Takaraso Hotel Matsuyama

... was really nice.<br><br>My mom came to pick me up at the airport and we went to Takehara to have okonomiyaki...DELISH!! Takehara is a well preserved old town in Hiroshima prefecure. After we ate, we strolled down the old street so I could take some pictures.<br><br>It takes about an hour and a half to drive to our house on the island. Note to self...take the shinkansen b/c the station is closer then the airport ...

... together and ended up all taking the stairs the last bit up, which, by this time, was not easy.<br><br>Finally at the top of the second highest point, Misen at 1974m, we all stopped for some much needed rest and food. Interestingly enough, right up on the top at 1974m, there was a temple, an inn and a restaurant. Very strange.<br><br>Despite the chains being ice cold, nearly vertical and quite high, you felt relatively secure, nestled in against the cliff, surrounded ...

This weekend saw quite an impressive ( though sometimes annoying ) Autumn Festival here in Hojo.<br><br>The festival basically consists of many many Hojo residence, getting together and building these strange portable shrines and carrying them around town banging on bells and drums as loud as they can all day and all night, dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and getting really really drunk. All culminating in a spectacular event of throwing ...

... so that I can regularly update you with some photos and information!<br><br>I will try and backlog later, adding in Tokyo photos, and some other events.<br><br>For now, just a quick glimpse into life in Hojo!<br><br>(More photos to come....more of our apartment (after I finally bought some curtains), my school, etc!)<br>

... waiters didn't want to go up and down the stairs. If I ever design a restaurant, there will never be a second floor dining area. Sorry, just some of things I think about. Went home, went to bed, and Dave and I went to the temple to look around. It's a modern temple, so not a lot of interesting things about it. We then went to the castle, the ferris wheel and had some dinner. See pictures for the rest. Sorry this is short, I'm 3 months behind.

Brian, Ashleigh and I woke up super early on this Saturday morning to see the omikoshi (portable shrines) bash together in the early morning. I don't know the history of this event, but it's a pretty cool thing to see. I think first, the (probably yakuza)men drink all night the night before. Then, at around 4-5 in the morning, they get their omikoshi's and haul them to the small square ...

... like fiesta in Santa Barbara, for example! Anyway, I will admit that the park was certainly beautiful, and I did really enjoy sitting on a bench under a tree full of sakura ("cherry blossoms") with a plate of takoyaki in one hand and a Chu-hi (fruit-flavored malt beverage) in the other. The thing I most enjoyed about the experience, however, was seeing that every tarp in the place, with its load of drunk and happy people, was outlined with a neat row of shoes! *hehehe*

... dishes in Japan that cannot be identified by sight or smell meaning that if you don't know what they are you either have to pop them in your mouth and hope for the best or leave them) but both of us really enjoyed the whole experience and felt much more Japanese for doing it. To get from the train station to our hotel we had to take one of the many tramlines which criss-cross Hiroshima. Unlike most other Japanese cities, Hiroshima doesn't have a metro system and everyone gets ...

... The shorts also don't tell you what year they are. Now there's also kids with light blue hats (solid colored) and they are non-english 4 year olds (since not all parents want to pay for their kids to learn english). There are also bright pink hats for 2 year olds and light pink for 3 year olds who don't learn English as well. Next are the yellow hats, both solid and white striped to tell if they're 4 year olds and Yellow A and Yellow B. Their shorts are red. The ...

Caught the night bus at 8pm in Tokyo, only just mind, and arrived in Hiroshima at 8 the next morning. The night bus was comfy, 3 seats per row, reclining, slippers and blanket provided. We had had a few drinks before we started then had our bottle of wine. We were quite merry but somehow failed to sleep. Arrived in Hiroshima ...