Shirotori Gardens

This was one of our field trips to explore the city before school started, so once again...a little late. Let me just put this out there---the worst field trip I've ever been on lol. Throughout this whole thing everyone kept wondering why anyone would ever think we would enjoy this type of torture...Here we go:

We went to the Shirotori Gardens. It has a very traditional vibe and is serene and beautiful. At first glance it seemed like a good place to be.

Plus, we could take pictures so...I was sold. Then, after they lure you in, the old people take over and give you a tour...the tour of immense pain and eventual death. First, we went over this cool looking bridge. It crossed over a big lake.It's all nice and everything until...you hear this churning sound; it chills the blood. You have to figure out where it's coming from so you look down into the water and you see billions of the ugliest, biggest fish ever.

Yeah, it's the bridge of death.

They are jumping all over one another to get the food that the visitors are throwing to them. I'm shivering now because that's how disgusting it was. Not only that, we spent ten frickin minutes on this mother truckin bridge so half of the time I was steadfastly not watching it, but I could hear it. Then I started to lose my resoluteness and I had to look. It was like a car crash, or lookin at a fat p

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erson's rolls--mortified, but I can't help but look.

Does anyone look like they're paying attention?

We finally left the bridge and started walking around the Gardens with the tour guide. lol this guide, actually all of them, were like 90yrs old. No matter what happened to us, he kept going on and on like nothing happened...totally oblivious. This is where the real torture started. As we started walking around, we were exposed to a never ending onslaught of ka aka mosquitoes. It's frickin hot and we are near the water so for the rest of our hour long tour, we have to repeatedly spray ourselves w/ bug spray (which didn't work) and/or smack them onto each other. I watched my tutor, Rika, to see what she did, being a native Japanese person and all and b/c she had a skirt and heels on while we're trekking through a forest. As I watched her, she smashed at least 15 ka and had blood all over her legs and hands. Everyone was in the same exact boat. Thank goodness I had pants on, but I still got bit alot.















So throughout this 1hr long tour, we stop, walk, stop...while battling mosquitoes and trying to translate Japanese b/c that's all our 90yr old tour guides could speak. And if you were close to the lake, the koi (carp) would follow you because they thought you had food. Killer nasty koi, mosquitoes, and rambling old guys--great trip or what? lol I think my brain exploded, that's how bad it was.

This shows my dynamic picture taking skillz...that killz lol

That's right. Smile through the pain.

Yamato-san's House

Me and Christine aka "Hawaii"...I have the fakest smile b/c I was so hungry lol

I just went to my first Japanese house party!! lol I'm typing this a week after it already happened. Well, anyway, one of our tutors, Yamato, invited all of the exchange students to his house to make "Okonomiyaki", which has meat and cabbage and...I'm not sure because I didn't cook. I think eggs to...it was mucho delicious. I'm trying to try new foods because I am sooo picky and it's starting off alright. We had a great time. Yamato had a small apartment and I'm surprised we could fit so many people in there. The pics don't show all the people. About 4 or 5 left to the grocery store. I'm so glad I didn't cook because instead of happy faces everywhere, there would've been fires lol. It was a really good meet and greet for all of us since we just kind of got here. Good music, free food...the good life.

Jess, Jacqueline, Eliza...she has no clue I'm taking the picture, and Lisa's fingers

My Bro-man Dustin aka Kuma-chan. lol he reminds me so much of my friends at home

My roommate Hanna (coolest Korean chica ever) and Steph (the blackest girl ever lol)

We tag-teamed this house--his whole living room is filled

Little blurry, but Kuma-chan is holding a knife and Chris is scared

Our host, Yamato (in the white) and Yuuki (in the green) cooking.

Sophie and Lisa cheesin for no reason...i rhymed...he he


Arvi from Canada aka "Bankuber" lol I can totally kick his butt in karate

Brian our paparazzi for the evening...WHAT! Another black person in Japan?!

Wow...must be a guy thing...sorry Jacqueline lol

Random Things

Eliza, Jacqueline, Me, and Lisa

Yeah, so I haven't been keeping up to good with what I've been doing. These last couple of days have been an intense blur of non-stop meetings and ridiculously hard tests. The study abroad students had to take placement tests this week to see what level of Japanese they would be placed in. Surprise, Surprise...I am so smart that I got put in the 1st level of Japanese, which is actually the next level I needed, thank goodness! Most Americans got put into the first level, even though they studied longer than me. The levels go up to 5, which is pretty much fluent. Only Koreans and Chinese students reached level 3 or more. Darn Americans!

I'm pretty worn out from all these (dare I say) pointless meetings. So long! I haven't really done too much not dealing w/ school. I have been taking walks in the evenings to clear my head; and if I get up, running in the morning.

At Hibino station in Shirotori. We're on our way to Oasis 21: Jacqueline, Dustin, & Matt.

A couple of days ago, we went to Oasis 21, at the Osu station. I still don't know what it is, but it's been described as a building that looks like a spaceship--very futuristic looking. It was incredibly awesome. There was even a famous makeout park. We climbed up an insane amount of stairs and took lots of pictures on the roof. Then, we took a ride on a nearby ferris wheel. A frickin huge ferris wheel attached to a building! It was all great fun. I'm waiting for some more later! *wink wink* (p.s. very clean)

The one we went on after we left the Oasis 21 station. I have no clue what city we were in though. Very big and mucho scary!!

This is the view from the top. Keep in mind that this thing is latched on to the side of a 7-story building. lol We saw really drunk Japanese guys dancing and doing karaoke...mucho hilarious :)

This is why Japanese people are so skinny! There are stairs like these everywhere and then we had to walk 6 more flights of these to get to the top!!

This is one of my tomodachi, Arvidas from Canada. And yeah, that is a frickin dinosaur covered in Christmas lights behind him.

These are the coolest pimps in Japan! Clockwise: PiPi (Korean), Eliza, Arvi, & Byron.

Studying Abroad on a Whim

Hello all!

Watashi no namae wa Lachelle Gatson desu. Doozo Yoroshiku. Ok, Japanese out of the way. I am 19 years old (May 14th, 1989...Mothers' Day...who knew I was so awesome) and am a Junior at UNC-Wilmington. I decided to test the waters by studying abroad and ended up studying in Nagoya, Japan for a year. Wow! I was just playing around and ended up actually going, which is cool because for many it is vice versa. Anyway, I am now attending NGU til July of next year. I am both excited and nauseated. It is definitely overwhelming, but I'll get by because of my amazing family and friends (love ya ;0)

I will attempt to document some of my escapades for anyone who wants to read them because they can be both helpful and comforting---mom and dad. This is a very easy way to tell everyone everything without repeating myself.

Enjoy!