Tuesday 1 November 2011

Japan Round 3

I can't believe I've been back for nearly 5 days, and have not written a proper report until now. o_0 Actually, I've been terribly jetlagged and SICK. Gah~ I was actually sick during the latter half of my trip, but whatwith the adrenaline rush, I managed to ignore it. So now that I'm at home, it all came crashing down on me.

All in all, it was a very good trip! I managed to do lots of stuff (but there was a lot more that I didn't do, lol).

The flight there was rather excrutiating. I was flying out of Vancouver and somehow, it took forever.  I honestly don't remember it being that long, but anyways, I managed to watch 3 movies before passing out.  One of which was Usagi Drop! ^_^ I was very pleasantly surprised because I've read the manga, but didn't know they made a live-action film. It was actually just so-so.

My first night was spent at my friend Hitomi's place.  Her parents were so welcoming; they didn't speak a word of english, but we somehow managed to communicate in the end, lol.  It was nice spending time in a Japanese household... it kind of reminded me of my homestay experience 2 years ago.

So the next day, we were quickly off on our trek to Tonosho, on Shodoshima Island, Kagawa Prefecture in Shikoku. Really, a random place in the countryside! LOL We took the Shinkansen to Okayama, which is further than Osaka but closer than Hiroshima.  From there, we took another train to Takamatsu (the mainland of Shikoku in Kagawa) and from there, we had to take a ferry to Tonosho.  Gosh, what a trip! I think it was like 10 hours of travel/transit time... Oh, one might wonder WHY I went to such a place: it was to visit my Calgarian friend Lori who is teaching english as a JET and was placed on that island. 

I was lucky to catch their aki-matsuri (autumn festival).