Matta-ne Okayama & off to Tokyo~!

Good times always seemed to end so soon~

I think we all had like 3 hours of sleep the night before.....and we still had to wake up at 6am to get ready for breakfast and depart accordingly.

The first group to leave were those from China, followed by Myanmar and Nepal.

Few of us remaining.....

Ashita, Na-chan, Kuro-chan, Ryuu and myself left together......leaving Matthew behind.

Felt so sad to leave after all the fun we had~

Goodbye International House, Thank you for taking such good care of us!

We all arrived at Okayama station in order to board the shinkansen for either Osaka or Tokyo. Only Na-chan and myself were headed to Tokyo while the other were all going to Osaka. After Na-chan got her tixs, we both frantically ran towards the platform to catch the next train to Tokyo......we literally ran with our luggages and arrived just in time!

Hence, no pictures.....because we were running unglamorously and were too tired afterwards. Almost 3 hours of train ride, so we did manage to get some shut eye and chat more!

Once we arrived at Tokyo station, it was time to say good-bye as I headed towards my hotel and her to her bf's place.

I stayed in a small town called Asagaya, where most of the ppl walking around the streets were old local folks.

Even managed to catch a small matsuri while walking around the town waiting for my check-in time.

In the station. there's a supermarket and I spotted durian! One that has no smell even though it carried a warning sign for foul smell and came with a hefty price tag!

Caution for foul smell and thorns that might hurt you!

Oh my love~

Expensive melon but not even close to the premium ones......

Love that there's a lot of small eateries nearby!

Finally it's time to check-in!

Packed a small lunch from Tenya. Wanted to head out immediately after check-in but I was sick so after lunch, I just showered and slept!

Woke up later in the afternoon and decided to head out to the city even though I was still sick because I'm in Tokyo! Ain't gonna waste my time in my hotel room!

Where do I go? Shinjuku.......lol, to shop for some clothes!

It was a cold, windy night!

After 2 hours, I decided that I was too sick to continue and decided to head back to the hotel.

Crazy time in the bus!

Since we've spent so many hours in the bus.....naturally we also took many crazy shots in the bus~

My seat-mate~

Got spotted by the boys~

On the return trip, we were all high......on hiroshima yaki!

Ashita-san.....what happened to you?

Lol~ all these shots were taken by NaYoung-chan....

Saranghaeyo~

Bunny pose~

Ghost pose?

This was after the bus driver dropped off all the students back at their uni, except for Soichiro-san as his bike was at our hostel.

Ashita-san and NaYoung-chan busy at work!

They were both on a mission~ to snap pictures of all those who fell asleep on the bus.

Kuro-chan with Kohara-san

Mai-chan

Then back at the International House, it was karaoke time! Sensei was really into it.

Matthew was really good too!

We did japanese songs.....english, chinese and korean! All thanks to this little karaoke box in the shokudo! :)

Minzokuisyou wo kiku

After the trip, we were all really tired! But it was the last night....so we really wanted to spend more time with each other....hence, it was another round of karaoke followed by a jyoshikai with the girls. We all decided to try on each other's national costumes~

Here we are!!  Needless to say, the hanbok is the most popular costume!

Some of the costumes, like the Vietnamese dress and cheong sam was too small for me..... *sniff*

So sad that they couldn't fit me!!!

Time to diet??

Luckily Trang-chan brought 1 of her mum's and I could barely fit in! Why is everyone so slim??

It was a fun night where we talked about things back home, the differences in culture and of course boys! hahaha...

Ashita-san looking stunning in every single costume!

It was a definitely a fun night for me! It was a long time ago since I had a mini jyoshikai with so many girls and from different countries!

:D

Hiroshima

At Hiroshima.....

Maybe because of it's history and also the places that we visited, I couldn't help but feel sad for the place but at the same time gotten great strength from it seeing how a place that was so badly destroyed rebuilt itself.

Here we are listening attentively to the Prof as he explained the tombs and landmarks in detail to us.

The A-Bomb Dome or Hiroshima Peace Memorial, which is another UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Look at how serene the place is now~

Outside Shima hospital which was also destroyed by the bombing. The epicentre of the bombing was directly above the hospital. It is now known as Shima Geka Naika.

Children's Peace Monument

If you have time, check out the story of Sadako and the thousand paper cranes and you would know why this statue exists.

Children all over Japan fold paper cranes and send them here. 

Cenotaph which is an arched tomb for those who had died from the bomb.

A group pic with the Prof

Peace memorial museum

I highly recommend the you visit this museum! It's so cheap! Only 50yen! It's really educational! You get to see with your own eyes, how destructive wars can be, look at the innocent people who suffered, the side-effects that remains even after so many years. You will definitely feel chills down your spine!

For dinner, it was hiroshima-yaki at Okonomimura (okonomiyaki village)

Amazingly quick hands at work~

It was the first time I tried hiroshima-yaki and it was delicious!

Of course, we had to end the night with a purikura.

The technology still amazes me every single time! 

Truly an educational experience. Perhaps if I shall visit Hiroshima again, I will definitely visit the Peace Museum again as we only had 1 hour to explore the museum previously and it just wasn't enough.