立山

Can't Hold Us- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SihoKQ-uLqE

I have definitely had a memorable last couple of weeks. Starting with this last weekend and working back from there:

My host dad and I woke up at 5:30 am on Friday 26th and left our house to go pick up Jaimee (*Jaimee is my best mate from Australia- we were lucky enough to be placed in the same school!). Leaving Jaimee's house around 6:45am the three of us were off for a 7 hour drive to 立山 (Mt. Tateyama). When we arrived at the base of Tateyama we took a vertical train up part of the mountain. Then we took an hour long bus ride up another section of the mountain. The day we got there the weather was pretty bad so we couldn't see much outside of our windows. At the bus station two people from the hotel, that we would be staying at, came to greet and escort us to the hotel because the visibility was so low due to the snow. We got to snowshoe in order to get to our hotel. The hotel we stayed at is famous for being the highest Onsen (hot spring) in Japan (maybe even the world?). 

The plan was to get to the hotel on Friday, spend the night, then return home Saturday... the weather had a different plan. We ended up being snowed in and weren't able to leave until Sunday. Another fun twist to this weekend is that I ended up getting altitude sickness and had stomach/head pains the entire weekend. Besides that, Jaimee, my host dad, and I enjoyed the hotels wonderful food, tatami rooms, onsen, taking pictures in the snow (when the weather cleared up a bit), playing cards, reading, and making friends with a half Japanese/half English                 backpacker who works at the hotel. We safely returned home by Sunday evening.


*The picture on the left is the amazing sunset that we were able to watch Saturday evening. The picture on the right is Jaimee and me with our new friend, Riki.

Tuesday 23 my school had another sports festival. This time we played volleyball all day. My class did not place very high in rankings but it was still fun. 

This is the class picture we took after playing volleyball all day. 

On the 21st I met up with some friends that I had made at RYLA (more about RYLA later in this post). We all went and hung out at Round 1, a sports/game center. 

On the 20th Jeevan (another American Exchange student- who's host family happens to be my host uncle and aunt), Jeevan's host family, my host family, and I went to Nara. We saw a couple of temples and ate dinner at an extremely fancy restaurant. To explain just how fancy the restaurant I will describe the toilets- the toilet seats raised themselves, the seats were heated, and the toilets flushed by itself. 

April 19th I got to skip school and go scuba diving with my host dad instead. Because I have never gone scuba diving before we could only dive 5 meters but it was still a lot of fun. We had two diving instructors diving with us. They taught me how to dive, explained the sea life that we were looking at, and to took underwater pictures.

On April 13th I experience my first Earthquake. I believe it was a 4 or 5 on the Richter Scale. It happened around 5:30 in the morning. I am very glad that it wasn't a bigger earthquake because I just didn't react. It woke me up and I just laid in bed until it stopped. My host mom came up stairs to check on us- I went back downstairs with her and watched the news for a bit. I learned two things about earthquakes: 1. never go on the stairs during an earthquake 2. you are supposed to stand in the doorway during an earthquake.

On the 5th of April I was hanging out with RYLA friends in Namba but I was also pleased to find out that Brendan (a fellow Minnesotan on Exchange in Hiroshima) would be in Osaka for a day and was able to meet up for a bit. 

RYLA (3/29-3/31)- Rotary Youth Leadership Awards

All of the kids at RYLA were split into teams, I was in Team A for Awesome. We did a lot of group activities but we were also able to meet kids in other teams during meal times and during the free time we had at night. 

The first day we mainly listened to speeches about peace, watched a little video clip on peace, and listened to some Koto players (Koto- Japanese harp).

On the second we hiked 11km up a mountain. We also had a barbecue, watched a traditional styled Japanese dance, and had a camp fire with games and songs. 

On the final day there was a group of us that woke up early and played soccer before breakfast. After breakfast everyone helped to clean up the beach (the place we were staying at was right on the beach and to show our appreciation and to be respectful we helped to clean up their beach). We did a couple more group activities then we all gathered in a big room and took pictures with the friends that we had made and said our goodbyes. 

Well, those are the biggest events that have taken place lately. Its crazy to think that I have just over a month left in Japan! I can't believe that I am leaving so soon. I literally have no weekends open from now until when I go home. Along with my last few trips that I will be taking, I am already also planning a goodbye party, and preparing for reverse culture shock and things that I will miss in Japan. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to go home and see family and friends again but I am also going to miss all of my family and friends in Japan. I have had some amazing experiences and it will be strange to have to say goodbye to this place. Thank you sooo much to Rotary, my host families, fellow exchange students, and friends that I have made this year- you have given me such a great life in a year full of wonder, trying, life changing, self-growing experiences. So, I would like to apologize- I will try to blog at least one more time but if not I will for sure write a closing post once I am home. 

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.