I just got back from a trip to Osaka and Kyoto with one of my friends, so at my family's insistence, and because it's my duty as a blogger, I'm going to attempt to relate the major points of interest.

We stayed at J-Hoppers Osaka near Fukushima station, one stop away/a twenty minute walk from Osaka station and Umeda.

There's a Mister Donuts right by Fukushima station. We patronized it for breakfast twice. I should get to 150 points on my MisDo card before the end of my time in Japan.

J-Hoppers Osaka

J-Hoppers was really nice. Laura and I had a double room for only 3000 yen a night, and they had a kitchen so we could cook breakfast to save some money. They also had free tea and coffee.

We took a highway bus to get from Shinjuku in Tokyo to Osaka, and it took most of the day. The first night, neither of us were really hungry, so we walked around a bit and found a little bar that had takoyaki. I had kimchi, rice, potato salad, and takoyaki, and I think Laura just had rice and takoyaki. But the takoyaki was good.

The next morning, J-Hoppers was holding a tour, led by one of the staff, Mr. Yanno. Mr. Yanno was an interesting character. He spoke "little, little English," but he still wanted to use it as much possible. Which, you know, normally, I'd admire his resolve, but he didn't really listen when he was speaking English. On the tour, it wasn't such a big deal, but that night, we also made the poor decision to go to the Mr. Yanno Party at a nearby izakaya (Japanese pub), and I ended up sitting next to Mr. Yanno who had his elbow in my space the entire time while trying to perform stupid magic tricks and make idiotic puns in English and Japanese. I did get to try hot sake because he bought some for the group, but it wasn't all that great.

The tour was of an area (I think it was called Tenma) that used to be a black market after World War II.

Apparently this wall is like 100 years old.

The black market area

More of the black market area

Stopping at a street stand to eat okonomiyaki. From front to back, Mr. Yanno, Laura, me.

Another stop was the Tenma shopping street, which I think Mr. Yanno said was the longest in Japan.

The group from J-Hoppers, in front of a shrine

And then Mr. Yanno took us to a maid cafe. :/

The maid cafe was bizarre. It was small and sorta creepy. It was more like a bar than a cafe. There was a bar and then there was a square booth set into the corner and that was it. There was karaoke and anime targeted at young girls (Cardcaptor Sakura) on the TV. The bar tender (wearing a maid dress) performed some karaoke and a dance for us, and when she gave us our coffee/tea, she mixed the sugar and cream (I had coffee) into it and said "oishikunare, oishikunare, motto, motto, oishikunare. Moe moe kyun!" and made a heart with her hands (rough translation, make it delicious, make it delicious, more and more and more delicious! Moe moe kyun! "Kyun" is like, a cute noise, and I don't want to have to explain moe so I'll let TV Tropes do it for me.)

The whole thing was honestly a little pathetic, and though she could sing and dance, our maid didn't seem that into her role, which made it really awkward. I kinda felt like she wanted to be somewhere else. Then again, she had to deal with Mr. Yanno every time he gave a tour, so I can understand.

The tour ended there for Mr. Yanno, but he gave us maps of the area, and we decided to do some more exploring as a group instead of splitting up.

We passed the building for one of the TV broadcast stations in Osaka and took this bright and happy picture.

Next stop was Tenmongu Shrine, where the ume (plum) trees were blooming!

After looking around Tenmongu Shrine, we decided to check out Osaka Castle, because Issei, the Japanese guy among us, told us there were more ume blooming there. It was fun getting to talk with everyone from the hostel. Some people were from Australia, one guy was from California, Issei was from Kyuushu, and I can't remember where the other guy was from. But it was a cool group.

Statue of Toyotomi Hideyoshi at Osaka Castle

The J-Hoppers group in front of Osaka Castle. From left to right, Japanese, Australians, Americans.

 Naturally I was extremely hungry this entire part of the day. We grabbed some food when we got to Osaka Castle, but it wasn't enough. My stomach is so expensive to travel with... :/
But it was all worthwhile because Osaka Castle really did have a beautiful ume garden. The trees were all in full bloom, and after a month in snowy Minakami, I was so happy to see signs of spring!

Those are all ume trees.

Osaka Castle overlooking the ume garden.

I tried ume ice cream too. It was kinda sweet but kinda sour. I got to try sakura flavor in Minakami and then again in Kyoto and I liked it better.

We cut through the NHK building on our way back to the subway station.

Inside was a set for the drama "Carnation" which is on for 15 minutes at like 7:30 am. I happened to end up watching it most mornings before work in Minakami.

Laura, Me, Issei, Kevin

"Carnation" is about fashion design, so they had a display of some of the costumes.

And a sign, advertising the Carnation exhibit.

