Very picture-rich post this time.

Monday, June 30th
After my last post, we had our afternoon class with Takahashi-sensei. The fun thing was that we got to do calligraphy for the second half of the class. We had to pick a word with at least one kanji character and draw it, using real calligraphy brushes and ink and everything. I decided to write「静か」which is the Japanese adjective for “quiet”. Aside from feeling like it describes my personality, I really like the kanji character because it includes「青」which is the kanji for “blue”. It’s one of those times when I feel like the Chinese were brilliant when they came up with some of these characters. How shall we depict “quiet”? We use the image of “blue”.

After class, Shaunte and Cat wanted to go to a store in Kabuki-cho called Don Quixote because they’d heard that they sell prepaid phones there. I’d been to the store with Susan on Friday, so I went with them to show them the way. Anyway, it’s not like I really had anything else to do. It turns out that they do sell prepaid phones, and for much cheaper than at the actual retail stores. It cost ¥5900 total—¥2000 for the phone and ¥2900 for a prepaid time card. It’s fairly cheap, but I still held off on getting one because I don’t really see the benefits of having one. It’s free to receive calls in Japan, even international calls, but mom can’t really call me for cheap, and I don’t really have anyone to call within Japan. Shaunte and Cat and I are pretty much always together anyway.

After that, we just went straight home, had dinner, showered, and tried to motivate ourselves to do homework but failed. Everyone’s pretty tired, and anyway, with the trip coming up, no one really wants to do work right now.

Tuesday, July 1st
We had to be at school at 8:30am today, and we got on the bus around 9am. Since we had about 50 students and teacher chaperones, the bus was completely full. I was lucky enough to nab a window seat, so I spent most of the drives throughout the entire day looking outside and occasionally snapping some shots of the landscapes we drove through.

It was about an hour-and-a-half drive until our first stop, 小田原城 (Odawara castle). It’s actually a replica because most of the original castle got dismantled in the Meiji era, and then the remains got destroyed by the big earthquake in 1923. The life-size replica buildings looked extremely real, though, and were very cool to see. Inside the castle was a museum which actually wasn’t as interesting as it could’ve been because they didn’t actually have that many artifacts, but they’d spread them out over 4 floors to make the museum seem bigger than it really was. The top floor served as an observatory from where you can see the surrounding area all the way to Sagami Bay, and on a clear day we would’ve been able to see Mt. Fuji. But it was very cloudy, so it was hard to see the mountains, though we did see the ocean. The weather didn’t make for pretty pictures, though.

 

Back down on the castle grounds, one of the shops sold green tea soft-serve ice cream, so of course I had to have some. It was quite possibly the best soft-serve ice cream I’ve ever had.

From there, it was a little less than an hour drive to 大涌谷 (Owakudani), an old crater from a volcanic eruption. There’s not that much volcanic rock, but there’s a lot of steam and natural hot springs. The entire area smells fairly strongly like sulfur. Aside from seeing the springs, this area’s main attraction is a local delicacy called「黒たまご」or “black egg” (or, as Tanaka-san puts it, “brack egg”). Basically, while these eggs are being hard-boiled in the hot springs, the sulfur and iron reacts with the egg shells and turns them black. Aside from the shells, though, they really are just normal hard-boiled eggs. The myth says that eating one of those eggs will extend your life for 7 years. You had to buy them in bags of 6 (for a reasonable ¥500 each), so even after I shared them with Shaunte, Robyn, Kevin and Evan, who each chipped in, I was left with 2 for myself. Supposedly that means I extended my life for 14 years.

After eating the eggs, we went back down to the gift shop area and had lunch, which we’d brought with us because the food at the restaurant was extremely expensive. We walked around the gift shops, but they didn’t sell anything particularly interesting.

