Alrighty, so I definitely thought I wrote and published this blog about June a long time ago and only realized I hadn't when I came to write my last blog about July/August. So, many apologies about that. My avid followers must have been so distraught not being able to read what I have been up to (haha jk). So without further ado GVRs (Grace's Valuable Readers), here is my June in Japan.
After my brother's trip, which took up most of May, my final weekend of May I went back to Osaka for a concert. I took a morning bus and arrived in Osaka about 3pm, with enough time to grab a late lunch/early dinner before heading to the stadium for the pre-concert festivities. I was going to see J-hope, a member of the K-pop boy group BTS. I have been listening to BTS for many years, so I was really happy to be able to see one of them in concert.
Before a K-pop concert, there are a lot of different things you can do before the concert starts so I arrived to the concert venue about an hour and a half early. It was great to see everyone all dressed up in their concert outfits and everyone excited for the concert. I applied earlier for a merch pick up line so I went and picked up some small merch. After that, there was a fun Gacha (Japanese toy vending machine thing) with special concert merchandise so I went and did that next.
I then walked the entire length of the stadium to by time before heading into the concert. The concert was amazing and I had such a great time! The production, choreography and dancing, music, lights, etc. were all really well done so it was a great show.
After the concert, I took a night bus back to arrive back to town 30 minutes before I had to leave again 😂 My bus arrived in Shimanto at 7 am, and I was driving to canyoning with my friends at 7:30am. It was a tight turn around and I was very tired but I didn't want to miss either event so I strived on.
My friends and I went canyoning in the neighboring prefecture of Ehime. If you don't know what canyoning is, it's where you hike up some rocks following a river and then do a bunch of fun (scary) stuff, like water sliding and jumping off tall rocks.
Some of my friends had been the year before but I had never been and didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I was pretty fearful the whole time but I tried my best and had a good time. There was only one time where I was flapping like a fish and needed help from some people around me to get up this slope but I luckily wasn't the only one so it was alright 😆
After canyoning for a few hours, we headed back to town, ate Indian food for a late lunch, and then I went home for some much needed rest.
The following weekend, my friends and I went camping in Tokushima. If you haven't caught on, my friends really like nature, and Shikoku Island is full of it, hence why we do so many things in nature. Also, we all wanted to travel to the neighboring prefectures more but didn't want to spend a lot of money; therefore, camping was a cheap and fun option for traveling. We left Shimanto early in the morning for a 4 hour drive to Oboke Gorge, a beautiful gorge where we splashed around a little and had lunch.
At the gorge as well was a Yokai, Japanese evil spirits, Museum where we got to learn about some local Yokai.
Next, was suspension bridges and a waterfall. It was a beautiful walk through the forest to the two suspension bridges. The suspesion bridges were a little scary for me but I went across them nonetheless and it was pretty cool.
We then headed to our campsite to set up, make dinner, and hang out for the rest of the evening.
The next morning, we woke up early, made breakfast, and drove an hour and a half to Mount Tsurugi.
We hiked to the summit with the help of a chair lift and enjoyed ourselves despite some rain.
Next was another 2 hour drive to Aizumi Town, where we partook in Ai no Yakata (Indigo Dyeing Experience). This dyeing practice has been practiced for hundreds of years and it was really fun to learn all about it as well as partake in it. The vat of liquid is actually quite green and when you first dip your material in, it comes out green. But once you ring it out and let the oxygen get to it, it turns into a deep blue.
Lastly, we began our 3 hour journey back home. Now, you may be thinking "that's a lot of driving" and while you are not wrong, it wasn't so bad because I was in the party car and we were blasting tunes, singing, dancing, and chatting the time away so it was a good time.
The next two weeks pass with days reading by the river, swimming in the ocean, and dinners with friends. Ideal classic summer 🌞
One Saturday, I got impromptu invited to a dumpling-making night. One of my acquaintances from a neighboring town reached out and asked if I would be interested in making dumplings with him and some other friends and being the foodie (food lover) that I am, I of course said yes. I had met most of the people going to the dumpling making but I didn't know them that well and I didn't know the couple that was hosting it at their house, but I found that it was a great time getting to know some new people. Everyone was really sweet and we spent a really pleasant afternoon and evening making dumplings from scratch. We made everything from scratch, which included the dumpling wrappers and fillings. The entire process took about 5 hours, and we made over 150 dumplings. It was a fun new experience I was really grateful for. I took home leftover dumplings that I continued to eat for the next couple of days 😂
The last thing I did in June was go SUPping. SUP stands for Stand Up Paddleboarding. The lovely Japanese lady who helps the ALTs had wanted to go SUP with everyone for a while, and we finally scheduled it in. It was a good chunk of us ALTs, one of our previous coworkers/friends, and one of the Japanese English teachers and her family. Her husband is American, and the Japanese lady and our Japanese friend all speak English so it was a really fun cross-cultural event with everyone. The weather was perfect and sunny, the river was cool and refreshing, and the company was entertaining and fun. What more could you ask for?
After the SUPping on the river. The Japanese teacher and her family decided to join the ALTs for a picnic lunch by the river in town, and we hung out there for a while.
Well that was my great summery June. I'm sorry it came so late. July and August will be up shortly too :)
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