This is turning into a regular blog now

Hi!
So like I said, I'll just be using this as a daily journal.  My life isn't that interesting but there will be some things I want to remember haha.
So next week I start university. I'm kind of not feeling excited nor scared. I just kind of want to get it over an done with. But I'm also torn because I don't know what I'll be working towards. I don't really have a dream job in mind so that is a bit stressful.
On Tuesday I have my MPT. I'm not looking forward to it. I'll be studying for the next two days (I have to restrain myself and not play Skyward Sword haha). I hope I can change some of my classes but the course adviser has yet to reply to me. I probably won;t get a reply for a while but whatever.
I can't believe its already September. This time last year I was in Japan and loving life. Its crazy to realize how fast time goes. *le sigh*

Like I said, nothing interesting haha.

The Last Days and Home

So the last days. I have been home for about five days and thinking about it makes me so sad. Anyway:

So on my last full day in Japan I didn't really do anything special. I basically just packed all day. I was home with my host sister and around lunch we went and got McDonald's. I really miss my host sister Chi. She was always so sweet to me. Anyway, we ate and watched some TV and I went back to packing. Around four o'clock, my host dad came home and we waited for my host mom so we could go see my host families for the last time. First was the Ozaki family. Now, I wrote about them in an earlier post so some people know that they weren't my favourite family. I believe that this is because it was a very fragile time in my exchange and yeah. However! When I went to visit them, their grand-daughter, Aoi, was there and so was her mother. Aoi and I got along very well and she was really kind. We sat and talked for awhile and I thanked them for letting me stay with them. We took pictures and then we said goodbye. I will love Ozaki Mama because she was so sweet and gentle. She hugged me and it, I don't know, just felt so loving. We then went to my second host family, The Takeuchi Family. The are currently renovating their house so they are living in an apartment close by. We said hello and greeted everyone and talked for a bit. Their two cats have gotten so big! Not to mention Ibu and Hina have grown up so much even in 6 months! We were going to leave and go to the house that was being renovated. But before we left their grandmother came to talk to me. She thanked me for being with her family and she began to cry. I couldn't figure out why, so I just hugged and told her that I loved her and this family. I said we would meet again and I really hope we do. She is very old and maybe she thinks that we won't meet again. I'll be so sad if we don't...
Anyway, we looked at the new house and then went to to the doughnut store. We took pictures and I said goodbye to Ibu and Hina. and I was driven to the cellphone store to meet my first house mother because she was cancelling my phone. I thanked her for letting me stay with her and both her and Ozaki Mama gave me "feelings" money which was $100 each. So nice. That night we went to the supermarket and my host family bought some sake and some stuff to make okonomiyaki. We then went home and had shabu shabu. It was my last supper in Japan, and it so so good. The next morning I packed up my carry-on and got ready to go. I picked up some flowers for my family and wrote them a card, thanking them. We then drove to the airport and waited for Kana, Natsu and the rest of my friends to come see me off. We had conveyor belt sushi for lunch and just hung around for awhile until I had to go.

I am now home and missing Japan. I have Freudian slips and always accidentally say things in Japanese. Its kind of funny. University starts soon and I have my rotary presentation next week. Since I'm back home I can actually edit decent videos and a good computer and not just a laptop. I have tons of footage! So I'll still use this blog as a diary basically and if you want to stay. Awesome! I will be going back to Japan and I'll use this blog even then. I'm starting a Japanese blog so I don't lose my Japanese skill. So I'll see you next time!

