I've said this many times. Host families are literally the best people you can hang out with. They welcome you, a foreigner, into their home without knowing you at all, feed you, take you on fun trips, talk to you despite maybe not knowing the language. There is so much at risk for them and yet they STILL welcome you.

I stayed with them for half a month, which is a lot of posts, so I will maybe squish multiple days into one and talk about what we did together!

First things first, my host mother is crazy about climbing mountains. Like, the whole huge backpack, mountain climbing sticks and all that fun stuff. We climbed a baby mountain to practice for a big mountain later.  I thought it would be a nature walk. Aside from bugs, there are no animals up in the mountains. It's quiet. DEAD QUIET.

This was the look out point. We could have gone further up, but it was raining and I was ready to die. It was fun though. I was drenched in sweat and eaten alive by bugs but my host mother is so sweet and happy that it was so much fun. Japanese mountains are just... nothing like I've seen before. The forests are so different. I don't live near mountains nor had I seen one really until I came to Japan and holy crap.

SEE A PATH? I DON'T EITHER.

 After that we went to an onsen. Literally that was my whole trip. Climb a mountain, do something intense, then go to an onsen. Once getting cleaned up in lovely happy onsen (hot spring) we went to a shrine we went to back in March. No more cherry blossoms, but it is still a lovely walk!

One bell for family, for partner, for friends and for strangers.

So now that I am back at my school, I think it's time to start posting. I have been on vacation for a little over a month and have been many places. I'll be posting often about where I have been and what I have done!

To start off, as I mentioned before, I stayed with my host family for about a week, then began my long journey to Hiroshima. That turned out to be a little exciting.

Seishun 18 Kippu (Young 18 Ticket)

I traveled with that ticket there. (Not my photo). For about 100 US, for any five days I can use the JR for as much as I like. It is available for "Young 18" year old students to use it while on vacation, as it is only available in August (summer vacation) and February (winter vacation). So a trip that would have been over 250 US in trains alone turned into just 100 US.

From Arao we took the local JR commuter to Hakata station in Fukuoka. I met up with Jenny and we took the slow, local JR lines with multiple transfers. The whole time we were being chased by a nasty typhoon as well. For most of the day it was nice out. Although we painfully spent it on trains. I do mean the whole day. About 9 hours. We started at 10 am and arrived in Hiroshima at around 8.

We didn't have trouble, at first. But the train from Shimonseki to Hiroshima was delayed because of a nasty mudslide on the tracks. My nasty, I mean 72 people have currently been declared dead with many still missing and now assumed dead at this point. We passed damaged houses covered in solid masses of mud. There was so much rainfall and more to come. (Since dad would have had a heart attack at the time, I decided to keep that until I got home.)

The best part of taking the slow trains was the beautiful scenary. The shinkansen, as fast and cool as it is, goes through tunnels while the JR typically goes around mountains at low speeds. Japan is not full of robots, high tech and factories. It is filled with fields of what looks like bright green grass, but is actually rice. I don't see just grass often. Mountains are huge, covered with rows of tall green pines that looked like they were planted in perfect rows. So thick you cannot hike through. Scattered towns are huddled close together, with houses without yards, but surrounded by massive rice fields or gardens.

Monkeys and fish, monkeys and fish, the best combination.

Beppu has two really fun attractions that we waited way too long to go to. They have an aquarium on the border of Oita (the big city) and Beppu. There is also a mountain park area that has the cutest little monkeys! Loudest too...

We went right at the right time because it was feeding time! What better time of the day than food time? These monkeys were screaming but went quiet while they ate.

Don't touch the babies, don't traunt/feed or chase them.
Don't look into their eyes. O.O

Yum yum yum yaaaams!

A whole monkey family!

Please note this trip will be divided into multiple parts, so please check daily for the next part!

Last minute I decided to go to Kyoto and Osaka to with my friend Jenny and Akane (who lives in Osaka). My honorary professor, Dr. To convinced me to go and I didn't once regret the trip! (He is honorary because I've never been able to take his class...) So, I bought the tickets two days before we were planning on leaving.

