Tokyo Adventures Part 1!

So arriving in Tokyo was like arriving in Japan all over again. What a completely different place! The people are less friendly and less fashionable, there are homeless people everywhere, even the atmosphere is stressed with overworked salary men. We arrived at a painful 6am, with luggage in tow, in the middle of Shinjuku, one of the busiest hubs in the world. The station itself is massive, with an underground map that looks like a bowl of spaghetti. I met up with my two friends who had elected to take a more comfortable bus than I was willing to pay for and we set off to figure out where to start.

Tokyo Subway Map o_O

Shibuya, Tokyo

So where do we go at 6:30am on a Monday morning in the middle of Tokyo? One of the only places open: McDonalds. Tokyo wakes up surprisingly late for how international it is. Normally back home people are out and about by 6:30-7 and it’s getting on to rush hour by that time. But it was dead here. Nothing open, nothing to explore. So after eating we went to visit some sites that didn’t require being open to see. We set off to see Hachiko, a statue of the most famous dog in Japan that’s located in Shibuya but we discovered that we could get an all day JR pass for 730 yen and we just couldn't pass it up. So since it was free to go everywhere in the Tokyo area, we decided to stop by Harajuku first because it was on the way. Harajuku is known as a fashion spot of Tokyo. Not for it’s high model fashion, but for its unique street fashion. It’s the known hang out spot for the crazy Japanese people dressed in cosplay and hair 3 times the normal size. It’s known to have an active nightlife because of these frequent goers. However, seeing as how it was still 7 in the morning, nothing was open. We did have a good look around though, and the stores are gigantic, 10x the scale of American ones! After getting lost several times on our way back to the station, we decided to come back to it later.

We continued on to Shibuya from there, the fashion district of Tokyo, which is one of the largest fashion capitals in the world. Our train was delayed though. A Japanese person had committed suicide on the tracks. Talk about shock. I had heard that Tokyo has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, but to have it happen in the first two hours of being in the city? On our line? Either it was a really big coincidence, or this is so frequent that we just experienced a regular occurrence. After you realize how frequent suicides are in Tokyo, the preventions Japan takes to preventing them seem more noticeable. I didn’t really pay any mind at first, but then I started noticing the walls put up around the tracks in almost every station that close and open with the train doors, the “happy bird” replica that plays at the station to give a less city like atmosphere, even the music that plays to announce the train coming is supposed to be an “uplifting” noise to get your mind off of depressing thoughts (though I found it quite annoying actually). It’s really crazy to know they need to put so much effort in just to decrease the statistics.

When we finally got to Shibuya, it was about time that the shops were opening up anyway so it was perfect timing. One of the first things we did was take the epic walk across the famous crosswalks. It’s one of the busiest crosswalks in the world, sporting five crosswalks connecting a four way street. Being in the middle of one of Tokyo’s busiest districts, when the walking man turns green, it’s like a swarm of people mashing together from all directions. Then I got a white mocha from the Starbucks that is located across from it. It’s always advertised in the background when showing this famous scene so I had to get something hehe.

I took this from the top of said Starbucks. Watch the madness unfold ;)

From this point on, we discovered the amazing stores that the Shibuya district houses. We spent a good two hours in Forever 21. But this was not like the dinky, one room Forever 21’s that you see in the States. There were no racks packed together, or articles of clothing and jewelry messily strewn about. This was Japan run, five floors of amazingly cute, cheap, women’s clothing, with a sixth floor just for accessories. We were taken hostage haha. After making it out of there, our wallets considerably lighter, we shopped around a bit more; hit H&M and such. We also got a free “3D” picture done outside of Shibuya 109 where we looked like we were on a tight rope over an ice glacier type thing, which was pretty cool. We then went in search of something to eat. Shopping is hungry work! So we went to look for something good but affordable, where we could sit down and rest after shopping/traveling all day on 2-3 hours of sleep. So what better place than MOS Burger? Lol The Japanese burger place that is second most popular in Japan, lagging behind only McDonalds in sales. I found out later that MOS burger stands for Mountain, Ocean, and Sun. We originally thought it was because it was saying that it served things from all those places; “everything under the sun” type deal; but it really only sells burgers, so the name is a bit of a mystery. The name used to be MOST delicious burger, but the T somehow got dropped, probably due to Japanese pronunciation. I actually prefer it over McDonalds. The typical burger is like, a beef patty, plus a sloppy-joe type substance, with a tomato and mayonnaise (the Japanese put Mayo on everything).

When we left to finally visit Hachiko, two Japanese people stopped us right before the crosswalks. They started talking to us in Japanese and asking us where we were from and held up this paper bag and asked us if we had ever heard of it. We told them where we had come from and no, we had never heard of this “fukubukuro.” They told us that near the New Year, Japanese stores start carrying these paper bags that can have really cool things in it, even a couple of hundred dollars. They asked us if our countries did this during the New Year and what we thought of it and then they were like, could we borrow you for a few minutes? And they started pulling out this video camera. And we were like, “ummm…” *thinking of our 2 hours of sleep and increased exhaustion from shopping* “suuure, I guess?” So we got interviewed on film about the fukubukuro and it will be broadcast on Japanese TV on the 5^th of January at 7:20am. It was pretty exciting! We even got free hugs from these Japanese people who were giving them out. And when we asked them why they were giving out free hugs, they replied that they just wanted to connect with foreigners and Japanese people alike.

Free Hugs! Isn't it adorable?

Okay, I'm going to put a break here in the Tokyo Adventures. Stay tuned for part 2!   \(^-^)/

Word of the Day: 電鉄、でんてつ。Dentetsu, literally Electric Railway. This is the kind of train I ride at home, which is different from a subway (Chikatetsu) or the JR line (Japanese Railway). The JR is the line that spreads across all of Japan. If you visit Japan for 30 days or under you can get a JR pass that goes all over Japan for just 200 dollars!

それではまた次回！

Surgery, Kouyou, and Ikebana!

Two Sundays ago, I went with my host family to my host sister’s field hockey match. Even though I couldn't understand the penalty calls I think the rules were basically the same as they always are, though I am a novice when it comes to sports. I did, however, manage to get some really great action shots of her playing! Afterwards, we went shopping with Rie (my other host sister) and my host mom in Sannomiya and ate lunch at a really good Italian place (I had tomato pasta that was really good!). Then we did some shopping around for clothes and I have succeeded in going one step closer to becoming Japanese! ;)

That Monday, I had the morning off, so I went to the hospital to have the bump on my face checked out. It’s been developing for a couple of months and it didn’t seem to be going away so I thought it best to make a plan to get it removed. It turns out that Japanese hospitals are amazing! I was registered as a new patient, saw the doctor, made an appointment for the procedure, and had a blood test done, all under 2 hours! The hospital was much better run than American ones. Everything was in order. Every desk gives you a waiting number slip and the consultations are quick and effective.

