hi, i'm jenn

Yesterday in Nara I got a shirt that says just that. And has a picture of a donkey on it. I love Japan.

So tonight, at 8PM we are meeting our american counterparts. Training for the next few days, and then the kiddies should start arriving. I hope they like camp songs, because I plan on singing them all.

In the past ~18 days we’ve seen a hell of a lot of cool stuff. And now, it’s time to don our red, white and blue and pledge allegence to the Camp for which it stands.

But first, we’re going to tea. And Geisha hunting in Gion.

Today Lori and I had an adventure. Having found an interesting beverage, called Bickle Juice, in a vending machine I found myself being called to by the spirit of Spiderman. I then bought Lori a bottle of Bickle so that she too could be enlightened and before long, she also heard him calling.

Spiderman beckoned us to the Pagoda here in Kyoto. He told us that he was upset with it’s colouring – that he would like a Purple Pagoda. And as the possesors of his spirit, we were responsible for this colour change.

So Lori, the climbing expert, scaled up the five stories of the Pagoda unnoticed. She then tossed me a rope, which I attached to my belt loops, and hoisted me up to the roof with her.

But before we began painting, we realized that the rumbling inside us was in fact gas. We quickly found the nearest washroom and are doing much better now.

i must admit it’s hard to motivate myself to post more when it feels like no one reads this thing..

our travles are nearly over – camp starts on monday!

Rail passes are nice. They make taking the train free. And since trains here are so comfy, and airconditioned, that can be a nice break. Plus each trip is so expensive, the more we take the train the more we are saving from having a rail pass.

So anyway, our friends in Hiroshima invited us to a party to celebrate July 4 on Sat night. And so we headed there after harmony land, arriving at about 7;00. We went to the party (in someone:s apt) at around 9, where Lori and I preceeded to get hammered in about 10 minutes.

The music was fun – got excited for Crazy in Love – and the company was random. Lot:s of foreign Ford Employees (mostly men), and then Japanese women. These Fordians do have pimping apartments, so I guess I would hang out with them too 🙂

We were home and in bed by 12:30. I managed to fall on the way and skin both my knees, so now I:m walking around looking like a 5 year old.

I dragged Lori to Harmony Land. That:s a Hello Kitty theme park that is a day trip out of Beppu (about 30 min away).

We were the only:
1. Non-Asian
2. Not parents
in the whole park!

But it was very cool. There was a rollercoaster, a big ferris wheel, and a 4D animation virtual reality show (I don:t know what 4D is, but that:s what they called it). We also saw some stage show with talking trees. Lori and I took turns narrating to each other before we got bored and left.

The 4D show was pretty funny – in the pre-show breifings they explained everything in English as well as Japanese. We were so impressed, and excited that our magic glasses would make us invisible to pirates. But then the movie started, and alas no English at all! So we couldn:t follow the plot, but I guess we didn:t expect to.

The parade was hilarious – Noah:s Ark. And there was a song with some english – ‘Ride on a Bicycle, Ride on!’ The costumes and dancers were wonderful.

Oh, and outside the park they were having a huge 50% off sale – Cuteness overload. that:s the one thing i can say in Japanese – cute- kawaii.

One dissapointment is that Keroppi is almost as rare here as in Toronto – though Bandai has this cute line of stuff called Frog Style.

So anyway, I would definately recoomend Kitty Land to EVERYONE! Though you might want to check with Lori for her opinion.

Mt Aso is a volcano that we visited on a day trip from Beppu. What we didn@t realize is that it:s actually about three hours away from Beppu, and that the train/bus schedule is totally sporadic. Not only were trains infrequent (1st was at 8:00, and the next was at noon), you have to wait at the other end for a bus once you did get there. And the last bus back is at 5. We are just spoiled from the trains that seem to run frequently between everywhere else in Japan (at least once an hour!)

Alas, after realizing it would take us until about 3;00 to get to the mountain – making the three hour hike a no go – we still decided to make the journey there.

It was awesome! I:ve never seen an active volcano before. And I mean, you could see bubbling in the crator:s lake, and see the Sulfuric Acid being produced. There were lots of signs about how asthmatics shouldn:t go near the peak, but the wind was blowing the fumes away from us so it was okay.

They even had a sticker machine int he gift store so I have photo stickers of Lori and I at Mt. Aso. Yeah, so our 2 hours at the volcano was worth the 6 hours of travelling.

Oh yeah, some Japanese guy had his picture taken with Lori and I. Being a foreigner in Japan is like being a B list celebrity – everyone looks at us and points as if they know who we are. And they either want to talk to you, or laugh at you.

That night we chilled in the hostel:s Onsen (they didn:t have actual shower showers – only the ones you use before/after the onsen) before heading to bed.

Been to mt aso, Harmony land (dreams do come true!), a July 4th party and a sumo tournament. Japan is awesome.

Off to Tokyo today, hopefully will get to an internet cafe sometime soon and will actually have a chance to write a more detailed post!

Here is an article about my cousin Andrew. He is just so cute!

We:re in Beppu now (pronounced BEH-pu) and are having a great time. Saw the nine hells in an hour and a half (it involved some jogging to the last two, but since we had our all hell pass, we were going to do i). There was the sign that said ‘do not fall in or you will be boiled’ which was pretty cool. I took a gazillion pictures which will no doubt fail to convey how cool it really was.

Then went to an Onsen – japanese hot spring. For 700 Yen got to take a sand bath (TOO HOT – scalded my legs) and waterfall baths and other hot baths. The landscaping was amazing. You:re naked like in the garden of eden. Spent like 2 hours just relaxing. It was fantastic. Heaven.

Today is Aso, tomorrow HARMONY LAND!