Europe-It Was Only 2 Weeks But So Many Pictures!

     Let me start off by apologizing for taking so long between posts.  Traveling back and forth all over Europe does not leave a lot of free time for blogging, but it leaves plenty of time for sleeping on public transportation.

      Anyway, let me begin with the day I left Sapporo because that was my last post.  I decided to fly into Tokyo a day early so I could meet up with my friend, Minami (whom I've known since I was 16-crazy!) and go visit the Tokyo temple.  

After navigating the craziness that is the Tokyo metro I finally found my way to the stop closest to the temple.  After that I had to locate the temple itself, but luckily the shining Moroni in the sky makes it hard to miss.

After depositing all my stuff there I decided lunch was in order so I stopped by a 7/11, grabbed some food, and headed to the nearest park to eat and read a book.  Shocking, right? That doesn't sound at all like me.

After eating I had to hustle back to the temple.   I was able to meet this really sweet lady (Sister Wata-nabe) at the temple who, turns out, knows some of my friends from Sapporo!  Instant bonding happened and she was nice enough to help me find where I was staying that night (it was the temple annex) and get me checked in. 

The world really is a small place. So that was pretty surprising.    Not nearly as surprising as running into the mother of a boy that I dated and haven't talked to in 2 years. What are the odds?  Now that was straight up unexpected and slightly disconcerting.








Anyway, after the temple I met up with Minami whom I've known since my girls camp days.  It was shocking meeting up with her in Tokyo 2 years ago, but almost more shocking to do it again now.  Who knew I would be back in Japan so soon?

Anyway, here's a glance at the ROOM FOR 6 that I had all to myself that night.  So awesome.  This was the most space I've had in weeks and I could stay up reading as late as I wanted without disturbing anyone!

(Except I couldn't really stay up as late as I wanted since I had to get up at 6 am for my next flight. *sigh*)


The next day I caught a flight from Tokyo to Moscow to Paris.
The bad news: I sat next to this supremely overly-helpful man who seemed to have combined 'chivalry' and 'helpless females' because he would NOT let me do anything.  If I tried to open my package of earphones (in the little plastic wrap) he was there, taking it from me and opening it for me. (Thank you, strange sir.)  If I blew my nose (because my allergies were killing me) he was offering his napkins to me before I had the chance to get up and go for more.  (Thank you, stranger.) If I tried to rest my head on the tray in front of me, he was there, telling me how bad that was for my neck (oh but in very broken English) and offering his shoulder to lay on.  (Thank you, but um, no.)
The good news: On the connecting flight from Moscow to Paris the flight karma caught up with me and I had 3 seats to myself. So, I slept the sleep of the undisturbed and unobserved. (Thank you Russian man for not being there.)

When I eventually landed in Paris all I needed to do was navigate my way from the airport to my hostel.  It didn't seem too difficult. Until my phone got stolen (or lost?) on the metro.  For about 2 minutes I freaked out realizing that the metro taking off in front of me carried my phone and I had no way to get it back (and also no way to get to my hostel.)
Luckily, I'm not shy about asking for help. So by asking a series of strangers if I could use their google maps I was able to make my way (in a completely safe manner) to my hostel.  After alerting my family that I'd made it safely (sans cell) I went to sleep.
Kidding. There was definitely a shower before the sleep.  

7/21 - My first day in Paris
    I was actually on my own for most of the day as my friends weren't due in until that night.  So I explored around on my own a bit and desperately tried to catch up in my journal.  After moving from the hostel to our airbnb I developed a system. Mainly it involved finding a cool spot to explore, sitting down and writing in my journal, listening to people speak French, and then repeat.
When I went home for the night I relaxed for a bit, and by frequently creeping through the window for signs of Emily and Michelle I was able to spot them wandering down the street.  Nailed it. That's 3 out of 4 of us.

7/22 - Exploring Paris while really knowing how to relax

We started off by going to the Latin Quarter which is around Notre Dame.  I was getting some serious flashbacks from 4 years ago at this point.  (Although I was hoping to avoid dropping my water bottle in the Seine, getting stuck in the metro, getting poop on my bag and all of the other less desirable occurrences from 4 years before.)

We ate lunch at the crepe shop that David introduced me to (indirectly) and Emily and I struggled to resurrect our French which was at death's door as we deciphered the menu.




We explored along the Seine after eating and looked at all of the book stands and carts that were open before heading over to the Louvre.
Now we didn't actually go into the Louvre (once through that line was enough.) but we did relax in the gardens outside for like 2 hours.  In fact, I think I even fell asleep while sitting here enjoying the view.   And what's not to enjoy?





After that we got hot cocoa (even though it was summer.) We'd heard the place was delicious. It was. If you like your hot chocolate so thick that you can't actually suck it through your straw. (At least I seemed to not possess that particular ability.)