I helped my mom with her students again that week. We played a game with cards that had the past, present, and future forms of verbs on each of them. They all have a suit on them as well: clover means you take the pile, triangle means nothing changes, heart means you have to put all your cards down, and the last one means you can ask anyone in the game for 5 of their cards. I won! It was really fun. ^^

I skipped out on my Friday afternoon classes to go to the hospital with my host mom and have the surgery done. It was kind of a surreal experience. There were no less than FIVE doctors operating on me. And they started before schedule, which would never happen in America. They numbed my face, which felt like someone was cutting my face open but afterwards all I saw was bright light as I listened to this weird, depressing music that they put on in the background. It was something like titanic mixed with some other tragic defeat of a hero or something. It almost felt like I was dying lol. But it was quick and done in 30 minutes. The Japanese doctors were surprised that I could speak Japanese (as all Japanese people always are even if you can only say hello), so it was fun to listen to them talk even if I didn’t understand the medical jargon.

I caught this really graceful crane!

The following Sunday, me and three other ryuugakusei were taken to Kyoto by the Japanese friends we made a couple of weeks ago; the ones we had a sort of get together with that was originally only E class members but my teacher invited me to. We went to go see the changing colors of the fall leaves, (kouyou) which is amazing because Kobe and Kyoto are surrounded by mountains. So you can see different colored trees pan out across the scenery. It was truly beautiful. But there were SO many people! The streets were overwhelmingly crowded - just a sea of human heads. Everyone had come to see the turning of the leaves. While we were there we also went boating on the lake! It was really fun. We split up into twos and threes and took a boat. I was actually pretty good at it having done kayaking and row boating before so I was teaching my friend how to turn, go backwards, forwards, etc. We walked around a lot after that looking for shrines that we could go into but it was getting to like 430 and most of them were closing. But we had a nice scenic walk! After that I was thinking of going home early because I had a test the next day but light up night was starting soon so I decided to stay. They talked me in it! They even paid for me because I had run clean out of money. But I’m glad I stayed because it was so pretty! We paid to enter this walled off area that had a bunch of trees with lights underneath them that just lit them up spectacularly.

The Red Momiji (Maple Leaves)

They even had Take! (Bamboo)

Tuesday was such a great day! Tuesdays are usually awesome anyway because we have a short Japanese day and no afternoon classes. Tuesday’s also the day that we usually watch a Ghibli film (Miyazaki films are referred to as “Ghibli” here) so it just makes it all the better.  We’re currently watching “mimi o sumaseba” or Whisper of the Heart as it’s known in its English version.  It’s not a very well known one internationally but it’s really cute and is really popular among young Japanese girls. It’s about a girl named Shizuku who reads a lot of books and notices a pattern in the library cards. The same boy’s name keeps popping up: Amawase Seiji. So while curious about this mysterious prince of books she meets a boy her age that she finds absolutely infuriating. He teases her and calls her lyrics she made “corny.” But he happens to be the grandson of this shopkeeper she made friends with. She finds out that he wants to quit school after middle school and go to Italy to become a great violinmaker. His parents are dead set against it, but they finally agree to let him try out his talent on the condition that he apprentices there for two months. She thought it so admirable that he already knew what he wanted to be. And he told her that she should take writing more seriously because she had written a version of the song "country roads" and made it "concrete roads" and it was really good, he thought. So while he's gone she decides she wants to find a talent of her own and she starts writing a story about this doll that's in the shop: a fox carved out of wood. She gets in the mind set that she has to finish this story by the time he gets back after the two months so she works furiously day and night, forgetting about her studies. And when she finishes she realizes that she rushed too much. She saw Seiji getting farther and farther ahead while following his dream and that she was falling backwards. The shopkeeper is the first one she lets read it because it was about his doll. He tells her that her story is very good: rough stone that has a jewel inside that she now needs to polish. Seiji comes back and tells her that he's decided to try and be a violinist maker. He's going for 10 years but he'll be back. They both promised to work as hard as they can to aspire to their dreams and one day be together. It’s an adorable love story!  I highly recommend it since I don't think many Americans have heard of it.

Anyway after Japanese we had a special Kansai accent class with the Japanese students that had taken us to Kyoto on Sunday. It was kind of a practice teaching exercise for them and really beneficial for the few of us who were lucky enough to attend. The accents in Japan are much more drastic than those in America I think. It’s not just different intonation that differentiates them but completely different words and conjugations. For instance to say “must watch” you would usually say “minakereba narimasen” in standard Japanese. But in Kansai ben (the suffix ben means accent) you would say “mina akan.” You drop everything after na and add akan. For negative endings too, the conjugation is different. Instead of ~nai they say ~hen. So instead of “minai” (I don’t watch), they say “mihen.” They also end sentences differently, with combinations of ya, wa, and de and have specialized Kansai/Osaka words like “dekai” (really big), “akan” (bad/no good), bochibochi (so-so), etc. Kansai ben has slightly different intonation as well. They tend to make a lot more words have a rising intonation. So like the morning greeting “ohayoo” (good morning) which is usually said with flat intonation for “yoo,” is pronounced with an upwards intonation; the same with “arigatou” (thank you).  It was really interesting and helpful to learn somewhat formally. I had picked up a lot of the words already, but the conjugations and such are things that need to be learned in rule format to really use accurately.

I also had tutoring which was an amazing success this week! I usually only have two people who come consistently but in addition to them, I had six other girls come! Four came in a group, they were all freshman and all very shy and quiet, not used to voicing their opinion on anything. Then I had my two regulars, a friend of one of them and a random girl who came by herself just to get an essay fixed quickly before handing it in. It was quite a weird essay too! She used a lot of hard words that were right but sounded like she had copied them from something. Actually, at least half the essay was quotes; except she didn’t use quote markings. She would say like: blah blah blah, said Disney. It was about the Disney company and their production rate and stuff. Really weird.

But out of all of the students who came, my regular is still my absolute favorite. She’s such a riot! In juxtaposition with the new Japanese girls who came, I really noticed how much more outspoken and almost Western she is compared to the others. She’ll blurt things out and input her opinion while using all sorts of frantic body language to get her point across. But she knows so many random facts that when she tells them to us conversationally, no one will have ever heard what she’s talking about and she’ll start doubting her information and thinking she’s been lied to. “MY MOTHER LIED TO ME ABOUT THIS TOO?!?!”

I’ve also noticed a HUGE improvement in her English since the first time she came to the tutor sessions about a month and a half ago. Her essay this week was really good. She’s really getting a feel for the language and she’s getting so good! She was the one who talked the most out of all eight people! She said she’s been watching a lot of American TV (she found Hell’s Kitchen on TV and loves it! XD) and studying English every night. It’s really paying off! Even in her actions, I can tell she’s not quite as sheltered and held back as other Japanese people I’ve met. I brought ritz crackers for everyone to share and she ate like half of them haha. I was happy to give them to her! But usually, Japanese people take like one and then they’re like, “Yeah… I’m full…” I like her way better though! =)

When I got home, my host sister had gotten back from America! She had gone to visit the host family she had stayed with when she did study abroad 10 years ago. She brought all sorts of omiyage (gifts) back for us: letter blocks for Mama’s English class, travel bath and body works hand sanitizers that have these rubber travel cases, a doggy toy for Tiff that he absolutely cannot be separated from, various candies, etc. She even brought me back skittles and chewy sweet tart candies so I can take them to my next tutoring session! We spent a good part of two hours talking about what she had done and looking at her pictures. All the pictures made me miss home. The snow and one level shopping centers, snow angels, shots of her Thanksgiving dinner.