After a fairly extensive break, we got back on the bus and headed for 河口湖 (Lake Kawaguchi), one of the 5 lakes surrounding Mt. Fuji. It was another fairly long drive, during which most people slept, but I used the time to take a lot of pictures from my window seat on the left side of the bus. The sun was finally coming out so I managed to get in a few good shots, including one pretty good one of Mt. Fuji. It was my first time to see the mountain and there’s a slightly interesting story attached to it. We were driving along and all of a sudden I noticed we passed a sign that said “Mt. Fuji Visitor Center” or something to that effect. I hadn’t even realized that we were close to the mountain, so I immediately looked out the bus’ front window and to the right to try to find the mountain. Turns out that at that very moment, the mountain was immediately to my left, framed perfectly in the window next to me—a golden picture opportunity. I even had the good luck that there were very few clouds, and that the top was actually visible. This was, of course, followed by an epic scramble for my camera, but I managed to get in one good shot of the full view of the mountain before the bus turned to the right.

 

The place where we stopped, by the lakeside, wasn’t particularly interesting, other than just having a good view of Mt. Fuji. It was cloudy again, though, so the top of the mountain wasn’t visible and it was hard to take good pictures. Aside from that, there were a couple of gift shops, which weren’t too exciting.

The interesting thing about the gift shops at Japanese tourist attractions, at least out here in rural Japan, is that the vast majority of what they sell consists of food. Usually there’s some fruit or other ingredient that the area specializes in, so much of the souvenir stocks consist of snacks and cakes made from that ingredient. This area, for some reason, seemed to specialize in blueberries, so instead of capitalizing on their great view of Mt. Fuji, they had all sorts of blueberry pies and candy and whatnot. I didn’t get anything because food souvenirs are pretty impractical things to try to bring back home. I did have blueberry soft-serve ice cream, though, and it was delicious, if not quite as good as the green tea one earlier.

 

After our lakeside stop, it was only about a 10-minute drive to our hotel. We were spending the night at a traditional Japanese hotel, with real tatami rooms and futons and several onsen (natural hot springs). The dinner buffet was a mix of Japanese and American food and wasn’t too exciting, but bathing in the onsen was nice. We had a choice of either going to the bigger, communal bath or taking short turns in the smaller, private one. Since communal baths here involve getting naked in front of strangers, which I’m not too keen on, I opted for the private bath. I had 15 minutes, but it was more than enough time because the water in the onsen was extremely hot, and even though it was very relaxing, I couldn’t stay in it for very long.

Aside from that, our rooms were equipped with TV, so we enjoyed our first opportunity to actually watch Japanese TV, which at this hour consisted mainly of a lot of strange game shows. We were so tired from the long day, though, that most of us passed out around 10pm. The futons we slept on were extremely comfortable.

Wednesday, July 2nd

After pigging out on the breakfast buffet, we left the hotel around 9am and headed for 西湖いやしの里 (Saiko Iyashi no Sato), a nearby small replica village where the buildings are built in the traditional style with “Kayabuki” (straw and reed) roofs. This was the stop on the trip I had assumed would be the least exciting, but it actually wasn’t that bad, especially because in one of the buildings we could try on Japanese armor or kimonos. Shaunte and several of the girls and I all tried on kimonos, which, of course, was followed by a lot of picture sessions. It was also a fairly clear day so we got to enjoy Mt. Fuji as a backdrop.

After that, it was another hour-and-a-half drive to 武田神社 (Takeda Jinja), a shrine to Shingen Takeda, the famous guardian feudal lord of Yamanashi. It was one of the more interesting stops on our trip. We had to wash our hands before approaching the shrine. They were having some sort of ritual dance/performance outside. Several people prayed at the shrine. I myself bought a fortune, which I had to ask Suzuki-sensei to translate for me. They also had a lot of interesting souvenirs, so I bought a couple of things for my mom and my sister.

Following the shrine visit, we went into the nearby city of Koufu for lunch. We split up into groups depending on what/where everyone wanted to eat. My group went to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant. It was my first time going to one of these, so it was a very fun and exciting experience. I especially enjoyed how, whenever you special-ordered something, it was brought to you on a shinkansen. I also, of course, loved how cheap everything was. It was only ¥94 a plate, though a few items were more expensive. I had 6 plates and dessert and paid only about ¥790 total. You could never eat that much sushi for that cheap in the States. I love Japan!