JR train at Fukushima station. They're orange in Osaka! As opposed to grey with a stripe of color on them.

And that was basically the first day in Osaka. Expect more updates soon!

Between visiting the high school and going to hang out at the city office before the presentation, Suzuki-san had mentioned to Matt and I that since the weather was good, maybe he should take us to Mt. Tanigawa, but there wasn't enough time, so maybe after the presentation...

After the presentation I reminded him of his promise, however vague it might have been, and he took us, along with Dyron, our resident director who came up for the presentation, on a drive up into the mountains.

We passed this snow panda on the way up the mountain.

The scenery was really beautiful. Since I come from a state with absolutely no mountains, I never get tired of looking at them. It's funny though, because Japanese people I've met can't imagine a place with no mountains and no ocean. When I say there's no mountains in Missouri, they tend to ask me "Is it hot? Is it near the ocean?" Nope, none of those things.

Suzuki-san drove us to the cable car station and when we went inside, he used his city hall tourism office privileges to lend us VIP passes that got us a free ride on the cable car.

Matt, enjoying the cable car

Me, taking a dorky picture of myself in the cable car, and rocking my bright yellow VIP pass.

 As a side note, something strange has happened to my contacts prescription, in that when I put them in my eyes I can't see properly, so for the rest of the time here I'll probably be a glasses-wearer. This is why you bring lots of vision options when you pack for a study abroad trip! Sometimes your prescription changes for no explainable reason. Either reading lots of kanji will destroy my eyesight or it took reading lots of kanji to make me realize my eyesight was getting worse.

The beautiful, beautiful snowy mountains

 At the top of the mountain, there's a ski lodge. Matt and Dyron, as a snowboarder and a skier respectively, got super excited and wouldn't stop talking about how great it was and how much they wanted to try boarding/skiing here. Suzuki-san revealed that the passes we were wearing would also get us onto the ski lift, so Matt was like "can we go now? Why don't we go right now?" I have a feeling if the gear rental place at the top of the mountain hadn't been closed, they would have gone skiing off into the distance and I never would have heard from them again.

The ski lift going up to the very top of the mountain.

Dyron, Suzuki-san, and Matt. I think that these three should go skiing here together for real when Dyron takes us back to Minakami as a program instead of just talking about it.

And the version with me in it.

 We literally came right from the presentation, and Dyron wasn't expecting it at all, so he kept talking about how strange it was to be on a mountain in his suit. It was strange for me too because I was wearing my dress pants and Sperry's, so not exactly snow gear. Come to think of it, Suzuki-san was in dress clothes too...

View from the ski lodge

VIP status got us treated to a cup of coffee in the ski lodge, as well as an awesome view. Then it was time to head back down the mountain because Suzuki-san had to take Matt and I home and then get back to work. On the way down, though, I caught sight of (but didn't get my camera out fast enough) a Nihon Kamoshika. Interesting critter. I really thought it was a wolf from the back. While I was in Minakami I managed to see all the weird critters: kamoshika, two monkeys, and (I'm pretty sure) a tanuki. In Tokyo, I'm amazed if I see a dog bigger than a Pomeranian.

On the way back from the top of Mt. Tanigawa, Suzuki-san showed us Doai Station. It was built in 1967 and it's still in operation, but it looks like the setting of a zombie movie. There are 486 steps down to the platform heading to Niigata, because the train goes under the mountains.

The station, looking ridiculous under the snow, and the corner of Matt's face.

Dyron starting to walk towards the platform

And whoooo, that's a lot of stairs. We did not climb down them, but supposedly there is a train platform down there.

Me, Matt, and Dyron pose in front of the abyss.

When you head back towards the exit you see this sign.

 The translation: "You must be tired from such hard work. (Stair count: 462) There's only 143 meters left, with two staircases for a total of 24 steps. Please hang in there. - JR Doai Station."
 Back up those 24 steps.

The very top stair, 486.

Platform 1 is the 486 stairs. Platform 2 is above ground and goes back to Minakami and eventually Ueno.

Here you can see the tunnel we walked through, leading under the earth.

It was a really fun afternoon. We all felt like we were in some kind of travel TV show. My face actually hurt from smiling and saying "awesome!" (sugoi!) over and over again.  I really hope I thanked Suzuki-san enough to let him know how much I appreciated it.

After that, I only had one day left in Minakami. I spent it working my last day at Yushinkan, and then Yuki was supposed to take me out to sushi, but due to various un-forseeable circumstances, we ended up missing last order at the sushi place and going to an all night family restaurant instead. That ended up being okay because we had a long conversation about anime, cosplay, and I finally found someone in Japan who can understand what I'm talking about when I say one of my favorite anime series is Cowboy Bebop. Thank goodness. It was a good time.

