New Kinjo Gakuin Students- Orientation, Bowling, and Sakae

This is all from a few weeks ago, and I still have a few more posts lined up!  I'm also working on a post with names and information along with pictures I've taken of flowers in Nagoya, mostly because I love flowers and am curious as to what they are =]

First up is the bowling party! I failed super hard at bowling last time around, but this time I got 2nd place out of everyone!

Some of the new peeps and old peeps =]

And group pictures!

These are from one night when we all went to dinner together at ガスト (Gasto's I guess? Katakana is sometimes the hardest alphabet to figure out)

Possibly the night we took Chloe (fellow English speaker!) and claimed her as our own XD

This semester's welcome party! I did better than last semester where I barely talked to anyone...

Some adventures showing new people around Sakae. (These 2 pix borrowed from Panpan-chan!)

Oasis 21 at night.

Teehee, funny bad English XD

I'm just doing better at everything this semester. Bowling, making and hanging out with friends, being social, and even a little less nervous speaking Japanese to people!

Nagoya Port 2nd Time: Dog Petting and Ferris Wheel

This was actually a few weeks ago. We wanted to go to the aquarium, but it was about to close.  I found out that apparently there is also a wildflower garden at Nagoya Port, so I might go there soon.

There's a little dog petting place, sort of like a cat cafe without the cafe and more outdoorsish.  I didn't get any pictures of the outside area though.  

Little hand washing area  for when you're done.

And here are the doggies! They have 2 separate areas for big dogs and small dogs.

Here's some more ferris wheel views!

My nickname has become Pixi because Gretchen is too complicated XD

 Penguin light!

Spring Sakura (and other flowers too)

Did you know that Aichi (the prefecture that I live in) is the number one flower prefecture in Japan? I learned that in my ikebana (flower arranging) class =] One thing that I really like about Japan is how much people appreciate nature's beauty. There are festivals dedicated to and crowds of people who go to parks during the seasons to see cherry blossoms, fall leaves, and even snow!

In the spring, one of the things you can find everywhere here are sakura flavored foods! I tried everything that I could get my hands on.

Try not to be too jealous, but this is where I go to school <3

And this is the street I live on

You know how in Japanese movies and animes, there's always those magical scenes with cherry blossoms falling in the wind, covering the ground like snow, and floating in streams? Yeah, it's really like that.  And they make the air smell slightly like cherries and vanilla!  One awesome thing about living in Japan is that places you see in animes and the background sounds, resemble places and things you actually see and hear here.

These next few pictures are all super nearby, and within 15 minute walking distance of where I live.

There are so many flowers, and this is only a tiny fraction of the pictures I took! I'll put some more in my upcoming post about pretty places all a short distance away from where I live. I'm trying to make my blog helpful for future Kinjo study abroad students, because I wasn't able to find that much info before I came!

These are from a really pretty river about a 5 minute walk from Mizuho Undojo Nishi station (瑞穂運動場西駅) (also near Mizuho Undojo Higashi station 瑞穂運動場東駅)