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10:04 p.m. - 01.04.03 Akiko took me through the commute the first day, since she has to get a transcript from her old school which is right by Ichigaya station. We played around in the Starbucks for awhile drinking coffee and having fun until it was time to go wait for Adam - the guy in charge - to tell us we were going to leave. Akiko is so cool! We hung around some more downstairs by the huge group of CIEE people who were standing around waiting for something to do. The bus ride was long and I felt pretty sick along the way, but full of some fun conversation. Adam was telling us about his experience as a JET, and his experience has made me reconsider doing it. We got to the ryokan and started the temple tour, going around the historic areas of Nikko on foot. Lots of stairs, temples, lanterns etc. Good stuff. These structures showed more Chinese influence than Indian, until the Korean temples. Must look into that. I took lots more pictures, because everything here is so frigging picturesque. Honeymoon stage, remember. The hotel rooms were very cute, japanese style rooms. There were tea sets and when we got to the room we made tea and had a bit of a girly tea party before we had to go to actual dinner. I ate a fish! yes, a fish! It had a spine and everything - which I didn't eat, but I wasn't too freaked out by it either. It's hard to imagine how proud I was at that moment. I also had a bit of a fight with my miso bowl, an activity that would occur again the next day at breakfast (at breakfast, though, one of the women who served us had to help me after I gave up in shame :-p). And I discovered just how much I love white rice with a little bit of salt on it. After dinner was the "big group sing" activity, show and tell. Everyone brought a "signifigant object" and told the group about it. I brought Basil and the mardi gras beads that Doug gave me, since they currently adorn Basil anyway. In the middle ofmy presentation the ryokan lady came into the room with a wallet - my wallet, which I had left in the dining room. A funny coincidence. After that was the onsen. After people realized that they could not, in fact, bring in their big towels to hide their nakedness, it was pretty amusing. After the walking it felt really good to be in hot water, and when I got out my body was all oogy and bendy, it was wonderful. After onsening, a bunch of people gathered in one of the rooms and went over the best and worst parts of the day and then played a fun party game involving funny questions and voting which person would most fit said question. It was pretty amusing, but when I went to bed I really enjoyed it. The futons were so comfortable, it was amazing. I woke up (and woke up my roommate Holly) at 6.30 when I cried out in my sleep because of a terrible dream that I will not recount here. We went back to sleep, but woke up at 7 anyway. I went to the onsen again, this time to just take a shower since I didn't feel like waiting to use a small hotel shower when there's a wonderful warm bathhouse right downstairs that I could go to right away. Good times. This day contained the fun of Nature, Abundant! Nature in this case means waterfalls that are beautiful but carefully behind fences and platforms that you can only get to by elevator, but nonetheless beautiful. One miraculous thing that proves my unbelievable luck? I somehow dropped my lovely 500$ camera down the side of a fence, and thus, down the side of the mountain by one of the waterfalls. It could have landed on concrete, or rock, or even large piece of tree, but no! It landed on soft soft snow! And did NOT continue to roll down the hill into the water like it very well should have by all normal rules of nature! No, it just stopped falling and I was able to pick it up, undamaged, right away. It was really amazing. After the trip we walked to the next station through a bower of sakura trees, along the river. I don't think that things can get more beautiful than that. Maybe someday I will muse on Tokyo's beauty, the tenuous yet respectful mix of nature and the old city and the new bits with shiny attachments, but this is getting a little longish already. I could also write AMOUNTS about the train ride home, but needless to say I made it, even if I did get a bit lost in Akihabara station. Its wonderful how I can feel both in and out of place at once. Now, I don't really know who actually likes meeting new people. there's always that exciting new getting to know you phase, which at some point has to be follwed by the getting to know you more intimately so I can actually call you a friend phase. But, its awkward getting from that first stage to the second. It's like, when do you make that change? And is there a change at all, or is it just me? But, it just seems that change has to come and I am a bit nervous. Something about the temporary-ness of this whole venture makes me nervous. I think too much about things that don't matter. It is also amazing how much deja vu I have been having throughout the past couple of days. I swear that I have met or seen a lot of these people before and I don't know where. That and the thing I consider grasping at home, finding characteristics of those I already know from home in these new people... but it's true!! They are showing sakura on TV, and I can now say that, yeah, I saw those.
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