By myself- Text & Pic Heavy

During my stay in Hikone I went on various small sometimes large trips by myself, although I was told not to by my mother and a close friend of mine, of course I went by myself, how else am I supposed to fully enjoy a safer country than our
own?

This wasn't my first time to Japan and I knew that Japan was much more safe than that of United States, and so I was more bold to travel on my own which turned out to be really fun and gave me time to think about all the random thoughts that float around in my head.
My main locations were:

• Osaka
• Kyoto
• Otsu
• Maibara

All of these places were near by except for Osaka, speaking of Osaka I only went to two places, Shinsaibashi and Yodoyabashi. It's obvious why I went to both of the places in Osaka, one is for shopping and the United States Consulate, two important items/places in my life at that moment. Needless to say there are plenty of shops in Shinsaibashi I think every time I visited I came back with something, mainly clothes. When I return to Japan Shinsaibashi is one of the places I'm going to return to.

Now for Yodoyabashi, I went there strictly for one reason, the U.S Consulate to hopefully speak the two officers I met during the small talk with the embassy and consulate members, did I mention I received a meishi? What's a meishi? Meishi is a Japanese business card and is also received in a specific way; two hands and a bow enough to give them respect. Did I do this when I received it? Yes even though he was American, sometimes I am in auto pilot and I do things
that are 'really' Japanese or awkward. Anyways back to the subject I wanted to speak to them, but the time that I arrived
was after walk-in hours so my trip was cut short. I wanted to speak to him or her and take a glance at the library that they had to help solidify my mindset and boost my desire for my career. That totally didn't happen, but I made it up by going to Shinsaibashi.

In Kyoto, check out the blog post here: Aki in Kyoto 

My trip to Otsu was kind of a side thing and is originally where I wanted to go instead of to Kyoto, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures while in Otsu. What I did in Otsu was mainly walk around I was looking for a specific store but I didn't find it, but I did get a walking tour of the lake side of Otsu.

I may have mentioned it before, but Otsu is the capital of the Shiga prefecture, and it's also where the second (or maybe first campus) of Shiga University is located. Believe it or not I only visited Otsu once, and I'm not entirely sure why I didn't decide to venture back. I suppose when I return to Japan this will be a place I will return to fully explore, it's on the bottom side of Lake Biwa.

Finally Maibara, Maibara is the station before the Hikone station and it is also the station that I arrived and departed from. The trip to Maibara was  more of an accident, there is a hotel bus that goes between the two stations ( Maibara and Hikone) because Maibara has entrances and exits to the Bullet Train so pretty much it's like a main stop. Anyways I hopped on the hotel bus and didn't realize that it was going to Maibara until I was sitting down. The bus driver spoke up (which startled me) and told me the bus was going to Maibara station instead of Hikone station, which I replied that it was fine (when it really wasn't but oh well ). After the short bus ride I was at Maibara station with no clue what to do luckily there was like a small shopping mall nearby that I went to and discovered there was a Daiso inside, pretty much I was in heaven. Daiso is like a fancier 100 yen store, the aisle were larger and they offered more than the 100 yen store at the Hikone station. Pretty much I went shopping and went back home.


Now I did mention that having alone time gave me time to think about the thoughts that flittered through my head, I thought about my desires such as, my career, my level of Japanese and what I was going to do when I returned to America. I am a sixth semester senior at my college it's time for me to graduate, I'm not a medical school student I need to graduate. I need to start living the other part of my life in the real world. The thought of moving out with friends and getting a 'big girl' job was constantly on my mind along with my progress in Japanese. During my time alone I became frustrated, upset and borderline depressed because I felt that I was nowhere near where I felt that I should be. Realizing this made my me slightly physically ill and mentally hurt, though it was painful I knew I had to continue because I didn't have a choice and I had to remember that I got myself this far so I needed to continue no backing out now.

Calming myself down I took pictures of Lake Biwa, I always found myself looking at her beauty and off into the distance. I suppose the mountains are relaxing to someone that has never seen mountains before: