We climbed up a volcano. Well, we thought we did.

Something that’s proving a little difficult lately is actually exploring the hidden gems of both Kumamoto city and Kumamoto prefecture. Whenever I seem to have a free weekend, or take any nenkyuu (holidays), I always overlook my new home as a place to discover.

Thanks to impromptu plans with Sheridan and her friend Willem, who’s over from Australia, I recently got to finally visit Mount Aso and some other sights along the way.

True to form when you’ve made plans, the weather was absolutely shocking. Kudos to Sheridan to actually getting us there and back in one piece, since the mist was so bad up the mountains you could barely see… more on that later.

First we stopped at Yasemegane Bridge, but sadly couldn’t really see much since the earthquake damage in the area was so bad. It’s an ongoing theme in Kumamoto, with most areas at least having some areas closed off due to collapsed bridges and landslides. We then headed to Tsuujun Bridge, which will be a lot more spectacular in better weather, but we were treated to some random sculptures on the riverbank.

Sheridan played a blinder yet again with a fabulous little restaurant in Aso. The ceiling was covered with hundreds of knickknacks hanging down, dumplings, and “I don’t know what this is but its bloody good” dishes filling us to the gunnels. Anyone who visits me and wants to go to Aso, heads up, we’re eating lunch there.

Since the eruption of Mount Aso a few months ago, it’s a little bit more difficult to get close to the crater. We made it, despite roads being half cordoned off from landslides, to what we thought was the way to the view point.
After trekking up a hill and convincing ourselves we were almost definitely walking up the volcano, turns out the actual crater was in the completely opposite direction and we just couldn’t see it because of the fog. Pretty much sums up that dynamic you get when you put Sheridan, Willem and I in a car together and hope for the best.

Earlier on in the day we’d joked that the scenery resembled a Spirited Away plotline and we’d end up in a magical land in the mountains. Honestly, we all thought we had when we stumbled across a little German café in the middle of nowhere. Very Hansel and Gretel-esque, and I’m still not quite sure why it’s even there.

Either way, it was a laughter filled day despite us being cold, wet and stressed when every road we drove down to leave Aso was closed and we thought we’d be stuck there forever.
Let’s hope next time I go, I actually have better luck seeing the sights we’ve drove all the way for!

6 airports in 5 days

Yes you read that right. As you can see, I had a mildly crazy week after the exchange programme finished! I made a pretty spontaneous decision to go back to Seoul for a few days, because hey, why not.

I'm so glad I got to go back to Seoul again, because it really is a wonderful city. I spent time with one of my friends and although I was only there a few days, if that, I managed to explore more places. I even got to go to Lotte World, a famous indoor/outdoor amusement park that is huge. I saw some interesting sights there, namely girls wearing plush toy tails, and couples walking matching animal ears. Not to mention, I made sure to get my fill of banana milk and Korean BBQ while I was there.

After leaving Korea and making a brief stop in Tokyo to see Haruka one last time, I headed to Australia!

I only had one day in Adelaide with Eleni until we flew to meet Chrissie in Melbourne for a girly weekend. It was sooooo good to have a reunion again, almost 8 months later, and it honestly felt like we hadn't spent any time apart. True to fashion, Chrissie had wine awaiting us upon our arrival at the hotel.

Melbourne is a such a cool city to walk around, and it kind of reminded me of a larger Lark Lane back home. Saturday was spent walking along the Yarra river and heading to Chinatown for dumplings. That night we had our official reunion in a place called the Croft Institute, a medical themed bar that gives you a syringe with your drinks. Even the girls bathroom had a hospital bed in, but that was the point in which the place got borderline creepy.

Although the weather wasn't the best, on Sunday we headed to St Kilda beach to see the markets. Officially my first Australian beach experience (well, that I remember)! It got pretty awful and stormy in the afternoon, so we packed up and headed home, not before getting a super yummy Thai curry to ease our still present hangovers. 

All in all, it was a super fun weekend in Melbourne, but also bittersweet since it will be the last time all three of us are together for a long while. Next year when Chrissie and Leni both come to England can't come quick enough!

Living & breathing Japanese (literally, I was on a homestay).