On Thursday I was lucky enough to happen into an Ikebana (flower arranging) lesson from a real master! The Art History class was having a demonstration lesson from the top president of one of the top ikebana schools in Japan and I heard and kind of just jumped on the band-wagon. He was such a wise old Japanese man. He told us that he really doesn’t like the translation of ikebana as “flower arranging” because “ike” can have three different kanjis associated with it: 活け, to arrange; 生け、to live; and 埋け、to enhance. Therefore, the job of ikebana is really to enhance the life of the flowers and arrange it in a way that gives it new life. And “bana” (hana) while usually referring to flowers, is really anything that is beautiful. So branches, leaves, even people can also have their own beauty and that’s why more than just flowers are used in ikebana. When the Japanese do ikebana, they make sure that all the flowers are happy and facing upward, like they would be naturally to grow towards the sun. He said you have to make all the flowers and plants happy. And as the artist, you have to find what’s most beautiful about the flower or branch and enhance that part of it. So if it has a really interesting bend then you should arrange it so that it’s apparent.

He also explained that how in japan, they dont like thinking about winter because its usually associated with death. Instead, when it becomes winter, they are already thinking about the spring. And when they write Christmas cards and wishes for the New year they always mention something about Spring. They are always looking towards the future and towards the new beginning. That’s also why everything in Japan starts in the Spring, around April, like the school year and even the fiscal year. We also found out that Japan always looks for things in odd numbers. He said that they always think of the one left over from even numbers as a hope for the future. So things are always found in odd numbers and they avoid even numbers because there will be nothing left for the future. He said that even tea sets and such usually come in sets of 5. Even though Japanese tables are made for four, six people. The speaker was so amazing! He’s been to around 35 countries all over the world teaching about ikebana and the tradition behind it.

So we were given chrysanthemums, small yellow flowers, and red leaved branches to work with because Japan is currently celebrating “Kouyou,” the turning of the autumn leaves. It was really fun to think so artistically and I think my group’s was my favorite!

That's all for now! それではまた次回！

Word of the Day: 紅葉　こうよう "Kouyou" or the changing of the Autumn leaves.

Ise and Harry Potter!

On Thursday last, I had class til 230, then met with my language partner for the first time. We only met briefly but she’s really nice and her name is Eri. Then I went to my English teaching class where I taught a team-teach lesson with my friend Richard. It went so so – I talked too fast. We had set up a whole lesson on how to express your opinion in English. “I think blank is better than blank and this is why.” Because Japanese people have a lot of trouble with this in English I think. They don’t voice their opinion in Japanese very often.

After classes on Friday, we went to Nishinomiya gardens to reserve harry potter tickets. The theater was so big and pretty! But apparently you can only make a reservation for the reservation. So I have to go back two days before it actually opens and pick the time and theater. Then we ate a bit at the panya (bread store) and had pomegranate juice which was delicious! It was 1000 yen for one cup but every sip was amazing: tangy and sweet and an explosion of taste in your mouth! Then we met up with our other friends at Sannomiya and went out for yakisoba (fried noodles) and a few drinks at a nice small bar. The only thing that sucked was that to go in the bar you had to buy at least 3 drinks which was 900 yen. It was a good time though. Japan amazes me because on the way home a man puked in the train and he held his puke in his hands for what must have been a solid 20 seconds and then 5 different people handed him tissues to help his cause! He cleaned it all up and the guy next to him (which I hope was his friend) took out pieces of paper to wrap all the puke tissues up and held it for him presumably until they could find a trashcan to throw it away! Disgusting but impressive. Only Japan!

On Wednesday I went back to pick the time and theater for our harry potter show. My Japanese friend couldn't make it so I had to do it by myself. I managed to book the time, reserve the specific seats for 14 people and make sure that we were seeing the English version and NOT the Japanese one. Success!

Thursday was the start of our second field trip. We took a bus three hours to moku moku farm. Yes, that was the name of the farm. The animals looked like they weren’t living the high life though. The pig was so cold it was shivering and the cow’s utter was so full of milk that it was literally dripping on the floor. We ate lunch at the restaurant there and it was surprisingly tasty: meat and onions and vegetables. All cooked by ourselves over a small grill inlayed in the table! It was a lot of fun!  While on the bus I started reading the Harry Potter book that my language partner lent to me. It's in Japanese. It's difficult but I know the story so well that I'm learning new words left and right! We took a ride to a ninja museum, which was a bit of a tourist trap but they had a show (only 200 yen) that was this awesome ninja fighting. It was sweet. They threw ninja stars (shuuken), had sword fights and did some awesome action fighting.

Then we went to a place where we made bracelets made of string. It sounds kind of lame, but it was actually quite relaxing and we all ended up with really cool multicolor bracelets at the end. There’s a spinner with a hole in the middle, and about 8 different strands of string (3 colors) were coming out of the middle and they were tied to really heavy, weighted spools. And you’d take two of them at a time and move them to certain places and it creates a pattern. Mine was purple and yellow and gold! It sounds like a weird color pallet but I think it turned out kind of Arabian looking. =) 

 

When we were finished crafting, we finally arrived at our hotel. And man, they weren’t kidding when they told us the hotels would be going downhill from the grand Hotel Okura where we first stayed. It was smoke filled in a kind of run down city and the rooms were cramped (their idea of a double was a single with an extra bed squeezed into it) and the bathroom doors had a large step up to them where the door had an extra 2 inches or so of space. Very interesting. But we only really used it for sleeping so it was alright.

We were put on our own to go out and get dinner. Our group ended up going to a yakisoba place. It was quite the experience. We had a hard time deciding whether or not we were going to eat there or not so we were standing up and a couple of the group members got a little loud and the waitress “shhh!”ed them really loudly. I couldn't believe this was still Japan. And there was a spider climbing up the wall! To which I freaked out at considerably. The food was sub par, the noodles were really saucy, and it was just overall not a win. After that level of disappointment, we needed a pick-me-up so we found the nearest combini (convenience store) and stocked up on junk food. And since Harry Potter was coming out the next day, we decided to watch the 6^th one has a group to get in the mood. We all crowded around in one of the tiny “double” rooms and watched it on a laptop. Fun times!

The next day, a few of us woke up super early and took a brisk morning walk to the temple that was close by. It was small but really pretty and with the sun still rising, the lighting was beautiful.  We went back for breakfast, which was a bit frightening but nevertheless, acceptable. We were saving a table of six so our group could sit with each other but this guy just sat down at the table we were standing at and stole the whole thing for itself! We couldn’t believe it.

