Just a short post.

HAH. Yeah, right.

There's so much to talk about in this post that I don't even know where to attack it from, so to speak.

I guess I'll just start on Friday afternoon. I left school right after class let out because I wanted as much time as possible to get all of my stuff together. I got home around 4:15 and we weren't leaving until 6:30ish so I definitely wasn't pressed for time. Everyone took a shower before leaving and a little after 6, お母さんとお父さんと妹と弟 (My host mom, dad, sisters and brother) all left for 四国 (Shikoku) island! You thought I was never going to tell you where we were going... My host family was going to their friend's daughter's wedding and since the RSVP was way before I was part of the picture, I was headed off to do some sightseeing. Exciting stuff right there. 

We drove off in their very boxy blue car and headed off to 北九州市 (North Kyushu City). That took about 2 and a half hours, during which we also stopped by a McDonald's to have dinner (the Japanese LOVE their McDonald's). Now, I haven't had McDonald's in probably close to 2 years, as I've never been a huge fan of it, but I figured how many times have I gotten Japanese McDonald's in my life? Plus, I was hungry and I wanted food. Honestly, Japanese McDonald's aren't that different from American ones. The only difference between the one we went to and the ones in Chicago is that this one was smaller. 

Moving right along. We finally arrived at 北九州市, where we drove right up to a dock because.... we were taking a ferry. Children (even though most of you reading this are probably older than me), I have never been on a ferry before so this was quite an exciting prospect for me. It wasn't anything fancy from the outside so I won't take up space here with a picture but I will talk about the inside. The first room that we walked into was a giant food court type area. There was a bar, a smoking area (if I remember correctly), a place to sit down and eat, COUNTLESS vending machines (in Japan, anywhere there's an outlet, you will find a vending machine), a game room, and an information desk. This area wasn't even that big, mind you, so everything was pretty crammed in there. We didn't stop for any food, so we went right to our room where we'd be spending the night. I was under the impression that it would be similar to a hotel room. Instead, we got this:

 I'm not complaining by any means, it was just totally different from what I was expecting. Basically, it was a giant room for everyone to share. All females, of course, but still took a bit to get used to. You can kind of see what the beds looked like in the picture. The 'pillows' they gave us were basically just blocks of hard foam, except I think I was one of the only people that found them uncomfortable. These were the awesome doors we had leading to the hallway:

There's that button on the left that you press and boom, the door slides open.

The next morning for some reason I woke up at 5:30 by myself. God knows why, but I think it had to do with that pillow...

Pretty much everyone else had left by the time we headed off the ferry (about 7 o'clock) so getting off was quick. We drove for about fifteen minutes and came to my host father's friend's house, which was where we would be staying for the weekend. When we entered the house it was pretty chaotic, to say the least. The parents, their two daughters, the grandma, and the already married daughter's husband were all there, running around trying to get everyone and everything ready for the wedding. I kind of just sat by (which I tend to do a lot right now; I feel like a mute) and watched. 

At about 8:30 or so the mom and bride-to-be left, and the sister, husband, father and grandma left a while later. We left the house at about 10, and I was dropped off at the information center for 松山お城 (Matsuyama Castle) where I met my tour guide for the day. I just made myself sound so tourist-y it's not even funny. She spoke pretty good English by Japanese standards and we were able to communicate very easily, which, trust me, makes a world of difference. First, she took me to the Matsuyama Castle Ninomaru Garden. Basically, it's a giant traditional courtyard-type deal. When we first walked in there was a flower display so we stopped by there. SO. MANY. PLANTS. So many interesting plants. I wish I could put pictures up of all of them but I still have so much to talk about so I'll move along.

After the flowers we moved on to a tea ceremony. GAAAAAAAHHHH so exciting! For anyone that thought they knew anything about tea ceremonies (at all) has another thing coming. It's SO involved and there's so many little rules that I'm sure I probably broke a hundred while I was there. There were two women (dressed in the whole kimono getup) who walked us through the ceremony. One of them was more for talking to us, the other prepared the tea. Whenever she would hand me my tea, I would have to bow with my hands in front of me, with the tips of my fingers and thumbs touching. You hold the tea cup with your right hand on the side, left hand supporting the bottom. After you finish, you set the cup down, and it's polite to look at it afterwards (not complaining; they're really interesting). You bow to either side of the cup to look at the sides of it and then you pick it up and hold it like this:

And I know I look really funny but I swear that that's how I was supposed to do it. By the way, sitting like that is VERY painful. After 5 minutes I seriously thought I had done permanent damage to my feet.

I'm going to hurry the tea ceremony part up because I could seriously make a whole post about it. After we were done there, we headed to the actual castle. We ended up taking a chair lift, which was amazing and terrifying at the same time.

That was my view, and that's my guide in front of me! It was so much more terrifying in person. There's no seatbelt or anything so you're basically suspended 15 feet off the ground in a tiny chair. 

We got to the top of the lift and continued up the mountain to the actual castle.

That's the main part of the castle and I was standing in a courtyard-type deal. Everything there was very traditional and Japanese-looking. And I know a lot of people will read that and say "Well duh, you're in Japan." But guys, you don't understand until you've been here and see everything in person. 

