Yesterday I went with Amanda (my roommate), Jade, and Addie to Viva City, the nearby mall. Well, sort of nearby. You take a shuttle/bike to the station (20 minutes away by bike), then ride from Hikone Station to Minami Hikone(South Hikone), the next station over. Viva City is right across from that station. We didn't get past the food court and the stores full of cute things, but it was a lot of fun! I forgot my camera so I have no pictures (though I will return so I'm sure I will have some later), but it was amazing how many cute things there were. Pencil cases, phone charms, plush keychains, hair things, earrings, purses, and more. Disney is a big favorite over here, and Studio Ghibli stuff is everywhere as well. I didn't get much because I'm trying not to spend tons and tons of money the first few weeks, but it was so tempting! I finally caved for a Totoro phone charm and a watch. We also stopped to do some Puri Kura (short for "Print Club"). It's like the American mini photo-booths, just on steroids. You take your photos first, then go over to another area to decorate your photos with words, cartoons (of crowns or hearts or donuts or bunnies), add bubbles and sparkles and other ridiculous things, then print them out. Most people have little sticker notebooks to put their Puri Kura in - I need one soon. :)
Today, the big adventure was to Hikone Castle. Part of the adventure was not having gone anywhere by bike by myself before. I wasn't entirely alone - my friend Jess was with me - but neither of us have done much biking and we both just got here. But I took my map, asked my roommate for a quick rundown of directions, and we set off around 10. It's a fairly easy route - go straight to the grocery store, take the next left, and follow that street to Castle Road, which leads directly to the castle. I was worried we would get lost anyway, though - I stopped a few times to make sure I was going the right way. We ended up riding straight to it! There are 3 parts to the castle - the grounds, the museum, and the garden. We decided to get tickets for all 3! And rather than ramble on, I'll just post some pictures. :)
Here's the castle moat. :) We rode past a good portion of it to reach the front entrance.
It's Hikonyan! The Japanese are big fans of cartoon characters. In addition to anime characters and icons like Hello Kitty, mascots are sometimes also immortalized in cartoon form. Hikonyan is Hikone's mascot, sort of as a nod to the castle that started the whole city. His name is a play on words - Hikone and nyan (the Japanese version of "meow"). Hikonyan comes in plushie form, as well as on phone charms and keychains. He's kinda cute. :)
Here's an example of the stuff in the museum - it's all a lot of artifacts from the castle. Curse the windows that don't have an anti-reflective coating. Besides artwork, there were pieces of armor, swords, Noh theater costumes (kimonos and masks), dinnerware, and more. Pretty cool stuff!
Part of the path up to the castle. I thought it was pretty, but getting up there was a workout! Tons of stairs.
And here's Hikone-jo (Hikone Castle). It was smaller than I was expecting, but totally gorgeous. There's nothing really to see inside; all of the rooms are empty. But if you climb up to the third level (ascending some treacherous ladder-stairs along the way), you can see panoramas of the city. It's beautiful!
Here's one of the views from the top. I love that we're surrounded by mountains here. The orange and green building in front and slightly off-center is a baseball stadium, and you can see JCMU's campus in the picture too! On the far left, just below the mountains are some green-roofed buildings. That's my campus. :)
And here's the garden. It was lovely, but I'm told it's better in the spring or fall, when the trees have leaves on them (there's a plum orchard as well as cherry blossom trees here). So I guess I'll be back in April!After the castle, we went to Castle Road for some lunch. I intend to go back to shop there - that's the street where they have all the touristy things(like shops with traditional goods and cutesy things...definitely a place to shop). I was hoping for a print of Hikone Castle to add to my collection, but didn't find one at the castle...hopefully there will be one somewhere. The ride back to JCMU seemed a lot shorter, but it was still tiring. The whole roundtrip distance was over 4 miles, I think. We also went back to the grocery store later, which is part of a megamart known as Cainz(pronounced "kynes"). Cainz also has a housewares store, a pet shop, the grocery store, a 2nd-level parking garage, a small arcade, a 100-yen shop and a variety of restaurants (including McDonald's and Starbucks). It's huge. The nearest grocery store is surprisingly far from campus - it's about 1.75 miles away. By the time I was heading back to JCMU, I was exhausted - so much riding! However, it was totally worth it as I got the supplies to make Honey Walnut Shrimp for dinner. Tasty!
Before I forget, I have to share some music. :) My friends Jade and Amanda are aficionados of Korean and Japanese music, so they've been sharing their knowledge. I have absolutely fallen in love with one particular song. It's K-Pop (Korean pop music), so it's not quite Japanese music. But a lot of Korean bands are popular here in Japan and vice-versa. A lot of K-Pop bands are boy bands, sort of like the ones that were a big deal in the US in the 90s. But Korea took the boy band idea and made it so much better. They're so gorgeous! And so talented! And their dance moves are awesome. Without further ado, Lucifer, by SHINee (pronounced "shiny"). :D It's my latest play-on-repeat song.
As lame as it is (it's only 10 PM here now), I may be going to bed pretty soon, thanks to my bike adventure. Thanks to a National Holiday, I have no classes tomorrow. I intend to spend tomorrow relaxing, doing laundry, and working on my homework. I have to be responsible sometime. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment