A summery of winter break busieness!

Happy new year!　あけましておめでとございます！

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything over the break. It has been so busy here. Anthony and I have been traveling around and seeing lots of Miyazaki and the Kansai region. We visited Kyoto and saw kinkakuji and hein jingu. We explored the city and shopping areas of Osaka's Shinsaibashi area, and saw some amazing fashion! I wanted to ask if I could take a picture, but Osaka is so crowded, stopping was a bad idea at 6pm on a Saturday with a lot of sales all around. Kobe is a bit less crazy then Osaka, but doesn't lack any part of the amazingness! The ferry is a whole experience of it's own. We chatted with people in Japanese, tried the on boat Onsen, and were very perplexed by the "casually frozen food". After all the hustle and bustle of the Kansai region, I was happy to return to the calm, laid back atmosphere.

The busyness didn't end in once we left Kansai. We explored the Miyazaki culture and sights to no end. We experienced the "young peoples" culture with the Christmas eve date. We visited some illumination around the area, went shopping, ate dinner, and caught the bus to the train station (which was full of the other couples). We spent a nice quiet Christmas chatting with family, opening presents, and attempting to cook a large Christmas dinner with the equipment and ingredients available. It ended up being some spaghetti, miso soup, and apple pie. Not quiet the U.S.A version of Christmas dinner but it was oishii! Max joined our little Christmas dinner as well, most of the Japanese students and other exchange students had left for the break.

A few days after we visited Takachiho. Satomi (my touter), her boyfriend, Anthony, and I all made the long twisty road to the area in the rain. We got to learn the legends around the gorge and the omaterasu cave. We got to take a tour of a few temples and learn about them. At the Omaterasu cave, we built little stone towers for our wishes. There were tons of them! They covered almost every surface, it was hard to find any spare rocks or an empty place to build new ones. We also road the little boats through the gorge, despite the fact that it was raining cats and dogs.

New years was an adventure of it's own. We went to an Isakaya with a few friends, Max and Midori, for Yakiniku. It was an experience in the way of Izakaiya in Miyazaki! It is nice because many restaurants in Miyazaki have coupons for discounts such as all you can eat or drink for 3500yen. I love the way that so many Japanese foods are interactive. Such as cook your own meat, make your own okonomiyaki, dip your own tempura; I wish we had these sorts of restaurants in the U.S! Once we finished eating, we caught the last train home after having fun with puri-kura, the little pictures that you decorate with a bunch of sparkles and writing. Once we grabbed some warming clothing, we headed to the temple near the college campus. There was a bunch of omikushi, fortunes, that people would pick at the turning of the new year, and we could drink hot sake, and pray at the temple. People brought good luck charms from last year to burn ad buy new ones for this year. Someone brought one of the many cats that live around the dorms as well. The shrine was a small one, but we were still able to experience the culture around new years in Japan.

Basically this winter was a blast. I have studied mostly Kanji with a little bit of grammar. But most of my learning has been though experience. I believe that experiencing a language or culture is really the best way to learn. I am glad that I have such a wonderful opportunity here in Japan and I am going to use it to the fullest!