Day of Fried Things on Sticks

Happy Halloween! Not that today felt like it much to me, although the weather has finally begun to act like late October. The big news today, instead of Halloween, which the gaijin did celebrate in their own way, was Gaidai Sai.

Gaidai Sai is our school’s culture festival, much like the one I went to a Momoko’s school. It started today, and will be running all weekend. Like the other bunkasai, this one featured many small booths selling food run by the various clubs on campus. Everything was decorated, with crepe-papered windows, banners hanging from buildings, and even an intricate paper mural of dancing elephants posted on the auditorium stairs. Very cool. So in my two free hours after speaking class (which several people skipped, probably to be at the festival) I walked around with Jessica from Witt and explored the festivities.

College students are much more aggressive than middle school students about selling their products. You really can’t go more than ten feet without getting accosted by someone in an outrageous costume asking you to buy their club’s particular fried-thing-on-a-stick. Eventually I stopped listening to the sales pitches and just smiled in a vaguely “I’m pretending I don’t speak a word of Japanese” kind of way. So it was fun, but very loud and crowded. I was glad when Leslie and Jacinthe got out of class, because the four of us had lunch at McDonald’s, and it was nice to get away from the main crowd. Unfortunately, McDonald’s was packed with families with small children, because the festival is open to everyone so a lot of the campus neighbors come.

Art today was pretty cool; we’re studying the Fujiwara, or Late Heian, Period, which is a really interesting time for me. In particular, we talked about the Byōdō-in, so it was cool to get the history behind a place I’ve visited.

In Film and Literature today we watched a couple of cartoons from World War II. First was "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips," which was the most horrifically offensive thing imaginable. Bugs Bunny—the Bugs Bunny, like in Space Jam!—was on an island in the Pacific selling fudgecicles embedded with live grenades to identical, monkey-like Japanese soldiers, saying, “Here’s one for you, Bow-Legs! Here you are, Slant-Eyes!”

Later we watched a Popeye cartoon called "You're a Sap, Mr. Jap!" where a small fishing boat turns out to be but a small part of a submerged Japanese warship run by a group of, again, identical, monkey-like Japanese men who keep saying things like, “Vely solly, vely solly.” Then we contrasted it with another disturbing, albeit in a different way, reinterpretation of "The Three Little Pigs” called "Blitz Wolf" in which Adolf Wolf wages war against the pigs. There were no racist caricatures of the Germans, only specific jibes at Hitler. It was interesting. Also, there was some really bizarre phallic imagery going on. Not sure what that was about.

On the way home I grabbed some mediocre takoyaki from a booth at the culture festival. I took a nap, and got ready for the evening. With it being Halloween, especially, I wasn’t going to stay in on a Friday night. So William and I had planned to round up some friends and meet for karaoke at 7:00. Too bad neither of us could find other people to come! Luckily, right when we met up we saw a group of our friends who happened to be off on their own karaoke mission, so we joined them and headed to Hirakatashi for singing at a place called Ring. Like I said, many of the foreign students were celebrating Halloween, so for this outing Chris was dressed as what he said was a raccoon but what I think was a red panda. Tammy and Jamie were maids, and we also had a cat. Jamie, being a guy, had to get me to readjust his sock-stuffed bra for him. Oh, Halloween....

Drinks are expensive at Ring, so we stopped first at this pretty cool izakaya where everything costs ¥280. We got a few cheap drinks each and split some bar food. (Really, I think I’ve eaten more fried-things-on-sticks today than I have ever before in my life.) The French fries were good, and so was the thing that tasted like meatballs with mayonnaise. We also got something that I suspect was fried chicken skins on a stick, although I didn’t try it so I’m not sure. By the time we finished eating and were ready to head upstairs to the karaoke place, about half of us, including me, were ready to go home. So I took the bus back with Brian, showered, and now here I am.

I’m getting up early tomorrow so I can go to Nara (or, as Dad has taken to calling it, Narnia) to see the deer in the park, go to the annual Shōsōin exhibition at the art museum, and see Tōdaiji. I’m pretty wiped out because I also woke up early today for a Skype date with David, so I think I’m going to go to bed now.

In which Grandpa has a smackdown with Martin Sheen

Classes today went normally, and I really have nothing much to say about that. But because Halloween is tomorrow, we had a big costume contest in the Center for International Education, the building where all the international students have classes and hang out. It was pretty funny. Lots of guys wearing schoolgirl uniforms or maid’s outfits. I also saw Goofy, a mouse, Spiderman, Stitch, Pikachu, a Christmas tree, various witches, and several ninja. The best part of the day was when Max, a guy in my writing class, came in just a bit late wearing a short black dress and dead person makeup. He’s Russian, and as he took his seat next to Dave he said in his awesome accent, “Ooh, can I sit by you, handsome exchange student? I am dead lady.” It was completely hilarious, and totally got us off track in class. Sensei was very good about it all, too, and humored us greatly.

