Today for Japanese1010 we learned calligraphy. We practiced from 1:30 until 4:00. Pretty sure I can never look at どんぐり (acorn) again without feeling a twinge in my writing shoulder.

College

So I've been up here in Logan for two weeks now. I've decided college isn't that great.

Right now all I want to do is go back to Japan. I'd even teach English. But I don't want to get married and move back to America and have to teach here.

Maybe I'll become a mortician.

Tokyo (Part II)- Studio Ghibli Museum

You can only take pictures outside of the museum, hence the few pictures.  Just know, the inside was fabulous and you're totally missing out.
The bus!
Becca, Rachel and I posing in front of the kind robot.
A view of the museum from the roof (where the robot is).

Nara

This basically sums up Nara.  Laugh!
This deer was waiting outside the store, don't buy things from outside displays in Nara.
The largest wooden building i've ever seen.  It houses the Doubutsu (Great Buddha).
A fuzzy picture of the Doubutsu.
This scary-looking statue is outside.  Supposedly if you rub him and then rub the corresponding part on your body it won't hurt anymore.  I tried it on my elbow (I banged in really hard at the hostel) it didn't work, but elbow bruises are hard to fix.

Kyoto

I've been back for a long time now, but I miss Japan a lot.  I fixed my iphoto (mostly) so here are some pictures of Kyoto.

The Kyoto station is very well designed.

We went to a parade (the hollyhock parade?) I wouldn't want to be in charge of the huge umbrella, it looks heavy.
Lots of men and a cow.
A horseman at the parade.
Rebecca and I at the Inari shrine.  Becca is carrying a shopping bag with her new kimono in it.  Laugh.
My favorite shrine!  These torii gates go on forever.  It would be bad if you were inside and there was a fire . . .
We came here on accident, but I was really glad we did.  It's really a nice place. Around the temple is a really old Japanese garden.  And we got sakura ice cream.

This is the kinkakuji (golden temple).  The taxi on the way here terrifying.  He was a crazy driver.

My iphoto crashed.  So until I recover my pictures (because I'd better freaking be able to recover them), I don't have any for you.  And the internet doesn't work here.  So unless I have internet in Fukuoka then it's sayounara until I get back to Utah.  Sigh.  If I know you then I'll give you a present.

I'm not ready to come back yet! 

Gifu

This is our room at the AMAZING ryokan (the Taga). 
This is the view from our window.
Nagara river.
Another cheesy touristy head-thing.
Laugh!
After the Ukai (cormorant fishing) Rebecca and I were cold.  So we shared Dad's jacket.  Seconds after this picture was taken a couple took one of us too.  Then walked away.  Laughing.

Tokyo

We went straight from the shinkansen to the temple. They translated for us, but I was really tired so they needn't have bothered.
 The Hachiko statue.  I would tell you the story but Dad is loudly requiring my computer.
Ultra-man.  Nothing more should be said.
Cute gaijin.
Cute gaijin gracing the Asakusa shrine.
Sorry the picture is fuzzy.  I know it's different in America, but here it's rude to take pictures of people sleeping on the train.  Even if they are as awesome as this couple.
Tokyo Disneyland entrance, we were so excited.

Our princess castle.

Gangsta car.  I ruined it by smiling.  I just didn't want the kids to cry.
Dad took this picture from the car in front of us on Thunder Mountain.  This basically sums up Tokyo.

Shinkansen Trip

Last Saturday we took the Shinkansen from Fukuoka to Tokyo. 

Shinkansen guts.
Fuji-san.

Kumamoto Part II

Our second day we climbed a mountain.  No really, we did.  On the way home we stopped at Kumamoto castle and attacked the resident ninja.

Here's some pictures.  The first one is from day #1, the rest are day 2 (it was sunny that day).

Kumamoto

We went on vacation!  Yesterday morning we left with our school for Kumamoto.  We drove for a long time.  Driving.  Driving.  Driving.

When we got there it was raining hard.  Raining.  Raining.

Then we made soba noodles!  It was hard to cut them small enough.  So our noodles were fat. 

Later that evening we went to an onsen.  It was my first onsen experience, and this particular onsen is co-ed (it's daijoobu, the water is murky and we had towels).  But still, it was a very new experience.  The name of the onsen is Jigoku, which means Hell.  In the olden days only samurai were allowed to use it.  We used the cooler pool, but before we left I put my legs in the larger pool.  It was ridiculously hot!  I felt like a lobster.

After Jigoku we went to another spring at the same site.  It was women only, so relaxing was easier.  There were beautiful maple trees all around the pool.  By the time we left we smelled strongly of rotten eggs.

We then ate dinner (a barbeque: we had hot dogs, meat, carrots, eggplant, pumpkin, onion, lettuce, more meat, yakisoba, real sprite, squash, ect.  You can grill anything in Japan.  But grilled lettuce is pretty good) and watched some good Japanese TV.  Whoa, people are really weird.

Our Saturday

Since I'm staying up this late anyway I may as well post our Saturday pictures.  I skipped from Friday to Sunday without saying anything about it.

We went to Hakata Bay and then to a temple.  We went with our friend from school, and we had a lot of fun.

This is our before-we-start picture.  My dweeby open mouthed smile.
The view from the Hakata Bay Museum tower.  Fukuoka is a pretty city.
Us, in front of the ocean.  Ocean!  You can't see them in the picture, but there are jellyfish.
Sometimes graffiti makes me giggle inside. 
The temple gate.
The temple entrance, you can't take pictures after you climb the stairs.  But it was really cool inside too.  It was very quiet, and leaves were falling.
An ancient holy tree.  It's over 800 years old.

Highlights of today: Yoshinogari Historical Park

Everyone in our ward is so kind.  On Friday the professional kimono lady dressed us up and today a family in the ward invited us to come with them to see some ancient ruins.  We went with them, the sister missionaries, and three other Americans.  It was really funny.  Over the entire day we covered a lot of ground.  We drove from the church at Fujisaki to wherever the Historical Park is, and from there to Marinoa World (home to a large Ferris Wheel).

Our group in our war tunics.  (we didn't wear them the whole time)
Our fierce inner warrior cannot be contained.  I wonder what everyone around us thought . . . 

We just had too.  I didn't have enough self control to not do such a cheesy tourist thing.

Lunch was awesome!  Noodles come shooting down the bamboo slide and you grab them with your chopsticks and dip them in your cup of sauce.  You get better with practice.  Kinda.

My mouth was so full I couldn't breathe.A view from the watchtower of the reconstructed village.
The entire area looked like this.  There were rice paddies and fields.  The mountains were covered in mist, there were green forests, we passed bamboo thickets, all the houses had tiled roofs, it smelled perfect.  I took this picture from the car on the way there.  It rained all day though, but wow.  It was gorgeous.