Atami

Whew! I'm loving Golden Week! Holidays are brilliant.

Currently Sunday 3rd of April 9:36pm. We just arrived back from a sight seeing area called Atami. We went around 10am in Saturday and took about 5 different trains to get there. (I'm uploading pictures now so check after reading this blog). On one of the trains, it took 2 hours so Miyuki and I slept a good deal of the way. Apart from the last 40 minutes when Miyuki put her head on my shoulder and used it as a pillow I slept pretty well. After that, I didn't want to wake her.

We first went to an art museum and looked at a lot of historical Japanese paintings, items and kimonos. After, we drove up a ridiculously steep and curvy mountain road nearly crashing into 3 cars because you couldn't see around the bends. We finally got to the top where we took a nice walk through a lot of flowers and then watcheds turtles and carp in a pond with the Koi Nobori (Japanese carp decoration put up for a celebration on the 5th of May - Boys Day) floating magistically above. Also fed some rabits, adorable!

Afterwards, we drove a bit more to our resort way up the mountains with a fantastic view. I was feeling rather car sick by the end of the ride though and wobbled my way up to the resort entrance. Inside we changed out of our shoes at the genkan (Entrance where you take off shoes) and we had slippers waiting for us. There was even a nice locker for all of us to put our ourside shoes in! Our room was on the second floor and my host parents had one room to themselves and Miyuki, Hikaru and I shared another Tatami room. It was so comfortable and nice! We were so tired and hot (as it was 24 degrees that day) we went straight to the baths. I wasn't really used to the idea of all going into the same bathroom at once and showering beside each other then getting into the hot spring together with no swimming costumes. So I waited for everyone else to finish and then went in by myself (Male and female are separated!! Just incase you thought they weren't). What was slightly disturbing was there was a bit window looking out to the garden where there was a walkway. Lack of privacy much?

Dinner was incredible. Every table had a set selection of food on it and after we sat down, more food kept coming! There were 11 dishes for everone (not sharing, just 11 dishes for each person) and Miyuki had 4 extra bowls of rice while I had 2. Whew, we were stuffed by the end. I have never eaten so much raw fish or fish in general! Some of the food was pretty odd looking but it all tasted great! After dinner, we went down to the Karaoke room since it was free and started flicking through the books. I sang 3 songs, Real Emotion and 1000 Words by Koda Kumi along with My Medicine by Nakashima Mika and Miyuki and Hikaru had a go at Chocolate Disco and Hey! Say! Jump! Hikaru also sang some Hamasaki Ayumi and Koda Kumi and someone else I think. She has an awesome voice! 

We were in the Karaoke room for about 2-3 hours I think and after we packed up, an old man came in. Hikaru and Miyuki helped him figure out how to use the machine and when we were leaving he pointed to his drink and said to Hikaru, "Don't forget your drink! Take it with you!" and Hikaru picked up the drink and was like "Oh yeah yeah finished with that and took the bottle and looked dumbstruck. It was tomato juice. Then the old man was like "OHHH!! That's mine sorry!" It was hilarious (Well at the time) I hit my head on the wall outside the Karaoke room and fell over laughing too hard. There was also one stage where I went back to our room to fetch my Ipod and use the loo and forgot I was wearing the toilet slippers (Japanese don't walk around the Tatami flooring with any shoes or slippers on and the toilet has it's own pair of slippers). When I stepped out of my room and was locking the door a man down in the next room gave me a really odd look. I figured I just had silly hair or something and walked back to the karaoke room. It wasn't until I sat back down that I pointed to my slippers in shock and embarrassment. Miyuki was like "EWWWW GROSS" and Hikaru just kept laughing at me. I quickly ran back to change.

We slept at around 11pm and Hikaru and I both woke at 6:44am. I was a little tired but I couldn't sleep more because it was far too hot. I got myself ready and packed up my things while Hikaru went down to the baths and Miyuki who loves sleeping was still curled up in her Futon (Traditional Japanese bed. Just a mattress on the floor with blanket over it and then a thick as duvet, even in 24 degress Celsius! I woke Miyuki at 7:30am and we headed down to breakfast at 8am. We got back to our room at around 8:40am and packed up our things and the Futons then I did some eye make up for Miyuki which looked stunning on her! She had the longest natural lashes I've ever seen an Asian have TT__TT We took some pictures on the balcony after which was odd because Miyuki and Hikaru kept saying "Do a cool pose!" and I didn't konw what to do.

We signed out at around 9:50am and started driving to the Zoo. Miyuki, Hikaru and I got extremely bored so we all fell asleep and 2 hours later we were STILL on the road. So we changed plans and went to a Cat Museum instead, which was extremely cute and interesting! They had skeletons on Zaber Fangs and all the cats (Tigers, Lions, Panthers, Leopards etc) were real ones that were stuffed. They were adorable! But my host family all said I was a bit strange thinking lions and tigers were cute. We had lunch at a famous Sushi bar which was once again delicious! After, we went back to the station where we had a look around all the shops and my host family bought a lot of food. We also went to a nice dessert restaurant there.

We headed back to the station at around 5pm and got on the train a bit after. Switched about 3-4 trains before we got on the one we had to sit on for 2 hours. There was lots of nice food on it though. Better than airplane service! We were well tired when we go to Shinjuku and got on another train to Asagaya. Had dinner around 10:30pm. And now I should be going to bed! I think We're going to Yokohama, Tokyo Tower and Shibuya sometime this week! Exciting!