一緒に旅行しましょう！　Let's Travel Together~

Greetings from Paris!!

2009-08-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

So Im doing my best to type this on a french keyboard... but let me tell you its very difficult. Internet is not easy to come by at a cheap price these days in Paris, and at a whopping 2 euros an hour, this is the best deal in town.

Just wanted to let you all know that Im not dead, and to apologize once more for not updating. I have not had any time to get on the internet... its been really crazy. I cant say when I will have time or if I will at all. I will probably just update all the pictures when I get back to the US on the 28 or 29.

I hope to be able to update soon, but if not, consider this one of my last posts on my trip. Sorry everyone!

Cheers!

Today's My Birthday...

2009-08-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

My 21 Birthday to be exact.

I'm in Barcelona, Spain, and I haven't consumed one drop of alcohol. There is something wrong with this picture.

Well, I have spent literally the last 24 hours on the train. Last night Kana and I took a night train from Milan to Dijon, France. From Dijon we went to Lyon and from there to Montpillier and then finally to Barcelona. So I am tired.

Just wanted to give a quick update since I haven't been able to the last few days... All of my hostels up until now have been charging for internet, or there simply was no time to jump on and type up a quick post. So here I am, nearly 2 in the morning, typing one up for you guys... Sorry, no pictures yet. I do have plenty to post, though. I will update this post when I get them uploaded.

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog! As I mentioned before, I changed my return date to the 28...

I will update again as soon as I can.

Cheers!

Soo... Update!

2009-08-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So its been a while since I've done an actual update, so I will start from our adventures in Switzerland, after leaving Germany.

We decided to do Switzerland kind of last-minute since we both really wanted to see it... So we went to Zurich and did some sight-seeing that Jannett recommended to us. Our first stop was the hostel, of course, which only had pay-internet... And it was a very nice hostel, which pissed me off. 1 Euro for every ten minutes... A total rip-off if you calculate the exchange rates. But we needed the internet to figure out the train times for our next destination: Prague. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Zurich was absolutely beautiful... Our first stop after the hostel was the university, which had a very awesome view of the city. We attempted to take pictures of ourselves but it kind of failed, I think... Well, you can be the judge of that!

We walked around for about two or three hours and then headed back to the hostel to get a recommendation for a restaurant... Of course, all they told us was, "Go to this street. There are a lot of restaurants," despite the fact that we had just come from there. So we hopped aboard the tram and went back, anyways... There were so many restaurants to choose from, including a lovely strip bar, but in the end we went with the Swiss-fondue restaurant with a bunch of pictures of cows. Actually it was a very fancy place, I think a bit on the pricey side... But hey, we had just spent 3 days in Germany without paying for a hostel and getting food for free from Jannett, so why the hell not? The food was very delicious at this restaurant... I'm very glad we went there.

The next morning we got up at 5:30 to get to our 7:15 train, where we would spend the next 11 hours or so on the train... This does not include the 1 hour layover in Munich. But we slept and met some cool people on the train, which made us happy. When we finally arrived in Prague, we were pretty exhausted and slightly frustrated when we couldn't find our hostel. I even called the reception and asked for directions, but it ended in him telling us to get a map of the city and look for the street name. Oh, and he also told us to ask the reception at the hilton, which was right next to the station exit we came out of. I was pretty irritated, given it was nearly 9 at night. We eventually found it and rejoiced. We moved into our room, room 10, and set up our beds and brushed our teeth and chatted with our new roommates, and... Well, there was a mix up, because there were not enough beds and too many people. As it turned out, we were supposed to be in room 12. The most the receptionist did for us was give us two free beers. Crappy Czech beer at that, in a can... Just a side note, I thought it was creepy that we got room 12 because the last 3 hostels before that gave us rooms 212, 12, and 212... And there we were in room 12 yet again. Isn't that creepy? I thought so...

So we got up the next day at about 8 AM, checked out and left our stuff there for the day. We walked around Prague with some people we met in the hostel... Prague is surprisingly small. But it was really cool. Almost as cool as Amsterdam. I think what made Prague awesome was the castle-cathedral thing. That was really REALLLY awesome. Lots of pictures, promise.

We ended up having about 2 hours to spare so we went to the grocery store and picked up some snacks for the train... I was really grateful that we did, too, because I was really hungry for some reason... Well, I guess massive amounts of walking can do that to you. The train ride from Prague to Vienna was almost 5 hours... We arrived in Vienna with only a phone number and an address to our next hostel. And my prepaid phone was out of minutes (its actually pretty expensive... argh), so we had to rely on a pay phone. As it turns out, there are several "main" train stations in Vienna, and we were at the wrong one in relation to our hostel. So we hopped on the #18 tram, suggested by the lovely information desk (who also supplied a free map, AFTER I purchased one for 4 Euros =\ )... And we met a guy from So Cal who was studying in Vienna and told us how to get to our hostel from the West Train station... And that we needed to be careful with the tram tickets (we did not purchase one, just hopped on since we couldn't find the ticket machine) since the employees check frequently and charge you 70 Euros if you are caught without a ticket. But luckily we made it, scotch-free. We really like the hostel here in Vienna... Its very nice and we get our own bathroom here in the room. Its like a luxury, having your own bathroom...

This morning I woke up at 10 AM. Oh, 10 AM how I love you... We left the hostel by 11 and made our first stop at a local cafe where we had some vienna coffee. It was pretty good, but I think my first choice will still have to be Kona coffee.... After that we walked around. A lot. We used a map a little but mostly just looked to where the giant steeples were on the cathedrals.... I think we visited like 4 or 5... I'm not sure, I lost count. The first one we went up to the top, but it was a bit pricey... 4.50 Euros just to go up there. But the view was awesome. We also took a tour of parliament, only 2 Euros thanks to our lovely student ID cards. That was pretty cool, as well... The architecture here is really gorgeous. I know that I will be coming back to Vienna... On a side note, one of the songs we heard in the hostel bar last night was "vienna waits for you," which I thought was both ironic and cool. No, I really don't have a choice in the matter (coming back to Vienna). This person, not giving me a choice... You know who you are!! =) (Vienna waits for you!) In the square near one of the cathedrals, the first one we went to, there were some interesting people... The first guy we noticed was a mime-type guy except he only made little squeaky noises, like a mouse... Me and Kana laughed at him a lot. Then there was the guy who was acting like a wind-up type doll thing with his violin. It was amazing that he could hold a pose for that long... That was pretty crazy. And of course he would start playing once you put some money into his little box-thing. And then there was the dancer guy painted like a silver robot. But you see those guys in San Fransisco all the time... Oh, and we also went into this really cool museum. I think its the old Palace, but I'm not sure... My favorite displays were the old instruments. I didn't listen to the explanations as much as the music samples. My favorite was track 300... I think the composer, or whatever, was named Robert Schumann or something... It was a piano song. I quite enjoyed it for the rest of the stay at the museum.

By the time we got back to the hostel it was about 7... We checked the train times for tomorrow morning and discovered the shortest trip to get to Venice is the train leaving from the station we arrived at, at 6:20 in the morning... Ugh. So naturally I'm staying up writing this blog for you guys since I feel bad about not giving you a real update in a while.

So, on to the pictures... I have to warn you, there are quite a lot of pictures. More than I expected... I've been doing the ghetto-photography by using my sunglasses as lense filters since they are poloriod and have color variation to make the picture look cool. You may have seen this in one or two of my pictures from Japan, but I have been going crazy since I came to Europe. So, I sincerely hope you enjoy them! I enjoyed taking them... =)

Here are the albums for August 7 - 10, in Germany and Swizterland, and August 11 -12 in Prague and Vienna. The latter has a ridiculous amount of pictures, so no complaining! =)

Headed to Venice tomorrow and then Rome! Woo!

This post should keep you guys good for the next couple of days, right? Well, it better... And now I'm going to bed since its midnight and I have to be up at 5. Ugh...

Cheers! (as they say in London...)

Photo albums

2009-08-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

Here are links to the photo albums for the last couple of days.... Well, last week actually but I haven't got July 27 - August 2 up yet. Soon, though...

Here is August 3 - 6, and the sex museum for those of you who don't mind seeing a little erotica.

I will edit this post later with July 27 album.

*EDIT*

Here is the album from July 27 - August 2. Sorry I didn't get it up sooner, but I had to upgrade my Picasa web albums account so that it would hold more than 1 GB of pictures. And I figured it would be worth it since I have filled that thing up so fast already, and since my first 3 days in Europe involved massive-amounts of picture taking... Yeah. Enjoy!

*/EDIT*

Hey Everyone! Hong Kong, London and Amsterdam!

2009-08-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to let you know that I'm not dead... Very well, in fact. Actually, I'm a bit irritated since I am posting this from the hostel computer rather than my own laptop... For some reason my wireless connection isn't working. I have a feeling its because I've been neglecting the window's updates, but since I can't connect to wireless I can't update... And the stupid assholes here won't let me directly connect to the internet. Tomorrow I will probably be able to do it, though, actually...

So here's a little recap of the last couple of days:

I arrived in Hong Kong on August 1 really freaking late at night... I barely missed the last airport shuttle to my hotel so I had to take a taxi. But since everything is bloody cheap in Hong Kong, my cab fare was no exception. Besides... I was very impressed with the view from the window of the taxi cab. Everything was so tall and lit up... And there was a lot of it. I knew Hong Kong had a lot of buildings, but I wasn't prepared for just how many there were exactly. I really wish I could post some pictures, but I think I will be able to post them tomorrow... So please be patient! For those of you who are facebook friends with me, I already have the pictures from Hong Kong posted.

