**NOTE: I am trying to get the pictures in working order, but it is taking some time trying to figure out the best way to showcase so many pictures.**

APRIL:

Near the end of April, I made my first trip to Tokyo with a friend. I had never been to a bustling city that large before. There were so many people and huge buildings, I was fascinated. I was in the Capital of Japan! When we first arrived, we went straight to the Imperial Palace grounds near the station. America doesn't have the kind of history that Japan has; the palace grounds have been around for many years. I couldn't see the castle, but we expored the gardens and they were gorgeous. We tried to see the palace from a distance, but they did a wonderful job of keeping it hidden from view when designing the grounds. I theorized that it helps keep intruders from automatically finding the emperor's location.

Afterward, we went to mutiple parts of Tokyo: Shibuya, Harajuku, and Ikebukuro. I witnessed the high amount of people crossing a huge crosswalk in Shibuya. I discovered the fashion capital in all its diversity in Harajuku. I got an amazing nighttime view of Tokyo from a lookout point in Ikebukuro called Sunshine 60. I experienced many new things I can't back home, discovered different apects of Tokyo, and visited historical places. This was a day when I was especially glad I could be a part of this experience. 

MAY:

At the beginning of May, with a couple friends, I made a trip to Nikkou Toshogu Shrine in Nikkou, Tochigi. This wasn't the first shrine I had visited, but it was the most beauitful one I had seen, so far. It was on a mountain that reached even higher than the second tallest structure in the world: the Tokyo Skytree. We had to walk through the small town to get to the base of the shrine. We passed by a beautiful bridge with the mountains as a background. We made our way uphill until we reached the entrance gate. From there we enjoyed the scenery until we reached the ticket booth to get into the actual shrine. 

The architecture was beautiful. The gold additions with the blacks, whites, and wooden decorations and carvings gave it such elegance. We were able to enter the actual building as a tour while a man explained the history about it. In another room, a man showed us the 'Dragon's Voice' by smacking two wooden sticks together under a painting of a dragon's head, making the room echo with it. Only under the dragon's head could you hear its voice. We climbed even higher up the mountain, up many stairs, to discover more. I plan to return again to see the waterfalls I didn't get to see, among more exploration. Another day that just made everything leading up to this trip worthwhile.

JUNE:

In the middle of June, I made a trip to meet with a friend I had made when she studied abroad at IUPUI during my freshman year of college, which was about 3 years ago at the time of my own trip. I wasn't able to talk with her very much after she returned to Japan, but when we met up again, it was like no time passed aside from catching up with each other. We visited Tsukiji first to see a festival with many people carrying mikoshi (small houses for the gods) and to visit the famous fish market. I learned the history behind the festival procession; because of a tsunami long ago, Tsukiji's people offered a lion's head to the gods and prayed for safety. That's the reason the procession starts with a lion's head as you can see in the picture below. Right next door was Ginza where she helped me pick out a yukata for an upcoming summer festival in Oyama. It took a long time, the women working there were the kindest I have ever worked with, and I still only walked out with one part of the yukata. However, visiting my friends after so long, witnessing a festival like that with so much energy, and purchasing my oen yukata made that day a wonderful one. We passed by a Kabuki theater and made plans to see it together as the first time for both of us, as well as her inviting me to visit her hometown with her sometime in July. She wants to show me around places in Tokyo and just experence things with her. That was such a great day and made so glad, once again, to be experiencing this myself.

JULY:

Around this time is when the summer events really get fired up here in Japan. There are tons of festivals all over the country for these few months of the season. I was ecstatic this month when I completed my yukata outfit. A yukata is like a kimono, but it's meant for the summer time as a lighter, less expensive outfit. I purchased all of the pieces I wanted to complete the look in preparation for Oyama's fireworks festival. It was my first festival to experience, but won't be my last. There were TONS of people. I went later in the day, closer to the times when the fireworks were starting. The main road was closed down for all of the stalls and people. The riverbanks were cleared and prepped for all the people that would be sitting there watching the show. The atmosphere was fantastic and the fireworks were beautiful. I will say, America doesn't come close to the amazing creativity Japan puts into creating their fireworks. They continue to make new ones that no one has seen before. I'm sad that I won't get to experience them again when I go back home. Here are some pictures from the festival.

AUGUST:

Some months, unfortunately, weren't as exciting as others. We didn't do too much in August. A lot of international students returned to their respective countries, so it became a little lonely and less plans were made. I just enjoyed most of my time in Oyama going out with friends there!

