It's been a long time waiting I know, but I finally have a good chunk to update you on. These won't be in any timely order, as I really can't remember what came first or last except for my recent overnight excursion to Miwajima and Kanazawa. But let's start out with a recent adventure between me and my friend Gelsey.

It was the weekend and both of us were bored, she had returned from Church so I asked her, wanna go out for dinner? She agreed, of course we wanted to try something new. So we headed to the bus stop and after I retrieved money from the ATM we got on the bus. Now, for as many times as we've been on the bus we've never counted all the stops and we'd only ever gotten off near a store called "Dancing Bear" (which is a book/DVD/CD/Game store) and at the last stop called "Hongo." We decided to try for the lucky numbers 5 and 7. Well stop 5 had NOTHING to speak off as far as food, so we rode on to the 7th stop, which as it turns out, is Hongo. And this we agreed that this was the stop. So we headed to a small strip of little hole in the wall places, and decided to eat at a place called tsubaki which literally translates to chicken wing. Its apparently famous, it was good food but the guy who was running the join didn't look too pleased to see us. He handed us an English menu and we realized when comparing to the Japanese Menu that the prices were raised on the English menu. But we ate there anyway; the food was good so we didn't care about the prices. Then on a whim we desided to walk to Fujigaoka, which was the next stop down from the train station we were near.So we followed it down. Eventually we ended up walking along side the tracks and found so many small restaurants it was funny. Now the wonderful thing about Japan is everyone's respect of residential areas, so it wasn't until we were AT the Fujigaoka station that it got loud. And there were a ton of people there. Gelsey and I decided to eat at BOTH Mister Donut and Baskin Robins (aka 31), yes I know we were being fat kids, BUT we ended up doing MORE walking as we then took the Linimo (the local train) to Apita, a shopping mall that is within walking distance to I house. From Apita we stopped by Book off which is a resale store of used books, CDs, DVDs and clothes and other knickknacks. We both made some very NICE purchases and then walked home. We were gone for like 3 hours, but we both had fun and it was a beautiful night so it felt good to be out.

The next adventure that I had was my walk to Vancha's which is an Indo curry place. And if you've never had Indian Curry you are missing out on some OISHII (DELICIOUS) food. There is Japanese curry which is more to be eaten with veggies and meat, but Indo curry is just the curry with a little meat and some AMAZING spices and you eat it with Indian flat bread called Nan. Like a bowl of about I'd say 16 oz with nan will make you so full. Admittedly nothing really out there happened other than watching Kri generally klutz around and the rest of us joking and laughing it was fun. I'm hoping that I can go again, that curry is GOOOD.

Now for the fun stuff! My trip to Kanazawa and Miwajima, first we drove to Miwajima to poke around a traditional Japanese Garden. It was a lot of green, and the lay out was lovely, I just wish we had had more time to look around rather than like 20-30 minutes. I walked with Hamilton mostly; Gel ran off to power walk her way through. And then we went to a Sweet work shop.

Now the Japanese have a very unique sweet and that is that it is made of bean paste that is sweetened. It can be colored to be green, yellow, pink, white and a few other colors I'm sure. And we got to make the sweets. It was about an hour or so, and then we headed down to the gift shop to buy stuff. I found the perfect fan to go with my Yukata. AND I can fit INTO my yukata now! I'm hoping that when I go to a festival I will be able to wear it! YAY! PICTURES!

Then we drove to Kanazawa, on the way we played a word game, it was me, Kri, Lance, Hamilton, Andrew, Jessica, Max and I think Janie. The game goes were you saw a word and then based on the last letter of the word come up with a word that starts with a word that begins with that letter. So if I said Hotel, someone would have to come up with a word that starts with 'L'. And it goes around, you're out if you repeat a word or you say a word that doesn't begin with the letter that the last word ended with. I did well the first game and then got out on the first round of the second game. It was fun though.

When we got to Kanazawa, we stopped by the Lacquer wear museum and shop, were we saw the process of making the items. When you see the pictures you will FLIP. Some of the detail work is just ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

Then we checked into our Hotel, which was a traditional Japanese hotel called a ryokan. I have video so you can get the full tour! At 6 we had dinner which was a FULL Course of very JAPANESE foods. I did try some of the foods which I wasn't familiar with and actually enjoyed them. I felt bad for the peeps who were either allergic to fish/seafood or didn't like seafood. There was however one dish that I think had some lamb and chicken in it. It was good. While we ate dinner we got to see a drum performace that is unique to that area of Japan. Supposedly this performace has it roots in history. When the many battles of the shoguns for various parts of Japan were happening, one man named Uesugi Kenshin tried to take over this region. But the villiagers said No, and the legend is that in the night the villagers put on masks of angry sprits with hair made of twisted seaweed and proceeded to sneak into the camp at night while they played their battle drums. Supposedly Kenshin's men were so scared they ran and left the region. The performance was amazing. When we finished eating me, Gel and Clare headed back to our room where our Futons were already laid out for us. While the other two were getting their quick showers I headed to the Circle K to get breakfast for me and drinks. Then when I got back the three of us headed to the Onsen or Hot baths, it was simply glorious. We ended up running into Hoshiko, Kaylee and Emily. We six talked for at least 30 to 40 minutes in the outdoor hot tub. Which was OPEN AIR and we could watch the waves come in and out. So while we sat in the hot water we could cool off which a nice sea breeze. I which beyond everything that I could go back!

When me and my roommates got back to our room we settled in with some TV and sweets and turned in at 11.

The next day was an early morning, we all woke up at 7:15, and we all went down to breakfast, me and Clare decided to not have breakfast that was provided as it would have been more fish dishes and honestly there's only so much sushi and strange dishes I can eat in a few days. So I went back to room lounged around for another hour or so before I got dressed and ate my simple breakfast. Then we got to tour the paper lantern museum where we saw ANOTHER drum performance. This one is based on the festivals where these lanterns would be shown. I wanted to be up there with them and dance. It was just so fun to watch.

Then we drove to the thousand tiny rice fields, it was just scenic. On the way back we got to drive on the beach unfortunately for me I get car sick and was under the influence of Dramamine so I was not awake.

I had loads of fun and I can't wait for you all to see the pictures and video! Be on the lookout in the next day or so!

If you have any questions feel free to drop a line! And thank you to everyone who's been posting! Loved hearing from you!

Love you all!

Carolyn!