So somehow before I realized it, I've become a third-year JET! (Weird...still not used to introducing myself that way at all.) I think that's mostly due to the fact that July was probably the busiest month I've had so far (or at least, it's the month in my planner that has the most writing on it).
In July, I...:
- went and saw takarazuka for the first time ever with a friend, who happens to be a takarazuka expert! Takarazuka is a type of musical theater where all the performers are women, and the show (Rose of Versailles: Oscar Edition) was dramatic and sparkly and confusing and awesome. :D
- went to another Analogfish concert, but this time also with Asian Kung-Fu Generation, who is much more famous by far. Consequently I spent the first half (their half) being totally crushed in the midst of happy dancing AKFG fans, but I managed to be near the front for both them and Analogfish, so it was great. Technically I went with my friend but we didn't actually end up finding each other until after, oops.
- had catchup/goodbye meals with friends/coworkers/predecessor
- interpreted for a presentation/courtesy visit for the representatives of the Red Bull Air Race, which will be taking place in Chiba City. Managed to do most of the presentation interpreting on-the-fly, which was pretty cool.
- met up with my parent's friends who were visiting Tokyo and watched them buy lots of brand name stuff (apparently it's much much cheaper in Japan)
- interpreted for the mayor at a museum event/reception for Kiwanis International, who had their annual convention at Makuhari Messe (a big deal)
- was the emcee for the first time at our discussion for foreign residents instead of just an interpreter (and got to tour the Chiba City Zoological Park again)
- performed in two yosakoi events (as detailed in my last post)
- had lots of meetings for various types of AJET
But the peak of the month was definitely at the end, when my crazy schedule went something like this:
- Friday evening: interpreting at a dinner hosted for the mayor of our sister city, Montreux (being the only interpreter at a dinner party is always a challenge...)
- Saturday: accompanying the mayor to the new AEON mall in Makuhari, a sushi lunch, and then the poolside BBQ Swiss National Day event hosted by the Swiss Embassy in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Switzerland, where I interpreted for the mayor, met the Ambassador of Switzerland to Japan, and saw our sister city's mayor swim in a pool shaped like Lake Geneva (which borders Montreux)
- Sunday: yosakoi event all day
- Monday: being a bus guide, emcee, and interpreter for a group of diplomats who came to visit Chiba City for a study tour! My group visited Kanda University of International Studies, which had a really cool campus (I would probably have loved being a student there), before going to a presentation by the Economic Affairs Bureau/lunch reception, the Institute of Radiological Sciences, and the Chiba City Museum of Art. It was a reaaally long day but I had a pretty good time telling people where we'd go, etc. on the bus and then going around the different places with them. Afterward the Ambassador of Malawi to Japan personally thanked me and asked for my business card, which was pretty awesome. And so after arriving back in Tokyo with everybody in the evening (after some intense traffic and a slight fiasco involving peanuts)...
- ...I headed to Shinjuku to meet some fellow CIRs who were around for Tokyo Orientation (sad I couldn't be a part of it this year), but only had time for one drink before...
- ...heading straight to the airport to head to America for a week to be a bridesmaid in my high school best friend's wedding! Since that wasn't really Japan-related I won't go into too much detail here, but it was a wonderful (almost) week of seeing my college friend/sister during layovers, meeting my friend's relatives, seeing my high school friends again, and even managing to spend a night at home with my parents. And seeing my high school best friend happily married, of course. :)
And that's how I actually spent the day of my third anniversary in Japan flying somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. I think my second year of JET far exceeded the standard of awesomeness set by the previous year, and even though I can't really imagine how, I can only hope that my third and probably final year will do the same!
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Sunday, August 10, 2014
chiba yosakoi
As I may have mentioned before, summer is yosakoi season, and now we're in full swing! Starting with a few events last month, now we'll have performances almost every weekend until the end of September (plus a few more in October and November).
Our events in July were both in Chiba, first a festival called Boso Daisakusen (or as I like to translate it, Operation Boso), and then the Funabashi Festival. In keeping with the team's goal of promoting yosakoi in Chiba, Operation Boso took us up and down the Boso peninsula, which makes up most of the prefecture.
