Bear with me.... I believe this is going to be a longish post.... but a majority of it is pictures so it's deceiving. It's not as long as it seems! ;)
You know those life moments that you know you will look back on and remember forever? I recently had one of those. I got to go on the trip of a life time with my best friend. I visited Natalie in Tokyo for two weeks this last month and it still feels like a dream.
This was the first time I had been out of the country, so it was kind of intimidating traveling alone. The plane ride to Japan was 13 hours with one layover in L.A. It wasn't nearly as horrible as I anticipated and actually went by quite fast. Flying International is kind of fun because you have the options of watching movies and tv shows for free. It is like having your own personal little netflix right in front of you! (only the options were better!) Out of all the movie options, I chose to watch the movie Taken. I had never seen it before.... This was a mistake seeing as the movie is about a girl being kidnapped while traveling to another country (and she wasn't even by herself!) But besides that, the flight there was a breeze!
That night when I got to Japan and saw Natalie it was one of the most exciting and happy moments of my life! (did that sound like I was exaggerating?!) Because... Seriously. It took some time to register that everything around me was real. But we didn't waste any time getting started on our adventures. We went to dinner that night at a little restaurant. We ate Pork Raman, Kimchi (fermented cabbage), Chicken, and Gyoza, which is Japanese Pot stickers and my favorite thing I ate there! American's are doing pot stickers very WRONG! :)
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| Our first picture in Japan right after I got off the plane! :) |
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| We feasted like royalty our first night! :) |
After dinner we made our way to do karaoke. Karaoke is very popular in the Japanese culture. It's the McDonalds of Japan; you can find it on every street corner. Karaoke is very different from here, it is not done in bars, but it is a business all on its own. You get a room all to yourself with big screen TV's and fancy equipment. Some of the places even had themed rooms with disco balls and cool lights. There were hundreds of songs to choose from. It was my favorite thing there, and probably what I miss most. We did Karaoke 5 or 6 times while I was there and I loved every minuet of it!
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| This Karaoke room was themed "The Girls Room". It included fuzzy carpets, fancy flowered pillows, and pink walls!:) |
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Day 1: My first full day was very eventful. We went to Harajuku and did a little bit of shopping. :) We then went to the Japanese photo booths, called Purikura, and took pictures. They are entertaining because you can edit the pictures. The booths are GIANT, unlike the ones you find here in the mall, in which you can barely fit one person let alone you and your friends. It however doesn't forewarn you of when it starts taking pictures.... :) The Purikura's enlarges your eyes and makes your skin really pale. They kind of make you look like an anime character!
After the purikura, we ate lunch at a little cafe with the most amazing panini sandwiches. It could easily give Zupus a run for their money! :) After lunch we made our way to Meiji Jingu Shrine in Shibuya. It was SO fun to be at a real shrine! When we were done touring the shrine, we went to Institute where we learned about the creation. I loved being able to go and feel the spirit and meet new people. It was an interesting experience to know that no matter where you are in the world, no matter the culture, the language, or the people, the gospel is the same. It is never changing and the spirit it brings is real and is always present. God is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." Kind of a cool side note :) I also met some amazing people that day, who became an important part of my trip. My vacation truly wouldn't have been as great as it was if I wouldn't have met them! Once class was over, Nat and I went to dinner to a french restaurant (I got to experience all kinds of cultures) with my new friends Aiki and Brian. Nat decided I needed to try escargot because it "tastes just like mushrooms" Well... she was sorely wrong. It tasted nothing like mushrooms, it tasted just like snails. And it was disguising!
