The adventures of Alice in Japan continue! We would like to thank Alice for continuing to share her stories and pictures with us!
And now...from Alice;
It is now three months into my exchange, and I have just switched host families. My new host family seems to be very nice! They have 3 cats and a dog, which I am very happy about. I feel I had just adjusted to life before everything changed, so now I have to settle in again. Since I’m getting better at speaking Japanese, it’s going pretty smoothly. I do miss my first host family.
Before switching, I went to several places. I went to Takayama with a group of Rotarians and a friend of mine who lived in America. She’s so nice! We went to a cool vintage museum full of games and items from the sixties to the eighties. We got to play on all of the old consoles!
After Takayama, my first host family and I celebrated Halloween. I taught them how to carve pumpkins! It was fun to teach them a tradition from my family.
Next, I went to Kyoto with my host brother, his wife, and their friend. We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) there! It went around 200 mph! It got us there in about 40 minutes! We walked on many busy streets around Hokan-ji, and there were many yummy foods such as dango. Then we visited Shinbutsu Reijo Junpai no Michi, it had breathtaking views. After, we went to the very famous Fushimi Inari-Taisha, filled with Japanese gates called “Torii!” Our dinner was sukiyaki, similar to Shabushabu but with a different cooking style and sauce. Very yummy! We then went to see a spectacular light show at Nijo-Jo castle that also had projection mapping.
In the morning, we went to the bamboo forest where there were “Jinrikisha,” human powered carts! We didn’t get to ride, but it looked interesting. Next, we went to Arashiyama to go to the Katsuragawa River, with the famous Togetsukyo bridge. We did an hour-and-a-half boat ride that was so majestic! The boat paddlers were very talented and impressive as we traveled the rapids and went downstream, surrounded by mountains, birds, ducks, and even turtles! After that, we went to Kinkaku-ji, a temple made completely of gold. We then went back on the Shinkansen and quickly rode home! We took so many trains during the trip, some were so crowded I could barely move.
After that weekend, I saw a jet show with some Rotarians and a friend who used to live in America. It was so cool and very loud! All of the pilots were so talented, I loved watching it. The dinner we ate was shabushabu, which is one of my favorites.