Our first attraction of the day was the Gozaisho Ropeway. You take a cable car to the VERY top of the mountain to see the view. It was breathtaking. We were lucky enough to have amazing weather for both days so it worked out really well. You could see the whole city of Ise nestled in among the surrounding mountains.

Then we traveled to a smaller town that held the Ise Jingu temple of Amaterasu, the sun goddess. We at lunch at a ramen shop and did some shopping and then made our way up to the shrine. There are two major shrines (the inner and the outer) which form a path between them. It is said that if the sacred mirror of Amaterasu is hung from a tree opposite the cave in which she resides, she will come out and aid the Imperial Family. There was also a beautiful river flowing through the grounds and the way the light hit the water was just stunning. We all put on our model poses to match the backdrop. =P

The last stop for the trip was Meoto Iwa, which consists of two giant rocks connected with a thick rope that symbolizes the bond between a married man and woman. It was right on the ocean! It was really cool to realize it was my first time seeing the ocean from Japan. =)

We had a long bus ride back so we amused ourselves by making weird noises and messing around. When we finally got back, we split up for dinner and met back up again at Nishinomiya Gardens for Harry Potter!! Japanese theaters don’t mind you taking in food with you so we stocked up big time! 3-D is also way cooler in Japan. We were all given 3-D goggles that had adjustable straps just to watch the awesome 10 minute long trailer for Tron, which I wasn’t excited for at first but I have to say, it looks sweet. The movie was really much creepier than I had expected. They kept really true to the book. Most of the lines were direct quotes. They did change some things but overall I thought they did a really good job with it. Can’t wait for the second half!

Word of the day: 眺め　ながめ (nagame), or scenery. =)

それではまた次回！

Halloween and Festivals!

Saturday saw the beginning of the Halloween festivities so I helped my mama prep for her party with all her students. They ranged from six to twelve and were absolutely adorable. I made an appearance as a guest teacher. We played games in English like pin the spider on the web (which my mom named as such after I told her about the existence of Pin the Tail on the Donkey), a candy relay, tick tack toe and a scavenger hunt for candy. Then all the kids went trick or treating to designated houses around the neighborhood that were participating.

After that was done, I dressed up as a cat and went out to Umeda to meet my friends for eating/drinking before going to a club. There was no nomihodai but had some pretty, cheap drinks. We all went to club Onzieme after that which was having a deal for Halloween that if you wear a costume, you get free admittance. The only problem was, no one had told us how much of a costume was needed. They wanted a full getup so a lot of the ryuugakusei who had gotten dressed up in a smaller costume were expected to pay 2000-3000 yen to get in. I, luckily, got in for free even though I was only wearing cat ears and whiskers. The club was SO crowded; our friend who went out and came back in said she had to wait in line for FIFTY minutes just to get in the door. It was really fun and a lot us got rather crazy so I played the “keep everyone hydrated” role because I was worried. Anyway, we left around 4 am because one of our friends almost got into a fight because a few of us were sitting in the “reserved seating” and he wanted us to move. Our friend had a little too much and was going slower than the guy wanted so he pushed him off and well you can imagine. Nothing serious but we left to get Patrick who we had laid to rest at an internet café after he had downed a bottle of jager. Since we had about an hour or two until the trains were back up, we went to go get breakfast. In Japan, unlike America, it is difficult to plan a night outside of your own town because the trains stop around 12. So you either go home way too early or you stay out for the whole night.

I was recovering most of Sunday but my mama took me to a Japanese Costco! It was exactly like the American ones! It was like having an American establishment right smack in the middle of Japan. We got asiago bagels and dryer sheets (which she decided to try for the first time).

On Monday, I got my midterm scores back and I did pretty well so I was happy about that. I finally went to Aikido as I had been promising myself I would for the past 3 weeks. It was a lot of fun!  They were explaining all the instructions to me in Japanese and I understood most of it. =)

The next day I had that small Japanese get together that one of our teachers put together. It was only 4 exchange students and 4 Konan students but it was a really good group. We were only allowed to speak in Japanese but it was no problem at all. Self-introduction took up most of the allotted hour and then they introduced us to some Japanese snacks. One of them were nuts with small, dry fish heads which was really scary but I bit the bullet and tried some anyway. They’re actually pretty good, but still too scary for me to eat on a regular basis… They said that most Japanese mothers make their kids eat them at a young age because they’re really good for your bones. That day I also had tutoring, which again, went pretty well. The same girl came back and I helped her with the essay she had prepared. After that I found some of my friends in the Ajisai room (the main room for ryuugakusei) and we decided to go out to dinner at a really good, cheap Chinese place in town. I sat next to one of my Japanese friends and talked to him about kanji I could use for my name and he said the most common/cute one for “nana” is the kanji for vegetable repeated. (菜々)I told him, “I AM NOT A VEGETABLE!” (ななは野菜じゃないもん！)and he laughed at me haha. I didn't really eat anything though because my mama told me she made fried pumpkin for me, which is my now my absolute favorite dish here for some reason! It’s sweet and salty and has a good texture, yummm!

All of us had a day off on Wednesday so I met my friends at 1 and they came to my house to watch the notebook. Mama gave me money to buy juice for everyone (which was an adorable gesture) and then we made popcorn and had a good time. Afterwards we all went to umeda to shop. I finally bought a new pair of boots after much debate because I needed something to wear in the rain. We also hit Uniqlo (one of the most popular stores in Japan) and I bought a pair of skinny jeans to go with the boots. When we first went there we wondered why all the pants they sell were so long, especially for Japanese people it doesn't make sense at all. But we found out that once you decide on a pair, they tailor the length to whatever you want for free, sew it up and then you come back for it later! Gotta love Japan. I also bought a cute pair of gloves that have dogs on them! They’re finger gloves and then when you’re fingers get cold the dog part comes up to cover it like a mitten. =)

On Thursday, the ryuugakusei unfortunately had school even though all the Konan students have a week-long break. But there’s a festival going on until Sunday so we were able to join in after classes. There was food everywhere! We all tried fried ice cream, which sounds deathly (and probably was) but it was delicious! They also had a game show type thing going on all day; weird games they were, too. We only really saw the love game show where the contestants had to answer embarrassing questions like “Does he always use a condom?” and “Where was the first place you had sex?” and then they had weird matching games where they had to guess which elbow or leg belonged to their girlfriend/boyfriend. Very weird. I went home around 3 and then helped my mama with all her English students for the day. She had kids from the age of 6 to the same 14 year old I helped with about a month ago. The little kids were really cute and depressingly know more Japanese than I do. *sigh* We were teaching them different weather climates (cloudy, rainy, foggy, etc). The 14 year old is definitely the best though. She always reads something wrong and turns it into something hilarious (like the tomato throwing contest with people in sheets yelling paradise, paradise!). This time it was about thunderstorms and the passage read, “In summer there are lots of thunderstorms. Many people are afraid of thunderstorms because they make loud noises and people may be hit by lightening.” So she saw “loud noises,” “hit,” and “light” and thought it was about a new hit single called “thunderstorms” that they were performing under a spotlight on stage that everyone thought was loud and scary. XDDD

Word of the Day: 祭り、まつり, matsuri or "festival"

それではまた次回！

Midterms and Tutoring!