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| The escargot. The smile is on my face because I hadn't eaten it yet! :) |
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| Before you enter the shrine, it is ritual that you cleanse your mouth and hands with this water. There were found at all the temples and shrines. :) |
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| I don't know what these are.... but they were cool! |
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| Shibuya was such a lively city! |
Day 2: It was pretty cold almost every day I was there, but this day was especially frigid and rainy! Tokyo is a big city, right? So you walk EVERYWHERE!! So the cold rain was a little inconvenient and was raining on our parade. We had planned to go to lunch, then Tokyo tower, and then do baptisms at the temple. So we went at got tendon for lunch. It was DELICIOUS!!!! It was a rice bowl, with different kinds of tempura fresh fish and veggies on top. The day before, Nat and I had joked around about her going up to a boy that she thought was cute and telling him she thought he was attractive. Today... we put this plan into action. Natalie dared me to go up to the boy behind us and in English (obviously) tell him he had beautiful eyes. I... refused because I was much too mature for that kind of behavior. But really I was just too chicken. haha So she said that she would do it if she got to dare me to do something else. I agreed, not believing she would really do it, but she jotted down a fake phone number and walked up to the guy behind us. She told him he had beautiful eyes, thinking he wouldn't be able to understand English. But he understood everything she was saying, and even thanked her in English! She quickly slipped him the fake number and we bolted out of the restaurant! haha It was a pretty epic moment and was the start of our dare war for the rest of the trip!! ;)
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| The Tendon! |
After eating our delicious meal, we went to Tokyo tower only to realize once we got there that it was very cloudy and we wouldn't be able to see anything! So we moved to plan B. KARAOKE!!!! :) After singing our hearts out for hours, (literally, we were there for HOURS) we made our way to the Temple where we met Brian! Unfortunately, we didn't make it in time and when we got there all the workers had already left! The hours at the temple are very short for baptisms, because there are limited members. So instead we went to dinner at a raman restaurant and walked around the city. The raman restaurant was interesting because you order and pay in a little vending machine. Over all, it was kind of a crazy day. All of our plans fell through and we didn't really end up doing a lot! haha But it was still really fun in its own way! :) It is days like this that make life interesting and spontaneous!
Day 3: Before arriving to Japan, we had an idea of some things we wanted to visit and see while I was there, but we didn't have anything really planned out. Every day was spontaneous! And it was fun planning it right before bed what we were going to do the next day. It was still semi-structured, but had some spontaneity. :)
On the third day, we went to Ginza and went shopping! Man, did they have some big stores!! One of the stores we went to had 5 different levels. So it was basically a mall, but it was all one store. After putting the phrase "shop till you drop" to good use, we decided to go to Tokyo tower since we weren't able to go the day before. This was something I was really looking forward to. We had invited one of Natalies Waseda friends, Fumi, to join us. Fumi was super great and gave us lots of tips for sight seeing on the rest of my trip! He was also good at teaching me Japanese. Or... attempting to teach me. haha Tokyo tower was even more amazing than I imagined it to be. It was modeled after the Eiffel tower and was so beautiful. This was my first time in a real big city so when we got to the top and I saw the view, I was in total awe. It seemed like the city lights went on forever. We then all went to the food court in Tokyo tower and ate dinner.
