It's like vertigo, except fish.

It’s about time that I caught up on my backlog of LJ entries, so here's the first one. On October 21^st -24^th I was in Nagano. IES (my study abroad program) had a group trip there. We started our trip by getting on a bus bright and early on Wednesday morning. The ride to Nagano was a bit long but it was broken up by stops along the way.

At the first stop we went to a drum museum. While we were there we also got to take taiko drum lessons. It was pretty cool, even if I did mess up the rhythms sometimes. Our taiko sensei was cute, as well. Later in the afternoon we stopped at Matsumoto Castle. It was an old samurai castle and was really cool to see! It had a lot of super steep stairs though. We’re talking steps at a 65 degree angle. Greta, Nicole, Leslie, and I were joking around about the samurai having tests to make it through the castle in 5 minutes of less. If they didn’t make it they would be thrown down as projectile weapons, lol.

After the castle, we arrived at the ryokan we were staying at. Greta was put in charge of the key for our room. It turned out rather ironically (and awesomely) that we were in the Kotobuki room. Kotobuki is actually part of the name of one of Greta’s characters. This of course really meant that Greta was destined to be our fearless leader, and so we formed the Kotobuki-gumi. We had fun running around in the yukata and geta that the ryokan lent us. After dinner it was onsen (hot springs) time. It was a tiny bit awkward at first because you are supposed to get into onsen naked. They are divided by gender though, so it was only being naked around other girls. And it ended up being no big deal once everyone was naked because it somehow put us all on the same level (if that makes sense). The onsen were very nice and relaxing. They were quite warm though, so you could usually only stay in for a few minutes at a time.

We started the next day with making tofu. The place we went to make the tofu was freezing inside. Dear Japan, please invest in central heating. Despite not really knowing what we were doing and freezing our asses off, I thought our tofu turned out pretty good. We spent the afternoon exploring the town of Obuse. There were a lot of little shops there, and a few art museums. There was a Hokusai museum, with some of the prints he made later in his life. I really enjoyed seeing those.

On the third day we went to Zenkoji, a famous Buddhist temple. It was pretty cool. The most notable part of Zenkoji was the maze we went through. There is a short maze under the main temple that the monks used to use. It only has one path, but the maze is literally pitch black. And you’re not supposed to talk as you’re going through. (Do you hear that little old Japanese ladies? STFU.) I spent most of the time with my had on Greta’s back, to insure that I wouldn’t be walking alone, and Leslie was behind me, with her hand on my back. The maze was only about 5 minutes. It was simultaneously pretty neat and a little terrifying. After Zenkoji, we went and made our own soba noodles for lunch. They were quite delicious. For whatever reason, the place we made soba at also had a giant slide outside that we went down. We then spent the afternoon hiking. We hiked through some gorgeous scenery to get to Togakushi Shrine. The leaves on the trees were just starting to change colors. And after Tokgakushi, we went to the awesome ninja museum. There was a super cool ninja house there, with secret doors, tilted rooms, and moving staircases that we made our way through. There was also a fun area to run around in outside, with walls to climb to prove that you were ninja.

On the last day we went to the monkey onsen. These are famous onsen in Nagano that monkeys like to go in. There were a ton of monkeys there! The baby ones were so cute! You still had to be careful around the monkeys though. Leslie accidentally got a very frightening looking monkey picture, when the monkey decided it didn’t like its picture being taken, lol. After that we went to another place, where we made some pottery. We molded the pots, and they are going to bake them and send them back to us. Then it was time for the bus ride back home. They put on some movies for us to watch during the ride. The first one was Handsome Suit, a hilarious Japanese comedy about an ugly man who turns into a handsome man when he puts on a Handsome Suit. And the movie was filmed in Makuhari. Part of it was even filmed on the campus at KUIS! The second movie was Ponyo~. I love Ponyo. By the time the movies were over, we were nearly home.

Some of my favorite quotes from the weekend were:

-It’s like vertigo, except fish.

-It all makes sense once you get past the dinosaurs.

-He could take Matsumoto castle.

-They ate mostly in science.

-"Stop punching our lunch."
"I eat lunch for breakfast."

Here's a link to my Nagano photos on Flickr. (I'm too lazy to upload them through LJ.)

It's like vertigo, except fish.

It’s about time that I caught up on my backlog of LJ entries, so here's the first one. On October 21^st -24^th I was in Nagano. IES (my study abroad program) had a group trip there. We started our trip by getting on a bus bright and early on Wednesday morning. The ride to Nagano was a bit long but it was broken up by stops along the way.

At the first stop we went to a drum museum. While we were there we also got to take taiko drum lessons. It was pretty cool, even if I did mess up the rhythms sometimes. Our taiko sensei was cute, as well. Later in the afternoon we stopped at Matsumoto Castle. It was an old samurai castle and was really cool to see! It had a lot of super steep stairs though. We’re talking steps at a 65 degree angle. Greta, Nicole, Leslie, and I were joking around about the samurai having tests to make it through the castle in 5 minutes of less. If they didn’t make it they would be thrown down as projectile weapons, lol.

After the castle, we arrived at the ryokan we were staying at. Greta was put in charge of the key for our room. It turned out rather ironically (and awesomely) that we were in the Kotobuki room. Kotobuki is actually part of the name of one of Greta’s characters. This of course really meant that Greta was destined to be our fearless leader, and so we formed the Kotobuki-gumi. We had fun running around in the yukata and geta that the ryokan lent us. After dinner it was onsen (hot springs) time. It was a tiny bit awkward at first because you are supposed to get into onsen naked. They are divided by gender though, so it was only being naked around other girls. And it ended up being no big deal once everyone was naked because it somehow put us all on the same level (if that makes sense). The onsen were very nice and relaxing. They were quite warm though, so you could usually only stay in for a few minutes at a time.

