Surprise Festival!

On our second day in Tokyo (Saturday Sept. 18th) there was a festival that paraded right by our apartment!

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During the day it was with many kids, some beating a drum, some carrying a mini shrine, and many pulling another shrine. They took a break right infront of our apartment for some ice cream!!!

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At night the kids were replaced by adults (mostly men) in festival garb. We followed them for about an hour from 6-7pm (They continued carrying the shrine until 9pm).

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When they took their first break a few of them insisted on taking photos for us in front of the mikoshi wearing their Happi outfits. ☺

A few of them also insisted we help carry it for a little bit...which we did...and I escaped very quickly because that thing is HEAVY!!!!

Sadly I don't have any pictures of me carrying it ☹ But I did get Helen and Ana! 

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Overall (despite the painful shoulders afterwards) it was a great night!

A few of my pic were stolen from Ana's flickr account...so go worship her account to give her credit =D

My New Home

So, getting to this apartment was the worst experience I have had in a long time.

The flight to Japan went well, I almost watched all three of the Bourne movies! Which explains why I only slept about 20 minutes in total.

Ana and I put our bags into the courier service, so for that night until 10am the next day we only had what we could carry through the trains and streets.

The first train was fine, and it brought us through what reminded me of Germany, with many fields and clusters of homes with small and narrow streets. I really liked it and was beaming the entire time.

But then we had to transfer, and rush hour was starting to pick up and the bag I was carrying felt like lead... When we got off the train at Shinjuku is was pouring outside. And then I started feeling the travel-tiredness.....

So when we had to sign 18 different forms to get our keys (instead of what I thought might take 20 minutes tops) the hour that it took killed the thrill.

I wont go into explaining everything that happened after that other than that our bags where soaked, I got us lost, and we went to bed around 10pm (Japan time) [we had been awake about 22hrs by then]

Suffice it to say that night ruined the next two days for me, but we scrubbed the apartment and got the necessities and filled up the fridge with food!

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This made us laugh...just in case you thought the shower was a bathroom lol We have a swing set next to the apartment!!! And here is Tommy Lee Jones...Like a Boss

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Aloha from O'ahu part 2!

So I am already in Japan and as much as I would like to post about it, I think I will finish Hawaii first and then write about my experiences!

Pictures from September 13th.

Below is Ana's dog Leia...like Princess Leia (They used to have a dog named Chewy! Don't you love them already?)

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This below is the view from the Pali lookout. Very very windy and absolutely beautiful! We walked down to a plant that makes good tea, Ana picked some for her brother! =D And this is a lovely picture of the car at 7am on September 15th, less than two hours before leaving the country! To recap about my experiences in Hawaii, I had tons of fun!...but....I got sunburned, bitten by many mosquitos, stung by a man o war, got a cold, and I feel like there is something else that happened which I can't remember at the moment.....

Alas, well worth is to swim in the warm water and relax for a few days before the exhausting first days of Japan ^_^

 

Aloha from O'ahu

Since last Tuesday I have been in O’ahu, Hawai’i staying with my friend and soon to be roomie Ana! She has been the most wonderful hostess =D

Last Wednesday she brought me to Hanauma Bay which is a marine life conservation area and perfect for snorkeling. Sadly I don’t have any pictures of it =(

Then on Thursday we hiked to Kahaluu waterfall which was freezing cold but after the hike the cold water was a wo

nderful thing.

Friday brought us to Waimea Bay where there is snorkeling and a big rock to jump off of. While snorkeling I saw two turtles!!!! And I even jumped off the rock! Well I jumped off a part that was three feet off the water after about 20 minutes of debating about jumping off a part that was about 10 feet off the water… yes I chickened out. But Ana jumped off many times!!!!!

There was also a really cool guy that jumped off Olympic style from handstands…sadly that video I got of him doing that is really really bad. But I got him jumping off another time.

The following Saturday saw my with a lovely sun burn for the hike to the Ice Ponds which was incredibly adventurous ^_^ It also left me with about 20 mosquito bites (but that is besides the point) We went to two different waterfalls and I actually got enough courage to jump off one of them!

Then yesterday was en errand day so we simply went to the beach for a little bit. Then I got stung by a Man o War and decided to call it a day sigh

Japanese Precision

How cool is this?

I have another blog!!!!!

www.michellehardyman.com

I will be posting everything there instead of here =D

Quote

If I could be any part of you, I'd be your tears.
To be conceived in your heart,
born in your eyes,
live on your cheeks,
an die on your lips.
~Unknown