Izu

I recently went to Izu, which is the peninsula in Shizuoka prefecture. It was actually quite special, as one of the students wanted to take me somewhere for a sightseeing road trip, because I "never get to travel anywhere in Japan". Actually, this is quite true. I'm often in Shizuoka. I always get this 'huuuhhh' look whenever I tell someone that I haven't been to Kyoto or Osaka, and I've only been to Tokyo one time since I've been in Japan, and it was in the suburbs, not even the famous downtown parts. But regardless, I was quite happy that my friend was thinking about me and wanted to show me around Japan.


So the 6 of us (Mattchan was taking the picture) all piled into Mattchan's van, and off we went on our Izu aventure. I don't/can't remember the names of all the places I went, but we saw a famous tunnel, and we went to a restaurant that served wasabi soba, (Izu is famous for wasabi [everywhere is Japan is famous for something different]) and then we went to a place that had lots of waterfalls. It was supposed to be something like "The seven waterfalls of 'wherever we were'", but I guess they don't count the small ones, because there were a lot more than seven. And then we finished off the trip by seeing the sunset over the ocean (the Pacific) and then took a bath at a hot spring. (Taking baths with your friends is something that I've just realized is quite strange, but is something I have gotten quite accustomed to since I've been in Japan).


The best part of the trip was spending time with my friends. I got to spend time with some of the students that I don't often get to see, or talk with. Speaking of conversation, (haha) Mattchan doesn't speak English, so there was a large portion of this trip where I could only speak Japanese, which was quite a leap for me. I typically talk a lot of English, because students want to practice. And actually, sometimes it's even to the point where, when I want to speak Japanese, people just talk to me in English anyway, so I don't get to always practice so much. But I was really pleased that the other members of the trip spoke to me in Japanese. Even the girl that is in my English class! I guess they can't totally relax if they speak English, which I understand. And I guess it's encouraging that I know enough Japanese that I can keep up a conversation in a car for hours (or at least be able to listen...)

So, it was a great time. We also planned to go to some other places in the future together. I think it's the trips like these that leave lasting impressions with the students, and now we will always have this shared experience to remember. Maybe Mattchan can take me to Kyoto next time!