Narita

So not according to plan, I didn't write a blog. I was too busy, unfortunately. However, I have just arrived in Toronto and luckily for me my connection flight was delayed! :D So I had a little trouble at Narita airport. In waiting for my friend to come see me off, I ended up being horribly late for my flight. I started to cry and when I asked the airport employees what to do, they were very rude. I have established I don't like airport people. They are too cold. I want to feel nice when I fly haha. Anyway, I ended up having to ask this nice Japanese lady (who, honestly I thought was white because she had blonde hair but when she turned around... SURPRISE!) if I could go ahead of her and she said yes and was very sweet. I thanked her maybe 50 times. Anyway, I ran to my gate and got there for last boarding call. All sweaty and gross. Some cute boys were ahead of me and they looked back at me, hot mess that I was. And then one of them said (in Japanese) "Its a real foreigner!" to which I responded in Japanese "Are you talking about me?". He apologized and kept walking HAHA. So we boarded and I was seated next to these two lovely old ladies. We shared small talk and they wondered why I was good at speaking Japanese so I told them I had just finished an exchange. Conversation kind of stopped after that but we all were relived we weren't sitting next to someone horrible. They were really sweet. We ended up being stuck on the tarmac for 2 hours and 40 minutes due to radio problems. So those two sweet ladies and I all watched "Thermae Romae", a Japanese movie about Roman bathhouses. Its really funny. It was also the only Japanese thing on the whole in-flight entertainment. I had seen it earlier and thought of watching it but when I saw the ladies struggling with the English menus, I told them about it and we all watched together. It was great fun. We finally took off at around 8 o'clock. I basiclaly gave up any hope of catching my connecting flight but I'm not at the gate waiting haha.  So I basically just watched movies. I saw "Thermae Romae" and the heart-wrenching documentary "Bully". Oh god I cried so much. I then worked on my presentation, but didn't do much because I needed my SD card and I didn't want to go fishing in my luggage. I meant to sleep for just 2 hours but ended up sleeping five. I used a sheet mask on the plane for the first time. And I'm so glad I did. My skin has fared very well despite the condition it usually goes in when I fly. When it was about 2 hours before landing, I decided to look more thoroughly through the movies. I didn't realize they had such a great selection this time!!! They had "The Hunger Games", "The Avengers" and "The Lorax"! I started to watch the Lorax but didn't get to finish. I wish I knew they were there when I 2 hours into the flight. Oh well. So, as we landed in Toronto the ladies and I talked some more, like about where I had been in Japan and what I was going to do in university. I also asked them where they were going and they said Niagara and later in the week going to Prince Edward Island. I want to do that too!! I tried my best to get through security, customs, baggage claim and baggage drop off as I could, and here I am. My plane should take off in about a half hour. So I'll post this now and then write about my last days when I get home. Wait for it!! :D

Shopping and Leading The Dead

So yesterday I met up with my friend from my old school. She spent a year in Australia on a language exchange. But unlike before she moved to Hokkaido for school, we spoke basically in Japanese all day haha. First at around noon my friend and her mother picked me up and we went for "Japanese style" spaghetti. I had carbonara but to make is Japanese style there was a raw egg on top. We also ate it with chopsticks which was a first for me haha. After we finished eating, my friends mom dropped us at the station so we could go to Ikebukuro to go shopping. We did a lot of shopping and I finished up my omiyage shopping. I really missed hanging out with my friend! We took some purikura and go to the book store before going home. She is going to come meet me tomorrow at the airport with a few other friends from my old school. I'm excited!

Anyway, I got home and was told that I had to get a shower because it was Obon. Obon is a celebration of the dead and it usually lasts a few days. I'm not really sure on the details but it was fun. We went to my host-grandmother's house and we lit incense and prayed for the spirits to come back next year. From the in-home shrine we carried a lit lantern through the side door (the spirits cannot use the front door) and we walked towards the graveyard. My host father had a eggplant and a cucumber with sticks in it so that it resembled a cow. I'm told that when the spirits go back to where they come from they ride horses and this is supposed to represent it. I was also told that at the beginning of Obon, people wantthe spirits to come quickly and when they leave the ride the cow to go back slowly and at their own pace. It was really interesting. We got to the graveyard and lit more incense and prayed some more. It was a first and even though I didn't understand a lot of it, I enjoyed the ritual.

So today is my last full day in Japan, and I have mixed feelings. I'll write again tonight.

Goodbye Cousin! For Now!

