Hikone Castle!

Before I talk about my trip to Hikone Castle on Sunday, I'll recap my weekend. Friday night, we kind of stayed in the dorms, had some drinks, hung out, and just enjoyed each other's company a bit more. Pretty chill night--not particularly crazy or anything, just getting to know each other a little more.

Saturday I wanted to sleep in (I hadn't really gotten the chance to do so all week with classes, orientation, and jetlag), but it wasn't really all that successful. I think I managed to get to like 9am before I couldn't sleep anymore. I woke up, sat around for a while, studied a bit, and then wasted more time until we headed out for the party at Shiga Daigaku that we got invited to.

The party was definitely fun. I met a lot of local Japanese college students and chatted with them, got to see what their parties are like, etc. Afterward, everyone went out with them to do karaoke and drink more, but I wasn't really in the mood to get crazy so I opted to go back to JCMU, so I hung out with this guy Christian and we watched all the drunk people make their way back as the night went on. Then I hung out with two guys, Ahn and Tom, whose Japanese is better than mine and practiced/listened to them. It was nice.

Sunday, I went to Hikone Castle (彦根城) with Heather, Jackie, and Kailey. It was really, really beautiful and interesting... I'm gonna go ahead and let the pictures speak for themselves.






In the castle area there was also a garden and plum orchard, which were fantastic as well.




まったね！