Major Fun at Meiji University

This picture was taken with my friends from Meiji University and we were at the Marunuma Kogen Ski Resort in the Gunma prefecture of Japan. In this picture It wasn’t just my first time going snowboarding but it was also my first time to ever see snow! When my friends proposed the Idea of a ski trip to me, I was hesitant to go. But I saw this as an opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and try something completely new. Excitedly, I agreed to go. The second I hopped out of the tour bus, I ran to the first pile of snow I saw, scooped a ball of snow and chucked it at the first friend who entered my line of sight. And so began my first Snowball fight. I think I experienced every level of snowfall in this one visit alone. Blissful winter at the beginning to raging snow storm at the end. The only thing missing on the list was hail. I had so much fun but I can’t say I went home without any battle scars. I fell roughly 30 times maybe, I’m not sure cause I lost count after the first dozen times. I never gave though and kept at it, I wasn’t cutting through snow like a pro but I slowly wasn’t falling as much. That's a win in my book. This trip made me feel more comfortable and optimistic about trying new things, and I plan to keep that attitude with me for the rest of my life.

My friends and I took a day trip to Yokohama to visit a few museums and look at the sights. Our first order of business was to explore the Chinatown of Yokohama. We just walked around eating various street foods and enjoying the vibrant and colorful atmosphere. There were so many colorful statues and sculptures around every corner. There was a Chinese temple that was extremely beautiful to look at with bright reds and intricate chinese designs. It still amazes me how in the middle of a modern city, one as big as a chinatown no less, could have traditional temples and buildings right in the middle of them. It really is amazing to see the appreciation for traditional culture. We also had our eyes set on the Yokohama cup noodle museum but we happened to stumble upon another museum on the way. Since we had time and were feeling adventurous we decided to explore it. That would be the Hikawa Maru museum ship. It has been a very long time since I’ve been on a museum ship so seeing one again was super cool. There were couches in basically every room of the ship and every couch we saw we sat down on and took a break. In the photo you can see I’ve taken control of the ship and as captain I sailed my crew to safety. This was probably my favorite picture from that day. The command center was full of random relics, even an old telegraph that we could mess with. The cup noodle museum was the final museum on our todo list and it was a pretty interesting experience, you can tell that a lot of activities are aimed towards kids, but not all of them. It was fascinating to see how far cupnoodles go back and how far they’ve come.