We took a massive ferry. 12 hours long, but an awesome experience. We stayed in a room full of futons on the ground with about 10 other women. Everyone is nice here, so you don't have to worry as much about losing stuff or getting stuff stolen.

I went from Beppu to Osaka, marked in black.

We arrived in Osaka on Saturday morning and met with Akane's parents. We then went to our first stop which was in Kyoto, not too far away, Byodo-in Temple. Might I also add that it got up to 40 degrees. (Over 90). Every day here was hot, humid and sunny. Not a cloud in the sky!

We then went for lunch in Uiji (where Byodo-in is located) along this really awesome road. It was beautiful, with local shops and restaurants. There were many tea shops, all hand ground teas. Too bad I don't really like matcha (green tea powder, very bitter). At the restaurant we went to I got coffee jelly which is still the #1 reason to go to Japan. Comes with ice cream and whipped cream.

Next we went to Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) which, as the same suggests, is gold! It is beautiful and the walk was nice because it was shaded. I was sweating awful buckets by now. I bought a good luck charm there, as well as some post cards. Most of the souvenirs I got were post cards because I can hang them on my wall.

No, I am not done yet. It's only around 2pm at this point and we decide to go to Kiyomizudera Temple next, which was the worst, yet best walk ever. It was about a half hour walk up the long road of shops and restaurants. The road was a huge hill the whole time. There were sweets shops, fans, yukata (summer kimono) and many other shops.

About Half way

This temple was my favorite because the view was amazing from the top. It was nice and breezy up there, but still hot. Since we got there a little late, not all the parts were open, but all the good parts were.

The large bowl makes a beautiful ringing noise when hit (above the white marked places) and while it rings you pray.

The fountain (the other small picture) is where you wash your hands then drink. First wash your left hand, then right, then drink. It's sacred water said to clense you. There are small ones at all temples, this was just big and fancy.

No, I am STILL not done yet. After that, we went home to Akane's house. Her mother, Jenny, Akane and I went to the public bath house. Chances are, the first question you ask will have a yes answer. It is separated by guys and girls of course.

We went to the restaurant there first, then to the baths. There was a sand rub and sauna, as well as a carbonated bath. In total there were at least 15 baths. All different temperature. There were TVs, playing Iron Man in Japanese. The best ending to a fun day.

Then finally. We went to sleep.

That was day one.

Here is a labeled list of things I bought and eat on a regular basis. My lazy college student self eats more ramen than I should. It tastes like liquid dorito nachos but fills me up. In addition to that, I always get Blendy Stick, which is single coffee sticks and miso soup (32 pack).

Cheese is so expensive I want to cry. It comes in pathetic little packages and it makes me sad.

The box of cereal is horizontal. Why.

I bought french fries for the hell of it.

I also found honey BBQ sauce (for too much money) in the international section. I bought like, 20 chicken legs for 300 yen (about 3 dollars) so I'll make that eventually. I also bought gyoza and ground beef which were put right in my freezer.

I would rather buy cheap instant food and go out to a nice restaurant once in a while or save up for a day trip. Either way, I am not fond of food shopping. It's very frustrating not knowing what to buy.

If you don't like fish and come to Japan, I'm sorry.

As a God I send the clouds to Beppu.
I did not have my actual camera so these are taken with my phone.

Sorry Beppu. Those clouds are not even moving, just sitting there.

This is not abnormal either. I just never got a picture of it before. Those clouds sat on campus almost all day. The fog was so thick I walked into people and missed my classroom building. Everyone had their umbrellas for the torrential down pour, but it didn't help.

Not only that, but it was really hot out and I felt sticky and gross when I got to class. YAY!

Either the weather here is gorgeous and sunny and warm, or it's rainy and foggy and super windy. Not just a light breeze, but knock-you-over wind.

If a week goes by and we don't get a fog/thunder/wind warning then it's weird.

