Wow! It's been awhile :) Lucky for you guys I've been taking pictures, huh? So much, actually, that I had to buy a new SD card today! It was around 12 dollars...is that expensive? Things seem more expensive here... xD Anyway! Plan for Kyoto fell through, but recently I went to a inside pool with my host sisters. It was very interesting.. It was a two story building..on the first floor was a warm pool that also had an elaborate slide. The second floor was home to a "normal" pool with lanes and what-not, but it also had spas, a sauna, a "walking"...in Japanese, a wakuingu (lawl its the same). It was a small pool with rails forming a pathway. Imagine a popular store, where at the cashier you have to wait behind rails that twist and turn before you can buy your goods. It's basically like that! (It was exhausting). An interesting note, if you ever go to a Japanese pool thats INSIDE, bring a swimsuit that is a one piece. No one wears bikinis at these places....yeahhh that was embarassing xD Ah, well you live and you learn! (Also, some inside pools require a swimming cap. Come prepared)
I also went to a revolving sushi bar, my first. All I can say was it was an absolutely amazing time!! Seriously. The bad news is I totally forgot my camera. And it was sooo cool. All the restaurant's tables were situated around a conveyor belt, which had plates upon plates of sushi. If you saw something you wanted, you simply waited for it to come to you. You then took the plate and the sushi and ate it. What I found very awesome was the fact that you then dropped the plate through a slot in the table (the plate would disappear, probably being transported somewhere to be cleaned). Each table has its own TV, and each time you returned a plate through the slot, it would keep count. And for every 5 plates, you had a chance to win a toy at random. We ended up with around 50 plates and 2 toys! (not too shabby, eh?)
In addition to that, you're able to special order items. Each table also has a small electronic screen that's a touch pad with the menu on it. You simply click on what you want. The chefs would place your special order food on a conveyor belt above the sushi convener belt, and when the special ordered food arrived there would be a loud chime, so you would know. As for drinks, it was make-it-yourself tea (powder green tea, if I remember correctly). Delicious.
Speaking of tea, I joined Tea Ceremony! It's not club activity (bukatsu), but actually an academic after school elective (kouza). It normally costs around US $450 to join, but I got in free 'cuz I'm speshul :B
It's once a week after school, every Monday. I've already gone once, and I've got to say, it's an amazing experience. And there's free tea. Gotta love some free tea!
And on to the photos!
Boba in Japan. The size of the boba is about the same, but for the life of me I can not find Thai tea flavor here. Whyyy
Crepes in Japan are veryyy different than what is standard. They are delicious, sugary, upright concoctions!
Homemade pizza! There were lots of ingredients we didn't have, but the subsititutes worked out just fine ^^
This uniform is for the class photo and special ceremonies only. My uniform was way too big on me, and I'm really glad this is not what I normally have to wear...
My first real bowl of ramen! I can not even describe how absolutely delicious it is! Sooooo good. As a sidenote, I have no problems using chopsticks anymore. It's a great relief.. haha :)
The usual winter uniform. We just changed to summer uniforms today!
Random pretty picture of Gifu :)
Posing with my host aunt! One of the nicest people I have ever met :) My host sister's cousins were over for a couple days, so needless to say we had to have some funtimez.
The Karaoke room theme was Hello Kitty! There tons of different kinds to choose from. Anything from One Piece to a darkened romantic room haha
Wearing my brand new mint green collared shirt! Noa loves making funny faces :)
My host family also has a Wii. I have to admit I haven't bee a huge fan of the Wii before, but it's grown on me a lot. Playing Mario Kart is fun!