This afternoon I went to the library and finished my research for my art paper, so that’s good. I have also decided that instead of going to Nara on Saturday like I had planned, I will go on Sunday. This will allow me to go to the Kansai Gaidai culture festival on Saturday. I originally hadn’t realized what a big deal the festival was, but now I see that it’s going to be huge. I thought it was mainly a bunch of international students goofing off in dance contests, but it turns out that the whole school has pitched in and it’ll be like Momoko’s bunkasai, but bigger. I’m pretty pumped. And Monday is a national holiday so we have no class, so it’s okay if I shuffle my schedule around a bit.

I’m not sure what I’m doing for Halloween tomorrow. I don’t have a costume, although I might be able to throw something together quickly. I’m in a karaoke mood, having not been out in probably a month. I’m ready for a bit of a party.

My sister is sick, apparently, and she had an allergic reaction to the medicine they gave her for the bronchitis. She was supposed to leave for her junior retreat this morning, too. I really hope she was feeling well enough to go. Send her good get well vibes, if you can, okay? What horrible timing—she just had a birthday, she’s going on retreat, and Halloween is coming! Poor kid.

I made some pizza toast for supper, and it was pretty disappointing. It just didn't have much flavor. I had bought a small pack of shredded mozzarella and an individual serving of pizza sauce, put it on a piece of bread, and cooked it in the toaster oven. But I'm very, very picky about pizza, and if it's not from an identifiable national brand I generally don't like it. Sorry, but homemade pizza just isn't my thing. So I don't think I'll be making my own pizza toast again, although when I went out to eat with Jessica a while back I really enjoyed the sweet potato pizza toast I got.

I took a nap today and had a really strange dream. Martin Sheen was the president, like in The West Wing, and he was trying to kill Grandpa Passafiume or vice versa; I don’t remember exactly. I also have no idea why. And then Nancy Pelosi tried to shut off the sun with this lever, which would make global warming speed up (!?) so glaciers would melt and water levels would rise, and all that would be left of the United States of America would be the Seven United States of Northern Mexico. But then Pelosi wasn’t Pelosi, she was the mom from Edward Scissorhands, and I cut off her finger to stop her from shutting off the sun, and she drove herself to a hospital in a soccer mom van. Then I was living in this house with a dog who was hiding the severed finger, and all these people who go to school with me at Kansai Gaidai came home from working at Sandy’s Pet Shop. Then I woke up. And yes, I remember all those details, including the new name of the reduced-size US. What a weird dream!

Um, what happened today?

I'm at that point right now where I'm like, "Is it still today? Why am I awake? What did I do today?" So now I will try to remember. I've just been working really hard of homework for about the last five hours, so my brain is a bit squishy right now.

Um, let's see...it's Wednesday, so I must have gone to speaking class this morning. Oh yeah! The Hazing Chapter continued. Today we learned to give curt commands. Then I came home for a really nice Skype date with David. I went back to school for an udon lunch, and then had art history where we learned about Fujiwara court arts, including the Tale of Genji Scroll. Also, Dr. Hlawatsch postponed our art paper due date by a week, so that was a nice relief. This afternoon I came home, cleaned and vacuumed the room, and napped. I had curry rice and tomatoes for supper, and worked on my psych paper all evening.

And my ribs on my left side are driving me crazy right now, so I'm going to go lay down and try to sleep it off. Ouch. I need a back massage.

How to Haze in Japanese, and Other Lessons

Today I got a lot done that I needed to do, and it wasn’t as stressful as I had anticipated.

Speaking class today went normally. We're now learning causative verbs, which is confusing because in Japanese "I force someone to do" and "I allow someone to do" are said the same. The book's examples are funny, though, in a sick sort of way; I'm calling this lesson Chapter 22: The Hazing Chapter. There was this whole exercise we did where you are an older student on the tennis team and you have to make sentences like "I make my underlings do my laundry," or "I make the first years run up the hill." Not okay!