So three Fridays ago, my friends and I went out to eat Indian food near our school. Who knew Japan had Indian restaurants owned by Japanese/English speaking Indians? It was a strange experience; like we were stepping into another country. We were their only business at the time though and seeing as how there were around 15 of us I’m sure they were delighted to see us. After we ate, a few of us went shopping at Nishinomiya gardens. Though it’s always too expensive to actually get anything it’s a nice place to walk around. We met our friend Shogi on the train so we convinced him to join us and then after we got bread and ice cream, he showed us a nice place to have a couple of drinks.

That upcoming week was midterms, so I spent much of that weekend studying. Only the ryuugakusei had midterms which was a bit unfair. So that Monday brought me my first: Linguistics. It really wasn’t too bad after all. After that we went into town to Coldstone for our friend’s birthday. We all chipped in for an ice cream cake and it was promptly demolished by in about 10 minutes.

The next day there was host family party hosted by our school so our host families could meet our friends and their parents. They provided us pizza, onigiri (with fish eggs. Eww), fruit, etc. As I was talking to my mom in Japanese, one of her friends whose host student doesn’t know too much Japanese was listening and said, “You can speak with her so smoothly, that’s so nice…” with a longing tone which was funny.

As extra practice for Japanese I’ve been reading harry potter with my friend Hitomi. She reads it aloud and then I attempt to explain it in Japanese and gestures. It’s really a lot of fun; we’re getting through about four pages a session. =)

My tutoring sessions have gotten better as well.  This one girl has a really strict English teaching mother and whenever she tries asking her for help, her mom says, “why don’t you get it?!” and she’s like, “I’m sorry… I don't get it at all…. ><.” So in order to help her with expressing opinion and understanding grammatical structures, I told her to write an essay based on an opinion question from her book and then I’ll fix it when she comes in and help her incorporate grammar points. So for this session I was explaining the difference between “a” and “the” and when to use them, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds but I think I managed alright. Then we got off topic to American candy and Japanese candy – skittles, twizzlers, mnms, lays chips, Tostitos and salsa, a lot of which they had never heard of!

From about Wednesday on, it got MAJORLY cold in Japan. Within one day, it dropped about 10 degrees so I can really feel winter coming on now. I’ve started bundling up with scarves and long-sleeved shirts. That day I had my Japanese conversation midterm.  It went rather well. I used a lot of grammar points, and she was impressed enough to invite me to an E class event the next Tuesday where you only talk in Japanese so we’ll see how that goes. Then we added one more Japanese person to our Harry Potter reading so that was fun! I love it!

Friday brought on the end of tests. And although the kanji tests went extremely well, the grammar portion was eight pages and extremely painful. At least it’s over. The ryuugakusei were hosting a Halloween party that day but it was pretty lame; good food though (yummy cookies, pumpkin pie). Afterwards, everyone went to sannomiya for eating and shopping. We split up into two groups and I completely went with the wrong one. The first one I was with went to a crappy Indian restaurant that was overpriced and unsatisfying. So I changed groups and went shopping for a little bit and then ate at a yakisoba (fried noodles) place, which was cheap and delicious! We had fun playing a game that Patrick and Greg made up where you find someone who has a funny or unique look about them and then make-up a name and back story that looks fitting. This resulted in Professor Twin Steagle and Baker Afferforte, two chaps from England who are a Chemistry Professor and Investment banker, respectively. After dinner we hung out in the main square and ran into some drunk ryuugakusei which was extremely entertaining. 

Word of the Day: 中間試験,  "ちゅうかんしけん” chuukanshiken, or Midterms. 

それではまた次回!

Tea Ceremony, Kinkakuji, and Kyoto!

Last week I happened upon an English class that’s given to regular Konan students wishing to teach English with a couple of my friends that were going. I had no idea what I was walking in to but it turned out to be a really awesome chance! The class is geared specifically towards teaching English so every week a different student creates a lesson plan for one of the chapters in their book and actually teaches a class! So although I’m of course, not getting any credit for it, I’m learning all about different methods of teaching and how to plan lessons. Not only that but our teacher, Koji Sensei told us if we ever apply to JET (Japanese English Teaching), he would happily write recommendation letters for us! What an awesome happenstance! Unfortunately, the class is on Thursday which is usually when I go to Karate so Karate has been pushed down to only one day a week which is really not enough but all I can really handle.

I’ve also started tutoring on Tuesdays to Konan students who want to practice their English so I have a time slot from 4:30-5:30 and students stop by if they need help or whatever. I’ve only had one session but it was rather painful to be completely honest. I ended up with only two freshmen for 45 minutes who only wanted to practice their English, which is fine but leaves me to come up with enough topics to last the hour. Normally I’m not bad with something like that but all their answers were that they study, study, study. “What do you do on the weekends?” Study. “What kind of movies do you like?” I don't watch many movies; I study. “What do you do with your friends for fun?” I don't go out much; I study. It was so hard to continue the conversation that there were a few awkward silences as I tried to riddle out a way to get a different answer from them. So next time I’m going to try and bring cards or an English book to read together to see if that can spark some conversation. I think I may also get a few snacks to create a more welcoming environment, so we’ll see how that goes!

As the weeks go on, I’m getting more and more worried about my expenses here. Though I budgeted for spending the equivalent of about 100 dollars a week (sounds like an enormous amount for such a short period, I know), it’s actually really hard to keep to it. With all the traveling, entrance fees, food, and spending for fun (a souvenir here, a nomihodai there), my money is practically flying out the window. I’m trying to stay reasonably frugal but it’s proving difficult so I’ve started keeping a log of all my expenses to see if I can budget a bit better.

Last Friday we had another party held by a Konan group. Since it’s getting closer to Halloween, a lot of the Japanese students were dressed in costumes (advertised on the pamphlet as “fancy dress dress” so we thought that meant formal but it was apparently equivalent to “costume,” who knew?). We were again split up into several groups for forthcoming games and then we started mingling. After a while all the Japanese students gathered in the adjacent room and then when they were done having their meeting we were ushered in and onto a stage in the spotlight by a guy dressed up as a girl (love it). I don’t know why they really wanted us up there. They started making us do self-introduction but then let us go after only two had done so.  After quite a lot of mingling they finally brought out the food that everyone was looking forward to! It was pretty good for a party: yakisoba (literally, “Fried noodles”), brown rice, even pancakes with jam!

