Fukui Trip

Hey everyone!
This week was so great! It started with Monday, I did a movie night with six other people. We went to Paranormal Activity 3 and it was freaking scary! The thing I first noticed was how the youngest daughter had a similar voice to McKayla, my niece, and so for the rest of the movie I was extra scared for some reason lol. Needless to say, an hour into the movie, I was clinging onto Norihiro's arm, the Japanese girl, Ako, next to me was slumped so low in her seat I don't think she could see, Louis and his girlfriend Ayari were bearing their faces in each other and Hiroki, a Japanese student, and his friend (who's name I could never remember!) were a little jumpy. Only Norihiro was calm the whole time . . . in fact he didn't jump once. The third movie is much more scary then the first two. Loud, dark theaters don't help with it being more scary either.
This week we had entrance exams at the college so I didn't have school Thursday or Friday. I did absolutely nothing those days . . . I sat around at home, read a book, studied a little Japanese, and all in all relaxed. I'm such a loser lol.
Saturday the school planned an overnight trip to the Fukui prefecture for the exchange students and invited up to 11 regular students to come along. Fukui is country side so I got to see bigger mountains. In fact the hotel we stayed at was in the mountains up a winding canyon so it kind of felt like being home. . . just more vibrant colors. We left Ibaraki around 9 AM and drove in a bus for about 3 hours. The weather was horrible and raining non stop so it was really cold. Our first stop was to Echizen Washi which is a place where you can make Japanese paper. So we each made paper which we sealed flowers in as well as visited a museum about traditional Japanese paper. It sounds kind of lame, I know, but it was really interesting.
Our next stop was Eiheiji Temple and, without a doubt, this is one of the most amazing places I've ever been. The temple is full of priests and priest trainees who are studying the art of Zen, specifically the Zen art of sitting still. The temple was absolutely gorgeous! Sadly, it was against the rules to take pictures of the priests but I wish you could see them! They are so peaceful and graceful it's amazing. When they walk past anyone they drop their gaze and bow as they go, very humbly excusing themselves for having to step between you. I watched three or four of them cleaning one of the rooms, they were mopping the ground with rags, and it was so graceful! It sounds stupid but it was true. They are so peaceful that they just flow, smooth, like water, not a care in the world, focusing only at the task at hand. The whole time I was in the Temple I thought of Tamirrah and Kendall. I really want them to see this place. It was so wonderful my soul felt healed and calm. The air was cool from the rain, quiet, and smelled of incense. The architecture on every inch of the grounds was like pure art. Details in everything! I took many pictures of it, they're all on Facebook.
When we got to the hotel we checked into our rooms and waited for dinner. I assumed it would be a basic meal, maybe noodles or something, but when I came down I was amazed to see an EXTREMELY traditional meal set. I had about ten dishes to myself, all of it with fish, 80% of it raw. Fukui is famous for being a fishing prefecture. So, I manned up, and ate a bunch of stuff that I had no idea what it was. I tried almost everything, at least a bite, with the exception of two things: The sushi of only fish eggs (sakana no tamago ga ichiban kirai!) and the fish that looked like it had the skin of Valcor the luck dragon from the Never Ending Story lol. It was too pretty looking to eat, I felt weird about it.
At the hotel they had onsen (public baths) and, yes, that's right, I did it! I got naked with at least 7 other girls and sat in an outdoor bath! It was so fun! The air on the outside of the water was freezing, it was still raining, and yet we got so warm. It was really funny to climb out of the tub though because we all went running inside, freezing cold. I think there's something to be said about having a bath with someone, you feel really close afterwards, seriously like family. I don't think boys bond quiet the same as girls though . . . Louis just told me who had a nice body of the boys lol. The rest of the night almost all of us, I think about 20 people in all came, hung out in one of the rooms, playing music, games, drinking, and smoking. I drank water and went to bed around midnight lol. I was told that most everyone else stayed up until around 2.
The next day we went to Tojinbo which is a famous cliffside against the ocean. The water slams so hard against the rocks and the wind is so strong. I found out later that not only is Tojinbo famous for the cliffs but it's famous as a suicide spot. . . less pretty now lol. Ooki chan told me, after I came home, this fact. I was so surprised that she laughed and said, "If you jump in, you're not coming out." Next we went to Maruoka Castle which is one of the most famous spots in Japan for viewing cherry blossom trees. Sadly, they are not in bloom so I missed that attraction, but the castle was cool. It originally was a dungeon so the inside was not at all appealing but the architecture on the outside is very pretty.
For lunch we went to Nihonkai Sakanamachi, which is a large fish market. There are hundreds of stalls set up with raw fish everywhere. I've never seen so much bright orange fish eggs before then in my life! Unfortunately, the weather was freezing so the last thing I wanted to do was be adventurous and eat sashimi (raw fish). So I ate udon and kept my hands on the bowl to warm up lol. I wish I could have brought fresh fish home for all of you but, sadly, I don't think they would keep from now until January.
Our last stop was to Konbukan, which is a type of sea week museum. It's a store that sells a lot of different types of sea weed or sea weed based food. They also have ice cream with sea weed as an ingredient. Because of my lack of adventure at the previous stop I gave it a try. I bought myself a soy sauce flavored ice cream with sea weed. It was so good! It was sweet, not salty like real soy sauce, and really tasty. I wish they would have sold it in containers because I would have brought some home for Ooki chan and Oniisan to try. After that, we took a long drive home which, to pass the time, the tour guide put on Lilo and Stitch for us, in Japanese. It was hilarious! That movie is already adorable. In Japanese, since I'm learning and can understand some of what they're saying, it's even more funny! The Japanese voice actor for Stitch mimicked the original actor really well, you could hardly tell a difference. After that I think I want to buy some Disney movies to take home and watch, in Japanese :) Maybe . . .
Anyways, things here are great. I'm really tired from a long trip and driving and very happy. This week I have two outings planned: Wednesday is a national holiday so no school. Norihiro and I are planning a trip to either Kyoto or Nara, not sure which on yet. This Saturday one of my language partners, Akane, invited me to come to Kyoto with her and some of her friends to see the Autumn leafs. So please look forward to some more pictures and fun stories.
I hope all is well at home. I love and miss you guys!