Nineteenth and Twentieth Weeks

NINETEENTH WEEK

We had the placement test coming up so I did nothing but study.  Really, the only time I went out was to the supermarket when I ran out of food.  The placement test determines which level of class you get placed in, and unless you want to be bored by studying basically the same thing you want to get placed high.  Therefore, I studied to get placed as high as I could.  All I was doing was reviewing what I had learned the previous semester, but I wanted to make sure I didn't get placed on a level near last semesters.

TWENTIETH WEEK

SWEETS CASTLE & INUYAMA CASTLE

 Sweets Castle is located in Inuyama city.  A friend who lives in Inuyama invited me to go there and we met at a station, then drove to the castle.

 It really is very big. 

 This wedding-looking cake display is really made of sweets. But definitely not for eating.

 Throughout the castle there were many impressive displays that were made out of sweets.  This is from Sleeping Beauty.

 Snow White.

 Thumbelina.

 That's made of sweets too.  You can even see them, and touch them, when you pass under it.

 Apparently this display has never been completed, but you can barely tell.

 This is a description of one of the displays and it includes a list of ingredients

 I really wanted to eat one of these cakes.

 The upper body is not candy, it's ceramic, but the bottom is candy.

 There was a small buffet of sweets, just sweets.  They had some cakes, sadly none like the displays, pudding, ice cream, crepes, and more.

 After we had sweets for lunch, my friend took me to Inuyama castle.

 Unlike Nagoya castle, it wasn't renovated inside so no elevators.

 The sakura, cherry blossoms, were starting to bloom by this point.

 The stairs were really steep and the steps were so small I kept hitting my toes until I started placing my foot sideways.

 This room had hidden compartments, where the samurai would hide and be ready to attack if their lord was in danger during the meetings he held.

 According to my friend, the Japanese people of the era were much shorter, and that's why we had to kneel to be able to look out the windows.

 Though the view from the castle was worth it.

 

 A graveyard

 A feris wheel in what looks like the middle of nowhere, but my friend says it's in a monkey park.

Eighteenth Week

FRANTE SUPERMARKET

Since I have a placement test tomorrow, this week I stayed home and studied... and studied and studied.  But I made time to go to this supermarket I had heard of, which supposedly sells foreign products. It's not very far, just a few bus stops away. 

 Get on the same bus to Hongo station as always, only you need to get off at this stop.  It's the one right after Gokuraku.  Pay attention to the bus stops while on the bus and don't forget to click the button to get off.

 The bus will leave you right in front of this apartment building.

 You'll need to walk to the left, towards the street light.

 At the street light turn left.

 You're going to cross.

 That building straight across is Frante.

 Just follow the building.

 See the little flags say Frante.

 There is the entrance.

 There is also a McDonald's for if you get a craving.  There two other McDonald's in the area, but I think this is the most convenient, since it's just a few bus stops away.

 In front of Frante there is a movie rental place too.  I haven't actually checked it out, though, so I don't know how it works. Most Japanese stores do not allow you to take photos inside the store, so I couldn't take photos. But Frante wasn't what I was expecting.  It does have some foreign items I haven't seen in Aoki or Max Valu, but it is a mostly Japanese supermarket.  The variety of foreign items, at least Western ones, is still limited. 

To get home come back the way you came, only this time go straight across the light.

 Keep going straight for a bit.

 Go past the blue cleaners.

 And past the pink cleaners.

 Past the pink building that has a cafe.

 Right in front of this electronics store, I think it's an electronics store, is the bus stop.

 There is the bus stop.

Now in this bus stop, two bus lines pass by, so careful you don't get on the wrong bus.  You need to get on the bus to 猪高緑地.  It'll say it in front of the bus.

Seventeenth Week

AEON MALL

This week I was still kinda sore from my fall so I took it easy. Just went to a really big mall near a subway station called Nagoya Dome-Mae Yada.

 So, when I went there was a rush of people trying to change trains and I forgot to take pictures of the switch.  It's not complicated. On the same train you always get to go to Nagoya Station, get off the train at the station called Motoyama.  That stations is a change to the purple line called Meijo Line.  Follow the signs that say to Meijo Line. This line is a circle, so it goes clockwise and counter-clockwise. To get to Nagoya Dome-Mae Yada, you need to get on the counter-clockwise train.  Look at the signs that point to the train going to Ozone, another station that is counter-clockwise.  It's four stations away and it's called Nagoya Dome-Mae Yada. You'll need to head to Exit #1.

 When you get off, go past the long line of ticket machines.  There are so many, because this leads to the Nagoya Dome, which is home of the Dragons, Nagoya's baseball team. So you can imagine how full it must get during games.

 Keep following the signs that say Exit 1.

 Now it's a long walkway, so just keep walking you'll get there eventually.

 Not quite there yet.

 Finally you come out into the outside, get on the escalator.

 You get off one, and get on the one right next to it.

 Once you get off that second set of escalators, there is another set to the front.  Get on that one.

 From there you can see the mall.

 Keep following the walkway, which is also bit of a walk

 Go past the library.

 Keep going.

 I can see it getting closer.

 That's the dome.

 Keep going.

 It looks so close.

 There will be another little walkway to the right that leads to the mall's entrance.

 And you're there.  It's pretty big with many kinds of stores and entertainment.  It has some interesting restaurants and they just remodeled quite a bit of it, including the food court, which has a nice variety.

FUN FACT

That has got to be the tiniest excavator I've ever seen.  Everything really is much smaller in Japan.