Greenery Day - midori no hi (緑の日)

My friends had a lot of cool plans for Golden Week. A lot went to Tokyo, some just stayed in the area and did day trips to Nara, Ise, Himeji, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima. People had so many plans but I decided to hang out with my host family. The original plan was to go to Mie ken which is close to Osaka and famous for ninjas. They even had a ninja training castle were you get to learn how to throw knifes, shurikens, shoot arrows, and climb walls. It sounded very awesome but at the last minute my ototo changed his mind. We went to Adventure Park in Shirahama, Wakayama Ken instead.

I saw commercials for this place all the time on TV. I thought it was just an amusement park. Anyways, since Adventure Park was a ways away from Osaka we had to wake up early and drive 4 hours. So it was my okaasan, otousan, ototo, obaachan and I. I passed out at sleep for the majority of the trip. I remember that there was a lot of traffic as we got close.

Honestly, my ototo is an eight year old and I don't know how to interact with him sometimes. There is also a slight language barrier since he speaks full kansai ben. But he is a funny and sweet kid so anyways on the ride he kept falling asleep for me. Later he was sprawled asleep all over the back seat with his feet over my legs. It was really cute. I was also doing my kanji review sheet so once in awhile he would do some kind of reflex and kick me or the paper.

So we finally got to Adventure Park and my word it was truly crowded. So many families...
We had to drive to the second parking lot in order to get in. So guessing from the ticket and statues I guess that it is famous for twin pandas.

This is the first thing you see after walking through the entrance. The buildings on the sides are insanely huge o miyage shops (souvenirs.)

The first thing my ototo wanted to do was do a safari tour.


We rode this train through a 30min path and saw a lot of animals like lions, elephants, giraffes and etc. It would be more awesome if it was more like Jurrasic Park.

After this, the trip when downhill, my ototo became really feverish and sick. Eventually, he had to go to the hospital. So I ended up wandering Adventure Park by myself. I was a bit lonely but I somehow managed to pass the time.

I ate lunch and watch a 15min dolphin show. Not so much fun when you are by yourself. I really enjoyed the view of the stage because in the picture on the left is the ocean and on the right is the airport.


Adventure park turned out to be a zoo/amusement park. Actually, I don't particularly like animals. I have only been in the zoo only once in my life. Here are some random photos took. I didn't ride anything but the safari zoo because every ride had a long wait and it is really boring to go by yourself.

My host family eventually picked me up and we stayed the night at a ryoushin/Japanese style inn. I thought it was quite nice. I forgot to take a picture of the room. My ototo was still very sick and slept the entire time. His parents were very worried and it was kind of sad to see him like that because he is really a super, energetic kid.

While he was asleep, I got to spent some nice time with okaasan and obachan. Obachan is hard of hearing but is a adorably sweet woman. I could talk to her pretty well with okaasan translating random words and concepts that I didn't know how to say in Japanese.

Later that evening, we went to a cape called senjojiki not to far from our inn. It was so funny. My okaasan asked for directions. Once we got outside she asked me if I was good with directions. I said no. My okaasan said she wasn't either. My obaachan said not at all. It seemed pretty hopeless but we saw a sign pointing towards the cape. I forgot my camera at the inn. I'm really mad at myself. It was a beautiful view. The cape was a descending bed rock. A natural wonder. The surface was smooth and beautiful to look at but the sad thing is that many people have written their names in the rock.

Afterwards, we had so-so dinner at the inn, ofuro, then sleep. We left early the next morning because my ototo was not getting any better. Again I passed out asleep in the car. My otousan was pretty much speeding the entire way because we were going a hospital first then he was going to drop me off at home.

That was my first two days of Golden Week. My ototo spent the entire Golden Week passed out sick and asleep. He is now better by the way.