Golden Week and more

In Japan, there is a period of time known as Golden Week, lasting from May 1st to May 5th. Golden Week is actually a string of holidays that, because they are so close together, were just mashed into one week-long break. So Golden Week is a time for either traveling to see family or just lounging at home with one's family (what I'm doing), and overall just enjoying time off. Here are some pictures from Golden Week adventures and of previous adventures that I didn't upload into my prior entries.



...So that whole Golden Week thing I just talked about, forget that for a second. This was a week or so before Golden Week, when my schoolmates and I hiked a huge mountain in the neighboring city of Tsuruga. This is the view from near the top; it was ridiculously difficult to climb. Everyone was dead by the end.



...Not really. Here's a picture of just a few of us at the top of the mountain. It was super ridiculously cold up there, there was snow! We were actually one of the last groups to reach the top, some of the super athletic kids (i.e. the baseball, Kendo, and track and field boys) reached the top, ate lunch, and were already on their way back down while we were still trying to get up there.



Next up are pictures of the orientation for AFS kids who were placed in Fukui. There are three of us, a German boy named Tobias, a Thai girl named Pop, and me. And this is where we had our orientation, at the Mikata Youth Center, which is like, ten minutes from where I live. :D



And here is Tobias showing off his piano skills. He can play the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. Which is pretty awesome.



Here he is again, this time falling off of a building. The little steppy thing was too low, so we kind of had to hoist ourselves up onto the actual concrete part...



...As evidenced here by Pop.



Here we have a picture of the view from the top of a mountain that our little orientation group decided to take a drive on. It was super pretty and the weather was really clear so you could see EVERYTHING.



So this is us with a giant beetle. Lol, it was a good photo opportunity so we decided to take it.



From left to right: Non-chan (a boy who actually goes to my school and is super nice), me, Tobias, Pop, and the woman who is the president of our Chapter. Behind us all is either Tobias' or Pop's LP.



Here we are again. Up there in front is my LP, Kohori-san, and she's really cool. :3



And THIS is us in front of a 2000-year old tree. Yup, 2000 years old. We all touched it, and were just like, "whoa..."

That concludes the orientation pictures, and now we return to Golden Week. :D



A picture of my Okaasan doin' kitcheny things. It's funny, I never get a full-on picture of her, it's always the back of her. She also runs away squealing whenever I bring out my camera, so that could be a contributing factor. :)



XD...ok ok, let me explain...
So this was taken when we went to a church convention thingy that was again in Kyoto, and there was a huge flea market where everyone from the church brought their stuff to sell. And actually, there was some pretty good stuff to be had. I didn't actually get anything, I mostly just ate the food that people were selling. :)
So these two guys were in charge of Bingo (the Japanese LOVE Bingo), and were going with the Mario theme. Hence, they are dressed up as Mario and Princess Peach.



A picture of part of the flea market. There were TONS of people there, it was super fun. :D



My Bingo card. Sadly, I always seem to get the card that never has any of the numbers called. But it was fun anyway.



And these two are dancers who performed for us at said flea market. They were both really good, everyone went nuts when they came on the stage, haha.



...Heh.



WORK IT. Haha, the little admirers down at the bottom were soo cute. :)



A picture of the top of the church. It's actually really big, this is just the part with the banner on it. Which I can't read. Yet.



A picture of a Kyoto street intersection taken out of the bus as we were leaving the flea market. You can see the window reflection, haha.



A rice paddy. I realized that I didn't have any pictures of rice paddies yet, so here you go. They're everywhere right now, and sometimes you can see the farmers wading about planting rice n stuff.



This is the view out of my bedroom window. Sometimes I kind of just want to jump out and go frolick in that grass. Looks like it would be fun.

So that's all for now, I'm actually not all that active with my camera, which needs to change. :/ I'll try to bring it to Kendo practice one day, so that you guys can see what that looks like, cuz it's mind-blowingly awesome. :3 Also, I'll try to take more pictures of my family and friends (ones in which you can actually see their faces, hahaha).



Obligatory cute cherry blossom photo. Bye for now!