Fun times near Mt. Fuji!

This weekend, Mike, Lori and I got a little break from the kindergarten and traveled down to Shizuoka to see Mt. Fuji. We planned to stay with Brianna Danese, a former Spring Arbor student who now teaches English in Japan. Before meeting her on Saturday night, we stopped by the Imperial Palace in Tokyo for a day trip. The grounds inside the Palace were open free of charge to the public and most of what we saw were gardens. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and looked b-e-autiful!

Here's the view of the Palace from the sidewalk. On our way there, we were passed by a bunch of sweaty runners- I think there was a race going on through the downtown.

Japanese maples and sakura (cherry blossoms)! I'm not sure if this was a church or a temple, but it sure looked cool.

Nijubashi Bridge

After looking around the Palace gardens, we headed out to find lunch. We found Dear Soup, which sounded so perfect to me because soup is a food so dear to my heart! We had to order right away before sitting down and I pointed to a red soup with lots of vegetables in it. The waiter told me it was Minestrone, and I was a little disappointed because I was hoping to be adventurous and try something else, especially when Lori told me she had ordered squash curry. But it turned out to be wonderful and my tummy was completely satisfied.

We had to leave for Shizuoka mid-afternoon because it took us three hours to get there by bus. I actually really enjoyed the long bus ride. I finished reading Pride and Prejudice (there was a copy of it in our room at the school) and listened to music and watched the scenery of Japan roll past.

We met Brianna in Shizuoka and had to take a train to her town of Fujieda. Brianna and I have only talked through e-mail, so none of us had met her before meeting her at the station. She turned out to be a wonderful host and we had a great time talking to her about her job and experience in Japan. She went on the same trip we did when she was at Spring Arbor, so she knows the Nishimura family and the school and some of the things we are experiencing each day. It was fun talking about weird quirks of the Japanese culture, random English words around Japan, and things we miss about home.

Her apartment in Fujieda was tiny-typical Japanese style- so we all had to squish inside. The place was about the size of a dorm room and fit a shower, bathroom, kitchen with a sink and stove top, and a loft for sleeping. It was actually really cute and I was trying to picture myself living in one if I happened to come back to teach in Japan in the future. Brianna hasn't eaten dinner, so she took us to a Mexican restaurant (hooray! my favorite!) in downtown Fujieda. I was in heaven as I ate my burrito. We've eaten great food while being here, but I miss Mexican food so much!

On Sunday morning, we went to Brianna's church after a delicious french toast and bacon (basically ham in Japan) breakfast, which was in both English and Japanese. It was nice being able to sing and understand a sermon again! I had forgotten that it was Palm Sunday and Easter in next Sunday! Easter and Christmas are not big in Japan since such a small percentage of the people practice Christianity (Minako told us that people work on Christmas. What?!?) The congregation of her church was pretty big and very friendly. I was able to talk with some people and explain what we were doing here.

After church, we met two of Brianna's students, Youske and Kanichi, who drove us to Mt. Fuji. Brianna teaches English for a company called Aeon, rather than a school. She has students ranging from kids to an elderly woman. Youske and Kanichi (both men) were in their twenties and spoke English very well. Mike and I rode in Youske's car. It was fun getting to know him and probably especially nice for Mike because he's around girls ALL the time. On our way, we picked up Michiko, Brianna's manager. She was a riot. She kept laughing at me because I usually get sleepy on long car rides and would laugh when I closed my eyes for a minute or two.

We drove to a special lookout point for Mt. Fuji, but it was overcast on Sunday so we didn't see it until later and even then we only saw the snowy peak of it. It was a bummer, but we decided to have fun anyway!!! We all got tasty treats at the gift shop across from the lookout. I order Milk flavored ice cream (I think that's what the Japanese consider Vanilla) and Lori and Youske got these yummy looking crepes. Lori kept calling it a "splurge" but it was only a little bit more expensive and not that big, so Mike and I made fun of her.

I liked this cow.

The "Splurge"

Michiko knew of a park with the Shiraito Falls so we checked that out since Mt. Fuji was a bust!

The water was so clear and blue. Too chilly to swim though! Youske told me the water isn't from a lake, but from the snow that melts from Mt. Fuji.

Lori, Mike and I with Michiko, Youske, and Kanichi

Our wonderful host, Brianna!

Mike with a creepy mannequin.

Lori, Mike and I have been wanting to try Japanese karaoke since it is so popular, so we ended up going with our new friends. Michiko told us she was a VIP member of a karaoke place (HA!) so we went there. Japanese karaoke is quite different from karaoke in the U.S. because you don't sing to a bar full of people. Instead, you get a private room for your party compete with the karaoke machine and a big screen TV and huge books full of songs (English and Japanese songs). Michiko got us going with by singing first, but then I think everyone else was a bit shy. In the end, we sang together for most of the songs as loud and obnoxiously as we could. It was great. Our best was probably either our love ballad of "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, our back-to-back singings of "L-O-V-E" by Nat King Cole (Mike accidentally pushed some button to make it play twice) or Michiko's demanding choice of "Womanizer" by Britney Spears.

After karaoke, we headed over to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant and feasted on raw fish. Yum! Kanichi sat with Lori, Mike, and I and kept picking out things that I probably wouldn't think to order on my own, like eel. Salmon and tuna are still my favorites though. We said goodbye to Michko, Youske, and Kanichi after dinner and driving back to Fujieda. It was great to meet them and we had such a fun time getting to know them too!

On Monday morning, we left Brianna's apartment and headed back to school. It took us most of the day to get back home because we had the long bus ride and then the train ride from Tokyo to the local station. The skies were a lot clearer on Monday, but we passed Mt. Fuji and still could only see the very top. I guess it has to be very very clear to be able to see it from where we were. Once we got to Tokyo, we had to ride the subway a few stations to get on the line that would take us back to school. It was around rush hour time and it was so packed in the subway! The three of us took up a little extra space because we had our bags from the weekend, but I was practically hugging the woman next to me. My friend John showed me this video of subway "pushers" in Tokyo who pushed people onto the subway during rush hour. I didn't believe it when I saw it because it looked so ridiculous, but now I'm sure the pushers exist! This weekend was so fun for so many reasons and may have been my favorite of our trips so far!