Hong Kong in the day time was pretty interesting as well, I have to say... Everything was so incredibly cheap. For a meal I paid 32 Hong Kong Dollars, which is about 4 US dollars. For a plate of fried rice and two cups of tea. It was very delicious. I think my one regret is that I did not eat more of the food... But I chickened out for a good part of the day and didn't leave my hotel room. I was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer size of Hong Kong, and I was mesmerized by the view from my hotel room. Thanks to my good friend James from the Helpdesk for getting me a discounted rate at the Marriott! My room was on the 31 floor... I have some pretty fantastic night shots of Hong Kong that I can't wait to show everyone.

Since my flight to London was really early in the morning I decided to just stay up all night... I would have had to get up at 4 AM to be ready to leave at 5 and get to the airport at 6 for my 8 AM flight... Woo! And I knew it would be easier for me to sleep on the plane if I did that anyways. Sure enough, I was out before the plane even took off. And lucky for me I had an entire row to myself so I could sprawl out.

I arrived in London approximately 12 hours later, at about 2:30 PM London Time. I was a bit unsure of what to do once I got there, since Kana would already be there waiting for me... So I got my luggage and looked around for some sort of phone. I ended up buying a SIM card, which I later learned would not work in my phone anyways since it was locked, but I was able to use it for a prepaid I bought the next day. Anyways, Kana eventually found me and I met her friend Alex, who is going to be studying at her University this next year. He drove us around and took us back to his house, which is in FREAKING WIMBLEDON! We drove past the famous tennis courts and I was gawking the whole time... Then we drove for about 5 more minutes, on the same street, and pulled into this secluded driveway behind an automatic gate... There were two houses that were inside the gate. Both were part of his property. We went outside while he and his gorgeous greek girlfriend prepared dinner for us, along with something called Pips, or Pimps... its a traditional english summer drink. Its similar to sangria because you put fruits in it. And our first meal in London was sushi and this english drink. And wine. The house was really beautiful... Me and Kana totally scored, being able to stay in such a freaking awesome place like that...

The next day Alex took us to the station and we made our way to our hostel, dropped off our stuff, and then went to King's Cross to book our Eurostar tickets. We still had to pay for those, but we ended up getting a discount because of our Eurail passes. After that we ate some Italiano and explored London... Saw the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, London Eye, etc... I will post pictures soon! This morning we got up at about 6 so we could get to Kingsbury on time to catch our 8:30 train for Brussels and then head on over to Amsterdam. We are now in Amsterdam, and I have to say... This is a very beautiful town! I wasn't expecting this at all... I don't really know what I was expecting, but this definitely wasn't it. We are staying on the third floor of our hostel and the stairs are so freaking steep. It makes me glad that we are backpacking and not carrying around giant suitcases.

Anyhow, I just wanted to give you guys a brief summary of my last couple of days... Tomorrow we will head to Germany to stay with Kana's friend Jannett for a few days. I think we will make a brief stop in Switzerland, too, but its still up in the air. After that, we'll go to Prague and then to Vienna.

If any of you want to know my phone number for my prepaid cell, just send me an e-mail and I will respond to you as soon as I can with that.

By the way, I am going to change my flight from the 24 to the 28... I just need a couple of more days, I'm thinking. Plus Kana ended up booking her flight to leave the 28 anyways and I really wanted to leave at the same time as her. And since my ticket is flexible, it shouldn't be a problem. I will let you guys know more of the details when that time comes closer.

Toodles, everyone!

Just a Quick Post...

2009-07-29T23:43:00.000-07:00

So, someone who shall remain nameless (unless you want me to reveal your identity! But I'm guessing not since you sent this to me privately) sent me a short response to my last post that really moved me... I guess its something that we all know is true, but we tend to forget until someone points it out to us. And since this trip is about me getting to know a small part of the world, and a small part of myself, I feel that this in particular needs to be recognized. Please read it and know how true it is.

"The following was composed to go as a blog comment, then I realized I'd probably offend the worriers:

Worry is always a waste of energy. Work on removing it from your emotional vocabulary. Yes, plan for the future and prepare for what could go wrong... but don't waste precious resources WORRYING about it. Think about this -- what does worrying accomplish? Nothing. Not a single thing, except to make it impossible to enjoy the moment."

To the person who wrote this to me: Thank you, very much... You really have no idea how much this helped me today. I didn't realize it, but worry truly has held me back from enjoying many aspects of my trip... Its harder to let go of than I realized, but I think now that its been specifically shown to me I can work on it more effectively. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Truly.

Nicole

Almost to the end of Japan...

2009-07-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

So my trip to Japan is drawing to a close. I have 4 more nights, including tonight... I have had much free time on my hands since I've come to Tokyo, which means not very much to post... But I wanted to post anyways because I've got quite a bit of pictures from the last couple of days.

I almost forgot... How could I forget? A couple of days ago, I went to Disney Sea with Lyndsay and Lyndsay's friends Yan Yan and Cameron. That was a lot of fun... We looked like total Gaijin (foreigner)! Of course we did, we're all pale-white. Except Yan Yan, who is chinese, but she's American at heart and was just as bad as the rest of us. But it was a lot of fun.

I have been doing shopping, shopping, shopping the last couple of days... Lucky for me there are summer sales everywhere. I'm really happy about that... I think I have gone a little crazy, so I'm banning myself from buying anything else that is not needed or for just me. I think from here on out, for Japan, its going to be gifts and food. Which is fine... I got some really awesome new clothes, and thanks to kana, new shoes! They are sandals... So not so good for my travels, but that's what International Postal service is for, right? Woop.

Today I met up with Kana and we talked about our plans for Europe, and made some changes... So there is a chance I may extend my stay in Europe by a few days, but not to worry, I will keep you guys updated. Its feels very surreal that I'm doing this... I'm very excited, of course. But I love Japan so much that I don't want to leave! I know I will be coming back, though... I definitely will be coming back, probably to live here--and oh look a head and shoulders commercial is on TV. I quite enjoy the commercials here.

But back on track... To those of you who are extremely worried about me, please don't be! I will be travelling with a friend as soon as I get to London... In fact, for a good part of our Europe travels, we will be staying with friends and what not. Plus I feel that I have proved myself over in the travelling department... I mean, it doesn't get much more foreign than Japan, right? =)

So again, I apologize for my lack of good posts lately... I have been horribly lazy. I think my next post will be pictures of my purchased clothing. I'm really excited about it...

In the mean time, here is a link to the album with the (somewhat) new pictures.

And I apologize for my extreme picture-happiness in parts of the Disneyland portion... Yeah. Anyhow, I'm going to the Konbini (Convenience store) to get some Onigiri... Bye!

Okayama, Part Two

2009-07-23T01:41:00.000-07:00

As many of you already know, I am still in Okayama... Only until tomorrow, unfortunately, but I'm looking forward to doing some shopping in Tokyo and hanging out with Lyndsay in Disneyland... =D

So I arrived in Okayama on the 20... I already told you guys about my first night, so I will start from the 21.

I had to get up a little early, but not compared to when I was staying in Tenri.. I think I got up at about 8:30 and snoozed until 9. Ayumi and I left at about 9:30 or 9:45 and headed for Okadai, or the Okayama Daigaku College Campus. It was raining REALLY hard that day... Ayumi had to do interview practice for about an hour, so I wandered around the campus and took some pictures.

From July 21 - 22

This campus is one of the places that I could be studying abroad at next year, so... It made me really happy that I could come see it before I apply. So far I have seen part of Waseda Daigaku and Aoyama Gakuin Daigaku. For sure Okayama is the biggest... And there were lots and lots of bicycles. It was pretty cool... Ayumi mentioned that it doesn't normally rain in Okayama, so I guess I'm pretty lucky, huh? My shoes were completely soaked, along with my jeans all the way up to my knees, just from walking around. I even had my umbrella, but it was pretty pointless after a while. Even with all the rain, it was still bloody hot! Yay for being on a giant island in the middle of the ocean.

After we left the campus we went back to Ayumi's house to change clothes and then headed back out to do some shopping and meet Kaori, an exchange student from last year, at the station and hang out. It was really nice to see her again! We had a really good time... We did some Puri-Kura, or Print Club pictures... Here is one of them.

From July 21 - 22

After that we went to this really cool store called Loft... Its like Target on steroids. I LOVED IT. Then we picked up Naoko and went out for some dinner at this really cool restaurant... Of course, I think most of the restaurants here are super cool. And really DERICIOUS.

From July 21 - 22

Ayumi is on the left, Kaori in the middle, and Naoko on the right.

=)

Yesterday Ayumi's parents took me and Ayumi to this cave... It was about two hours away by car. The cave was pretty cool, but I think that the U.S. might have some better caves... Oh well, now I can say that I have seen a cave in Japan!!

I DID bring my camera with me on that trip... I even brought extra batteries. However, I forgot my memory card... Luckily, Japanese are always equipped with cameras and LOVE taking pictures of everything, so there is definitely not a lack of pictures for the trip. Not to mention I took some pictures with my phone.

From July 21 - 22

There were some crazy-narrow parts of the cave... And some crazy short parts as well. It wasn't a very long walkthrough but good GOD there were a lot of stairs...

Since its been raining a lot, the waterfall was pretty big too...

From July 21 - 22

I don't know if any of you know this, but there was a Solar Eclipse yesterday that was visible here in Japan, for the first time in 50 years. After we emerged from the cave we walked around the shops... It was pretty deserted, but luckily some of the shop owners came out with the eye-film thingies so we could see the eclipse without hurting our eyes.

Here is a picture I took with my camera... Its not a very good picture, but its a picture nonetheless! That was really cool. I thought we weren't going to be able to see it since it was so cloudy that day, but we got really lucky.

