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Spring Break is already over and I have to go back to school tomorrow! Kacy and Joella`s visit was great! I met them at the airport. Their flight was 20 minutes late!!! But they arrived safely and I was ever so happy to see some loved people from home! We went home and they slept. It was a long trip.
The first day they were here I showed them around the little city where most hings are around me. We did puri-kura and then met Tiki for some karaoke! afterwards we went with my roommate Heather and friend Stacia to an Italian restaurant (do not judge) and then went to go see Dragonball Evolution!!!! It was in English with Japanese subtitles. I was not expecting it to be as good as it was but I was quite enjoyable. Joella fell asleep but she does that normally during movies.
The second day they were here I took them to a place in Kyoto, Uji! I love Uji! It has a lot of little Shrines and has a pretty river. We just walked around and talked. Uji is famous for its green tea, so there is greent ea flavored everything there. They have green tea, candy, kit-kats, soba noodles, ice cream, and other things. I love green tea so I do not mind! A guy when we walked by him tried to speak to us in spanish. I was absolutely confused! I had never taken a spanish class a day in my life and what he said did not sound like japanese to me! But Kacy recognized it. "Did he just say `Como Estas`?" Laughing a bit I corrected him by saying that we spoke Enlgish! So he tried to speak to us in english. The thing that made his broken english better was the fact that he had green tea powder on his lips eating away at his green tea ice cream. But it was funny! he even got his picture taken with us and asked us to write to him (he gave me his card). I walked away laughing a bit with no intention of doing so. For dinner we went to a revolving sushi bar. Joella is a little picky (understatement) with her food, but she did try some hamburger sushi (yes it is cooked)! then she had chicken nuggets... Kacy tried hotdog sushi! My friends are so adventurous!!! Kacy did try other things with that though. She tried kani-miso (a type of crab sushi that I like and tempura, which I also love.
The third day I took them to another place in Kyoto. Tiki met us there after he got off of work so and we were just looking around the shop areas at first. Kacy bought some souvenirs for people. We ate at a restaurant called Star where they specialize in oma-rice, which is an omlet wrapped around rice. Most of the time they just put ketchup on it but sometimes depending on what kind you get they have different sauces. Oma-rice is delicious except they sometimes put chopped up pig in the rice and I am not okay with that! After we ate we began our walk to Kiyomizu-dera (clear water temple). They were having a special light ceremony and are usually closed during the night but I got to take them to see it. Kiyomizu is surrounded by trees and is on a mountain so it was a bit of a hike but it was still a lot fo fun! There are a lot of shops along the way to the temple and Kacy bought herself a coinpurse and Joella bought some things for some of her friends. Because that was St. Patrick`s day we were going to go to karaoke afterwards but for some reason I was not feeling very well and we ended up just going back home when we were done.
Their fourth day I just showed them around my campus. We ate lunch in my cafeteria and then I took them to Japan`s version of Wal-Mart, Donki-hote. Donki-hote sells everything, including louis-vutton, and coach! After that I took them to a park near my house where the plum blossoms were and we rode our bikes around (Since Stacia and Heather went to Okinawa Kacy and Joella got to borrow their bikes). Afterwards I took them to an okinomiyaki place to eat. Okonomiyaki is kind of like Japan`s version of a pancake but it is not sweet. It has the flour in it but it also has vegetables and meat. After we ate we met up with Tiki for some more karaoke. We were there for 5 hours which was more that I thought we were there for. Time flew by a bit there! But it was a good day!
The Fifth and last full day I took them to another shrine (Temples are Buddhist. Shrines are Shinto and free of charge.). Fushimi-Inari is another place located on a mountain. I mean Japan is 80% mountain so it`s no surprise. I went there back in September and did not realize that I had only walked a fourth of the temple! We went up so many stairs and actually went up the entire mountain! It was a beautiful view of the city down below and also a great nature hike through the forest. The weather was beautiful and clear and had a great breeze so it made it a lot easier to go up all of the stairs. We were not going to but I saw a lot of old people walking down the stairs so I figured if they could do it so could we! And we did and afterwards I thought my legs were going to fall off... But it was worth it. It was a great time. For dinner I took them to a real Ramen place and then we met three of my friends at an amusement space to play sports and video games for a set price. We played badmitton, putt-putt, did the batting cages, b-ball, I rode a bull, did DDR, and a lot of other things. We ended up leaving early because we were so exhausted from our adventure earlier, plus Tiki wanted to stop by and say good-bye before they left the following day. So when we got back Tiki arrived and we spent the next hour and a half talking. Tiki left and not soon afterwards we fell asleep.
Friday was their last day, so I had to take them to the bus stop. We first stopped by the seven eleven so they could stock up on some Japanese snacks (melon bread) before they left. The bus ride was silent because we were still a little tired. They got to the airport and I got them situated and then we roamed around looking for places to spend their last bit of yen. Starbucks of course was a good place to go. I helped them buy their foods and then I had to make my way back to the bus. It was sad saying good-bye again but I had a lot of fun while they were here. It was great just laying on the floor talking until we fell asleep like we used to! It was a great visit and I am really glad that they came to see me. Being a translator was quite fun and it made me feel good about my japanese skills (which are no where near fluent).
Saturday Tiki graduated from College! I of course went with him, but Japanese graduations are A LOT different from American ones. There was no specific seating order and the only people allowed in the ceremony were the graduates. I not thinking that and Tiki not knowing that we went in and I sat next to him and then realized that I was NOT supposed to be there. But no one said anything to me whan I walked in and they handed me a pamphlet so I guess it was not too big of a deal, except for the fact that I was the only non-asian in the audience. But again no one said anything! When the ceremony began I was really surprised that not everyone stopped talking. People everywhere inthe the audience continued their conversations like there was no one on stage! I was upset because it made it harder for me to understand whwat was going on! There was too much background noise for me to concentrate on the speaker so I barely understood any of it! Tiki kept falling asleep so I kept poking him and telling him that he should pay attention to his graduation. It was CRAZY!!!! Afterwards he had to go and get his actaul diploma so I hung out outside and waited for him to come out so we could get free food! At 4 we had a big frisbee game which was fun but the field was taken over a bit by people playing soccer and pther people trying to take pictures for almost 2 hours! But when everything died down we were able to play a real game of frisbee and everything was great!
Yay! Congrats Grads!