A week in Miyazaki

I've been back a couple of days already and have been meaning to write on my blog but the Internet connection has been off and on. For hours at a time, everything seems fine and then suddenly, no Internet connection for almost a whole day. Let me tell you, it's very frustrating. I don't have anything to do! lol. That's not true, but a lot of things I need to do (ex. skype my parents, check my email, write on my blog) require the Internet and so I was unable to do that for the past few days.

Finally, I have access so I am writing this now as fast as I can in case the connection goes MIA again.

So... where to start? First of all, to get to the airport is quite a trip in itself. From Tokaidaigakumae (the closest station to Tokai University), we took the Odakyu line to Ebina station, about 25 minutes. Then we transferred onto the Sotetsu line, which we rode all the way till the last stop, Yokohama. From there, we took the Keikyu line to the Haneda Airport. Getting to the airport was almost as long as the flight to Miyazaki.

When I say "we", I mean myself and four other judo girls (all 3rd-year students).

From left: Tomomi, Miyu, Ayaka, Yuuki

It's the girl on the far right, Yuuki, who invited me. Her father is in charge of the Miyazaki high school judo club and was the one who taught us techniques during the camp.

We stayed in a kind of little apartment, sleeping on futons.

The room where the five of us slept

Now about judo, we usually had one practice every day, sometimes two. Practices lasted around 3-4 hours. I think our last practice on Saturday was 4 hours and a half. It was so long! I learned a lot of little gripping tricks and other techniques but I had to concentrate twice as much as everyone else just to try to understand what the teacher said. I know I missed a lot of little details but I think I was able to take in the most important things he was saying.

The camp was fairly small. About 6 girls from Fukuoka University came, and high school girls from the Miyazaki judo club (where we practiced) also took part in the training so there were still some bodies to work with.

The dojo where we practiced

It was a lot warmer in Miyazaki like a lot of people had promised me before I left. But they hadn't told me that it rained a lot... it rained every day we were there, and not just little droplets but hard, pouring rain.

For food, we often bought our meals at the nearby convenience store. You can practically live off convenience stores in Japan, of course not very healthily, but convenience stores in Japan are really, well, convenient. I'm planning to write something on that later because convenience stores are part of Japanese everyday life.

Yuuki's father also treated us to a few meals during the week. I got to taste Miyazaki's famous jidori (charcoal-grilled chicken). Unfortunately, I didn't get to taste a mango from Miyazaki. Miyazaki mangoes are the best in Japan and mango happens to be my favorite fruit but it wasn't the season for mangoes. In the summer, they must be so delicious. But expensive...

Tokai and Fukuoka University sharing a meal (The man in the back is Yuuki's father)

We also cooked one night, and I even ate at my first kaitenzushi restaurant, also known as sushi train. Plated sushi are placed on a kind of conveyor belt which circles around the tables and you're free to pick whatever you want to eat right off the belt. You have to be quite quick though because it circles pretty fast. But the same items also come back around again so you can always get it the second time around.

Helping to cook our meal

Kaitenzushi: Ayaka filling up on green tea while plates circle by 

On our last day, Yuuki's father took us to see Aoshima (= blue island). Apparently, after reading up on it on the Internet (which is now working properly : p ), Aoshima is the only place in Japan where you can see Oni-no-Sentakuita (Ogre's Washboard), which are unique wave-like rock formations. I think Yuuki tried to explain something to me about the rocks, or a story behind the rocks, but all I understood was sentaku which means to wash, and iwa which means rock... and I haven't been able to find anything on the Internet... I think that maybe she meant that clothes were washed on the rocks, or the rocks served as a washing place, or something like that... but I guess I'll never know.

Oni-no-Sentakuita (Ogre's Washboard)

Miyu and me

Then it was time to go back home. I really like airport security when traveling inside Japan. No passport is needed, you can bring water bottles on board, and you don't even have to take off your jacket to pass through security. Now that's what I call effective. ; )