Toba

Will and I recently took at trip to Toba with our one of my senior classes and our awesome secretary and co-teacher, Saori. We stayed in a traditional style Japanese Inn. It was quite the experience. We really enjoyed it.

Here we are at the outer part of Ise Grand Shrine.

Saori, Hiromi, Noriko, Nicole, William and Shigeko

Before we were taken to our rooms we were served matcha and a small dessert. 

Here we are in our traditional Japanese style room. The floor has tatami mats and a great view! We are also wearing a yukata, which is like a robe.

Will felt ridiculous in his yukata, but I loved it!

Will and I enjoyed a private onsen on the 7th floor. It was so beautiful. I wish had my camera to capture the beauty of the full moon shinning down on the bay. After the bath we all met up for dinner. We had own private room.

We ate lobster and some other great Japanese food. 

After dinner we did some karaoke. It was fun. Here's a video of me singing "sakura" (cherry blossoms). It's kind of funny! The video is blurry, sorry! But you can listen, at least

The next morning we woke up and enjoyed our lovely view. Then we had breakfast.

Noriko

Shigeko

After breakfast we went to see some things. This is the famous marriage rock.

We also enjoyed akufuku mochi near the inside part of Ise Grand Shrine. Akufuku is made with red bean paste on the outside and mochi on the inside. Most of these desserts are made with mochi on the outside and red bean on the inside, so these are different.

Mie prefecture is also famous for oysters, so there were many places that served oysters on the side of the street.

Part III- Carbon Market - Cebu City

As I mention at the end of Part I of my post we wandered around Cebu City until we stumbled upon Carbon Market. I think this might have been one of the highlights of our trip. It was so interesting to walk around and see the piles and piles of fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and the list goes on. While we stuck out like soar thumbs, it was nice that no one really bother us or tried to sale of us stuff. Here are some pictures from that area.

Produce

A man actually came up to me with his bucket of squid and fish. he wanted me to take a picture of them. That was pretty cool. I wish I would have taken a picture of him.

Old coconuts, yum!

Animals

Nuns have to eat too

People around the market

The boy in the left corner actually followed us around for a while. He kept looking at Will. It was really cute.

People relaxing in the heat

Part II- Traffic and Transportation

Traffic in the Philippines was crazy. I am never really sure how they get away with driving the way they do. It was exciting and scary! If there is a normal two lane road it becomes like a four lane road. This picture does no justice to the traffic, but you can at least see that no one looks like they are in an organized lane.

There are many ways to get around the Philippines. You can take a taxi, a jeepney or a tricycle. Taxis are pretty cheap, however you've got to make sure you take metered taxis. A lot of times they try to say a flat rate, but you will end up getting ripped off in the end. I hear that is true of a lot of places in the world, but we didn't really know any better. Well, we sure know now!

Taxis and Jeepney

Jeepney- a cheap way to travel. I never took one. We didn't know how.

Tricycles. We did take one the first day we got to Cebu. I am not going to lie I was worried if it could hold our weight. However, the more you travel around the more tricycles you see packed with 4 or 5 Filipinos. I must note that the one we took was hooked up to a small motorcycle and not an actual bicycle. I could never ask/pay some one to pull me around with their own strength, unless it's Will.

I saw some tricycles that didn't carry people, but food. Here's a mobile cake cart.

They look yummy, but what happens if you hit a bump in the road?

I like that there is expensive new pick-up truck next to this yellow tricycle. It's a clash of two worlds!

Coke Truck -oh yeah!

 

I almost forgot about the old fashion horse and buggy!