So today was just so wonderful! I met up with my cousin who lives in Japan, for the first time since Golden Week (around the end of April). We met up in Omiya and went shopping for some omiyage. It picked up a few things for family and friends and then we went to eat. We went to a place called "Rakeru" which has the most heavenly bread. Just so soft and fresh and jshfjhdf mouth watering delicious. We stayed there for about two hours, eating and just talking about a lot of things; family mostly and how we both don't want to go home. Afterwards we went shopping for more omiyage and just wandered. We bought some things then headed to Round One. We got a tad lost because of my direction (hey! I went there a year ago, I couldn't remember that well!) but ended up seeing kitties and puppies in a pet store on the way. We got there and I tried to win a walking alpacasso (a stuffed alpaca) from the claw game, but I gave but as it was too expensive and really hard to move. Afterwards we wet downstairs ad saw this game called "Dance Evolution" which was basically a hybrid of "Dance Dace Revolution" and "Para Para Dance". Actually... its like real dancing haha. There is a America version of this game for Xbox Kinect, but not the same songs unfortunately. It was the most fun I've had doing a dancing game. Honestly, I saw other people doing it earlier and it looked like fun, but because there was a lot of people around I was like "I don't want to do it! Its embarrassing!!". But as per usual, wise cousin told me that I really shouldn't care and do stuff that I want to do without worrying about what others think and said "Do you really want to be back home saying 'oh I really wish I did that dancing game!'?". I took her advice and we both played and, lo and behold, it was super fun! Some people watched us but that was part of the fun. We played two rounds and then decided to go do some karaoke. So we did karaoke for two hours and then, before making our way to Urawa for "The Avengers", we picked up some pretzels. I got sesame seed and my cousin got black pepper and cheeser flavour. Another word of wisdom came from her as I was trying to decide which pretzel to get. "Get what you can't get back home." and I did just that. My cousin is basically a walking yolo. Today, tomorrow, and the day after are all pre-screenings of "The Avengers" in Japan, so I was really lucky to be able to get to see it before I went home! And in IMAX no less. We ate "Cold Stone Creamery" ice cream before the movie to burn some time. I got "Berry Spring Time" or something and my cousin got a cheesecake-y one. The names there for ice cream are so silly. So as they were mixing the ice cream, the workers sang us a song (in cute Engrish) and at the end the guy took the ball of mixed ice cream, threw it in the air and made it land in the cup! It was really cool! And kind of made my heart stop to think of the embarrassment in the case of dropping the ice cream. We ate and I had previously went to a Family Mart to buy water and ended up buying a Miku Hatsune meat bun. Family Mart always has funny themed meat buns. Last year they had a slime from Dragon Quest meat bun. I was amused! We then went upstairs and acquired some popcorn and travelled to our seats. IMAX3D is a beautiful thing. It really is. I love it. It is wondrous, even. We couldn't stay for after the credits because my cousin had to catch the last train that would take her to her prefecture. But because she had to run for her train we took a picture on either side of the platform. It was sweet. Now, I'm home looking around at what needs to be packed and wondering what I'm going to do with it. Tomorrow, I'm meeting another friend. These last few days are busy, busy, busy. Also my space-bar, "n" key and "b" key keep sticking or not responding. Its annoying. 

Okinawa, Swimming, Birthday, Fireworks and Crayfish/BBQ!

So I have been busy packing and stuff but no excuse not to write. I'll start with the rest of my trip in Okinawa.

Okinawa

DAY 2:

