More Nature/Waterfall/Minoo

Sort of continuing from my last post regarding nature appreciation, a couple of weeks ago I went on a scenic hike with 3 of my friends. One Wednesday, class was cancelled, and none of us had plans. So, we all spontaneously decided to visit Minoo, which had a beautiful mountain trail hike that led up to a waterfall.

Minoo is super far from where I live (Kobe), but thanks to the Japanese train system, it was very simple to get there. Once we all met up, we set off for the hiking trail!

Also, this post will likely be another huge photo spam of nature photos. Please enjoy!

A statue we came across at the beginning of the hike

I love the look of stone stairs

Architectural appreciation

A little garden in front of a building that had a cute red wagon

The hike was not at all strenuous and was really relaxing because of all the scenery surrounding us. Once again, as someone who has lived in Las Vegas for so long, all greenery is to be marveled at.

My friends on a bridge

They decided to roam through the river to recover a dropped Polaroid photo

Another statue along the way

Throughout the hike, we came across a little temple. It was very simple looking and fit the aesthetic of the nature scene very well.

Side note: I really love this photo of the red bridge plus the scenery

And as we further approached the waterfall, I snapped a few more pictures of another set of stone stairs we came across along with some overall "there-are-so-many-trees" photos.

At last, we finally arrived at the waterfall! There were quite a few people there, but the view was still breathtaking.

Even though it's not a huge waterfall or anything, I was still in awe, trying to take in the whole view. If I had packed some food and it wasn't so late, I could've happily spent hours sitting in front of the waterfall. Before coming here, my host family told me that there were monkeys in the mountains. Along the way, I also saw many signs warning hikers of monkeys...but I never saw any of them :( What I did see, though, was a deer, not too far away from one of the hiking paths.
As we were heading back down the mountain, we decided to try momiji tempura, a famous local food in Minoo. It's basically fried maple leaves. Eating maple leaves definitely sounded like a weird idea at first, but hey, I'm in Japan, so why not try everything once? It was actually really good. It was crispy with a slight saltiness along with a maple-y sweetness to it. Unique!

Quick photo before heading back down the mountain

Me with the little mascot of Minoo - a cartoon orange 

Look at their adorable sewer caps

A pretty glass roof by the train station

I can never get enough of Japan's scenery.

Camp/Mountains/Nature

I would like to start off this post by saying: I love the nature and scenery in Japan!!!

Having been in Las Vegas for so long, I almost forgot that the rest of the world is not all dry, rocky desert grounds. Trees, flowers, grass, and plants are actually things in other parts of the world.
That being said, one weekend, I went on a school field trip to a camping grounds that our school has on a mountain in Kobe. This post will mostly be a picture spam of the mountain and camping grounds.

It was super beautiful!

On the way back

At the camp, we cooked a big pot of curry together over a fire made by wood that we gathered from the forest. It felt very outdoorsy and was a great bonding experience.

Curry WIP

Finished product!

The finished product actually looked great and tasted great as well, to my surprise (lol). Even though some of us have cooked curry before, none of us are skilled at all with cooking it over an open fire...so we all kind of just winged it. But it turned out good.

We also made little wreaths from various things collected from the forest (acorns, pine cones, fallen leaves, branches, flowers, etc.) My wreath was mediocre, so I never actually took a picture of it. Instead, I took pictures of 2 other ones that I really liked.

Someone made a spider web and put a real spider on there. Although I'm not a fan of any insect or insect-like creature, the spider was actually really pretty!

Acorn crown

Anyway, there is not much else I wanted to talk about with this experience, it was just a collection of photos. However, after visiting this, I decided I wanted to explore more of Japan's nature, which leads into my next post...stay tuned!

Friend's Surprise Party/Halloween/Super Duper Halloween

Hello again!
I realized that I only updated this blog once in October...which is really terrible. Although I doubt anyone really cares about my blog that much, sorry for not updating! Before, when I didn't update, it was mainly due to laziness. However, now I can actually say that I have been super super busy and have barely had the time to update my blog. ごめんね！
So much has happened since my last update, which was almost a month ago, and now. I will try to, once again, massively dump all my pictures and ramblings onto this blog. Enjoy!

First off, I would like to start with a surprise party planned by my friend James' host family along with our group of friends here in Japan.
His host family is super nice and hospitable and decided to throw a surprise birthday party for him, in which our whole friend group was invited to. It was very hush-hush. After accidentally going to the wrong train station and worrying that we were gonna get there late and ruin the surprise, we made it to his house on time. His host family wanted us to dress up in Halloween costumes because it was near Halloween, which resulted in some cute and ridiculous photos.

Who u callin pinhead

Squad

Bunnies

There were even poppers with confetti of international flags on there. The whole thing was super decked out, and it was a ton of fun! Our friend James, of course, was happily surprised. Happy happy birthday!

This picture doesn't do the actual amount of food that was present any justice

Food and friends

There was SO MUCH food there. SO MUCH. Along with that giant tray of sushi, salad, and cocktail shrimp, there was also a cheese fondue with a variety of bread, meat, and vegetables to dip. Also, there was sashimi, grilled meat, cake, and some fruity alcoholic drinks.
After the feast, we sang happy birthday and had him open all the presents. Then, we went for an all-night karaoke sesh until 5AM. It was super tiring but a ton of fun. My first all-night karaoke session ever.

Then, there was actual Halloween.
Since none of us were sure of whether or not Halloween is a big thing in Japan (my host family told me that it was not), we had to google for a certain area that seemed to celebrate the holiday, Shinsaibashi. Prior to going to Shinsaibashi, we volunteered at a high school festival in Osaka. It was really cute and fun, and I would post the pictures here, but I'm not sure if it would be weird and bad privacy-wise to post them since the high schoolers are minors...
Anyway, after the festival, we headed out to Shinsaibashi.

Me, Christian, and Cherish

Last minute lame-cute bunny costume

Christian, me, James, and Cherish!

We put together some costumes quickly to be somewhat festive and went to a place called Triangle Park, which was supposed to be where Halloweenie people were gathering. I honestly didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The quality of costumes in Japan is superb. It's like the really neat and creative cosplays that you see being worn to conventions in America, except on Halloween, in a park. Seeing all this makes me really wanna work on putting a cool costume together too so one year I can have something to be proud of!

Very well made Jack and Sally costumes

A Clockwork Orange!

Silent Hill nurse

No Face x 2

Squad!

The Queen of Hearts and Alice

Attack on Titan

Hot dog, baby, and eggplant...???

An entire Death Note

The Grudge in 2015 - coming out of your Instagram photo

Sad bunnies

My all time favorite lazy Halloween costume - the classic sheet ghost!!

A pineapple

More guys from A Clockwork Orange - I didn't know that it was popular in Japan!

Side note about the sheet ghost guy: there was actually pieces of veiled netting material stitched over the eyes and the mouth holes, so it was a deluxe sheet ghost.
The costumes I saw on Halloween put American Halloween costumes to shame, even though Halloween is an American holiday...to my American friends reading this, we need to step it up next year!!