We got back on the bus and drove about 20 minutes to 恵林寺 (Erinji Temple), which was possibly my favorite stop on the trip. We didn’t do anything but walk around the temple, but it was just so damn pretty. The traditional architecture was amazing, and the temple contained a gorgeous garden. It’s one of those things that’s hard to describe in words. You just have to go there and enjoy it for yourself. I only wish that we could’ve spent more time there, slowly enjoying the surroundings and soaking up the zen.

Our last stop, Chateau 勝沼 (Katsunuma), on the other hand, was quite possibly the most disappointing stop of the trip. As the name might suggest, it’s a winery. I wouldn’t have thought that the climate here is good for cultivating grapes, but apparently it is. Anyway, they gave us a tour of their factory, and then we were allowed to go in and taste five of their wines. Officially, you’re not supposed to drink in Japan until you’re 20, but none of their personnel were carding, and none of the teachers said anything to me, perhaps because I’m turning 20 next week. (Evan, who isn’t 20 for another couple of months, did get pulled out of the line by Utami-san.) So, I got to try the wines. I wasn’t impressed with any of them, though. They had three wet wines (white, rosé, and red) and two dry (white and red), and with the exception of the dry white, which just tasted watery with a strong alcoholic aftertaste, they were all extremely sweet. They also had a plum wine and some sort of liquor, again, both of which were too sweet. Their regular grape juice was actually the best-tasting drink they had. I was disappointed because I figured a bottle of wine would’ve been an excellent souvenir for my parents, but I knew neither of them would enjoy this wine, so even for the (I thought) reasonable price of ¥1200 a bottle, it wasn’t worth it, and I didn’t buy anything.

 

After that, it was another 2-hour drive back to Tokyo. They decided to show a movie on the bus but I didn’t watch it. I just listened to music and took some more pictures from the window. As we entered the city, I also managed to (finally) get a few good shots of Shinjuku, since this was my first time in the city while the sky wasn’t overcast. We didn’t linger after getting off the bus, though, and headed straight home. Again, everyone was exhausted.

Thursday, July 3rd
We only had a half-day of class, so after we were done, around 1pm, Shaunte and Cat and I decided to go to Akihabara. Its nickname is the “electric town” because it’s the place to buy electronics as well as video games and animanga merchandise. Electronics are extremely cheap here, especially because most stores are duty-free. We saw 2G microSD cards for ¥790 and 8G flash drives for ¥2940, so I might just have to go back and capitalize on that. Merchandise isn’t necessarily cheap here (I was surprised to find that there are actually many things I’ve seen for less at cons in the States), but they do have a lot… if I were looking for anything rare, I’d probably find it here. We didn’t end up going into too many of those stores because Cat isn’t interested in them, but I’ll probably be going back at some point to buy stuff for friends back home. Aside from one PC game for myself, I didn’t buy anything here yet.

We had lunch at this amazing crepe place where you could get basically anything sweet mixed into a crepe. I had one with tiramisu, whipped cream, chocolate, and caramel sauce. It was pretty damn awesome.

We got back to the dorm fairly early—around 5pm or so—so I decided to try installing my game (which took a few tries) and then played it for a little while before doing homework and studying for the test. If we want to try to get into level 2 (which I do), we have to take a test tomorrow. They haven’t told us at all what to expect to see on it, so I probably do need to study up a bit, even if I’m fairly sure that I should be in level 2.

