sayonara, tokyo

So today was my last day in Yokohama/Tokyo. We slept in, then got up and went to Kamakura with Megumi's mom. We spent some time walking down a little street of shops, looking for somewhere to eat lunch. We found a soba place and I ordered soba with duck (I think), which also came with 'soba tea jelly', which was interesting but pretty tasty. Apparently my lunch came from the 'good for your summer body menu', which I didn't realize until afterward but found amusing. It was my first time having soba, and it was very yummy. :)

Then we went and visited Hachimangu Temple, which apparently is very famous. It wasn't crowded at all, which was nice. We stopped to make wishes, and then Megumi's mom bought me a good-luck charm, which was really nice of her! It's in my purse right now, but I'm planning on putting it in my backpack so it can give me luck wherever I go. :)

After that we went to the Enoshima Aquarium! I haven't been to an aquarium in a couple years (either since our senior field trip or when I was taking my cousin around Atlanta; I can't remember), so it was fun. There were some really big sting rays and some really tiny jellyfish (not in the same tank, of course), plus lots and lots of creatures in between. I wanted to get a picture of the teeny jellyfish, but they were so tiny that my camera couldn't get a good picture. But I took lots and lots of pictures of the other things, like the giant crabs and penguins. We also missed the dolphin show, but saw the trainers giving them fish afterward, which was cool.

And then we went home and ate pizza and watched a segment about a transgendered celebrity who ran a 24-hour marathon, and so concludes my last day in Yokohama! It's been a really fun week, and I think also a good crash course/intro to Japan for me. I really hope I can come back to Tokyo for a few days after my finals end in December, because there's so much more to do and explore - I could probably live here for years and not get tired of it all. But tomorrow I head to Nagoya, where my study abroad will officially start! I'll meet my host family, go to orientation, and then start classes! I'm excited and nervous, because in Nagoya I won't have Megumi to rely on like I have been so much this past week, and I don't know how much English my host family speaks. Still, I guess it will be a chance for me to really test my Japanese skills - since everybody in Megumi's house speaks English, I haven't really had to speak much Japanese, but in Nagoya it may be my only avenue for communication. I am not looking forward to my placement test, since there is still a lot of kanji/grammar I haven't reviewed yet and should, but I'll be glad once it's over and classes start. I don't know yet what classes I'm taking or how hard they'll be, but it's been a long summer and I'm looking forward to school (yes, I'm a nerd).

Anyway, I still have lot to get ready before I leave tomorrow, so I'll stop here. I don't know when my next entry will be; I don't know yet if my host family has internet or not and orientation isn't until Thursday, so I'll just say bye-bye for now! :)