Japan: Honshu: Chūgoku: Okayama-ken: Okayama

GoodnightGirl
Ottawa

Worth visiting!

How this place changed my life

For years I had wanted to travel to Japan, and last summer through an exchange program I was placed in Okayama, a city I had not heard of until then.

When I got there…it was fabulous! Everything from the Joypolis arcade (Oh God the photobooths, that was fantastic!) to Okayama castle; from a previous imperial garden to a pedestrian shopping mall; zebra print karaoke and a Gothic Lolita store in Vivre; it was all amazing!

If you can, I recommend being there for the celebration of Tanabata~! A fabulous story, wonderful event to witness. Make a wish on the seventh day of the seventh month and pray it doesn’t rain; you should wish to visit this place!

I miss it all the time and desperately want to return.

Comments:

ixly_one
Boulder

Okayama Nakama?

I was just Googling “Okayama” for the fun of it when I saw mention of “zebra-print karaoke”, and felt compelled to click. You see, I myself have been in that same karaoke box. As a matter of fact, I’m fairly positive we knew each other in Okayama! I don’t want to give any names out on the interweb, but you, me, and our friend from New York used to run up and down the pedestrian mall trying to buy ourselves lunch and comics after class. I still have all of the photo-stickers we took tucked away somewhere. Do you still have all the video you filmed over there?

GoodnightGirl
Ottawa

Wow o_o

Just by fluke I was checking my old email account, and I found this reply…

I have allll my footage still, it was so long ago though… I loved the pedestrian mall, and all those cranes strung from the ceiling?

The photos we took are in my wallet, the checkered one from Village Vanguard, where they have been since that summer…I take them out sometimes to remember a good summer.

I don’t know if you’ll get this, but I kind of hope you will.

ixly_one
Boulder

Holy Gaijin, Batman! O_O

I’d almost forgotten about the cranes! There must have been thousands of them all strung up like that… I’m sure I have all of my Okayama pictures tucked away on a memory card somewhere, but I’ve moved twice since then and I have no idea where they are now. I wish I knew where my purikura photo stickers are… they used to be on my keychain.

WOW. Lots of memories of crepes and gaming centers (and Engrish and castles and CABs and snooty Russian girls and ramen shops and being stared at and dressing up like geisha and samurai) are flooding back to me.

... holy COW. It’s been, what? Over two years? It’s amazing to hear from you again.

GoodnightGirl
Ottawa

xD R a w r to reunions.

HAH, omg, JOYPOLIS and the giant sonic?! XD :D Good times, good times.

and cheap ramen. I couldn’t eat “ramen” here for a full year.

snort the Russian girls… gawd xD

OH. OH. And .. eww, what was it, Yaki niku? gag

All the memories >.> They’re overwhelming XD I packed up all my souvenirs because I missed it so much _;;

It’s awesome to hear from you again toooo!! It made my week :D

ixly_one
Boulder

I will forever and ever miss Purikura. I want at least four different kinds of crazy Japanese photobooths in my home. Granted, I wouldn’t have room to walk, but it’d be worth it.
No, you know? Scratch that. I want to live at Joypolis.

I can only eat one brand and one flavor of “ramen” now, and it’s imported from Taiwan, I think.

Ahh, how can we ever forget the Russian Girls? Do you remember that one girl who used to show up in those completely over-the-top posh outfits with the HUUUGE foofy hats? Silly girl tried wearing high heels for the first four days before she realized she was actually going to have to walk places. XD

OH GAWDS that horrible… I don’t even think it was yaki niku, I think it was deep-fried-greasy-skewered niku. Well, whatever awful place the school “treated” us to dinner at. I gag just thinking about it. My family took me out for real yaki niku my last day there, and that was unbelievably tasty.

Is there a way to private-message on this website? It’d be great to actually e-mail each other directly. xD;;

Rararara xD - GoodnightGirl

Add a comment