Gifu with Ayuko!! (long post)

Sunday, January 26:

WARNING: This is a SUPER long post! It's also very image heavy. So enjoy ^^

When I woke up this morning, Yuko was at work, so Ken made me breakfast.

He made stuff I didn't like, so I guess Yuko hadn't told him I don't eat sausages or eggs... :/

But I ate them anyway.

I had been in my phone while we were waiting for the toast to cook (we hadn't started eating yet) and Ken was finishing up the sausages because I was looking up which trains to take today. Then when the toast was done and he came over to the table I had placed my phone next to me and turned it off. He told me not to use my phone to get on the internet while we're eating. I mean, I know that. I don't even do that in America, it's so rude. And I wasn't planning on doing that here either. Idk, I guess he was just making sure I knew that it something...

Then I got dressed and left for the station. I left at 9, when Yuko had told me last night to leave at 8:45, so I was really, really worried I'd be late. But I pedaled super hard on my bike and made it to the station in 10 minutes! Then I got the super rapid train and it only took 8 minutes to get to Gifu, when Yuko had told me it would take 10-15 min!

I got there before Ayuko so I went down the bathroom. When I came back up, she still wasn't there so I waited by the ticket area and she showed up about a minute later. She told me she'd just walked through looking for me. I guess it must have been when I was in the bathroom. Whoops!

It was so great to see her again and weird that it was in Japan! She thought it was weird that I was with her in her hometown haha. She asked how everyone from the Japanese Conversation Group the two of us were part of were doing and I briefly caught her up with everyone's lives since she left.

I gave her Texas chocolate and then the two of us went out to get bikes. The bikes were only 100 yen to rent and I got a pink one!

Then we rode all around Gifu, heading towards Gifu castle. We rode past a bunch of shops, including Don Quixote. I told Ayuko about riding the Ferris wheel at Sakae the other day and she told me that's where her first date was!! Ahh so cute!

There was this huge mass of people at one of the many temples in Gifu and Ayuko told me they were gathering to listen to speeches by candidates for mayor because Gifu is in the midst of electing a new mayor.

Soon we could see the castle! 

(See it, all cute and tiny up on that hill?)

We parked our bikes near Gifu park and then walked through the park. It was really beautiful, with lots of trees and waterfalls.

We got one of the workers there to take a picture of us.

Then we headed up to take the ropeway up the mountain to the castle. 

Ayuko's friend designed this poster!

The souveneir shop in the building with the ropeway

It was so cool! It was a glass box thing that went up a rope along the side of the mountain. We saw this red building and got a great view of Gifu and Iciinomiya.

At the top you could definitely feel the temperature difference. It was a lot cooler! There were a bunch of cute little shrines.

We walked up a long, steep set if stone steps and then through a forest that I said looked like the hiking trails in Blacksburg. Ayuko told me that when she was in Blacksburg, she felt at home a lot because it reminded her of the Gifu mountains. :)

When we got to the castle, we took pictures in front of it. 

These middle schoolish aged boys in baseball gear started laughing among themselves and looking at us. When we passed them, they were like "hello!" so I said "hi!" It was cute. :)

Looks a lot like Nagoya-jo!

Lady doing exercises on the mountaintop. Ayuko said she was like a ninja haha.

Then we went into the castle! We walked around the bottom floor a bit. It had similar things to Nagoya-jo (pictures of Oda Nobunaga and samurai (darth vader) gear). Then we went upstairs to the wrap-around balcony. It was so high up and such a great view of Gifu, Ichinomiya, and the surrounding area.

It was super blowy though so we left after we'd gotten our fill.

My hairrr

Such a great picture!

Such a horrible picture! Thanks Ayuko lol

On the ceiling of the castle

Clock with the chinese zodiac in the place of numbers. The only one I could read was ushi (cow) at the 12, but Ayuko read the rest of them to me!

 Then we went back outside and back through the foresty part. We stopped at a shrine to pray and get lucky charms!

Ayuko helped me read the kanji I didn't know. It says "we love our mountain and wild birds," so basically you should protect them.

The holes that the castle samurai shot intruders through

At the shrine. It says all the things our lucky charms are good for (exams, good grades, preventing house fires, etc)

We also found a viewing spot lower down than the castle where we took some more pictures. I used my phone's panorama feature. :)

(Pretty sweet, huh?)

