Flooded

Monday was the first day of classes for Japanese students.  The campus was completely flooded at lunchtime--there was a literal flood of people to the cafeteria for lunch.  There were lines everywhere.  It was ridiculous.

Tuesday was Daniel's birthday.  We finished classes early and did some wandering around.  We stopped at Baskin Robbins for ice cream and hopped on my bus to a cake place I'd seen.  It turned out to be a formal bakery, not a cafe, so we wandered further down the route to Cafe Sally.  He got a lemon soda and two slices of banana cake; I got an iced hazelnut latte and a slice of apple cake.  Everything was wonderful.  Back on the bus, we got off at my stop because I needed to wander around my neighborhood for Visual Anthropology.  There were people trimming the bushes so we had to cross the street and cross back over on the pedestrian bridge...

...as the elementary school was letting out.

We got trapped on the bridge for upwards of an hour while the kids asked us questions.  Most of them only spoke Japanese and it was simple enough that I could make out most of it.  Some of them spoke English that they'd been learning in class.  It was cute, except when they kept demanding that Daniel and I must be a couple.  The teachers looked out the windows at us and just smiled and nodded, more or less, not worried that the foreigners were a threat to the kids at all.

When we finally escaped, we wandered around, stopped by the hot spring Okaasan had mentioned (but didn't go in), through the rich neighborhood (serious mansions, even by American standards) and stopped at a bakery on the way back to the bus stop for delicious cream puffs.  I need to go back to that place.

Wednesday was eh, one of those days that you can tell hates you but don't know why.  It was just blah and ended with a note in my mailbox saying I need to write an appeal to attempt to get into Shinto by that night or else I don't get in.  Of course I had classes straight from 1 to 6 because it was Wednesday and they put the message in during classes and the guy I needed to give the appeal to was already gone for the day by time I was able to check my mail.

This made me miss my 6:30 bus home, where Okaasan was waiting because she was having her English teacher and two classmates over for dinner (to show me off, more or less).  I still got home before they arrived, but it was annoying.  Dinner was nice and Okaasan's teacher was able to confirm that when I do piece together Okaasan's English, I really am understanding what she's saying, even if no one else does.

Good to know we're communicating well.

For Daniel.

Giant truck in the driveway!

BIKE PARTYYYY!

Friday I stayed late to attend the meeting for the October 9 Hiroshima trip.  I put my name down and paid my 7220 JPY for a one-way shinkansen ticket to ensure I'm there in time to hear the speaker--an individual who was there when the bomb was dropped.  I'll probably take the overnight bus back, though I need to arrange it through the school.  It'll be somewhere in the 5000 JPY and up.  The shinkansen is the super-fast train (the trip there will be 1-2 hours; the trip back will be 7-10) that the Govenator came to look at last week or the week before.

Yes, for those who don't know, Arnold was in Japan; closer to me than all of you, haha!

Saturday was an early day.  I was at Hirakatashi-eki by 8 a.m. and on a train headed for Tambabashi-eki to meet with my history class.  We took a couple more trains together (I got a good hour of Pokemon in during travel time) before reaching Asuka in Nara.

We rented bikes and were quickly on our way.

The first stop was at a kofun--a 5-7th century keyhole-shaped mound tomb reserved for powerful individuals.  There were funny-looking little caterpillars everywhere, but I couldn't get a good picture of them because my camera is fail.  I can't get clear pictures unless I'm outside, and even then it's difficult.  There were some carved stones a bit down the road that have survived invasion, being buried and middle school kids with chisels.

Back on the bikes, our next stop was a couple of carved stones that served as a tomb.  The first was uphill, a flat platform with a few cuts in it called the Devil's Cutting Board.  The upper part (like an upside down bathtub) had fallen downhill and was upside down, partially embedded in the ground.  It's been dubbed the Devil's Toilet.

The next stop was a stone turtle.  It faces southwest.  It's said that if it ever faces due west, the end is coming.

There was a nice ride through a residential rural area before arriving at the site of a temple.  The temple doesn't exist any more but they've left the foundation so visitors can get an idea of what it used to look like.  There were original foundation stones and replicas out of plastic that were creepy to walk on because they looked like rocks but felt unstable.

After a nice ride through the hills.  There were pseudo woods and a stream we followed.  It was a beautiful ride.  We walked through a park and found a bike parking lot to break for lunch.  Daniel, myself and a handful of others got yakisoba and ice cream from nearby shops.

Our next stop was another tomb--one we could actually go into because it had already been excavated.  It was interesting, and apparently has survived several earthquakes (it's made of stacked rocks), but even so, I didn't want to hang out inside very long.

