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To Akiyoshidai!

Today I woke up at 5 AM to get ready for Akiyoshidai. We had to leave at 6. I was kind of tired. We left and took Akari to the Shinkansen with her friends. It looked like they were going to have so much fun! After we dropped Akari off, we headed off. I slept the entire time there and only woke in the middle when we stopped by 7-11 for a snack. I got Pocky and grape juice. Gotta have my grape juice! Then I went back to sleep and didn't wake up until we were there. We walked up to the entrance of the cave and it was soo cool! I have never seen a cave before! There was a waterfall coming from it too. We went inside and it was awesome...I felt like I was in Minecraft lol. It was cold inside which felt really good because it was really hot outside. We walked about 1 Kilometer until the end of the cave, then went into this tunnel which I thought was awesome because there were drawings on both sides telling history. It was called the Tunnel of 300 Million Years. It showed  from the Pre-Historic age  all the way until now. It was really cool. Then we took a taxi to the landscape area on top of he cave. This was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was just green hills and rocks that seemed to go on forever. This used to be an ancient ocean. We got some ice cream here and then went to the car. I went to sleep again, and when I woke up we arrived on an island. I didn't exactly know where we were but we walked and came to this beautiful beach with a walking trail and it was so pretty. There were rocks in the water and the water was so clear you could see the coral underneath. People were scuba diving here. There were mountains surrounding it and it was just beautiful. Then we went to go find lunch. The drive w was beautiful because of the scenery everywhere. Mountains, Oceans, Hills...I loved it. We came to this little fish market strip and there were tour buses there with older people who were touring the island. We went and ate lunch in the little fish market. I had curry rice...I love curry rice! When we were eating, the older people were finished shopping and were going back to the buses. There was one man who was walking outside and ran into the door. Mama and I bursted out laughing. After lunch, we kept driving and I tried not to go to sleep, but I eventually did and then we came to a 7-11 to get ice cream. I can't say no to more ice cream. Every time I woke up, it was right when we arrived somewhere. Then we kept driving and we arrived somewhere.I didn't really know what was happening but I went with it. When we started walking, I saw festival decorations, so I assumed we were at some sort of festival? It turned out to be the Tanabata festival. I saw a lot of people in Yukatas. There were also a lot of little shops. Apparently this is where the famous Sanzoku restaurant is. It's specialty is chicken on a stick. We continued to walk and were in the middle of a wedding. It was cool . I liked seeing people in traditional clothes. I have seen a lot of weddings since I have been here. We left and I went back to sleep until we went past Kintaikyo. We were going to eat dinner ate an Okonomiyaki restaurant that Papa always used to go to when he was younger. I had some awesome yakisoba but couldn't eat it all because I was still full from lunch. After dinner I didn't go back to sleep. It was cool seeing the city at night. It had a whole different feel to it. Then we finally made it home and I decided to go through the gifts that I had and what I still needed and to pack up everything that I am not going to use for the next week and a half. Then I decided to try on my Yukata again so that I know how to put it on when I get back to America. I kind of did it right, then it was late so I went to sleep.

Kintaikyo!!

Today I woke up after spending the night at Rena and Nate's house. We all had breakfast, and they had a giant jar of peanut butter. I haven't had peanut butter in a while so I enjoyed that. then we all were dropped off at the Hiroshima train station. I thought parents were coming with us but apparently not. We then took a train to Kintaikyo. We played a word game on the train, so that was entertaining. Kintaikyo was very pretty. the first bridge was destroyed by a typhoon so it is rebuilt every 20 years. We had Ice cream and Nate had Wasabi flavored. A cat was staring at him the whole time. then we sat on the riverbank and threw rocks into the river. It was very peaceful. Then we went home by train. I found out it was Mama's birthday, but they don't celebrate birthday like we do in the US, it is smaller. We bought a little cake and went home and made Takoyaki and it was pretty god. It was kind of hard to make. Then we played catch and realized that I'm a terrible pitcher today. We were tired so we went to the 7-11 to get some ice cream. At the 7-11  there were a group of boys and one wasn't Japanese so Mama asked him if he was an exchange student. He was one from Germany, and she had to introduced me to him. Then we went home and ate cake for Mama's Birthday!

Saturday!! BBQ!

This was the second day Ally was at school. I have school on a Saturday...yes school. But it is ok because it is only 3 classes. I gave Ally one of my backup shirts because she was worried about here uniform. I was so tired. First was English Conversation which was interesting. Everyone had to give a presontation about their favorite places. It was cool hearing what everyone likes to do. Then computers. I did absolutely nothing in that class. I was put into a group and they were doing a project and they didn't talk to me. Only at the end they talked to tell me to choose a picture for their project. Then science.. I already knew that I wasn't going to understand so I just wrote in my journal. Akari told me that after school  we are going to another YFU student's house. His name is Nate. She said that we are going to the mall and Kintaikyo on Sunday. After school Mama picked us up and dropped us off at a train station to meet Rena and Nate. We walked what seemed like forever to the mall where we did Purikura, then we went to a virtual sports center which was really cool. It had a screen that looked like the pitcher was actually pitching the ball to you. That is where we practiced batting and we also played golf and practiced pitching. then we played air hockey which was team America vs. team Japan. America won! Then we walked a long time to Rena and Nate's house. The area where they live is very pretty. There are a lot of traditional houses, but as we walked closer to their house I noticed that it looked like a rectangle box. Their house was extremely modern in design. everything was all boxy and straight. This was in the middle of a traditional neighborhood. It was kind of funny. The parents are really funny and really cool. The mom wants me to visit them again. We had a barbeque which was fun. Then we played with sparklers! They were so pretty. Then we all went inside and played card games. And my room that I slept in is a tatami mat room with a shrine for the grandparents. I slept on a futon but woke up extremely cold and scared because I had half a blanket and a really weird scary dream. That was my day.