Hej där hemma!
Det har gått en månad sedan sist men jag har ändå inte tid att göra ett ordentligt inlägg då jag är ordentligt upptagen med allt möjligt. En våg av inlämningsuppgifter är på väg att lösa av den faktiska tentaperioden då jag måste kompensera för all tid jag inte studerat hemma under terminens gång. Första tentan är på måndag 1 augusti, och sista på fredagen veckan därpå 12 augusti, och totalt ska 9 tentor skrivas under dessa två veckor (borträknat de två kurser jag hoppat av under terminen).
Men som vanligt så är jag inte upptagen enbart med plugg utan med en massa andra saker också. Min far var här en vecka tills för två veckor sedan, vi firade svensk midsommar med pompa och ståt helgen efter han åkt hem, jag jobbar ju fortfarande och träffar kompisar nästan lika mycket som vanligt. Har speciellt åkt runt mycket sista månaden: hunnit med att åka på sightseeing till Hiraizumi 10 mil bort och Aizu 17 mil bort, körsbärsplockning i Sagae 8 mil bort, en vända till Tokyo (35 mil bort), till en varm källa i Naruko 8 mil bort och på äventyrsbad i Morioka 19 mil bort. Ska imorgon till Nikko 26 mil bort på bussutflykt med skolan och i helgen hälsa på en kompis familj i Tsuruoka i Yamagata 16 mil bort. Sen stannar jag absolut i Sendai tills skolan slutar... Under mitt sommarlov som i år bara blir 2½ vecka långt ska jag dels hinna med att säga ordentligt farväl till Sendai och alla mina vänner här men även resa till minst två ställen långt bort. Ännu mycket osäkert var jag åker men följande platser ligger på önskelistan (ej i ordning): Akita, Nagano, Shizuoka, Kanazawa och Kobe. Jag skulle också vilja om möjligt hälsa på Chiba-värdfamiljen igen på 神津島 Kouzushima, ön utanför Tokyobukten.
Jag låter bilderna berätta resten, har inte tid att skriva mer den här gången! Måste packa nu för Nikko, vi ses!
Bilder:
I went to Hiraizumi on a free tour for foreigners living in Sendai. Hiraizumi has tried to be recognised as a World Heritage for a while now, and by an incredible coincidence it got it's approval during the night before we went there. Therefore some of us were interviewed by newspapers and television, I was by both... The weather however was really bad.
I went on my first and presumably last baseball game in Sendai. Sendai's team ”Rakuten Eagles” is among the weakest pro teams in Japan and in this game they lost against the Fukuoka team ”Softbank Hawks”
With three friends I actually went bungy jumping. It's a small tower (about 20 meters) that is an all-year attraction at one of Sendai's amusement park. The amusement park is located very unconveniently 25 km outside the city up in the mountains and it had very few visitors even on a Saturday with good weather but the landscape view even from the bungy jump tower was incredible.
I went to Aizu-Wakamatsu in western Fukushima with Misato, Mizuho and her boyfriend Umemura. We visited the Byakkotai graves at Iimoriyama and Tsuruga castle, the two famous spots in the city, and we also ate lunch in Kitakata, a neighbor town famous for its ramen noodles (and they we're great!). In the first picture there is a strange house that's just a long spiral stairs built so that you walk in the same direction from the entrance up to the top then down to the exit, without turning around. [me, Mizuho, me, me]
I went on さくらんぼ狩り, cherry picking in Sagae in Yamagata with Mizuho and Umemura. Sooo tasty! We payed 1200 yen (100 kr) and then we could ate as much as we like during a whole hour. After 30 minutes we felt like exploding though... [Mizuho, me]
Dad in Sendai! We began by doing sightseeing in Sendai central city. Then we visited Umemura's family in Natori, and were treated with superb cooking and we even stayed the night!
Two days later me and my father went to Tokyo by shinkansen and stayed the first night at a capsule hotel. Only second time for me and first for my father of course! I'm sleepy in this picture.
We visited 浜離宮 Hamarikyuu, a Japanese garden that has been property of the imperial family, so beautiful. In the evening we ate okonomiyaki/monjayaki (Japanese ”pizza pancake”) which is a dish you often make by yourself even in restaurants. The next day we visited the National Science Museum.
In 上野公園 Ueno park where the museum is located we found some kind of ice sculpture competition with 100 sculptures. It was about 34°C this day so it felt kind of awkward.
My father then went to Kyoto while I returned to Sendai by bus, and he actually stayed at Mizuho's family's house in Osaka which he apparently enjoyed a lot! Then he came back to Sendai by bullet train and we rented a car to visit 鳴子温泉 Naruko hot spring in northern Miyagi prefecture. The scenery in the town was great and the hot spring water too of course. The hotel was also really nice with luxurious dinner and traditional Japanese rooms and pyjamas (浴衣 yukata).
Close to the hot spring hotel we found a cool place called the 地獄谷 “Valley of hell” which was extremely geologically active with hot water and steam pouring out from the ground like everywhere. And also a small geyser as seen in the picture.
We also visited Matsushima, the famous archipelago close to Sendai and took a boat tour. There are always tons of sea gulls following the sightseeing boat and my father didn't really like them...
When I ate lunch with Reno, Misato, Ayumi and Miku, Ayumi showed a most impressive talent of being able to make small people out of eraser scrap (the tiny rubber pieces that appears when you erase things with an eraser)! I'm still stunned!
No summer without a Swedish style midsummer party! Even though we were three weeks late because of different reasons we were not cancelling such an important event. In the first picture we're preparing the food: meatballs out of 4 kg of minced meat, 2 kg of salmon, around 70 boiled potatoes, a fruit salad out of 25 oranges, 25 apples and 50 bananas and much more! Even though the number of participants was actually a little lower than expected (according to Facebook notifications) I think it was a big success! We gathered more than 40 people in the end! [me, Shinjiro*3]
The same weekend there was a big festival in town. Actually the big local festivals of each prefecture in Tohoku region, Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Yamagata, Miyagi and Fukushima, was all held in Sendai during the same weekend in a move to boost the economy in the tsunami devastated areas. It was pretty impressive, but unfortunately the organisers made a huge mistake estimating the number of visitors and the result was that it was extremely crowded, even for Japan. Since I'm tall I could still see something, but most attendees probably didn't see much of the parade.
I also went on a trip to a waterpark けんじワールド Kenji world in 盛岡 Morioka in 岩手 Iwate with Mizuho, Umemura and Misato! It was really fun, the place had lots of sliders and other waterparkish facilities. [Mizuho]
The last picture is from Ayumi's room when we had a small welcome party for Max, one of the Taiwanese students who ended his exchange program in Sendai after the earthquake but is back in town for just two weeks on a kind of a intensive summer course. [Ayumi]
Cool places and nice pictures :)
SvaraRadera