Here's the picture I took with my host family before we drove to the shinkansen station.

Yuki, me, host mom

Last picture in Minakami. Posing with the Hina-matsuri decorations at the station.

I'm sad to leave Minakami and I'm already having issues adjusting to Tokyo life, but hopefully everything will get better with time and patience. I'm so thankful for Suzuki-san and Yuki and my host mom and Fang Fang and Abe-san and everyone in Minakami who helped make the experience great for me.

The great news is, Dyron is arranging a trip for us all to come back to Minakami in April or May. Hopefully we'll get to go rafting, and see Minakami in the spring time. So it won't be too long until I'm back again.

On March 1st, Suzuki-san took Matt and I to go see a glass-making workshop, where we got gifts of cute little glass dragons (since it's the year of the dragon). Blown glass blows my mind (pun intended?). Even watching people work with it, it makes no sense to me. Molten glass just seems sorta terrifying to work with, so kudos to anyone who actually does so.

On the way there, I found out that the presentation for the mayor about how to improve tourism to Minakami had not been forgotten about. It was happening on the 6th, right after we visited a local high school.

After checking out the glass-making place, Suzuki-san treated us to lunch at his friend's pizza place, and then we went to the tourism office to talk about stuff for the presentation with some of their English-speaking staff.

Oh, but I forgot to mention, before that, and before Nikko, I got a chance to try to go skiing.
It pretty much sucked. I was going to go with Matt, but he forgot and made other plans, so my host sister recruited one of their acquaintances to help me out (Maeda-san). He was a really good instructor, but I went into the whole thing feeling lonely and awkward and uncool, plus ski boots are incredibly, incredibly difficult to walk in and in my case somehow incredibly painful to wear. It's hard to learn anything when you can feel the bruise forming on your leg. Plus trying to learn something you have absolutely no background knowledge in in a foreign language is pretty difficult. It took a really long time before I could figure out what it was Maeda-san wanted me to do. Turns out I'm also kinda afraid of swooping down hills at a high velocity (I think it reminds me of all the trees I ran my bicycle into as a child), so I didn't even make it to the ski lift. We got as far as walking up the hill a little, putting skis back on, and trying to go down the hill before I had enough. It was dark and cold and snowing and I was just over it. Plus I learned later from multiple people that Norn, the ski lodge we went to, is actually the hardest place to ski in Minakami, but it's Maeda-san's home base, so there wasn't really any helping that. It did, however, explain all of the terrifying snowboarders zipping past me while I prayed that they knew how to stop because I sure didn't. I'm not too keen to try skiing again, but maybe if friends or family really wanted to go I'd give it another shot.

Here's a picture of the slope. I'm not in it.

So okay, after that interlude, back to chronological time.

On the 5th, I took the day off because it was Monday and I'd agreed with both my workplaces that I could have Mondays off. So I hung out and ate Hagen-daaz and drank coffee with Yuki and didn't do a whole lot of anything until we went to go pick up Matt at 6:30ish. Then he came over for dinner and we stayed up until about 1am making the tourism presentation.

Then, bright and early on the 6th, we went to a high school (I'm not sure if there's more than one high school or not, and I forgot the school's name). We weren't really sure from the onset what we were there for, but it turned out that we were going to be coming to one class and helping them with English conversation. They had prepared questions ahead of time that we were to answer. It was hard to tell how much of our English they really understood, and there were some students that definitely weren't paying much attention. But once class ended, they were really excited to take a photo with us. After class, a few students talked to us in the hallway, and I wish I'd given them my email address or something so they could stay in touch. One girl had done a week-long homestay in Wyoming, but the others I think had just been in Japan their whole lives, and they had very good English. One girl really wanted to study abroad in Canada. We also got to meet their ALT, Phillip, and he seemed really cool. Apparently he's been in Japan for seven years. The kids really seemed to like him.

Outside of the high school. Japanese high schools really do look exactly like anime and drama, by the way.

Fang Fang, a Chinese woman who's also been in Japan for seven years and is living in Minakami and working at the tourism office with Suzuki-san and Abe-san, joined the English conversation class with us. Some of the students were studying Chinese so they were excited to talk to her and they mobbed her after class to take pictures with her.

I was sad we had to leave the high school after just one class, but I guess Suzuki-san and Fang Fang -san had to get back to work, so Matt and I got to hang out in the meeting room at the city office preparing (read: playing computer games. Also preparing) while we waited for our presentation time.

The presentation went pretty well thanks to all the preparation time we got, and the only mistake (that was pointed out - loudly - by my host mom) was me typing one kanji wrong in the names of both the places where I worked (in my half-asleep state I typed 官, not 館. I'm not sure what that first kanji means). Overall I'm really proud of what we accomplished.

