Sakura in Saga!!

Hello readers far and wide!

As it seems like we've just jumped into summer in the past two weeks, it seems like an appropriate time to sum up the wonderful, yet tearfully-fast spring I've enjoyed in Japan. I wish sakura season could have lasted until the end of time. It was absolutely lovely, no how much sneezing I had to go through to see all those beautiful cherry petals.

Since explaining what sakura is like in real life is far beyond my writing capabilities, please take a browse through the petaled streets, schools, and shrines I visited during cherry blossom season. It's a must-see!!

About to embark on some sakura tasting!

The first full-blooming tree I set eye on; right after returning from Osaka.

Pretty in pink

 An interesting quote I heard quite often from my exchange student friends: "I thought all sakura were supposed to be pink. That's how they are in manga..."

While on my trip to Fukuoka to apply for my Chinese visa, I found a beautiful weeping cherry tree in a shrine.

A sole cherry tree among the hundreds of peaches and plums planted at Kodenji Temple in Saga.

On the university campus

Actually I lied. These are double plum blossoms.

A plum tree in full bloom, far before any cherry trees

Plum blooms

Pink cherry blooms

These are also plum blooms, "ume", not to be confused with "sakura."

Snacking on yummy blooms

Outside of Honjo Elementary School

The borders of the old moat of Saga Castle are completely surrounded by cherry trees

A pink afternoon

The trees in full bloom at Saga Castle

It rained while the sakura were in full bloom, resulting in most of the petals prematurely falling from the flowers. What a sad day that was.

New leaves

Jofuku Cycling Road in Saga. A must-see in Saga. Kilometers and kilometers lined with a tunnel of cherries.

A late-blooming weeping cherry in a temple in Saga City.

From the inside looking out

The sad end to sakura season

Kansai Part Two

A traditional Kyoto lunch: soba

Ohisashi-buri Kyoto!

My most awaited visit of the Kansai region was definitely Kyoto. The one day trip where I'd been to Kyoto before is maybe half the reason I wanted to return to Japan! I absolutely love everything about Kyoto, and as I've found out from my Japanese friends, they often love Kyoto the most too. 

Everything feels transcendent after visiting Kyoto. It's like, "Did I just see that all with my own eyes?" How have they preserved  this ancient capital so beautifully? There are so many temples that you step out from the gates of one and there's another right next door! Even now, the big city skyscrapers and ultra-modern Kyoto station seem to blend seamlessly with the old Kyoto image. You still see women walking in kimonos and rickshaw drivers for hire on the streets.  

But being able to live in Kyoto, drinking in the sights of your own Japanese garden, the surrounding walls and leaves of the plants absorbing the drone of the city when you return from your busy urban life; that would be superb.  It's such a one-of-a-kind city. Our first stop was Arashiyama, to the west.

Arashiyama

With Maiko in Arashiyama

Walking upriver

An absolutely perfect Japanese garden to the side of our soba restaurant. 

The gardens here can make anyone go halfway nuts. Every time I pass one, I just want to live there as a hermit forever. They are so old and so meticulously perfected, you can tell right away from the age of the pines and the luscious blanket of moss underfoot. Kyoto is 100% the mecca for Japanese gardens. And I would like to go on a pilgrimage here.

Kyoto is chock-full of gardens

Loving the Kansai Region!

by Josie Losh

Flying away from Kyushu and towards Honshu on my first domestic flight within Japan.

Hello, Readers! My first travel of spring break has just finished and do I ever have a lot to share with you!

Along with five of my friends, I set out on a 6-day spring break trip to Osaka, with day trips to Nara and Kyoto. Our group composed of two Japanese, Swedish, Armenian, Belgian, and American exchange students. For most of us, it wasn't our first time in the Kansai region, but it was our first REAL stay there, and boy was it worth it!

Shades of Autumn

by Josie Losh

#nofilter

Welcome to fall in Kyushu! I apologize to my readers at the loss of pertinence of this topic. It is far past fall. The fall season felt like time doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and then snapped back on itself, and BAM it was winter. I enjoyed this long autumn though, especially with the exceptional fall colors and sunny weather.

Fall Events: Saga Balloon Festival

by Josie Losh

Hello, everyone! As much as it may seem that I had dropped off the face of the globe because I have not written a post in ABSOLUTELY ages, here I am! What a slacker blogger. Good thing I'm here for more than a semester, otherwise I would have already missed blogging on the entire term I think! So, fall has passed, and now Kyushu is in the dead of winter. A few flakes of snow even fell today during class. The very first snow I've seen fall in Japan and I was stuck inside a classroom, unsurprisingly!

Hitting a few bumps on the road... (setbacks and culture shock) & field trip!

by Josie Losh

I can’t believe it, but it’s been a month since I’ve come to Japan. Somehow, it feels like I’ve been here longer than a month. Every day seems to stretch out inconceivably longer than a day in America, even with going to bed earlier and getting up later than I typically do at Pacific University.

Starting Life in Japan

by Josie Losh

The temple near my apartment

It's been a week already since I left America, but it already seems like ages ago. Life has been so busy day-to-day, there's no time to think about slowing down! However, for the time being, I'm done with errands like registering my residence at the city hall and with the national government, setting up a Japanese bank account, obtaining the national health insurance, and paying my first month's rent at my apartment! Sadly, this also means that I have completely exhausted my Japanese cash! Especially after paying for groceries and household items! However, so far, I love life in Japan.

A Very Asian Non-Asian

by Josie Losh

An aerial view of Saga University (picture obviously not mine). [INTERCOH]

In a little less than a month, I'll be studying abroad Pacific University's only science-based exchange university in Japan: Saga University （佐賀大学）located on Kyushu. I have been studying the Japanese language and culture for 6 years and I just recently made the decision to make Japanese my second major (my first being Biology).