My Trip to America

In August I spent about three weeks in the US. It was nice to go back there for a little while. The flight to the US wasn't bad at all. I can't sleep on planes but I usually try and then get restless because I want to sleep but can't. This time I just knew I wasn't going to sleep and didn't really try, but then I ended up sleeping a bit. Probably only for a few minutes at a time though.  

We had a layover in Atlanta. We ate lunch or dinner or whatever you eat after being up for so long. We ate breakfast and lunch before the flight from Narita and two meals on the plane so who knows, lol. Anyways, we got food from Qdoba. When the woman working there asked if I wanted salsa I answered "hai" which is "yes" in Japanese. Oops, haha. I quickly corrected myself though.

We had a pretty view of the sunset as we landed in Lexington.
I went to Owensboro for a couple days and then went back to Lexington to run the Midsummer Night's Run with Jonathan.

I didn't run my best time, but it was my best time in a race, so that was good!

The next day I headed to Danville to spend a few days with my best friend Lauren. We went shopping, out to eat, played in the arcade at Gatti Town (haha!), and hung out at her house. One day we went to Shakespeare and Company in downtown Lexington.

There are several Shakespeare and Company locations in the middle east, but there are only two locations in the US and both are in Lexington!

It was soooo cute! I would totally dress up in lolita clothing and eat here if it was in Japan. Actually, I would totally do that in the US but maybe only around Halloween.

It wasn't busy inside (they also have outdoor seating) so we had a choice of sitting at a table or on couches. We chose couches!

 
Even the bathroom was fancy!

I had a salad which was really good. For dessert we both got chocolate crepes. I also got bananas in mine. So tasty!

The checks were brought out in these holders. 

It was a really fun experience and the prices weren't any more expensive than a normal restaurant so that was nice. I definitely recommend it! When I go back to the US in the spring I want to try the other location.

After fun with Lauren I went back to Jonathan's house. We went to Kings Island with his brother and his brother's girlfriend.

Jonathan really loved the Scrambler so we rode that like three or four times, lol.

There was a new roller coaster called Banshee and it was awesome! But the most awesome ride of the day was when we rode The Beast at night in the very front car. The Beast is the longest wooden roller coaster in the world and goes through the woods. It goes through several tunnels, too. It's amazing! If you go to King's Island I recommend riding The Beast at night. The extra wait to get the very front car is also definitely worth it.

Then I went back to Owensboro and stayed there about a week. I spent time relaxing and reading manga, looking through old stuff I wrote as a kid, making resin crafts, and eating delicious food including Derby Pie that my mom made. 

Later in the week Jonathan came to Owensboro. I made hummus pizza which we both really really love. I've never seen hummus in Japan so I ate a lot of hummus when I was in America.

One evening we went to El Toribio, a Mexican restaurant in downtown Owensboro, with my family. I ate Mexican food at least four times during those three weeks. Mexican food is hard, but not impossible, to find in Japan.



After dinner Jonathan and I spent some time at the riverfront park. It was Friday night and very lively.

 

I saw the new convention center which was pretty impressive.

I went to the mall in Owensboro but only went into Bath and Body Works. There aren't many stores there that interest me. The mall isn't very good. :( Especially compared to what I'm used to now.

Towards the very end of my trip my cousin came to visit. We ate pizza, played Apples to Apples, and watched an awesome storm. I was excited to see a good storm. The lightning was pretty crazy and was like a strobe light at times. Some of the lightning hit very close and one time it even set off my cousin's car alarm.

Jonathan and I were given tickets for the Kentucky State Fair. I hadn't been since I was a kid and Jonathan had never been.

Most things weren't that interesting, but those little ducks were soooo cute! 

Sloppy Joes on doughnuts?!?!?!! EWWWWW.

Too much fried stuff. Gross, but more for how bad it would make me feel and not the taste.
This stuff probably tastes much better than a Sloppy Joe doughnut sandwich.

Some of the awards are weird. They're not very interesting, but their existence is kind of amusing. I didn't know that you could win awards for hay bales.

Then we went back to Jonathan's house. The next day was our last day in the US. Luckily my stuff was pretty much packed up so I didn't have to spend much time on that. I brought a lot of stuff to the US and left quite a bit of it there, so I had plenty of room in my luggage. I filled it up with a lot of cereal. There's not much variety in Japan and it's one of the foods I miss the most.
 

I took that picture as we flew out of Lexington. The scenery was very pretty!

Our layover was in Detroit. I thought I had been there before, but I hadn't. It was actually cool! We went on a moving sidewalk through a tunnel with lights that changed.

There was a cool fountain. The streams of water were so clear and perfect that they looked like glass!

The train through the airport was also cool! We rode it a couple times just because we wanted to.

The flight back was ok, though I did get a bit more restless than the previous flight. But overall it wasn't bad. The bad part was that after the long flight we still had a couple trains to take to get back to Hamamatsu.

I had a fun time in the US and did quite a few things, but I'm also glad to be back in Japan. I have some fun things coming up including a trip to Tokyo, a trip to Kyoto and Osaka, Jubilo 10k, and hopefully a Big Bang concert. General tickets don't go on sale until mid October so hopefully I can get one!