Our first stop was a small rest area (?) in Nagara, where (if I remember correctly) a local yosakoi team is trying to get more people involved. We only had a few teams performing and a pretty small audience, but it was a fun way to start out the day and I enjoyed seeing the other teams - there was one dance involving teruterubouzu, or little white figures with faces that people hang up as charms for good weather, and some adorable kids singing and dancing with them.
Next we went down to Shirahama, where I went last year for a Chiba-kun Ambassador's tour , which also happens to be southernmost tip of the peninsula. They were having a festival called Maruguru, complete with a karaoke competition and lots of food stalls. Unfortunately we didn't get the chance to go up the hill to see the gorgeous view of the ocean there, but this time there were lots of people watching all the yosakoi performances and they seemed to enjoy it. :D
Our last stop was a shopping mall in Tateyama, where my friends from Sosa and Kamogawa came to see us perform! This was the first time I got to perform for people I know, so that was pretty exciting. :)
And then the next weekend, we performed in Funabashi's festival, despite some rain. My camera ran out of batteries so I don't have any pictures, but it was a big crowded event complete with floats/portable shrines, and lots of fun. I remember being really impressed because one of the teams that performed with us was actually a high school band, who even performed a few songs (with harmony and everything) - talk about multi-talented!
It's a lot of fun to travel to yosakoi events all around the country (we have another big tournament coming up in Nagoya at the end of the month), but it's also pretty great to be able to perform in familiar local places, too. :D
Our events in July were both in Chiba, first a festival called Boso Daisakusen (or as I like to translate it, Operation Boso), and then the Funabashi Festival. In keeping with the team's goal of promoting yosakoi in Chiba, Operation Boso took us up and down the Boso peninsula, which makes up most of the prefecture.
Our last stop was a shopping mall in Tateyama, where my friends from Sosa and Kamogawa came to see us perform! This was the first time I got to perform for people I know, so that was pretty exciting. :)
And then the next weekend, we performed in Funabashi's festival, despite some rain. My camera ran out of batteries so I don't have any pictures, but it was a big crowded event complete with floats/portable shrines, and lots of fun. I remember being really impressed because one of the teams that performed with us was actually a high school band, who even performed a few songs (with harmony and everything) - talk about multi-talented!
It's a lot of fun to travel to yosakoi events all around the country (we have another big tournament coming up in Nagoya at the end of the month), but it's also pretty great to be able to perform in familiar local places, too. :D
Sunday, July 20, 2014
chiba-kun ambassadors year two, tour one!
A few weeks ago was the first Chiba-kun Ambassadors tour of the
year... and I slept through the first half of it. -.-' I have no
recollection whatsoever if my alarm going off, just waking up at 8,
looking at my watch, and thinking, '...wait, 8?!' Luckily somebody
else was due to join the group at lunchtime, so I just met up with her.
Hopefully this will be the first and last time I oversleep for a tour!
In the morning the ambassadors visited the Iris Festival at the Suigo Sawara Aquatic Botanical Garden and also got to ride boats, which I was really looking forward to and was sad to have missed. :( But at least I still managed to make it in time for lunch, which was in Sawara, at a restaurant called Chiyofuku. My first impression of the restaurant (besides being viciously attacked by mosquitoes in the two minutes I spent waiting outside the entrance) was that it was very classy/fancy (for lack of better words), though not in an intimidating way. The outside looks very traditional, but the inside is pretty modern. Of course, the food was delicious, too! Tempura, sashimi, pickles - all very traditional food.
Chiyofuku
Address: 1720-1 Sawara, Katori-shi
Access: 12-minute walk from JR Sawara Station
Closed Mondays
Our next stop was the Suigo Sawara Dashi Kaikan/Float Hall, where you can learn about the dashi (floats) that are used in the Sawara Festival, which is one of three great festivals of the Kanto region (for some reason in Japan they always list top things in threes). It's also apparently an Important Intangible Cultural Property (says their flier). Though I will say these floats are different from any others I've seen, as they have giant figures on them. The Float Hall had several of the actual floats on display, where you could see them up-close and also try on happi, the traditional coats. To be honest some were a little intimidating, but they were still pretty impressive. The floor above also had some exhibitions with musical instruments and wooden sculptures. Pretty cool. I can only imagine what it must be like to see them all lit up at night in the parades, complete with music and crowds of people!
