Gaijin vs. Japan: Golden Week

Hello everyone,

I have been busy for the last couple of weeks, and of course I want you all to know what I have been up to.

So last week the only noteworthy event was a 女子会 a Girlsnight with my female colleagues. We went to a restaurant in Shinjuku and had 3 hours of all you can drink with a 6 course menu. I wasn't expensive and tasted fine, but when we left we were still hungry, so we decided to go have desert and then go home. We talked mainly about boys, what else can you expect when 10 girls come together. But the atmosphere was really great and we all had a lot of fun!

The day before we had our first party with almost all members of our class, which was also a lot of fun. I am trying to make friends, but its not easy to really get to know any of my colleagues. In Japan relationships are usually very shallow.

No to the really interesting part! From Saturday until Wednesday was the so called Golden Week in Japan, the longest national holiday and the opportunity for Japanese people to go traveling for a couple of days. So everything is really expensive and packed no mater where you go.

I had been planing to go to Kyoto from the day I knew for sure that I would be in Japan for Golden Week and booked my Shinkansen Ticket one month in advance! It wasn't cheep but I was there within 2,5 hours!

I met a friend from my german university and a mexican friend from my time as an exchange student. The highlight was my meeting with my hostmom from my Kyoto-stay last autumn. She is in the hospital right now because of a knee operation in March and took the time to meet with me anyways, I was so happy.

I went to a lot of Temples and Shirnes, as always (Kiyomizudere, Ginkakuji, Kamigamojinja and Shimogamojinja etc.). We also went hiking in Kurama north of Kyoto. I got my first sunburn of the year (on Saturday it was 29 degrees celsius). I also went to the public bath and just enjoyed my free time with a lot of delicious food and sunshine!

Here are some pictures.