Afterward, I checked my mail and found that my absentee ballot had arrived! So I hurried off to lunch in the small cafeteria and ate curry rice as I voted. I was so happy that the paperwork had come in time. Although earlier information said that they needed to have the ballot a week before the election, the sheet this time said it needs to be at the County Clerk’s by 6PM on Election Day. As soon as I finished eating, I ran to the post office and mailed it, so hopefully I’ll be in Kentucky on time. It has seven days and 6.5 hours (not counting the fall time change and International Date Line; I’m not sure how that changes things) to make it from Hirakata to Louisville, because I mailed it at 11:30PM. Filling in that little bubble next to Obama’s name, using my #2 pencil and making my mark heavy and dark being careful to leave no stray marks on the ballot, was the proudest vote of my life. I’m really excited about him as a leader. I really, really hope he wins.

Anyway, I had just enough time to make it back to campus for my noon reading and writing class. I really like that class; Kawahara-sensei is young and hip and a lot of fun, and my classmates have a great sense of humor. Plus, I just love learning kanji. It’s like being back in second grade learning cursive, where you have to trace the lines in your handwriting book. (I never liked writing those silly cursive capital Xs, though. Really, does anyone actually write an X like that, with the hook and loop thing going on? I’ve never seen it.)

In Asian Psych today we had our midterm debate. I was on the Taoist team, and I had one minute to answer the question “What Is Pathology?” from a Taoist viewpoint. After everyone had answered their questions from the three psychological systems we’ve studied, we had to address the other groups and tell them why they’re wrong. That part was fun; some of us, including me, got pretty into it. I said that the Yogis and Buddhists are “Debbie Downers” and they “need to chill the heck out.” Yes, I used those terms, too, and Dr. Pawle and the rest of the class laughed. In any case, the debate went much more smoothly than I anticipated, considering how disorganized that class can be.

In Film and Literature we had our midterm exam, which was very easy. Ten matching, about 15 true/false, 25 multiple choice, two short paragraph answers, and some bonus fill in the blank questions. Not a problem, although true/false often trip me up because I overanalyze everything. In any case, I expect an easy A from that one.

Did some shopping at the QQ after stopping at the more convenient 7Eleven and realizing how overpriced everything was there. Sorry, but I’m not paying 298yen for six slices of bread, 7Eleven, when I can go down the street and get the same thing for a third of the price. At QQ I bought a yakisoba sandwich because I love carbs, and what’s better than fried noodles on bread? I had it for supper and it was kinda disappointing, though. The bread was that nice sweet tasting yellowish stuff that you often get at Easter time, and mixed with the soy sauce and ginger in the noodles, it just wasn’t my thing. A very good idea, though, and something that I could definitely eat in a pinch.

I’m now reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I really like it so far, and it’s a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while. It makes me a bit lonely, though, with its talking about all the women living together. I dunno; it’s a very AHS book in many ways, I think, and it makes me miss that women’s retreat community feel that Assumption was so good with. It's not something that's easy to come by in college, it seems.

Oh, remember how I said I can’t understand Japanese boys when they talk? Well, the other day when I Tomoko-san was taking me to her tutoring place, we were talking about American Japanese language classes. She mentioned that she doesn’t know of any men Japanese language teachers in the States. I don’t either! They’re all women, as far as I’ve seen. I mean, I know there are men out there who teach Japanese, but none are at Witt, and none of my friends’ high school teachers were men, and come to think of it I don’t believe Earlham has any men teachers either, nor Crane House. It’s interesting. Tomoko-san said, though, that because of that, whenever American guys speak Japanese they sound really feminine to her because those are the pronunciations and structures we’re used to hearing. So it seems that I’m not the only one who notices a difference between the speech of Japanese women, American women speaking Japanese, Japanese men, and American men speaking Japanese. That made me feel better. Also, I’m kinda laughing internally at Fedora, Mr. I-Want-to-Be-a-Samurai, because he probably sounds like a little girl and doesn’t know it. ^_^ Don’t tell him that, though.

Self-Cultivation Pictures

So, Photobucket won't let me post my photos of the Self-Cultivation trip. I don't know why. Anyway, I was able to put them on my Facebook page, so you can check them out there if you have a Facebook profile. Click here.

I'll work on getting things set so everyone can see them. Hmm, I hope this problem doesn't continue with the rest of my pictures, or I'll need another image hosting site.

Flying Pants, K.Y., and Fashion Atrocities

Today was another linen exchange day, which means that ten more days have passed. Time moves so quickly! Being linen day, I hung my futon out on the balcony to air out. I just think it’s good to let the mattress see some sun. It was windy, though, and my blanket blew off the railing, but luckily stayed on the balcony. My friend Brian, though, didn’t fare so well; he had some pants out to dry that blew off his balcony and onto the dorm roof. He had to get Otōsan to use this big pole with a hook on the end to fish them down. Pretty funny, I think. But that’s just because it didn’t happen to me. ^_^

We got our midterm exams back in my Japanese classes today; I got As on both of them, although I didn’t do as well as I had expected on the written part of the speaking exam. But I did really, really well on the spoken part, so that was really exciting.

