Cabin in the woods

A few weeks ago the time came for me to leave the University of Aizu and go back to America to prepare for school in the fall. I left my dormitory for the last time, and cleaned up the desk I used in the laboratory I joined.

Before I went back to america I spent a few days with my girlfriend in a tiny town south of Aizu. In the past when I have traveled two and from Aizu I have either taken the bus, or the shinkansen (bullet train). This time however we took a slower train that went due south out of Aizu towards Tokyo. The town that we stayed at was along this train line.

The town was a lot of fun. Pictured above is a BBQ that we had one day, while below is a photo of a sign with a warning about bears. When we were there we had both just finished difficult semesters at school, and so it was nice to be able to take a break.

The train station in this town didn't have very many things. It wasn't staffed, and so tickets were sold on the train instead. Inside the station there were a lot of posters however. I liked the poster pictured above. The words at the top says only "Come", while the words beneath the cherry blossom tree say "Fukushima Prefecture".

The poster pictured below is an advertisement for a festival held in the town we stayed in. It was taking place just a few weeks after our visit. The photo beneath the poster is a picture of the same location. The poster really makes the city seem exciting, while visiting when it is not the festival shows that there is not much there.

There was a very pretty garden nearby where we stayed, and the cabins themselves looked very pretty.

When we went to Tokyo at the end of the trip we took a surprisingly fancy train. The one pictured here wasn't a shinkansen, but didn't go as slowly as I expected. When I was back in Tokyo I prepared to leave to go back to America.

Fireworks Festival

In the last two weeks I was in Japan I went to a fireworks festival with my girlfriend and some friends. The festival was very exciting. It started fairly early in the day and there were a lot of things to eat and drink. Fireworks festivals are popular in Japan. I was only able to go to one of them, but a few weeks after I left Japan there was the biggest festival in Fukushima city. Around the same time the largest festival in Japan took place in a city to the west of Aizu.

When we arrived there it was still early, and as it became later more and more people arrived. By the time the fireworks were about to start the field was nearly full. This festival took place right next to a river on some sports fields.

This festival took place in Fukushima city, a town that is about two hours by train from Aizu. After the festival we tried to go back to the train station, but were not able to find the bus. We ended up walking to the station, but by that time it was too late to go all the way back to Aizu.

That night instead we went back part way to Aizu and stayed in an internet cafe overnight. It was about $20, and came with the free breakfast pictured below. In the cafe we each got a stall with a big cushion on the floor. This place had strange, square pillows you could borrow as well as blankets. It was a little bit noisy so I was lucky to have earplugs in by bag.

In the end the trip turned out to be a lot of fun, but more of an adventure than we planned. It was interesting to stay in the internet cafe, but next time I think I'd rather sleep in a bed.

Convenience Stores

Convenience stores surprised me when I came to Japan.

In my first week in Japan I was in Aizu and a friend cheerfully suggested we go to 7-11 for dinner. In the United States I very rarely go to a convenience store that is not part of a gas station, and then only when I am driving. Because of this I was very confused about why my friend wanted to go.

When we went I was very surprised at what was inside the store. Unfortunately, now I can't remember very well what it was that surprised me. I have gone to convenience stores in Japan now more that I ever could have imagined. Because I go so frequently here, and would go so rarely back in the United States, I can not remember the American ones very clearly anymore.

Many stores here have hot foods, and 7-11s have doughnuts. These things have been popular with some of my traveling companions, but I prefer the rice-based foods pictured below. Pictured are four rows of Onigiri, a kind of rice ball. When you purchase them you can have them microwaved by the cashier while you pay, then walk away with a hot one.

Japan is not the only country with Onigiri in the convenience stores. I talked to a Taiwanese friend about it and he was very surprised to hear that they didn't have this in America.

One of my favorite parts of the convenience store are the Bento. Some of the ones available can be eaten cold, but as with the Onigiri they can be quickly heated while you pay. Many times when I am going to travel, or have a lot of work to do I will buy a Bento for dinner and then eat it while I do other things.

