She picked me up from the station and we went to get dinner. It was my first time being in the front seat of a car in Japan. I have been on vans, buses and trains of course, but not a car so I was really happy. The sunset was also really nice from where she lives. I must have sounded really silly when I would comment on how pretty the mountains are because she sees them every day. We were just talking away like how we always do once we met up.
We went to a sushi restaurant and went straight to her place after dinner.
We just talked till really late (we always talk too much, but now even more so because we don't see each other like we used to) and I only fell asleep at 5am.
The next day, we left her house at 2 in the afternoon and she drove to the mountains where there are waterfalls. The scenery was really pretty with plenty of green. I love the mountains the most. It felt like I was in a movie.
She brought me to a waterfall and told me that the water is actually really clear but because it rained the day before, the water was a little murky from the mud.
We decided to explore the area more, so we went into the woods following a trail to another smaller waterfall. It definitely felt like I was in a fairytale-like scene because of all the little streams and how tall the trees actually are. The sound of the running water in the streams was really relaxing.
The smaller waterfall was not that impressive but it was still fun hiking through the woods. We were getting hungry, so we decided to get udon at a little restaurant nearby. On the way back, we spotted a snake in the middle of the road and got scared, so we decided to find another way back. I love snakes but not in the wild where there's a high possibility that they can kill me.
said snake.
We also have no idea what this is.
The udon restaurant was really cute, owned by an old married couple. We got cold udon for only 500yen. It was my first time having cold udon and it was so good! After lunch, we had soft serve. I chose the white coffee flavour, which is really yummy and most popular flavour, and Yuri got the black soybean flour soy milk which had a questionable taste. It was not bad but it just tasted weird and had a strange grainy texture. You can also literally taste the flour in the soft cream which made it weirder. Yuri wasn't pleased with it at all, haha.
They had interesting flavours like salt milk, gold sesame milk and Hokkaido corn potage soup as well. I told Yuri that I'm gonna try salt milk the next time I visit her.
We didn't know where to go next, so we decided to just drive to Chichibu and see if there's anything on the way. We dropped by Tsutaya to check out some DVDs and CDs first and honestly, Tsutayas at the countryside are so different from the ones I normally go to because they have a much smaller selection of music and movies. It was kind of strange to me. After Yuri got some DVDs, we were on the road again and we spotted a small temple sign and we decided to check it out.
I'm glad we did because it's one of the nicest temples, though small, I've been to in Japan. Asakusa is over-hyped honestly.
This temple's intricate details was what I really loved about it. Also because the sun was setting, it looked really pretty in the sunlight. The quiet made it felt really peaceful.
There was also a cemetary next to it. Japan's cemetaries are really nothing like anywhere else in the world because they don't feel creepy at all.
She drove us back to her place and we chilled there for a bit before going to the supermarket and getting dinner. After dinner, she drove us to the top of Minoyama Park. I was really freaked out by how dark it was at first but once we got there, there were several people around so it made me less worried. You had to have a torch light to go around, I just use the torchlight on my phone, haha.
The view of the city from the top of the mountain was really pretty. I've never liked observatories and stuff like that... maybe because I feel like it's "fake". But I really liked the view from Minoyama and the sky was so clear that night, I could see so many stars in the night sky. Definitely had a hard time looking back and forth the cityscape and night sky.
We spent over an hour there just talking and admiring the lights of the city before deciding to head back. The park wasn't far away from her place so we got back in no time. Again, we stayed up to talk but we went to bed earlier, at 3am. I knocked out immediately after my shower, we did so much in a day, it was definitely a day well spent.