Today I had lunch with Lou, Zach, Ann (the girl who looks like Corinne), and two friends of Lou’s whom I hadn’t met before. It was nice to meet the new people, whose names I don’t remember, but one is from Costa Rica and the other Nicaragua. They were really nice. One of the Americans who will remain anonymous, though, was a bit kūki yomenai, so that wasn’t fun. They kept awkwardly bringing up this date they had and basically spent a good deal of time insulting the whole Japanese system of learning English. Uncomfortable, but oh well.

That phrase, kūki yomenai—I don’t think I’ve explained it, but it’s very useful. It literally means “can’t read the air,” which means that you can’t tell that you’re making other people uncomfortable. So let’s say someone on a bus is telling a rambling, inappropriate story that goes on for ages in a voice that’s a little too loud. The people around Awkward Person might whisper to one another, “K. Y.,” short for kūki yomenai to basically mean, “Well, this is awkward, isn’t it?”

Today was actually a bit chilly with the wind, so I bought a chai latte after lunch to drink while studying and was actually fairly disappointed with it. I dunno, it was too much latte and not enough chai. But I bought some chai the other day at the grocery, so that might be nice to have when it gets really cold. I won’t be spending any more money on lousy chai lattes from the Seattle’s Best on campus, though.

Oh, I finally did it. I’m so ashamed. I bought leggings. ::facepalm:: I do not like leggings; I think they’re just awkward unless you’re Robin Hood or something. And Tim Gunn agrees with me; check out that episode of Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style from last season, when he shrieks when a woman wears leggings. Now, I suppose I can understand the need to wear them under sweater dresses and stuff. But if you just made the dresses dress-length instead of questionably short, there’d be no reason for the leggings! I don’t quite get it. But still, I don’t have many winter clothes here and it’s starting to get to be jacket and long pants weather, so I decided it was time to make the dreaded purchase. I am now the un-proud owner of a pair of black leggings that come down to my mid-calf, and I wore them today under my jeans skirt. One thing I will say that’s good about them, though: it’s nice not to have to worry about flashing everyone while riding a bike in a skirt.

Tomorrow I have my midterm exam in Film and Fiction, as well as a short presentation during our class debate in Asian Psychologies. Both should go fairly well.

A small novel about my day

As planned, today I got up early and went to Kyōto for yet another round of sightseeing. Not as planned, the 30% chance of rain turned into a day-long miserable drizzle.

Once again, I missed my bus by about two minutes, and because it was so early on a Sunday morning, I was going to have to wait quite a while for the next one. Well, I suppose fifteen minutes isn’t all that bad, but it’s a long time to stand in the rain and stare at the passing cars. So I walked two bus stops down just to give me something to do, and the bus eventually caught up to me. After an uneventful train ride, I arrived in downtown Kyōto at this big bus terminal. It took me a while to find the proper bus stop, and—big surprise—right as I found it the bus pulled away. With my newly gained fifteen minutes, I purchased a mixed fruit juice drink from a vending machine and snacked on the little packet of Pocky I had brought while I waited for the next bus.

Okay, this was like the longest bus ride EVER, I have to say. I knew that my destination was a fair way from downtown, but really! I was on the bus for at least half an hour, probably closer to 45 minutes. I was going to two places today—Kinkaku-ji, and Ryōan-ji. Both were on the same bus route, so I planned to overshoot whichever came first and get off at the second one, so I’d know if they were within walking distance and how to get from one to another. We passed Kinkaku-ji first, so I sat on the bus until we got to Ryōan-ji.

After using the restroom (again, no soap), checking out the small tourist shops outside, and purchasing my ticket, I moved on into the Ryōan-ji complex. It’s a small collection of buildings situated within a big landscape garden, and in addition to being a huge tourist attraction, it’s a working temple. That means that, although there are gift shops and all, there were a lot of places that you couldn’t enter because that’s where the monks live and such. Pretty cool. (By the way, just across the street from the temple is a convent of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.)

The first thing you come upon in the gardens is a beautiful pond with lily pads all over it nicknamed Oshidori-ike, or Mandarin Duck Pond. Apparently there used to be a lot of Mandarin ducks living there. In Chinese and Japanese folklore, these ducks mate for life, so this pond is now a popular date spot for Japanese couples! Very cute. I saw a bunch of ducks in the pond, but none of them were Mandarin. I also saw a bunch of couples holding hands. I don’t know if any of them were Mandarin; I think most were Japanese. ;)

Ooh, Eric and Andrew, I thought of you today! There’s this little island in the middle of the pond that I went out on. Guess what it’s called? Benten Island—like Ben 10! Do you still watch that show? I know you guys used to like it a lot. In Japanese stories, Benten is a goddess of luck, and she really likes snakes and dragons.