Then we were off through houses again.  I had to adjust my seat and somehow managed to lose the group in the minute it took and had to call to have someone sent to get me and the two others that got left behind.  The next stop was out in the rice fields (another foundation layout) and was in the sun.  It was rather pretty.

A ride through the rice fields later, we arrived at Asukadera.  We listened to a monk (and had the professor translate) before going through the museum part of the temple and spilling back into the courtyard.  I've finally figured out the difference between temples (dera) and shrines (jinja)--the former are Buddhist, the latter are Shinto.  There were a few statues in the courtyard that offered different blessings.  One scoop of water over the right offered traffic safety, two scoops over the middle offered safety in the home and three scoops over the left offered finding a lover.

Off and away we went, this time to a museum.  It had artifacts from the single-digit centuries, including the side paneling from a temple that had collapsed into the mud, preserving it.

Then it was back to the bike rental place (btw, this entire trip except for the train ride there was paid for by the university), back on the trains and back home.

Sunday I did a lot of crocheting, a lot of Pokemoning and a lot of sitting around.  Okaasan came home and asked if I'd like to go to a local suspension bridge with her, so we (Otousan, Okaasan and I) piled into the car and off we went.  It was only a 15 minute drive into the mountains.

There was a rock wall before we got to the trail to the bridge, including a tiny kiddy one we all climbed to the top of.  I don't think either of them were expecting the hike that followed and Otousan had to push Okaasan up the steps almost the whole way.

When we got to the bridge, Okaasan clung to Otousan the whole way across because she is terrified of heights.  It was adorable, but I really hope she didn't suggest we go just to take me somewhere.  We sat for a bit across the bridge before making our way back down and out.

We picked up Konta on the way home.  Maki and Takeshi arrived at the house a bit later and we had mixed grill outside despite strong winds.  Maki played piano after dinner and Otousan played his drums for the first time since I arrived.  He's really quite good.  Then there was some karaoke, Maki, Takeshi and Konta went home and I went off to bed.

This is a video of the noon bells.  Farmers don't wear watches, so they sound chimes in the rural areas at noon to tell them when lunch is.

The two above videos are of Otousan and Maki playing drums and piano.  Anyone recognize the songs?

Typhoonderstorm

Wednesday was full of surprises.

For starters, my oldest friendship bracelet came off during history--the blue, yellow and orange one I got from Emma during SOS in 2009.  It was more than a year old and definitely showing its wear.  My first thought was that there wasn't enough orange on my wrist any longer.

I had a message in my mailbox to go to the office... I was informed that for the past two weeks, I haven't actually been enrolled in Shinto, despite having turned in the add/drop form and getting the necessary signatures.  Or, the signatures I was told were necessary.  Apparently to get into the class at this point, I need a Dean's signature, something they neglected to tell me before absolutely necessary.  I'm more dedicated to that class than half the people actually in it.  I've been on time to every class and had all the homework done.  Pisses me off that Kansai Gaidai can't let me know simple details like I'm not actually in a class.

There was a group that went to Kyoto for the moon viewing, but they left at 5 p.m. while I was in class, so I didn't get to go with them.  The full moon was rather beautiful, what I could see of it through the clouds moving in.

And those clouds were definitely moving in.

There was a rather powerful typhoon that hit Wednesday night/Thursday morning, about 4 a.m.  It poured.  It lightninged.  It thundered.  It shook the house.  It woke me up, if that wasn't already obvious.  The storm was definitely centered over the house for the most of it.  Didn't reach its end until well after 9 in the morning.

Okaasan made yakisoba for lunch.  I worked on my crocheting and played some Pokemon and showed Okaasan more pictures.  It's official--I can't connect to the Internet at home.  So I really do only have Internet while I'm at school.

I went shopping with her for dinner ingredients.  She mentioned that because I have a license and her daughter's car is American-style, I can drive it.  We didn't go into detail, though.  I helped her make dinner (cooked with chopsticks!) of hamburger/meatloaf.  It was rather tasty.

Hospitals

I see a lot of ambulances day-to-day.  Granted, there's a hospital right down the street from campus, but it just seems that there's a lot of ambulances.  I'm not one to ignore "signs" as some people call them, but this was one I wasn't concerned with.

I walked in the door at home and Okaasan immediately came to me and told me we were meeting her friend at a restaurant for dinner.  So I dumped my bag off upstairs, threw the important stuff in my purse and off we went.


