Drip drip drop, little (by that I mean relentless) April showers.

My parents recently visited Japan for the first time, and I was able to join them for all but one part (Tokyo) of their whirlwind journey. We visited Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Miyazaki prefectures, all in the space of 9 days. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

The only place I hadn’t been to before was Hiroshima, and what a beautiful place. My parents had timed their visit to coincide with the cherry blossom, and once we arrived in Hiroshima, the sakura were in full bloom.  Hiroshima itself was somewhere I’ll definitely be returning to soon. It had such a relaxed vibe, and that, along with hundreds of people enjoying hanami (cherry blossom viewing) along the riverbanks, made it utterly beautiful despite the greyness.

Visiting the Atomic Bomb Museum was a solemn one, as you’d expect, however I’d recommend anyone to go to the museum in Nagasaki instead. While Hiroshima is still the more well-known of the two atomic bomb targets, that is seemingly its downfall, as I felt like I was being hurried through the museum without any time to reflect.

The day we took a trip to Miyajima was the only day we weren’t soaked. It’s somewhere I’ve wanted to go for a while to see the Great Torii gate of Itsukushima Shrine, and it didn’t disappoint. We also took the cable car to the top of the moutain, and the view was just stunning. Momiji manjyu is now one of my favourite local delicacies, and the fried version, age momiji, is something else.  

I also had the most hilarious food experience after going to a recommended ‘hole in the wall’ Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki restaurant. After explaining to the elderly woman working (doing everything alone might I add), that my mum wasn’t a particularly adventurous foodie, she proceeded to practically shove things in my mum’s mouth to prove it was okay and cook away at 100 mph.

Never did I see the day I’d be taking my parents to purikura, but we took some hilarious photos there. The one I chose in Hiroshima apparently gave my dad a sensory overload, much like the pachinko parlour I told my mum to just pop her head into.

My parents have vouched to return to Japan again, and I can only hope they decide to take things easier. Here’s me, over a week later, still catching up on sleep after Japanese-ing to within an inch of my life. 

All in all though, I’m happy they actually got to see what my life over here is like, especially after meeting Sheridan and Clare, and spending a few evenings in cute little Kumamoto. 

They got to meet Kohei too! Even if I did have to spend a day nursing him to recovery, I’ll give him credit where credit’s due… he attempted to keep up with my dad’s bourbon drinking, not a feat many would take on. 

So here's to next time, when their new found love for Kumamon and fancy Japanese toilets will have hopefully blossomed even more. またね！

Geishas, Gion and a Golden Pavilion.

Well Kyoto, you didn't disappoint. Especially since on the first night I arrived the star festival was taking place on the street outside the hotel, so there were kimonos, yukata and street food galore! That first night was a bit of a blur after travelling, and I had to wait for Izzy my roommate to arrive quite late. The next day we had a day to explore before classes started, so we grabbed some custard taiyaki and had a mooch. I'm also convinced I broke my toe that day by kicking my suitcase, since it turned purple within the hour and still hurts now. Either way, I should be doing nursing since my taping skills were on point. That night we headed to get ramen with Xiao, and what was intended to be a quiet night was very much the opposite after we ventured into a basement "cafe". It turned out to be a cocktail bar, that after ordering ramen and tempura, whipped out the karaoke machine for us, while providing wigs and sunglasses for us to wear whilst on the stripper pole. I'm not sure if they were laughing with us or at us, but either way we had a ball, and I'm 99% sure they took some videos of us singing which could be anywhere.

The next few days were filled with classes, which have been great because they're much more conversational speaking based than I'm used to back at home. KUFS is actually pretty strange too! It's much smaller than I imagined, and you can tell a huge divide between boys and girls at lunch, when all the girls are in the cafeteria and the guys are sat outside. Most days we spent the afternoons exploring around the many temples, shrines and castles that Kyoto has to offer. You could live here all your life and not visit them all, I'm not kidding.

One day after class Hitomi, a girl we know from Keele, visited and took Izzy and I to Yasaka Shine and Chionin temple in Gion. We saw so many people dressed in kimonos and yukata since the Gion festival was coming up! I was made up too since we stumbled across some geishas when we were walking around Gion, which was pretty surreal because I felt like I'd gone back in time. Afterwards I had my first izakaya (Japanese pub) experience, and despite the random 60's British rock playing in the background, had a ball trying all sorts of new interesting foods. Cheese mochi balls are my new favourite thing.

KUFS organised a day trip to Nara for us, which is about an hour away from Kyoto. The temples are filled with deer, I have no idea why, and it amused me how there were actually instructions located everywhere on how to deal with a deer attack. One got a little friendly with the cuddly toys on my backpack, but I got a selfie with another so I think that's a pretty good achievement.

We've gotten pretty friendly with some Americans and Costa Ricans so have spend a fair few nights bonding over sake in our rooms. Saturday was fun-filled with it being Xiao's 20th birthday, and we started it by heading to Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion. It was weird, because don't get me wrong, it was impressive, but I think the hype was a bit much. Out of the many temples I've visited I could think of so many others that were much more impressive. We then headed to Kyoto Tower, and after resisting all Hello Kitty merchandise as much as possible, we headed up. While we were there a cute little Japanese guy was painting caricatures, so we decided to get one. It was actually pretty good and I appreciated the fact he included my resting bitch face.

To conclude the celebrations, we headed into Gion, found a rowdy bar and befriend some Irish and lots of Japanese before loitering around before getting the first train home at 5am. All in all, we had a great first week. And life lesson, alcohol may not make your Japanese better, but hey, at least you feel like it is.