Life is what you make of it & rodeo

I have seen some of the funniest and most poorly worded phrases on bags and shirts while here in Japan.  Among them have included "I'm looking for nine seven fun" and "miracles will catch thanks to safe fun."  I remember these in particular for some strange reason, but have heard of more that are equally as strange.  One that I especially enjoyed, however, was "life is what you make of it & rodeo".  They were fine up to that last part and I can't imagine what compelled them to add those last two words.  Nevertheless, entertaining for us native English speakers.

1 June '16

The professors gave an impromptu lecture on the train ride to Titibu, since we were the only ones in that car.  For some reason the Japanese like to avoid us on trains.  They will actually get up and move to another seat at the end of the car or even a completely different car when we sit down.

We walked from the train station to a park where we visited yet another shrine.  First we found a pond though with lots of cute fish and turtles who swam up to us when we came near.  Looking for food, just like Pecha.

We approached the Hodosan Shrine and found another water basin... this time with an information/directions plaque!

The main shrine:

Somebody offered sake at this shrine.  I saw these all over at some of the other shrines as well.

There is always such beautiful nature surrounding the shrines & temples...

After walking around the shrines for a while, we took a lift up to the top of the mountain and walked around there for a while.  We were able to see the Arakawa (Ara River or Arkawa River) from the top.  The day after we will be visiting the Arakawa waste water treatment plant.

Daniel getting in my way like the little brother I never had while I am trying to take a picture of the beaultiful landscape.

The always beautiful Katie hugging a very old wisteria vine.  I wonder how long it will take for my wisteria at home to grow this large...

After our hike down the mountain, we ate at a family owned restaurant in the town below.  I got tempura soba and it was so yummy!

After lunch we walked over to the Arakawa.  Some of us went in swimming, some just wandered around.  I was a wanderer.  We found many people sitting on the rocks, painting the beautiful landscape all around.  The photo below is only one of the maybe 25 artists I saw.

The wording on this plastic bag was too cute.  We found another Studio Ghibli store and I got a little Totoro tenugui.  I only have a picture of the bag my purchase was placed in because I was clearly more interested in the kawaii plastic.

Went to dinner with a couple of friends at a cafe and was very excited to get a hot dog  (I miss America).  So excited, I felt the need to take a selfie with my food in the middle of the restaurant.  My friend Sam thought this was funny and took a picture of me taking a picture of myself.

After dinner we went to the arcade and played Taiko drums! (Okay not really because it was more a video game than anything like Guitar Hero, but still really fun.)  It only cost ¥1 per person to play five songs!

More posts on the last few days to come,

Anna

P.S. Hi Ronnie!  Thanks for looking at my blog and if I find any more statues with silly hats I will make sure to post pictures! ;)