I then went into the main temple building, where Ryōan-ji’s famous rock garden is. It was really, really cool. The wood building is very simple, as you’ll see in the photos when I get them up, but very spacious. It also smelled good because of the rain and the wet wood and the incense. I started at the back of the main building, seeing the back gardens that were covered in the most beautiful moss. The rain really made everything so beautiful, dripping off the eaves and making the small streams swell. It was quiet and cool and lovely. And there’s nothing like seeing rainwater drip off a red Japanese maple leaf at a Zen temple. Pretty cool life experience, there.

One of the really cool things was the tsukubai, or wash basin, at the back of the main hall. It’s used, like all the other wash basins I’ve talked about, for ritual washing. What’s cool about this one is the inscription. Check out the picture; I’ll try to explain, but it’s hard because you need:

1.) an understanding of the Japanese writing system
2.) to be able to understand some fairly abstract Japanese words
3.) some sort of appreciation for “Dude, that’s so deep!” kinds of thoughts

I don’t really have much of any of these but #3, but I’ll try to get the point across.

Written alone, the characters on the outside of the basin don’t mean much. But if you pretend that the square in the center is a part of the characters, they become 吾, 唯, 足, 知. Each means “I,” “only,” “enough,” and “know.” So it’s like these nonsense words come together to say something like “I already have everything I need.” Sweet! I love stuff like that.

After that I went around to the front of the building, where there’s a porch-like area to sit and look at the karesansui garden. Basically, it’s some rocks in a giant sandbox surrounded by a mud wall. But it’s absolutely beautiful. I don’t know why. So very peaceful, though, to sit there and listen to the rain hitting the sand. It was very crowded, though, so it was hard to really pretend to be a 16th century monk. Still, I loved it. It’s probably the most famous garden in Japan, which probably makes it the most famous garden in the world, really, except maybe the grounds of Versailles. It’s so cool to get to see things in person that you’ve been seeing for years in textbooks.

Then I left the nice, dry main hall and went around the rest of the walking path. I am still so amazed at how very green Kyōto is. The moss, the lichens, the grass, everything is the most beautiful blue-green. It’s like Kentucky’s fields and forests at their most lush, or those gorgeous photos you see of Ireland. Today it felt like a rain forest, what with all the dripping and such. I took more than one picture today that is total Ferngully.

One thing of interest for me was the pagoda, which was, as far as I can tell in my limited knowledge of Southeast and East Asian architecture, in a very much Southeast Asian style. It looked like a Thai pagoda rather than a Japanese one; I wonder why? This is the first looking anything remotely like it that I’ve seen in Japan. Strange.

Anyway, after wandering and gawking at all the pretty, I went and had some nice warm tea and curry rice at one of the souvenir shops/restaurants and got nice and dry and cozy before leaving for Kinkaku-ji. Actually, at this point it was so much later than I had anticipated, and I was so tired of the rain, that I considered just going home. But the bus ride had been so long, and I was already right there, so I went on ahead for even more sightseeing. Unfortunately, on the bus from Ryōan-ji to Kinkaku-ji, I lost my balance when I was trying to get my fare from my wallet and kinda fell into an old lady. Oops. But she was very nice about it. It reminded me of a story in some of my old Sesame Street books where Grover is on the subway and he accidentally sits on a woman's lap.

Kinkaku-ji, like some of the other places I’ve talked about, was originally built as a nice home for a rich guy back in the day, and was later converted into a temple. The “Kinkaku” refers to the Golden Pavilion, the gilded three-storied structure sitting above a reflecting pond. Man, when they say Golden they do mean golden! I was amazed at how brightly it shone, even in the rain. At first I really didn’t like it, to be honest. It’s ridiculously gaudy. It grew on me, but still. It seems very much to me more in the Chinese aesthetic than the Japanese. But there are exceptions to everything, of course, and I do tend to think of Japanese art in terms of austerity, which certainly isn’t the whole picture.