From July 21 - 22

On the drive back we stopped at this other waterfall and this really good Soba restaurant... Ayumi's parents treated me to EVERYTHING... It was so nice. They were very welcoming and her mother was very very sweet... She wouldn't let me pay for anything. I'm really glad that I was able to give them a present for letting me stay with them. She really wants me to study abroad at Okayama University so I can come see her.

After we got back I took a rest... And Ayumi's mom made the most amazing dinner. She always makes sooo much food. I really want to stay with her and her family again! It was so much fun. =)

After dinner Ayumi and I went out to Karaoke with some of her friends... That was a lot of fun. They all gave compliments to me and my ability to sing japanese songs. Yay! I guess my practicing has paid off. We went around 8:30 and didn't leave until about 11:15 or so... From there I stayed at Naoko's place. I will post more of my stay here at Okayama next time.

Thanks to everyone who has been patient with me and my lack of updating for several days at a time! I have been trying, but lately I have been really lazy. Until next time!

Here is the link to this post's album.

Nicole

Tenri, Nara, and some Okayama for you

2009-07-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

I guess I will start from the beginning: July 17.

I arrived in Tenri City around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. My good friend Lewis and the head minister picked me up and brought me back to the church where I stayed for three nights. I dropped some stuff off and then Lewis and I took off on bicycles towards the main shrine for my grand tour of Tenri.

From July 17 - 20

The shrine was very beautiful... And freaking huge. Lewis' dad gave me a book on Tenrikyo, and it has some pictures of the inside of the shrine. I'm pretty happy about that considering cameras were not allowed inside at all. Overall, it was a very interesting experience, and I'm pretty happy that I got to see and be a part of it. I have no intentions of converting per se, however, I realized that just because I do not want to join a religion doesn't mean that I can't learn about it and participate in some of the rituals. Being worldly means being open to new things... No matter how strange they may be at first. I really would like to learn more about Tenrikyo, and I feel bad that I was unable to participate in some of the activities planned.

But alas, I had already made plans to hang out with Lyndsay in Kyoto and Nara for the day on Saturday.

From July 17 - 20

We made it to the top of the shrine... My second time making that particular hike, but since Inari Shrine is my new favorite place I didn't mind it so much, no matter how much I was sweating... You can see it in my hair. I wasn't even wearing a hat like Lyndsay was. That was pretty crazy, let me tell you. And there wasn't even the hot photographer guy there this time! I was sad. And I was scared crapless of the giant wasps around there. Spiders? No problem. Bees? NO. I know, I'm a bit strange... But we already knew this.

After the Inari Shrine we headed into Nara to check out the deer and Todaiji Temple, which houses the largest wooden Buddha statue in Japan (possibly the world, but I'm unsure of that...). I had been there once before, but there was some things I did not get to do, like crawl through the hole in the pillar, which is the size of one of the nostrils on the Buddha statue. My fat ass made it through, barely! There is proof in my photo album... Lyndsay stood by and took a video.

We didn't get much time because I had to hurry back to Tenri for dinner... Which I was like 45 minutes late, but Oku-san (means, literally, WIFE, but that's what we called her... head lady or something) waited for me and ate with me. She was very sweet... We talked a bit, and I found out that she lived in the Congo in Africa for 5 years when she was little and that she used to speak french. People have such cool stories. Soon after, I rode to the main shrine and attended the evening service with Lewis. I guess I forgot to mention that I had to get up at 6 every morning to attend the 6:30 service at the church I was staying at... The morning service at the main shrine started at 5:15. No. Just, no. First off, its at least a 15 minute bike ride to the shrine... Which means I would have to get up at 4:15 to wake myself up enough to get my lazy ass on the bike and head down there. Who knows if I would have fallen asleep while riding that thing... Anyways.

I got back a bit late because I ended up staying for this speech thing about Tenrikyo. It was pretty interesting, but it was a bit distracting since I had to listen to an interpreter since the speech was done in Japanese. I got back to the church at 10:15, hurried and took a bath... Then gossiped a bit with the girls in my room. The older girl is dating Lewis's twin brother so I got to hear some funny things about the family.

... And we forgot to turn on the A/C that night, and close the window.

Well, all the bugs came in and I was bit to death. I think I only slept about 3 hours that night. Lewis's dad was merciful and let me sleep some more after the service and breakfast before we headed out to Osaka for some shopping.

I was so happy when we ate Takoyaki! I don't have any pictures of that, because I was so utterly exhausted even still... I did get some other fun pictures, but Picasa is being annoying right now and taking forever to upload the rest of my pictures, hence the lack of pictures in this post. Sorry everyone! I will give you thel link so you can check it out yourself. I think the rest of this will be text only.

Anyhow, Sunday night was my last night... I hung out with Lewis briefly before the service and went to that with him. I tried to see if I could watch the intrument practice, but they said "NO!" because its pretty exclusively for people in the group that he is in... Plus there are no women allowed for that particular event. So I shrugged it off and biked back to the church... In the rain. Woo! I looked utterly awesome when I got back... But I was kind of happy because the rain made my skirt stop riding up my legs while biking. Sorry Japanese men, no American peep show for you!

So this morning I got up early, again, but left the church by around 8 this morning... Overall it was a really great experience but I think I was happy to leave because I felt so very much out of my comfort zone. I felt like I disappointed Lewis's dad a lot since I didn't really participate in the things he had planned... But I did attend every morning and evening service, and attempted to do the hand movements and dances and what not.

So I arrived in Okayama around 11 this morning and was greeted by Ayumi and her 'sister' at the train station... Her sister was actually her mother, but damn she looked young enough to fit the part. She was very sweet and excited to meet me. I was excited as well but so very tired. They took me to this restaurant that Ayumi used to work at... oh my god it was so good. Its a mix of French and Japanese food... Holy crap, I can't even describe how good it was. Plus since Ayumi knew the owner and the chef, we recieved special treatment and some special added bonuses to our meal... That was the best ice cream I have ever had. And peach soup...?! Well, it was more like a smoothie that you ate out of a bowl and with a spoon, but it was really good.

After the restaurant we went to this really old part of town with Ayumi's neighbor... Went to an art museum. That was really cool. I wish I could show you the pictures right now but AUGH STUPID PICASA.

There were a lot of really cool shops in that old part of town... I really enjoyed it. Ayumi's mom kept wanting me to use the umbrella because of my cold (which is almost gone, save for some flegm), despite the fact that it is hotter than a damn sauna, even with the rain. haha But she insisted so I took it... I finally bought my own umbrella. Well, it was only 200 yen so why the hell not?

We returned back to Ayumi's house and her mother made this AMAZING dinner and we drank some of the Umeshu I was unable to send back to the US... Mmmm, that was good. There was this show on TV about parents sending their 3-4 year old children on errands for them. It was really adorable.

OH and before I forget, I saw a REAL retarded person in Tenri yesterday... He was walking down the street and said, "KONNICHIWA" and kept walking. He was walking all funky, like he had disfigured knees and legs, and he was horribly buck-toothed... And he was wearing very colorful clothes. I wanted to laugh, but I managed to contain myself. I know, I'm going to Hell. But in Tenri, I don't think they believe in Hell... So whatever. =)

This post is getting too long and I'm tired, so to bed I shall go. Okayama is really awesome... Or rather, Ayumi and her family are really awesome.

'Til next time!

Oh, and here is the link to the album.

Another Apology Post...

2009-07-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, so I just wanted to let you know yet AGAIN that I will not be able to make a huge post tonight, but hopefully tomorrow night I will be able to do so. I have been staying in Tenri City with my friend Lewis... Well, partly with Lewis. I have had quite the Anthropological experience in the last few days, and I really can't wait to tell everyone about it.

In short, Tenri is a city inhabited by people who follow a religion called Tenrikyo. So I have been learning about that and participating as much as I can. Basically, this time is when people from all over the world gather at the main shrine, known as the Jiba, which is where they believe people were first created... So its a bit crazy. I really wish I could have taken pictures and/or video of some of the rituals but, alas, no cameras allowed.

Anyhow, I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not dead... Just been busy. And Sym, I'm recovering quite well. Lewis did some healing prayers for me as well. =) When in Rome, right?

Tomorrow I am going to Okayama for a few days and then its back up to Tokyo for about a week.

More details/pictures tomorrow!

P.S. Sorry, no link to any photos this time... Not really much time to upload. But I do have quite a few from the last couple of days. Well, maybe not... hah. But I hope you enjoy them when they do get posted!

HIroshima! Or rather, my lack of travels in Hiroshima

2009-07-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Hiroshima yesterday afternoon, fairly early actually. I arrived at my hostel with no troubles at all, although because it was only 2 PM I had to wait an hour to check in. I really like this place, for several reasons; the main reason being that they do NOT have a curfew like my hostel in Kyoto did. I understand the reasoning behind the curfew, but its very limiting when you are in a city with a thriving night life. Ahem, anyhow.

This is my room, with my bed at the far end.

The last couple of days I have had a tickle in my throat. I was not successful at warding it off before it could get any worse, however, because I spent almost the entire day today inside resting. But I will come back to that in a moment. Yesterday, around 5 I decided to ask the receptionist where the nearest drug store was and which brand of cold medicine to get. He showed me on the map... It was fairly easy to get to, and only about a 15 minute walk. I didn't mind it so much because Hiroshima has been extremely cool compared to Kyoto's face-melting weather. It was such a nice change that I actually wore my jeans. So I got the medicine and came back to my hostel. Unfortunately, I could not yet take the medicine because I had to eat first... Well, darn it if I don't get hungry every couple of hours. I mean, I AM a living organism that requires a certain type of fuel to keep going. My fuel of choice that night was a Yakiniku restaurant with my Australian roommates. They did not speak ANY japanese. But lucky for them, I speak some. This is getting to be a pattern, don't you think? People are always surprised when I understand what they are saying, or some of what they are saying, and am able to respond with a somewhat comprehensible answer.

