Noto Ryokou

This weekend was the Noto trip!!! It was soooo much fun, and more importantly- very informative. One of the first places we stopped by on the way to Noto was Chirihama Beach. Sure- nothing amazingly exotic about the beach, but it was quite an experience to be riding in one of those huge tour coach buses as it skims the coast line (this, after the bus driver earnestly promised to keep us safe, haha) so much so that I think the highest waves were able to reach the tires. Somehow we got the idea to take pictures of people jumping in the air- and like pokemon, it started a craze... I think half of the beach pictures taken were merely of people jumping up and down, with special jumps like side kicks reserved for the pros. (Apparently I'm a low jumper but one of my PII fellows was able to take an amazing pic~)


After that, we went to Ketataisha Shrine. As part of the weekend trip, all students had to give a presentation/skit on one of the sightseeing places that we visited. Wilma, Deborah, and I decided on a skit where Deborah is pretending to be on the phone with Wilma talking about Ketataisha Shrine. She makes some serious blunders on the history (well, at least presumably correct history) of Ketataisha Shrine, at which point I -forest god of Ketataisha- step in to set her straight. Ketataisha actually has quite an interesting history as one of the four most famous shrines in Japan. (It seems the Japanese really like to categorize things into the top 5 or whatever. This goes for everything from the "Top 3 Most Famous gardens in Japan" to the "Top 5 Best-selling Crepes at Kanazawa Eki's Crepe Shoppe --> banana chocolate by the way.)

But I digress... apparently Hakui, the town in which Ketataisha is located, is known as the "Asian Roswell" for its reported UFO sightings. Ketataisha itself is famous as being auspicious for prayers to find true love and pass school entrance exams. The good fortune the shrine brings is taken quite seriously---> the official web site of the shrine gives testimonials of all those who were smiled down upon warmly by UFOs or forest gods (jk). Most of us figured "hey, why not?" and bought some lucky charms or fortunes. Some of the more interesting fortunes ranged from the prediction that:

one guy's future wife would be really poor but exceptionally kind-hearted (his reaction: hmm, I guess I'll have to call my girlfriend and let her know she's going to be poor.)
to
a girl who was destined to have a forbidden love... which we all casually interpreted as her going after a married guy in the future (her reaction: that's probably not good...)

After the love shrine, we went to a Fisherman's Wharf, Ganmon (some cool caves by the sea where people hid out during rough times), and Sojiji Temple (a very Buddhist, very old temple). Then it was off to the hotel to get a nice バイキング-style dinner (note: "buffet" is known as "viking-style" in Japan). Part of the dinner included home (?) entertainment with people taking turns to rock out on the karaoke machines. Yes, even the sen-sei's know how to have a good time. A few of us ran out just in time to catch a beautiful sunset as well. Ahhh, いい気持ちね。

It's really strange to think it's only been two weeks. Though the days aren't terribly hectic, all the new stimuli and experiences sum together to make one feel like we've been here always. It's a great feeling and it's nice to know that we still have quite a bit of time here... That said, I definitely don't want to let myself get lazy into thinking I can push things off until laterーーー せっかくですからよ。----> which roughly translates into, "since one's taken the trouble to [come here]" Like the sun that set way to fast before everyone was able to run out and see it, so will our time run out in Japan- best make the most of it. Ciao.