Getting Lost Can Be Fun?

WARNING: I think this may be my longest post yet...

It's only Saturday night right now but I think I'm already done with my weekend. I am exhausted. Let me begin telling you about my adventurous weekend starting from Friday night, when I trained over to Yabuzuka to Jeff's place. We were supposed to be picked up at his train station early the next morning for our "hike" so I just decided it'd be easiest to spend the night there. We decided to go get dinner at Nacchan's place. We had tomato soup, a salad, yakisoba, coffee, and dango. Nacchan was only gonna charge us 300 yen ($3) for everything! We refused of course and left her more money. We then headed to Fujimart with the intent of buying lunch and snacks for our hike at Mount Miyogi the next morning. When we got to Fujimart, we started looking at desserts b/c we were planning on watching Veronica Mars at his place. Anyway, we searched for our Country Ma'ams (best packaged chocolate chip cookies in Japan!) and we discovered that they now have Country Ma'ams with almonds!! We were soo excited at this discovery that we screamed out loud...right in the middle of the grocery aisle. It was sad but freakin' HILARIOUS. So sad that we get so excited over...cookies?? Anyway, we also got MOW Ice Cream...they seriously make the best vanilla ice cream I've ever had. You've got to try it to believe it! Anyway, we got back to his place when we realized we were soo preoccupied with buying dessert, we forgot to buy lunch for the hike tomorrow!!! Haha. So...the new season of Veronica Mars is great!! We are such the VM addicts and we analyze every single thing. I think others might get scared if they watched it with us. We also watched Everybody Hates Chris which is pretty funny as well.

Anyway, we had to get up waay early this morning b/c we were supposed to get picked up at the station at 8am. We met Sean there and Jeffrey (not Jeff) picked all of us up. Although we were running late, we still made a stop at the konbini to buy breakfast, lunch, and snacks. We drove on the expressway for some time when we realized that we had been going north, instead of south...where we were supposed to be heading. Um, yeah. We weren't gonna make it in time to meet the others anyway, so we just decided to do our own thing. What thing would that be? Well, it would eventually be decided two hours later. Decisions, decisions. It was raining as well so that didn't make things easier.

Poor Jeffrey, he had driven for over 4 hours all together before we finally made it to Minakami. Along our drive, we saw something very interesting...it was raining but logs were being watered by sprinklers...yes, logs. I guess even if it hadn't been raining...I don't understand. We did our semi-hike along the beautiful river in Minakami. We also ate our konbini lunch right by the river...that was nice. After lunch, we found our way to the onsen. Minakami is famous for their onsen (natural hot springs) so I was very excited. Jeff, Jeffrey, and Sean went together and I went in to the women's side alone. This was actually my first onsen experience. It's a strange thought...getting naked with everyone and bathing together. However, there's nothing strange about it once you get in there. Everyone washes themselves thoroughly before getting in the onsen. You do have a small towel to cover yourself while walking from once place to another. I dunno...it felt so natural and surprisingly not awkward as all the women soaked in the onsen. Let me tell you, the onsen is AMAZING! The hot spring water combined with an awesome view of the mountain and river right behind you (the onsen is outdoors)....it was soo relaxing. After coming out of the onsen, my muscles were totally relaxed and I felt as though I could go to sleep right then and there.

After the onsen, we decided to head to the train station by Jeffrey's place to get back to our apts. Easier said than done. We were sooo lost. At one point, we felt as though we were in a horror movie...with the scary fog and thick forest in our path. We kept driving and driving in what seemed to be circles. Thank goodness we finally finally found our way out. At the end of the day, Jeffrey had driven over 200km and we pretty much hit every route and passed by every famous landmark in Gunma. We are all very very tired at this point. I'm sure Jeffrey doesn't want to drive for awhile after today's adventure. With everything said and done, we actually had a great time together. We all laughed a lot and enjoyed each other's company. If you can laugh about getting lost and just not take things too seriously, nothing can be that bad. I think we all bonded in our misdirection together. =)

Thought of the day:

I feel bad...but not that bad. So after I returned to my train station from our trip, I got on my bike and started to pedal my way back home in the rain. I was only a 100 feet away from the station when I saw two men in dark colored uniforms standing in the dark. By then, it was too late. One of the men stopped me on my bike. Apparently, I didn't stop at the stop sign as I biked under the bridge. The men, who are actually police officers, were standing there in the dark to give out tickets to those who didn't stop. Arghh. So, I did what any gaijin would do; I played dumb. He asked me for my ID and my address as he took out his ticket book. I kept saying "Wakarimasen, wakarimasen.." and started to speak in English. He gave me the "You MUST be Japanese b/c you're Asian!" look and was VERY insistent on getting my info. He asked for my passport, what school I went to, everything. I was VERY determined on not giving out any info. b/c I WAS NOT going to get a ticket for biking in the rain back to my apt in the inaka!! After what seemed like an eternity, he got frustrated and said "Kiotsukete" and just let me go. I knew it was wrong of me to pretend like that but oh well. Plus, I don't think my bike is registered under my name so that would've been sketchy as well. I finally got home and 20 minutes later, I hear my doorbell ring. I was thinking, "SHIT!! THEY FOLLOWED ME HOME!" I had to put on a jacket and by the time I looked through the peephole, no one was there. Um, okay...now I'm scared. WHO THE HECK WAS AT MY DOOR??!!!