So on Saturday March 14^th, I was called by Kotaro to go to his place and have supper with him. He told me he wanted to practice some English, so I thought why not. After finishing everything I needed for the next day, I headed down the hill to his room.

When I got there, he was fixing something on his bed. I walked in and we chatted a bit. I was expecting him to start talking about english, but he never did. We stayed there watching TV for about 20 minutes before out of nowhere, Fubuki and Ryo just show up in Kotaro's room. They sat down with us and we all watched the television for a while. I was starting to have an idea about what was going on, but once again, I played my part.

Then we headed off to the restaurant behind their dorm, to which I have been many times (with Iwasa and Masari). Before we ordered, Kotaro then announced that today was a celebration of my birthday. I smiled with joy and everyone laughed. We ordered our meals and ate plentifully! The three of them paid for my meal. We had some funny conversations that night, and even though it was just that night, I was glad they took the time for me!




We headed back to Kotaro's room, and I got to try a Chinese beer (Chitao*) which Kotaro had brought from his recent trip to China. We stayed there watching TV till I left at 10.

During the whole process, I also received my Tokai Judo Team jumper which I had ordered back in December. It took a while, but I was very excited to finally have it.


So much for English studies...

So what I told you in the last blog, saying that I didn't do anything during the month of March, well that was a lie. Besides the studying, I did manage to go to many new places.

For starters, Miguel, my Spanish friend, brought me to the river south of the university. We basically just walked near the river until I decided to cross it barefoot. It was really nothing too special, but it was a nice little experience out of the ordinary.

During the month of March, I also managed to go to this place called Kodomo no kuni which means: the country of kids. This is just the name of a town where my friends Shizuka lives. Miguel and I went there to make a cake with her, since I wanted to learn how to make cakes. Miguel and I also decided to make her supper to return the favour. I must say that I didn't learn much since the instructions were in Japanese and Shizuka was going so fast, but both the curry we cooked and the cake were pretty good.

Today I leave for Osaka. The first question my dad asked me when he found out was: "Why?"

Why am I heading back there? Well for a few reasons. First, I want to meet my Japanese friends who came to Winnipeg on an exchange program last year. I had promised to go see them, so here I am keeping that promise. Next, I wanted to see Osaka, Nara, and the parts of Kyoto I didn't get to see last time. Third and last, I needed some time off. Off from judo, off from studies a bit, and from people here. A little greedy? Perhaps, but why not kill two birds with one stone.

Now, on the verge of my departure, a new student from the next semester arrived in the dorm. He's from Finland, but that's pretty much all I know. It's a weird feeling because many have left the kaikan, and now others are coming in. While I'll be in Osaka, all the new students will have already arrived. It's a new wave, a new start, and this time, I'm the one on top.

Once again, I rode the night bus from the same station as the last time I went to Kyoto, although this time, I wasn't as exhausted, so I didn't sleep the whole way. Instead, I fell asleep two hours before the end of the ride, which made it very hard waking up and getting out of the bus. Half asleep, I wandered in a circle for about 10 minutes, trying to figure out where to go. After that, I found my way to a station, and from there, looked up how to make it to Mount. Koya. After spending 30 minutes finding a coin locker in the station to store my unneeded articles in for the day, and then figuring out how this station works, I finally got on a train headed south. I took this chance to sleep.

My friend Andreas who had been there a few weeks ago had recommended I visit it, and so I did. I had really no idea what it was but, it kind of felt like a déjà-vu from my trip to Kyoto. The first thing I had done that day, I had visited Fushimi-Inari, alone, and just like this, it had blown my mind away. I really can't explain the beauty of this place... The pictures from my iPhone never came close enough to the reality, no matter how many I took. I didn't climb the whole mountain, but I did get to see the endless graveyard.

I don't know if any of you have had the experience of trying to sleep on a public train, but it's quite funny in the sense that you're half awake, and you randomly wake up, drooling and your neck in the oddest position, then you fall back asleep.

When I arrived, with no surprise, I was now out of the city. The station led to the next train which happened to be a cable train which went diagonally up the mountain. After that, we were asked to buy an all-you-can-ride day pass for the region. The first destination I picked was the Kongobu Temple on Mount Kōya in the Wakayama Prefecture, which is basically an endless graveyard. It felt a little like my trip in Kyoto, since the first place I had visited was an endless row of orange gates, and I was alone. Once again, I really loved it. Here's what I saw:












After that long day of walking, I headed back, and seriously passed out on the train. Once back at the station I had left from, it took me about 10 minutes to find my coin locker, get my stuff, and then I went out for a walk. I found a Starbucks in a mall nearby and sat down to eat something. I also decided to pull out my laptop and make some music. I still had a deadline to release my EP (extended play) on March 31st, although I doubt it's going to happen.
Kengo had once again accepted to let me stay at his house while I was in Kansai, but on that day, he asked me to come after 9. So, I took my time, and spent about two hours sipping coffee and working on my laptop. I left the shop around 9 and arrived at Kengo's place one hour later. We were both tired so we got ready to go bed, chatted a little, and snoozed off till morning.