So we woke up and it started with a buffet of deliciousness! Waffles, pancakes, salad, a variety of fruits, sausage, bacon; you know all the good stuff. We waited until the we were able to go swimming and then did so! It was so nice to be back in the ocean. Not like I can swim in Canadian waters or anything, but just to be near it again was nice. We rented an eight-shaped inner tube so that my host sister (who cannot swim) could enjoy the water too. We splashed about and eventually everyone hopped on the float and my host father and I swam them all the the other side of the swimming area. I walked (painfully) on the rocks to go sit on a bench. I spent the better part of ten minutes just taking in the view. The impossibly blue water, the smell of the ocean, the feel of the wind. I felt so calm. Then after I was abruptly woken from my state, I borrowed my host fathers goggles and went for a little snorkelling. Even in though the area was cut off from the rest of the ocean, a bunch of small fish made their way into the swimming area. So I saw many different types! Blue, black, yellow; so beautiful. Then I made my way back to the beach as it started to rain. We returned to out rooms and took showers before heading out for lunch. We found this small pizza restaurant called "Wine and Pizza 58". It was a very nice place! I had (very delicious) fish and chips and tasted everyone's pizzas. For dessert I had apple pie! So yummy! We returned to the hotel and got ready for snorkelling! We arrived at the office and changed into our wet suits and boots. We looked like the cast of Gantz. It was awesome. We we paired with a couple for our tour and after getting all of our gear (flippers, goggles, etc.) we hopped in a van and made our way to the snorkelling area. After being taught how to breathe in the goggles (I honestly had no idea how to do so haha) we all went down towards the cliff. We made our way along the shore and ended up in a cave. It was ridiculously busy this day so there was about 100 people in the cave/water. We got in and floated along. I wasn't really paying attention to the instructor and just kind of did my own thing within the group. It was quite difficult to hear anyway haha. Because it was so busy there was this one jerk who kept hitting me. If I hadn't turned around after the sixth time he hit me he would never have had apologized. This put me in a sour mood because it continue to happen the entire tour. Either with the previously mentioned person or hitting peoples flippers or having people hit me in the face. Also, I had to pee which made everything worse. It was very irritating. People were just being rude. After getting in to open water we were given soggy fried tofu and fed the fish. Once again, just beautiful. All different shapes, colours and sizes. If you looked down you could see people scuba diving. "That must be nice" I thought "No body is in the way down there". After getting caught in another torrential rain we ended the tour and it was quite an experience. Before returning to the hotel, my host parents took us to a tourist sight. It was a cliff and absolutely stunning. You could actually patches of falling rain off in the distance. After we walked the trail, we bought sundresses and went back to the hotel where we slept for about an hour. We woke up and went to dinner. It went to an apparently famous restaurant that specialized in meat. It was so good! Salad bar and everything. Like really tender pork and this delicious steamed rice dish that was wrapped in a large local leaf. We also order this steamed meat that was steamed with Japanese liquor. Just, urg, pure heaven for the tongue. We returned to the hotel and watched the Olympics before I jumped into bed and fell asleep to the Lord of the Rings.

Day 3:

When we woke up we got our buffet breakfast again. Same food, but just as delicious. We then again waited to get into the water and swam for a few hours. My host father, host sister and I rode a banana boat and a seat-like tube pulled by a sea-doo. Not as fun as when I used to go to my friends cabin and we would pull each other, but still fun. Aside from getting seawater in the eyes; not fun. We checked out and decided to go into town and do some sight seeing before our flight at 5. We found this really beautiful area that was mostly just shallow water. It was like a scene from a movie. We then made our way more into town and then we found it, the most wondrous sight I could see... A&W. I never knew this existed in Japan. Well, I should've known going to Okinawa, which is a very westernized place, but still it was a lovely surprise. I had been ranting and raving about root beer ever since I saw a sign for A&W on the first day. At my request we went and ordered. It wasn't the regular baby, teen, mama, papa burger but it was easy to tell what was what. My "Mozzarella Burger" was the substitute name for a "Teen Burger". After waiting awhile, we got our food and returned to our car and began our "feast". I was so happy to have root beer again! But... unfortunately it wasn't as great as I had thought it to be. I guess I have grown accustomed to Japanese taste and it just.... didn't taste that good. The burger was awesome though! I let my host sisters taste root beer. Their reaction was priceless. I should have filmed it. They said it tasted like a vitamin drink mixed with medicine without the positive properties. Before returning the car we went to the Imperial Castle. I believe that is what it was. Anyway, everyone was getting cranky and none of us wanted to be there. Though very beautiful, we trudged through the castle and read the boards and returned to the car. We then returned the car and jumped on the shuttle bus to the airport. We bought souvenirs and I saw a bottle of Habu Sake. Habu is a snake. There was an actual snake in the bottle. It was really awesome. There was a sign warning people that if they tried to take it back to their home country it may be confiscated. Oh, so dangerous. At 5 we boarded our plane and returned home. I was feeling sick from the A&W (I TRUSTED YOU!!) so I didn't eat when we got to Haneda Airport. We got a bus back to our house because we are lazy and didn't want to take the train.