Anyway, after getting my picture taken in front of the Pavilion and picking my way through the big crowds (lots of school groups, actually), I went along the winding walking path through the gardens. There were some really neat springs and shrines, and a pond high up on the hillside that made me really want to go fishing. There was also a waterfall called the Ryūmon Taki, which means Dragon Gate Waterfall. The name comes from an old parable that if a carp can jump over a waterfall it becomes a dragon. There was also a really cool tea room that you couldn’t enter but could look in. It was neat, having studied the tea ceremony and its aesthetics so much freshman year, to get to see that. Toward the end of the tour route there was a tea house that you are allowed to use, but I decided against it. Instead, I went into a souvenir shop and finally found something for Grandma! The last thing I saw was the hall dedicated to Fudō, the purification god who was featured at that mountain temple I went to last week.

And then I came back home, taking a super-packed bus on the long way back to the train station. On the bus I realized that hours of walking in the rain had caused my brown flip flops to leak their dye all over my feet, staining them red in places. Oops. When I got back to the dorm, I washed my feet and took a really nice nap.

I made myself something of a full meal for supper, so I’m pretty proud of that. I had cherry tomatoes, steamed cauliflower, and okonomiyaki with carrots in it. I can feed myself! I was very, very hungry this evening, though, and ate a lot of Choco-chippu.

Last week was crazy with my Japanese language midterms; this one will be really insane because of my afternoon culture classes. On Tuesday I have a debate and an exam; Thursday there are two papers due. Yuck. But hey, it keeps me off the streets, right?

Oh, about my spelling. Um, I know it looks really pretentious when I write Kyoto as “Kyōto” and all, so I’m kinda self-conscious about it. But that little line can actually make a really big difference in Japanese sometimes, and I like to be accurate when I can. (Example: yubi means “finger;” yūbi means “graceful, dainty.”) So, I’m sorry that I’m too much of a snob to write “Tokyo” instead of “Tōkyō,” but if you’re going off the original Japanese, it is an important distinction. Just wanted to let you know that I’m not trying to be ridiculous. And, in case you care, the line just makes the vowel long, so you hold the sound for longer than normal. Thus, “Tōkyō” is properly said with four counts: “toh-oh-kyoh-oh.” “Yubi” has two counts (yu-bi) and “yūbi” has three (yu-u-bi).

Homework and Cooking

Today was so productive! I'm really proud of myself.

After having a really nice chat with Erin and Nikki I got to talk to Mom and Dad bright and early in the morning. I had a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, and went back to bed at 8:00.

Around noon I woke up and headed to campus, where I sat outside and had some udon noodles, rice, and pumpkin croquette for lunch while I did some art history reading for the week. Then I went to the library, which was the main reason I had gone to school. I needed some more books for my art history paper that's due on Thursday, so I found them, did the reading in the library, organized all my papers in my files since the first half of the semester is over, and got ready to head out.

I wasn't able to check out the books, though, which was disappointing. Apparently international students are only allowed five books out at a time, and I've reached my limit. So I guess I'll have to just be a bit creative in how I put the information into my paper. It shouldn't really be a problem, but I was a bit surprised. Five books is not a lot for kids taking four college classes. I wonder why they have that restriction? It sounds like the Japanese students get to check out more than five books. Hmm....

Anyway, after that I swung by the grocery store on the way home. I've been trying to eat more veggies lately, so I shopped for a lot of produce. I found a nice package of fresh-sliced pineapple. The tomatoes were on sale, so I got three packs of cherry tomatoes to snack on. I've already eaten one pack. Yum! Much more nutritious than Choco-Chippu, too. I also found cauliflower for the first time here, so I grabbed a head and I plan on steaming it for a side dish sometime this week.

I also decided that I was going to try cooking some fish again. My problem last time was that I had to remove the scales, so I was determined to get a better fish this time. I actually ended up going for the sashimi quality stuff, because those were the biggest de-boned, de-scaled pieces of meat I could find. So--forgive me, foodies--I bought a beautiful slice of toro (fatty tuna belly), which I later totally "ruined" with a lovely marinade and some pepper. The fish ended up being delicious, really. I just felt a bit bad because toro is really such a nice, subtle fish; it was a shame to be slathering it in soy sauce and garlic, really, but it was delicious when cooked. I think I shall do it again. The fish is a bit expensive; for my single serving it was about $4. But still, it was nice to be eating some protein that's not an egg sandwich, and considering that a tuna steak in the States would be about $15 at a restaurant, I'd say it's not too bad.

I was unsure if I would do any sightseeing this weekend, but I have decided to go to Kyōto (again!) tomorrow. This time I'm going to see Kinkakuji and Ryōan-ji. Both these places are really big tourist draws. Around this time of year things get especially crowded at Kinkakuji because of the beautiful leaves, so I'm going to get up early and try to do the whole thing before lunch so it's not too crowded. So it's an early bedtime for me tonight. Tomorrow I'll let you know how the temples were.