I can't post pictures of everything because this post is already huge but you get the idea. Awesome castle, so much fun. We spent an hour and a half just walking around. 

I do have to include this one though. That was at the very very top of the whole thing. Everything looks so tiny!

Alright, moving right along, we left the castle and headed off to the onsen bath house! You do not understand how excited I was about this part. I was also very reserved about it for obvious reasons, but it was something I was definitely looking forward to. 

Yup... that's me looking awkward as ever. I don't even care though because I was at an onsen. Dogo Onsen. That's what that sign says. I'm proud to say that before my guide even told me, I could read the first two characters by myself. :D 

So anyways, onward ho. Definitely did not just say that.

We bought our tickets and left our shoes in these cubbies at the front. Then we walked down a hallway and up a flight of stairs to a long room with a bunch of baskets that had yukatas neatly folded in them. We were seated, and once we were ready we headed off to the change room. Which honestly should be called the undressing room or something. You're not really changing; you're taking your clothes off. Yup, all of them. I'll just say that it was SUCH an amazing experience. Which probably sounds really weird to some people but if anyone that's reading this ever gets a chance to try onsen, DO IT. For anyone that had no idea what it is, it's basically a giant hot tub. There you go, reason enough to go to one.

After you finish, you get out, put on your yukata (Japanese-style bathrobe) and head back out to that long room with the baskets where someone brings you green tea and cookies. Good stuff. You're all warm by the time you start drinking your tea and you feel so relaxed it's crazy. 

That was probably my favorite part of the day. 

After the onsen, my guide and I spent the last hour or so shopping, since that part of town is very tourist-y and has a lot of shops. 

At a little before 5, my host family picked me up and I had to say good bye to my wonderful tour guide. T_T We had such a fun time and she was so wonderful, so if she ever finds this blog and reads this: Thank you so much!

Later that night we all had dinner with the family we were staying with (excluding the newlyweds) and I'm happy to say that I could understand little snippets of conversation here and there. 

The next morning we headed out at around 10:30. We drove for I don't even know how long until we stopped at this parking lot at the top of a giant mountain. I had no idea what we were doing until my host mom explained that we were going to walk about 20 minutes to a lighthouse at the very end of the peninsula we were parked on. A daunting task, if I do say so myself; climbing up and down the mountain was super tiring and really the only thing that kept me going was how freaking BEAUTIFUL this country is. No wonder haikus originated here; pretty much anything you see out here you can write a poem about. 

 That's a camping spot that looks so quaint and adorable (especially against the water and the green) that I had to take a picture.

This was at the very tip of the peninsula right in front of the lighthouse...

After the trek back to the car we were all pretty tired so a lot of us fell asleep for a bit.

These pictures are from earlier on but I want to share them with you guys because I want you to see what I'm talking about when I say this country is FREAKING BEAUTIFUL.

SO MANY MOUNTAINS. I gave up taking pictures after a while because there was so much to take pictures of and honestly, there's nothing like seeing it in person anyway. I was so sad that my family couldn't see any of this because it's so breathtakingly beautiful that these pictures (and any that I could have taken) wouldn't give it the justice it deserves. It's that amazing. I literally spent 30 minutes of the car ride looking out the window as we drove through the mountains because of how gorgeous everything was. The mountains here are completely covered in trees, giving them a very fluffy appearance, and when you look at the actual trees on the mountains, there's a million different types of trees and all of the different textures combine to make the most amazing.... I don't even know. Something. It just looks incredible. I've never seen anything like it. We also drove by a bunch of towns by the sea, all of which were so quaint and Hayao Miyazaki-looking that I thought I was going to pee myself from excitement. Not really, but my level of excitement equaled that. Not even joking there. Plus, oh my Lord, is it beautiful. The ocean winking at you, the mountains, the sky blurring where it meets the water, the WINDMILLS, the plethora of tunnels... This weekend, I fell even more in love with this country. And almost purely out of vanity; it's so... ugh, I can't even find a word to describe how it made me feel. As cheesy as this whole paragraph sounds, if any of you ever are as lucky as I am to come here, you will sound just as cheesy.

Anyway, back to the day. We finally made it to the ferry that we would take back to Kyushu. During the boatride I spent most of my time on deck where I got to watch the water and more beautifulness. Which isn't a word but it should be. I saw jellyfish! So many of them, too! You could see them just under the surface of the water, big white blobs. I've never seen a jellyfish in my life so even though it wasn't a clear view of one, I was excited and enthralled nonetheless. 

Oh, and the WIND on deck. Crazy stuff. I'm surprised my hair wasn't completely ripped out of my scalp. As graphic as that is, that's about how hard the wind was blowing. By the time I got back inside the boat my hair was totally windblown and a giant mass of knots. And all worth it. :)

We got home at around 8:30 because we stopped to get food on the way home and everyone went to bed right away because we were all completely spent. 

I'm sorry for how long this post was. Truthfully, I could have made it 4 times as long; I left out a bunch of details for the sake of not boring you all to tears. I'm still really mad that I can't show you what I saw in person because it really is one of the greatest things I've ever seen. If you ever get the chance to go to 四国 island, DO IT. Or any part of Japan, really. It's all gorgeous. 

Japan, I've fallen in love with you even more.

-Ellie