I had to go to Sendai twice in 2 consecutive weeks coz of the office trip and JLPT. On 25th November morning, all my office staff hopped on a chartered highway bus and headed for Sendai. We had the whole bus to ourselves so it was really comfortable and we helped ourselves to the many packets of tidbits that were passed around in the bus. Along the way, we stopped by Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture to see San Juan Bautista [サンファンバウディスタパーク] which was one of Japan's first Japanese-built Western-style sail warships. San Juan Bautista actually means “St. John the Baptist” (originally called Date Maru, 伊達丸 in Japanese). It was used to transport an embassy to the Pope in Rome.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_warship_San_Juan_Bautista. 
The ship was beautiful! Really wondered how those people in the 17th century managed to built something so majestic as this when there were no technological help… Amazing. 偉いね！This trip felt like a school excursion so of course the child in us came out. We made fun of the sign which says “Watch your feet” and reenacted the famous Jack & Rose scene (“I’m flying!”) from the Titanic movie.
Next we continued our journey to Matsushima island [松島] where we did a bit of sight-seeing and souvenir shopping. Seems like I’m the only one buying omiyage! Well I figured out I wun be comin back here so why not? After that, we continued our journey to Akyuu Onsen [秋保温泉] where we rested our tired bodies at a Japanese inn called Hotel Sakan [天承千年の宿佐勘]. This inn looks absolutely gorgeous! It is modern yet traditional! Something really worth mentioning is the onsen! There are 3 different onsens in this inn, 2 are indoors and 2 is an outdoor one. There are different timings for males and females to use them. I was particularly interested in the outdoor onsen [露天風呂] coz I never went to an outdoor hot spring before! So exciting!!! When I watch “Japan Hour” on TV back home, I always envied those hosts who get to enjoy hot spring while admiring the beautiful scener...
As expected, we had a sumptuous Japanese styled dinner [和食] that filled our stomachs till they could explode! Strangely the small plates of food (sometimes I dun even know what they are!) laid out neatly on our trays look deceivingly light and would not be very filing. Boy, were we wrong! But I really dun mind getting full on Japanese food. Somehow it feels better (not so jalat!) than if I pigged out at an American buffet restaurant. Apparently、Japanese food which consists of mainly fish, is easily digestible so soon the stomach is empty again.
After dinner I couldn’t resist going to the onsen so Claire, Maeta san and I went to the indoor one. Plus the shampoo and shower foam provided were of top quality standard, from Shiseido! Feels so good There was a rose-petal bath… Wow, smells so good! いいにおい！The next morning, I dragged sleepy Claire out of bed (or rather the futon!) to accompany me to the露天風呂 coz she promised to go with me last night. Well, we both didn’t regret getting up early to go there coz it was simply wonderful. 気持いい！There were two types of baths, one is a wooden tub and the other a stone one. I feel down while walking from the wooden one to the stone one. Haha, it was freezing cold so I didn’t watch out for the slippery stones! Suffered a blue-black bruise on my back.
Checked out from the hotel and went to Sendai City to sight-see, free and easy
style for 2 hours. Then we were all brought to eat the local specialty, cow’s tongue! So yummy!
Traveled to Sendai again on 2 December. Took the highway bus at 840am from Lapia. It was snowing on the day so I had some difficulty in walking on the sidewalks. This time I went with Wade coz he was gonna take level 3 while I was supposed to challenge Level 1! Totally unprepared for this test as I was busy with the office trip, school and the ALT seminar in Hirosaki (where I first saw snow falling from the sky!). Tried to study on the bus but ended up sleeping most of the time. When we reached, we first searched for the hotel which Murakami sensei has booked 2 single rooms for us. Thus armed with a small map that I had printed out from the hotel’s website, we went in search of Super Hotel. Imagine our surprise when we saw that Super Hotel was under renovation! We walked around the hotel and there was no way of entering! This can’t be it! Murakami sensei called the hotel and spoke to the staff personally. How can it undergo renovation and take orders at the same time? Desperate for answers, I asked the 1 of the construction workers and he told us that there’s another Super Hotel, located in the heart of Sendai City. Phew, what a relief! In the end, we finally found the small hotel and checked in.
Then we went to the bus terminal to confirm the bus-stop where we should take a bus to the test site tomorrow. At last when all the navigation have been sorted out, we had our late lunch at KFC. I miss fried chicken! Then we went to explore the park near our hotel
and met up with Felicia in the evening. We then had dinner (cheap & tasty!) at a small shop in Sendai city and went back to the hotel to rest for the night. I did some last-min studying but soon was too tired to fit in anymore grammar. Woke up early to take the bus to the Kawaguchi Campus in Sendai’s University. Met up with Felicia and Charlie in the bus. Soon we had to go to our various rooms according to different levels to take our seats.
Well, what can I say but that I couldn’t understand 3/4 of the paper!?!?! 大変だった！困ったわぁ... Left the test site feelin kinda stupid.....私はバカじゃないか?!?!!! Felt especially so when I was stuck in the bus with all the China natives sprouting fluent Japanese over their cellphones. Arghhhh...... I’m so gonna fail this test and waste my time & ￥...
