Back in Ehime!

Well I finished my contract in Kawasaki last week and I'm now back in Ehime (the area of Japan I lived in before)! After a crazy stressful time trying to get here I managed to make it in one piece.

It started with me, after much effort, managing to order the overnight bus ticket from a website which was all in Japanese. The bus was from Shinjuku to Takamatsu, Kagawa(the prefecture next to Ehime). I checked the map on the website of where around Shinjuku Station the bus stop I wanted was. Since I couldn't print out the map due to lack of a printer, I jotted down the names of some buildings which it was close to. I wrote down the name of the building that the bus stop appeared to be in front of. The map was in Japanese and the building name was written in katakana (the Japanese phonetic characters commonly used for writing foreign (mostly English) words). Since katakana words usually come from English, I tried to sound out the building name slowly to try to figure out what it would be in English. In katakana it was the 'rosubaru' building. Hmm, rosu, rosu, . . . ah, rose! baru, baru, . . . ball? The roseball building? What's that?

So, anyway, when I got to Shinjuku station, I exited and went up to someone and asked "Do you know where the 'rosubaru' building is?" and he said, "You mean the 'subauru' building?" and I said, "No, the 'rosubaru' building." To which he directed my attention to the huge Subaru logo on the building across the street! I had mistakenly added an extra katakana character to what I'd jotted down>.<

The next problem was that I wasn't sure if the bus stop was directly in front of the subaru building or just in that vicinity and there were several bus stops in and around that vicinity. To make a long story short, after wandering around in circles, some, make that much panic that I wouldn't find it, and a mishap of almost leaving some of my luggage with my laptop and return ticket to Canada in it, I found the bus shortly before it was scheduled to depart. After the 12 hour overnight busride and another 5 hours on a local train, I finally made it to Ehime for a 1/4 of the cost it would've been for a plane ride.

For the most part, I stayed with Melanie in Matsuyama but also stayed with friends in other parts of Ehime. Did lots of natsukashii (nostalgic) stuff like dress up in yukata and go to a summer festival, go to the the Kamioka's up in the mountains of Hirota village for nagashi somen (flowing noodles), and go to karaoke.

Nanako's visit (June 24,25)

A Japanese friend who I met in Toronto last year who was also a student at the school I was working at in Toronto came all the way from Gifu to visit me. I met Nanako and her friends on Saturday for lunch in China Town in Yokohama and after that we looked around Minato-Mirai area of Yokohama and of course did puri-kura (photo booth stickers). The next day we met up in Harajuku and went to Meji Shrine and walked around Omotesando Hills (the Rodeo Drive/Champs Elysees of Tokyo). I wanted to go to the Prada building not because I was interested in that brand but because I heard that the building itself was interesting.

Kyoto (June 9-11)

My friend Melanie, who is also really into taiko drumming, ordered tickets for a performance in Kyoto which was a collaboration of Kodo (a famous taiko group) and Tamasaburo (a famous kabuki actor). Having already seen a Kodo performance a couple of times, it was interesting to see them in a different setting. The next day Yu and Taichiro took me around an area of Kyoto called Uji. We saw an old temple - Byoudouin, which appears on the back of 10yen coins and a shrine that is famous for having tons of hydrangea flowers.

Harajuku

These pics are from the first time I went to Harajuku with my friends Clare and Michelle. Michelle had been before so she was our tour guide. On Sundays you can see teenagers dressed in elaborate costumes/fashions. Although a little embarrassed, after some coaxing from Michelle, I asked some if it was ok to take a picture together and they were happy to humour me.