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| The view from Tokyo Tower. This is the view of Odiabia's Rainbow Bridge! :) |
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| In Ginza, on certain days of the week at certain times of the day, they close the streets so cars can't drive on them. They set up tables and chairs and let people just chill in the street. It was both the coolest and strangest thing I have seen. I loved it! |
Day 4: This was the day I had been looking forward to since I bought my plane ticket to Japan. TOKYO DISNEYLAND!! It was really similar to California Disneyland, but yet really different? They had a lot of the same rides, but they were all in Japanese which was hard to get used to. I would be on a ride and forget I was in Japan. It's easier to do than you would think. Then they would start talking in Japanese and It would surprise me! The first ride we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean. The yo ho song was alllll in Japanese! But I loved it, it was a brand new experience. They didn't really have any new rides in Disneyland but some rides were a little different. It's a small world was very different because the main song was in Japanese. It was SO fun to go to the happiest place on earth with my best friend!! But after the day was over, my feet hurt SOOOO bad. I was so excited to sleep. :)
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| In line for Pirates. It was crazy busy so we had to entertain ourselves somehow! |
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| Exploring Tom Sawyers Island for my first time! I'm pulling a Kronk. Pretty good, eh? |
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| Serving some time in the slammer in Toon Town. |
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| Greetings from Tokyo Disneyland! :) |
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| See that girl in my picture? ya... She's cool. |
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| I kind of hate this picture of me. But I love the Blue Bayou! They give you BLANKETS while you eat!! Classy. |
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| The teacups. Nat was cruelly laughing at the dizzy people getting out that were falling. Ironically enough, she fell out after the ride. Karma, my friend! ;) |
Day 5: Disney Sea was how we spent my fifth day in Tokyo. It had some well known rides including Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, and Toy story Mania, but It was exciting getting to experience new rides. Tower of Terror is my favorite ride but it was very different. Instead of using the Twilight Zone it was base on some kind of monkey statute. It was all in Japanese so I couldn't quite follow. . . But by the looks of it, a monkey statute put a curse on the hotel. While waiting in the THREE HOUR line for Indian Jones (so worth it), I decided to get out of line to get Nat and I snacks. I owed her a snack because we made a bet that we would both talk in British accents the whole day and whoever quit first owed the other a treat. (this bet was my idea). I lost and only lasted a few minuets because my accent is kind of horrible. Actually, that is an understatement. My British accent is a mix of English/Australian/British/Made up Kaylee Language. It's awesome. I waited in line for 20 min. to get Nat her well earned snack, so by the time I got back to the line, it had moved way ahead! I was slightly panicking, not knowing where Nat was and having no way of reaching her or communicating with anyone around me! I ended up having to cut through the whole line and I felt SO bad! But I finally found Nat who was worried and about to leave the line since I had been gone so long. That was probably the only time Nat and I weren't together on our trip. ha ha Disney Sea also had a ride that was similar to the Star wars ride, only it was weather themed. The seats moved but you were in the middle of a tornado and tsunami and it spit water at you. While we were waiting in line for it, it started snowing. SNOWING!! It was really cold my whole trip, but this was one of the coldest times. It was ironic it started snowing while we were in line for the weather ride..... ;) Luckily it didn't snow very long! I loved Disney Sea, but by the end of the day I was pooped. My feet have never hurt so bad! (That probably sounds dramatic, but it's true). We left Disney Sea kind of late because we were taking pictures. The train lines stop running at 12:30 in Tokyo and Disney Sea is 2 hours away from Natalie's' house. Upon our ride home, we discovered we weren't going to make the last train in time to get home!! So we had to get off a few stops early and walk 30 min. At the moment... I admit I wasn't on board with the idea because I was tired. But I look back and it definitely added excitement to our trip. :)
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| In line for the Stormrider, the weather ride We took this picture right when the snow started :) |
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| The volcano behind us was a ride called "Journey to the Center of the Earth". It was a mix between Indiana Jones and Splash Mountain. You are in a car on a track, like Indiana, and then go down a drop at the end just like in Splash Mountain. :) It was SOOO fun! |
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| We were SOOO tired by the end of the night. Walking around Tokyo all week, and then Disneyland two days in a row killed us. We were both falling asleep in line. LITERALLY! Poor Natalie.... haha |
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| This is the Roller Coaster called "Raging Spirits" It was pretty great! |
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| The Disney Sea Castle was Ariel's!! |
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| This is Ariel's Grotto, which was inside the castle. They had mini teacups, a splash pad, jungle gym, and a Ariels grotto with all her Human trinkets! :) SO fun! |
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| He is pretty dreamy ;) |
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| Nat's first time on Toy Story Mania! Turns out it is her new favorite!! |
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| This picture is what made us miss our last train home and caused us to walk 30 min. It is literally worth a thousand words ;) |
Day 6: On this sabbath day, we decided after the long weekend we
could truly use this day of rest. The church was an hour away from
Natalie's house by train. It was very different riding a train for so
long in order to get to church. It made me really thankful to live in a
place where I can literally walk in any direction and I will eventually
run into an LDS church building. It's a blessing I definitely take for
granted. It was Natalies farewell talk so we went to her ward and I got
to hear her speak! I am so thankful I got to be there for her farewell.