Friday, July 4th
So we had another half-day of class, the first half of which was a final review of random grammar things, and the second half of which was the test. The test wasn’t too bad, but it was more difficult than I was expecting. I didn’t expect them to expect us to know as much vocabulary as they did, especially since a lot of the words we’d never really used in class, and I was lucky that I knew most of the words we needed to use. (For example, we’d never really used or gone over the verb 「のぼる」which means “to climb” as in climbing a mountain, which we needed to use and I luckily remembered, but many of the others in my class later complained that they didn’t remember the word because we’d never really used it in class before.) Aside from the grammar section (which was where they also pounded us with vocab), there were questions we needed to respond to in Japanese, and then there was a short essay which wasn’t too bad.

Konno-sensei had told us prior to starting the test that there would also be interviews with her at the end. But, when our time was up, it was already 12:40pm and the school day officially ended at 12:45pm, so she said she was only interviewing part of the class. Kevin, Evan, Brad, Jana and I were the only ones called today. I was up first, and, to my surprise, the interview wasn’t even really an interview. By this point, Konno-sensei had already graded the grammar section of the test. I’d made a 90/100, which I later heard was the highest score in the class. She asked me some questions about how important my grade for the program is to me, and she said something vague about moving up and how it will be difficult but how she’s confident I can handle it because I’m me. Since long tests completely wear me out mentally, I just smiled and nodded and said 「はい。」(yes) a lot. I later heard from Jana that her interview had basically been the same, but she had understood that Konno-sensei was talking about moving up beyond level 2—as in, level 3. That made me wonder if Konno-sensei was talking about the same thing with me, and since I just nodded and said yes, I’m not sure what I agreed to. Level 2? Level 3? I guess I’ll find out on Monday or Tuesday…

Shaunte and Cat’s class had been told that there’s going to be a level 1.5, so they had to take a test to get into that class during regular class time, and then if they wanted to take the level 2 test, they needed to stay after class. I waited for them, after which we met up with Evan and the other people in my class. Evan was holding a 4th of July party at his apartment, and we’d all been invited. We took the subway and the train to get to his neighborhood, where we first stopped by the supermarket. He’d taken care of the meat (he was barbequing) so we needed to provide snacks and beer. Since Shaunte and Cat and I agree that tequila is our poison of choice, we chipped in on a bottle (after an epic hunt to find tequila, which ended when we took the liquor store’s one and only bottle of Cuervo Gold). The tequila was actually a reasonable ¥2000, but the limes we bought were horridly expensive—most fruits in Japan are, because they have to import pretty much everything.

Then we went to Evan’s apartment, where he fired up the grill and the rest of us sat around and chatted and later played a couple of drinking games. Everyone got a little tipsy, though I don’t think anyone got full-out drunk. The food was delicious. I’m not a big meat-eater, but after so many dinners of rice and vegetables and a little bit of fish, the steaks and burgers did taste damn good. I was also happy that I got to know the people in my class better because they hang out together a lot, but because I’m always with Shaunte and Cat, I’ve kind of missed out on that. They’re good people, though. I like them. I hope most of us will end up in level 2 together.

When we left, it was not even 9pm yet, so there was talk of going out and maybe going clubbing in Roppongi. We decided to stop by the dorm first, though, to freshen up. When we finally made it back (we took the wrong train and ended up having to backtrack from Ikebukuro), we decided to just stay in. Everyone’s tired and Shaunte says she’d rather go out tomorrow night. I guess we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Saturday, July 5th
I was up around 7am like usual, so I had breakfast have been hanging out in my room ever since. It’s been unbearably hot and humid since Wednesday. I read in the newspaper that it’s supposed to be 31°C today. I have the a/c on and I’m still sweating just sitting here.

I think Cat’s a little hungover; she hasn’t left her room except for breakfast. Shaunte’s been in and out of my room, as we’re trying to figure out what to do today. I’m hoping we can head to somewhere with an Internet café so I can upload my pictures and post this. (If you’re reading this, I guess that means I’ve succeeded.) I’m not much in the mood for exploring, anyway, and I should probably stay away from shops to try to conserve my money. I have no idea if we’re going clubbing tonight. I don’t think we’re going unless other people are going with us, so we’ll have to see if anyone else is up for it.