Suigo Sawara Dashi Kaikan (Float Hall)
Website: http://www.city.katori.lg.jp/dashikaikan/index.html (Japanese only)
Address: 3368I Sawara, Katori-shi (inside Yasaka Shrine grounds)
Access: 15-minute walk from JR Sawara Station
Admission: 400 yen for adults, 200 yen for elementary/junior high schoolers
Closed Mondays
Next we had some free time to explore the town, which is famous for its traditional-style streets. I've heard you can also rent kimonos to explore with, which is something I'd like to try sometime. There's a little river that flows in between some of the historic streets downtown, and it's very picturesque. You can even ride boats here too! There are also lots of souvenir shops with cute/traditional items, which I had fun exploring - I also found one that sold high-quality earpicks (aka made of fancy wood and costing hundreds of dollars), haha. And of course there are places to eat, traditional/historical buildings, and also a museum (that I didn't go to) dedicated to Ino Tadataka, who made a map of Japan in the 1800s that is almost identical to maps nowadays (in other words, incredibly accurate for the time).
Finally, we went to Katori Jingu Shrine, which is famous enough for me to have heard of it before this tour, for what that's worth. I will admit (again) that I don't know much about Shintoism or shrines, but it was a really beautiful and quiet place - the road leading up to it was lined with trees that were big and green and shady, and after we went into the temple and were given a brief introduction by somebody who worked there, I wandered around the back by myself and it was very peaceful.
Katori Jingu Shrine
Website: http://www.katori-jingu.or.jp/ (Japanese only)
Address: 1697-1 Katori, Katori-shi
Access: 10-minute walk from JR Sawara Station
Admission: 300 yen for adults, 100 yen for elementary/junior high schoolers
Closed Mondays
And so ended our first tour! I'm still sad that I missed the first half (though I guess it's my own fault, or rather my alarm clock's), especially since I'm sure everybody did self-introductions on the bus, but there are still three more tours for us to do as a group, including an overnight one, so hopefully I'll get to know everybody soon anyway!
In the morning the ambassadors visited the Iris Festival at the Suigo Sawara Aquatic Botanical Garden and also got to ride boats, which I was really looking forward to and was sad to have missed. :( But at least I still managed to make it in time for lunch, which was in Sawara, at a restaurant called Chiyofuku. My first impression of the restaurant (besides being viciously attacked by mosquitoes in the two minutes I spent waiting outside the entrance) was that it was very classy/fancy (for lack of better words), though not in an intimidating way. The outside looks very traditional, but the inside is pretty modern. Of course, the food was delicious, too! Tempura, sashimi, pickles - all very traditional food.
Chiyofuku
Address: 1720-1 Sawara, Katori-shi
Access: 12-minute walk from JR Sawara Station
Closed Mondays
Our next stop was the Suigo Sawara Dashi Kaikan/Float Hall, where you can learn about the dashi (floats) that are used in the Sawara Festival, which is one of three great festivals of the Kanto region (for some reason in Japan they always list top things in threes). It's also apparently an Important Intangible Cultural Property (says their flier). Though I will say these floats are different from any others I've seen, as they have giant figures on them. The Float Hall had several of the actual floats on display, where you could see them up-close and also try on happi, the traditional coats. To be honest some were a little intimidating, but they were still pretty impressive. The floor above also had some exhibitions with musical instruments and wooden sculptures. Pretty cool. I can only imagine what it must be like to see them all lit up at night in the parades, complete with music and crowds of people!Suigo Sawara Dashi Kaikan (Float Hall)
Website: http://www.city.katori.lg.jp/dashikaikan/index.html (Japanese only)
Address: 3368I Sawara, Katori-shi (inside Yasaka Shrine grounds)
Access: 15-minute walk from JR Sawara Station
Admission: 400 yen for adults, 200 yen for elementary/junior high schoolers
Closed Mondays
Next we had some free time to explore the town, which is famous for its traditional-style streets. I've heard you can also rent kimonos to explore with, which is something I'd like to try sometime. There's a little river that flows in between some of the historic streets downtown, and it's very picturesque. You can even ride boats here too! There are also lots of souvenir shops with cute/traditional items, which I had fun exploring - I also found one that sold high-quality earpicks (aka made of fancy wood and costing hundreds of dollars), haha. And of course there are places to eat, traditional/historical buildings, and also a museum (that I didn't go to) dedicated to Ino Tadataka, who made a map of Japan in the 1800s that is almost identical to maps nowadays (in other words, incredibly accurate for the time). Finally, we went to Katori Jingu Shrine, which is famous enough for me to have heard of it before this tour, for what that's worth. I will admit (again) that I don't know much about Shintoism or shrines, but it was a really beautiful and quiet place - the road leading up to it was lined with trees that were big and green and shady, and after we went into the temple and were given a brief introduction by somebody who worked there, I wandered around the back by myself and it was very peaceful.