And this one has Ayuko in it!

Me taking the panoramic. Ayuko took a bunch of pictures of me taking pictures (creeper...haha)

I thought these signs about the squirrels were really funny. Ayuko liked how there were so many squirrels at Tech, but here people paid to see squirrels haha.

Then we rode the ropeway back down the mountain. On the way down, we saw a rainbow in the mountains!! Ayuko said I was lucky that I got to see one!

(See it??)

Back at that bottom, we headed to this really old traditional town where people actually live! It was really cool to see and walk through.

This is the shipyard where boats go out in the summer for comorant fishing. I've never liked the idea of comorant fishing (where cormorants' necks are tied so they can't swallow and they're let loose to catch fish and when they try to swallow them, the fisherman make them barf the fish back up. Then, the only prize the cormorant gets is one of the bunch of fish it caught). Ayuko said the fish are cooked right on the boat too!

Ayuko told me how the materials from this river are used to make paper used in fans and lanterns, so Gifu is famous for paper. In ancient times the paper was brought on foot from Gifu all the way to Edo!

Also, she was named after the fish in the river, Ayu. Ayu is really sweet and was wrapped in sushi rolls to keep it fresh for the long journey to Edo.

We stopped in the shop pictured above with all the paper lanterns and we got to sample Japanese sweets used in omiyage (souveneirs). It was really good!

Then we headed into the old village.

(A famous paper shop with examples of things it sells)

(Lantern with painting of cormorant fishing)

This fountain had a bamboo pipe on its side that water was trickling out of. Apparently if you put your ear over the big vertical bamboo pipe, you could hear the water drops amplified.

But Ayuko and I couldn't hear anything lol.

(I think this was a restaurant)

This sign showed how all the houses were moved into this village in a really traditional way (using wooden rollers) and done by kids and volunteers!

Ayuko's friend and his family are really trying to improve the city, by making it beautiful while still holding on to it's historical roots.

We walked a bit farther until we got to a little coffee shop place where Ayuko's friend worked. Her friend wasn't there, though, but I really liked going in and looking because there were a TON of really beautiful hina no hi (Girl's Day) doll sets all around.

(The entrance)

(The front room. So many dolls!!)

The ladies there were really nice and told us we could go inside and upstairs to look around. So we took our shoes off and went in.

There was a super steep, slippery staircase like the one in Spirited Away (I was super excited about that!)

Ayuko on the stairs...

...and me on the stairs!

The upstairs area (like an attic) was full of doll displays!! It reminded me so much of my favorite Pokemon episode when I was little, haha. The one where it's Girl's Day and Misty's sisters get all those Pokemon hinamatsuri dolls and she's jealous.

(Even the table was pretty with pictures of women!)

Cute little corner area. In the flower arranging class I took at Tech, I learned Japanese homes have these raised areas to display the ikebana designs.

(Cool lamp)

Then it was back down the steep staircase.

(Scary!)

As we were leaving I saw they also had a pretty cormorant painting lantern.

When we reached the last few buildings of the old village, we saw a couple getting married at a shrine! They were both really really cute and all dressed up in kimonos! We told them "omedatou gozaimasu" as we passed. (It means congratulations).

More awesome drain covers! Gifu's feature cormorants. And some say osui, which means dirty water lol.

(Cute!!)

We went back to the park to get our bikes.

On the way back to the station, we stopped to see the Daibutsu (idk the spelling...), which is the giant Buddha! 

(The shrine where the Daibutsu was.)

(Giant Buddha lives in here)

And there he was!!

Ayuko told me he's made of metal and on the inside, bamboo. This is the largest Buddha made using bamboo!

Ayuko told me that no one knows what all these paintings mean lol. But they were still cool to look at!

(This is a painting of jukasho (the Buddhist hell) )

Then we stopped to see another one of Ayuko's friends. She's so popular! He was working with his family at the shop they own, which was a shop that sells items that celebrate Buddha. They had these cute snowman paper lanterns that I was in love with!

He and his family were really nice! They talked to me and of course I thoroughly embarrassed myself! Ready to hear how?

