Kanazawa Weekend!!!

Woo! So our IES group went to Kanazawa for the weekend and it was really fun! It is a 4 hour bus ride from Nagoya station to Kanazawa. It is basicallty driving across the whole island to the other beach. We stopped a couple times at different rest stops along the way. At Japanese rest stops they have giant lines for the basthroom and most of the toilets are squatty pottys so I wait for the western toilets. There is also a really funny sign that explains how to not use the western toilet. It is in my pictures but basically it shows in pictures to not sit on the toilet backwards to put your feet in the bowl hahaha. Yeah so anywayyy on to Kanazawa.
We stopped at this giant fish market for lunch. I took tons of pictures but had fruit for lunch cuz I dont eat fish! After the fish market we went to a Ninja temple! Well it is called that but no real ninjas lived there. The reason it has that name is because it has secret passages and hidden staircases and stuff! We got a tour around it but weren`t allowed to take pictures inside. Still, it was really cool!!
After that, we went to a gold leaf factory. Everything had gold in it including the sake and ice cream!! They told us that 90% of the gold leaf in Japan comes from Kanazawa. So then we went upstairs and got to make our own silver and gold leaf boxes! I changed my mind like 10 times but finally went with a shape design. We put tape on the box then they put some glue on it and we stuck the gold and silver onto the box. They then put the seal on it and let it dry then pulled the tape off! Some people`s designs were so cool! After that we went to the gift shop
When we first got to the hotel they explained the onsens (hot springs) and told us there were 3. One of them is for girls and guys together and I was like hmmm...no I dont think I want to get naked in front of a whole bunch of guys....so anyway we went to our rooms and I shared a room with Celeste, Paula, Natalia, Nell, and Natalia. We totally got the biggest room! We were like screaming about how awesome it was and most likely freaking out the Japanese people staying there hahaha. We had a bigger room because there were 6 of us!
So anyway we went down to dinner in a huge tatami room and I sat in the vegetarian section! this time they had an awesome tofu and vegetable soup. Anyway we ate a lot. Then we went to the onsen!! Everyone in my room wanted to go to the co-ed one so I was like...hm ok! And changed into my yukata (see picture). When we got there the onsen lady was crazy and kept making sure we knew how to wear the little green towel (we werent actually naked with the guys haha) it was like a snap on towel. I heard from one of the guys that the lady told him he was wearing it wrong so she ripped it off him and he was like WHAT? haha excuse me I`m naked!! So yeah the onsen was REALLY hot but very relaxing. My cheeks turned red tho lol. Afterward we changed and hung out in the guys room and watched Hard Gay which is too weird/funny to describe.
In the morning we had breakfast at 8 in the same room we had dinner in. It was nice and we went in our yukatas because we didnt want to change haha. They are like Japanese pajamas but I wore it over my real pajamas. After breakfast and being locked out of the room for a bit, I bought an omiyage (gift) for my host family then we left at 10am. It took an hour to get back into town because our hotel was up in the mountains (so pretty!) When we got to town we went to a beautiful garden that is one of the best in Japan! i took tons of pictures there too! After the garden we got to make our own okashi sweet candies which was cool! We then took the 4 hour bus ride back and my host mom gave me some a noodle soup for dinner and more okashi for dessert!!!
Check out all the pictures HERE!