Katori Jingu Shrine
Website: http://www.katori-jingu.or.jp/ (Japanese only)
Address: 1697-1 Katori, Katori-shi
Access: 10-minute walk from JR Sawara Station
Admission: 300 yen for adults, 100 yen for elementary/junior high schoolers
Closed Mondays
And so ended our first tour! I'm still sad that I missed the first half (though I guess it's my own fault, or rather my alarm clock's), especially since I'm sure everybody did self-introductions on the bus, but there are still three more tours for us to do as a group, including an overnight one, so hopefully I'll get to know everybody soon anyway!
Sunday, July 13, 2014
national professional stuff
So I may have mentioned that June was incredibly busy and that I spent three out of four weekends essentially away from home (though looking back, apparently I thought my Shikoku trip was in June instead of the end of May -.-'). I wrote about the (actual) first weekend (my yosakoi trip to Hokkaido), so here's what I did for those other two weekends!
The first one was National AJET changeover. I'm sure I mentioned here that I was elected onto the AJET (Association of JETs) National Council as the CIR representative, so we all met up in Narita to meet each other and the outgoing council and learn about our new positions. I was actually scheduled to take the Business Japanese Proficiency Test during the second day of changeover, but I decided to attend both days since it's pretty much the only chance for us all to meet (since we're all over the country). So I spent the weekend learning about National AJET and being the CIR rep and Project Manager (which is my secondary position on the council), which was a lot to absorb at once but also pretty fun! Most of us spent the night in the same hotel and we had dinner at the hotel buffet (including all-you-can-eat crab legs!) and hung out afterwards. Being on the council is definitely going to be a lot of work (it's already keeping me pretty busy) and involve lots of new experiences, but I think I'll enjoy it. :) I also took part in the AJET opinion exchange with CLAIR and the three Ministries that run the JET Program the next day, which was official but informative.
And then the next weekend was IJET 25, or the 25th International Japan-English Translation conference! I actually heard about it from a fellow JET who was going, and since it was in Tokyo for the first time ever I thought it'd be a good opportunity for some professional development and signed up. And it was! I'm pretty horrible at networking so I'm not sure how much of that I managed (I did come back with lots of business cards though), but I met a lot of professional translators/interpreters and got to attend some interesting and informative sessions, so I think it was definitely worth it. I even met some other JETs (besides my friend) from other prefectures, which was pretty cool. The next one will be in Edinburgh, though, so I doubt I'll have the time/budget to attend. Oh well!
The last weekend of June was spent at the Chiba City Museum of Art with my friend Chris, and also on the first Chiba-kun Ambassador's tour! But more about that in my next post. :)
The first one was National AJET changeover. I'm sure I mentioned here that I was elected onto the AJET (Association of JETs) National Council as the CIR representative, so we all met up in Narita to meet each other and the outgoing council and learn about our new positions. I was actually scheduled to take the Business Japanese Proficiency Test during the second day of changeover, but I decided to attend both days since it's pretty much the only chance for us all to meet (since we're all over the country). So I spent the weekend learning about National AJET and being the CIR rep and Project Manager (which is my secondary position on the council), which was a lot to absorb at once but also pretty fun! Most of us spent the night in the same hotel and we had dinner at the hotel buffet (including all-you-can-eat crab legs!) and hung out afterwards. Being on the council is definitely going to be a lot of work (it's already keeping me pretty busy) and involve lots of new experiences, but I think I'll enjoy it. :) I also took part in the AJET opinion exchange with CLAIR and the three Ministries that run the JET Program the next day, which was official but informative.
