Hiking and Japanese cooking event

Hello, late update again... I actually don´t have so much time to write, but today is my free day so I will try to write a post before I´m heading into Osaka to go to an animal café with some friends. I have had a lot of tests, and all of them went well. In Sweden, we have either a B-AB system or a G-VG system. But here they follow the American grading system which if an F-A+ system. To get the highest grade, you need to get 93% or higher by the end of the semester. So far, I´m at this level in all my classes, but we will see... There´s still a lot of tests left and honestly, I don´t want the studying to be the only thing I do when I´m in Japan😐 Anyhow, enough about school, and more about what I did last weekend.

On Friday evening I got invited by a friend from Hong Kong if I wanted to come with her the day after and hike. I don´t remember the name of the place but it was beautiful, and it only took 15 by train from our town. although after the train, we had to walk for about 40 min 😋 We went over a bridge, gosh, the view was amazing! One funny thing I noticed is in Japan you "hike with style". While I was coming in sneakers and training clothes, a lot of the Japanese girls were instead wearing high heels, dresses, or skirts. 

We ended up hiking the whole afternoon before we headed back to Hirakata. Back in Hirakata, we ate dinner and dessert. I´m posting a picture of the dessert below, it´s a Taiwanese dessert, it looks a little bit weird but it´s super delicious. 

On Sunday some friends and I had signed up for a cooking event that was arranged for us international students by an organization who was called Katano International Friendship Association. It was really fun. We were around 30 international students and around 30 Japanese people. It was both local families with kids and elderly people who were involved in the association. We got to make Okonomiyaki ( link ), Yakitorispet, and Sushi. There was also a cameraman there that was doing reportage for a local TV-channel, and at the end of the day three international students were picked out to go to a room and be interviewed, and I was one of them...😆 Don´t know if all three of our interviews will be on TV or if they will pick the best one (which will not be me in that case). I will come with updates about that one😉

Now I have to study before I´m getting ready to head into Osaka. Enjoy the pictures below and mata ne ~

Picture taken by Wincy (Hong Kong), she is a really good photograph :3

The bridge we went over, beautiful right? I might go back in when the leaves has turned red and yellow, think it will be beautiful in the fall.

The crows here in Japan are huge, I would say that this one was in my cats´ size (Bjässen)

Cute dog :3

The dessert, link here, it´s much more oishii than it looks like.

Some of us exchange students (and yes the blond guy in the back is Swedish)

Okonomiyaki 

Cute Japanese girl

Jaehee, my friend from South Korea

The guy beside me was one of the people who did the interview. His Japanese though is at a much higher level than mine.

My homemade sushi <3

All of us who attended the cooking event