I finally got to ride in a Japanese-style car.  I also got to ride with Okaasan driving for the first time.  It would be rude to say I thought I was going to die, but it was a might nerve-wracking.  We arrived and parked and went inside and met her friend... who had her daughter and an exchange student (Lucky from Australia) with her.  There was a lot of talking, both in English and Japanese and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I discovered during that conversation that the reason Okaasan wasn't home yesterday was because she was at the hospital in Kobe.  She'd dislocated her shoulder holding Konta and had to have it popped back in.  Cost her 10,000 JPY (a bit more than $100).  Suddenly I feel lucky that time my shoulder popped out, it went right back in.

Back at home, I did my Japanese homework and started making my planner.  I've gotten very good at writing the days of the week in kanji--and actually know which day is which now.  For some reason they've never stuck before.

Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri

Saturday was the 18th.

The 18th of September was the release of Pokemon Black and White.

I got up at normal time and headed to campus to partake of their Internet before heading back to the station to meet with Daniel.  His host sister (a Pokemon fan) said that there was no way we would be able to get copies without a pre-order and I was rather put-out, but I decided not to take no for an answer.

We killed a half hour getting donuts while the store I saw with the poster opened.  Daniel lacked a PMA and tried to reason that just because it had a poster didn't mean it was selling it, but I ignored him because it's logical that a store would only host a poster of something it was selling, to entice one to come buy it.

So we went inside and there was a very moderate line of people... with game boxes.  We were pointed in the correct direction and found the marvelous display, which contained... empty boxes.  I grabbed a Black and Daniel waffled for a while before taking a White and we got in line.  We traded the empty boxes at the register for the game and got a bonus pencil board with our purchases.

Then it was back to campus to play.

There were a few other international students there who either were interested in the game or going to pick their own copies up later.  We all had the same idea--use it to practice our Japanese.  There's an option to switch between hiragana (the phonetic alphabet) and kanji.  I'm happily on the hiragana section and it's helping with my reading speed.  Daniel's got his set to kanji.  Okaasan will sit with me sometimes and tell me what some of the words mean.  I know Pokemon well enough to understand what's going on, vaguely, but it's nice to know what's actually being said.  I get really excited when I understand something.

I've currently got one badge.  My team is at level 13; Tsutaja, Youteri, Shimama, Hiyappu, Dangoro and Mamepato, for those interested.  Nintendo pitched a fit over the weekend and Serebii.net isn't allowed to post pictures of the game, but I've got a window open of the sprites if anyone wants me to take screencaps and repost.

 

Sunday I slept in a whole hour before getting up and heading to campus to meet with the festival group.  We traveled back to the station together and started our two-hour trek to Kishiwada for the Danjiri festival.  Otousan was worried when I said that's where I was going, because people have died at the festival in the past.  It took 3 trains and about 1000 yen each way, but we eventually arrived and immediately were thrown into the festival.  A float was run by a full speed, all the people of the neighborhood helping it along.

Our group of 20 or so wandered around, getting stopped now and again when we ran into the parade route or when people wanted to stop at booths for food or goods or games.

As it got later in the day, we headed to the Kishiwada castle.  It was small, though the property and the moat were huge, compared to most plots of land in Japan.  We were given a half hour to wander around it.  The inside had been made into a museum with medieval suits of armor and scrolls and whatnot.  We were allowed on the balcony to look out over the city.  We could see clear to the ocean.

Then we trekked back to the station and did our train-hopping in reverse, I got on my bus and headed home.

Monday was Respect for the Aged Day, a national holiday, so there was no school.  I got up early, intending to use the lounge for Internet, but the CIE was closed, so I headed back to the station.  Starbucks lied and didn't have free Internet, but I got 10 minutes' worth of a free trial before packing up and wandering around.

I intended to find the yarn store Okaasan had mentioned.  I ended up down a side street with water features down each side.  There was a map (with English translation) that noted there was a shrine at the end of the street so I continued down it.

There was a shrine!  Up the stairs, past the little park, down the hill and up the other stairs through the torii (gate) and into the shrine area.  Half way up the second set of stairs there was another park area.  I stopped in it for a bit and had a butterfly lick my finger for a good five minutes before continuing on my way.  When I reached the top, I was literally attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes.  Before visiting the shrine, I had about 20-25 bites.  After visiting the shrine, I had between 45 and 50.

I used the fountain for purification and wasn't touched by mosquitoes afterward.  It was eerie.  I explored a little bit before heading back and wandering around the station and it's immediate surrounding area again.  I was headed down a more residential area when I noticed there was someone walking behind me.  He caught up and was going to go on his way and then fell back to walk next to me.  He just wanted to practice his English, I think.  He wandered with me for a while before we parted ways.  It was a little awkward, but he didn't seem like he had ill intentions.