And then the next weekend was IJET 25, or the 25th International Japan-English Translation conference! I actually heard about it from a fellow JET who was going, and since it was in Tokyo for the first time ever I thought it'd be a good opportunity for some professional development and signed up. And it was! I'm pretty horrible at networking so I'm not sure how much of that I managed (I did come back with lots of business cards though), but I met a lot of professional translators/interpreters and got to attend some interesting and informative sessions, so I think it was definitely worth it. I even met some other JETs (besides my friend) from other prefectures, which was pretty cool. The next one will be in Edinburgh, though, so I doubt I'll have the time/budget to attend. Oh well!
The last weekend of June was spent at the Chiba City Museum of Art with my friend Chris, and also on the first Chiba-kun Ambassador's tour! But more about that in my next post. :)
Saturday, June 28, 2014
chiba-kun ambassador, year two!
So as you may know, I spent much of last year visiting different places in Chiba Prefecture and writing blog posts, posting pictures, and more as a Chiba-kun Ambassador. I'm happy to announce that as of earlier this month, I was reselected as part of the program and will be continuing on for my second year!
Fun facts about this year's ambassadors:
- Out of 20 ambassadors, only 2 are boys! Last year it was pretty even, so this is a pretty dramatic change. I happen to know both of them already though, and they're both great so that's great. :)
- We come from countries like the US, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Korea, Burma, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. I think this is more countries than last year, which is pretty cool.
Anyway, earlier this month we had our induction ceremony, which was much the same as last year, complete with a photoshoot with Chiba-kun!
On the occasion of starting my second year, I've merged my previous travel/Chiba-kun Ambassador blog with this one, and I'll be posting from here from now on. よろしくお願いします〜！
Fun facts about this year's ambassadors:
- Out of 20 ambassadors, only 2 are boys! Last year it was pretty even, so this is a pretty dramatic change. I happen to know both of them already though, and they're both great so that's great. :)
- We come from countries like the US, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Korea, Burma, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. I think this is more countries than last year, which is pretty cool.
Anyway, earlier this month we had our induction ceremony, which was much the same as last year, complete with a photoshoot with Chiba-kun!
On the occasion of starting my second year, I've merged my previous travel/Chiba-kun Ambassador blog with this one, and I'll be posting from here from now on. よろしくお願いします〜！
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
yosakoi in hokkaido
At the beginning of the month, I went to Hokkaido with my yosakoi team for the Yosakoi Soran Matsuri, which I think is probably one of the biggest yosakoi festivals in Japan (at the very least, it's the biggest one we go to)! It was my first time in Hokkaido, which was pretty exciting, and only my second time performing with my yosakoi team, which was also exciting (and nerve-wracking).
We had 85+ people go, including staff, etc., but since everybody had different schedules we split among several different flights, and I landed on Friday night. We got there a bit later than intended and after checking in and meeting up with everybody who had arrived earlier, a few of us ventured off for some Sapporo ramen. There was a pretty long line even though it was past 10, but it was definitely worth the wait. :D
And then it was up bright and early for our first day at the festival! Basically, we spent the whole day going from performance to performance in different places all over Sapporo, starting with a parade where we performed 5 times in a row. Not only was it pretty exhausting, our second performance was also the judging that would determine whether or not we would go onto the finals, so we definitely started out the weekend with a bang. Then we performed near JR Hokkaido Station, at the Sapporo Beer Garden (which also included a giant screen in the background), in front of Mitsukoshi, and then near Susukino Station, lit up by lots of lights - we even won some beer for being energetic! I think my favorite places to perform were the Beer Garden and the road near Susukino Station. And then we all headed to a restaurant to stuff ourselves on all-you-can-eat Ghengis Khan (a type of dish involving mutton that's famous in Hokkaido)! I'm not really a fan of mutton, but it was pretty tasty.
