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Free Ibaraki Prefecture Tour for Tsukuba University Foreign Students

Posted on 14. Aug, 2006 by dimaks in Life

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At 6:30am of the 13th of May, 2006, yours truly together with other foreign students (old and new) gathered at the back of the International Student Center (ISC) of the University of Tsukuba, with the grand excitement of taking the tour around the Ibaraki prefecture of Japan. My first ever tour that is quiet far away from my university since I arrived in Japan.

Foreign students consist of different nationals from Asian countries, as well as central America. About 30 students, plus 4 Japanese language teachers, along with the Joyo bank volunteers joined the tour. The volunteers were actually employees of Joyo bank. The students were a bit surprised what the bank employees are doing in our trip while it is meant for Japanese language students alone. Later we learned that the bank sponsored our ryoko (travel). Wow! so it was bank-funded, inclusive of our meals along the way.

There was a Japanese lady employee who stood by the driver’s side, assigned to do the explaning and telling of short stories of the places we pass by. Well, I must confess that all along our stay inside the bus, a tough thing happened. We had to scour the few Japanese vocabularies and grammars in our heads to really understand what the lady in front of us is saying. Because we barely had a month of Japanese language studies and we seemingly got the test of listening to a full Japanese language explanation of the places come by. So then our popular replies were “Aa, so desu ka” (ah, is that so?) and “Hai, wakarimashita” (Yes, I understood), though those were not really true in a sense. Poor ryugakusei (foreign student). Anyway, enough of the language torture.

Our first stop was at a place named Soba-Uchi, which means, house of Soba. Soba is Japanese buckwheat noodles served in a soy-flavored or sometimes clear broth made from fish and seaweed stock. It was raining when we arrived at the place, so the thought of having a lunch with those noodles was as exciting as the trip. Yes, there were rounds of riots inside my stomach. The fun was all the more heightened (craving and hunger forcefully suspended) when we were asked to make our own noodles for lunch. Good thing they also prepared vegetable tempura while we were patiently cutting the mashed buckwheat by ourselves. After about 40 minutes of struggling with the buckwheat, we finally got our noodles cooked by the Soba-uchi cooks, then a very hearty meal followed.

Came 2 O’clock and the group decided to move on to the next destination. This time to Kami No Sato in Hitachi-Omiya Shi, Ibaraki. It is a place where the famous (Washi) traditional Japanese paper is being made. We saw how proficient the washi master is when he demonstrated to us the process of making the paper. It looked interesting but then, we did not have the chance to try it by ourselves. Across the paper-making house is one nice store featuring various products made from Japanese traditional paper. You name it, they have it. From wall decors to tiny little things like stationery and paper bags, they have them in abundant supply. Good buy but my wallet did not cooperate.

Our last destination was the Fukuroda falls. Right at the car park, about 3 minutes walk away from the booth where you buy entrance ticket, you can see quiet a number of souvenir shops and restaurants.

For us to get the sight of the falls, we needed to walk through a tunnel. The view was great. The sound of the splashing waters falling on the big rocks sounded like music to me that I almost sat down and take time to relax. But i was afraid that time was not that ample for me to satisfy my thoughts.

After the short-lived 40 minutes of enjoying the view and ambiance of the falls, we were finally called to prepare for the journey back home. It was already past 4pm. It was raining still.

While on the bus, we enjoyed the on-board karaoke. The Joyo bank lady was kind enough to sing for us a Japanese song. After that, the language torture was on again. Since we used a little bit different route on the way home, the lady had to stand by the driver’s side again and speak about the places we pass by. About 7 O’clock, we finally arrived at the Tsukuba University and the rest was a long night sleep.

Tags: fukuroda falls, Ibaraki, ibaraki tour, rice noodles, soba, soba uchi