They had games at this party as well. One that resembled the one where everyone grabs hands at different angles and you have to untangle yourselves. Although in this version everyone was given a number and told to go over the people in front of you or under the person next to you, etc. Not as difficult but I guess with so many groups, the simpler the better. They also had a gesture game, similar to the picture game at the last party but you had to make a gesture describing the word. And the last game was a group picture drawing game where every person draws one portion of the picture such as the eyebrows, the mouth, etc., and the best result wins. Our picture was Mickey Mouse, which you’d think would be an extremely easy task but our Mickey looked more like he was drooling at the mouth with mental issues. Anyway, the night faded away with everyone chatting and socializing.

The next day a group of us went into Kyoto to witness a traditional tea ceremony. The one we went to was rather informal but we were shown the basic customs that one is expected to perform at such an event. I happened to sit in the “first guest seat” by accident so I wasn’t very good at all the manners, having no one before me to watch but it was cool all the same. We had sweets (“okashi”) first which was delicious: mochi! My favorite snack! It was apparently the sweet usually given with thick green tea but we were served the light tea, which was really good but got bitterer with every sip. When you accept the bowl from the host, you’re supposed to turn the bowl two times so that the front is facing away from you and then sip slowly with your hand beneath the bowl. Turning it away shows a sign of respect.

The tatami room had a small but beautiful garden beside it, which was quite lovely. It also had a pottery bowl made by a very famous artist that the host said was worth the cost of a small house! o__O

When our session was over, our group picked up lunch from a supaa (supermarket) and headed in the direction of Kinkakuji, otherwise known as The Golden Pavilion, which is actually coated in gold leaf and remains one of the most famous sites in Kyoto. On the way, I managed to meet up with my friend who’s attending Ritsumeikan in Kyoto! She goes to my school so it was great to see her! We all ate lunch outside which was nice but we ate in an open area where I got eaten ALIVE by mosquitoes so I have a new 7 or 8 bites. =’(

We finally made it over to Kinkakuji and because we got there so late in the day, an hour before it closed, it wasn’t crowded at all! It was actually pretty nice to meander undisturbed despite the fact that it was cloudy out and getting dark. Guests aren’t allowed in the pavilion but you can stroll around it and just look at the scenery. The contrast between the man-made building and the lake that surrounded it was beautiful.

After we had looked our fill my friend and I broke off and went back to her dorm to drop my stuff off for the night. The room was pretty small and from what she’s been telling me, the classes aren’t run very well so I’m glad I ended up in the school and homestay that I did! We wandered into her town and discovered a random festival that was going on that night! They had lots of food you could buy (even the familiar cotton candy and popcorn!) and some kind of dance performance. There weren’t any games though which was kind of disappointing but it was still an awesome find! We continued on into the main part of town by train (her trains were so cute and tiny!) and bus, looking for nomihodai. We were getting a bit turned around so as we were standing there, looking confused a Japanese girl came up to us and said in English, “Can I help you?” and we answered in Japanese that we wanted to go to such and such station but we weren’t sure what line to take. She was shocked that we could speak Japanese and very helpfully pointed us towards the right line! I love Japanese people! The first nomihodai place we went in was really nice but unfortunately to do nomihodai there you had to also pay for tabehodai, an all you can eat deal which started at ¥2100. Combined with the ¥1000 for nomihodai, it was WAY too much for one night when you’re a poor student. I’ve noticed a lot of places in Japan have that catch where if you want to get one item that seems cheap, you have to pay for something else to get it.

We eventually found a great place with a reasonable price, good food and awesome drinks so we talked and had fun until we had to leave (unfortunately a bit early) to catch the last bus and get back. We ended up missing it after all though and had to grab the subway back (an option another helpful Japanese girl told us about!).

The next day, she was meeting up with her host father from a previous stay so I went home early. I was trying to find the cheapest fare back and her host father was told me one route but it was still rather pricey to me. When I voiced this opinion and started figuring out another option, her dad said, “Why don’t I just pay your ticket!” and he just up and bought me a ¥1050 ticket back to Kobe! I felt so bad. Here was this man I had known for a total of two minutes and he paid a ticket worth about 13 bucks! The generosity of Japanese people never ceases to amaze me!

After school today a few of my friends and I went into Sannomiya to attend an Ikebana exhibition! Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging so it was neat to see all the different styles and techniques though I still don’t know much about it. Afterwards we found a cute sweets shop where we bought ice cream sundaes (apple with cinnamon!).

Anyway, that’s the end of my update! それではまた次回！

Word of the day: 食べ補題 Tabehodai or “all you can eat.” Taberu itself means “to eat” so when you take the stem of this verb (tabe) and combine it with hodai which means “taking a sufficient supply of” you get Tabehodai! (the same happens with “nomihodai”) 

Parties and Aquarium!

Hisashiburi! (It’s been a while hasn’t it! A common expression in Japan) Sorry I’ve delayed writing a new post.  I’ve been busy in some respects, lazy in others. For some reason I see Japan as a vacation and so I’m in relaxation mode. My brain isn’t taking note of the fact that I’m here for school first, tourism second. ;_; Makes finishing homework and studying difficult.

One of the organizations at Konan called SPICE sponsored a party for all the ryuugakusei and Konan students. We had to pay in advance about ¥1500 but in return they provided us with lots of fun games and prizes! We were all split up into random teams and after we had snacked and chatted for half an hour or so the games began. In the first game your team had to stand in a line and pass a balloon over and under to the next player. You had to get it down your row and back up and then the first person sat on the balloon to pop it to show you were done and whoever finished the fastest got the most points. (I think we were last haha) The next game was a doozy. It was basically the game telephone but with pictures. So the first person was shown a picture and they had to draw it and then each person was shown the picture in turn and the last would have to guess what it was. The problem is it tends to morph into something different entirely. So for example, I think ours was originally a guitar and it somehow got turned into a cat. =P We also played a game where everyone holds hands in a line and then you have to get this piece of rope over all of your bodies in turn.

The last was bingo. The board of which was full of places and cultural items of Japan. They had prizes for the first 7 or so winners, which was pretty impressive. They ranged from pillows to puzzles to a Hello Kitty soap dispenser. One guy in my group actually gave me his winning bingo card so I got the prize instead! I felt so bad but considering my prize was a small pink pillow I don't think he would have been able to make much use out of it.

In addition to all the bingo prizes, SPICE had bought a bunch of other team prizes for everyone. Although our team was last and picked as such we got a kaleidoscope, a couple of stickers, and a fan with a stand that was quite pretty. All the prize bags were unlabeled and the teams chose which one so they were basically mystery bags. The other prizes varied from Nazi tattoos (a hilarious discovery; they use something very similar to a Nazi symbol as a sign for Buddhism but to us it still looks Nazi) to salad dressing. (Why? No clue!)

After the party most of us all continued to Karaoke. It was only on for two hours or so but our group had an entire floor to ourselves, which consisted of about 8 karaoke rooms so we all kind of went in and out of each. It was loads of fun! The rooms were very open and had a stage and we were allowed free (non-alcoholic) drinks. While I was leaving though, I must have left my prize bag in the karaoke room so it was given to another girl in our program and I haven’t seen it since… It was nothing dire but still a bummer.