I just realized that I am boring you with useless details. Oh well, you'll have to live with it. =)

ANYHOW, after we got back I met the fourth roommate, a really cool chick from London. I ended up going out for a second dinner with her. We had a grand-old time at this awesome Okonomiyaki place. On the way there, a guy on a bicycle stopped to say hello to us. He then said, "you are beautiful!" so I thanked him. And then he said, "I love you!" and at that point the crosswalk had turned green so we high-tailed it out of there, giggling it up. Have I mentioned how much I love Japan?

As I mentioned briefly earlier, I ended up staying in most of today. Which really bummed me out because I so desperately wanted to go to Miyajima and see the "floating" gate, and, well, all of the other stuff on Miyajima island as well. But woe is me, for when I went outside to look for food, I could tell immediately that my body needed at least today to rest. Of course it picks the day I'm in Hiroshima... By the way, I thought of something horribly cheesy. The cold I have was picked up from a Swiss girl I was rooming with in Nagoya... So, I have acquired... *Drum Roll*

The SWISS FLU!!

I thought it was pretty clever, anyways.

I finally was feeling better around six, and so I left the hostel and headed over to Peace Park. Its close, and there's plenty of good eatin's nearby. So coming here wasn't a complete waste... I stood on very historical ground today. Well, I have done that a few times since I got here. Bah, you get me.

This statue really got to me... Being on the grounds conjured up these emotions. I think that I can't help but feel sorry about the atomic bombs... I mean, I know that I had nothing to do with it personally, but when you are standing in the very spot that it happened, well... I can't really describe it. Its just these feelings that I get.

This is the Atomic Bomb dome. I think its the only building left in Hiroshima that survived the bomb.

This is what it used to look like, and obviously what it looks like now...

In the album for this post, there are pictures of the english descriptions so you can read what I read and learned what I learned about Hiroshima, if you'd like. I'm not going to post it because I feel so incredibly exhausted... I think my body just needs to rest more. I still have so much ahead of me and I want to keep going. But I know that I shouldn't ignore my body. If I don't take care of myself, especially now, it will only get worse and I will miss out on even more.

Sorry for the feelings of ADD in this post... I'm tired and I wanted to give you guys at least SOMETHING... There will be more interesting things to post in a few days, so don't worry. But this particular post had to be written because I feel it is important that people know what happened. Sure, there's a lot of good history in Japan, but there is also a lot of painful history. I can't ignore this, especially since it is the doing of my own country. You have to take the good and the bad.

I really would love to come back here... There is so much I have to see still. But then, there is much I have yet to see in pretty much all of the cities I have been to here in Japan. So, here I shall end today's post.

Nicole

Kyoto!

2009-07-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

Words cannot describe just how much I love Kyoto. Despite it being unbearably hot and humid, no, seriously it can melt your face off your skull, I do love this place. When I arrived at the station (the ride from Nagoya was probably a half hour, TOPS), I felt very much at home. I knew my way around, for the most part, and I had no trouble finding my hostel at all. As it turns out, the hostel I am staying at is the sister hostel to the one I stayed at last summer. And the receptionist was the same guy, too. I told him I recognized him, but I didn't expect the same of him. I think he tried... He said something about my eyes, but I told him it was okay. He's a funny guy. I didn't get any pictures of the first night here, but I was so happy to finally have my internet back that I didn't much care at that point about taking pictures. I am such a nerd. (Scott: TEE-HEE!)

I suppose it shouldn't surprise the lot of you that there are quite a bit of pictures in this batch... There would have been more but yesterday my battery died and then today, when using my other camera, the memory card filled up. Not to worry, though, I still have PLENTY of pictures to go around.

Yesterday morning, I had no idea what I wanted to do... I knew I wanted to go to that one place with all of the red gates. My previous-night's roommate ended up following me because he didn't know what he wanted to do either. In a miraculous turn of events, I ended up meeting up with the awesome Canadian chick at the station and the three of us headed out together. The place we went to, with all the red gates, is called Inari shrine. I think that is my new favorite place in Kyoto... My god, that places is HUGE. And we didn't realize just how many STAIRS there were... I mean, Jesus there are a lot of stairs. We ended up going halfway up the freaking mountain, and there were still even MORE stairs after we stopped. But we ate at this really cool little restaurant at the top and enjoyed some green tea ice cream. My camera died just as we reached the top... Stupid camera! But not to worry, I will be returning there with Lyndsay on Saturday.

From July 13 - 14

For those of you who are wondering, a pretty memorable scene from Memoirs of a Geisha was shot at this shrine... The part where the little girl is running through all the gates after giving the money as an offering for prayer to see the chairman again. I'm pretty sure I've been to all the Japan locations shown in that movie now. =)

I was particularly happy because there was this really cute Japanese photographer guy that kept crossing paths with us... He was nice to look at.

From July 13 - 14

This is the only picture I managed to get of him... =(

Such is life.

After we returned from Inari shrine we went into Gion and saw some pretty cool preparetions for the Gion Matsuri...

From July 13 - 14

We ate at this really good shabu shabu place. We ate SO MUCH MEAT. Good god, we at a lot... I'm not exaggerating, we probably ate like 7 plates of meat between the three of us. We were hungry, though, and it was damn good.

So, TODAY... Me and Emilie, the Canadian were on our own... So we decided to go to the Atamariyama (I think this is horribly horribly wrong but we'll call it that for now) and check out what was there... Mainly, we wanted to go to the monkey park and see the bamboo forest. So that's what we did.

From July 13 - 14

For 100 yen you could feed the monkeys through the chainlink fences. This was at the very top, though... So more hiking. My god, today was so miserable in terms of the weather... It was unbearably humid, but we pressed onward. We saw the monkeys! We could pretty much walk freely among them with no gates. If you wanted to feed them, however, you had to stay inside the building. Which was fine... The building was air-conditioned and offered iced drinks for a small price. And you could still see outside... It was quite an amazing view, too. =)

From July 13 - 14

After the monkey park we headed to the bamboo forest... This was pretty cool, though it was a bit small. And there were SO MANY MOSQUITOS. Luckily, I have ointment and salve that helps with the bites.

From July 13 - 14

After that we were pretty beat... So we went back to the hostel and chillaxed for just a bit and then went out for dinner. We ate at this cool Okonomiyaki place and had ice cold beer... Beer never tasted so good, let me tell you. The Japanese people sitting near us were impressed with my Japanese skills, even though I didn't use it much during the time we were at the restaurant. I over heard them saying in Japanese that I was good at Japanese... I wanted to look over and tell them thank you, but I figured I would spare them the embarassment since they made some comments about us a few times during dinner that were pretty funny. I made the same, likewise, since I could understand some of what they were talking about. So I left the restaurant without giving those other Japanese even the slightest hint that I heard them. But I was still pretty happy that they said that about me. =) Yay!

I've been working on memorizing the lyrics to this Japanese song so I can sing it in Karaoke... Its pretty difficult, but I think I can do it. That is my final goal for Japan! I haven't done Karaoke yet, but I'm still trying to fight off this stupid cold.. Bah. Well, I think I will be okay.

Anyhow, I think I'm annoying my roommates with the typing sounds, so I should go to bed now... Gotta head to Hiroshima tomorrow!

Until next time,

Nicole

PS - Here is the link to this post's photo album. You can also get to it from the side bar on the right, under 'PICTURES!'

The REAL post for Nagoya

2009-07-14T07:25:00.001-07:00

Okay, since many of you complained about not being able to view the pictures I put up in my preview post, I'm hoping that this post will remedy that. It will also be more in-depth. I hope.

Okay, now to dig through my memory of four days ago... So much has happened, its kind of difficult to do that right now, so bear with me.

So I left Fukuoka late Friday morning and arrived at Nagoya in the afternoon. Actually the train ride wasn't too long... I think it was about three hours total, which was an incredibly nice change from the seven hour trip from Tokyo to Beppu. Or even the four hour one-way train ride from Beppu to Nagasaki. Nonetheless, it was nice and short. I was a bit concerned, however, since my hostel did not provide very detailed directions to their location from the website. It was basically, "take bus #(some bus number I dont remember) from Midway. Okay, where the hell is Midway? WHAT the hell is midway? It did not say which direction from the station, either. But I figured it was in front of some part of the station, and so when I saw the giant spiral outside I figured that was it.

From July 10 - 12

Luckily, I was right-on. Though I did not discover this Midway until I crossed the large street and went to the right... Oh look, MIDWAY... A giant department store building with really expensive brands... Of course. I walked a bit further and finally found a bus stop. Great, dandy... Oh look, a bus was coming and I could sit for at least five minutes... So I got on the bus and got off at the stop recommended by the website. It was a short bus ride, so it was kind of a waste of money. Oh well. The next part on the directions were, "now walk for three minutes." ... Walk for three minutes... IN WHAT DIRECTION? I finally got irritated and gave them a call (thank god for cell phones...). Unfortunately, the woman did not speak a word of English. And there was no one there who could. So, I had to rely on my broken Japanese. I finally handed the phone off to a random person and asked them to help me. I was able to get in the right direction, but eventually I had to call the desk clerk back and ask her where the hell to go from there... She asked me if I saw a 7-11. YES!! I saw one. She said, "Go there, I will pick you up." Finally... So I arrived at my hostel in one piece. The building was a bit... Well, unpersonal. It truly was a giant concrete building inside and out. The only difference was in the actual rooms, where tatami mats were placed and a nice table sat in the middle of the room.