Her talk was so spiritual and inspiring. She was so exuberant and full of excitement to have the opportunity to go and
serve the Lord. The other speaker was a returned missionary named
Sherry, who was giving her homecoming talk. She did such a great job on
her talk as well. Our friend Brian, whom we met at Institute a few days
previous, was giving his homecoming talk as well so we went and saw him speak. All the missionary
talks were amazing and truly brought a special spirit. It was a day
centered on missionary work and I loved every minuet of it! After
church, the ward was having a linger longer so I got to meet all of
Natalies wonderful friends! They were all so incredible and made me feel
so welcomed! I wish I could have gotten to know them better because
they were all such exceptional people! :) After linger longer, we went
home and cooked dinner in her apartment. Nat made me some kind of noodle
goodness and it was so yummy!! For dessert I had my first tim tam slam
and first melon float. They were like heaven in a cup! Whenever Natalie
and I reunite, it is tradition for us to play Scattergories. That is OUR
game and we have no mercy on one another when playing! Natalies number
one rule: No stupid answers!! ha ha I recently had gotten Bible
Scattergories and we finally played it this Sunday evening! And...
pretty much every day after that. :) Although this was by far our most
low key day, it was one of my favorite days there. I felt the spirit so
strongly and I just felt all around happy because of it! It testifies to
me that the spirit really is the source of our happiness! :) I also got
to meet lots of new friends who made me feel so loved and welcomed. Our
original plan was to sight see after church, but I know if we hadn't taken
this day of rest, I wouldn't have been able to function the rest of the
week. God knows that we need that seventh day of our week as a day of
recovering from the stresses and to-do's from the week. I truly believe
we were blessed because we kept the sabbath day holy and decided to stay
home. :)
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| My First Tim-Tam slam! They have the BEST Hot chocolate there, by the way!! :) |
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| Melon Floats! |
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| Melon float with Melon ice cream! TO DIE FOR!! :) |
Day 7: Natalie, Brian and I spent the whole day shopping in Asukusa, which is where I got all of my souvenirs. It is a very common tourist location with so many shops filled with Japanese trinkets. They were so patient with me and my indecisiveness. They didn't mind me staring at a key chain for 20 min. debating if it was worth buying. ha ha After making your way through the shops, they had a temple you could go inside. It was tradition before you enter the temples and shrines to pray and donate money for good luck. You would throw a coin into a container, clap your hands 3 times, and than pray. I know the ritual didn't make a difference, but it was neat to experience. After shopping, Natalie and I went to dinner with Kanasa and Akino, whom I met at church! They are seriously some of my favorite people!! :) We went to an Okinawa restaurant and Kanasa used her mad skills to get us an amazing deal. She told the waiters that she had friends visiting from the U.S and we wanted to try lots of different things, so they basically brought us samples of everything on their menu for us to try! We first ate sea grapes, which were pretty good. We also ate tempered goya, which is a VERY VERY bitter vegetable, but I liked it. I decided I like anything tempered. ha ha :) Next, a bowl with pink stringy things was brought out to me. Kanasa and Akino told Natalie and I they would tell us what they were after we ate them. They then pulled their cameras out to record us trying it and that should have been my clue to not eat it. haha It was pretty disgusting. . . It was slimy but crunchy and tasted plain horrible. Come to find out it was pig ears!! PIG EARS! I wouldn't classify me as a super picky eater, but I definitely have a few things I don't like, pork being one of them. I can definitely say while I was there I kept my promise and tried everything that was put in front of me. We also got to eat pig stomach, several types of salads, and taco rice! It was all so yummy (well for the most part) and was fun to try new foods not of my culture. While we were waiting for our food we decided to play a game. Akino and Kanasa are sisters (and basically best friends) so we decided to see how well we all knew each other. We split into two teams; Nat and I vs. Akino and Kanasa. We all had to answer a question secretly on a piece of paper and see if we could match answers with our teammate. We were creamed. haha We asked favorite color (which we totally got), what country you most want to visit, and how old you want to be when you die. :) After dinner, our dare war resurfaced. It had been a few days since Natalie had done her dare and she really wanted me to do something just as embarrassing. She dared me to walk up to someone and stand right in front of them, face dance, and walk away. Now, I think my dare was WAY worse than hers... but I totally did it! As we were crossing the cross walk, I stopped in front of a man and face danced. He gave me a look of horror and confusion, and went around me. hahaha It was actually kind of exhilarating. ha ha I had such a good time with Akino and Kanasa and I wish I could have spent more time with them!!
