Nagaoka trip

((i wrote this one just night after having the trip but couldn't manage to publish it until now ;;;))

it was raining hard at 4 am in the morning. i went to breakfast without having any exact plan to do in that day, while most of the others already planned either to go sightseeing Tokyo, go around Nagaoka with their labmates, etc. luckily I met my two Malaysian friends, Lim and Yani, and we agreed to go sightseeing Nagaoka together! it was actually quite hard to stroll around the city with only public transportation, because it did not cover most of the tourism places. better to go with car or taxi. well, no car here though so we just planned to go around Nagaoka Station, to some places in only walking distance. 

our first destination was Tsuginosuke Kawai Memorial Museum. there, we were told about some recommended places to go around. knowing that we couldn't read or understand any Japanese brochure, the officer then came with three copied English brochure in his hand! he also said that he used to work in one Japan company in Jakarta. then, with only map and brochure  (sadly not any of us having internet connection in our handphone), we were ready to explore Nagaoka. thank you very much sir!

we went to Yamamoto Isoroku Memorial Park, where lied a very old house surrounded with trees, fountain, statue, and garden. we did the Dzuhur prayer inside this house then moved to Saifukuji Temple and Peace Forest Park. we were also walk through some conjunctions and met Hiragata Shrine. 

well, it was basically some Temples, Shrines, and Museums we could reach here by foot. so this was kinda like.. a historical yet traditional style of Nagaoka trip? and it was actually sort of fun! very 'Japanese', wk. along the way, we also bump on some interesting moments like having a nice short chat with a kind and cheerful 66-years-old Japanese man, observing cicadas, ducks, strooling around the river, passing some beautiful Japanese-style houses.. sometimes, travel by foot is the best choice because we might have chances to see and experience more things. 

lastly we visited Kioku Mirai (Nagaoka Earthquake Disaster Archive Center), and enjoyed most of the times to walk around, sit (and sleep...), and tried to read katakana and hiragana in children book. guess I have to learn more, because it took almost 15-20 minutes to figure out all the letters and meaning of every sentences. in only 2 pages. with a big picture. :") such and amateur.

we also performed Ashar prayer in Kioku Mirai too.

on the way home, me and Yani accidentaly found this Japanese restaurant which sell Japanese food (ofc) like udon, soup, and okonomiyaki. the thing was they said that lot of Muslim already visited this place. the owner were already fully understand that we didn't eat any meat (except seafood), consume sake, or mirin. thus we ordered a big portion of seafood okonomiyaki for two person. thought first that we wouldn't make the pan empty, but yea we were actually hungry enough that we finished this big dish in almost no time. first time having the real okonomiyaki too, yay! 

that's all for today. see u!