Daijobu?

At least that`s how I think you spell it. :) It means, are you okay?

Yes, I am!! Well, that`s my answer. Yesterday, we were in Ise, home of two very important shrines. One belongs to the Sun God of Japan, and she is the most powerful of them all. That`s right, I said SHE. We couldn`t see the shrine as well as others, but there were many people there to see it, so it was a completely different experience. We went to another one on the beach-I totally went down to the water and put my hand in it, just so I can say I`ve been to the beach in Japan if I don`t get back to it in July-and supposedly on New Years Day, the sun rises right over Fuji, between these two rocks. We couldn`t see Fuji, because it was a little cloudy.

There`s a chance we`ll see it today, though, because we are taking the Shinkansen!!! I am sooooo excited about this. It`s the fastest bullet train in Japan, and I`ve been hoping to take it for a very long time! Thank you Jason Barrows! What a guy he is. I am enjoying this trip so much, and a large part of it is because of Jason and his hysterical antics and wonderful surprises. :D

Also yesterday, I tried wasabe ice cream. YUM! I have been excited about it for quite some time, and I jumped at the chance to eat some. I actually had ice cream twice yesterday...:) The second time was mint ice cream covered in chocolate on a stick. Yum!

On thing I want to write about is all the delicious snacks and drinks here. Man, we go to 7/11 or Lawsons a lot and just pick out crazy things, and they are SO GOOD. Last night, I bought this guava chocolate, yum! Guava was the brand, not flavor. Yum! It`s better than Hershey`s...Also, the rice snacks are pretty delicious too. Pocky and toppo are the coolest snack invention ever!! Pocky is chocolate covered pretzel sticks, and toppo is chocolate filled pretzel sticks. Both are deliciously addicting!!! Of course, they have all sorts of flavors. The weirdest thing I`ve seen so far is a green tea Kit Kat. Like, the chocolate was green tea-flavored. Hmmmm...I really like Soba teas...Umm, Calpis is pretty good, in moderation, too, especially when it`s warm. I had this other drink, it was like Pakoma Sweat or something like that...it reminded me of carbonated Squirt.

And one misconception I had about Japan is that there would be no bread. WRONG! Some of the BEST bread I`ve ever had has been here. A lot of times, we`ll have pastries or something for breakfast because we are on the go, and they all have been pretty good. I had a couple ham and cheese crossiants the other day, and I liked this nikuman sandwich thing the other day. The bread here is very good and not difficult to find! The only dessert slash bread item that I don`t like is the mochi treats filled with bean paste. Barf!! We`ve had so many of them, and I just can`t stomache them anymore. That`s where the chocolate will come in handy. :D

Oh yea! The most exciting thing about yesterday was the Karaoke! Woohoo!!! I had been looking forward to going to this long before I arrived. The whole group went last night for 1.5 hours, and we opted for the non-nomihodei, which means non-all you can drink. As someone who doesn`t need alcohol to have fine, that was completely fine with me. Everyone was excited to be there, and we all sang together, so I don`t know how alcohol could have made it more fun????? I am sure we`ll try that style eventually, because not everyone has the same views as I do, and it will be cool to compare the styles.

Off to breakfast, and wish me luck today on the Shinkansen! I am hoping to record some footage of us passing by Fuji!!! Woo!!