I am extremely grateful to have been involved in a homestay during my time in Kyoto, which took place during my third week of the exchange. My family consisted of my host parents, and two daughters, Miki and Asuka. They also had a pet ferret called Ponta, but don't even get me started on my hatred for that thing. I'm not a fan of being targeted, constantly bitten on the ankles, and even having it break into my room and get INSIDE my pillow case.

It was obviously meant to be, as there were numerous Hello Kitty things in the house, and my room (a small guest room downstairs with a futon) came complete with Hello Kitty curtains. 

I'll always remember how the first thing my family asked me was if I got car sick, and with good reason too, I think my host father fancied himself as a bit of a boy racer down the small Kyoto side streets. My family were super cute, as they struggled with pronouncing my name, like most Japanese people do. Instead, I acquired the nickname of "keito". This was my favourite thing because whenever my host mother would run a bath, she'd shout that to get my attention from upstairs.
Somehow, through a lack of me paying proper attention, I even ended up cooking lasagne for the family one evening because they wanted to experience both my cooking, and some western food. Afterwards, Miki was feeling super sleepy so I taught her the phrase "food coma", which she absolutely loved!

Asuka was studying English for her university entrance exams, so we really helped each other develop ways to remember certain things in our other languages. She would always get confused over her left and right, so I taught her the simple trick of looking at her hands to find the “L”. It was so adorable to see how happy she was after I'd taught her such a simple thing, and needless to say, I trusted her directions a lot more from that point on.
Most evenings after dinner seemed to be the time when my host family would socialise. It often ended up with me telling them about random things they wanted to know about England. One evening, I even spent almost two hours trying to teach my host mother how to say "the earth is round" without making her r's sound like w's. It ended up with me making her practically growl to get the noise out, much to Miki and Asuka's amusement. 
Another evening, there was a discussion about my dislike of heated Japanese toilet seats, which they couldn't understand my logic of it feeling like someone has just been sat on it before you. Also note to self, never, ever try to explain the concept of a Yorkshire pudding to anyone in Japanese, it's not going to go well!

My confidence in speaking Japanese has come on leaps and bounds, proven by the fact we had to give a speech about our experiences to fellow classmates at the end of the exchange. On the first day, I was put off by just introducing myself in the language to people I knew had a greater ability, but by the end I was much more confident in my own ability. I know this is definitely down to being involved in a homestay, and even though sometimes I had no clue what my host parents were saying to me, I managed to find ways around this and be able to wing it.

In Kyoto we saw so many people dressed in kimonos and yukata, and one evening we even got a chance to wear yukata ourselves at a festival on campus. There was also a Hawaiian themed DJ night going on, which I can only describe as if the SU was more tame, had a cream carpet and closed at 8:30. What a random experience that was!
Aside from my time with my host family, I made a trip to Osaka to try the famous okonomiyaki and visit Dontonboori, where I took an obligatory photo with the iconic Glico sign. KUFS also organised us to experience a calligraphy session and a tea ceremony, which was a great insight into traditional Japanese life.
Our final day involved a ceremony and leaving party, which consisted of a lot of picture taking, goodbyes and also a nice little certificate saying I'd successfully completed the programme. We ended our final night by visiting Osaka for a firework display along the river during the Tenjin Matsuri.

I don’t think I’ve taken as many photographs as I have during these past three weeks, and yes, I have been that tourist taking pictures of trees. You could live in Kyoto all of your life and still have only just scratched the surface, and I really hope I get the opportunity to go back some day! 

Arashiyama & Fushimi Inari: off the bucket list.

Kyoto was filled with even more hustle and bustle during my second week there, as the Gion Matsuri was fast approaching! Floats began being built on the streets in the weeks leading up to it, and one day we actually got to board one to see what it was like. All of them have different meanings and are very intricate, but sticking to tradition. none of them are actually powered. During the festival parade, the floats are pulled by various men, and when it comes to turning down streets, bamboo is laid on the floor and sprayed with water, before the wheels are slid along.

Sadly for us, by the time the parade came around, a typhoon had also made landfall in Japan. That didn't stop us from going, however I'm pretty sure it really put a dampener (excuse the pun) on the festival as a whole, since not nearly as many people came to watch.