Oh, I'm still working on getting pictures uploaded from last week's trip to Kyōto; I've been having some technical difficulties with Photobucket.

Ambush Skyping

Heeheehee...don't tell my sister, but I'm about to birthday!ambush her on Skype. It's 6:30AM here on a Saturday, but Nikki and I have conspired to get her in front of a computer so I can tell her happy birthday. She turns 17 on Sunday, and they're celebrating tonight. Nikki has even decorated the chair and the computer, so it's like a real birthday party! Hmm, I wish I had a hat or something. I don't look very festive; I look like it's 6:00 Saturday morning. Ooh, here they come! Got to go!

Midterms

Today has been really, really nice.

Because of midterms I didn't have class until noon, so this morning when I woke up I was able to have a fantastic Skype date with David, which was a great way to start the day. Then I went to campus and had a bowl of noodles for a really early lunch while I reviewed one last time for art.

My writing midterm was pretty easy, I thought; I definitely kicked its butt, particularly the first page. It was interesting, though, how we took it. All the Level 3 kids took the same exam in the same huge room, although we normally are split up into six different classes. There were a lot of us! I was really surprised. Anyway, the test took me the whole hour to complete, which is longer than I usually take with these things, but I was going slowly and checking my answers and being careful, so it doesn't surprise me that it took a while.

And as soon as I spilled out of that midterm, I headed down the hall for my art exam. This was basically the most sensible test I have ever taken in my life. The professor gave us nice worksheet-type papers to write our responses on, so I had a good idea of how long he wanted us to write. Much less intimidating that those blue books. (Don't get me started on those--Why are the lines spaced so big? We're not in fourth grade, we can handle college-ruled paper, people! And really, profs, I know they're handy, but how long do you want our responses to be? Please tell us. Paragraph? Fill up two blue books? And why blue? Are there green books? Is there one blue book company, or many competing companies? Why do all colleges use them, but I never used on in high school?) There were few questions, they all had clear answers that we had frequently reviewed in class, and there wasn't an excessive amount of writing or detail required. It was a really good review test, I thought. I do feel like I over-studied for it a lot, what with my flashcards and charts, but that's okay. Now I just know more about Japanese art than you do. ^_^

My last class--and my only testless one today--was Film and Fiction. Today we watched excerpts from Know your Enemy: Japan, another Capra propaganda film from 1945. It was amazing effective and offensive. Particularly disturbing was the "pounding the humanity out of children" montage of little Japanese boys in PE classes, playing during recess, going to the doctor, and doing martial arts clubs, mingled in with images of military officers barking orders and the loud banging of iron work in a smithy. It was really very disturbing, especially considering it was released on the very day that we bombed Nagasaki.

After class, since I hadn't properly eaten lunch, I grabbed a fish sandwich from McDonald's before leaving school, napped, and here I am.

On the way home from school, on the same street where I had my accident yesterday but in a different spot, a motorcycle had a wreck. I came upon it afterward, when the person who had crashed was up and moving about with a bloodied finger, and several of the neighbors and other bystanders were helping him right his bike. It looks like he just took a turn too fast and crashed into a pile of flowers and cinderblocks. He was okay, and so was his bike. Still, it freaked me out, and I'm thinking of walking more rather than biking in the near future.

Also, I forgot to mention that the other day there was a small green tree frog stuck to the outside of my dorm's main sliding glass door. It was pretty cool. Red-Eyed Tree Frog Man, anyone?

Bike Crash and Tutoring

Well, I’m pooped after today.

On the way to school I had a bike accident. It was raining so I was riding with my umbrella, which makes me unstable. I was going down one of the narrow neighborhood streets and a car came up behind me. I pulled over to let it pass me, and I kinda freaked out because I started to wobble, and I fell off my bike into the street. Luckily there were no other cars or anything, because it was kinda dramatic. I just laid there for a moment, more surprised than anything. I must have scared the poor driver out of her wits, though. She stopped and got out of the car to make sure I was okay, and helped me get my bike back upright. I wasn’t hurt, really, except for a scrape on my right wrist, and I hurt one of my fingernails and now there’s blood caked under it. It was pretty embarrassing, though, and since it was rainy and wet out I had gotten mud all over my jeans and nice yellow sweater, and there was blood on my white cami. I also realized later that there had been some mud on my face that I wasn’t aware of for a while.

Anyway, I made it to class on time for the written section of my speaking midterm, which went very well, I think. There were one or two points I didn’t know, but in a 70 point test I think that’s okay. Mostly, at that point I was glad to be drying inside and not squished on the road.

