Golden Week

For Golden Week I went to Tokyo and the Izu peninsula, and I had an amazing time. On the first weekend I went to Tokyo with some friends. I stayed in the North side of Tokyo, which is more relaxing than where I usually stay.

On the first day I went to an exhibition called Katagami Style at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum. It was brilliant and very inspiring, I want to try and make stencils for this type of dying and printing. I then went to Ueno Park and relaxed, its was a lovely day to walk around the lake. We met this man feeding birds, there were so many round him.

The next day I went to a baseball game with some friends. I was exciting and fun, and I actually understood more about the game this time.

On the second weekend I was supposed to go to Nii-jima Island but the weather was very bad on Thursday and the ferry was cancelled. Everyone was stranded at Ito station because the trains wouldn't go to Shimoda until 11am.

I didn’t want to waste the day so I went to the Museum of Art in Atami to see the exhibition of traditional Japanese paintings. They were so beautiful and painted in such detail but unfortunately I could take pictures. The gardens were great as well but the view was clouded over.  

 The next day, three friends and I decided to rent a car and travel around the Izu. I was amazing and the weather was so good that I actually got a tan!

We went to Shirahama beach in Shimoda and I tried to surf. The waves were very big and I couldn’t stand up but I had fun trying.

That evening we camped out and my American friend Anna taught us how to make s’mores. They are roasted marshmallows trapped between two honey crackers with chocolate. It was a delicious dessert and they were so much fun to make.

The next morning we went to Tatado beach and relaxed. In the afternoon we went to see the Jogazaki coastline and the suspension bridge. The coastline is very rugged and beautiful, and it reminded me of the coast in Ireland.

This was all of us on the bridge, it moves a bit when you are walking on it. As you can see it was very windy!

That night we stayed at the Onsen hostel in Ito called K's Hostel. (I stayed there with my mum and aunt so I'm not going to put more picture up.) It is a traditional style ryokan and it is very relaxing because you feel like you are in Japan 100 years ago. I was excited to eat sushi because I feel like the weather has been too cold to eat it recently. 

 Before heading home on the last day, we went to spa area in Amori. There was a nice tearoom there where you could put your feet in a spa as you ate your lunch. It was so beautiful there and was a great way to end our Izu trip. 

 

School Trip

A few weeks ago I joined the third year students to go on their school trip. We went to Yamakita to have BBQ. It was very delicious and the BBQ was very different to BBQ’s that we have in Ireland. It was beautiful there by the lake and there were a lot of Cherry Blossom trees.

 

I was surprised that all the students prepared all the food and started the fires on their on. I don’t think we would have been trusted to do this when I was a school and it was nice to see the responsibility and trust between the teachers and students.

The BBQ food was very different for me because in Ireland we usually cook sausages, hamburgers, chicken fillets and kebabs on a BBQ. However here in Japan, there were a lot of vegetables and sliced meat as well as noodles.

The students dishes and hot plates were checked after washing and very one tidied up.

Last few days traveling with my Mum and Aunt

The last long weekend that my aunt and mum spent in Japan we traveled to view Fuji-san from the five lakes, then to Tokyo for a Baseball game and the Izu. It was lovely to travel to these places because even though they aren't far from Gotemba I have not been to them before.

We got the bus easily from Gotemba station and arrived an hour later at Kawaguchiko Station. We then got another bus to one of the main viewing points of Mt. Fuji over Lake Kawaguchiko. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to enjoy the weather and walk around the lake.

We then went to Lake Saiko and Iyashi no Sato which is a recreated historical village. There are lots of Japanese crafts there and you can see how building were originally built in Japan. It is interesting to see how the roofs were thatched, its is very similar to thatching from historical Irish homes.

The next day we went to Tokyo to watch a Baseball game. My aunt really wanted to see a game as she wasn't able to when she went to America. Baseball is not played in Europe so we have never watched a game. Therefore it took us a while to understand the rules, but after a few inning we got the hang of it.

The atmosphere was electric and I really want to go to another game soon. We watched the Tokyo Gaints and the Swallows, the Swallows won and their fans were much more animated.

The next morning we traveled to the Izu and spent the day in Shimoda.

The weather was spectacular so we decided that we wanted to spend the day walking around in the sun shine taking in the sights. Firstly we walked around the harbor then went to see Perry Road.

Below is Perry Road, which is an old fashioned street that looks European and was the street that Commodore Perry walked along to Ryosenji Temple. He was arrived in Japan to request the opening of Japanese ports to US ships.

We then walked through some of Shimoda Park but preferred to near the sea so we walked down to the promenade which led to a small island where fishermen were leisurely fishing.

That evening we traveled to Ito and spent the night in K's House Onsen Hostel. This was amazing, a traditionally Japanese ryokan that is 100 years old. Our room was beautiful and the onsen was great. It was nice for my aunt and mum as well as it had a private onsen so they felt less self-conscious using this than the usual onsens. I was so happy that they got to try an onsen and could understand why I enjoy them so much.

They next day we went shopping around Ito and Marine Town, but there was a very big storm coming and I was worried about getting home on the trains, so we left earlier than planned.