Okayama prefecture

 Hi, I went to Okayama prefecture on August 10th & 11th! I had to go there from my school, because I have been participating in UNESCO activities. We are going to have "World High School Student's Forum" at Okayama next November. My job is to support those who come from foreign country. Hopefully, I could be a good support for them! 

 On the first day, I spend a night at a business hotel in Okayama-city. The name of the hotel is "Toyoko-inn", I am sure it's one of the biggest business hotel chains in Japan! ( http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/index.html )

 I took some photos in the room! The room is not big, but it was pretty neat! I loved it! Business hotels could be a great option if you're coming to Japan alone. 

 I bought some souvenir for my family and friends, the most popular sweets gift in Okayama is "Kibidango". It is a Japanese dumpling made from the meal or flour of the kibi grain. 

I haven't really been sight seeing in Okayama, thus I can't tell you that much of information, though you should visit Okayama, if you have a chance! The air is refreshing here!!

I'll come back to write again soon :)

HEIDI.

Reunion with my volunteer work people

 Wednesday, I had a great time at the Osaka International Youth Hostel ( http://www.osaka-yha.or.jp/osakakokusai/english/index.html )! I went there with some people from my volunteer work :) I sometimes teach foreign kids Japanese and some other subjects. Anyways, I went there to make lunch by ourselves at the BBQ site. We made roast beef, Indian curry, and  Tandoori chicken! They were pretty good, I just ate too much....

After that, we played Kin-ball in the gymnasium! Kin-ball is a Canadian sports which we play with a huge ball(the diameter is about 1m!) It was really really fun but I got too tired that I didn't want to walk home haha. 

Some tips about youth hostels in Osaka, we have 4 of those here. Shin-Osaka(near Osaka-station), Nagai(it's connected to one of the biggest soccer stadium in Osaka), Gyokusenji(It's in the north of Osaka surrounded by nature!), and the one I went the other day(in Sakai, not too far from KIX). The price range per night is 2800yen ~ 3900yen. If you don't mind not staying at a gorgeous and luxury kind of place, you should check it!

See ya soon!

HEIDI. 

BUSYBUSYBUSY

Hi, there. I had been busy for these few days. I went to Namba with a friend from middle school, last Saturday. We had a nice time talking about our middle school days. For lunch that day, I ate オムライス"Omurice" It's an omelet made with fried rice inside. This is one of the funny meals in Japan. Here, we call it as one of the Western meals. Though we only have it in Japan. 

Anyways, this is one of my favorite Japanese food! This one is covered with mushroom cream sauce. It was really good! I'll put up the recipe, when I make it!




 For dessert, we had Baskin Robbins' ice cream. In Japan, we call Baskin Robbins "31 Ice cream". On that day, the ice cream was 31% off, so we thought we should have some! I always order strawberry cheesecake and caramel ribbon flavor. I am totally obsessed with these two. 

In several hours, I have to go to work.... Gonna be busy!!!

Don't forget to try Omurice when you have a chance to come here!

See ya!

HEIDI.

Quite a boring day.

 It was a quite boring day today for me. My father went to work, and my brother went to school. I did not have any plans for today, thus I just listened to some music, and played some online games. What songs do I listen or sing? I am a big fan of Coldplay, One Republic! Especially, I love Viva La Vida, Fix You, What If, and The Scientists. Slightly, sad or melancholic songs.
 Lunch time, I made myself a meal, since I didn't really want to eat the leftover in the house, I made 肉もやし炒め"Fried bean sprouts with pork". It was pretty good! My bad, I thought I took a photo of it, I found that the photo was all black...... I'll check the photo after I take it from now on...
 At night, I went to my church for a bible study, we read Nehemiah 2:1-8 and talked about God's authority and what we should do to appreciate his sovereignty. I had a nice time, there.
 

Today's makeup, eyebrows and eyeliner were a bit thicker than usual. I always wanted to be more White, unfortunately, I am more Asian...haha.... 

Will be careful next time!

HEIDI.

Wonderful Day

 Today, I didn't go anywhere particularly, I just went to a restaurant for dinner with my father. It was really a beautiful day, today! 

 These two photos are taken from my apartment, blue sky! The left one is Toys "R" Us in the back of my place, it's pretty popular in Japan, too. I love the white white clouds above!  The right one is a Japanese shrine in front, I am a christian, thus I don't really go inside of it, but they have many kinds of events through the year, and sometimes the happy sounds of the festival wake me up. I hope I could go to one of the festivals here in Japan and take some photos of it! 

 I want to go somewhere not around my apartment. I'd like to take some pictures and show you! 

Good night!

HEIDI.

Hot!

 Hi, it was hot and humid in Osaka, today! 35℃/95℉ and the humidity max 96%..... One point what I am sad about Japan is the weather, in Summer it's humid and hot, in Winter it's dry and cold. The difference is too big!! Though, someone who likes fashion can have many varieties of clothes and items. That's one of the best point of Japan for me!
 As I told you yesterday, I went to an electronic store to buy chargeable batteries and USB cord for my digital camera, though I couldn't get the cord, I got a card reader instead. 

I suppose Japan only has these kind of cute designed battery and card reader. I'm so happy that I found these!

 Hopefully, I will upload some photos tomorrow or someday after. I can't wait to take pictures <3

Good night!

HEIDI.

Excited!

 Good evening from Osaka! Unfortunately, I still can't upload pictures, because I don't have a USB cord and chargeable battery for my nice Canon digital camera. Hopefully, I would go to an electronic store and get those. I can't wait to upload some pictures!
 Well, as you know, I am a high school senior, but I also started to work part time at Universal Studios Japan, as a shop clerk in one of the souvenir shops inside the park, if you see a girl whose Asian and White mixed as a clerk in Hollywood area, that should be me. I think the reason why I am hired is that, I can speak 3 languages, Japanese, English and Mandarin Chinese. I hope I'll really have an opportunity to use my language skills for my work, there. There are so many people from all over the world, because of the Harry Potter area! Woo-hoo!
 What I really like about Japan is the number of trains, ferries, and buses run often and they run on time! Even if they have any problem like delay and stoppage of service, they'll give us a certificate of delay and if you miss the last train because of the problem, and you complain with an angry face they'll give you some money for taxis. I am not 100% sure, if they really do the latter one, but some station does. Almost all of the public transport and companies, shops are extremely kind and polite to customers! Once you come to Japan, you will know it! Come on, over!

I think I will have a good night's sleep tonight,

HEIDI.