Momochan's Birthday cake
Posing with host sisters, cousins, and grandparents! Grandpa is a totally boss B)
γΌγγγ！*blurry*
Celebrating with home-made sushi!! Sooo good
Singing L'arc en Ciel's GOOD LUCK MY WAY. LIVING THE DREAM, YO
And I leave you with some random pictures of Gifu. Probably some of my favorite pictures of Gifu so far...so pretty! Anyway, until next time! :)
soooo jello of all that fun you're having!! We are so going to karaoke and rotating sushi bar when you come back XD and that grandpa is totally hip and happenin' haha, he looks like he is havin' a blast! Ye be lookin' gorgeous as always ;)
ReplyDeleteyessss let's do that!! :D He is soooo cool, seriously! And thank you, hehe <3 Today I went to a festival, and I also got accepted into UCI! Shocked, relieved, happy, although I'd be fine with Davis too (kind of)
DeleteI was gonna say FIRST, but as I was typing this Josh beat me to it. sadfaic :C Anyway, do they wear bikinis outdoors or just no bikinis ever? Do you know why? I'm curious. I WANNA GO TO A SUSHI BAR YOU BUTT >:U Is it expensive? I feel like it can add up pretty crazily. I think Thai tea is from Thailand (okay I'm pulling this out of my ass) but maybe thats why they don't have it in Japan?? I head that Japanese crepes are disgusting.. are they just different? The ramen also looks delicious ;____; And I love the third pic of you with the winter uniform- CUTE! Now we must see the summer uniform :) AND ARE THOSE NEW CLOTHES I SEE. Love the mint collared top :3 That grandpa looks like a badass. Would you say that the older generation treats you differently than the younger generation, as a foreigner? Do they know that you're not catholic, and how has that played out? Just curious haha. <3 Mel
ReplyDeletefiiirrssttttt XD sorry Melanie!
DeleteHaha, Josh has a tendency to do that! The only wear bikinis during summer, outside. I think because it's cold, or the fact that they simply don't show much skin. For example, spaghetti straps are always covered with a cardigan here. I've seen no exceptions so far xD Sushi was $1 per dish, Udon was $5, ice cream was $2, tea was free. So it ended up being about $60 for five people, which is superbly cheap imo. For example, going out for really, really good steak (which I did with grandpa and host sisters), was $130 for just four people. Also, I forget the name, but the whole cooking meat in front of you thing (we wore aprons!) was a whopping $160 for 5 people. So pretty cheap, comparatively. The crepes look really pretty, but I havent tried them yet. BECAUSE THEY'RE LIKE 6 BUCKS. But I def want to try it before I come back. Yes new clothes! Meanwhile, I've bought two new dresses and a long white skirt and really cute socks haha! (expensive...xD) With younger people I use a very different set of words/vocab. Both young people and older people have a Gifu accent, but the older people are harder to understand. With adults I almost always use keigo, and they use keigo back. The younger generation tends to want to know more about american pop culture and call me cute a lot. The older generation is usually very nice, but conversation dies out much quicker. Both tend to stare a lot (haha). Actually just about no one at the school is catholic. It's really amusing actually. I brought the subject up tentatively, "Oh hey, we have bible study next. Do you like that subject?"Everyone I asked said it was "sleeping time" haha! I responded "I think so too" and they laughed haha. Yeah, just about no one here is religious as I figured. Japanese superstitions are here, and shinto and buddhism, but catholic and what-not is rare. <3
Deletemakes sense! yeah, dress code in America is pretty trashy... especially recently it seems! THAT IS SO CHEAP. I AM WAY JELLO. Everything else seems about expensive as it would be. YOU MUST HAVE A CREPE AND TELL ME. CUTE. I think conversations die out quicker in general between generations just cause you have less in common! Thats so weird that people go to this catholic school but aren't catholic haha, but still this is Japan so that does make sense too.
DeleteReally? Thats surprising! I thought forever 21 was trending long/pretty dresses and skirts and looking classy? Has that changed? If so, sweet for me! THATS MAH style :3
Deleteboth actually! lots of beautiful vintagey things, but also some really revealing tops. like the see-through top with the colored bra thingy underneath is really popular. other tops that expose all parts of the bra. yeah...
Delete<3
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