"Why didn't you stay longer with the parents?"
They wanted me gone so they could do the packing and get to the MTC. :P
So I did almost nothing this week. Well, not completely true. When writing in my diary, I see that I did something every day. Just...not much. :)
Except Monday! So you get to see my trip to Hikone!
So, Hikone is...about a 2 hour train ride north of me. (North East, otherwise we end up in the ocean). It's a little out of the way, and a smaller tourist area, so not as crowded. Still, it is a LOVELY place, and it has a nice castle! I didn't know about it, but a friend invited me along. :)
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| Hikone castle |
I have to keep reminding myself that these castles were compounds and the parts we see are just the towers. The main living areas are rarely (if ever) restored. I really would like to see a fully restored one some day though. That would be so cool!
(my brain is a little foggy today, so this might be even more rambling than usual.) SO! The castle! There's a routine to visiting most restored castles.
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| first you take off your shoes. |
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| then you climb a bunch of REALLY steep stairs |
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| you end up in a cool top room |
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| and you look over the city! |
There are a few things to remind us that these are military towers. For instance, there's a hidey hole!
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| this is good for retreat, and for hiding people to jump out and attack. |
and again, the STAIRS
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| let's see you climb THAT in a kimono. |
And of course, the fact that it's on a hill
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| lots of hill. |
in order to accomodate people that have trouble walking around such a steep hill (it REALLY was) they had walking sticks people could borrow!
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| how cool is that! |
And, being Japan, there was a mascot.
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| Hikoneko (Hikone's cat) |
He's pretty famous, apparently.
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| Everyone wanted a picture. |
We also went to the connected Museum
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| Samurai armor |
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| Noh mask |
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| Noh kimono |
Apparently the lord of this castle was a BIG fan of the ancient art of Noh, or Japanese opera. There was even a Noh stage right in the middle of the house.
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| We were not allowed near. |
There was lots of cool stuff in the museum, and some of it, I'll admit, I half wanted to walk off with.
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| no one would notice, right? |
But there was good security, so no chance of that.
There was also a garden we went to! The light was going, so I didn't get many pictures.
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| there were so many cool bridges though! |
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| hello little blossoms, do you know it's January? |
Oh! And as it IS new year, we saw a shrine earlier in the day!
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| year of the rooster, I guess |
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| FIRE! |
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| good luck arrows. |
And they had these new year decorations everywhere!
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| this is a particularly big one. |
It invites the God of the New Year to come down, and the green is good luck. :)
Then we went to Biwako (lake Biwa) and chilled for a little
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| oooOOOooo |
Before catching the train back. In all, a very nice time!
The rest of the week, I did little things. I went into Osaka
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| yeek |
I got a new basket for my bike!
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| WOO! |
I did shopping, I did cooking, I went to the doctors (always an adventure when you don't speak the language). Went to the bath house (no pictures from that) and...yeah! Good week!
Oh, and I finally saw Rogue One. :)
Next week school starts on Wednesday, so I gotta make sure I'm ready to go! I did some lesson planning already, but there's a bit more before I'm all done!
I hope you all are doing well!
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