And after that we went on some sight-seeing adventures, which I'll cover next time.

On March 2nd, my host family in Minakami took me on a trip to Nikko, which is town about three hours away known for having a shrine to Tokugawa Ieyasu as well as a big waterfall.
When we crossed over from Gunma prefecture into Tochigi, the snow was falling pretty heavily. Our first destination was Kegon no Taki, the aforementioned really big waterfall. We drove up a mountain rode with something like 30 hairpin curves. The mist was pretty thick because of the snow, so when you looked past the side rail on the edge of the road, you couldn't actually see any mountains. I'm amazed my host mom was up to the drive, because my real mom would have flat out refused, but we reached the top and found the parking lot where we would leave the car to head to Kegon no Taki.
At this point, both my host sister Yuki and I needed to use the bathroom, so we walked to the nearby information center. Only to be told that there was absolutely no way we'd be able to see the waterfall today. There was just too much snow and mist.
So we payed for the use of the parking lot, and turned right back around down 30-odd more hairpin curves.

Then lunch, which everyone agreed tasted pretty bad despite being told that the restaurant had a good reputation.

And then Yuki and I went back out into the snow to go check out the various shrines and museums to the Tokugawa family. Everything looked really pretty in the snow, but my boots were totally soaked through by the time we got back to the car. They were so soaked that before we went out to dinner on our way home, my host family actually offered to buy me some cheap shoes and socks so I didn't have to go to dinner with wet feet. Of course, they underestimated my shoe size even though I told them what it was, but I appreciated the gesture. A lot. My boots didn't really dry until the next day. But the place we went to was really good. We had this thing called tsubayaki, which was sort of like an upside-down bread bowl. You have a bowl of stew, with a bubble of bread baked on top of it somehow... I didn't think I was going to like it at all but it was delicious. I had a really good cream cheese tart for dessert too.

So here's some pictures of all that.

We payed extra to walk around this pretty Japanese garden because I love Japanese gardens, and I'd never seen one in the snow before. This is probably the reason my boots got soaked, but I took a lot of pretty pictures (on Facebook).

The three wise monkeys.

That's not some kind of noise filter I put on the picture. That's how much snow was falling.

Pretty carved temple walls and lots and lots of snow.

The only thing worth translating in this entire historical site: "Please refrain from smoking."

Pose!

And the scrumptious tart that finished off the day.

I would have liked to have been able to see Kegon no Taki, but I understand it was impossible. I guess I have to figure out some other time to come back there.

We ended up kinda hurrying through the temples and museums because of the snow and because everything closes at 3:30, so we ran out of time. But it was still worth it. Lots of dramatic pictures of snow-covered Nikko.

My aunt wrote this about my posts about Yushinkan:

Are they used to having foreign exchange students working there? Or is this a new thing for them? What a fantastic experience you are having...to be able to try all the crafts and work along side them. Hard work, but actually sounds fun...although walking around all day in socks sounds quite painful! Do you feet hurt at the end of the day? Mine sure would.
Love, Aunt Jody

I don't think so. I think my work at Yushinkan and Hourakukan was a first time thing for everyone. They often weren't sure what to have me do. It was hard, but not nearly as hard as part time jobs I've had in the US. It was definitely fun. The culmination of the hard + fun combo was getting to translate the website into English. I think I managed it in less than 10 hours (two work days), and I'm pretty happy with what I came up with.
Walking in socks all day wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, though my legs were kinda sore at the end of the day.

What's hurting is getting back to Tokyo and realizing I'm not used to walking and standing all the time. My shoulders hurt from a combination of carrying my luggage and the way that life in Tokyo constricts your body into small spaces, and I think I might have done something to my hip muscle from lugging the big back of souvenirs I wanted to mail 20 minutes to the post office and then back when I found out that post office wasn't open on Saturday.

Tokyo is very different from Minakami, and my host family in Saitama is very different than my host family in Minakami, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't having a hard time with the adjustments. I'm happy that I have the freedom to just get out of the house and go somewhere by train or whatever, but I'm sad that I already feel the need to do that. I'm sure things will get better once I start school up again, and I'm going to Osaka for a few days starting Tuesday, so that will save me from trying to figure out what to do with all my free time too. My host sister in Minakami and I really hit it off, so I actually feel like we're friends, while I still feel like I'm just a thing taking up space in the house with my host family in Saitama. Everyone is busy with their own things, so even if I'm home, it's not like it's converse-with-Shaun time. I still haven't explained what all I did on the practicum in Minakami, even though I'd like to, because I haven't found a moment.