Friday Update

Yesterday I was pretty busy, so sorry I didn't update.

Typhoon 13, also called Typhoon Sinlaku, moved through the area yesterday, although we only caught the very edge of it. Yesterday was cloudy, rainy, and breezy all day, but that was about it. Pretty disappointing for my first typhoon. But apparently it really slammed Taiwan, and I think the Kanto region (the area around Tokyo) got hit this morning. In any case, I got all excited about a downpour. Oh well, maybe next time.

I had my speaking class yesterday morning, and it was uneventful, except that I was about two minutes late. I blame the rain. I found the health center on campus and introduced myself to the nurse, just in case I get sick.

After lunch I had art history, where we learned about the Shaka Triad, a really important bronze statue in the Horyuji, a temple fairly near us. I really want to go see it now. Also, we learned about the Yumedono Kannon, a really neat statue also at Horyuji. It's only on display for a few weeks at the end of October and it's what I really want to see, so I'll probably wait until it's open to visit Horyuji. It turns out that the Yumedono Kannon is the statue that Ernest Fenollosa famously had the Horyuji priests uncover when he visited Japan during the Meiji Era on his quest for "lost Japanese art." Very cool.

In Japan in Western Film and Literature, we watched Lost in Translation. I did not like it. It was depressing and boring and not at all insightful, I thought. We watched it to look for elements of anti-Japanese sentiment, which weren't as bad as I had expected, although some scenes were still really frustrating. If you take it with a grain of salt, though, the film does have some nice shots of "Japanese types of places," if I can say that. The clubs, the restaurants, the hotels, the street scenes--all that has been pretty consistent with what I've seen. I do, though, resent that Scarlett Johansson called a Buddhist temple a shrine, and espectially that the movie implies that Japan today is a false Japan, and the Japanese should be doing ikebana and kendo instead of surfing. In any case, turn off the sound for a nice montage of Japanese landscapes, but other than that, don't bother. I did not enjoy the film.

After class I came home, napped, showered, went out to eat with Jessica at a nearby place called Zenya, where I had some pretty good yakisoba. We then met up with some people and went to Big Wave for more karaoke. I got back at about 2:00AM, and that was my Friday.

It's Saturday afternoon now, and I'm about to head out to explore Makino a little on my own. It's just a short bike ride up the river, and I'd like to see what's there.