In Tokyo I have to thank my Chinese friend whom I met when we were both exchange students together in high school who let me stay with her the majority of the time I was there. Without her I could barely have imagined this trip. I miss her so much!!! She was so much fun to be around. I'm also really grateful to /r/tokyo (on Reddit) where I was able to find places to go and meet up with others for day trips around the city. I need to give special thanks to one of my dear American friends from my high school exchange who I got to meet up with in Tokyo and took me and my Chinese friend out to a bar where we met some absolutely side splitting hilarious and very drunk Japanese people. I'm also grateful for missing my train stop on my last day in Tokyo which allowed me to instead meet a really interesting and friendly American from Northampton who I then had fun together along with my other American friend who was studying abroad there. We got to do a lot of things that I just hadn't had time for earlier in my trip and for that I'm very grateful. Also for them putting up with me having to go to the Sumo district of Tokyo to find a poster for my little brother (accidentally got the wrong poster anyways! Hah!). And then I'm grateful to the Northampton girl's relative who invited me to his regular bar where his band was hosting an open mic night and I made a splendid fool of myself singing a song I barely knew on stage with her, but which allowed me to meet some other interesting Americans and Japanese people with whom I had great conversations with.
In Ito, Shizuoka I am most grateful to K's House where I stayed and who helped me with a map of places to go. I also met some very kind women at a honey shop near there who helped me pack my bursting bags. Haha. They were very friendly and served umai (delicious) honey ice cream cones. I'm also very grateful to the other travelers I met at K's House who enjoyed shochu, tea, Japanese sweets, and extremely late night conversations with me.
In Atami, Shizuoka, I made my best memories at a little Taiwanese tea shop (never expected to find one in Japan) where I met three very, very kind Japanese people and the very kind Taiwanese owner. We drank a bunch of delicious Tie Guan Yin and talked a lot about Japan, the US, and I found out in a Japanese fortune cookie that I'll have great health this year, but bad next, and one of the Japanese woman told me that my lucky color for the year would be orange and gave me a cute little doll bead phone charm (yellow, but we figured it was close enough to orange since that's the best she could find). She told me to name it and keep it as a friend, so I've named it Nanami. Then when I mentioned that I wanted to find a good hot spring in Atami (very famous for its hot springs) the woman was so kind that not only did she walk me to her favorite nearby hot spring, but when it looked like it was closed to anyone who wasn't a hotel guest that day she went in with me and asked at the front desk if they wouldn't mind making an exception for me and I got in! Such amazing kindness! I'm very grateful to all of them and hope to never forget them and send them something back from the US here soon since she gave me her address.
In Hakuba, Nagano, I'm very grateful to the local climate that gave the area at least 3 feet of beautiful powdery snow, and the hot spring over there that was open very late at night and had an out door bath where I soaked and watched the stars with snow all around me, pretty much one of the best experiences of my life. I'm also grateful to K's House there too, and to the very kind woman at the Tourism desk in the Nagano station who helped me find where the hot spring monkeys were! I'm also grateful to the very kind US military personnel there who were really friendly and fun to chat with. And of course, I'm grateful for the monkeys! They were amazing! Even though I got attacked by one, it was still awesome! (It only tried to steal my little brother's gift, which I managed to get back without too much damage, though a lot of cool scratches). And here's a video that I took of the monkeys!
In Kyoto, I'm again grateful to K's House, and to the bar right next to it's bartenders and the very interesting people I met there! I met one man who lived in Wazuka, Kyoto and had worked with the International Tea Farms Alliance there. That was a nice chatty night. And I'm also grateful to the woman at this one grocery store who let me use the employee restroom when I was in desperate need! Haha. They also had good daifuku there. There was a woman who helped me find an Internet Cafe so I could use the internet to get directions to a farther place since my phone died. I also was very appreciative of the help of the shop keepers at all the tea stores around Kyoto and at the antique stores there too who helped me find delicious tea and beautiful Kyoto teaware. They were also so kind and friendly!! And I'm very grateful to the people who helped me take pictures standing in front of things all over Kyoto.
In Kagoshima, I'm eternally grateful to my host family who was super kind once again to let me stay with them! I really miss them so much again already. I'm also very grateful to my host mother's older sister who's hobby is kimonos like mine is tea and helped me find a used kimono gallery where I found a gorgeous blue furisode to wear to the Seijinshiki (Coming of Age Ceremony) a few days later. And I'm also grateful to my old high school teachers over there who welcomed me back so warmly and gave me a delicious cake.
So many people to be thankful to! And of course, I couldn't have done it without everyone who helped me along in the first place, especially my high school Japanese teacher who gave me such a firm foundation in Japanese.
If you want any more elaborations on any of these stories, please let me know in the comments and I'll tell the story in another post. :) I didn't expect this to be so long, but I felt like this was an important thing for me to express. Like I mentioned, I really loved my time in Japan this winter. Every moment was an adventure and I made so many amazing memories.
皆さん、どうもありがとうございます。本当にこの旅行は楽しかったです。日本が大好き！！！
No comments:
Post a Comment