They asked me how the Daibutsu was and I said "oishikatta." They started laughing and were like, "oishikatta?"

Then I realized, oh fuck I just said that the Giant Buddha was delicious.

I meant "omoshirokatta"!!! That it was interesting! I'm cracking up now but then, I felt retarded.

Then we biked through a roofed in mall like in Osu.

Before we got to the station, we stopped quickly at a wagashi shop Ayuko knows to look at all the cute wagashi (it's the flower shaped sweets served on hinamatsuri and at tea ceremonies). Ayuko wanted to buy me some, but I wouldn't let her! 

At the station, we returned our bikes. I really wanted to stay in Gifu longer but both Ayuko and I had things to do. Ayuko was meeting a friend for pizza and I was going to the Cathedral!

So we both got on the JR then I got off at Nagoya because that way would be faster for me and Ayuko continued on to Kanayama.

At Nagoya Station, I switched to the Higashiyama subway line (my first time on it!) and rode to Chikusa. 

(Girl's Engrish bag. It says: "I wish for add spark to your life. Still all the time." Lawlz)

There I got off and walked to the cathedral. 

(Cute street decorations)

It was sooo pretty!!!

Mass was fun because I got to sing a lot of Japanese songs and they were mostly in hiragana and kanji that I knew so I could follow along! And then the kanji I didn't know, I listened to what everyone else sang, so I learned some new kanji!

There were like 20 altar servers and like 10 priests and then the bishop. It was wild!

Also, in the middle there was a little ceremony thing for the girls and guys who turned 20 in the last year and they got gifts. Two girls were in kimonos.

(All dem 20 year olds, minus me. And the bishop of the area giving them gifts.)

Afterwards was a party for the 20 year olds that everyone was welcome to. But I understood enough Japanese to hear that it cost $10 so I was like, no. I mean, the food looked good (there were mikan!) but I didn't want to have to stay and listen to all the speeches and whatnot.

So I left. It was super windy out now. It had started getting blowy in Gifu on the way back to the station and Ayuko fell off her bike at one point because the wind wa so strong! 

Anyway, on the way back to the station, I saw a grocery store so of course I had to stop!

(Cute sign I saw while walking)

(The grocery store!! I liked the overhang thing because it said "the quality of life" lol)

(Man, I got a deal at Lawson's Grand Opening that day)

And then it happened. I found THE MOST AMAZING FOOD IN ALL OF JAPAN!!! You guys know how melon pan is my favorite bread? Well melon pan just got seriously one-upped!

Because I found......

..........

.......... CHOCOLATE CHIP MELON PAN!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

And ya know how the melon pan at Lawson's is 105 yen and I thought that was a steal?

THIS WAS ONLY 88 YEN!!!!

I was kind of freaking out. There were only 2 left, so I snatched it up.

(So beautifuuulllll)

They also had all these really cute breads!

(Awww look at da wittle snowmen!)

(Scary monster bread)

Then I went searching for a drink. All the sodas and juices were room temperature. :( 

The only cooled thing was the alcohol. But I'm took young to... waaaiittt no I'm not!! 

Hahaha! So I bought this fucking amazing peach beer. Only in Japan guys...

And I went to the self check out to pay. I was expecting it to do what the ones in America to do and tell me to give my ID to an attendant, but it never did! I mean what if I was a little middle schooler? Whatevs. I got my 4% alcohol momo osake. ;) BTW it was only 105 yen.

(Woo! First legal alcohol purchase (and I'm not even 21 yet haha!!))

So then I sat in this little corner eating area in the grocery store and ate my pan and drank my osake.

(Foodgasm right there)

(In case you didn't realize when you bought it, the top of the can says "osake desu" aka "it's alcohol" and has it in Braille too lol)

Then because the bread was so effing good, I went in and bought the last one to have at school tomorrow.

(Cute self check out)

So when I finished my pan I went out and drank the rest of my drink as I walked back to the station because you can so that in Japan.

Then I got back on the Higashiyama line and rode back to Nagoya station. 

(Cute mosaic in Chikusa station)

I found out different stations play different subway music. I really like the music at Chikusa and Nagoya station.

