Weekend Trip #2: Sasebo

September 2nd

So once again, I had a rather busy weekend. Though it wasn’t as jam-packed as last weekend, it was still fun and exciting! ^^
I’m thinking that as long as I keep staying busy, I’ll adjust to living here more easily. But I worry that since just about every weekend that I’ve spent here in Japan so far have been busy or had some sort of exciting thing going on, that I’ll be disappointed/unbelievably bored if/when a weekend with nothing to do pops up… Hmm…on second thought…maybe there’s always going to be something going on… mahahahaha!

So on Friday, I went over to Tenjin (Fukuoka City) to hang out with some people. There was a crazy Karaoke party last week and some of my friends were like, “oh you should have come!” So I got an invite to hang out with them for last week and I went.

Since I had gone to Tenjin the day before for a baseball game (which was absolutely awesome!) I had the meeting time a little mixed up in my head. I thought everyone was meeting at 7:15 (because yesterday’s meeting time was 6:15) but it turned out to be 7:30. So…since I was early, I took a small walk around the shopping area. It made me want to go shopping…(such a girl, I know). Anyhoo, long story short, I hung out with Josh for most of the night (everyone else was like really late). It was pretty cool though towards the end of the night, being the only girl in the group meant I got hit on quite a lot…and one of the guys started creeping me out…and I see him in Japanese class…luckily though, we’re not in the same level. So although we’re in the same building, sometimes the same room, we’re not actually in the same class. Mahaha. I can somehow avoid him!

Anyhoo…I came back home (safe and sound. Don’t worry), did some general cleaning and then got to talk to my papa over skype! xD Sadly though, he didn’t have a headset so we had a rather slow and slightly frustrating chat over skype (though I’m proud of him! He managed to turn it on and log on all by himself! ^^). And then I got to chat with my cousin a bit. And finally my brother sent a “hi.” Then…I went out to eat dinner with some of my neighbors. It was a gyukaku place which really reminded me of Korean BBQ. So, Jo Jo and Terence, we’re going there once you guys come!!! ;P
Then Sunday came around. We left the Jutaku early (8am, not that early) and took 2 cars to Sasebo, Nagasaki-ken. Seth, JET neighbor, had his dad over (for a week I think) and so awesome Grace planned out the trip to go to Sasebo.

We were lucky with the weather that day. It was sunny and no rain. Although…it was rather hot and humid…but at least the breeze was nice whenever it came. We took a cruise around the islands and I took possibly way too many shots…problem is that I can’t tell one island from the other! Sasebo is known for it’s huge cluster of small islands. It has 19 main islands but 203 all together. But in Japan, it’s called the “99 islands” because “99” can be used to reference a big amount.

And since there was deal going on with the “Commonness Ticket” (I kid you not. It was called the Commonness Ticket. Not the “Common Sense Ticket” but “Commonness”) we also went to the zoo. It wasn’t the greatest of zoos but apparently it’s better than the one in Fukuoka (which I highly doubt I’ll ever visit).

Afterwards we went in search of food. There is “Sasebo burger” which I had for lunch and I have to say, it was pretty good. And I’ve heard that good burgers are hard to come by in Japan. So I guess for Japan standards, it was really good!

And then we went for the highlight of the day: up to an observatory. At this observatory, not only is there a great view of the islands and everything, it’s a popular area among photographers to capture the sunset (and Carl and Seth are the photographers in our group. So they were really looking forward to this). The other cool thing about this area is that it was used to shoot a scene for “The Last Samurai.” Now I want to see that movie again and see if I recognize the shot… Sadly though, by this time we started to get some overcast and although the shots are great, the guys were a little disappointed…and I got bit by mosquitos yet again… ><”

But yea. Great weekend once again! Woot-woot! ^^