That Spring, The Journey Begins

Hello there :D

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Nadiyah Salsabila Yangcik and I come from Indonesia. I am an exchange student for Spring-Summer term.

So happy that I can take a part on this short term exchange program. :D
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It has been a week since I arrived in here. As a tropical-life person, sometimes I can not bear the weather in here, especially at night. I always wrap my body with blankets and wear jacket everywhere! But I really love being in Hiroshima at Spring. Sakura (or Cherry Blossom) everywhere, giving you a pink view in the middle of green scenery, shower you with its petals.

You are in Sakura's home country :D

Sakura~~

Flowers everywhere :)

Do not forget to taste Hiroshima Okonomiyaki! The nearest one is in front of Kodokan and opens at about 5.30 pm. I went there on the very first time I got in Hiroshima :9 So many layers and toppings, and you can choose what toppings you want to put in your Okonomiyaki. Absolutely Oishii!! :9

Hiroshima Okonomiyaki

Ja, kyo wa koko made desu ne :D 

Food Festival

This Sunday near the Hiroshima Castle there was Food Festival. In the past mostly it was for farmers who were selling their products but now usually restaurants are selling many different kinds of food and of course they are promoting themselves. I ate okonomiyaki which is my favourite Japanese food and Taiyaki which is cookie in shape of fish. It is sweet. I ate with red bean filling. It was very tasty!!

Rice Harvest

Through the local community of Gion we had the chance to participate in a Rice Harvesting session.
It was pretty fun, we had to cut the rice which was in a mud field. Some of us even had mud up to their knees!

　We use a basic sickle for that and of course one of us cut herself a little bit!
Apparently we are still kids playing in mud!　



Then we packed them so it will dry. In 2 weeks we will go back there and separate the rice seeds from the sticks/branchs.

rice harvesting

This Sunday we did rice harvesting!! As you can see in the pictures we worked hard. We cut the rice with a special hook knife. Only one girl cut herself :). And then we tied rice with a string. Unfortunately now we have to wait until rice dries but then we will do rice threshing.

Tea ceremony

All international students took part in a tea ceremony last Sunday. As you can see girls were dressed up in kimonos. Weather was a little bit too hot but we had fans so it wasn't that bad. And of course taste of green tea was worth everything! I think it was unforgettable experience for all of us!

Tea Ceremony

We had the chance to assist to a Tea Ceremony at the Skukkeien Garden (a very nice Japanese style garden). The girls even wore real Kimono.

The Tea Ceremony is very formal and is a moment where you relax and enjoy the Japanese spirit. First some sweet candies are served and then the master of the ceremony prepared the green tea.


Most of us were very impressed by the rituel that this Tea Ceremony is involving but to be honest some of us had real trouble sitting on our knees during the all ceremony (around 1:30).


We will all remember this zen moment for a long period of time!

posting by Laura

Welcome Party

Yesterday night was organised the first real dinner with the Japanese students and some teachers.
The atmosphere was very relax and we had the chance to talk with a lot of different persons. We ate and laughted a lot.



Some of us even went after to a bar "Roxy" downtown with them. It was a lot of fun and our first impression of the japanese night is very good!



posting by Laura