From July 10 - 12

There was no internet save for a crappy 15-minutes for 100 yen computer in the lobby, which shut off from midnight until 6 AM. There was also a curfew at 11. And one public bath, well two technically with the different sexes and all. But that closed at 10.

But I ended up meeting some pretty cool people there... We all gathered in the laundry room one night. Had some good conversation... I met a Swiss girl that I ended up walking around with a bit on the first night, and got some cool pictures of Nagoya city at night... I also met a cool canadian that I ended up hanging out with in Kyoto (will post in later post).

Saturday morning I met Lyndsay at the station, and we took the Shinkansen into Tokyo, about a two hour ride.

From July 10 - 12

Our first stop was in Akihabara... Lewis took forever meeting us, so we didn't really get to do a whole lot... GOD Lewis you're so slow! haha, just kidding. Anyhow, our first stop was in an infamous Maid Cafe... I have to say, that is definitely one of the more wierd experiences in my life. When I get ahold of that picture, I will post it up here. Basically, these waitress-maids treat you like Kings, or queens... They call you husband, if you are male. For females, I don't really remember... Their japanese was so formal I could barely understand a word they were saying to me. Whenever we would recieve a drink or our meal, we would do this little cutsey hand movement to make it taste good. One of Lyndsay's friends got an omelette... The maid drew a cat on the omelette with catsup. Yeah, so wierd... Then they did a whole-restaurant participation thing that involved more cutsey hand movements and yelling, "food, become delicious!" in japanese.

The food was so-so, but those kinds of places are hot spots for crazy nerdy Japanese guys who could only dream of getting a cute girl to pay attention to them.

Our next stop was a giant toy store... I didn't take much pictures, and at that point I was pretty exhausted. Lyndsay and her friends from her summer abroad program went to Odaiba to see the giant gundam... I believe the pictures from my experience there are in my first post. I stayed with Lewis for a bit. We ate at this cafe because I needed to sit down... So I had some cake and some fruity drink. It was nice to sit in air-conditioned rooms... Then we went to Roppongi for about 20 minutes before I had to head back to Tokyo station to meet Lyndsay. Well, I never did get to meet up with her since Tokyo station is goddamn ginormous. So we ended up taking seperate trains back... And we met in Okazaki the next day before I was to head to Kyoto.

From July 10 - 12

Yes, we went to a Denny's. Yes, they have Denny's in Japan.. Crazy, right? The facility Lyndsay is staying at allowed us to borrow bicycles and ride around. That was pretty cool, except mine had a loose seat and sub-par breaks... Oh, and NO GEARS! Thoe hills were a bitch without gears, let me tell you... And on a rickity old bike, its scary as hell going down hill on those narrow sidwalks, when they even exist. But it was still really fun to get to hang out with her and a new friend, Yoko, at a leisurly pace. By the way, Yoko looks 18, right? Well she's actually 23!! Those crazy Japanese...

I awesomely booked last-minute at my hostel in Kyoto, where I had to change rooms each night I stayed here due to the fact that I am just THAT awesome. But I made it to Kyoto safe and sound and with a place to rest my head for the night.

Nagoya post: END.

A Preview Post for Nagoya!

2009-07-12T08:56:00.000-07:00

So I have been unable to post anything new the past couple of days due to the fact that my hostel in Nagoya offered only really crappy coin-operated internet for a whopping 100 yen for 15 minutes. Plus it was so slow that all I could really do was check my e-mail.

So this picture is of my hostel in Fukuoka. Its the same company as the one I stayed at in Beppu... They are pretty nice and have good prices, so I would definitely recommend staying at any one of their branches.

This is the view from Nagoya station when you come out the Sakura-dori side... Nagoya was pretty big, respectably compared to the places I've been staying at lately.

Me and Lyndsay on the Shinkansen~

The pretty good-sized parfait we ordered. It was DERICIOUS! lol

Anyways, I just wanted to give you guys a bit of an update... I'm tired and incredibly lazy right now to post anything more in-depth. I will post more tomorrow, I promise! Plus I just arrived in Kyoto today, so I know I will have sooo much to post... I will probably have to do it in two seperate ones. Thanks for being so patient with me!

Oh, yeah... And I think all this traveling is takings its toll finally, since I developed a bit of a sore throat this evening. First thing in the morning I will gargle some salt water and drink some hot green tea.

In the mean time, take a look at the pictures I took. =)

Until tomorrow, everyone... Happy Monday here in Japan! And to those of you in the states, have a happy Sunday. =)

P.S. I just got the pictures from the people I was hanging out with in Beppu. They are added to that respective album, the July 6-8 album. So please check them out! =)

Fukuoka Preview EDIT FINAL!

2009-07-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So since I am totally exhausted right now, I will simply give you a preview of what is to come...

If I could describe today in just one word, that word would be AMAZING.

But for now I will just leave it at that because I'm lazy. =) Just wanted to whet your appetite for this particular post...

Here is the link to the photo album. I'll post the story soon!!

*EDIT!*

So I will now describe my Thursday to you all.

It started out with me waking up at about 8:30 in the morning... I was given a map the previous night by the hostel staff. So I took a quick glance at it, and put it into my bag... Or so I thought. Turns out I didn't really stuff it into my bag, but instead threw it in the lockers they provide for us. Oh, well... Maps are for people who are lost. I was not lost... In order to be lost, you have to know where you want to go, right?

So I made my way to the station. The station is always a good starting point. From there I walked around, looking at the signs. I eventually saw the sign for Tenjin... My good friend Noriko is from around Fukuoka and she had suggested that I go there for shopping. So I started walking in that direction. I walked for quite a bit... It was a really nice day. I found this temple across the street so I went there.

From July 9

That was a pretty cool place, but I soon found that I was being eaten alive by giant mutant mosquitos. And dammit, of course I left my repellent back at the hostel... Along with my sunscreen. As it turns out, yesterday was quite sunny. And my shoulders became quite lobster-esque.

So I quickly took some nice pictures of the shrine and bolted out of there. Luckily, I had this salve stuff on me that seemed to help tremendously with the moquito bites. And later it helped a bit with the sunburn.... Oh, multi-purpose salve, how I love you...

I finally made my way into Tenjin where the buildings were very tall and the people were many. I passed by some really cool markets with fresh fish and fruit. I didn't take any pictures of that because I would have felt really awkward. Of course, I am a white person in the heart of an asian country....

I found this tiny little restaurant and ate there. All they were serving was salmon, which was fine with me. It was pretty cheap, and cool and quiet inside. I walked a little further into Tenjin and decided to get on the subway. From the subway I found my way to a local park... A very big park at that. So I sat on a bench for a while and pondered life, wrote down some thoughts in my little notebook... Its amazing the things you discover in a random park in another country.

It was quite nice, though, actually, except for the massive sunburn I got on my shoulders and part of my back. I know, I'm really stupid... But, if I hadn't gotten sunburned then I wouldn't have met Miwako-san and Mayuko-san!

Miwako was an older lady who started talking to me because she was concerned about the sunburn I got. So we started talking on this bench in the middle of the park... She spoke very little english, mind you. My handy-dandy electronic dictionary had never seen so much use since I bought it a year ago. I was very grateful for it. So she invited me back to her apartment and gave me really good fruit and applejuice and we talked about many many things... Or we tried to anyways. =) After that, we decided to go out for dinner and her daughter, Mayuko, met up with us. It was short, but we had a really fun time. I exchanged addresses with Miwako, so we are now pen-pals I guess... It made me really happy that I made friends in such a strange way. Miwako refused to let me pay my portion of dinner, and then she took me all the way back to my hostel. On the front steps, she handed me an envelope and told me to wait until I was inside to open it. I thanked her many times and went inside... The envelope contained 3,000 Yen, or about $30. Thank you Miwako!

From July 9

Miwako is the older lady and Mayuko is her daughter, the younger one. We had such a great time, and I was really happy to meet them... I hope I get to see them again!

Well its about time for me to check out of my hostel.... Hopefully I have something as interesting to write about again soon. =)

Nicole

Beppu and Nagasaki

2009-07-08T02:34:00.000-07:00

Hello my faithful readers!

Here are some pictures from my stay in Beppu, Oita. I arrived in Beppu on Sunday night. On Monday I went to a hotspring with some fellow travelers from Japan. They were very nice and drove me around in their rental car. =) After the hot springs we drove up the mountain to this really cool shop and I ended up buying really REALLY good Umeshu, or plum wine, that I was going to ship back to the US. As I found out this morning, you cannot ship Liquor to the US from another country. Stupid customs laws!! So I ended up shipping it to my friend Ayumi since I didn't feel like carrying it around. I actually bought another one for my good friend Jake.. His 21 birthday was Tuesday... So I will drink his present for him and then give him the empty bottle and tell him how good it was. =) Sorry, Jake!

Above is a lovely shot of Beppu. It was actually sunny that day.. Yay!

Here are the decorations for the TANBATA *EDIT* I think its actually TANABATA... */EDIT* festival.. It comes around once a year. Basically, you write your wish on the piece of paper and its supposed to come true.

Here is some VERY delicious Udon... The noodles were hand-rolled by the shop owner. He was kind of a quiet guy... But damn that udon was sooo good.

And here is a really cool shot of Beppu from the coast. It looks like a post card, doesn't it?

Later on Monday we met up with some people at the local university and went out for food and drinks. It was really cool meeting new people... They all spoke english, too. It was nice, but it also made me very lazy to speak japanese. I learned that they ended up having an entire week off due to a couple cases of the swine flu turning up. I'm not worried, though... I woudn't have met them if it wasn't for that! =) I didn't take any pictures of them with my camera, but I will get pictures from my friends that I met in Beppu soon.

