Golden Week
2005-05-07
The only vacation period during the spring sememster, is almost over. And boy have I had a blast! First I had three days of homestay, as I've already written. I really got along well with my host family, and we did lots of stuff. Hanami in Senshu Koen, the central park in Akita City. Sashimi with fish my host father caught the day before. And of course, on Monday a 350 km trip to the stone circles in northeastern Akita and the Oga peninsula, where the Japanese drained an entire lake to create what can most easily be described as a Netherland look-a-like. Pretty cool mountains too. With us on the trip, and at home baking a wedding cake, was Charles Tait, the father of a friend of my host mother who's lived in Akita for five years. Charles is here to attend his son's wedding, bake the cake, and make other arrangements, but had time to go off with me and my host father for the trip. Charles is a professional photographer, so I imagine his photos (made with a Nikon D2X) is a tad better than mine...
We also went to my host father's workplace, the Akarenga ("red brick") museum, and a museum for the Akita festival Kanto Matsuri where men compete in holding up huge lantern construction with their foreheads, shoulders, hips and hands. They weigh up to 50 kg. I tried the 15 kg one, with moderate success...
On Tuesday, almost everyone left at AIU went on the bus trip to Kakunodate. Guess what? We weren't the only ones. The biggest difference between a festival area in Japan and, well, almost everywhere else, is that there's absolutely no littering. None. I was quite baffled. Especially since we couldn't find any garbage cans at first. Needless to say, the place was absolutely incredibly beautiful. And yes, I need that exaggerating an expression. I had obviously heard the Sakura would be beautiful, but it was just breathtaking. I think I got a few good shots of it too, though they hardly compare to the actual experience.
Wednesday to Friday me and Lily went to Yoko's place in Aomori, at the northern tip of Honshu. The trip there was a four hour, painful, train ride (the damn seats face the wrong way, to allow more standing passangers), which wasn't as bad as it could've been thanks to the company. Yoko's family turned out to be very friendly and welcoming. On Thirsday we went to the haunted mountain Ozorezan, with it's (Buddhist) temple and graveyard. Quite a solemn place, the perfect weather not making it less of an experience. On the way back we visited another onsen, this time with a really good sauna. That had a TV showing baseball! We played some table tennis, and went back and had chinese, cooked by Lily and Yoko. Not as good as the Sashimi I had at my homestay, but still leaps and bounds ahead of the cafeteria food they serve at the school.
All in all, one great week ^_^
We also went to my host father's workplace, the Akarenga ("red brick") museum, and a museum for the Akita festival Kanto Matsuri where men compete in holding up huge lantern construction with their foreheads, shoulders, hips and hands. They weigh up to 50 kg. I tried the 15 kg one, with moderate success...
On Tuesday, almost everyone left at AIU went on the bus trip to Kakunodate. Guess what? We weren't the only ones. The biggest difference between a festival area in Japan and, well, almost everywhere else, is that there's absolutely no littering. None. I was quite baffled. Especially since we couldn't find any garbage cans at first. Needless to say, the place was absolutely incredibly beautiful. And yes, I need that exaggerating an expression. I had obviously heard the Sakura would be beautiful, but it was just breathtaking. I think I got a few good shots of it too, though they hardly compare to the actual experience.
Wednesday to Friday me and Lily went to Yoko's place in Aomori, at the northern tip of Honshu. The trip there was a four hour, painful, train ride (the damn seats face the wrong way, to allow more standing passangers), which wasn't as bad as it could've been thanks to the company. Yoko's family turned out to be very friendly and welcoming. On Thirsday we went to the haunted mountain Ozorezan, with it's (Buddhist) temple and graveyard. Quite a solemn place, the perfect weather not making it less of an experience. On the way back we visited another onsen, this time with a really good sauna. That had a TV showing baseball! We played some table tennis, and went back and had chinese, cooked by Lily and Yoko. Not as good as the Sashimi I had at my homestay, but still leaps and bounds ahead of the cafeteria food they serve at the school.
All in all, one great week ^_^
18 maj, 2005 12:33,
Is it easy to find used laptops and electronics in Akita, or do you have to make a trip to Tokyo for that?
20 maj, 2005 20:26,
I don't know, I usually buy stuff over the Internet, wherever I happen to be. Especially electronics, since it's usually much cheaper. Akita has about 300,000 inhabitants though, so there could very well be a good place to look.
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