Touring Around Nagoya and Going to Atami

 Hey guys~!

Sorry I've been writing later and later. A lot of things has been going on and I couldn't start on writing the blog! Early this week, my friend from NYC came to Nagoya and we went around various tourist attractions. He stayed for two days, one night at the house. On the first day, we went to Nagoya Castle, Oasis 21, the SKE48 theatre, Higashiyama Sky Tower, and the restaurant Gomitori with my mom. I've been to Oasis 21 and Gomitori before, but other than that, it was my first going to all the places. It was really fun looking around, but so tiring! -.-'' Here are some pictures of some places we went to.

This is the Nagoya Castle, which is one of the Japanese castles around the country! Here, we ate kishimen, which is flat, thin noodles famous in Nagoya. I ate cold kishimen and it was perfect for the hot weather.

This is the Higashiyama Sky Tower. We went up to the top by elevator and we were able to see the whole city! We went up exactly when the sun was starting to come down, so it was VERY pretty! ^.^ The picture of the view is right under. If you look closely, there are mountains all the way in the back.



 The next day, we went to Osu Kannon Temple, where we prayed, and the Osu shopping area. The shopping area is HUGE and we only walked around just a bit of it. We looked at some shops, but I didn't buy anything. We had lunch there too, and we ate at a hamburger shop (I had a gorgonzola cheese burger). After, we hanged out at Nagoya station for a bit until he had to leave to Osaka. It was very nice looking at all the Nagoya tourist sites because usually I don't have the chance to actually visit the places. Maybe I'll go again (like the Osu shopping area!).

This past Saturday, I went to Atami, Shizouka prefecture to meet with family members and spend time with them for two days, one night. I went with my mother and grandmother, and we met up with my aunts and great aunts. We went to a hotel that's right in front of the ocean and it was very nice! It has been 3 years since I actually went to the beach (except for Coney Island. That doesn't count). The hotel had a very retro 70s look. There was a dagashiya (cheap candy store), an izakaya with old movie posters on the wall, and souvenir shop (it had a lot of retro bathing suits!). It was so much fun just looking around the hotel.

At night, my family and I went to a performance dinner. The dinner was really good although I thought there was too much meat throughout the whole course (In one course, there was pork hot plate, sashimi, and steak. I thought the steak was unnecessary). The performance was very nice as well, where the performers sang various types of songs. However, the performance was too loud and I was unable to hear my family members talk.

After the performance dinner, we watched fireworks go up from the ocean. I loved it! It was much prettier to see from the ocean rather than the Hudson River in NYC during July 4th. The firework performance lasted for 30 minutes.

Later that night, we all went to the onsen before going to sleep. The next day, my family and I went to a rose garden that was set on a side of a mountain. Although it was VERY hot, looking at the flowers was nice. There wasn't much roses, but there were other flowers as well and the garden was very colorful. At the rose garden, we all ate this delicious rose ice cream! On top of the rose ice cream was rose syrup and on the bottom, there was corn flakes. I must say that this ice cream was probably the best ice cream I ever ate (the second best ice cream is the ice cream I ate at a farm in Kyushu). However, the ice cream would of been better if the flakes were on top instead of the bottom because by the time I went to the bottom, there was no ice cream left but corn flakes. >.<

Anyway, this week has been fun! Until next week, sayonara~! ^.^