From July 6 - 8

This is a picture from the train ride on the way to Nagasaki. I had asked a few people how long it took to get to Nagasaki, and they said it should take about two hours. Well... Actually it took four hours. haha. Well, I decided to go anyways since I was already on the train. I left Beppu around 9:30 and got to Nagasaki around 2 in the afternoon. I just walked around a bit... Ate some lunch and went to the culture museum. Not much was available in English, which was fine... The people at the museum asked me if I would like an audio tape but I declined and told them that I just wanted to look.

From July 6 - 8

Here is a cool shrine I found on the way to the museum... I climbed up the stairs and there was a really cool view of the city. Too bad it was really overcast that day.

From July 6 - 8

There be the view... And before you ask me, NO I did not go to Peace park or the atomic bomb site. I didn't get a chance... Those places were kind of far from the station and I wanted to stay within walking distance. I did find out about Nagasaki's history from the lady at the museum... Well, a little of it anyways. She was trying to explain to me that it started out very small and grew much larger... Then people from Holland (the Dutch? Man, I'm stupid) came and began trading with them for a long time. They brought Christianity and said, "No, you cannot worship Buddha you wierd ASIANS!" So there is quite a bit of Christian influence there. But of course Buddhism came from the Chinese, so there was much influence from them long before Holland came. She said that the Chinese stopped coming for like 300 years or some crazy amount of time like that. I think sometime before or during the trading with Holland, almost all of Nagasaki burned down. Those poor people from Nagasaki... haha.

I really wish I could have taken picures of some of the art there, though. Especially the dishes... Man, they were really beautiful.

From July 6 - 8

This is the outside of the museum. I went through two parts on the second floor... The first part you did not have to remove your shoes. The second part you did. I watched this really cool 12 minute 3D film. I didn't understand ANY of it, but it was still fun to watch. There were these little girls sitting in the front row goofing off... It reminded me of when I was their age and doing the same thing. =) They seemed disinterested in the museum but I think they will come to appreciate what it has to offer some day. After the film was over, I walked through a traditional-style series of rooms with tatami mats and paper walls and doors. There were some items on display, but I was mostly interested in the architecture. It is so simple yet so incredibly beautiful. I definitely want to live in a place like that some day.

I think the real reason why I went to Nagasaki was because I wanted to see what it looked like and how the people look there. Its been over fifty years now since the bombs dropped, but I'm just really curious... I didn't really see anything out of the ordinary. I did see some older folks that were unnaturally hunched over, but then I think I saw other older folks like that in other parts of Japan, too. Maybe some of them were using those wierd crutches. Anyways, I really would like to go back to Nagasaki. It seems like there is quite a bit to do there that I missed out on. Oh, well. As I said last summer, and am saying now, this will definitely not be my last trip to Japan.

From July 6 - 8

Here is a random picture of some sunflowers that I saw in the station from where I was sitting on the train. =)

The rest of the pictures from the last couple of days can be found in this album.

Some day I will get around to adding captions to the pictures so you guys can get a better idea of why I took that particular picture... Some day. I am so lazy. =) I'm hoping to get some more pictures of me and friends up, but it seems that all of them are taken with other people's cameras... I will get ahold of those pictures some day. And then I will post them for everyone to see!

Well, I think that this post is definitely long enough. I hope you enjoyed hearing about my last couple of days. Please tell me which you prefer: longer posts or shorter posts. Thanks everyone!

Nicole

More Tokyo and the Shinkansen

2009-07-06T02:13:00.000-07:00

Okay so here are some pictures from Saturday and Sunday. Sorry I haven't posted really anything in a few days... Traveling around tends to tire me out and makes me very lazy to write updates. But I have some free time right now since Beppu City is really laid back... Its pretty much just full of Onsen, or hot springs. But this post shows mostly Tokyo pictures and the train ride down to Kyushu.

This picture is of the temple in Asakusa prefecture in Tokyo. This was actually fairly close to my hostel, so going there at night was easy. This was on Saturday... I was going to meet up with Kana and Tomo and Meg's friend Georgia but somehow it just didn't happen. So I was stuck hanging out with Tomo all day. lol

This next shot is also at Asakusa, right next to the big temple above. They were just so beautiful at night... I couldn't resist taking a picture of this guy either.

This is the platform I waited at... Maybe about 15 minutes for the Shinkansen, or Bullet Train, down to Kyushu. I had to transfer twice. The first time at Shin Osaka and the second time at Kokura, which is just right inside of Kyushu. If you look at a map of Japan, you will notice there are four main parts.. Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. There is also a tiny island pretty far south of Kyushu called Okinawa. While it is considered Japan, I think the people living there don't really consider themselves Japanese. Anyways, here is a map of Japan... If you follow the green line from Tokyo, you will see just how far I travelled. However, instead of following it to Fukuoka like the map does, just go south from Kokura and you will see Beppu, right next to Oita. **I found the map on Google... It not be mine!

Its been particularly overcast since I got here... This is supposed to be the rainy season I'm told. Today (Monday) was the first day it was sunny for me. But as you can see, it is very green in Southern Japan... Very beautiful. It reminds me of Hilo a little bit, but much much bigger.

I really wish that this stupid Picasa program would allow me to upload more pictures directly... It makes it very easy to post pictures into blogs but unfortunately it only lets me show so many pictures. I will have to figure this out better, I think. Until I do, here is a link to the photo album these pictures are from.

I do have a lot of pictures from today (Monday) that I will post soon.

OH, I do have a rather cute story from yesterday's train ride... I was waiting at Shin Osaka for my transfer, and there was a family that was also waiting. The little girl... I think she was probably 3 or 4 years old, kept staring at me... So I smiled. She smiled back and kept hiding behind her mother. So I would smile and wave, and she would smile and hide again. Her mother then says to me, in english, "She thinks you are her," and points to the picture the little girl is holding--a picture of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I got a bit of a fat head. =D Hehe. It was only a minute later when we were able to board the train, so I waved to her and said goodbye and she waved back.

Beppu is a really beautiful place. Some of the buildings are ugly but the natural area around it is very beautiful. I'm quite enjoying myself... A very different feeling from Tokyo life.

Until next time!

別府に着いたよ～　I have arrived in Beppu City!

2009-07-05T03:29:00.000-07:00

Hey, everyone... I can't do a lengthy post as of right now, but I just wanted to say that I have arrived in Beppu City. I just made friends with some Japanese travelers from Hokkaido (northern japan) and they don't yet know that I can understand some Japanese... So we'll see what happens. =D I am evil. Hehe.

I'll post soon!!

OH MY GOD ACTUAL PICTURES!! =D

2009-07-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Soooo... This is the giant life-sized gundam in Odaiba prefecture.

And this is me standing quite a ways away from it.

This is my friend Taka... He was a good sport and took me around. Thanks Taka!

A lovely shot of the Ferris Wheel we were on in Odaiba.

I was trying to upload more pictures to the actual blog, but for some reason it wouldn't let me. I did sync all of them to the online album so you should be able to view all of them from this link.

Yesterday was a lot of fun, though I was completely exhausted by the time 9 rolled around. I think I crashed by like 9:30 and woke up at 4:45 this morning. Then I said "hell no" and went back to sleep for another 2 hours. Came down to the lounge at 7 and here I am writing this post. I am in desperate need of a shower due to the fact that I sleep on the top bunk and someone did not turn on the A/C last night. Sweaty and what not. Time to go shower and get ready for the day! I think I am going to meet up with Kana and Tomo today. =D Its going to be fun.

Toodles!

P.S. Here is a video of me riding robo-panda. =D

From Friday July 3

Second post today...

2009-07-02T05:09:00.001-07:00

So I have retired for the day quite early. Well, compared to last night anyways. And I haven't been drinking.

But its been a really good day. I got my cell phone activated. If you need to reach me for ANY reason while I am in Japan, you can e-mail me on my cell phone or call me.

*EDIT* I did have my number and e-mail up, but I woke up this morning to find someone had e-mailed me a lovely picture of a penis. So since this is a public blog, I won't be posting any more of this personal information... You will have to e-mail me and ask me for it. =D Some people may enjoy a random stranger's morning wood, but I do not. */EDIT*

Today wasn't super eventful... I just hung out with Tomo. It was really nice to see him again. I got my hair cut at the salon he goes to a lot, too. I will have to post pictures... I've been really bad about that, I know... Sorry! I've been horribly lazy today. I'm so tired! That's what I get for drinking after a long day of travel without eating. I know, I'm stupid. But I learned my lesson. Anyhow, I'm gonna go ahead and end this post early since nothing particularly eventful happened today.

Until next time...

The ever-so anticipated FIRST POST of my first night back in Japan!

2009-07-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Long title, I know...

So, I'm just going to go through a play-by-play of yesterday... I can't wrap my head around the time changes or even fathom how long I was actually awake yesterday (two days ago?) but I will damn sure try!

So I boarded the plane at SFO at around 12 noon on Tuesday, June 30. The flight turned out to be about 11 hours long... Which wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the dying baby that was screaming an earth-shattering wail for 10 minute increments at a time... I'm going to go ahead and say that, realistically, the baby probably did this at least 5 out of the 11 hours. But, on the bright side, I was bumped up to Economy Plus for free... Dunno why, but I'm guessing its because I was there right after they opened up the check-in counter. Well, I was technically there before... but yeah.

This is going to gross some of you out, but its become an interesting event for me... I have to poop a lot more since coming here. And they are like 10 inches a piece! Holy shit is all I have to say to that. hah

OH and I started my period on the plane... THANK YOU, STUPID HORMONES.

