OHHHHHHH who lives in a pinneaple under the sea?? THE. SYKES. FAM. LY! No not really, don't be scared! No one is in a pinneaple or under the sea! We're safe and everything. Ah but there was a time. A dark time in a land called 'Nozawaonsen' where we were in the snow! YES it was the snow! We stayed at a wonderful hotel but there were no shoes or feet allowed. So we had to walk in slippers EVERYWHERE.
So we were in this town that had 13 different onsens. What the heck is an onsen you say? It's like a hot tub but you have to go in naked. Yes naked, yes yes like a baby peach. All stripped down. A la nude. But don't worry, it was seperate with the women and men. They aren't monsters! So I mean my dad went, what a shocker. And my mom went. And Owen and I were like "Um...NO WAY! YOU CRAZY?!" So I read, Owen played video games. I had a drink, Owen had a snack. I read, Owen played video games. We stayed in an old style hotel. So the way it works is that your room is on a tatami mat, I can't explan it you gotta look it up. And you have this really low table with low seats and cushions...basically everything is really low. And they bring you this lovely tea. It's great! And during the night they put away the table and bring out futons to sleep on. They were surprisingly comfy. So in the morning we went for breakfast and you walk into this magical place. No seriously they greet you and then lead you to an old style, low to the ground, japanese room to eat your food. It's seriously cool. And the first day we were there they gave us a western style breakfast. It was okay and all but I mean I wanted a japanes style breakfast! After breakfast, my dad, my brother and I headed to the ski hill to catch some slopes! Or hit some slopes...ride the slopes? We went to the slopes okay! And wow that was high! They had gondolas and a billion chairlifts, and we had so much fun. We even got some green tea ice cream. ICE CREAM IS BETTER WHEN IT'S COLD OUTSIDE. I've said it before and I stand by that statement. So later that evening, we had a japanese style dinner. And we had a vegetable ball, some salmon and an orange geltinous ball. The ball was orange. It was round. And it was a jigggly jelly structure. I don't know what it was, but it was cool and different and WOWOWOW. And so my mom and I went outside to the foot onsen. It was like the normal onsen but just for your feet. And we relaxed and soaked our feet and it was nice! The next morning we wake up to some serious rain. And I mean RAIN. It was coming down bro! And we woke up, had some japanese style breakfast this morning and we headed off to get some more food. Now they had this special apple bun and MAN WAS THAT DELICIOUS. It was like a lil' apple pie. And we got these banana buns THAT WERE CRAZY GOOD. I mean it was all good. We got these red bean buns too. MMMMMM! I don't know why but everything tasted amazing. So as we left we decided to go see the snow monkeys. They are monkeys who live in the snow close to the hot springs. So we walked miles through the forest to see them and there were dozens of them! I mean there were some I thought were rocks that were actually monkeys.
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So, I am sitting on my couch, Wednesday morning, attempting to write a blog post. I have been super busy these past couple of days and haven't been able to write a single sentence. Today, I woke up with a mission! To get this post out of my 'drafts' and into my 'published' section! Well... we'll see if that happens.
Now Hida Takayama! Last weekend we took a 2 hour drive to this small Japanese town called Hida Takayama. During the drive I saw all kinds of things like trees and dirt and road... okay I mean that sounds pretty average but we did see mountains upon mountains. Oh and did I mention SNOW? Real snow. I hadn't seen snow in so long I was starting to think I'd never actually seen real snow. Was it white? Was is pink? Did it have rubies imbedded in it? Nope. It was just cold and white, how I'd always remembered it. After the drive we got to the cute little inn with a very nice Japanese lady. We left pretty late so by the time we actually arrived it was dark. She showed us to our rooms and we dropped our bags down. She gave us a nice recommendation for dinner, and we all got ready to leave since we were super hungry. Then the unthinkable thing happened. My father crashed our car. Hey woah woah. Not like crashed crashed. Here let me explain. So picture this: It's late at night and we're all super tired. There are super tight corners and walls made out of sharp stone. My dad is just going to move the car so that it's in the right parking space, and no aliens abduct us or anything... he should've just let the aliens come. He rounded the corner and BAM! We hit one of the stone walls. You gotta know that it was a super tight squeeze. An impossible squeeze. Picture like an elephant trying to get into a mouse hole. That just ain't happenin. So after the shock and some erm... foul language from my dear old dad, he dealt with it. Now, most people would just be mad and moody the whole night but my father was great! He didn't let it get to him and we had a pretty great evening stroll. Walking through the town, we could hear the laughter and the Christmas songs played over the speakers, it was magical. Then when we got to the restaurant I tried a drink called 'Calpis'. It looks pretty weird and you would never expect the taste you get from it. This restaurant's food was divine. It was a 'cook your own meat and veggies' situation. Man that meat was good! (Check out the December page). It was lemonade on a cold winter's day. "Wait Olivia, isn't lemonade good on a summer's day?" No! Lemonade tastes way better in the winter. You should try it. When we were done we went to the convienience store to get some ice cream. MMMMMMM! Ice cream is always better in the winter! I don't know why but it is. I always want it more when it's freezing outside. After some wine my mom was a little drunk. She was