Tying a Break

Hi All,

So I have fallen behind a few weeks… it happens, you know lol.

I’ve been readjusting and dealing with preparations for graduation from abroad! That can become quite the tricky actually. Not to mention I started looking for a job --crossing fingers!!--

Any way,

The week after the guys left, there was a lot of over-compensating lol. We got together with our Japanese friends and went out and got together for no reason in particular.

We went out to lunch BBQ (焼き肉 yakiniki),

We had a movie night, a nabe night,

a just hanging out in general lol

It was nice that the void left wasn’t so scary after all and we can take advantage of having less exchange students around us to improve our Japanese.

Nothing exciting happened, but it was all in preparation for my trip to Fukuoka!

So until I tell you about that!

Highlights:

I got to help Yuriko get ready for her club graduates farewell and we got to play with make-up and do girly-things lol hahaha

Ate the Miami burger from the McDonald's Japan campaign Big American 2 in honor of Billy!

It contains: "The Miami Burger features a quarter-pound beef patty topped with lettuce, tortilla chips, shredded cheese and a moderately spicy tomato chili sauce"

...partly regrettable.

Went to the mall with the girls and for once, really "fell inlove" with shoes, that I didn't buy of course lol

Mio and I skyped with Damien and in honor of Mio being "too happy" we took a picture of the moment lol

"I Hate Time"

Hi All,

Finals and finally done… Hip hip hurray (x3)… Now I have a little over 2 months of nothing. Nothing.

Unfortunately that also means… “Goodbye” Ugh! Our nice orchestra is down to a duo…

Terrible terrible.

There was a lot of “our last” everything.

And well pictures speak louder than words so these were the last of our shared time.

Last Izakaya-

Last Karaoke-

Last Nabe party:

Some good flashbacks:

Parfait challenge ---accepted. And conquered.

it's called "Never give up"

Au revoir.

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. ...”

I think we did so well.

Later

Hokkaido... Meet cold.

Hi All,

Filling in the rest of my winter break with my recount to Hokkaido (北海道 )!

It means “North Sea Circuit”. It is Japan's second largest island. The largest city on Hokkaido is its capital, Sapporo.

Hokkaido is known to be extremely cold, and guess what?

It is!

We got a nice deal for a 3-day trip; the travel package included coupons for meals, a bus tour and the plane tickets.

We left Mishima quite early. Our flight left from Tokyo International Airport (東京国際空港) known as Haneda Airport (羽田空港) in the outer part of Tokyo. We landed in Sapporo, or some where near lol.

We visited one of Japan’s most well known breweries, Sapporo beer factory. It wasn’t a long tour, but it seemed longer because 1) I was dead tired, 2) it was completely in Japanese!

That night we tried to explore a little of Sapporo but it was snowing and way too cold for a girl from tropical island.

The next day we had the bus tour and that was—How long bus tours are, exhausting for no apparent reason. We made some stops on touristy areas and food places. The landscape however, just snow. The bus tour was our entire second day in Hokkaido.

That night we stayed at a traditional Japanese hotel, Ryokan (旅館). Which of course includes onsen (hot springs/baths). They typically feature tatami-matted rooms, communal baths, and other public areas where visitors may wear yukata.

The next day we traveled to Mt. Hakodate. A forested mountain that’s not difficult to climb at all; though I slipped a few times and that many more close calls. “The night view from the summit is renowned in Japan as one of the best in the country, and one of the top three in the world”... Of course we saw it in the middle of the day and 90% covered by falling snow. When we got a glitter of sunlight we took like a thousand pictures though lol.

Then the long exhausting trip back… I woke up that morning at 7am and I knew I wouldn’t return to Mishima until around midnight… ever had that feeling of wanting to sleep so bad but knowing full well you won’t get to for hours upon hours to come?

... Yeah, that feeling.

All in all a really wonderful trip for relatively cheap.

Well that's all for my winter break -- a pretty fantastic one really. Maybe the best one I have ever had. Really loving Japan.

Later.