Saturday morning, March 28th, Kengo and I both left his place around 9:15. At the station, we split: he was going to practice, I was headed off to Nara. I arrived at Nara, but got off by accident one station early, and decided to walk the rest of the way. I grabbed cheap pancakes from the combini as breakfast, and I remembered how three years ago, I had chowed down so many of these every morning. After a 30-minute walk, I made it to Nara Park. And as expected, the first thing you see in Nara, is deers. There were also little stands everywhere selling rice crackers to feed the deer. I decided not to buy anything at first and just watch. I walked through the park and found a lady and a man giving out tons of food to a pack of hungry deers.

After watching them for a while, I continued my walk and discovered the rest of the park. There seemed to be a festival or something happening since tents where set up and music was playing through some speakers. I eventually found a cherry blossom tree. It was my first time seeing it in person. Three years ago, during my trip to Japan, they had been late to blossom, and so I had just missed them.






After that, I got the genius idea to rub my eye with my hand which had touched many deers. As some of you may know, I'm allergic to horses, cats, and dust, but it pretty much extends to anything with fur. After 10 minutes of pouring water in my eye from the sink, I walked out of this random building I had found.





Once again, priceless.

I got back to Kengo's apartment, tired, and once again, the day ended in peace.

On the next day, I had secured time to see my friends that had come to Canada for one year last year. We met up in a huge station and one of them had to come get me because I had nooo idea where to go. After that we found a restaurant which served Okinawa-style meals. We sat in, yet we had to be split into two groups due to the table size. I got a good match since I hadn't really talked to these two girls before so I got the chance to then.




The next day, I had originally planned to meet my friend Mina in Nagoya, but she had to cancel so I didn't have any plans until about noon, when Ayaka decided to hang out with me. Actually, I decided to go over to where she lives. We rode the train together, then we headed over to her place, grabbed her mom's car, and off we were again. Ayaka drove me to a mall, in which one of her friends was working. I had told her that I had never ate natto, and so she insisted I tried it. We entered a normal supermarket, bought some natto, and sat down at a table.

Before I even ate it, I knew it was going to be rough. The thing is, I can most likely eat it, but just by itself was a little hard to swallow after the second bite. But I can now officially say that I ate natto, and that it's one of the only Japanese meals I can't eat haha.

After that, we went to her friend's work place, a sushi restaurant. We ordered a few different types of sushi, and we were also recommended a few by her friend. Before we walked out, her friend made sure that no one was around, and then brought us to the cashier. We ended up paying only 155 yen for our meal, which would have cost around 2000 normally.

We walked a little bit more, then headed back to her place. There, I gave the rest of the natto to her mom since I wasn't planning on eating anymore. Now her mom came out and just started complimenting me (looks, Japanese, half-Canadian, half-Japanese, studies, judo, blah-blah) but what really surprised me is when she started touching my stomach... really caught me off guard. Anyways, after that, Ayaka brought me back to the station, gave me a few recommendations on which train to ride, and I was headed back home.

Now I just want to say that this whole time, I had been making her laugh, and laugh some more. We were making some odd jokes but it was really the first time I felt like I could speak like this to someone in Japanese. I just felt glad that I had been able to break that weird awkwardness that had been present before due to the inability to communicate. It's a feeling like no other. This is when language shows its beauty.

The next day, I ate lunch with Kengo since this was our last time seeing each other. I was really thankfull for Kengo since he had allowed me to just stay at his house even though I had no plans this time to hang out with him.


On my last day in Kansai, I had plans to meet up with Chipa, who was coming to Osaka to be trained by his company. Chipa has just graduated from Tokai University (regular program) in September, but he has now entered a company and was about to start his training. So I decided I would hang out one last time with him.

He arrived at noon by shinkansen, but was only free after 4, so after that, we met up and headed over to Osaka Castle! I had been there the last time (Oct. 2014) I came to Osaka, (http://thesoundsofjapan.blogspot.jp/search?q=osaka), but this time, there were sakura (cherry blossoms)!







Afterwards, we walked around these long outdoor hallways, haha which where filled with all kinds of shops! I really enjoyed this kind of shopping district, as we don't have that anywhere near I live. You see restaurants, convenience stores, but you also have jewellers and supermarkets.