Despite classes being as jam packed as ever, I managed to visit a fair few places that I'd wanted to go! Firstly, we had a day trip organised to Arashiyama, nearing the outskirts of Kyoto. We took the Torokko train one way alongside, then returned on a boat cruise along the Hozugawa river. It was such a relaxing experience, and while we were on the river a food boat even moored up to us that sold dango and fresh squid. Then we finally got to the famous bamboo groves of Arashiyama, and I got to experience something known in Japanese as komorebi. It can only be translated in English as the sunlight that filters through the trees, and to see that through the bamboo groves was pretty beautiful.

That day was super hot, so we decided to go to Fushimi Inari for sunset. It was actually pretty cool when we arrived, because there was a rainbow over the tori gates, then watching the sunset over the mountain was spectacular. The pictures really don't do it justice.

Another place I visited was Kiyomizu-dera, probably another of the most famous places in Kyoto. The views of Kyoto are stunning and when you visit the main hall, you feel in a weird way like you're floating on the mountainside. I went with Misa and Miho, who I was a buddy to when they went on exchange to Keele last year. They were so adorable, as they'd been to Universal Studies in Osaka the day before and bought me some Hello Kitty stuff since they knew I hadn't gone. They even took me to a Hello Kitty restaurant I didn't even know existed, and I have to say it was super adorable. Hello Kitty shaped pasta is my new favourite thing. Later that day I met up with my current buddy Aoi, who took me around the smaller lesser known streets in Gion to get a Kyoto special matcha parfait. 

Finally, we also visited Nijo Castle, which was completely different to all of the other temples and shrines in Kyoto. It was definitely more regal, and considering it was so close to our hotel, I'm surprised it took us so long to finally go there.

That evening, a lot of the exchange kids decided to have a farewell since we left for our homestay the day after. We went to Sakura bar, which served all you can eat izakaya snacks and we all had a ball. I'm really surprised by how well we all get on, and it was nice to finally spend time socially together rather than just in class. It was a little bittersweet to be leaving for our homestay too, since we knew we'd have less freedom and less time to get to know eachother, but let's be honest, the homestay was probably what the exchange was going to be all about!

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.

Hajimemashite, Tokyo!

Tokyo was the final stop on my mini tour of Asia with Haruka, and what a much needed pre-uni break it was! I hadn't realised how much I'd done in both Hong Kong and Seoul until I finally got a chance to chill out at Haruka's house. Although I've met her mum before, this was my first chance to meet her entire family which I was super excited about! Her brother actually lives about 5 minutes away from my accommodation when I'm in Kyoto, so it's nice to know I have someone there incase I need it.

On the evening we arrived, after a traumatic bus ride from the airport (note to self: don't drink coffee, milk, orange juice, water AND tea all before getting on a two hour bus with no toilet), I was treated to what Haruka's dad called a traditional Japanese bbq. I have to say, rice on a bbq was a new one to me! After that I was surprised with a birthday cake, since turning 20 is a big deal in Japan as you're finally deemed an adult. However my highlight had to be meeting Mimi, my favourite little pug. She developed a liking for chewing the plushy toy key rings on my backpack and stealing my socks, but you can't hold a grudge against a pug that lets you hold her like a baby.

The next day we went to Shin Yurigoaka station, the train station Haruka lives near to. It baffled me when I had only known her a few months and she announced she was having a day out at the train station, but now it made more sense. There's a lot of stores, even some cute ones like Kiddyland (the best place on earth for the likes of me, who are too old to really like animated characters but do anyway) so I did treat myself to some Gudetama socks. Great first purchase in Japan, Caitlin...

After practicing my Katakana reading practice in the Mister Donut, we headed to Uobei sushi for dinner with Haruka's mum. This was pretty cool, because you use tablets to order your food, which then gets delivered to your table by a conveyor belt, by a racing car, space shuttle and a shinkansen (bullet train).

Shibuya and Harajuku were on the cards for our next day, and if I'm honest, it wasn't at all what I expected. You get the perception that Tokyo is full of crazy fashion everywhere, especially in Harajuku, when in fact I barely saw that many. Haruka took me to Shibuya crossing first, and I really want to go back there during the rain to try and get some cool pictures of the umbrellas from above. Afterwards, we went to an ichiran restaurant, a ramen place where you order your food from a vending machine, get a ticket to select your ingredient preferences and sit in a booth made for one. You don't even see the people serving you, as they are hiding by a curtain. That was a strange experience, but oh my god, hands down the best ramen I've ever had! 

