Question: A good day always starts with being soaked through, right?

Answer: Right!

Today started with a brisk walk in torrential rain with no rain protection or an umbrella to our meeting spot, assuming the field trip would be cancelled - fun fact, t'was not! I was kindly donated a plastic poncho with the sporty 'Colour Run' printed on it, and as I pulled it over myself and my backpack I could faintly hear Katy Perry in the background with her 'do you ever feel, like a plastic bag...'. Yes Katy, sometimes I do. We hoped on the bus and drove through Japanese countryside for 1.5 hours, as a group of 19-25 year olds from universties all over Australia and Asia, we all napped. We drove past rice paddies and country townhouses, they were beautiful! We got a real taste of rural Japanese life. Our first stop was at a RAMSAR site (i.e. heavily protected wetland). We braved the brain and walked around both a pond with lovely lillies in it, as well as up into a garden made up a lot of flowers whos name evades me...

It was muddy, wet and wonderful! It would have been spectacular in sunlight, we ended up overlooking a lake! Then we got back down, and in some tanks in the reception were some native species including cute eels and gobbies, they were great! Then we moved on to an ancient Shinto shrine was 500BC, it was hidden in a rainforest and was breathtaking. We also got told the origins of Shintoism were most likely Hebrew. The Torii gates of protection are red, like the blood of lamb on the Jews doorframes and a lot of rituals performed by the monks at the temple and in the shrines mimic those performed in the temple of King Solomon. The Sensei told me the story of passover with the lambs blood, I didn't have the heart to correct him or tell him that of all the people on the fieldtrip, I was potentially not the one who needed informing of the story....but the shrine itself was jawdropping., photos to come!

We stopped twice for snacks and found some highly valuable fresh veges, the shopkeeper seemed confused at 15 white people coming in buying bags of carrots. It was worth it.

We head back to uni back through the beautiful countryside and braved the rain for dinner again. With plans to hit up wild Tokyo with some new pals from both ANU and UTas - it should be a good weekend too!

Until tomorrow

xo Rach