I killed more time playing Pokemon and reading Ulysses before Daniel, Arianna and Ayana showed up and we headed to karaoke.  It was pretty awesome.  We had a huge selection of songs and switched between English and Japanese.  We dueted Disney, Fullmetal Alchemist and Inu-Yasha songs as well as Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious (or however it's spelled).  I got a few texts from Loki--who was at karaoke with a bunch of other people from game at the same time in California.  It was really neat to be doing the same things as the people back home.

Before getting on the bus home, I picked up a bunch of yarn to make stuff for my host family and a bouquet of flowers for Okaasan.  I couldn't get anyone to tell me the age cut-off or requirement to be considered aged on the Respect for the Aged Day, but she's 59 and I figured it was close enough--and that she'd like flowers.

It was Konta-kun's birthday, I think, so Misa's older sister (whose name I still don't know) and her not-husband and Konta were over.  There were presents and then they left.  Okaasan wasn't home and didn't get home until well after I went to bed.

And the intro to Pokemon Black, for those who are interested.

Minor Updates

Weekdays are slow, so unless something extraordinary happens, I'll likely only be posting regarding the weekends from here out.

This coming week is Silver Week.  I have a three-day weekend (Monday is respect for the elderly day) and Thursday off (Autumn Equinox, I believe).  I'm not sure what I want to do with all that time yet, but Okaasan had mentioned there's a spring pretty close to the house that maybe we can go check that out.

Also regarding family life, Okaasan would like me to make dinner one night and I need a recipe.  I was thinking something along the lines of chicken and dumplings or ham and beans--so long as it's something that would be started from scratch, since the availability of pre-made ingredients is likely to be low to none.  If anyone wants to comment with a recipe or send me an email, please feel free.  I'll post about it after I make it.

I started a blog for my Visual Anthropology class, camerajin.blogspot.com.  It's linked under my About Me in the "Places of Interest" section.  It will have eight posts total by the end of the semester and will be more professional than anything else.

That's it for now.  Remember anyone can send me an email at ari.sky15@softbank.ne.jp  I like getting mail.

Shuumatsu (Weekend)

Saturday started like any other school day: wake up at 6:30, be on the bus by 7:25, be on campus by 8 a.m.  The CIE was open, so I stole their Internet for a few hours before hopping on the bus back to Hirakatashi-eki to meet Daniel and Arianna.

Spiral escalator!

Our first exploration goal was an okonomiyaki –ya (like a Japanese pancake, made with shredded cabbage and held together with egg).  We found the food court of the station but no okonomiyaki shop.  So we wandered outside and down a little side street.  We found a bakery and Arianna asked the owner where the okonomiyaki-ya was.  We wandered back the other way and finally found it!

We ordered two small okonomiyaki, one shrimp and one pork with veggies.  They were grilled at the table (one of those types that had the grill in the middle of the table).  Workers came around and added dried fish flakes, mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce.  Nori (seaweed flakes) was available at the table like salt and pepper might be.  We each got our own mini spatula to take what we wanted.

Then we wandered around the station shops.  Anime shops and bakeries distracted us.  One of the stores had a super fan from Jump Festa 2010 of Hunter x Hunter.  It wasn’t too expensive and was probably the only HxH merchandise I’m going to find, but I didn’t know how I would bring it home without destroying it.

We spent nearly two hours in the bookstore, Book Off, which had video games (the original Pokemon Pinball for 50 JPY—about 50 cents—if I hadn’t had it already, I would have bought it), movies and books.  I wasn’t going to buy any manga, but I happened across a series that was showcased in the first year of America’s Shonen Jump (manga magazine) that hasn’t been translated.  I bought the first two volumes, since there’s currently a sale that makes them 50 JPY each.

I found a poster advertising Pokemon Black and White.  It comes out in exactly one week.

The three of us ended up at Baskin Robbins again, because the other sweets places were too expensive, and each got a crepe.  The guy behind the counter was totally humoring himself, because he went along with us only as long as we could understand him and then spoke in perfect English.  The crepes were delicious, though.

On the way home, I was going to stop at the post office to withdraw more money for the Kyoto trip tomorrow, but it was already closed when I arrived, even though it was at least an hour and a half before the posted time on the doors.  It seems that only post office ATMs work for international transactions, more on that later.

