It's come to the point that I have to supplement my memory with my
Flickr account, because I have no idea what I've been up to for this past week or two. In the past week, I've acquired a sense of accomplishment in being here. I've gotten myself lost, ordered food, and conquered a fair share of tropical storms. The time I spend writing this blog is arguably the most time I'll spend in my room. What little there is to explore in the boonies of Hikone has quite a bit to offer, both in an adventurous sense, and a photographic sense.
 | |
| Lake Biwa |
I begrudgingly signed up for a hiking trip offered by my school. I don't enjoy hiking, because I'm way too lanky and way too out of shape for climbing things to be enjoyable. The promise of a day of decent photography made being disgustingly hot and waking up before 9 worth it. Luckily, I avoided the crying baby family and was paired with some fantastic local Japanese college students. After what probably shouldn't have been an exhausting climb, we had made it to a fantastic vista of Hikone. After a lunch of chocolate and soda, we trekked onward.
 |
| Hikone Castle |
|
|
The inside of the castle was a museum of incredible relics and beautiful artifacts, but pictures are generally frowned upon, so I could be making that up. While perusing kickass samurai garb, I spent roughly 30 minutes trying to explain to one of the Japanese students why the history of Japan is so different than America's, both in significance and age. Between the language barrier and my idiocy, I don't think the message got through, so we just talked about how awesome ninjas are instead.
 |
| Tree, Royal Courtyard |
During the following week, I adventured to the surrounding towns by virtually every method of transportation. I forgot that my camera actually used batteries, and hadn't charged it since I arrived, leading to a disappointing day of no pictures. However, some pretty attractive portraits of myself were taken at a pretty kawaii photobooth. The following day, I and my overly adventurous companion, Ashley, found ourselves lost after a good 10 mile bike ride in the wrong direction. We ended up at a 7/11 in the middle of what we later learned to be an entirely separate city, in the center of a torrential downpour. After some terrible directions and a call to the emergency line, we once again found ourselves doing battle with mother nature's inconvenient wrath. The day was not lost however, as our entirely misguided quest had had us stumble upon a 1$ sushi bar and one surprisingly entertaining novelty store.
 |
| Sushi train |
|
The very following day, I found myself in the center of Osaka. Oddly enough, the place I wanted to visit most was the same place I'd spend the least amount of money. The arcades in places like Osaka and Kyoto are stories and stories of lonely neckbeards and arcade cabinets. I found myself almost stuck to a Street Fighter cabinet until I was bested and conveniently ran out of 100 yen pieces. I also spent an awful lot of money on an awful lot of awful pizza.
I don't think there's been a time where we've ventured into the unknown without getting horribly and irreparably lost. Really though, I'd be having a lot less fun if I had even the slightest idea what I was doing. We finally found the anime store we'd been stalking like a wild animal for hours. After buying all the kawaii we could carry, and after taking what was probably way too long to figure out the subway systems, we were on our way to being on our way home.
 |
| Osaka Station |
 |
| Osaka Station |
|
 |
| Brand new you. |
Another typhoon rolled in almost immediately after. We didn't see the worst of it, but word 'round here is that seven people had died, and 15 were missing. I can't make sub par jokes about tropical depressions anymore. While we were cooped up for the majority of it, leaving in brief recesses allowed for just enough time for a view of an outrageously beautiful sky.
It's now the long weekend, and everyone's gone to the cities. I'm poor, so I stayed in and wrote about my misfortune and other kickass stuff. I was hoping to write about my family and my friends, but the more thought I give it, the harder it becomes to put into words just how hard it is being so far away from the people you care for the most. Almost every day I find myself weaving epics about the exploits of Ken Gunn, Andrew Hall and I, or of my sister, Heidi, and the rest of my lovely family. It's a coping mechanism, or something. This blog isn't getting depressing, I promise.
I forced myself to get lost today. It was somewhat well worth it, but I'll be honest, it was far from exciting.
If I do anything exciting, you'll hear about it. If you're pretty cool and put up with my self promotion, supplement this blog with my flickr for more photos and adorable tidbits about how awesome I am.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/victorcee/
Welp.
