I Climbed A Mountain... No Big Deal

 I literally did climb a mountain yesterday, but that is jumping ahead in the story. I need to first explain about the exchange students that I have recently befriended and other mini stories from the past few days.

Exchange Students:
I will start by explaining my new friend Valentina. Valentina is on exchange through AFS (another big exchange program like Rotary) and is going to a high school right down the road from mine. She also lives 15 minutes away from me by car. The reason we became friends is because I noticed her on my train one day, foreigners are pretty easy to pick out. I decided to be the exchange student I am and just start talking to her. It turns out that she is from Switzerland and speaks Swiss German, German, English, can understand a little Italy, and is learning Japanese. Valentina is 17 years old (someone close to my age!) and arrived in Japan around the same time I did.

I also pulled the "I'm an exchange student and will talk to another foreigner because I can get away with that and not feel too awkward" with another girl I have seen multiple times at my train station. This time making friends wasn't so easy. I went up to her, greeted her in Japanese, and asked if she spoke any English (being that 1. while I am learning, my Japanese still isn't that great 2. Never sure with foreigners how much Japanese they speak). Her response to me was "No, Deutsch" and walked away. I felt a little hurt that she didn't even stick around long enough to try to converse in Japanese- but hey, I can't make friends with everyone. That is, until she approached me a couple days later speaking English and asking where I am from. It was a complete personality change! I found out that her name is Rose, she is 15 years old, from Germany (I introduced her to Valentina so they could speak German together), is through the exchange program YFU, and has been in Japan since March. We exchanged emails and I will hopefully be getting to know her a little better as time goes on.

Mini Stories:
1. I ate whale bacon. It didn't taste good or bad, I was just kind of sad to be eating whale- but the way I look at it is that it is something I will probably only get the chance to experience in Japan and I will try anything at least once.


2. I got to eat some snacks that I would eat at home because Shiho brought them back from her one month exchange in California!

3. Valentina came over to my house for the first time.

4. I got my first postcards from friends!

5. I gave a ten minute speech/power point presentation in Japanese, about Northfield, to my Rotary Club. 
6. Met my next host brother.

7. Helped my class study for an English test. The pictures are of them at lunch and/or studying.

Seating chart.

8. Had a class election for President, Vice President, and Secretary. One of the boys running is in my class (of course we all voted for him).

9. Took Valentina to do Purikura (it was her first time!) and then to a burger shop for fries and a shake.

10. I went to a violin concert today.

Yuzuko Horigome was the violinist- she is a very famous musician. There was just a big story about how her violin, a 1741 Guarneri valued at $1.2 million, has been seized by customs authorities in Germany, who are reportedly demanding 190,000 euros ($238,400) in import duty and possible payment of a fine before they give it back. So, the violin she performed with today was not actually her violin!

Concert was at Lovely Hall.

Mt. Iwawaki:
Valentina has a lot of time on her hands- her mom works until 8pm almost everyday and her school doesn't offer any clubs that interest her. So, we are both happy to now be friends because that means we can do things together. At Purikura she told me that she had been researching some hiking possibilities and asked if I would be interested in doing them with her. I love hiking and being outdoors so it was any easy "yes" from me. First on her list was to take a bus from Mikaichicho (our train/bus station) to a little stop called Kouso. From there we could either hike 3 hours to the top of Mt. Iwawaki or 90 minutes to Iwawaki Temple. Both sounded like a good way to spend a Saturday to me.

Of course I had to check with my parents to see if they were alright with me doing this. They were perfectly fine with it but decided that they wanted to go hiking with us too (which worked out really well because they know the area better than Valentina and I do- I guess they go hiking to this temple about three times a year).

Our Day:
10:15am- My family and I left our house to pick Valentina up (we would start our hike from our house, only an extra 15 minute hike)
10:30am- We got to Valentina's house
10:40am- Stopped at a 7/11 on the way home to buy obento
11:00am- Started our hike from my house
12:30pm- Arrived at Iwawaki Temple
12:45pm- Got to the log building that is near the temple that serves as an information and learning center. We ate lunch, played with some toys, and took some great pictures.
1:45pm- We left the temple to start heading home. We took a different, longer, more natural path home.
3:45pm- We got home.
*My Okaasan's phone counts the number of steps she takes and it said we walked about 17,741 steps.

Rice after it has been harvested.

About to start the incline part of our hiking up the mountain.

Last house before the temple.

You can drink water straight from the little stream.

Drinking natural stream water. It was cold and very clean tasting! Super cool to experience.

Iwawaki Temple

Massive trees

My Otousan said that flying squirrels live in the holes.

Otousan and me in front of the temple.

View of the city from the mountain. The big white building is right next to my school.

Log building.

Super steep steps.

Me, Otousan, and Okaasan.

The pointy mountain off in the distance is Mt. Kongo- the highest mountain in Osaka.

Looking at a poisonous bug (we found one in our kitchen once when I was washing dishes!).

A view of the mountain we climbed through my summer bedroom window.

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.