I might've hyped up today from yesterday's post.
It wasn't that exciting (well for me it was kind of).
Today was our manga class.
Nothing really super exciting happened, we just learned about manga.
All of the adventuring began after class.
Remember the post I made about when I went to Washinomiya and Satte for Lucky Star?
Today was kind of like that.
Nathan told me yesterday about this place an hour and a half away.
It was part of the basis of the setting for Clannad.
Down before he could even drop the question.
So after class, I went back to the hotel and got some stuff and met back with Nathan, Eric, and Maaike.
We got some ramen at the ramen place before we went off.
Eric picked up a soda with a flavor called Salty Watermelon.
It actually tasted like I bit into a watermelon and sprinkled salt in my mouth.
No wonder this didn't catch on in the US.
Traveling was tedious, but I don't really think I noticed too much.
This was also the first time I found myself asleep on a subway car, similar to most of the Japanese people here.
After an hour and a half-ish of traveling on subways and switching lines, we ended up in Mizuho, the city that Clannad drew inspiration from.
Now, I said that it wasn't as exciting because the locations of Clannad aren't as iconic, as the story is emphasized more. Even so, walking through this town really made me feel like I was in the story of Clannad.
Nathan was pretty much leading the way, since he did his research on this place.
Before long, we came upon THE hill.
Walking up to it was no problem.
The problem lied in the decision to climb it.
There were two ways up.
One was a giant staircase and the other was a winding slant up the hill.
I know when I saw this, I didn't recognize it from the anime.
But it was actually there!
For those of you that watched the series you may remember the giant hill that they have to walk on to get to school.
We found it.
No sakura, though...
And here it is again from the top.
On the way up we found a small park looking thing with a pond.
It was pretty cool.
We found a tunnel with a SHITLOAD of stairs at the end.
Nathan and I weren't down to climb those stairs so we went back to climb the hill while Eric and Maaike took the stairs.
So Nathan and I went up the hill.
We found a school, while not THE school in Clannad, it was in the same position.
Also, in good taste, Nathan brought a pack of dango.
So we could play Dango Daikazoku.
The view from the top of the hill was nice.
At this point, Nathan and I were kind of worried because we had no idea where Maaike and Eric went.
So we went all around the top of the hill to find them.
Meanwhile, I found this little monument.
I don't know if you can tell but you can kind of see this monument in the background of this screenshot...
Eventually, we found them though and we walked back down together.
There was another place in Mizuho that was a part of Clannad, and Nathan was leading us to it.
We passed by this sick shrine on the way.
We were nearing a park that was a pretty recognizable part, while still not super iconic.
Before we got there I took a quick shot of this small river.
Finally we got to the park.
Nathan had to point the locations out to me because I couldn't recall them from my memory.
Nathan even brought a Clannad artbook with him so we could see the places that we were at in the anime.
Here they are a little bigger:
That was pretty much all that Mizuho had to offer us.
The other locations that Clannad used were super far away and it was getting dark so we decided to head back.
While we were waiting for the train, I picked up some ice cream in a packet called Coolish.
It reminded me of "Coolish Walk" (Working'!! OP)
Surprisingly, it was really good. So good that I got another.
We stopped by Nakano on the way back.
I wanted to buy some stuff for people back home.
Unfortunately, everything was closed pretty much.
No joke.
I was pissed.
Thankfully the arcades were open, so in order to not make a waste of a stop, we played in the arcade for a little.
I played Taiko with Nathan.
It's actually really fun when you have the giant drum in front of you, and not the DS or whatever else you usually use to play taiko.
I played twice while Eric and Maaike were fishing for candy in the claw machines.
To finish the adventure off, we stopped for tempura, something that I haven't had yet since I've been here (the bowl, not the sushi).
Since tomorrow was our day trip (and possibly an alcohol outing with Professor Hall later), I decided to finish up my project today.
I took the remaining pictures of the convenience store.
Here they are, just for shits.
So like I said before, tomorrow is our last day trip.
It's to Kamakura.
It's also very likely that this is the last time that we can see Kengo and Miyu.
This makes me very sad, so I'll have to make the very best of tomorrow and become super friends with them.
Mission Start!
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