This is the biggest event of the year for my team and while we didn't make the finals or semi-finals (the top two teams in each block get to go), we did get what was essentially 4th place in our block, which was not bad, I think. A lot of the team seemed dissatisfied with it though, so maybe next year we'll try harder! I should still be able to go one last time before my JET experience ends, so I'm looking forward to it. :)
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
shikoku shenanigans
So this post is several weeks late, but to be fair the month of June has probably been busier than any other time so far! This is largely due to the fact that for the past three out of four weekends, I've been away somewhere outside of Chiba, starting with this trip to Shikoku!
I planned the trip as a way to use up some of my expiring vacation days (which I have finally reduced to a number where they can all roll over to next year, yayy) and also reunite with some TOA friends before one of them left Japan. It was one of the longer trips I've taken in Japan and also one of the best! It was really great to see my friends again and to see three new prefectures (managed to visit all of the ones on the island except for Ehime, oops), bringing me to 20 out of 47 prefectures visited. :)
So here's what I did, with a general (unplanned) theme for each day!
Day 1: walking
I spent pretty much this whole day walking, from a 30-minute walk to the bus stop at 4:00AM to get to the airport to a kilometer+ down the pier in Takamatsu and back again, not to mention back and forth all over the city in between.
Ritsurin Park (gorgeous and giant green park/garden in the city) --> up and down the shopping arcades (which are apparently the longest in Japan) --> wandering around JR Takamatsu Station and having the famous Kagawa udon for lunch (it was delicious) --> Tamamo Park (with some castle remains and pretty views) --> more wandering until meeting up with my friend Thomas after he got off work and saved me from more walking with his car
Day 2: art
This day was mainly spent admiring all kinds of art both in and outside of museums on Naoshima, an island not far from mainland Shikoku, and admiring the scenery from my electric bike (which was the coolest thing ever, as far as biking up hills was concerned). I think I did almost everything touristy there is to do on the island (except maybe the James Bond Museum? and some other things), which was a lot! Reminded me of Hakone a little bit, in the sense that there's just museums and tons of things to see everywhere, but what I liked was how you could come across random artwork in random places.
Chichu Museum --> Lee Ufan Museum --> Benesse House Museum --> Naoshima pumpkin --> Art House Project (a series of normal houses that were art spaces inside, including one full of glowing numbers and another where you sat in almost complete darkness until your eyes adjusted and you could walk out) --> Ando Museum --> I <3 Yu (a bathhouse whose name is a clever pun on 'you' and '湯', the word for hot water)
And then after then I went out for conveyor belt sushi with Thomas and his friends, followed by card games in his apartment before getting to bed in preparation for the next day!
Day 3: rafting
This was actually the reason I scheduled my trip for this particular weekend - my friend Thomas was planning to go whitewater rafting with his friends in Tokushima and invited me along! It wasn't my first time rafting (I think) but it was tons of fun, despite the fact that while 'surfing' on a rapid I lost one of my contacts and subsequently had to spend the next three days with clear vision in only one eye (because I didn't have spares and forgot my glasses -.-')...the staff was friendly, the group was great, the lunch was tasty, and above all the scenery was amaazzinng. And then Thomas and I met up with our friend Martin back in Tokushima and went out for dinner with his friends, followed by a quick trip to an onsen.
Day 4: driving
We spent this day driving to Kochi Prefecture and Cape Muroto, seeing sights like a traditional street area, a lighthouse, some abandoned buildings, several temples of the 88 on the Shikoku pilgrimage, and many more Lover's Sanctuary areas than I expected. My favorite place by far was the Muroto Geopark, which was full of rocks and ocean and cats! Afterward Thomas headed back to Kagawa and Martin and I wandered around Tokushima. Apparently it's famous for LEDs, so there's a series of bridges on the river that are lit up with LEDs and are really pretty. My favorite was the Milky Way on the footpath of one of the bridges, which was just tons of little tiny lights and was really beautiful.