Finally, the time had come to meet up with Whitney in Paris once again.  So with no working phones (or in my case no phone at all), we set out for the Louvre pyramid to meet her.  Turns out I take my cell phone for granted a lot, but after crowd searching for 20 minutes we finally met up.








After that we walked to the Eiffel Tower (we walked every where today-probably 13 miles or so.) and finally, finally I righted the wrong from 4 years ago.  Emily and I climbed the Eiffel Tower! Here's the pictures to prove it.

 

 

 

7/23 - Final half-day in Paris

    We set off of the Bois de Bologne to go bike riding and enjoy the scenery.  Let it be noted though, that we didn't set off TOO early.  We know how to relax on vacation.  Here's some pictures from our bike ride.

 

Sadly, this was really only a half day since Waite and I had a train to catch to London. So around 1 I said good-bye to the girls, hopped on the metro home, packed up my stuff, and then off we went.  Waite and I met at home (she was off on her own adventuring today) and then we braved the Paris metro together.  And by that I mean that we struggled to get through the turnstiles with our suitcases and backpacks (such foreigners.)
Question: Would you rather ride a train from France to England or sword fight a porcupine?  Ya, me too.
And that's how I found myself with a porcupine.
Kidding. That's how I ended up in London.
We found our airbnb and went grocery shopping before falling asleep in our new room.

7/24 

Today was pretty simple.
Catch the 9 am church.
Leave after sacrament meeting for our 11 o'clock bus.
Journal the entire 3 hour trip to Wales (and still be a little behind.)
Spend the evening with Brian, Margaret, and Eira-a nice Welsh family that somehow Whitney knew and we ended up staying with.
It was kind of like having a mom in Wales to take care of us. She was fussing about if we ate enough and if we needed more snacks at night.  Score.

Okay, I'm going to end before the Wales adventures begin because there's already too many pictures in this blog and the next part will be even worse.  So until next time!  (I'll try to not take another month to post it.) 

Sayonara Sapporo

     I left Yuzawa and came back to Sapporo for one final hoorah before leaving Japan (for who knows how long.)  This week was pretty relaxed but also fun because I got to see a lot of people from the ward from two years ago.  I had 8 days left in Japan, so I`ll make the most of it! And by that I mean that I decided to sleep in multiple mornings, chill at the house, and go running in the afternoons.  I mean, it`s still summer break, right?  I`m practically required to take it easy occasionally.
     On Monday and Tuesday the most exciting thing I did was go running in the afternoon and catch up on errands.  But even those uneventful days in Japan are pretty fun when I get to spend them with the family.  I can talk to the girls as we all lay around on the couch doing nothing at night. Or I can hang with Mama in the afternoons when we are both home and talk about random things like why I`m still single and how she decided to name one of her girls after a girl she admired from an anime as a little girl.

I went to the temple for the first time with Mama and Momo.  Our guide was this cute little old Japanese man who was extremely friendly and loved asking questions to which I did not know how to answer in Japanese, but it was still fantastic.

         











   On Wednesday I went to dinner with a lady I knew from the ward two years ago (Irie family).  I ran into her at church a few weeks ago and we decided to do something when I came back froｍ Yuzawa.  It turned into a family affair so I went with the Tsujimotos and we had a nice time eating dinner with them.  I talked to Kisetsu quite a lot about everyone at Mikuni since she and I were both there recently, and I learned that Kazuki (this beat boxing amigo) is her cousin!  Small world.
                                                           
                                                                                On Thursday I had the morning to myself to be productive and the evening to go eat okonomiyaki!!! This is Karin and I biking to go meet her friend for dinner. We decided to bike by the river, and it was beautiful.  Karin is so fun to hang out with. I`m lucky I got to meet her this time around since she was on her mission before.   Plus she introduced me to Ayumi who is also way fun. The three of us ate dinner and sat and talked for at least 2 hours (which is saying something for me since it was all in Japanese.)
   I was pretty happy while we talked because Karin told me that her family is pretty shy, which surprised me. Then she told me that they must just feel really comfortable around me so I don`t even get to see their shy side.  I guess it`s just nice to feel like part of the family.

    

On Friday I decided to go meet up with Sister Takahashi-another friend from the ward 2 years ago.  We decided to meet at the temple, since it is fairly close to her house.  Unluckily for me, I actually did not remember exactly how to get there.  Luckily for me, it was close to a sushi place that I could ask around for.  Turns out living in Japan is way easier when you can actually speak the language.  (2 years ago was a valiant but poor attempt at Japanese-ing.)  

   Anyway, eventually I did find the temple and Sister Takahashi.  She took me to one of her favorite ramen places, and it`s her favorite for a reason. After eating we went back to her house and talked for about an hour and a half.  She told me that her kids wanted to play when they got home from school so once they arrived the three of us went to the park.  They are so stinking cute. It makes me want to have Japanese children of my own. Just look at them.