Upon riding the subway on the way home, we came to a sudden stop on the tracks. Apparently, Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and they have problems with people jumping in front of the trains. :( It delays all of the trains in the station, but the station alerts the passengers by saying someone was "injured". But in most cases, it is unfortunately worse than just an injury. :( When the train stopped and they came on the intercom saying there way an injury, my heart fell into my stomach... It's hard to explain exactly what I felt. But it really upset me knowing that something tragic had happened just outside my window. My mind was going a million miles an hour thinking about how I wish I could have done something... which is kind of irrational because... what could I have done?! We were stuck on the train for what felt like forever, but eventually started moving. I honestly don't know if it was an injury or worse. I think it's better not knowing... This incident really had me thinking about life and just how valuable and short it is. It made me think about my future career and how I cannot wait to become a counselor and help people who feel there is no purpose to life. It makes me so sad to think there are people out there who feel so alone and unhappy. I truly just want to help them feel a sense of purpose. It was a very thought provoking experience. Once we returned home, Natalie and I stayed up all night talking, which was something we hadn't done since I got there because we were always so tired. We had some very important, deep, and personal conversations which literally changed our friendship and brought us closer. We laughed together. We cried together. We hung up our laundry together. We had some major bonding time that I won't ever forget! ;)
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| Askusua shopping. There were streets and streets of shops with cool souvenirs. |
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| Photo Credit goes to Brian Skinner! :) |
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| This photo took us 3 tries to get. On the first try, the nice lady forgot to get the shrine in the picture, which was kind of the point of the picture. haha Next, Brian's eyes were closed. Third time is the charm. Please pay close attention to the gentleman behind me with the puffer fish cheeks :) |
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| Inside Askusua Temple |
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| you could see sky tree (the tallest building in Japan) in Askusua. |
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| Dinner date with my favorite ladies at an Okinawa resturant |
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| Pig ears. Mmmm... |
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| Sea grapes! :) |
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| I'm bringing the art of face dancing to Japan, one step at a time :) |
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| Taco rice. It was mexican tasting! And SO yummy! |
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| Tempered Goya! SO bitter but still delicious! |
This is the video of my "face dancing dare". hahaha The angle isn't very good so you can't see the mans reaction, but he didn't look at me for very long, and for good reason. He was in total shock! haha
Day 8: Since we had stayed up extremely late the previous night, we decided to sleep in the next morning. It was nice to get a little extra sleep and take it easy in the morning. I am not a morning person, so when I go on vacation I like to sleep in. I hadn't been getting to do that as much on this trip because I wanted to sight see, so this was a nice change. We spent the afternoon in Harajuku again. This was my favorite city we visited, hence why we went there several times. haha We looked around the clothing stores and went souviner shopping. We also got the most amazing tapioca smoothies. They had several fruity flavors you could choose from and they put mini tapioca balls in it. mmm :) Since Nat was going on her mission to Brazil, we decided we needed to eat Brazilian food before she left. They had a Tucano's there, and neither of us had been before. So Natalie, me, and our friend Jann from the singles ward went to dinner. It was really fun going to such a fancy restaurant. Most of the waiters there were actually from Brazil and were telling Natalie about the climate and bug situation. haha We tried the chicken heart, a Brazilian delicacy. It... wasn't my favorite. Natalie and I got up to make one last visit to the dessert table, and when we returned, we found Jann had paid our bill. It was SO nice of him to do that for us. I don't feel like I was able to fully express how thankful I was for his generosity. After dinner we went to Institute where we had an awesome lesson on the fall of Adam. We had planned after institute to get as many people in the YSA as we could to go sing Kareoke. It was so fun singing with such a big group of us! I love the Japan YSA and how close everyone is! :)