Day 5: water
This was my last (full) day in Shikoku and also the only day when it rained, boo. It was drizzling as we walked to rent a car, went up Mt. Bizan (which still had a great view), ate lunch, went to another onsen, and visited the Naruto whirlpools, which were not as cool as the pictures (that Martin informed me several times were taken of whirlpools that only surface once every 10 years or so) but still definitely worth visiting, if only to walk a ways out into a churning ocean with some see-through bridge sections. And then it was back to Takamatsu in preparation for my flight early the next morning.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip. :D
I planned the trip as a way to use up some of my expiring vacation days (which I have finally reduced to a number where they can all roll over to next year, yayy) and also reunite with some TOA friends before one of them left Japan. It was one of the longer trips I've taken in Japan and also one of the best! It was really great to see my friends again and to see three new prefectures (managed to visit all of the ones on the island except for Ehime, oops), bringing me to 20 out of 47 prefectures visited. :)
So here's what I did, with a general (unplanned) theme for each day!
Day 1: walking
I spent pretty much this whole day walking, from a 30-minute walk to the bus stop at 4:00AM to get to the airport to a kilometer+ down the pier in Takamatsu and back again, not to mention back and forth all over the city in between.
Ritsurin Park (gorgeous and giant green park/garden in the city) --> up and down the shopping arcades (which are apparently the longest in Japan) --> wandering around JR Takamatsu Station and having the famous Kagawa udon for lunch (it was delicious) --> Tamamo Park (with some castle remains and pretty views) --> more wandering until meeting up with my friend Thomas after he got off work and saved me from more walking with his car
Day 2: art
This day was mainly spent admiring all kinds of art both in and outside of museums on Naoshima, an island not far from mainland Shikoku, and admiring the scenery from my electric bike (which was the coolest thing ever, as far as biking up hills was concerned). I think I did almost everything touristy there is to do on the island (except maybe the James Bond Museum? and some other things), which was a lot! Reminded me of Hakone a little bit, in the sense that there's just museums and tons of things to see everywhere, but what I liked was how you could come across random artwork in random places.
Chichu Museum --> Lee Ufan Museum --> Benesse House Museum --> Naoshima pumpkin --> Art House Project (a series of normal houses that were art spaces inside, including one full of glowing numbers and another where you sat in almost complete darkness until your eyes adjusted and you could walk out) --> Ando Museum --> I <3 Yu (a bathhouse whose name is a clever pun on 'you' and '湯', the word for hot water)
And then after then I went out for conveyor belt sushi with Thomas and his friends, followed by card games in his apartment before getting to bed in preparation for the next day!
Day 3: rafting
This was actually the reason I scheduled my trip for this particular weekend - my friend Thomas was planning to go whitewater rafting with his friends in Tokushima and invited me along! It wasn't my first time rafting (I think) but it was tons of fun, despite the fact that while 'surfing' on a rapid I lost one of my contacts and subsequently had to spend the next three days with clear vision in only one eye (because I didn't have spares and forgot my glasses -.-')...the staff was friendly, the group was great, the lunch was tasty, and above all the scenery was amaazzinng. And then Thomas and I met up with our friend Martin back in Tokushima and went out for dinner with his friends, followed by a quick trip to an onsen.
Day 4: driving
We spent this day driving to Kochi Prefecture and Cape Muroto, seeing sights like a traditional street area, a lighthouse, some abandoned buildings, several temples of the 88 on the Shikoku pilgrimage, and many more Lover's Sanctuary areas than I expected. My favorite place by far was the Muroto Geopark, which was full of rocks and ocean and cats! Afterward Thomas headed back to Kagawa and Martin and I wandered around Tokushima. Apparently it's famous for LEDs, so there's a series of bridges on the river that are lit up with LEDs and are really pretty. My favorite was the Milky Way on the footpath of one of the bridges, which was just tons of little tiny lights and was really beautiful.
Day 5: water
This was my last (full) day in Shikoku and also the only day when it rained, boo. It was drizzling as we walked to rent a car, went up Mt. Bizan (which still had a great view), ate lunch, went to another onsen, and visited the Naruto whirlpools, which were not as cool as the pictures (that Martin informed me several times were taken of whirlpools that only surface once every 10 years or so) but still definitely worth visiting, if only to walk a ways out into a churning ocean with some see-through bridge sections. And then it was back to Takamatsu in preparation for my flight early the next morning.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip. :D
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