Saturday, November 23, 2013

nikko onsen | part i


I love living in Tokyo but I really miss being able to see fall colors. So! This past week my friends and I took a trip up to Tochigi for fall colors and onsen.







We decided to take the long way from Tokyo to Tochigi to cut the train price in half. Four hours but only 2000 yen! Steal. I should also probably mention that because it's dark, as in completely dark by about 5:00pm here, by the time we arrived at Kawaji-Yumoto Station the sun was already setting.


A shuttle service from our ryokan came to pick us up and dropped us off here. My face was basically like :o no lie. Our friend Mittan arranged everything for us and she picked a really, really nice place. I've never stayed in such a fancy hotel in Japan before. We still had about 2 hours before they brought us our dinner so decided to explore the grounds.











Fall in Georgia is gorgeous and every year that I've lived in Japan I've really missed seeing the leaves change. We hit Tochigi at just the right time; the colors were absolutely perfect.






When we got back to the room, we have about a 1,000 course dinner waiting for us. Two kinds of soup, appetizers, delicious roasted(?) eggplant, fish, rice, sushi, steak. I've been trying so hard lately to diet and go to the gym regularly but ohmygod. So good.

Part II coming soon! Have about a million things to do today so it'll have to wait til later. Until then!

miss wave

Sunday, November 17, 2013

oki-fucking-nawa part IV


Last day in Okinawa! Last tacos, delicious coffee and the "best fuckin' ice cream followed by our last day at the beach.

So let's just overlook the fact that we went to Okinawa at the end of June and I'm just now getting this post up. Never said I was really on the ball there with punctuality, though so hey. Plus I have a lot of other stuff going on right now which I'll expound upon later. For now!

My other favorite day of the whole trip! To be perfectly honest 4 days is not nearly enough time but this day and day 2 were my absolute favorites.

I'm so sure.


Our first order of the day was tacos for breakfast. Literally.


Followed by a really cute cafe! Should've probably done this the other way around but, well. Coffee is coffee and, I mean. Tacos, man. TACOS. Priorities.

taama taxi
After that, our friend Taama came to pick us up so we could get our bags from the hotel before setting out for the day. Despite almost dying (but not really) on Saturday night--and all for the sake of root beer--some of the best & lulziest times were had in this car that day XD



Claimed to be the "best fuckin' ice cream" in all of Okinawa by our lulzy tour guide and he wasn't lying. Apparently I just can't eat it without it melting everywhere. I was thoroughly bullied for this.

After that we thought we'd try our luck at getting to the beach one last time before we had to leave. Cue about 30 minutes of aimless driving, some Fallout Boy and christening him the "Okinawa Asshole", we finally rounded a corner that looked promising. 





The shadow really sells it.


The beach here is really just so, so beautiful and the water is so clear and so blue. We hung out at the beach for a while before making our way back to the clubhouse like area.


Where apparently Taama made a friend...


 And apparently Lisa and I made two. Dat guy.

On our way back into Naha we picked up our now mutual friend Erykah from getting her tattoo done and started making our way to the airport.

USA USA.


So though we honestly spent most of the day driving around southern Okinawa, it was seriously the perfect way to end this vacation. Finally being able to take this vacation with Ri like we'd always planned, finally getting to hang out with Daisuke and Taama in their hometown, and meeting the amazing and lovely Erykah, I seriously couldn't have asked for a better "first time" for Okinawa.

We'll definitely be back next year :3

miss wave
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