I sat with Okaasan looking at pictures of the family for an hour or so before she had to start dinner.  She thought dad was particularly handsome.  Seeing the names Daniel, David and Paul as well as the record of first Communions sparked the “religion talk,” which was awkward.  My host family is Christian (which is rare, about 1% of the population).  She asked if I had a religion and answered that my parents were brought up Christian and Catholic, dodging the question.  It was a little more difficult to dodge when she asked if I believed the Bible.  We kinda dropped it after that.

She made spaghetti for dinner, with meat sauce and onions, bell peppers, tomatoes and eggplant, most from her garden.  She included a mackerel (whole save the head, which was removed).

There was a spider in the shower room [while I was showering].  It wouldn’t have been an issue if A) it wasn’t HUGE, B) it wasn’t insistent on coming out of nowhere, C) it wasn’t insistent on not staying washed down the drain and D) if there hadn’t been one just slightly smaller in my room earlier that I had to chase around for a good 15 minutes because it first showed up on the paper windows, preventing me from squashing it.

For Preston.

Today I slept in a whole hour!

I was at Hirakatashi-eki an hour early and started my search for an open/useable ATM, but I had no luck at the station.  Since it was still early, I headed to campus to see if anything was open, but it’s completely shut on Sundays.  The guards signed me in and I went to investigate this (it proved to be true) and then headed across the street to 7-11.  It had an ATM.  It had an ATM that took both VISA and plus, which is what I needed.  But it wouldn’t read my card.  So I got back on the bus and went back to the station.

Double Rainbow~

Arianna and Ayana were there.  Ayana tried to help, but the closest machine wasn’t able to read my card.  Arianna convinced me to borrow 2000 JPY so I could go with them today (I didn’t have enough even to take the train there and back), we met up with Daniel, bought our tickets and boarded the train.

We got off at the same stop as last time and headed to the street where we got dinner last time.  It looked a lot different in the day time.  We went further down and into a department store for Arianna to find a teapot.  No one really had enough money, so Ayana led us to an up-scale department store (Prada, Clinique, Tiffany’s, etc), which had a post office in it with ATMs!  That was open!  And so I had money (and immediately paid Arianna back).

Our goal was to find food but we kept getting distracted.  We turned down the older looking street before the entrance to the temple last time and wandered down it a ways until we found another temple area.  The entrance had the thunder and wind gods (NAMES!), which I recognized from Art and Architecture.  We exited out the back and found a surprise.

An ukiyo-e-ya.   Plain and simple.

Ukiyo-e are what one thinks of most often when they think Japanese art.  Traditional woodblock prints most popular in the 17-19th centuries.  Artists would envision an image and carve each separate part, determined by color, into separate blocks of wood.  They would then paint those carvings and press it onto a single sheet of paper, layer after layer until the image was completed.  The ever-popular “great wave” by Hokusai is one of these types of prints.

The artist showed us his blocks for his own recreation of the great wave.  There were 6 or 8 blocks total, some front and back of the block (to save space), all stained the colors they were used to produce on the final image.

After making some purchases, we headed toward the Kiyomizu temple again and ended up at the base of a 5-tiered pagoda.  Just before reaching it, we looked to our right… and found three maiko.  Of course, we made this discovery at the same time as just about every other tourist in the area, but the maiko seemed to love the attention, rather than shying from the cameras.  They had been trying to take pictures of themselves and Arianna was the first to offer to take it for them.  They were grateful.

Where Ryouma was killed.

We found a moderately-priced restaurant after that (everything around the temple is expensive) and had lunch.  Ayana and I had cold soba noodles with tempura shrimp and pepper, grated daikon (radish), umeboshi (pickled plum) and nori (dried seaweed) strips.  I also had white rice with dried brine shrimp.  You could see their tiny, tiny eyes, but they were still delicious.  Instead of tea, they served us the water the noodles were cooked in, chilled.  They’re buckwheat noodles, so it tasted like barley tea.

Then it was time to head out.  We went out through the shops from last time.  Arianna finally bought her parasol, Daniel and I got melon shaved ice and green tea ice cream, respectively, and we all wandered through the Miyazaki store again.  I stopped in one of the stores on the way back to the station, a gem shop which was a whole lot more expensive than I thought it was last time.  The larger pieces had six zeroes.

We parted ways at Hirakatashi-eki.  Before boarding my bus (since I’d just missed one), I ran to Book Off and picked up the next two volumes of the series I bought Saturday, Wild Half.  Then it was back home, ramen salad for dinner and sleep.

I showed Okaasan today’s pictures and helped her transfer her own pictures to her laptop (luckily it has a card reader, because her cord doesn’t seem to work and she doesn’t have the CD for it) as well as gave her the link to this blog.  She decided she’ll use it to practice her English.

The ukiyo-e prints I bought.