I is/are Cherry Blossom Ninja! :)

Please do not hold it against me that I am writing this while half-asleep. I apologize for any incoherent statements I could and probably will make.

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous. The sakura were in full bloom so I went trapizing across the Kansai area to get fantabulous photos of Japan and its beautiful sakura.

Friday, April 4th - Osaka Castle

So, after Heather had pulled an all-nighter on a midterm, we decided that it would be a great idea for the two of us to go to Osaka Castle, dispite the fact that Heather had had absolutely no sleep and I'd gotten up extra early to talk to the family via internet. So, we catnapped on the way to Osaka, got off the train, and walked all the way to the castle from Kyobashi. We were rewarded by plum blossoms (still in bloom), and absolutely gorgeous cherry blossoms. We found our own tree to sit under and sat there chatting while we ate our "picnic" lunch, which was a bottle of soda each and some version of chocolate (we intended to eat dinner in Kyobashi). Then, we went into the actual castle area just as the sun was starting to set. We each paid the outrageous 600 yen to go to the top of the castle just to get a photo of the grounds and the fantastic cherry blossoms.

Then after sunset we slowly headed back towards the exit and found 1) sakura in light-up form (sakura with lights to show you the colors at night), 2) a neat little party of people eating under the trees and were able to sneak some photos, and 3) a most wonderous thing called candied strawberries. It's like candied apples, only its made of strawberries, which makes it immensely better.

For dinner we had pizza and toast covered with honey, chocolate, and ice-cream (we split one)

Saturday, April 5th

Saturday I woke up late. My original plan was to go to Fushimi-inari in the morning and then do homework in the evening. Such was not the case. Instead, I woke up late, skipped Fushimi-inari entirely, and instead of doing my homework, I went to meet Heather in Shijo, where I saw more cherry blossoms and where Heather made me climb to the top of the mountain so we could see Kyoto from Shorain-in temple (assuming I'm spelling it right). The overlook was situated on top of a platform that they'd made, but the trouble with the platform was that it was raised up in the air over the tree-line and the slightest wind would make it shake. It took me a while to get used to the shaking (for a while there I was certain I was going to die) and managed to take some photos. We also met an elderly Japanese couple who told us as much as they could about sakura and Kyoto. Most likely, the husband just wanted to practice talking in english, but Heather and I got the added benefit of speaking in Japanese for at least 30 minutes. I was shocked by how much I understood! (it's moments like this that make me love Japan)

After that, we walked back down the mountain in near darkness (the sun was gone by the time we reached the bottom) and ran into some fellow kansai gaidai students. After speaking with them, we chose to have dinner at the only acceptable place within the shijo area--indian food!!! And it was delicious, as it should be. :)

Sunday, April 6th

On Sunday, Heather and I managed to get up super early and took the train all the way out to Ise. It took us two and a half hours to get there. I entertained myself by reading the names of the stops and chuckling to myself over their english translation. We passed such places as "red eye mouth," "east blue mountain," "south blue mountain," and we would later go to Toba, which is literally "bird feathers."

Once we got to Ise, we rented bikes (they had a bike rental center!) and biked to the inner shrine, which is the bigger, older, and more grand of the two. I was duly unimpressed by the actual building, but the surrounding area was absolutely gorgeous. The only trouble was that Ise features a gorgeous river with some of the clearest water I've ever seen and the Tennesseean in me was screaming "TAKE SHOES OFF! GO WALK THE RIVER!" Trouble was, I was pretty sure the priests would kill me if I did that since no one else there dared to get in the river. I guess walking up rivers is a truly south US thing. Thus, I was sad.

But, I was made happy again by beautiful sakura, so all was good. After leaving the shrine, we went biking all around Ise in search of more beautiful sakura pictures. We found plenty. Then, at about 5 it was time to turn in our bikes and head for Toba, where we hoped to see the wedded rocks (one of the top three must-see sights of Japan). Unfortunately, we never found said rocks because when we got to Toba, we discovered that we had gone too far and that we would have to come back another day.

I slept through the ride home. First off, it was dark and there wasn't much to see. Second, I was so tired I didn't remember falling asleep. Third, I was that tired. Aside from that, the trip back home featured the wonderful experience that all visitors to Japan must inevitably face--the search for a western-style toilet. There wasn't one in Toba station, there wasn't one in Iseshi station, there wasn't one in umehommachi station, and there WAS one in namba station but it had no toilet paper. Allow me to explain something about Japan. The japanese style toilet is a hole in the ground, essentially. I'm not exactly sure how you use it. And I don't intend to find out how to use it. And I'm almost positive that it was invented by men. Such toilets are common in train stations and shrine bathrooms. They stink something horrible and in both places they do not supply you with toilet paper. This is why all free handouts you get from advertisements on the road include one of those little tissue things. It's not for your nose.

So, after FINALLY finding a western style toilet (albiet with no toilet paper and no paper-giving advertisement person in sight), we grabbed a cheap dinner at McDonalds and went home. There, I caught the last few minutes of Flight Plan (host sister's fault), took a shower, and went to bed at midnight, all without having written a single word on my paper due today.

And now I sit, paper completed but late, relaying the awesomeness that was my weekend to you. I is/are tired, but I is/are happy and I would not change a thing about my weekend. :)

G'night!