what's upppp!
the last blog post was mainly about august, so now i'm back to talk about my september so far!
i've had such a great time. me and the homies friend group (i kept going back and forth with talking about my friend groups last time so "homies" are the OGs and then "silly guys" are my drinking buddies) we all went to the nearby prefecture for a quick weekend trip! i went there a little bit before, when i tried to see the Perseids meteor shower, but we didn't go too far into the prefecture.
the drive was luxurious, with soo many beautiful mountains and the sun was just setting sooooo perfectly!
it was a lovely afternoon. when we were decently close, we stopped at this rest area that had a cute pond and a shrine! (they said it was monet's pond, which it was advertized as, but i wasn't too impressed. the koi were so cute though) but afterwards we got to see the crazziesssttt moon i've ever seen. it was GIGANTIC!!! unfortunately my phone didn't capture it very well. you just had to be there man. it was awesome :D
we kept going until we got to our place for the weekend. after getting settled, we walked to this populated area with lots of restaurants and snack bars. i was honestly surprised to see a lot of foreigners in the area, because i thought it was a bit of a remote place (at least i hadn't really heard of it before) so it was cool. we actually ended up eating at a mexican restaurant. wooo my first mexican food in japan! it was alright haha. i miss mole and chilaquiles :( i did see a pretty hilarious beer bottle in the window of a store though. it was awesome. i think that place was supposed to be american bar inspired hahaha
the next day we went to a historical village! it was awesome. also, every morning and night in the mountains, it was niceee and cool, like how september is supposed to feel. although during the day it began to heat up. ahh i just can't wait for fall.
i can't recall ever going to a historical village, at least not one like this. there were tons of homes, and you could go inside some! there was a small museum explaining farm life, and usually every home you went inside had a story to tell or some exhibit. it was very interesting and really fun to see all the history! also we ate at this restaurant and i had the MOST AMAZING udon EVER. it was a cold udon with fried tofu which was perfect for how hot it had gotten. the restaurant was very cool and stayed historic in theme of the village. it was so good and i'm scared i will never have udon that good ever again
it felt like i was in a fairytale there. they did have a few modern things here and there, like work trucks and stuff, but for the most part, the whole town did a really good job keeping it realistic feeling. it was probably pretty romanticized, as much history is, but it was truly awesome. kind of felt like i was in the shire in LOTR. they had a cafe in one part and i got a mugwort ice cream, which was kind of just matcha-like, so it was good! my friends also let me try theirs, and they had gotten a sake (which tasted exactly like sake) and buckwheat icecream. the buckwheat genuinely tasted like nothing. it was so weird. it was like you were eating creamy-textured ice. very odd but a cool experience nonetheless!
the next day we did another historic village, but i wasn't as interested in that one. it was a bit more touristy in my opinion, but it still had some pretty cool stuff. the thing is, i ended up catching a bad cold somehow. maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was being in the mountains, or maybe i had just caught it from someone i dunno. i woke up that morning with the most HORRID scratchy throat. i was feeling pretty bad the entire time we were at this other historic village. by the time we got lunch, i felt even worse. i thought the food would help, but honestly it didn't do much. we went to a limestone cave after lunch, which was nice because it was super cold inside. i think it helped me manage my sickness a bit, but the whole way home i just felt miserable!! although the moon was cool on the way back haha
unfortunately, after getting home, my body finally relaxed and my sickness took over. i'm not sure if i had a fever, but it sure felt like it. i also barely had any food since lunch, and i still didn't want food, which probably wasn't helping. thankfully, i asked a couple of my neighbors if they had any cold medicine. they didn't have any, but one of them went all the way to the drug store to get me some! they also brought crackers. it was sooo sweet and i was very thankful. i really needed to get better quickly because literally the next day we had final exams for this semester. also, let me tell you, japanese cold medicine is WAY WORSE THAN AMERICAN! honestly i thought american medicine was disgusting! it was sooooo bitter and kind of tasted like bile. eventually my mom reccomended that i put honey in it, and i think it made it loads better, just in case anyone needs that. anyways, i was okay enough to do my exams the next day. we had a reading, writing, and then speaking test. thankfully i passed all of them, but i definitely could have done better if i was in a better headspace, and not just thinking about going home so i could rest and get rid of the cold haha. my speaking test was earlier that others, so i was able to go home after that, and i ended up skipping the next day too. i'm definitely better now, but i have a stupid cough that won't go away! like my throat is permantely scratched! i hate it :(
after my trip, i didn't do too much, just did school and tried my best to recover from the cold. i did end up having a potluck with the homies group! i was going to buy a cake, but i actually was getting a bike from a friend who is leaving ;( i'm very sad, but i'm also thankful that she sold her bike to me! the whole process of registering your bike, and then transferring it, it's kind of like a car. they take it pretty seriously interestingly enough. you have to register your address with them and everything! anyways, i was late to buying a cake, probably all of the bakeries were closed by then (and no, they don't have cake at the grocery store like a walmart would unfortunately) so i ended up buying a bunch of ice cream. i got there, and another person had also bought a bunch of ice cream. so we had an abundance of ice cream. no complaints here, but i still wish i could have gotten a cake :( i love cake, and i still haven't gotten one for my birthday. i was going to buy a whole one then, but i just never felt like figuring out where i needed to go. one of these days i will buy a cake >:) well the potluck was very fun, all the food was great, and then we played some jackbox games after! they had literally just gotten a projector THAT DAY, so it was perfect
the next day, i went on a boat ride with my other friend group (silly guys). the girl who i bought the bike from is in this group. we all decided to go on this night boat ride and then get drinks after to give her a nice send off. it was a great time, i felt so happy on the water. i've been really wanting to go on a boat recently, like a big one, so this just made me want to do it even more lol. also we went under this crazy bridge that we literally had to lay down in the boat because we would have bonked our heads on it. it was hilarious and awesome :D i don't have any photos from that night unfortunately, but i'm thinking of putting a vlog up soon (finally) and i've got some footage of the bridge
a pretty fufilling month i think. i did tons of stuff, and i got sick, and then better, and it's getting slightly cooler every day, so i've been pretty happy recently!
thanks for reading! here's some silly farewell photos
until next time! ♡
またね！