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Hello again... Well, I did my first speech this morning. I felt so ill with nervousness beforehand that I thought for sure I'd throw up in front of everybody, but somehow I made it through okay and several people have complimented me on my performance. I was so keyed up about the whole thing that I've more or less collapsed by now. I wish I could rest after work, but I have plans right after to go shopping for hina dolls with my sensei, and then I'm probably going to a love hotel with two friends... to do karaoke, apparently. (don't ask, I don't know why, except, I suppose, to enjoy the lovely strangeness of the place.)
I really don't have time to be lazy just yet, as I have another speech on Friday that I haven't even finished the draft for yet (waiting on my editor... again) and a three-day weekend this weekend. Also, my parents and I finally got an idea of how many days we're looking at for being in Japan together and squeezing in as much as we possibly can. I think even though I've tried to pad it with extra time to tour about, it'll be a hectic trip. Poor Phillip is going to hate me for putting him through this, all he really wants to do is see the Miyazaki museum, and we'll be dragging him along with us to a bunch of other stuff. (Oh, but he is looking forward to Mt. Koya as well, which surprised me.)
Yesterday was really cool though. I figured I might as well write about it when I'm too brain-dead to work on anything else.
So, a friend here has a friend from America over, and we all went to visit Kosan Temple, which is in Hiroshima Prefecture. We drove the Shimanami series of bridges over all the little islands in the Seto Inland Sea to get there. It is a cool place, full of temple buildings that are replicas of famous Buddhist sites elsewhere in Japan. It's like you get a taste of Japan's most famous Buddhist sites all in one place, and then some. My favorite part was this cave, lined with Buddhist statues that looked like they were carved right out of the cave walls. It was kinda like the cave I went to at Ishite Temple, only bigger and brighter lit. There were a few large caverns with waterfalls trickling down, and spiral staircases cut into the stone, leading up and around this winding path around more statues... and yeah, it's better to just see the pictures. Unfortunately, Facebook is not cooperating at the moment for uploads... >:E But I will get those posted when I can. Anyway, that was my favorite part. The rest, again, pictures speak for themselves, but there was also a big hill, covered in bright white marble sculpture--I think I was told it all comes from Italy--that was also really pretty, though a little overwhelming after a while. We went to an Italian cafe perched at the top before heading back down.
On the way back, we went to a pirate museum. ^_^
The area is famous for citrus fruits and salt. We tried some salt-flavored ice cream... salty and sweet, just like they always described it in Kingdom Hearts 2. I'd always wanted to try it, ever since seeing it there. XD
...huh. That didn't take as long as I thought. Oh well.