Here's a quick recap of our adventures:
- Dinner with my friend Chris and lunch/karaoke with my friend Jane for her birthday (my first time in Saitama!)
- The Chiba Three Generations Festival! This year was a little different for me from in the past, because instead of dancing in the bon-odori dance that takes place at the end of the festival, I danced in our yosakoi performance! I think I knew that there were yosakoi performances in the festival, but somehow never managed to see any of them...anyway, one thing that made this performance special to me was that I was picked to dance in a part where there is essentially a group solo, despite the fact that I'd only just learned and danced that part for the first time literally the week before. The first performance was a bit of a mess, but I was really happy to have been picked. I was also happy because not only did my friend Jon come to see me, but also my coworkers (including my boss) and my roommate from when I was a TOA, who came to Chiba the day before leaving Japan just to see my team dance. It was a little bittersweet to think that this might very well have been my last Three Generations Festival, but at least it was a good one!
- A Carleton get-together! I felt like it was such a coincidence to have a Carleton gathering in Japan while my friend from Carleton happened to be visiting, and since it wasn't one of the usual events but rather last-minute, it really was. An alum who just happened to be in Japan set it up, and so we had dinner with him and a couple of current students, which was much smaller (and younger) than our usual events, and pretty fun.
- Post-Chiba Orientation dinner! Like last year, I presented at orientation as a block coordinator, but this year, as the president of Chiba AJET, I also organized the annual dinner afterwards. Despite some hiccups with some no-shows, I think it was a success (and I am definitely grateful to have had our new council people there to help collect money; would have been so much more stressful on my own).
- Climbing Mt. Fuji. Oh man. So AJET was organizing a group to go climb Mt. Fuji, and since my friend was here I figured it'd be the perfect opportunity. But I didn't want to buy hiking boots just to wear them once, so instead I found a pair of sturdy-looking boots at a recycle shop. Long story short, the key word was 'looking' and the shoes completely fell apart during the climb, first with the top of the soles coming off (temporarily saved by zip ties from a man in the office), to completely detaching during the descent. But aside from that (and completely overestimating how much water we'd need and having much too heavy packs and no walking sticks), the ascent wasn't so bad. It didn't get too cold until we neared the top, the nighttime scenery was pretty cool, and climbing up the rocky parts was actually pretty fun.
And then we got to the top (around 3:30AM) and after waiting in the windy cold in a little niche we found, we saw the sunrise! It was, needless to say, gorgeous, and also pretty much directly in front of where we were. Pretty cool. And then after a quick stop at the post office at the summit, we started our descent, which I will gloss over because it was easily the worst part of the trip- After our first night in Kyoto, which mostly involved dinner, buying new shoes, and passing out on our beds, the next day we went to the Kyoto Botanical Gardens, Nijo Castle, and the International Manga Museum. This was my fourth time in Kyoto and Jon said he didn't mind missing the big tourist spots if I had already been, so we went to new places (except for Nijo Castle, but that had been one of my favorite places when I went with my family) - and they were both great! And then we met up with some of my friends in the Kyoto area, and had dinner at a Showa era-themed izakaya, which I thought was pretty interesting. The next day, we visited Arashiyama, another super famous part of Kyoto I'd never been to. We visited a famous temple, Tenryuuji and then a bamboo forest, followed by a scenic train ride up the mountain. We wanted to take a boat down the river but apparently it was closed because of typhoons. :( Still, it was all very nature-y and pretty, so still worth it. We spent the evening wandering around Gion, and then the next morning we went up Kyoto Tower, which was pretty similar to most scenic towers but still cool.
And that was the end of our trip! Jon and I split ways agreed that, with me going back to Chiba and him continuing on to other parts of Japan. But we would soon meet again in Nagoya, which I'll talk about in my next post!
(mostly gravel, heavy packs, shoes that were essentially just thick socks at that point, etc. etc.), after which we boarded a bus (the first one I've ever been in that asked passengers to sit on the floor when seats ran out) and headed to Kyoto!
- After our first night in Kyoto, which mostly involved dinner, buying new shoes, and passing out on our beds, the next day we went to the Kyoto Botanical Gardens, Nijo Castle, and the International Manga Museum. This was my fourth time in Kyoto and Jon said he didn't mind missing the big tourist spots if I had already been, so we went to new places (except for Nijo Castle, but that had been one of my favorite places when I went with my family) - and they were both great! And then we met up with some of my friends in the Kyoto area, and had dinner at a Showa era-themed izakaya, which I thought was pretty interesting. The next day, we visited Arashiyama, another super famous part of Kyoto I'd never been to. We visited a famous temple, Tenryuuji and then a bamboo forest, followed by a scenic train ride up the mountain. We wanted to take a boat down the river but apparently it was closed because of typhoons. :( Still, it was all very nature-y and pretty, so still worth it. We spent the evening wandering around Gion, and then the next morning we went up Kyoto Tower, which was pretty similar to most scenic towers but still cool.
And that was the end of our trip! Jon and I split ways agreed that, with me going back to Chiba and him continuing on to other parts of Japan. But we would soon meet again in Nagoya, which I'll talk about in my next post!
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