Watermelon Party

so this last week i was in Japan :)

japan was much more of a culture shock since no one spoke any english and it was much less westernized compared to hong kong.

first of all, getting from HK to Japan was a complete nightmare! the flight itself was only 4 hours but we flew into Narita, then had to carry all of our luggage (26 people x 2 bags x 50lbs/bag) through the airport to the express train into Tokyo then transfer at the tokyo station (which was not made for people w/ luggage!) to Kyoto. and after 17 hours we finally made it!

So on Friday we went to the Golden Pavillion and walked around an area called Gion.

Saturday was a lot of fun. We went to Shiga, which is the sister area for Michigan. We visited a Shigaraki pottery place and I got to show some creativity because they actually let us try to make some pottery :) The pottery was so beautiful and Shiga is very rural and untouched. Then we went to the Koga NINJA house. The Koga family was a ninja family for a few generations and the house has a ton of trap doors and hidden stairways and it was so fun. and I got to throw the ninja swords, and made the target 2/5 times.... which i think is impressive. Then we met some sumo wrestlers! they weren't wrestling since it is the off season but oh well.

the next day a few of us rented bikes and rode around Kyoto. We found a temple in one of the mountains that overlooked Kyoto and they sold grape fanta slushees :) yummo

we also saw 3 GEISHAS, which is pretty wild that it is still a part of their culture!

Our ride back was my favorite memory because we watched a group of 20 japanese students/adults have a watermelon party. One guy was blindfolded and was spun around and then had to find the watermelon on the group and smash it with a stick. they were so EXCITED when he finally hit it and they saw us watching and invited us to have watermelon with them. It was so cute because they were teaching us how to eat it and trying to describe not eating the black seeds. (i didn't have the heart to tell them we have watermelon in the states). And they wanted to take 1000 pictures of us, so funny!

Monday we went to Hikone and had a traditional tea ceremony (you need a lot of patience for this) and then went on a little boat cruise.

Tuesday we visited Hiroshima, which was definitely emotional and very hard to get through but interesting to learn from a Japanese viewpoint. Then we went to Miyajima island and saw the Itsukushima Shrine. The island was gorgeous and there were deer literally just walking around and one stuck his head in my purse and pulled out my Hiroshima brochure and ate it. cute :)

Then the last day me & kaitlynn got our feet done, after nonstop traveling for 5 weeks! we did some shopping in Kyoto, ate tempura & sake in Tokyo, then celebrated at the hotel with the group.

Overall, Japan was exhausting but a lot of fun

..... but i think i lost my heart to Hong Kong :) the best trip of my life. i can't wait to go back and i miss so much about the city and the asian culture already! i <3 HK