That weekend a few of my friends and I went out to Osaka to see the aquarium there because they say it’s one of the biggest in the world. We met in Osaka and traveled by a separate line to Osaka-ko, which is a subsection of the city. We tried looking at a map once we were there to figure out exactly where we were going but we saw two fellow Americans and they gave us complete directions on how to get there! Foreigners have to help out fellow foreigners, right? It was pouring that day but that’s what made it a perfect day for browsing the 8 floor aquarium. It was quite nice! The fish were giant: shark-whales, huge stingray, etc.

                                                                 Giant Whale Shark!

                                                             BEAUTIFUL jellyfish!

The admission fee was a bit ridiculous though. 2000 yen. I guess it’s not that bad when you think admissions to famous places in America are around 30 bucks but when you add in lunch and travel and a souvenir (can’t resist...), money just disappears! It’s so difficult to stay frugal when you’re here. When we were done going through the whole aquarium and had our fill of adorable sea otters and umm… some rather unsightly events that I won’t mention here, we walked around the area and went into the mall right next to the aquarium to get something to eat.

I found a subway and so I made a beeline for it but alas, I was sourly disappointed. Not only do they not carry the regular chicken, the have one type of cheese (“sliced cheese” which is not a type but a mere method of preparation), and they don’t carry chipotle sauce or banana peppers which are my favorite parts! ;_; Thanks to me, they probably think Americans are freaks because when I asked them if they had banana peppers they gave me a weird look and said, “no… we don't sell bananas here…” Kind of missed the point. They probably think now that all Americans put bananas on their sandwiches or something.

After lunch, we roamed around the building a bit and ran into a guy dressed as a ninja on the top floor ushering guests through a spinning door for some walk through haunted house we think? We never quite found out. But he was very nice and was impressed that we were all learning Japanese. He even allowed us to take several pictures with him, with us all making various ninja poses. Fun!

Not me but I love this picture of my friend. =P

There were also (of course) a bunch of cute shops with pretty sensu (fold out fans), charms and clothes. It’s so hard to resist spending money when everything around you looks like it flew straight out of an anime! This is getting a bit lengthy so I'll split it up!

それではまた次回!

Word of the day:  水族館,　すいぞくかん, suizokukan or "aquarium"

Osaka (again) and School ^^

OK desu! So we left off with us all getting back from the trip to Mount Koya. We were dropped off in Osaka around five. So we decided since we were there we might as well go out and enjoy the city a bit. Since we had just gotten home from a trip, we still had all our baggage with us so we paid for lockers so we wouldn't have to take it all around with us. There are lockers in every train station, it seems. It’s really convenient. We paid ¥300 per person for the whole day so pretty good deal.

We met up with our Japanese friend Hitomi-chan who also brought a friend and we wandered around in a group of about eight or so. We were going to shop (which we seem to be doing a lot…) but we ended up just drifting over towards a nomihodai place. It was different from the one we went to last one (which a few of us were kind of disappointed about since the last one was so good!) but it’s good to go to different places. The drinks were somewhat stronger and not quite as tasty but they were still good.  The place gave us a room to ourselves, which gave us license to become the typical loud, annoying foreigners. =P I felt sorry for the people on either side of us. XD

A few members of our group wanted to eat ramen afterwards but most of us were full (we had all shared plates of food that our Japanese friends ordered) so we went to do purikura! For those who’ve never heard before, purikura is basically like a photo booth but it’s really bright, great quality, and you can add symbols and write on all the pictures afterwards. It also tends to make your eyes appear bigger, anime-style. Observe:

Our trip kind of petered out after that. Most of our group went home to catch buses and such. I stayed with Hitomi for a bit to have some girl chat in McDonalds though. =P

This week I spontaneously tried out the Karate club with my friend and I actually really like it! They were much more accepting than Kenpo seemed to be. We were planning to sit out but they insisted we join in and they seemed really enthusiastic. They have a definite Sensei, which adds a good sense of authority to it. He has a voice just like you’d think a Japanese martial artist would have, it’s awesome. :D They have concrete forms and techniques as well, which makes me happy. They do one point sparring for about a half hour but it doesn’t consume the lesson the way Kenpo’s sparring did. There are even two girls (out of ten, that’s not bad!).

I also met with the Aikido club today. They sounded very nice and accepting as well so I’m thinking of trying Aikido maybe once a week, and Karate two times per week. It’s good to get exposure to all different types of martial arts so I’ll see how it goes. Both clubs meet the same five days a week, three hours a day, in the same building and they said they don’t mind if you only turn up a few times a week. The gym they’re located in is actually pretty far from campus so we take school coach to get there. The one night we went it rained profusely though so we all got completely soaked! びちょびちょ！ Beecho Beecho! (Soaked)

Getting back to less exciting things, class is going well so far. We have Japanese for 2-3 periods during the morning, lunch, and then afternoon classes. I’ve switched into International Education (which is actually extremely interesting and the teacher is simply inspiring) so I’m taking that, Linguistics, and the Joint Seminar. Yesterday in Japanese class we actually watched “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi” (Spirited Away)! We got a question sheet that had various word translations on it from the movie so that’s really neat to have! It made my day to watch that during class. *G*

I’ve signed up for eikaiwa teaching (English tutoring) that pays about 20 dollars an hour. But I’ve only been assigned one hour a week so it won’t turn out to too much. ^^” It’ll still be good to get some experience in teaching English to Japanese students if I ever want to do JET though. I want to help my host mom out with her students as well but I just haven’t been home due to club so hopefully I’ll get another chance!

Yesterday after class, my friend Jess and I were helping Hitomi with her English homework. It was seriously difficult for someone who’s not a native speaker! She’s reading “Tuesdays with Morrie” which is a pretty advanced English book. She had to read five or six chapters from it and translate all the words she didn't know. So there we were, translating like 15 pages worth of words using three denshi jishos (electronic dictionaries- a must have for Japan, even for Japanese people) and 4-6 people and after an hour and a half, we still weren’t done! We decided to give up for the day and Jess and I went shopping around Nishinomiya Gardens. We actually managed to find some cheap clothes so I bought a shirt and a scarf after much debate.

Jess ended up coming over my house for the evening so when we got home we chatted with my host mom for a bit and then had an AMAZING dinner of tempura, potatoes, rice, and fried chicken of some sort. SO good! We had such a good time with my host family. I’m lucky they’re so great!! It’s like living my American life, just in Japan. That’s how comfortable I feel with them. That night, Jess and I really meant to study because we had a chapter test the next day but we only really studied for about 10 minutes and then got off topic. =P But thankfully, the test wasn’t TOO difficult so hopefully I did alright. I’m sure I still managed to screw some parts up though. Wasn’t feeling overly strong about it so, we’ll see.

I think I’m finally all caught up so, それではまた次回！

Word of the day: 傘　“kasa” or umbrella. A necessary item for Japan no matter what the weather!