Conclusion:

Okinawa is absolutely beautiful. With great food and great people. I wholeheartedly recommend everyone to go there at least once!

Swimming

So on August 7th, I met a few (nine) of my school friends for a kind of a going away BBQ. I met Yui and Mitsuki at the station and we went to Musashi-Ranzan. It was about 40 minutes away by train and car, but totally worth it. We arrived at the river and the guys had already set up everything. We started BBQ and playing in the water. The water was extremely deep and there was even people jumping off from a rock into the river. I, of course being a scaredy-cat, didn't jump off. We spent the entire day eating and swimming. Before leaving the river around four p.m. the boys went to go jump off the rock. I was tired and had already returned to the BBQ area and got half dressed before going to watch them jump off. When they did, oh god, it was embarrassing. Four of the boys got in a line and one by one jumped off. But before doing so, in turn, they yelled "Hali, I Love You!" each saying one word. I tried to be stoic and not react but it was really, not embarrassing as such but more annoying haha. When everyone returned to the BBQ area, we played a Japanese summer game called "Suika-wari" (Watermelon Splitting). Someone is blind folded and given a stick. They have to put their head on said stick and spin around. They are then supposed to dizzily make their way to the watermelon with the directions of everyone else. Then the hit the watermelon as hard as they can. Some people miss, some people hit it but don't break it, some people break it and in the case of my friend he split it with his fist. Everyone then eat the watermelon after and it was so delicious. The most delicious Japanese water melon I've had to date. After packing up everything, we made our way to our friends house to do some fireworks! We arrived, got the fireworks and then made our way to a local shrine/playground to set them off. It was really fun! We then played a test of courage where two people are "it" and everyone else hides and tries to scare them. After that we just hung around and talked about a bunch of different things. Around 10 we decided to go home. As I was going home I gave the people not taking the train hugs and they gave me a present. After I hugged the one boy who had a crush on me (since I met him) he said that he can die happy now haha! We all parted ways eventually and I gave everyone a hug. I will really miss them. I'm happy to have met them!

Birthday:

So on August 9th, it was my 19th birthday! I woke up excited and my host mom and sister wished me a happy birthday. I went to get my hair done at 11 and after three hours it was done. I got a perm and it looked good on that day but now it has returned to its straight self. After getting my hair done, I made my way up to Omiya to meet John (Taiwanese Exchange Student) for the last time. As I was waiting for him I called my cousin and we made our plan to meet before I leave. John arrived and gave me a bag. He had bought me a piece of cake the celebrate my birthday. I was overjoyed! We went for karaoke (where we sang a lot of Chinese songs) but, unfortunately, at five he had to leave. I thanked him for being my friend and making my exchange awesome and then we parted ways. I returned home and waited for my host mom to get home because we were to go out for dinner. We went to this really, REALLY delicious okonomiyaki place and just ate and ate. Unbeknownst to my host dad, prior to his arriving, my host mom had bought me an alcoholic beverage. Hehehe so bad. We ate fried meat and vegetables, two different okonomiyaki and yakisoba. I was filled to the brim. Then they brought out a cake! It was your classic Japanese birthday cake; strawberry shortcake with a chocolate block with "Happy Birthday Hali" written upon it in chocolate. The restaurant (about 10 people altogether) sang me happy birthday and I nearly cried. I was so happy. My host sisters then gave me presents. I got a dress, letter set and a cute hair tie. Also with the dress, Tanyo and Haruka (my host sister's friends who I had met at her university) wrote me messages. I felt bad because I never got Natsu anything for her birthday which was last month. I thanked everyone and ,despite being full, we ate the delicious cake.

I was so happy to be able to spend my birthday in Japan and with this family. Thank you very much!!