(Illuminations at Nagoya station)

I had an hour to kill there, so I walked around the underground mall in the station called the Unimall. I saw signs pointing to The Nagoya International Center, where the New Year's event I was going to was being held, but the flyer I had only had directions from the next station, Kokusai Center.

I had a feeling I could walk from Nagoya but I was afraid if getting lost, so I put another $10 on my train card and rode the Sakura Dori line (another first) to Kokusai Center. It was there I realized that was just at the other end of the unimall, so I could have walked it and I essentially just wasted $2. Fml. Well, now I knew!

I still had about 40 min, so I went outside to see the JR twin towers! They're the tallest towers at a station.

I also stopped in a SoftBank briefly to talk with them. Still trying to get a phone, guys.

Then I walked back to the International Center. I went up to the floor it's on, but I didn't see any signs for the party or anything. There was just an office and a room that Japanese people my age kept walking into with this sign out front:

Um yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not the New Year's Party, unless I unknowingly signed up for some dating event. Apparently it was tryouts for some new tv show lol.

Anyway, I decided to ask those two dudes pictured above for help. They were super nice and rode all the way back down the elevator with me and took me outside to a connecting hall where the party check in was.

(The awesome elevator. You could just touch the number and it lit up, aka they weren't buttons)

So when I checked in I got a name tag that said アメリカ (America). We all got nametags with our corresponding country. Also, it was 2000 yen for Japanese people, 1000 yen for foreigners, and only 800 yen for foreigners studying Japanese! So I got a huge discount! :)

Then we each got a cup that we wrote out name on. We mingled until the toast.

This old guy started taking to me and told me he was 43 and asked my age and then my email...

Creeeeperrrr. Thankfully Minju and Deanna showed up then, so I joined them and got to meet their Japanese friend they'd known from their university back home. She was really nice!

Then we all got either tea or water and we did a toast (kanpai!). 

Then they brought out finger food (tempura shrimp, chicken, fries, chips, chocolate chip bread, and little dumplings). In the middle of the plate with the finger food was a little section with corn.

Japanese people love corn. Apparently they eat sushi with corn too!

We also got these corn flavored snacks, and later there was pizza with corn as the only topping! Waaahhh, corn overload!!

(Corn flavored rice cake thing. There was a chocolate one too I wish I'd taken a picture of that was a regular rice cake covered in chocolate!)

Then we all played this game where we had to move beads and marbles into a bowl using chopsticks. The Japanese people were really good at it and the foreigners sucked lol.

I moved about 4 beads. The team that moved the most won bags of chips lol. And that wasn't my team, sadly.

Then we mingled some more. I talked to some more people, again all way older than I was. 

Then it was the mochitsuki demonstration. The guy hit the mochi with the kine like I'd seen yesterday and some people got to try too. This guy came over to talk to me during the demonstration. He was a Japanese student and was 21! He spoke English with a British accent and wanted me to teach him some English slang lol. He was all like "I know that when you take a picture of yourself, it's called a selfie!" He was cute! 

He told me he liked Justin Beiber and was going to watch Gossip Girl to improve his English and my gaydar started beeping. When he pulled out his phone, which was in a hot pink case, to get my number, that sealed the deal.

Then I ate some red bean mochi. I talked to this older guy (30s or 40s?) who was Japanese who later tried to add me on Line (my Line wasn't working though) because he wanted to invite me to a barbeque he and his friends were going to have haha.

Then I talked to these two Koreans with Minju, who was really excited to have met fellow Koreans. One of them was a super hot guy I'd noticed earlier. Of course he was Korean. Damn, Korean guys are fine...

And then the party was over! It was fun, but not really what I'd been expecting haha. It was more like a chance for Japanese guys to pick up foreign chicks lol. Deanna got a lot of guys' names to add on Facebook or Line as well, but she was super hesitant to because most of them were older and creepy.

We all walked to the station together and this time we walked through the unimall back to Nagoya station. From there, I took the JR back to Ichinomiya.

The bike ride home was a bitch. It was SO windy, I kept getting buffeted and had to work extra hard to pedal. I finally got home at 9:45 pm. Miyabi and Ken were already asleep, but Yuko had waited up for me. I took a nice hot shower and then went straight to bed.

I have a test tomorrow morning I didn't study at all for. Sheeeet...