I have had such a long weekend, and now it’s midnight on Sunday and I still have homework to finish for tomorrow. Plus I have to wake up at 6:30am. Oh gosh… so many things to do here, I wish sleep didn’t have to be one of them.
Anyway, I spent today in Osaka with my […]

1. Kinkakuji Temple, aka The Golden Pavilion… basically a temple covered with gold
2. I was with my okasan so there was finally someone to take pictures of me… gotta have some good ol’ tourist photos
3. Ryoanji Garden made in 1525, a famous zen garden… pretty cool, very simple, not what I think of when I […]

Hey,
So today I had big plans to go ice skating at Hirakata Park with some friends. But then it started raining this morning and those plans got cancelled. But we all met at the train station anyway and found something else to do. First we found a Starbucks in a bookstore and had coffee while […]

On the way back from the ski hill we stopped in the city of Nagano for lunch and a look at Zenkoji Temple. It was rainy and cold, but we ate some tasty soba noodles (which were made by an old man right in the front window of the little restaurant). Apparently Nagano is known […]

I don’t even know where to start the story of my ski trip. There’s just too much I could say… and it’s nighttime here and I’m tired. So here’s some random points about the trip:

there were about 100 Japanese students and 9 gaijin (foreign) students… Lucy and Tom from Aussie, Megan from NZ, Amanda and […]

Saturday, before I went skiing, I took a trip to Osaka for the day with Lucy and Megan. We went to Shinsaibashi which is basically just a big shopping area. Super crowded… and lots of stuff… We didn’t really buy much, but looked around at everything. One thing that we did do was purikura which […]

Well, I pretty much have a routine now. I get up, go to school, speak some Japanese, hang out with friends, eat Japanese food, play with clay, take the train home, eat more Japanese food, practice Japanese with my host mom, do some homework, relax, go to bed. Of course there are variations, but even […]

So the other day I had a birthday, and before I left Canada I was thinking… ‘hmm I turn 21 only a couple weeks after I arrive in Japan, what if I don’t have any friends to celebrate with?’… turns out I didn’t have to worry at all. I’ve made some awesome friends here and […]