After a relaxing and rejuvenating stay at Kurokawa, Amy and I continued our travels. Now we are heading to the city of Hiroshima, best known for its century old shrine and gate on the water (Miyajima Jinja) and of course the atomic bombing of 1945.
Summer holidays are not over, and neither are my travels. This time Amy and I set on an adventure to venture into the mountains of Kumamoto prefecture, into a small town called Kurokawa onsen. It took us 3 hours to get there by bus from Kumamoto station; it was a long ride, but totally worth it.
The rest of my trip to Tokyo this year included seeing, touching, hugging, eating and buying Pikachus. Im serious, I did everything imaginable to those pikachus.
Comiket is the worlds biggest anime convention. It is different from cons in the West though, because comiket was originally established as a market place for comics (hence the name Comic Market) as apposed to western cons which are more to celebrate the love for anime and manga. These days comiket held at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center, a huge building close to Odaiba, and around 500,000 people visit each day during the 3 day period in summer and winter.
The city of Ibusuki is famous in Kyushu for its hot onsen and of course rejuvenating sand baths. To get a hands on (or buts on in this case) experience, we decided to make the Iwasaki Hotel our main holiday destination. The hotel itself is rather old, probably built in the 70s; the service is ok, nothing special; the food is mediocre and expensive; but the baths are perfect. It is hard to explain what I felt when lying on scorching hot sand (up to 55°C) while covered with hot (but not as hot) sand. Sweat was driving down my face, my chest was tight and my but was on fire (from lying on burning sand), but I felt relieved. Lying in this sand helped me relax and it probably has more healing effects on the body which I am not aware of, but it felt great overall.
There were also fireworks in our hotel and on the last day of our stay, after the typhoon passed, we were finally able to sunbathe. You can check out my photos right here:
And Amy’s photos here:
A lot of things a very different in Japan compared to the West, such as their manners, the convenience of everything around you and of course the superb customer service. So when I decided to get a haircut, my first haircut in Japan, I was pleasantly surprised with the service. They sat me down and asked me what kind of cut I wanted while showing me a magazine with various mens cuts which I could chose from. Then once I decided to go with short (like some guy named Kenta in the photo of the magazine) they sat me down on this chair that automatically lowers and rises (adjusts) to the hair washing sink. So he started cutting my hair, very carefully and diligently as my hair is really thick and he didn’t want to hurt me. We spent the whole 40 minutes chatting about me and why I am in Kagoshima, with he complimenting me multiple times on my level of Japanese.
So after he finished, the barber pressed a button on the chair which made it spin 180° and stop in front of the mirror. Then the back of the chair started slowly descending so that my head would fit perfectly into the hair wash sink. The guy washed my hair, dried it, combed it and even showed me what the back of my neck looks like with a angled mirror. Then he took me to the door, opened it and bowed to me, while saying that I should come again.
This place also has discounts for foreigners, so the normal 3500¥ became 860¥! Such a great deal and great quality. Would recommend.
鹿児島への理解を深めてもらおうと、鹿児島市に住む外国人留学生に図書カードと市内の路面電車などが利用できる乗車カードが贈られました。
鹿児島市は、市内に住みながら大学や専門学校などで学んでいる留学生を対象に、毎年、図書カードと市内の路面電車やバス、それに桜島フェリーが利用できる乗車カードを贈っています。
今年度は３５６人に図書カード５万円分と共通乗車カード１万円分が贈られることになり、鹿児島市役所で贈呈式が行われました。
式では、松木園富雄副市長から鹿児島大学や第一工業大学など７つの学校の留学生の代表１人ずつにカードが贈られ、松木園副市長は「このカードを十分活用して、鹿児島の歴史や文化にたくさん触れてほしい」と激励の言葉を贈りました。
鹿児島大学でプログラミングを学ぶラトビア出身の２１歳の男性は、「プレゼントしてもらえるのはとてもありがたいので図書カードを使って日本語の勉強ができる本を買いたい」と話していました。
また、県立短期大学で英文学を学んでいるフィンランド出身の女性は、「この共通乗車カードを使って鹿児島のいろんなところを散策したい」と話していました。
「NHK鹿児島06月25日19時15分」
So I’ve been in Kagoshima for a month and a half now, so I believe that I can give some tips for my kouhais, future UTS students coming to Kagoshima for exchange. Please note, this post will be updated numerous times throughout my ICS period. I also really envy my kouhais, cause I will make sure they get almost everything that I have bought here, as I won’t be taking this stuff back to Australia, with the exception of my monitor and rice cooker.
This post will be separated into 3 parts (上中下), which will be released when I have time to write them up.
Lets get to it:
Onsen (温泉) is the Japanese word for hot spring and public bath. These bath houses are a very essential part of Japanese culture and there is even a fictional story about it (Thermae Romae). The reason I came to Japan was to experience all of its cultural aspects, and so I find myself going to an event for foreign exchange students to learn about the culture of Onsen.
Golden Week is a holiday in Japan which consists of multiple celebrations such as Showa day, Constitution Memorial day, Greenery day, Children’s day. It is the time of year, where pretty much all of Japan starts traveling around to visit places that they haven’t been to, or places that they would want to visit again. Even though neither Amy nor me are Japanese, we decided to embark on a journey of our own. From the 2nd till the 7th of May we went to Kansai (one of the central regions of Japan) and visited the cities of Kyoto, Nara and Osaka.