More of feeding the deer

Josh always indulges me in feeding the deer, so on our way to get breakfast near the station, he bought me some more deer biscuits for the deer. I maybe chose the wrong area, quite near the entrance of the park, where all the deer are quite aggressive. I really enjoyed feeding them, but they were all over the cookies, and there was quickly a herd of adorable deer surrounding me!

A morning of Deer Herding

On the Sunday morning, Josh and I got up super early to head into Nara Park and watch the deer being herded. I had seen a friends photo - and I needed to go! Basically, a man with a French horn blows it, and all the deer come running. It was amazing! There were lots of deer....and a huge crowd of people to feed them!

Eiga Mura

Before Josh and my respective parental units arrived in Japan to visit, we decided to have a weekend together in Kansai. We had tried once before, but that weekend we finally made it to Eiga Mura, the traditional movie studios in Kyoto. All of our students have been on school trips and it always looks fun.Its where they film Japanese dramas set in the Edo period, and they allow you to dress up and walk around the town. We had a good time, and it was 22 degrees, so we were really hot and in the sun all day! It was a great date, and I was so happy to spend time with Josh taking silly pictures with Ninjas!

Sunsets are back!

It's great living by the beach...I live close enough that it sometimes smells like hte ocean but isnt close enough to be cold. And when Spring and Summer comes around, I go to the beach a lot more often, and watch the sunset if I just need to feel good about stuff. After our Coke floats, Calvin and went and walked along the rocks. I took a "I wish you were here" photo for Josh, just like I did when we first met! I was so happy to get to do one of those again!

The time we went looking for Ume trees

The Ume trees, which are pulm trees in English, are really great. I love them, and in my opinion, they can sometimes be more beautiful than cherry blossoms (SHOCK!) I knew they should be out, so Calvin and I headed out on our bikes to try and find some nice pink trees. We went to Hagi Castle park. We only found a few trees in bloom, so we headed to a new cafe (not new in town), which had Coke floats and a whole English menu! That's certainly a rare find in Hagi! Because the weather was nice, we decided to bike around Hagi old town before heading over to the beach. After all, Spring is coming!

At Mount Casayama

One weekend, Sarah and I went around Hagi looking for the pink ume blossoms, which were everywhere last year. We were a bit early for the ones which are planted at Shoin Shrine, but instead we headed to the top of Casayama in search of some Camelias! We didn't see any of those either, but we did have a good time looking at the view!

When all else fails, head to Shibuya

Sophie and I didn't stay for all of the conference, so after the morning lectures, we wandered around and got lunch in Yokohama. We thought about going to Chinatown, but instead decided to go to Shibuya, to see Hachiko, the dog statue where everyone meets. I hadn't been since I was a little kid, so I was excited! Then Sophie and I took turns running into Shibuya crossing, so that we were ahead of everyone! Super fun!