Fireworks 

On Saturday, after getting my hair re-permed, I went with my host sister to the Tokyo Hanabi Taikai. Which is a huge fireworks display. We wore our yukatas and made the 100 minute train ride to where we needed to go (I honestly forget the name). We waited in a park for Tanyo and Haruka. Before the fireworks we went to karaoke. There wasn't very many karaoke boxes in the area, "This is a rare thing for Japan" I thought but we eventually found one. An expensive one. But we didn't care we just decided to go for an hour. It was 300 yen an hour... so expensive ;___; . Everyone sang, either together or solos and we laughed and  enjoyed ourselves. Everyone was so good at singing! I was jealous haha. After karaoke we went to go find a place to watch the fireworks. We immersed ourselves in the crowd and followed everyone until we made it to a boardwalk. we sad on the concrete and ate previously purchased snacks as we waited for the fireworks to start. However when they did start, we could only see about one third of them. We thought "Meh, it can't be helped. We didn't buy a ticket" and settled for that spot. The fireworks were splendid and it wouldn't be a Japanese fireworks display without a Poké Ball and pikachu firework haha. The fireworks went on for an hour and a half, but ten minutes before ending, we decided to get ready to go by climbing a hill. Which we then found out was a way better place to the fireworks. Oh well. After the fireworks ended, we agreed to go get ice cream at a department store which was across the (ocean) river. We walked a good two kilometres, because we had to go all the way around the river, before getting to the department store. We sat down and ate our ice cream but not before exploring the department store and the bookstore. My host sister and I joked that because there was a really nice apartment complex nearby, that we would marry rich men and have them buy an apartment there. We would live next to each other and cook each other food haha. We made our way home and I said goodbye to Tanyo. We'll meet again!

Crayfish and BBQ

 So a couple of weeks a go it was decided that we would go catch zarigani (crayfish). I was really excited because it sounded like such a Japanese thing to do haha. We picked up My host sisters friends (Haruka, Akkun, Mokkun, and Daisuke) and headed for the country side. We stopped at a very large rice paddy and decided to fish there. The way to fish zarigani is tie a string to the end of a stick (we had bamboo, obviously) and then tie dried squid to the end of the string. And as soon as I put my squid into the water, a crayfish grabbed it! It was really exciting! We caught about twenty (I caught four; themost out of everyone) before we agreed that there were no more to be caught haha. After fishing, my host dad and host uncle picked us all up and brought us to my host uncle/aunt's house for a BBQ. Their house is huge for Japan. Like a bigger-than-normal North American house. And they had a garage where we were having the BBQ. We BBQ'd and after people got a bit tipsy we did fireworks. A bit of a dangerous activity when you are on the tipsy side but it was all fun. I went to go to use the washroom and when I returned all the garage doors were closed and I just thought that maybe the wind was a bit too strong and used the side door. Little did I know that it was a bit of a surprise party. As I opened the door I saw two cakes. Your standard Japanese birthday cake and a pie-like pastry. Everyone sang me happy birthday and I thanked everyone as I cried a little. Drunken hugs were received and I hugged them back. My host aunt then gave me a gift. Which also made me shed a tear or two. We then did more fireworks and everyone eventually drifted home. I sad goodbye to everyone and declared that when I come back everyone has to get together again and have a BBQ. Akkun said that then I can get drunk with everyone haha. I am so happy.

Once again I won't let these pile up anymore. It so much better when I have a vivid memory of the events that I write about. I'm going home in three days and I am/(not) happy about it. So many mixed feelings. Now! Back to packing!

