards, we went to a little Hakata Dontaku festival to eat noodles out of bamboo pipes. You have to catch the noodles as they slide down, then you put them in your broth cup and enjoy! It costed 300 yen, but Yohei-san insisted on paying. It was interesting, but I don't really like cold noodles. Shelly does, but I don't like not being able to taste the broth. Tasteless noodles are kinda gross.

Then we went to some shopping district that it built around the second largest ferris wheel in the world. Here Shelly and I bought yellow watermelon and huge sweet potato fries (japan makes tons of different things out of sweet potatoes, you can even get sweet potato candy).

Then we went to a Ramen shop--it was delicious, but then again, Fukuoka is known for it's awesome Ramen.

Yesterday we went to Kumamoto. We dropped our stuff off at Evan's home (or maybe it was his mother-in-law's, I was confused) the headed off to a soba dojo. Here we mixed, rolled and cut our noodles. After we finished they made it into either hot or cold soba. I, of course, ordered hot. While all of this was going on, it went from rather hot to hail. It was very interesting, plus our Philipino friends had never seen hail before. They were really excited.

Afterwards, we went to Jigoku (Hell) Onsen. It was amazing, but it was a hot spring so it smelled really bad. There were 3 different kinds of baths, the hell onsen (straight hot spring) and 2 different regular onsens. Unfortunately, you couldn't wash your hair here. It kinda sucked cause I really needed a bath.

Then we had a japanese bbq (which was really good) and watched hilarious japanese tv. It was really weird, I don't know how to explain what we watched. But I did learn that japanese humor is really weird. The acts that I thought were the funniest scored the lowest. The ones I thought were just plain weird, scored the highest.

Today, we went to the cleanest onsen in japan. It was really nice, but really, really hot. I was really glad though, because here they provided shampoo/soap because you are required to wash yourself before getting in (otherwise it wouldn't be the cleanest onsen anymore).

Then we climed up Mt. Aso. I didn't really like it. Oh, and did I mention? Mt. Aso is located inside the largest (I think) volcano in the entire world! People live inside this valley! But only the crater is active and the last people to die were tourists viewing the crater (and that happened 30-40 years ago). There are mountains inside the volcano. And the edge of the volcano is so far away that you can hardly see it. It was unbelievable.

Then we went to Kumamoto Castle, but we only had an hour so we just climbed up the main tower, got a picture with a ninja and toured the palace (but you can't even see all of it). Finally, (at about 8) we were back home. But this is only home for 3 more nights.

3rd Week in Japan (pt. 2)

I forgot to mention that we had English Class on Wednesday, not very many people showed up since it was a holiday, but the people that were there were very excited to see us. Instead of having a lesson, we split into groups and just talked for about an hour. There we met Yuki who offered to take us on a tour of Fukuoka (even though he claimed to speak really bad english, he was quite good).

On thursday we had nothing to do (beyond school) so we went shopping (again), but I don't remember what we bought...

Friday was the same, we had nothing to do, so we went shopping once again. I don't really know what we got then either, we just went shopping too much this week. :P

On saturday we had agreed to meet Yuki at Takamiya Station at noon. He was a little late, and we were very early, so we had to wait about 30 mins (we were 20 mins early...). First we went to a hyaku en ramen shop (100 yen ramen) and it was actually really good. The weather was very warm though, so I felt really hot after eating my noodles. Plus, I'm not actually that good at eating noodles. Even when I have a fork I'm pretty awful. And I definitely can't slurp the noodles like you're supposed too.

Next, Yuki offered to take us to Daizafu temple, but since it was over 40 mins away, we decided to go to Hakata Port Park. It was really interesting and we got to go up this really tall building, from up high, we could see a boat race which was really cool. Here we met this girl and her dad. Her dad was pretty adamant about her asking us questions in english (she was about 8) and I kinda felt bad for her, but she seemed to really like us and her dad definitely did.

After that we toured this shopping/aquarium thing. Here we met two really nice obaasan who kept asking Yuki which one of us was his girlfriend (I pretended to not understand what they were saying). They talked to us for a looooong time and gave me a ticket to a dance party thing (which we didn't go to).

Next, Yuki took us to a closer temple that had an ancient tree in front of it. It was one of the coolest things I've seen here. We also drank some of the temple water by using the weird bamboo ladels. It was really fun. We talked and walked around the temple grounds, chased some pigeons, found a pinecone, had little kids chant the abcs for us, and finally went home.

Yuki repeatedly thanked us for going with him, even though it should have been us that were thanking him. He's the one who insisted on paying for our ramen, drinks and icecream--not counting gas, parking, ect. Plus he was nice enough to take us around Fukuoka!

Afterwards, we went to canal city (even more shopping!) There was a big party going on because it is Golden Week and Hakata Dontaku started on today (sunday).

On sunday, we went to church and said our goodbyes. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring presents. We also promised to come back one day. A couple in the ward invited us to go see some ruins with them tomorrow, they have some friends coming from Utah so they thought we would like to go to. Of course we agreed. They told us that we would probably leave really in the morning, which in japanese means 9-10am (I had been thinking as early as 6).

Afterwards, we went to Tenjin to see the Hakata Dontaku. Overall, I thought that it was pretty overrated, but it was still fun. We tried all sorts of things including, chocolate covered bananas, shaved ice with milk, fresh strawberries with hard candy over them, fried mochi with red bean paste in the middle (i really don't like mochi), unflavored cotton candy, and okonomiyaki on a stick.

They have a game where you can attempt to catch goldfish with a paper wand-like thing, but I didn't know that you can also catch turtles. If I lived here, I definitely would have tried to catch a turtle!

We watched a guy make amazing balloon animals, and attempted to see the parade (people here forget that we have a gaijin perimeter when there is a parade).

But that's it for this week. So far on the agenda for next week is the ruins trip with the couple in our ward (mon), mt. aso with our school (tues and wed), genki jacs graduation (friday) and leaving for tokyo (saturday). I'm really going to miss being here.