It's really hot in Kanazawa...

Yay I finally have time so I'm going to update my blog with an overview of my trip so far. It's already had its ups and downs but I'm really enjoying Japan! It seems so long ago but let's see if I can (sorta) start from the beginning.

Cristina and I stayed a night in a Narita hotel and it was pretty chill (and easy to get to). They had my favorite Japanese band (The Back Horn) on TV so that made me happy, yay. Then, my uncle helped Cristina and me get to Kanazawa. He was really nice and helpful. This was my first time practicing Japanese in Japan and it went pretty well!


When we got to Kanazawa, we stayed in a hotel overnight and then I got to meet my host family the next day. They're so sweet and awesome! Very chill and sorta Americanish. I can also understand them pretty well and they can understand me. My mom's a girl scout leader and does lots of fun things in her free time. Last night we went to a 100-yen shop and then got some cake. Let me tell you, 100-yen shops are like the underrated secret of Japan! You can get plates, jewelry, pencils, dolls, clothes, everything! And way less creepy than the graffitied-up Family Dollar at Yale... So here's a photo of my host parents and me at Kenrokuen. When we went, they had a festival going on and these students were playing jazz music and singing gospel. VERY weird seeing gospel coming from a bunch of Japanese students in the middle of Japan's most beautiful garden.


PII went to Kenrokuen again yesterday. We did a really casual tea ceremony (everyone was cracking up haha...) and oh my gosh. The green tea was amazing!! It reminded me so much of the green tea I ordered with Will at Ninja in New York. They pour hot water over powder and mix it with this cool wooden thing that makes a satisfying noise when you stir it. Good memories. I want to drink green tea every dayyyy. And the candy they gave us was sorta way better than Kitchoan's in New York (sorry mommy!). So yeah here's me chillin with Kenrokuen. Sorta looks like I was copied and pasted, doesn't it?
And here's all us Yalies in PII at Kenrokuen (hmm I wonder if a bunch of other students have this photo on their blog too!) I guess it's sorta hard to see, but you can tell we're having fun (hopefully!) It's only been less than a week but we've done so much!

My worst experience so far: I had been hanging in Kourinbou (hip shopping district) on my own and I was waiting for the bus to go home. When it finally came, it just rushed past me so I waited about an hour to finally get on a bus. It seemed like the right number... but I knew something was wrong when I found us up in the mountains and me looking down on Ishikawa. Luckily I can sorta speak Japanese so I talked to the bus driver and got instructions to the closest stop that would take me home. The whole experience scared me to death (I'm awful at travel) but I eventually made it home, an hour late for dinner. Luckily my host family didn't care.

After looking at the PII reports from the last couple of years, I thought Kanazawa would be a really traditional nature-y sorta hard to get around place. But it really has a totally different image from that. It's like an urban city interspersed with various awesome traditional things. See, they even have a Namco arcade at the departments store near all our classes. I think a bunch of us might be going pretty soon! From my host family's place I can walk to a large grocery store but I can also walk to a shrine. How cool is that?




Wow I really babbled on and on there didn't I? Hehe to tell the truth, this was really a post where I wanted to put some fun photos on my blog. So I've supplemented it with lots of text too. This last photo is all of PII at the Ishikawa prefectural governmental doohickey place (can you spot the Wilma?). Ja mata! (The next time you here from me I will have seen the Back Horn in concert!!)