So I finally arrive in Narita International Airport... Where I have a really retarded time starting out on the train into the city. I'm sure the station attendants were like, "Oh my god, we've told this girl what to do like 5 times already... Is she retarded?" Well, I felt retarded. I was actually making pretty good, time though... Until I got to the station near the location of my hostel. I had pretty good directions from the website, but I didn't know which direction to go from the station. So I asked the attendant if he spoke english and he smiled and said, "Ehhh..." So I had to do my best in Japanese. I don't think I did too bad, either. He got the idea of where I wanted to go, so I thanked him and went on my way.

According to the website, it is about a 10 minute walk from the station... Well I think I walked around for the better part of two hours. I was sweating, I was tired... I couldn't find a damn pay phone, and my knee was starting to hurt. Well, turns out that when the road forks, you take the left side not the right. Once I turned back and did this, I found my hostel with no problems. God, I'm retarded. By the time I left to go meet up with Kana, it was already almost 7... I told her I would meet her AT 7. So I shot her a quick e-mail and wrote down her phone number just in case and headed back out the door. I didn't have time to shower so I was still sweaty and disgusting. Blegh.

So I got lost around Shibuya station... I was feeling bad because I told her 7:30 and it was definitely almost 8. I finally found a damn payphone and fed it 200 yen.. Probably too much, but oh well. I managed to dial with no problems and she picked up. I described my location to her and said I would wait near the starbucks... I wasn't even to the starbucks yet and I see her and we scream and hug and the works. =D

After that we started walking to our original meeting spot... Only to find she had bought along some surprise guests. There was Tomo, Sari, and two others that I had not met but was happy to do so, despite my exhaustion. Then we went to the bar where I had 4 ice cold glasses of Kirin and got rather drunk and made an ass of myself... Tomo rode with me to the last station he could because he wanted to make sure I didn't miss my train or get lost. I nearly puked all over the sidewalk, but I held. Oh, and I discovered that I can use a squatting toilet while drunk. Thank GOD those had toilet paper. So the lesson of the night is: don't drink a lot after 11 hour plane rides and getting lost. I'm a bit hungover this morning, even though I woke up at 6 AM. Stupid jet lag...

All I have to say is, thank god for no curfew at my hostel. And also, I'm sorry to my dorm mates that I have yet to meet for being so noisy... I tried not to be, but when you are drunk you are going to be noisy. No doubt about that.

I'm going to meet Tomo around noon today to activate my cell phone... Which reminds me!

I'm terribly sorry to all of you that I didn't call or text when I said I would... I found that this was impossible. I updated my twitter on this blog in a hurry last night to go meet up with Kana. I hope all of you saw that.

No pictures, yet... There were pictures taken last night but not with my camera. I'm sure I will get ahold of them soon, though!

I'll update again soon.

Nicole

A quick post from SFO

2009-06-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!!

So I'm writing up a quick post from my seat here in San Fransisco International Airport, Gate G101 in the International Terminal... I will be boarding ANA flight NH0007. I'm sitting in seat 18K, which is a window seat... I checked in pretty much right after the ticket counter opened so I think I got a pretty good seat. I have a neck pillow... I'm charging up my iPod, and I have a couple of books to keep me busy. I'm also going to be writing down the interesting places suggested by my Europe travel book so I can ship it back to the US in a few days... I can't carry that thing around. Its too damn heavy and bulky. I think there will be quite a bit that I'm shipping back. Even with all of my consolidation and downsizing I have just too much stuff right now. Oh, well. You live and learn, right?

So my flight leaves in about 2 hours... boarding in an hour and a half. And I paid 8 bucks to use their stupid internet. That's one thing I like about Sacramento's Airport... Free WiFi. Oh well, I really needed to touch bases with my Japan people. =D

Anyways, this post shall end now... Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm here and that I'm going... So excited! Still a bit jitery, too, from the coffee.

And this is a lovely picture of me and my friend Noriko from the International Show, all dressed up in our Yukata. Yay!

A more concrete schedule (Japan)

2009-06-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so today I have been figuring out my Japan schedule. I have attempted to contact the people I will hopefully be staying with... The good news is that most of the people who I will be staying with outside of Tokyo have responded and told me when they are free.

So, here goes:

July 1-5:
Arrive and stay in Tokyo, at the bAKpAK Tokyo Hostel.

July 5-10:
Head down south to the Kyushu. I'm gonna explore a bit down there, so I'm not 100% sure where I will be staying. There are some cool looking Onsen, or hot springs, down there that I want to check out. Nagasaki is also located in Kyushu.

July 10-12:
I will be in Okazaki for the weekend visiting Lyndsay. =3 Well, hopefully if she's not busy that weekend... She said weekends were best to visit her, so I think it will be fine. Especially since she's just leaving for Japan today.

July 12-17:
I think I'm gonna hang out in Kyoto for this time period. I'm still unsure, but there are several places nearby that I can visit from Kyoto. Plus I want to take time to explore some of the temples for myself rather than being led on a tour all day, like I did last summer.

July 17-20:
I will be in Tenri City, which is in the Nara prefecture. A good friend of mine, Lewis, will be there doing things for his church, but I will get to hang out and stay in the dorms for super cheap. =) Thanks Lewis and family!

July 20- (? probably the 26)
From Tenri city I will shoot over to Okayama and visit my Okayama buddies in and around the surrounding area. I will be visiting the Okayama University campus, as well as my good friends Naoko, Noriko and Ayumi! =)

July 26-August 1:
I will be back in Tokyo... I don't know what exactly I will be doing, but I was thinking of taking a trip to Mt. Fuji since its only about an hour away by train (or so I'm told).

I'm slightly annoyed that I was only able to purchase a 21-day JR train pass, but... Such is life. It will be useful while I'm there.

This trip is getting closer... Only six more days until I leave! I'm really excited, but it hasn't really sunk in for me just yet. I've been so busy between finishing up finals, planning, and going to work, I guess its just not hitting me. I don't think it will hit me until I step on the plane. In the mean time, I've been insanely jealous from reading Shalley's Blog of her adventures in Italy... She seems like she's having a wonderful time.

Tonight I am hanging out with friends, and tomorrow I will be going rafting.

Friday, I will head down to Sacramento... =)

Since I didn't have any pictures in this post, I will post one of my favorites from last summer's trip to Japan (I STILL use it as my desktop background...)

From 一緒に旅行しましょう！　Let's Travel Together~

I'll post again soon! =)

Nicole

An Update!

2009-06-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, so its been a little while since my last post... I've been quite busy between work and planning and visiting with people before I leave.

This last weekend I went down to Chico to visit with Brandon and Sym and the kiddos, since my original schedule did not work out for next weekend (they were going to be out of town). I really enjoyed seeing them once more before I am to depart on my two-month long journey. Another reason I went down was to obtain the ever-so-awesome Sari silk wraps, at a very good price I might add. So here are the ones I chose...

From 6/22/09

So this one is actually for my friend Kana... She is the one who will be traveling with me to Europe. Her birthday is July 16th so I figured I would get her a birthday present. =)

From 6/22/09

So these are 3 of the 5 I chose for myself. Looking at them, its kind of hard to tell where one ends and another begins... I love that. The top two are about the same length, 28", while the bottom one (the awesome red one) is 22".

From 6/22/09

Alright, so out of these 3, I actually owned the top one before. I bought that one in Hilo... Its definitely the longest of all of them (and was the most expensive).

So of all the Sari wraps pictured here, I will be leaving two behind. They are both longer and significantly heavier than the rest. What I really love about them is they are multi-functional. Depending on the length, you can wear it as a shirt or a dress or just a skirt... And they didn't take up much room in my pack, actually.

I will probably experiment more with packing throughout the week and into the weekend, but I would say that this first real try was a success.

From 6/22/09

Pictured above is about 95% of the things I will be putting in my pack (just about everything from one of my previous posts)... I fit all of it in there, including the 4 bags of Kona coffee (not pictured) for lovely people who are letting me stay with them , and another present I found for Tomo a while back. It was quite a snug fit for all of it, but I know I could squeeze some more things in there if I need to.

To give you guys a good idea of just how big this pack is, and just how LIGHT it feels... Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

From 6/22/09

As you can see, I'm kneeling a little bit (self-timer on the camera... wasn't sure if my head would get cut off). And as you can also see, the damn thing is about as big as I am. And since my stupid scale wouldn't register it when I put just the pack on, I had to use another method that required math. I put the pack on and stood on the scale and subtracted my weight from the total weight of the pack and me.

The verdict? Surprisingly good. The pack only weighs about 24 pounds, give or take. This is really good news... I guess things were very light but took up a little more space. I know the pack can hold up to 48 liters, so I think I will be safe.

By the way, in case some of you are wondering (not sure if I put this in any previous posts), the pack I am sporting on this trip is an Osprey Kestrel 48.

I think this is it for now... I will be sure to post the list of hostels I booked probably tomorrow morning, since this one is getting lengthy.

Until next time...

My Stuff...

2009-06-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

So, as promised, here are the pictures of the things I will be taking with me on my journey.

Here is my backpack... I have talked to several avid backpackers and they all agree that this was worth the extra money. Not to mention I will use it in the future for REAL camping!! Plus, if I am going to be walking around Europe I want a good strong backpack that will be comfortable... And I think it will be hard to pick-pocket me with this thing on. Especially with the little travel locks I bought.

So, this picture has the following things...

Backpack
JR pass
Laptop/Camera/iPod/cables
Toiletry bag
Makeup bag
Laundry items (detergent, traveling clothes line, laundry bag, etc.)
Sunscreen/Aloe
Security Wallet
Deflatable space bags (no vacuum required!)
Cotton sheet sleeping bag liner
Fast-drying travel towel
The Red Cross first aid travel kit (neosporin added)
Sewing kit
Bandana/handkerchief
Mini travel journal for notes on the go
Mini LED flashlight (no batteries required)
No DEET bug spray
Chapstick/travel deoderant/disposable venus razors (the crappy ones gave me the worst cut ever!)
Shower flip flops
Neck pillow for the plane ride (thanks Sym/Sym's mom!)
Japanese Grammar dictionary (Will put in my electronic one for words later)
4 TSA-approved luggage locks (all can be opened by the same key)
1 pink breast cancer locker-lock (I have heard many hostels provide lockers but not locks)
And of course, my Passport

There are a couple of other things that I have not pictured here, like the costume fundies bag that I will be using as a day pack/carry on.

