Miyajima, Japan and Midterms Week

Ruth went home shortly after the museum and eating dinner at a little italian cafe the size of my room, where I had the best damn pizza ever, and Heather and I stayed the night at Hiroshima Central Hotel. The room was very very tiny and we were certain we'd been put on the haunted floor but we survived the night and had a rather lovely breakfast the next day. From there, we went back to the station and took the train to the dock where we could take a ferry to Miyajima island, home of the famous torii (gate) in the ocean (one of Japan's top three must-see sights).

No one, and I repeat, no one prepared me for the fact that there were tame deer that were allowed to run free on the island. So, as we walked out of the station, I stopped mid-sentance in my conversation with Heather and just stared. And took pictures. Have I mentioned that I love deer? Especially tame ones?

Miyajima is absolutely beautiful. I could sit for hours on its sand near the shrine and just stare at the torii, the cranes, and all the little hermit crabs that hang out in the water. Not a beach to go barefoot in, but we did it anyway. It really made me miss the beach. I have decided to go to the beach next spring (it's too cold to do that now).

We went to the shrine (whose name I have forgotten) and the nearby buddhist temple, the Miyajima park, and hung around all day enjoying nature. We waited as long as we could for the tide to leave so we could walk out and get pictures of the torii. It was wonderful!

From there, we hurried back to ride the Shinkansen back to Shin-Osaka. We navigated back to Makino Station and then I went home. When I woke up on Monday, I felt so sick that I killed my alarm and neglected to go to school for the morning classes. I managed to get up for my 1pm class and by 5pm was dying because I felt so bad and so tired. So I went home and went directly to bed.

Tuesday was better (still felt miserable) because I managed to go to my morning classes. I had to--I had a midterm. In fact, I had a midterm every day this week except for Monday, all of which were in Japanese. When I was not at the university either having class or waiting for class, I was at home sleeping or studying.

So, when Friday came and went, and Ruth invited me to a party at Ages Cafe, of course I said yes. Her speaking partner (who works there) invited us for free food, conversation with japanese students, and cheap drinks. We thought from the word "cafe" that maybe there was coffee. Shows you how innocent we were. You can probably get alcohol with coffee IN it at Ages, but you're not drinking anything without liquor. Not that we were terribly disappointed--it's after midterms and Ages was small enough that it had a very warm atmosphere. It wasn't like going to a club, it was more like just hanging out with friends at a little diner that happens to have a bar. I really liked it because there weren't a whole lot of people there (we had plenty of room) and it was a fairly even mix of foreigners of Japanese. It's one of those little-known places in Hirakata so all the crazy gaijin haven't discovered it yet (thank god) and though there were drinks, most people weren't there to get drunk. The food was really good too and the manager invited us back for our birthdays for cheesecake! So, we're pretending my birthday is the 7th, not the 20th.

And now, because I have no plans this weekend, I came up to the university to use the computer lab. I'll probably see what Krissy or Heather are doing and see if maybe one of them wants to have dinner with me (because I can't just stay home--that would be too boring!)