Please Be Careful. The Cliff Is Very Jagged.

The hotel in Kanazawa provided breakfast for us by 8 am. It was a nice simple breakfast. There was salad, an over-easy egg, two pieces of toast, and some yogurt. It may sound like a lot, but it actually didn’t feel me up. And that’s not me being fat! The food here is just very light and comes in small portions. Once breakfast was over, we met with Kanazawa students and a couple professors downstairs to head to Tojinbo. We arrived around 10:30 am and were able to explore the area until about 12 pm. The area was absolutely breathtaking. The Sea of Japan was so beautiful, but the cliffs we were standing on were really sketchy to me because I was afraid somebody was going to fall to their death. Luckily nobody did, but Leo was scaling the cliff sides like his life wasn’t at risk or anything. Apparently one of the cliffs we were on was famous for a spot where a lot of suicides happened. It was strange to be on a place where a lot of people went to kill themselves. After we explored the area, we went up to the shops and bought some ice cream. So far, I have discovered that my favorite is the strawberry ice cream. For once, I don’t like chocolate ice cream and I think it’s because it tastes different than from America. Once that was finished, we loaded back up on the bus and drove to a little market that a restaurant inside. This is where we had our lunch and I had ramen with rice. It was delicious. I think I will miss the ramen noodles the most here.

Cliff side at Tojinbo

Breakfast from the hotel

After lunch, we headed back to Kanazawa and went to a museum. Here, we were told the story of the floats that children sit on and were able to do different types of activities. The activities included playing a Japanese instrument and practicing a basic form of the tea ceremony. Only the students from Illinois College went in while the students from Kanazawa stayed outside. I’m not really sure why they didn’t participate with us.

Set up for Tea Ceremony

The music section

The next destination we went to was a little tea area where we were told the importance of the tea ceremony and what the space was used for. Afterwards, we explored the house and headed back to the hotel. After we relaxed for a little bit, we went to a restaurant with the Kanazawa students. I really liked this restaurant because it had a lot of posters from the 1930’s and 1940’s. The posters showed what kind of fashion was around, and what kind of propaganda was being used for the war. Again, we sat on the mats for dinner and waited for food to be passed around along with our drinks. We were limited to two hours in the restaurant which we used to the absolute fullest. After dinner, we walked to the hotel again and fell asleep for the night.

Kampai!