largovest:

You know every time I start to fall in love with the Japanese language again I run across a kanji that just makes me madder then a pile of hornets and yell “Sweet Baby Jesus!” till I find out what it means and I write that sucker down and then realize I have 10 more to go.

Japanese and I have a serious love hate thing going on here.

Honestly one of us has got to get our priorities straight

Ive been home from Japan for a little bit now (I only had money for the One semester) and one by one everyone I met and traveled with has returned to their respective nation. In a way it is sad, but at the same time (what time is it? Cliched time that’s what) i feel like we have just finished a chapter in our lives. Heck from last august till now has been a chapter and not an easy one. But we will always be able to look back and go, “I was there, I saw things and met people and left my home”. I wouldn’t mind doing it again and i urge every single person out there to go and go this, especially if they are in College. I may continue to update this blog. but for right now, at this moment it is over and Done with, because that chapter is over and done with.

First, this is my favorite place i have visited in Japan. If i don’t go one more time before I leave i will be a sad sad person. If you are in Japan and you don’t see it you should feel sad. This is Fushimi Inari. Or more commonly know as the Fox shrines. we climbed to the top of the mountain, which was not as hard as it sounds (but that don’t mean it was a piece of cake) and it was pretty dang cool.

The first thing i strongly advise for anyone traveling to Japan is to buy an umbrella the minuet you walk off the plane. I’m serious. It Rains. A lot. (at least for me.)

Just some pictures from around town that have been sitting on my camera

Today we made the long trek to the pokemon center, only to discover the pokemon center was in the train station we had just arrived in which greatly shortened our trek. Pokemon has been a part of my childhood for a long time, and this was a great place to go. Now it was focused mainly on the new gen, but there is more then one center out there young trainers.

Gegege no Kitaro. also/originally called Hakaba Kitaro Let me put it this way. Kitaro is AWESOME in yokai form. If you have never heard of him (and if your from the west its okay, i hadn’t heard of him either till i came to japan) cheak him out.

So let us say you are studying abroad in Japan, and you have a budget (lol college) and cooking is not your strong point.

1. BUY INSTANT RICE.

Seriously, I don’t care how much people go on and on about making it in the rice cooker, Instant rice is quick easy and easy to find. I mean yes i guess you can save money with a giant bag of rice, but hey, it takes my roommate 40 min. to cook her rice, and 2 min. for mine. It’s also easy to find, go to any grocery store and locate the aisle selling instant curry, It’s 9/10 some where in that aisle. Which brings us to

2. Instant curry

Instant curry comes in a variety of prices, flavors and ways to make. choose what ever one  suits your fancy, follow directions, put on top of your instant rice

3. Fish

Look you are in Japan, sooner or later fish will be in your diet. Go to the fish aisle and pick out some cheap cuts of fish. When back in your dorm/ kitchen/ whatever get out a pan, melt some butter/margarine (like a boss)  and then pan fry that sucker till you deem in safe. Then take that fish and put on top of INSTANT RICE.

4. Instant ramen

Japan has Instant ramen, and it also has a crap ton of other instant noodle stuff….

5. Marked Down Sushi

Now I don’t know how lucky you are feeling, but grocery stores around a certain time will start marking down sushi that they have had out most of the day. Do you hear your mom voice in your head telling you not to eat fish that you don’t know how long it’s been sitting out? Ignore it and go back to figuring out if that stuff marked down to 105 yen is fried strips of chicken or fried tentacles.

The big Buddha in Nara

Welcome to Nara! There are deer EVERYWHERE.