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| Tapioca Drinks that were to DIE for!! |
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| Tucano's :) |
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| The grilled pineapple was the best!! Natalie is sad because we wanted more!! haha |
Day 9: Natalie and I went to lunch at a Monjaki/okonomiyaki restaurant which is something I was looking forward to since I arrived. ( I say that a lot) At this restaurant you got to cook the food yourself on a grill in front of you. You are given a bowl of ingredients such as cabbage, fish flakes, cheese, and whatever else you want in your Okonomiyaki and you mix it up and pour it on the grill. It is almost like a pancake, but with vegetables, cheese and sometimes fish. (That description sounds disgusting, but it was actually one of my favorites) Monjaki is similar but is more liquidy. Its consistency is very similar to a paste as opposed to a pancake, but it is equally delicious! Because you are grilling the food yourself you end up smelling like you were deep fried in oil. They even provide you with garbage bags to put your coats and bags in so the fried smell doesn't infect your coats. After lunch, Natalie showed me her old apartment and the area that she used to live in. We then went to Denny's (which was very different by the way) to get a fancy ice cream Sundee. We had plans to meet up with Brian and Sherry at the temple to do baptisms, so we decided to kill some time by playing scattergories at Denny's. :) It was a nice change not playing it on the train. haha After a brutal game of Bible scattergories, in which Natalie cheated, we went to the Temple. haha They were all so nice to do baptisms with me, especially because all three of them were endowed. I got down into the baptism check in desk, and we had to sign in, only they wanted our names written in Japanese. Sherry was the sweetest and helped me the whole time in knowing what they were saying and where I needed to go. No one spoke English so if I wouldn't have had someone there to help me, I would have been utterly confused. This was a truly rare and sacred experience. All of my ordinances were done in Japanese, which was a neat experience. Even though I didn't fully understand what was being said, the spirit that was felt was stronger than ever. It doesn't matter what language you are speaking, the spirit can still be felt in the temple.
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| Okonomiyaki :) |
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| Monjaki :) |
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| Cooking our own food! |
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| This is Melon Pan. Natalie told me about this when she first moved to Japan 4 years ago. Ever since I heard about it, I have wanted to try it. It... was SOOO good! It was a sweet, sugary bread! :) |
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| At Denny's getting our Ice Cream Sundees |
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| The ice cream sundees in Japan are so fancy! :) They had all kinds of fruit and pudding and syrups. SO yummy! |
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| After the Temple :) LOVE these people! |
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| The Tokyo Temple had amazing stain glass windows! It was beautiful! |
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| The dare wars continue, although they weren't quite as drastic. I dared
Natalie to draw a mustache on her finger and ride the train with it up
to her face. hahaha It was quite entertaining :) |
Day 10: Natalie and I went to Kamakura, which is a city outside of Tokyo with tons and tons of Shines and Temples. It was an extremely rainy day, but of all the things we did on my visit, it impressed me the most and was the most unforgettable. We visited the giant buddah, which is a very famous landmark. It was a GIANT buddah statue built in the 1200's. You could also go inside of it, where they had plaques that told more about the statue. Natalie and I then ate at McDonalds. I'm lovin' it. I know what you are all thinking. You are in Japan? And eating McDonalds?! Guys, I don't even eat McDonalds when I am at home, but I had to at least try it to compare it. Plus it was the only food place around us. We chose it by default... It was the exact same, nothing special.But it was an experience!
Day 11: Shrines are found everywhere in Japan. There are tourist sites with extravagant shrines, but there are also miniature ones all along the sidewalks. There was a Shrine very close to Natalies'' house that we decided to go visit. Seeing the shrines and temples never bored me, I found them all very unique and interesting in their own way. This particular shrine was my favorite (I think I have said that a few times) because it was so peaceful. We were the only humans on the premises. I felt a sense of tranquility and spirituality. We did the routinely act of throwing our coins into the box, and praying. This time I really, really prayed. I felt very close to my Father in Heaven, despite being in a Buddist temple. It was nice to get away from worldly ideas and distractions. The spirit can be heard so much better when we are surrounded by silence.
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| One of the mini Shrines on the sidewalk! |
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| The entrance to the peaceful shrine :) |
After the shrine, we visited Odiabia, a city outside of Tokyo. It had a massive mall called Venus Fort that had all sorts of activities inside. We first visited the Toyota mega web, which had all of Toyota's newest models which you could test drive if you had an international license. Fun fact: this exhibit was featured in Cars 2. :) This mall was modeled after a hotel in Las Vegas. The ceiling was made to look like the sky and the architecture was Roman themed.
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| Odaibia is famous for Rainbow Bridge. At night it lights up and is different colors. It is SO stunning! |
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| They had a deck with a beautiful view of the lake outside of Venus Fort. |
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| This is the race track at the Toyota Mega Web exhibit where you could test drive cars! |
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| Roman architecture |
Venus Fort also contained Lego Land, a Wax museum, and a trick eye museum. We only had time to do one so we chose the trick eye museum. It was really fun to take lots of pictures and there were quite a few that looked fairly real. After the trick eye museum, we played Karaoke, yet again. Brain tagged
along this time which made it much more fun!! It was great to get to
hang out with him before I left and get to say goodbye.
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| Natalie didn't quite understand what she was supposed to do... hahaha |
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| And the dares continue. I had to also draw a fake mustache on finger and sit on the tracks, until we get off. |
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| Natalie's next dare was she had to wear her mask over her eyes as she crossed the bridge. She was freaking out! haha |
Day 12: This was my last day in Japan, and it hadn't quite hit me yet that I was leaving. The two weeks I was there had flown by! We had heard there was a leisurely hike that had a cage of monkeys at the top that you could actually go inside! That is the whole reason I wanted to do the hike. We brought a group of Natalies friends with us and hiked up the mountain. Unfortunately the hike wasn't that leisurely, at least for me. It was straight uphill the whole way, but it was a great leg workout!! Natalies poor friends... they were fast hikers, and I was so slow! I was cramping their style! What kept me going strong was knowing we would get to play with monkeys at the top. Come to find out, we got to see the monkeys in their cage, but not go inside. It was basically a zoo. Disappointing. But at least we got to see them, and it was still enjoyable and they were adorable!! Natalie and I decided to ride the sky ride down the mountain as opposed to hike down so that we would have more time for other activities on my last day. Natalie was TERRIFIED because we didn't have a bar to keep us secured in. It was almost comical how scared and irrational she was. ;) But we made it safely to the bottom and she eventually felt much better. :) After hiking we went and ate at a new restaurant. It is funny because we were looking for a okonomiyaki and monjayaki resturant. We throught the place we picked was just that but we were sorely mistaken. We sat down and the waitress had already brought us water when we realized we were wrong. We almost left, but then realized that would be weird and not to mention, exremly rude... I am glad we stayed because the food there was one of my favorites! We ate skewers with different fried foods on it. (SOO healthy). There was bacon, shrimp, quail eggs and many other foods we tried. After dinner we went and sang more kareoke. I could have sang kareoke everyday and never gotten sick of it.
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| On the sky ride sporting our awesome masks :) |
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| It was so beautiful! |
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| The view from the top! It was a hard hike but it was so worth it!! |
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| The monkey zoo at the top of the hike :) |
It was so sad leaving Japan and Natalie. It all felt like a dream and I still miss it daily. I love the culture, the people, the friends I made, and their ways of life. It is different than anything I have ever experienced and I will remember it forever. I am so glad I got to create these moments with my best friend/sister. I will go back someday. Until then, I will remember and cherish the memories of my many adventures. :)