We started the next day with making tofu. The place we went to make the tofu was freezing inside. Dear Japan, please invest in central heating. Despite not really knowing what we were doing and freezing our asses off, I thought our tofu turned out pretty good. We spent the afternoon exploring the town of Obuse. There were a lot of little shops there, and a few art museums. There was a Hokusai museum, with some of the prints he made later in his life. I really enjoyed seeing those.

On the third day we went to Zenkoji, a famous Buddhist temple. It was pretty cool. The most notable part of Zenkoji was the maze we went through. There is a short maze under the main temple that the monks used to use. It only has one path, but the maze is literally pitch black. And you’re not supposed to talk as you’re going through. (Do you hear that little old Japanese ladies? STFU.) I spent most of the time with my had on Greta’s back, to insure that I wouldn’t be walking alone, and Leslie was behind me, with her hand on my back. The maze was only about 5 minutes. It was simultaneously pretty neat and a little terrifying. After Zenkoji, we went and made our own soba noodles for lunch. They were quite delicious. For whatever reason, the place we made soba at also had a giant slide outside that we went down. We then spent the afternoon hiking. We hiked through some gorgeous scenery to get to Togakushi Shrine. The leaves on the trees were just starting to change colors. And after Tokgakushi, we went to the awesome ninja museum. There was a super cool ninja house there, with secret doors, tilted rooms, and moving staircases that we made our way through. There was also a fun area to run around in outside, with walls to climb to prove that you were ninja.

On the last day we went to the monkey onsen. These are famous onsen in Nagano that monkeys like to go in. There were a ton of monkeys there! The baby ones were so cute! You still had to be careful around the monkeys though. Leslie accidentally got a very frightening looking monkey picture, when the monkey decided it didn’t like its picture being taken, lol. After that we went to another place, where we made some pottery. We molded the pots, and they are going to bake them and send them back to us. Then it was time for the bus ride back home. They put on some movies for us to watch during the ride. The first one was Handsome Suit, a hilarious Japanese comedy about an ugly man who turns into a handsome man when he puts on a Handsome Suit. And the movie was filmed in Makuhari. Part of it was even filmed on the campus at KUIS! The second movie was Ponyo~. I love Ponyo. By the time the movies were over, we were nearly home.

Some of my favorite quotes from the weekend were:

-It’s like vertigo, except fish.

-It all makes sense once you get past the dinosaurs.

-He could take Matsumoto castle.

-They ate mostly in science.

-"Stop punching our lunch."
"I eat lunch for breakfast."

Here's a link to my Nagano photos on Flickr. (I'm too lazy to upload them through LJ.)

(no subject)

And now for a current entry. I fricking finally have internet in my dorm room! Thank god. It was so inconvienient without it.

This weekend was fun. On Saturday there was originally supposed to be a big fangirl trip to Tokyo, but serria didn't come because it was raining and she was recovering from a cold. meepalicious and I decided to go to Ikebukuro anyways though. We met up with Stephanie (from our Japanese class) there. The three of us went to Closet Child, where I picked up a copy of exist trace's new CD, Ambivalent Symphony (squee!). Then it was onto the Animate, Mandarake, and all the smaller shops in between. I picked up even more doujinshi at Mandarake. I really should stop, but I can never resist it, especially when some of them are only 210 yen each. Of course, I wound up with moar Gundam (mostly Lockon/Tieria) and I also bought a random pretty D18 Reborn doujin. I have a feeling that Stephanie wasn't all about the yaoi, but she tolerated it quite patiently, which was nice of her.

I ended up in Ikebukuro yet again on Sunday. This time I was meeting my friend Eri, and her friends Wakana and Bethany. We went to Sunshine City, the huge department store. Inside Sunshine City is a mini theme park called Namjatown, so we decided to go there. It was pretty cool. We ate lunch in Gyoza Town, which had around a dozen different gyoza places to choose from. It was pretty yummy. The we went to Ice Cream City for dessert, which had about a dozen different kind of ice cream flavors. I ended up with delicious pudding (purin) flavored ice cream. We then walked around and played a cutesy little detective game. It was a nice time.



Of course we had to take some purikura!

(no subject)

And now for a current entry. I fricking finally have internet in my dorm room! Thank god. It was so inconvienient without it.

This weekend was fun. On Saturday there was originally supposed to be a big fangirl trip to Tokyo, but serria didn't come because it was raining and she was recovering from a cold. meepalicious and I decided to go to Ikebukuro anyways though. We met up with Stephanie (from our Japanese class) there. The three of us went to Closet Child, where I picked up a copy of exist trace's new CD, Ambivalent Symphony (squee!). Then it was onto the Animate, Mandarake, and all the smaller shops in between. I picked up even more doujinshi at Mandarake. I really should stop, but I can never resist it, especially when some of them are only 210 yen each. Of course, I wound up with moar Gundam (mostly Lockon/Tieria) and I also bought a random pretty D18 Reborn doujin. I have a feeling that Stephanie wasn't all about the yaoi, but she tolerated it quite patiently, which was nice of her.

I ended up in Ikebukuro yet again on Sunday. This time I was meeting my friend Eri, and her friends Wakana and Bethany. We went to Sunshine City, the huge department store. Inside Sunshine City is a mini theme park called Namjatown, so we decided to go there. It was pretty cool. We ate lunch in Gyoza Town, which had around a dozen different gyoza places to choose from. It was pretty yummy. The we went to Ice Cream City for dessert, which had about a dozen different kind of ice cream flavors. I ended up with delicious pudding (purin) flavored ice cream. We then walked around and played a cutesy little detective game. It was a nice time.



Of course we had to take some purikura!