Okinawa: Day 1

It has always been a goal of mine to go to Okinawa and see the world's biggest aquarium. And I had mentioned to my Rotary since I have gotten here that I wanted to go. I thought I was just saying it. But my rotary being so nice as they are made it come true. I must say I'm really happy to be on this trip, within a trip (trip-ception).
So last night I was up packing and generally just screwing around because I couldn't sleep and I was talking about feels with Beki on skype, so I ended up only getting around 2 hours of sleep. We were going to leave at around seven in the morning, as we were taking the train to the airport instead of going by car. I was awoken (apparently) many times but eventually got up at around seven. I got panicked and threw on my clothes, finished up some packing and skipped breakfast. So everyone got together and with our luggage boarded the crowded trains for almost two hours of transferring and standing uncomfortably close to too many people. We took the monorail (MONORAIL!!!!) from Hamamatsucho and arrived a few stations later in Haneda Airport. It was my first time there! Well today was full of a lot of firsts, yay! So we checked in, and I find it really strange that I had to not show one piece of ID in the airport and I was able to take more liquids on board then I:m used to (not on purpose). Japan, you trust too easily. Before checking in though we decided to get breakfast. Mine was a delicious strawberry sundae! Yay nutrition! We boarded after scanning a ticket, not unlike the train station, and received another piece of paper that said our seat. We sat down and I had a window seat. It was my two younger host sisters first time on a plane so they were scared and excited. It was cute. i ended up just sleeping the entire time. But we arrived at around 1:30 and in order to make it in time, we rented our car and started on our two hour trip north to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. We picked up some lunch from the convenience store and after eating that and singing in the car, majority of us fell asleep, due to lack of it. We arrived at the aquarium around four and I became so excited. We went in and the first thing we saw was a touch tank. It mainly had starfish and sea cucumbers but it was really interesting. Then we mad our way through the tanks. Seeing giant fish, regular sized fish and super tiny fish, we eventually made our way the the biggest tank. A tank that housed three whale sharks, five manta rays and countless amounts of fish. I was in sheer awe. I had seen a video of this exact tank a few years before and ever since that day I have been determined to go there. It was beyond beautiful. I was speechless. There was also a shark section. And if any of you actually know me, you:ll know that my favourite animals are sharks and manatees. So I was very interested in the shark section. They had many specimens on shark teeth and foetus of sharks and even had the skin of a great white that was caught back in the 80's. I was utterly and completely happy. Oh, but there is more. We left the actual aquarium and made our way through the souvenir shop. I say a plush manatee and thought it was weird that they would sell it without actually having any manatee on display as a lot of Japanese people don't know what manatees are or they just don't know that they do. After the shop we made our way downstairs into another exhibit. I had seen a building that said マナティー館. Me being silly, didn't read it correctly and therefore wasn't excited. I honestly thought it said Manta ray. But As we were walking towards it, my senses came back to me and realised it said "MANATEE"! I was so excited and I broke out into a sprint. I got there and once again was speechless. There were four manatees; two girls and two boys. The creatures I love so dearly were being as lazy as usual and just as adorable. One of the boys came to the surface for air and on his way down bumped his nose into the side of the tank. It was.... so... adorable. FEELS! I watched them from above for awhile before I realised that there was a downstairs and you could see them closer. I went and did so and one of the boys (Ryu) played a lot and so I got good pictures. Along with a picture of him and I. My dream has come true. I am so happy. So happy to the point where words can't describe it. After we found this little area called Turtle Beach. Unfortunately no turtles but it was really beautiful. White sand and warm crystal blue water. We then made our way to a dolphin and whale show. It was really cute. I'm not a fan of dolphins but yeah, it was an entertaining show. Then we decided it was time to go to check into the hotel. We made our two hour trip again and once again majority of us slept. I woke up as my head slammed against the window (not fun) and it was dark. We were almost to our hotel but my host parents were looking for a place to eat. They drove us to the hotel and we checked in and brought our bags to our rooms. This hotel is very beautiful. Very grand. We then walked to an Izakaya (basically a restaurant with good food and cheap alcohol) to partake in Okinawa food. We ordered so much food and I don't even remember half of it. But all was delicious. We stuffed ourselves and talked a lot before getting the shuttle bus back to the hotel (really didn't need to because the hotel was around ten minutes away on foot haha). And now my host family is playing ping pong and billiards as I write this on the public computer, as i did not bring my own. I was kicked off the piano in the middle of the room though. Sad times. But now I am by myself in this huge lobby. I think I'll go to bed now. Tomorrow is when we will be doing all of our water activities and I'm really excited! I'm basically the only person who will be actually swimming as 4/5 of my host family cannot swim. I may or may not write tomorrow! Until next time!