walking around all weird and making no sense. So she was pretty much acting like me when I'm perfectly normal. So that was pretty fun. And when we FINALLY made it back to the inn, we sat in our rooms. I got the only Japanese style room to myself! It was pretty cool. There was a tatami mat and everything. So we were all set to go in the hot tub. I was all ready and about to go in when my dad came out and said to me in all seriousness, "Olivia, there is a naked man sitting in that hot tub." Say no more I WAS OUTTA THERE!!! And I shoulda known this, but my dad stayed in and chatted with him. After half an hour, my mom, Owen and I all realized he wasn't going to be back for a while. My mom even said to me he was sitting in the naked guy's room drinking beer. Not only, with just the one naked guy but also with the naked guy's friend. So eventually I kicked my mom and bro out of my room, finished the last chapters of my book, and went to sleep. The next morning we had some amazing food. The breakfast at that place was truly phenominal. We cooked our own meat with mizo sauce, had some mizo soup, fish, rice and green tea. Then we checked out of the hotel and headed to the market. It was a beautiful place, really and they had some pretty great food. We got some apples and blueberries. My parents bought these cookie cups and got espressos, while Owen and I got some hot chocolate. MMMM!!! We continued walking until we found this museum for Japanese floats. These things are massive and beautiful. They all look wonderful in theor unique ways but also together. Each have their own special feature and they all generally look amazing. On our way back to the market we decided to buy a bonzai tree. His name is Christopher and he is a good tree. Love him <3. Chris Osman told me to buy one so I said "Ok" and we did. And I named it after him. Miss you Chris! You are a good dad so keep being you! After the bonzai tree we wondered over to this shop and saw a bunch of cool looking things. I got this cute, Japanese, good luck charm that is now on my purse. So as we were leaving my dad spotted this marvellous model of one of the floats. What a beauty. He found the owner of the store and the guy told my dad that thing had been sitting there for 30 YEARS! THIRTY YEARS!!! THIRTY. Can you believe that? Because we couldn't. Long story short we bought the model and are happy as can be. So that was a wonderful trip. Really, it was great. I'm so happy my parents took me and just can't wait until Christmas so that I can give them something back! Love you mom and dad, hope you like your gifts. To everyone else, Merry Christmas! Keep wishing for hipopotamusses and two front teeth. Don't forget it. Sayonara and to all a good night! HO HO HO! -Olivia Oh hey didn't see you there. Yes it's me, it's actually me! Okay yes I know I have some explaining to do. Well you see when I first started this blog I was totally for posting daily, but then I realized something: my life is pretty boring. I don't have that many things to say on a day to day basis and I'm also just a pretty busy person. You know gotta keep the grades up! So I decided to not post everyday and I'm sorry I know you love me and I'm just unforgettable, but sadly I do have things to do and I will still try and post as much as I can!
Okay so on to the story, this is one that I like to call 'Meat down the Hatch'. So imagine this: a girl and her friends are walking outside ready to eat some delicious mashed potatoes, some great zucchini, a beautiful apple dessert and some okay roast beef. You know it wasn't really all that magnificent. It was average. Half way to heaven but stuck as an earthly mortal. This girl sat down and started to eat this food. She got to the zucchini and had a couple bites of regular salad, and decided to eat her roast beef. She said "Why don't I try it and save the good stuff for later? I'll give the beef a try" So she took a bite and swallowed. Then when she continued eating, her throat started to feel horrible and I'll save you the gruesome details but you should know that it was pretty bad and the girl had to go to the nurse. So the girl's mother came and because the world was against her, the girl had no car. You see this girl had just arrived in a new country and her family was just using public transportation. The perilous journey through the subway and train commenced and not every paper bag came out alive. So a couple hours later, the girl's parents were like "Whoa dude something is wrong let's go vaminos to l'hôpital tomodachi." and off they went. Back through the horrifying public transportation and when they finally got to the hospital the girl was able to rest. She lay down and let them do blood tests and a CT and anything else they needed! 'Just fix me' was all she wanted! Now at this time the girl was very confused and had no idea what was wrong. All she knew was that she simply could not swallow. It was just not working sugar. So after extensive tests the doctors were stumped. That's when the girl said "Look I don't know what's wrong! All I ate was vegetables and like a little bit of roast beef but it wasn't enough to block up my throat... I think." That's when the girl knew: she screwed up. Okay so you've probably guessed by now this girl is me. It's just uh a bit embarrassing... So the doctors found a big mass of something in my throat. (Dunno how they missed a giant mass in my throat the first time, like shouldn't that be quite obvious?? But hey I'm no medical professional.) So I went into this room on a wheelchair, proper Grey's Anatomy style, and I went under. I remember nothing afterwards but apparently I was really floppy and loopy, and asked for a meal but only had a few bites. So there you are. My crazy story but it's about time for a hospital visit from me right? I mean isn't it a tradition for me now? I'm sorry for my lack of posting again but hopefully I'll have more soon! Bye Udon noodle space warriors! -Olivia |
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