SEPTEMBER:

This wasn't necessarily an empowering moment, unless you interpret it as quite an adventure. We experienced a flood! I've never had a flood in the places I live in Indiana. I was lucky because my room is on the second floor, which the water never reached. However, the two guys downstairs had to rush the stuff they could save out of their rooms and bring it up to mine. Since it was already late at night when it happened, they also had to bunk there. The river was extremely flooded and the area we and the school live in is all in the downhill part of Oyama, so the rainwater washed only down there. Thus, the next morning, we decided it might be best to evacuate to higher ground as the water was still rising. We also didn't have power or water or food. So we packed our backpacks and made our way through the water. At some points it was only thigh-high, but some points were chest high. We stayed at our friends room in the boys dorm that night. I was quite exhausted after all that, but we made it enjoyable with jokes and such because we were quite lucky it wasn't worse - my condolences to the towns around Ibaraki. The floodwater was gone here the next day. People were out and playing by the river like nothing happened! There was a lot of cleaning up to do and the guys were moved to the second floor. Everyone is a-okay!

OCTOBER:

I went on a weekend trip with some friends here in Japan and it was one of the best trips I've experienced so far. Shun invited us because he had some free tickets to an illumination event at a lake near his hometown, Nasu-Shiobara. What I didn't know was that he also planned and took us to a mountain in Nasu; he drove us up as far as he could and from there we took a cable car to the top. On our way up by car, we stopped at a small shrine and hiking area where there is a natural sulfur river; I think it was sulfur... Then stopped real quick at a nice viewpoint for some great pictures. Then at the top, there was a trail so you could walk a little around the mountain and up even further. We were with clouds at one point! There is nothing like that in Indiana. It was absolutely stunning up there. The view was amazing, there were rocks to climb on, and the sun was painting everything a wonderful color when the clouds weren't in the way. Not to mention the leaves are changing color for Autumn. It made me truly appreciate what nature has to offer. I can't even put into words how stunning it was. I wouldn't hesitate to go back again and explore the mountain more. Afterward, we headed to the lake where we pet animals, tried ziplining, and saw a lovely illumination show. Shun's family then treated us to a homemade dinner at his house, which is also a restaurant. I'm glad I was able to share the day with those friends.

NOVEMBER:

Another less exciting month, but my friend visited from America for a couple weeks. I know that sounds like it shouldn't be less exciting, but I also still had school going on. Which meant that we could only do traveling on weekends. The traveling we did do was past stuff I've already mentioned, just with a friend this time!

DECEMBER:

Near the end of December, my sister came to visit me for 2 weeks! About 2 days after she arrived we already had plans to go to Hiroshima dn Kyoto by shinkansen (bullet train). Shinkansens are expensive, but they are such a nice means of travel. The plan was to go all the way to Hiroshima (still almost 5 hrs by shinkansen, phew!), then Kyoto on our way back home. In Hiroshima, we visited the Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial left in rememberance for the nuclear bombing, as well as the Hiroshima castle. The bomb dome was the only building left somewhat standing in the bombs hypocenter after the attack and they left it almost completely untouched aside from supports to keep it stable and some preserving work.

In Kyoto we visited the Kiyomizudera Temple, Fushimi Inari Shrine, and the Arashiyama monkey park! Fushimi Inari was definitely my favorite. It was beautiful going up the mountain through all those torii gates. Unfortunately, due to back and hip issues, I couldn't manage the full 2-3 hr hike through all 1000 gates, so we went a ways and returned. Nonetheless, it was stunning. Kiymizudera had some really nice views of Kyoto from the mountain side. The monkey park allowed us to be really close to monkeys only native to Japan and we were able to feed them inside the hut, behind a fence/screen type thing. The baby monkeys were really cute. We couldn't touch not get too close, but they were fun to watch. Plus, we were on a mountain and that also had some great views. I'm glad my sister could experience that with me!

JANUARY:

Another less exciting month. My birthday came around, though, and I was treated to a delicious dinner of shabu shabu, which is basically a meal in which you have a pot of boiling water in the center of the table. Then you have meat and vegetables to dump in there and once they're fully cooked, you enjoy them dipped into (or not) a couple different sauces. Plus rice!

FEBRUARY:

There is not much to report for this month, considering my flight back home was the 12th. Thus, that time was spent getting everything settled for leaving. However, I realized what great friends I had made on this journey the day I left. A few saw me off. The funny thing is, I ended up dragging along one of those friends to the airport because I was nervous to go alone and I wanted company while I was en route and waiting at the airport. He helped me get my bags on the shinkansen I took (he didn't have an actual ticket) and I ended up hugging him for too long, so he was stuck on there with me! Then I just asked if he could make the rest of the journey with me 'cause I was nervous and I paid for his shinkansen ticket since it was my fault.

But as the plane left, I realized how much I would miss the people and places I shared experiences with. This truly was an unforgettable journey.