Mount Koya! 山

I can’t believe I’ve only been here three weeks! So much to catch up on!

So this past weekend we went on our first field trip. We went to Koyasan for two days, one night and stayed in a Buddhist temple to experience simple monk food and traditional ways. Or so the pamphlet says. =P

We all met up at the JR station (Japanese Railway) and headed as a group to Koyasan! Koyasan is surrounded by a group of mountains and the place we were staying at is basically at the center of it. The monks (who spoke only in Japanese) told us that their temple was made many years ago and it was in the central part of what they picture as a large lotus flower; the surrounding mountains represent the petals. Lotus flowers, for those who don’t know, grow out of the muck at the bottom of a water body and then grow towards the light and become beautiful flowers. So it is very symbolic in a lot of asian cultures as spiritual enlightenment or as the heart/soul in general.

When we got off our last train, we took an incline up to the top of the mountain (we were literally in the clouds) and then took taxis to our temple. Except my small group got to ride with the monk which was awesome! (“It’s like riding in the pope-mobile!”) We dropped our stuff off in the house/temple. It’s more like a lodging for mountain travelers seeking refuge. So although they do have praying rooms, they also have accommodations for lodging. I was in the large room of girls. So nine of us all went upstairs to our tatami room and it was SO cold. Good thing they equipped us with heavy futons (and good thing I brought my leggings!). There was also a TV, which I really wasn’t expecting! (“Monks watch TV?!”) I should have brought my electrical chargers after all! Arg! Who expects an outlet when you’re housed by monks??

After we had set all our things down, we had lunch that our host families had packed for us. Everyone had cute bentos (lunch boxes) wrapped in furoshikis! (Basically a handkerchief-like clothe). We ate on floor mats in a big tatami room. Then they took us on a guided tour of the expansive cemetery that’s in Koyasan. There were literally thousands of graves everywhere and LOADS of famous people are buried there (well famous for Japan mostly): The founders of the temple, the original Panasonic owners, the people who started Nissan, some famous samurai, feudal lords, etc. Almost all of the graves had huge headstones that were hundreds of years old! But the monks and caretakers keep them up so well that they are all in very good shape. Many of the graves and shrines had 10 strands of 100 cranes people had offered to them. 1000 cranes are said to bring good luck and happiness. The grounds were separated by 3 bridges: ichiban no hashi (first bridge), Naka no Hashi (middle bridge), and Gobyo bashi which leads to the main temple. The bridges are said to connect the physical world to the spiritual world so that you can become closer to them. I took so many pictures my camera nearly gave out! Each time I was like “okay, no more pictures of graves” and then I’d think *Ooo, this looks pretty! Snap!* Many of the headstones were set up in a 5 part structure: A, VA, RA, HA, KA. Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Spirit.

To enter the third bridge and the Koubou Daishi Mausoleum it led to, everyone had to make an offering (water) and bow to the god statues that were lined up next to the bridge. Then you have to bow before the bridge (as we did with all three bridges) and go on. Beyond the third bridge was the main temple. There was a fun challenge in the first bit where you had to lift up a very heavy rock with your hand and toss it/nudge it up to the level above it (about a foot higher). If you managed it and think of a wish beforehand then you get your wish granted! I did it! (but with two hands, I must admit, though our tour guide said that still counts so =P)

After walking around the temple (which had an offering space kind of like an enlarged version of Ikuta Shrine which I wrote about earlier), we bought some small good luck charms with our zodiac symbols on it and then they took us a to a souvenir shop that was close by. We all bought omiyage for our host families. (Omiyage means a souvenir or gift. They are a big part of Japanese life because you are expected to buy them every time you travel somewhere big or go to someone else’s house, etc.) Usually, you get the food that the place is most famous for so I asked and it was a special type of tofu. I really don’t like tofu so I don't know if this was good or not but I didn't like it when I tried it later. >< I also got some mochi (my favorite! It’s like a doughy, sweet ball that has flower on the outside and bean paste in the middle = YUM) and some crunchy snack food.

We returned to our lodging after that and had a typical monk dinner. Now I know they don’t eat meat, but MAN do they eat well! Everything was so tasty! Miso, rice, fried potato, eggplant, beans, fruit, the works. 

Around that time we also had scheduled bath time. All of us got bathroom time slots that we signed up for. There were a few single times but most of us showered in groups. So like I had a group of 4 girls. I know, weird right? But that’s the Japanese way. It was a little embarrassing at first but we got over it. You get changed in a connecting room and then shower/clean outside the bath. And then once you’re clean, go into the bath, which was SO nice and warm! It was very relaxing.

We basically had free time for the rest of the night so we just hung out, talked, played card games, etc. We even discovered a kotatsu in our room, which is basically a heated table with a blanket coming out of it to cover you. =) Very useful in the winter. (Or when you’re in the mountains!)

The next day we got up at the crack of dawn and attended a half hour chanting session. It was actually kind of neat the way they did it. There were two monks and in order to always have one of them continue the chant, they staggered their intake of breath by about 20 seconds so that when one of them ran out of breath the other could keep going and vice versa. Their synchronicity was amazing! Same words, tone, inflection; it may as well have been a single voice.

Breakfast was next so we enjoyed another monk prepared meal of pretty much the same stuff as the day before. Then we went to an hour and a half meditation session. We only actually meditated for about 15 minutes but the head monk was explaining the thought process to us in Japanese. The meditation they do is called Ajikan which is different from Zen meditation. In Zen, you are supposed to completely wipe your mind of every thought but in Ajikan you are supposed to think about a beautiful place somewhere far away that has nice clean air. You focus on that place so that when events and sounds are happening around you, they kind of pass by without causing you to think of anything. He had us expand our image by first thinking of the temple we were in, then the Koya san mountain, then the city, then Japan, Asia, Asia + Russia, etc. And he had us come back the same way. When you take in a breath, you breath in that clear air and then when you exhale, it’s supposed to cleanse your body of bad things. You’re supposed to have your eyes and mouth slightly open and fold your hands on top of one another with your thumbs meeting. It was quite relaxing actually.

That day we went to a nearer temple and wandered around a bit. There was a library with a turning wheel on the outside so you have seven or so people all push together and it turns. It’s said that many people cannot read the kanji that’s in the books within the library so in order to get closer to the texts and gods spiritually, you turn the wheel physically. This temple had a lot of rooms to look at and a rock garden and such. Afterwards, we walked around the town but it was basically a big tourist trap. I did buy a couple of really cute hairclips though (that were quite expensive… =X). We had lunch on our own and then burabura-ed (wandered) slowly back to the house. We stopped at an ice cream shop that was really close by because we had been hearing from all of our fellow ryuugakusei that they sold grape ice cream. I got the last one! (Sorry, Richard!) Then we just chatted and hung about until it was time to leave. Overall, a really cool experience!

Next time: what we did in Osaka when we returned!

Word of the day:　山 “Yama” or Mountain.

Second word of the day: 寒い "Samui" or Cold.

それではまた次回!