Hiroshima Trip. Day:2 尾道 Onomichi

I am back! 

It's spring beak time in Japan because the school year has endedl!

I will have no school whatsoever until the beginning of April and will promise you I will update as much as I can.

So to start off lets continue from the hiroshima trip I went last year.. haha

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I went to Onomichi which is a town where its known for all the legendary writers in Japan and its also known for the beautiful scenery of the sea and the town. 

And ramen!

My first time lining up this much 

to eat this. The price was approx 9 bucks.

Very good! Not to heavy like the pork base ramens.

Below are the pictures I took at Onomichi.

We spent the whole day there just walking around enjoying the scenery.

The sign says "No dogs are allowed to pee on this pole" 

I say this sign is even nastier then dogs actually peeing on this pole. 

Let's go up the mountain!

Many things look very retro because of the history of the town.

Hiroshima Trip. Day:1

Above is a picture of Oysters.

Hiroshima is known for oysters.

Yes! I went to Hiroshima over the winter break! Probably the worst way to start a post.

So some people may be wondering where hiroshima is.

I made a very awesome map for u guys. 

So I hopped on the night bus right after my zemi

and took a 12 hour long bus ride to Hiroshima city in the Hiroshima Prefecture.

The bus ride was a lot better than I expected because of how the back seats go down like a business level on a plane and there was plenty of leg space.

We also stopped by Service Areas once in a while for washroom breaks.

This is the amazing washroom vending machine.

Well u dont have to pay or click any buttons but it tells u which toilet is occupied.

(Actually its nothing like a vending machine)

Clean!

Map to tell us where in Japan we are in.

Picture of the service area that sells everything.

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And FINALLY after three washroom breaks along the way, 

I have reached hiroshima station.

 This time, I did travel to Hiroshima by myself but I met up with a friend there.

She is a very good friend of mine who is from Hiroshima.

But we met in Toronto.

And she was back for the winter break from Toronto.

So we met up in Hiroshima.

We were really happy to see each other :D

I also met up with my other exchange friend from my home university who currently lives in Nagoya.

And along with the crazy three of us (well the two girls including myself were crazy and our Nagoya guy is not so crazy) tagged along, well, who helped us navigate our way through the day was my Toronto friend's sister. 

After some tears of joy that we have finally all met we went into the city side of Hiroshima.

I am actually doing work.

After the looooongg niceeeee winttterrrr break (which I still haven't written about).

I had work coming.

HOMEWORK.

ACTUAL READINGS.

Which I haven't done for a long time. Well actually since april.

Let me explain to you.

Japanese school is an amazing place to build relationships with people and to enhance your skill on various sports and activities and its the perfect time to travel.

But what I've noticed taking classes here is that teachers do teach but many of them are not meant for public speaking and definitely not meant to be profs. 

They look down. They don't get upset at students who are not paying attention.

They are talking to themselves and none of the students are listening.

This doesn't go for all teachers of corse but it's unbelievable in western standards. 

The curriculum is too easy as well and I really didn't have to do anything.

 Until NOW.

So saying all of this, the semester ends soon (end of Jan) and 

now I have shit load of essays and projects to do.

I guess I deserve this as I was slacking off for several months.

Good luck to me and I'll try to update little at a time!

Christmas in Japan

Christmas in Japan is a bigggg deal in a different way from the western culture.

In Japan its a day for couples and its not a day for families to pray and talk about Jesus Christ like in Canada and Europe. 

It's understandable since a lot of the people in Japan are not Christians and a lot of people still have work on the 24th and 25th. Unbelievable in western standards but Japanese people do it.

So what did I do?

I spent it with friends. 

Since I dont have my family here and I dont have the special "someone" to celebrate it with. lol

It was an interesting Christmas. Different from all the others I spent in my whole life because there was no snow and I didn't have a christmas tree at my place. 

And most of all I didn't have eggnog this year.

Instead of turkey and nice cup of wine I had some grilled/BBQ beef and pork and chicken.

This is called "Yakiniku" in Japan.

Mhmm good.

Cooked some German Christmas dinner with my roommate (Main Chef) and friends for the christmas party.

Above is cabbage.

Onions

End of the year means lots of party.

It's (It was) end of the year time 

which means its party time 

which means its food time!

At the end of the year japanese ppl like to celebrate with some end of the year parties called "Bounenkai".

I got to join some bounenkai / some random parties at the last few weeks of december. 

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I met with some classmates from highschool and had a mini Class Reunion in shinjuku.

Below are some food pictures I took.

Salad.

Mita Festival back in November

It's Mita-sai Season. 

No, it's already been a month since mita festival has started and ended.

But I never got to post about it because I totally forgot about it lol.

I did write about it a little bit when I wrote about my dance performance at mita fest.

Let me flip back to my previous post though (click here) and freshen my memory.

Well to explain this festival briefly,

its a huge school festival with loads of food and ppl crowded on our campus.

Ppl who are not from our school can join and you see many type of ppl u usually won't see. 

Enjoy the festive mood u usually can't experience in Canadian schools.

Banners to welcome guests.

Food venues.

Main stage where ppl perform their music and dance etc.

Marketing Competition Part 3: The day of the competition and touring around osaka

This is a traditional japanese food you can only eat in Osaka.

Just kidding.

This is the burger my senpai bought for us when we were at the Kobe City University of Foreign Studies for the marketing competition.

After the trip to Kyoto and preparation for the competition we travelled to Kobe to compete. 

Our senpai also bought some energy drink for us!

And the time of the marketing competition has come.

To briefly explain the competition,

 we were told to create a marketing plan to sell this clothing brand using social network tools. 

I think we did a good job creating the plan but unfortunately the "feasibility" which we took most consideration of was not a big criteria and the winner group which had the most exicitng and entertaining presentation took first place. It was really regretful that we couldn't get first place but being selected to perform our plan out of the 24 groups, and to be able to work hard on one thing in Japan, I was really happy to be taking part of this. I probably wouldn't have joined this competition if it wasn't for my friends in the zemi and my prof.  

I would love to be part of something like this again.

Some flamenco dance.

My senpai and my group members. Proud to be Keio students.

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After the competition and mingling with the judges and other contestants, our teacher came from all the way from tokyo to visit us. We then went to dinner in this bar/restaurant in Sanomiya, Hyougo Prefecture. 

This is some cabbage. That we munch on.....

No we are not some herbivore animals but a lot of bars serve this as a starter.

Extra chilled cold beer. It's apparently chilled in an atmosphere under 0 degrees.