Ieshima Island BBQ

On Saturday, September 22nd, Katie went with some friends to an island called Ieshima, about a 45 minute ferry ride away from Himeji, for a Japanese -style BBQ, swimming, and canoing!

When we went swimming, the water was the perfect temperature and you could see your feet and little fish swimming at the bottom. The canoing was fun, but not very "exciting". We tried to leave the little bay area, and we were out for about 5 minutes when a speed boat came up to us, and a Japanese man told us, very sternly, to return to the designated canoing area! (Of course that was all in Japanese).

The food for the BBQ was delicious! Our Japanese friends spoiled us,and cooked SOOO much food! It was all delicious! The island was beautiful! And the company kept was even better! It was a great day!

Beer Gardens and Karaoke!

After being in Japan for less than two weeks, we went to a Beer Garden on top of the Egret Center in Downtown Himeji. The food and beer were great, and the view of the Himeji Castle was even better!

After the beer gardens, we all biked over to a Karaoke place and rented a room for two hours!!! Katie was in heaven!! We hadn't been in the room for five minutes, and already there was a 20 minute wait to sing! It was amazing how many people love to get up on stage and sing!

Grape Tasting!

Today, Joe and I went with some friends to a Grape Vineyard about 1.5 hours away from Himeji! Our new Japanese friend, Maya, drove me, Joe, Taube, and Valerie to this beautiful site, where we ate endless grapes for only 9 yen a person (about $8.00 each). These grapes are huge, and are the sweetest tasting grape we have ever eaten! They were amazing. Also, they are about 30,000 yen per batch in the Japanese grocery stores! They are absolutely delicious!! Here are the pictures of our day!