Pretty self-explanatory... Its hard to take pictures of myself with the timer when you can't see what you're aiming at... Stupid shelf.

And this is what it looks like when its packed up (though no actual clothes yet...) I will do some different techniques. All I really know right now is that the heavy stuff needs to be in the very center against your back with the light stuff all around it. I put it on and walked around the house and front yard with it on, and its surprisingly very comfortable and doesn't seem heavy at all. Hopefully it will stay that way once I have everything inside of it. Also, you can see that the entire thing is pretty reflective... So I won't have to worry about cars! =)

As for my list of things to do... I pretty much still have to do all of it. In my defense things have been crazy with graduation! I don't want to say bye to all my friends... =( So they will come first.

Until next time...

Nicole

Finals, they be over.

2009-06-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I am finally done with finals... Finally, finals are finally final. Okay, I'm done now.

Anyhow, just thought I would give some updates to my preparations for my trip.

First off, I have purchased my JR pass and got it in the mail. I was a little irritated because the only shipping options they gave me were Fed-Ex two day shipping or Fed-Ex next day shipping. Clearly I didn't need either, but I chose the cheaper one and figured it was better to be safe than sorry with such expensive documents. I still have yet to book more hostels, or purchase my Eurail pass... But hey, I've had a good excuse. I will start doing more preparations tomorrow when I have a bit more free time in the afternoon. Today I am working until 5, and I am seeing off many people that are either graduating or abroad for next year. I'm sad to see them go... But for all you Hawaii people, I will definitely see you again.

As far as health-related issues goes, I have been getting some things done in that department as well. About two months ago I started going back to counseling (its free, so what the heck). And then about 3 weeks ago or so I did some nice acrobatics on my bike and landed with a concussion and some scrapes and bruises. So I had to go get a CT scan--doctor's orders. Everything's good. Later that week I had to go back to the health center for a tetanus booster shot, since I haven't had one in about 9-10 years and they wanted me to make sure the cuts I got wouldn't get infected and yada yada. If you know me, you know how much I hate shots. But I sucked it up and got one, and lived with a dead left arm for about two days. But I figured it was a good idea since I'm going to Europe and all... The next health-related thing that I did, and I haven't told many people because I didn't want it to be needlessly made into a huge deal, was getting a mole biopsy on my back. I was going to tell people that it came back as cancerous but then I figured that would be such a cruel joke and I would actually feel bad... So I'm telling everyone now that EVERYTHING IS AWESOME. Okay? No worries. I have lots of sunscreen for my trip this summer, too.

Now that you've gotten through a few walls of text, I will say that I sadly do not have pictures, yet, of my stuff that I'm bringing, but I will soon! I'm thinking tomorrow after I have cleaned my room up a bit. Its gotten messy, again... Oh well, at least I make an effort to keep it clean when I'm not super busy with finals. Which, I'm not anymore... Although I have to write a self-reflective essay and e-mail it to my writing prof. before 5 PM tomorrow... Eh, I'm lazy. I will do it a little later.

So, a list of the things I have to do now are:

Book more Japan hostels
Book Europe hostels
Book Hong Kong hostel
Purchase Eurail pass
Contact the people who are offering places for me to stay in Japan, again
Call my credit card company to tell them I will be out of the country
Set up pin-number for my credit card, just in case
Contact my Europe travel buddy... Kana!! We need to talk about Europe more! Time is of the essence~
Fix up the fundies bag that Kay is lending to me for my carry on/day bag
Make photocopies of all important travel documents and give them to Kana, keep one in my room in Oregon, give to Tanya, e-mail to Mom, keep a set on my person... I think that will be good.
Keep all important travel documents together (Train passes, passport, reservations, etc)
Purchase a phrase book for Europe
Purchase a travel book for Europe
Go through the stuff I already have and double-check the list of supplies that I need

I think that's it for now... If anyone has anything to add, please respond in a comment to this post!

Thanks. =)

Test-run for Picture posts

2009-06-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

So here are a few pictures from my Japan trip last year... I wanted to make a test post with these to see how the picture posting worked.

A garden behind a beautiful Kyoto shrine... Some of you might recognize this from the Memoirs of a Geisha movie. =)

This is Asakusa... An awesome place.

***Oh, yes... And to comment on any of my posts, just click the "comment" link on the right-hand side under each post. Please leave your name so I know who commented! =)

29 days and counting down

2009-06-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

There are about 29 days as of today until I depart for my two month journey around the world--literally. I have been taking extra precaution in looking up information about what to do and where I should go as I have decided to backpack the entire way (before I was going to bring a suitcase to Japan but this is going to be a huge hassle and I will wind up paying a crap load of money to send it back via UPS or whatever it is in Japan).

I have yet to purchase my train passes... There's really no excuse for the Eurail pass not being purchased yet, but as for the JR (Japan Railway) pass, I'm waiting until the exchange rate is more in my favor.

So a tentative schedule of my trip, which only includes departure and arrival dates in Japan, Hong Kong and Europe are:

June 26: Leave Ashland for Sacramento. Make a one night stop in Chico to see Brandon, Sym, Arthur and Colette~
Arrive Sacramento June 27th. I know that Lyndsay and Shalley will already be gone on their awesome trips, but I will see Lyndsay in Japan at some point, so that will be awesome... Shalley will be in Italy, but she will be gone before I get there. =( See you guys at the end of August!!

June 30: Leave San Fransisco International Airport for Japan around 12 PM Pacific time.
July 1: Arrive at Narita International Airport around 3 PM Japan time. This should be about 11 PM Pacific Time.

August 1: Leave Haneda International Airport around 8:30 PM Japan time.
August 2: Arrive in Hong Kong about 12 AM (so a four-hour flight, roughly). As a side note--to all you worry warts, I will have my hostel booked and they will know of my late arrival. There are shuttles that run very late and the ride from the airport to the hostel will be no more than one hour. I have done my research!!

August 3: Leave Hong Kong International around 8:30 AM
Same day: Arrive London Heathrow around 2:35 PM.

August 24: Depart London Heathrow International Airport around 1 PM.
Same day: Arrive Chicago O'Hare around 3:25 PM, mountain time. Depart at 5 PM.
Same day again: Arrive at San Fransisco International around 7:20 PM Pacific time.

To those who are planning to pick me up on this lovely August evening, I will be sure to e-mail you the official itenerary so that you can see the flight numbers and what not.

I don't have an official plan for Japan yet, but I will be in Tokyo from July 1 until July 5. I will then head south until probably about the 20th, or so. This is currently very tentative and quite undecided, except for the first Tokyo part... I already booked my hostel. Appropriately, the name of the hostel is called Bakpak hostel, located in between the Asakusa, Ueno and Akihabara districts. Its about an hour and a half train ride from Narita International Airport.

The Hong Kong schedule will be very short since I really only have one full day there.

The Europe Schedule, tentative of course, goes as follows:
Arrive London.
London -> Belgium.
Belgium -> Netherlands (Amsterdam, YEAH!!)
Netherlands -> Germany
Germany -> Czech Republic (Yay, Prague!)
Czech -> Austria (to please a certain someone--you know who you are!! =) )
Austria -> Croatia
Croatia -> Greece
Greece -> Italy
Italy -> Spain
Spain -> France
France -> England (london)

As I said before, the plan is super tentative... The countries that we will be staying at for longer periods of time will probably be more set in stone as far as the dates go. When my finals are done next Wednesday I will start booking hostels and doing other research-related things for Europe.

As far as supplies goes for the actual backpacking part, I have purchased a great pack that will have plenty of room, but is also fitted to me specifically. I have also been looking at other people's websites and blogs as far as the supplies I will be needing. I will make another post with pictures and descriptions a little later.

Side note -- I am really looking forward to the Sari silk skirts that Sym ordered! Woohoo!!!

Things to do:

Research european hostels
Purchase Eurail and JR passes
Book Hong Kong hostel
Ask for birthday money prior to leaving (hint hint, nudge nudge, poke poke...)
Plan Japan route a little more
Remember to update blog, as I am horrible at doing this...

More to come!! =)

Nicole

一緒に旅行しましょう！ Let's Travel Together~

Greetings from Paris!!

Today's My Birthday...

Soo... Update!

Photo albums

Hey Everyone! Hong Kong, London and Amsterdam!

Just a Quick Post...

Almost to the end of Japan...

Okayama, Part Two

Tenri, Nara, and some Okayama for you

Another Apology Post...

HIroshima! Or rather, my lack of travels in Hiroshima

Kyoto!

The REAL post for Nagoya

A Preview Post for Nagoya!

Fukuoka Preview *EDIT* FINAL!

Beppu and Nagasaki

More Tokyo and the Shinkansen

別府に着いたよ～ I have arrived in Beppu City!

OH MY GOD ACTUAL PICTURES!! =D

Second post today...

The ever-so anticipated FIRST POST of my first night back in Japan!

A quick post from SFO

A more concrete schedule (Japan)

An Update!

My Stuff...

Finals, they be over.

Test-run for Picture posts

29 days and counting down

一緒に旅行しましょう！　Let's Travel Together~

Fukuoka Preview EDIT FINAL!

別府に着いたよ～　I have arrived in Beppu City!