This past Friday I decided to walk down the mountain again. Since I wasn't taking pictures much I could just enjoy the walk. It didn't take as long either. Of course by the time I got down my feet hurt, but not as much as last time. It's a nice walk, but now that it's really warm out, the bugs are starting to come back.
The bugs here are huge. No I will not take pictures because I will not get close enough to take a picture.

Camera on super vivid. Looking down from a bridge.

We stopped at a sushi restaurant when we got to Beppu-shi (Beppu City). Sushi here is fairly cheap and much better than in the US. I still don't have a taste for it. The sushi comes by on a conveyer belt and you pick which one you want. Different colored plates mean different prices, but rarely is sushi over 2 dollars each. There are also cakes and desserts that come around that I eat. I love tamagoyaki which is a sweet scrambled egg, served cold or at room temperature and it is squished into a rectangle. I also love Inarizushi which is a fried tofu pouch (also sweet) with rice inside. Sometimes there are other things inside too.

Pudding! Best Pudding.

I took a video! Please enjoy! I put it to fun music too. Sorry I don't know all the names of the sushi! I'll learn in time.

No that's a lie. I won't walk 15 more miles for a while.

I walked down the mountain today. There are always side walks, so we can walk all the way down. It took from 11am to 4. We walked down the mountain, then through the city main strip to Youme (You-may) Town which is the mall. Along the way I took many pictures of the beautiful scenery. There were beautiful rivers and streams, as well as what looked like grave stones or mile markers.

We walked through a beautiful town, since we took mostly side roads. The houses were all so unique and despite having small yards, they had beautiful gardens and even solar panels wherever they could fit. Almost no one was walking.

 After that we walked through the city. The whole day it was sunny and at least 21 degrees (70 Fahrenheit) , if not hotter. I am so glad I wore shorts, but I am burnt to a crisp. I did not wear sun screen and now I am red as a lobster.

In the city we went to eat at a really cool log cabin place. I split a huge meal with my friend. It was chicken and omurice which is an omelet rice with ketchup on it. The best thing ever!

Right behind the restaurant was a thrift store and I bought a new bag for ¥500. It's a piggy! It even has a little curly tail on the back of it. After that we walked the rest of the way to Youme town to meet some other friends. I won a giant alpaca stuffed animal on a claw machine. 

On my day off yesterday (Wednesday) I decided to walk through campus. It was 70 out, so I couldn't not go outside! Although the sakura have passed, there are still many beautiful flowers and plenty of butterflies. There are many places to eat lunch outside, including Beppu-wan, which is the rest stop up the stairs from our school. You'll see in the video!

Chee-no-eekay Ji-go-ku and Ta-tsu-ma-kee Ji-go-ku

Yesterday I visited two of the eight Jigoku Hells. The Jigoku Hells are hot springs that will probably boil you to death if you stepped foot in them. They are located in the Kannawa district of Beppu. The ones we went to are actually located in the Shibaseki district of Beppu, not all that far. We walked about a mile and a half from Kannawa instead of taking the bus, on a pretty road. It was cold and windy unfortunately, but the rain held off and it turned out to be a beautiful day, I think.




We went to Tatsumaki Jigoku first, which is a boiling hot geiser that shoots off every half hour or so. It's protected by rocks, otherwise it would shoot up over 30 meters. This was the smelliest of the two and reeked of sulfur, but that's only if you decided to walk into the steam. Just the steam was hot enough to send you back a few feet!



















Next we went to Chinoike Jigoku, also known as the blood pond hell. The clay in this hotspring makes it appear a blood red color. When the steam blew in your direction, step back! This one was very hot, even when I got the picture from at least 20 meters up. This one smelled a little like clay and if you looked into the pond, you could see the hot clay at the bottom. The water was very clear and only the bottom was red.

For lunch I got takoyaki from a small vendor across the street. Eight for 500yen! Takoyaki is octopus, in a soft, squishy wheat flour blend then fried in a special pan to make these little balls! It's then topped with tempura flakes, bonito flakes and japanese mayo. They are very much a comfort snack here in Japan. (This is not my picture, I ate mine too fast to take a picture!)

Takoyaki Recipe