Last week, my friend invited me to an event which would take place in Yokohama, and had something to do with high school students. I wasn't too sure what I was getting into, but speaking with high school students is always fun since they are not as shy as university students, so I decided I would go and help out.

So on Sunday, I headed off to the station to meet all those gathered for the event. We left at about 8:20 and arrived at around 9:30 at our destination. We walked into the building, and found out that all the high school students were already waiting for us. We were given a number, and we then split into our proper groups.

After being explained our task for about one hour, we were served food. This was most likely going to become a new product, since we were asked some feedback upon it. During this whole time, I tried talking as much as I could to the two girls next to me. I wanted to make them comfortable with me and likewise feel comfortable with them. Since we would spend the rest of the day together, I wanted to make it as pleasant as possible. I started nicely, but then made more and more jokes, stupid ones too, and surprisingly, they responded well to it all. They added on to the jokes and we had some good laughs. We finished the report, and waited for the rest of the groups to finish. Then, it was time to leave and walk the town of Yokohama.

We headed out to the China Town. Now I've been there more than enough times now that I can almost tell where we are in the middle of this crazy place. My grandmother herself told me she has only been to Yokohama twice in her life. Crazy. We walked a bit here and there, then found a place to eat a small and VERY HOT Chinese dumpling. It was good, but I ended up burning my tongue on it. The professor who was following our group was the one who ended up paying for it, which was very nice of him.


We walked some more and then headed out to the Yamashita Park, near the main port. I still love the feeling this city has when it comes to being near the sea. You can just feel the air and the atmosphere change as you walk along the side of the water.

This took us to the Marine Tower, which was another one of our goals. Before getting there, I grabbed myself a strawberry milkshake at McDonalds, which made everyone laugh. We also passed the Hotel New Grand, which I had seen once before during a past trip here. I ended up explaining to the group the history of this building, which I know so very well (thanks to my dad.) We climbed it, using the stairs and not the elevator, and received a nice card for it too! The view from up there was quite... astonishing! I haven't climbed the Sky Tree yet, so I don't know how that feels, but here was most likely better since we could see the sea. Actually, we could see the Sky Tree from where we were.

After making our way down, we headed back through China Town, grabbed some ice cream cones and headed back to the first building. From there, we prepared our presentation. We had to present how we felt about the city and give feedback on the different places we went to see. I took charge of the group, directing everyone on what to do and write, and got our whole team rolling and ready on time. I also ended up making a few funny comments during our presentation which made the crowd laugh. That was amazing to do in a different language.

After the whole event was over, and I had said goodbye to the new friends I had made, I headed off to one of the best ramen shops I had ever been with Ayaka (Japanese) and Heiki (Finland). I had been there once before and so I knew it was worth the walk and wait. After about an hour and a half of just that, we sat down and chowed down our delicious meal.

We split at the station, and Heiki and I headed back to Tokai after a long day. I really enjoyed the experience, and I have to thank those high school students for it.

Ever since my father and sister came to visit me in April, Mr. Sato had started telling me that once I finish my classes, he would take me to a different university to practice. Somewhere a little less stronger than Tokai, where I could get a more... fitted practice. Well, according to Mr. Sato of course.

So yesterday, I was able to see one of Japan's biggest fireworks display in Yokohama. On my way there, around 2:30pm, I ran into a couple of friends who were apparently also heading there. They offered me a ride since they were driving there. Now going by train would have most likely been faster, but it was a hot sunny day, and I felt like being with friends. So off we were, seven of us in a car, to Yokohama. I played music from my phone the whole way there, and we danced and sang while some slept. Must say it was quite fun. It's been a while since I've been in a car compared to Canada, where I ride one mostly every day.


They dropped me off an hour and ten minutes later in front of the Yokohama station. I said goodbye, thanked them for the ride, and entered the station to meet Arisa who was waiting for me. I also got the chance to meet her mother for the first time, which was interesting. After that, we headed off into the station, looking at many different shops, and then eating lunch at a fairly nice restaurant. The meal reminded me of my mom's cooking, and it made me think about my return back home.

After that, we started getting ready for the fireworks. We sat down in one spot at first, but as soon as the fireworks started we realized we could only see half of it, so after about ten minutes, we decided to get up and move. Now this is when Japan shows itself. The number of people walking in the streets is just incredible. There were over 20,000 people watching these fireworks. Whatever you believe to be a reasonable amount of space in Canada is reduced by about 6 times here. Basically a sea of people, of which we were now part of. We found a better spot in the end, and stood in the middle of hundreds of people taking pictures of the sky.

I must say, these fireworks were not bad at all. I saw some that changed colour halfway and others that changed shape. In the end, I believed it was worth it.


After it was over, we decided to go see Anzu who was working at Coldstone at this time. Now, after the fireworks, everyone obviously heads into the mall, so it was jam-packed. We spotted Anzu working hard with the millions of customers coming at her. Japan is crazy. Anzu managed to get them to sing a song for us which was really nice to see in person. I had heard from many people and seen many videos of her doing so, but seeing it live was just that much better. I must say, Anzu is just a great person.

While eating our delicious ice cream, we headed to the Osambashi, a boat shaped hall built half into the water. Last time I came here, again with Arisa, we had seen a world championship of Coma take place. This time, we simply went there for the view of the city. We stayed there watching the city's lights flicker.

I don't see this kind of scenery in Manitoba, and so this really blew me away. A city built by the Japanese society. If any of you have a chance, please take the time to check out the view of the Yokohama city at night from Osambashi. It's something to see during one's lifetime on Earth.