Met up with Wade in Sendai City as his test ended earlier than mine. We had dinner at Yoshinoya before catching the highway bus back to Hach. Was so tired from all the Japanese words floating in my head.... Just wanna go home & sleep.... Home sweet homezzz.....
The ship was beautiful! Really wondered how those people in the 17th century managed to built something so majestic as this when there were no technological help… Amazing. 偉いね！This trip felt like a school excursion so of course the child in us came out. We made fun of the sign which says “Watch your feet” and reenacted the famous Jack & Rose scene (“I’m flying!”) from the Titanic movie.
Next we continued our journey to Matsushima island [松島] where we did a bit of sight-seeing and souvenir shopping. Seems like I’m the only one buying omiyage! Well I figured out I wun be comin back here so why not? After that, we continued our journey to Akyuu Onsen [秋保温泉] where we rested our tired bodies at a Japanese inn called Hotel Sakan [天承千年の宿佐勘]. This inn looks absolutely gorgeous! It is modern yet traditional! Something really worth mentioning is the onsen! There are 3 different onsens in this inn, 2 are indoors and 2 is an outdoor one. There are different timings for males and females to use them. I was particularly interested in the outdoor onsen [露天風呂] coz I never went to an outdoor hot spring before! So exciting!!! When I watch “Japan Hour” on TV back home, I always envied those hosts who get to enjoy hot spring while admiring the beautiful scener...
As expected, we had a sumptuous Japanese styled dinner [和食] that filled our stomachs till they could explode! Strangely the small plates of food (sometimes I dun even know what they are!) laid out neatly on our trays look deceivingly light and would not be very filing. Boy, were we wrong! But I really dun mind getting full on Japanese food. Somehow it feels better (not so jalat!) than if I pigged out at an American buffet restaurant. Apparently、Japanese food which consists of mainly fish, is easily digestible so soon the stomach is empty again.
After dinner I couldn’t resist going to the onsen so Claire, Maeta san and I went to the indoor one. Plus the shampoo and shower foam provided were of top quality standard, from Shiseido! Feels so good There was a rose-petal bath… Wow, smells so good! いいにおい！The next morning, I dragged sleepy Claire out of bed (or rather the futon!) to accompany me to the露天風呂 coz she promised to go with me last night. Well, we both didn’t regret getting up early to go there coz it was simply wonderful. 気持いい！There were two types of baths, one is a wooden tub and the other a stone one. I feel down while walking from the wooden one to the stone one. Haha, it was freezing cold so I didn’t watch out for the slippery stones! Suffered a blue-black bruise on my back.Checked out from the hotel and went to Sendai City to sight-see, free and easy
style for 2 hours. Then we were all brought to eat the local specialty, cow’s tongue! So yummy!Traveled to Sendai again on 2 December. Took the highway bus at 840am from Lapia. It was snowing on the day so I had some difficulty in walking on the sidewalks. This time I went with Wade coz he was gonna take level 3 while I was supposed to challenge Level 1! Totally unprepared for this test as I was busy with the office trip, school and the ALT seminar in Hirosaki (where I first saw snow falling from the sky!). Tried to study on the bus but ended up sleeping most of the time. When we reached, we first searched for the hotel which Murakami sensei has booked 2 single rooms for us. Thus armed with a small map that I had printed out from the hotel’s website, we went in search of Super Hotel. Imagine our surprise when we saw that Super Hotel was under renovation! We walked around the hotel and there was no way of entering! This can’t be it! Murakami sensei called the hotel and spoke to the staff personally. How can it undergo renovation and take orders at the same time? Desperate for answers, I asked the 1 of the construction workers and he told us that there’s another Super Hotel, located in the heart of Sendai City. Phew, what a relief! In the end, we finally found the small hotel and checked in.
Then we went to the bus terminal to confirm the bus-stop where we should take a bus to the test site tomorrow. At last when all the navigation have been sorted out, we had our late lunch at KFC. I miss fried chicken! Then we went to explore the park near our hotel
and met up with Felicia in the evening. We then had dinner (cheap & tasty!) at a small shop in Sendai city and went back to the hotel to rest for the night. I did some last-min studying but soon was too tired to fit in anymore grammar. Woke up early to take the bus to the Kawaguchi Campus in Sendai’s University. Met up with Felicia and Charlie in the bus. Soon we had to go to our various rooms according to different levels to take our seats.Well, what can I say but that I couldn’t understand 3/4 of the paper!?!?! 大変だった！困ったわぁ... Left the test site feelin kinda stupid.....私はバカじゃないか?!?!!! Felt especially so when I was stuck in the bus with all the China natives sprouting fluent Japanese over their cellphones. Arghhhh...... I’m so gonna fail this test and waste my time & ￥...
Met up with Wade in Sendai City as his test ended earlier than mine. We had dinner at Yoshinoya before catching the highway bus back to Hach. Was so tired from all the Japanese words floating in my head.... Just wanna go home & sleep.... Home sweet homezzz.....
No comments:
Post a Comment