Pictured below is a snack I bought one day. One the left are some chocolate sticks, the middle are corn-flavored potato chips, and the right is a free coke I won when I bought the chips and chocolate.

There are a few further things that I like about the convenience stores here. Many of them have machines that grind and brew coffee to order. They also have large selections of instant ramen and a lot of kinds of canned coffee.

One difficulty that I had in Japan was because of the popularity of a convenience store called Lawson. Pronounced using Japanese sounds, Lawson becomes ro-son, while Larson becomes ra-son. For the first few months I would sometimes confuse these sounds and either say my name wrong, or hear people talk about the convenience store and think that they are talking to me.

Busy Week

Lately I have been very busy here in Japan, and so I have not had time to write so many blog posts. I have a few planned and coming up, but none to post now.

I have only about three weeks left in Japan. My airplane ticket is set for August 5th, and so I'm starting to prepare to leave already. I've started thinking about packing to return home and which things I don't have room for in my suitcase. I've also purchased parting gifts for several people here in return for their hospitality during my stay.

It's easy for me to be distracted by the present and to not think about leaving Japan very seriously, but I already know that there are many things that I will miss. Probably more things I will only be aware of when they are gone. I certainly miss my family and friends back at home, but a year is a long time to be away. I have close friends and places that feel like home to me on both sides of the world now. Wherever I go in the future I can be close some people that are meaningful to me, but must also be far away from others.

Last week I shared Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken with the kind lady who has been teaching me Japanese for the last few months. In the US it seems like this poem is universally known, but in Japan it is not. Ending my time in Japan I feel a little like the person in the poem. I'm going back to the United States but I'm not really going back. I will continue going forward and trying new things, and the places that I have been will become a part of me.

Ending my time in Japan leaves me with a long list of things I didn't get to do here, but that's okay. I hope to return to Japan in the future, maybe not to live here for too long though, and to be able to revisit old places and see new ones. I've had a good time, but I am looking forward to what is ahead.

Steam Locomotive to Niigata

This past weekend my girlfriend and I took a steam locomotive from Aizuwakamatsu to a city on the west coast of Japan called Niigata. There was a google street view created that allows you to see inside the train, so I have embedded it below.

The train we rode on is not a regular train on this line; It is a sort of specialty train. There are a lot of trains like this in Japan. JR East is the company that runs most of the trains in this part of Japan, and it has an English-language website for these special trains.

Riding on the train was a lot of fun. It was very comfortable inside. So comfortable that some people fell asleep quickly.

There were a lot of pretty views out of the train window. Pictured below is the big mountain near Aizu, Mt. Bandai, covered in clouds.

360 Degree Picture at a Ramen Restaurant

Post from RICOH THETA. #theta360 - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

This past week I got to go to Tokyo again for a school related expo. My professor and some of my classmates all visited my favorite spicy ramen store, Kikanbo Spicy Ramen, in Tokyo, and my professor took this picture with his 360 degree camera before we ate.

Assorted Pictures

The last few weeks have been busy for me. Recently I finished a semester of classes at the university, and began working. Since I took a trip to Minamiaizu with my girlfriend a few weeks ago, I haven't got to do any traveling. In this post I have some pictures that I took but didn't get to post before

The cat pictured above and below was one that lived at a hostel in Osaka. Every day this cat would hang out in front of the hotel.

This is a picture of one of the bushes on campus. For the first part of my time in Aizu I thought that it was just an ordinary bush. This week the bushes bloomed and were very pretty.

These are two meals I had recently. The picture above is a set meal from the school cafeteria, and the dish below is a black sesame ramen dish.

Everything has become more green since I last posted pictures of Aizu. The picture above is of some rice fields near my campus. The picture below is not from Japan, it was sent to me by my family. Pictured are my father and the dog.

Lastly, these are some pictures from an imported foods store. Snyders pretzels and Doritos are both things I haven't had in a long time.