 That night a random girl from BYU showed up at my house-turns out she was mission companions with Karin. So we all ended up going to Mount Moiwa to do something fun with our Friday night and give her a taste of Sapporo.  So here I am again two years later.
 
    We saw the sights and took the expected, poorly-lighted photograph at the top here and then we were on our way down again.

In the car we rocked out to K-Pop, naturally. And then everyone was in a k-pop mood, so a dance party happened.  In the middle of this I was trying to figure out plans for tomorrow with Natasha and Anna. (Not having a cell phone once we leave the house means we always have to be extremely well planned out before trying to successfully do anything.)

(Enjoy this night view of Sapporo.)

We started the day out Saturday by going to Sakura`s school festival. This was a dream of mine growing up-but I never went to a Japanese high school (I don`t want to talk about it. It`s still a sore spot of mine. :p) and we don`t have these here, so naturally the three of us had to go crash Sakura`s.  But don`t worry-it was completely normal.  So normal you might have trouble finding us in this photo-we are the ones with the awkward red badges that scream *we don`t belong* since everyone else had a different colored badge.  Thanks for that, school people.

 Anyway, I get that this definitely wasn`t a competition...and even if it was these are all high schoolers...but can I just say that I rocked this ball throw (only in comparison to the 15 year old boys who went before me.)

It was pretty fun to be here even if I was about 8 years too late to be living out this dream.

Anyway, Anna and Natasha weren`t feeling too hot so we ended up leaving before the end (I forgot how loud a high school full of screaming teenagers can be.)  We decided to go around some fun places for one last time together, which is how I found myself at Odor
i park again, this time with my shoes off. A refreshing change, I`ll admit.
    We had the chance to admire Susukino all decorated for the summer festival.  (Although since the festival hasn`t started yet, there`s always the chance it will get even more hard core.)

And I`m not sure how this happened, but we found Mario, Luigi, and the whole Mario Cart crew so we took pictures.  That`s a normal reaction to seeing your childhood brought to life.  What was unexpected was having Luigi gesture us over to take pictures together.  (He told me to sit in his seat, and I would be lying if I said I didn`t have to fight a serious temptation to complete a lap of my own.)
There was also this random street drum perfor-mance happening for which we had to stop and watch.  (And by watch I mean rock out to.)  Turns out Odori is a pretty happening place.  We even decided to go get okonomiyaki again (I know. I know. I have a problem.)  And while we were walking around JR Tower there was a slight black out in the area where a bunch of restaurants are.  Everyone seemed really confused about what to do with themselves since computers were down. Waiters and chefs were awkwardly standing by doors possibly waiting for someone to tell them how to handle the situation.  Luckily, Natasha, Anna, and I knew just what to do.  And that`s to take a picture!
    I had to hurry home once we parted ways because I was running a little late to greet Papa (who has been in Tokyo.) This seemed like as good a time as any to get lost on my way home. In my defense though, I had never come home from that station before.  Anyway, thanks to all my running I was able to recognize the area and figure things out pretty quickly with only a 15 minute delay. We went to the temple again as a family that night and then out to eat.
I may have a slight problem with creeper pictures, but it`s okay because acknowledging it is the first step. (The first step to taking more effective creeper shots? Maybe.)

Sunday was my last chance to hang out with the family (almost as a whole-Ane being on her mission and what not) and so I had to record the delicious food and good company.  Here is everyone eating dinner.  So back in America, Emily and Sarah tease me about getting along really well with my brother-in-laws all the time. So it was ironic when I somehow ended up sitting between both of the son-in-laws at dinner tonight.  Not even really my brother-in-laws and we still get along.
 Dinner was delicious and having everyone to talk to was even better.  Saying goodbye is a bit of a damper though.
I was finally getting Keia to warm up to me and I had to say goodbye.　　And by warm up I mean that she always calls me Kora instead of Rora (my Japanese name to substitute for their lack of L`s.) But anyway, she really did like me despite her slightly hesitant look here in the photo. She`s half Japanese and half Indian. Further proving my point that half Japanese children are adorable and that I need one.  Enough said.

Today, Monday, is my last day in Sapporo and I spent it finishing last minute errands.  I leave for Tokyo tomorrow and Paris the day after.  I was able to spend a bit of quality time with Sakura.  I went to Momo`s band concert. Luckily I have so much free time to go since the rest of the family was busy.
It`s kind o fhard to tell, but she is the one right above the guy with the weird twisted overalls head. She is playing the flute.  When I waved at her at the end as she walked by with her classmates, she quickly avoided eye contact.  Nailed it.  I considered calling out her name to embarrass her further, but decided against it.  (Just for the record, she wanted me to come.)














Goodbye Mama, Papa, and Sapporo.
Hello Tokyo and Paris!