I returned to Norway a almost two months ago, but I haven´t written any blog posts since May. The last half of exchange really flies by compared to the first half. My last few months in Japan just flew by, and I was busy trying to make the most of every moment. That of course meant limiting the time spent on the internet. To be fair, I was so busy with school, club, being social, and writing speeches I hardly had any time to relax. the last three months. But now I´m home, and I have time to write about all the cool stuff I experienced before I went home. There were too many great things that happened, so of course I must share all of that with you. This post is mostly about the volleyball tournament at school, the Rotary trip to Gifu-city, and the prefectural kyudo competition.
In may, my high school held a volleyball tournament where all the students competed. My team consisted of six of my classmates and I. Almost everyday for two months, we would eat our lunch as fast as we could and go practice volleyball. We practiced so hard everyday, that my forearms became so sore. I´ve never been very good at volleyball, but I really got the hang of things. On the day of the tournament, the other teams proved to be too strong, and we lost immediately. Despite that, we had a great time cheering for the other teams. It was a great day. My team and I went out to eat to celebrate our hard work. We also took some purikura pictures with our class towel (as seen in the picture above). Even though we didn´t win, that day might have been one of my favorite days of my exchange.
A little tired haha
These booths just erase my eyebrows haha
My team <3
During the finals. It was really cool seeing some of the volleyball team members in action.
The next day I drove down to Gifu city for a Rotary excursion. It all started with all the exchange students going to the cormorant fishing museum. Cormorant fishing is when cormorants (a kind of bird), are used to catch fish by tying a rope around their necks, so when they are sent out from the boats to catch fish, they don´t swallow them but keep them down their throats. The reason why they fish this way, is so the small fish don´t get damaged by the hooks. After visiting the museum and seeing how everything works, we got to go on a boat and observe the fishing firsthand.
There were some cool sofa things in the museum that we just had to try out.
Me hugging a huge cormorant
Jacob being Jacob
An assortment of fans
I don´t even know
Loaded
Really exited to be on a boat
These were the guys rowing the boat we were on. I thought their outfits were cool
The sunset was quite magnificent
The lighting and surroundings were quite nice, so we took a lot of pictures.
Obligatory Titanic pose
It got really dark really fast. Watching the lanterns from the boat dance on the water was beautiful
This is quite an unflattering photo but it just shows how crazy exchange students act when together. I think it´s compensating for us being quiet and polite most of the time.
This was the main event. It was almost surreal, it looked like these birds were pulling the boat. There were lanterns and the boats moved in unision. It was quite the experience and no photos really do it justice. I´m glad I got the chance to see cormorant fishing first-hand
When we got back to the hotel all the exchange students hung out in the girl´s room and we stayed up for ages talking and playing games. It was a little bittersweet knowing it was the last big trip with the gang. I had a great time
We woke up fairly early to go hike this mountain. This is us way tired after a minimal amount of sleep. Still excited
We ended up taking the "hard" route, which was pretty hard. The path was pretty steep and was a really good work out. It took about half an hour to get to the top
Everybody was pretty exhausted once we reached the peak. Not only was it incredibly steep, but it was a warm humid day. I turned into a puddle of sweat
We climbed up Gifu castle too. I totally forgot to take a picture of the exterior, but it looked a lot like most other Japanese castles. The special thing about this castle was that it was built on the top of a steep mountain. I couldn´t help but imagine how they managed to get all the materials up here
The best exchange gang ever <3
After the mountain climbing adventure we headed to the hotel for a brief rest, and then we went to a park to have a barbeque. We were promised hida beef so I was super excited. Japanese barbecues are my favorite. This is us fanning the grill, a very important job. Jacob scared me and somebody captured me getting a mini heart-attack
Schenanigans
More schenanigans
While the grown-ups were grilling the food we slacked off and did this. It was really comfortable except that everyone was laughing so hard that our heads bounced off each others stomachs. Soon the grown-ups shouted at us for slacking off, oh well
Everyone eating and having a good time. It was so cozy, and the food was amazing. I really love these people. After we finished the barbecue, we returned to the hotel and had some time to enter the baths. It was a really great trip
After getting home from Gifu and having a good nights sleep, I had to wake up early again to go to Gifu (again). This time our kyudo club was going the the prefectural competition to support our team.
We camped out in this room, and this is some of the girls helping Haruka put her eyedrops in. there were only two people from our team that were going to compete, so it was pretty relaxing. We spent a lot of time just hanging around and eating candy and playing games. And watching the competition of course
I also braided practically everyone´s hair. Great fun
My friend is the one closest to the fence. She came in third place which is pretty awesome. The competition took longer than expected, and we spent a lot of time standing out in the sun. But it was a great experience, especially since I was going to compete in a competition in two months
The gang. I spend most of my free time with these people, everyday after school and sometimes in the weekends. A great group of people
I suck at taking selfies haha
Eventually we went home. The sunset was absolutely breathtaking. Somebody started playing music and laughing and joking and singing with everyone on the way back home is still one of my favorite memories from the whole year.
Takayama High School Kyudo Club. I love my club mates so much. I miss them
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