When we headed to Harajuku, I bullied Haruka into taking purikura with me, those typical photo booths where they make you look super kawaii and Japanese. It was hilarious, because they made my eyes look even bigger and I resembled an alien, and it was more worrying how Haruka actually suited the plastic surgery like things it did to us!

I was shocked that across the road from Harajuku station is Meiji Shrine, which you would have no idea was there. It's so peaceful and is such a contrast to the busy streets that it was probably my favourite "hidden" place I've found in Tokyo so far. Harajuku is famous for its crepes, so of course that had to be eaten before heading home too.

The next few days were more relaxed with me getting myself prepared for Kyoto. We headed to Yokohama in the afternoon just in time to see the ferris wheel lighting up. Yet again, we ended up at another romantic date spot so I think Haruka is trying to suggest something subconsciously... That was a food filled day, with Haruka's mum giving me my first yakisoba, then we got okonomiyaki and monja when we headed to Yokohama. It was a cool experience being able to cook the food in front of us, and it was amazing. Okonomiyaki is sort of a noodle omelette pancake with yummy goodness, and monja looks so wrong but tastes so right and I can't even explain it. You just eat it with tiny little metal spatulas which is a selling point in itself.

Over the next two days Haruka and I went to Shibuya again to smash karaoke which was the funniest experience I've had in a long time. Weird seeing people going into the booths alone though, who obviously take themselves way too seriously! Once Jane arrived we went into Tokyo again to the skytree, although the weather was too cloudy to see the top and we didn't go up. For my last evening, the Hattori's took us for sukiyaki, which was similar to hotpot and was an all you could eat meat place.

I'm still getting used to how most things I expect to be savoury in Japan are sweet, but now I've got myself prepared for my time in Kyoto!

I probably won't blog as much since wifi is harder to get ahold of, plus I'll have classes to attend, but hang on for the next update of my uni experience! 

Hong Kong, it's good to back.

After spending a week here now, this has already been an entirely different experience to when I came here almost 3 years ago now. There's been something kinda nice about knowing a city just enough to get by on your own, but also have so many places you're yet to have been .
I've been so lucky in the fact three of the girls I met on the exchange, Corane, Connie and Crystal, have made time in their busy schedules to spend some time with me. My first two days were spent with Corane, exploring some of the lesser known areas of Hong Kong, which I really appreciated. Not only did she take me back to Sai Kung, a village in the New Territories which was hands down my favourite place I visited last time, but she also gave me some first time experiences on the Star Ferry, the ding ding (tram), along with a traditional HK style breakfast. This "local tour" really enhanced my experience from the word go since I'd never be able to go half the places she took me without a Cantonese speaker! Connie also gave me my first proper tour around the markets in Kowloon, before we were treated to a homestyle meal by Crystal. This was yet another side to Hong Kong,  as she lives in Kowloon City, by where the old Kai Tak airport used to be. Although there are still some skyscrapers in the area, it was nice to be able to get an idea what Hong Kong must have looked like back in the day.

Since I can't rely on everyone all the time,  I've made some lone trips to mid-levels, Stanley market, the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical gardens, Chi Lin nunnery and Nai Lan garden during my days. I also took a day trip to Macau, which with its Portuguese influences was totally different than what I had imagined. Very much two worlds: huge casinos and winding streets with bakeries selling egg tarts. I'm glad I went, however I think the ferry traumatised me a little too much.

The heat and humidity is a real killer, so I will admit I do occasionally take refuge in some of the many shopping malls around. I'm also embracing my inner Asian having bought a super cute umbrella to protect myself from the sun. I'm definitely to pale to cope otherwise! My mission to visit as many Hello Kitty themed locations is also going well, as I went to one in Macau and one in Hong Kong. Saving the best until last when it comes to the Hello Kitty dim sum restaurant! That's being saved for this weekend when Haruka, Jane and I are all reunited here.