I went to the small cafeteria for some more beef curry for lunch today and sat upstairs, which was a nice and secluded spot to study my art cards.

Asian Psych went well today; we had a review class, which will be helpful for next week’s midterm debate and paper.

After classes, I went to tutor back at that little school. It was the same kids, so that was nice, having familiar faces. Today we talked about different kinds of toys and how to say “I have a…” and Halloween. I got back on campus at about 7:00 and had some udon for supper in the cafeteria. I also tried a kabocha croquette, which was a really tasty fried pumpkin cake, rather similar to a hash brown or a hush puppy.

Tomorrow I have midterms in art history and reading/writing Japanese, but I’m not really worried about either. I’m going to study a little bit tonight, and then go to bed early.

Night Post

Really, I'm very glad we didn't go to the onsen today. It started raining around lunch time which would have made travel very inconvenient. Also, I was able to use the free time this afternoon to get a lot of homework done.

I took a nap this afternoon, went to Sachi for some mōdan yaki for supper, and made a really good chart to study for my art history midterm on Friday. It was a very productive day as far as studying goes.

Tomorrow I have the written part of my speaking midterm (sounds confusing, right?) I opened my textbook to study, but I realized that I feel pretty confident about it all. I'll probably regret it in the morning, but I'm not really worrying about it now. I'll review a few grammar points tomorrow, but I'm not going to sweat this one.

Also tomorrow I'm going back to that little school to tutor those kids. I'm bringing them a set of plastic play American money, so hopefully that will be of use to them. I had bought it as a souvenir for any kids my homevisit family might have, but they're all too old for that, so I had to give it to someone.

And I'm yawning right now, so I'll take that as a sign that I should go to bed. Goodnight.

Morning Post

Today will probably be a Two Update Day. This is because Japanese language midterms have shuffled our morning schedules around this, giving me large swaths of free time at unexpected moments. Also, several Interesting Things have already happened, so I thought I should write about them.

First, my chronic stomach problem is under better control right now than it has been in months, at least. This is good, and it means I can start coming down off my troublesome side effect medicine.

When I woke up this morning, I realized that I had just had a dream about Mrs. Spalding, my sixth grade homeroom teacher and science teacher throughout junior high school. For some reason I ran across her in Japan, and we had lunch together and talked about various things. She said that after OMOS closed, she went to teach English at Trinity. I don't think this is true, but that's how it was in the dream.

I received an email from Yukari this morning explaining that she's sick with a high fever, so we won't be going to the onsen today. I'm very sorry that she isn't feeling well, but I have to say that I'm a bit relieved not to do it today. I really do need that time this afternoon to study, and we can always go tot he hot springs another time. I just hope Yukari gets better soon.

On the way to school, there was a fuzzy black and orange caterpillar crossing the road. I nearly ran over him with my bike, but luckily I noticed what it was and was able to swerve and avoid him. But he was different from the black and orange fuzzy caterpillars we have in the States, the ones where you're supposed to be able to tell how long the winter will be. This one had a thin orange stripe down the length of his body, and he was kinda small. I don't know if he has weather predictive properties.

I had my oral exam for speaking class this morning. We were given a situation ("You're visiting your home visit family for the first time, and you were late because the bus didn't come.") and had to act it out for seven minutes in Sensei's office. So I went in at my assigned time slot, sat down, and did the situation. It went really well, I think: I started off with a polite introduction, explained my lateness, and answered all the follow-up questions Sensei asked. I definitely made some mistakes--there were some verbs I put in the wrong tense, and some vocab I forgot. Overall, though, I feel like I did really well. I didn't have long hesitation periods and I understood all of the questions. Being in Japan has really helped my conversation skills, I can tell. When we have done similar exams at Witt, I usually get really nervous and freeze up in front of Imai-sensei when I make a mistake. At this point, though, I'm so used to perplexing the Japanese with my weird misuse of their language that it doesn't bother me as much to correct myself as best I can and move on. I'm very proud of the progress I've made. I don't know what my grade will be like, but I feel very good about my performance today.

And now I am hungry and I have an hour and a half before my next class, so I'm off for some lunch.

More Daily Minutiae, and an Onsen

Gosh, Tuesdays are long. I’m exhausted. I arrived on campus about twenty minutes before class so I could grab some stuff from the convenience store, and went to speaking class. I have my oral midterm exam for that class tomorrow morning, and I’m a bit nervous. I have to go into Sensei’s office for seven minutes and carry on a conversation using keigo, all those complicated verb forms I wrote about a while ago. I just need to get myself to sit down and review; it shouldn’t be bad, really, as long as I don’t freak myself out.

I ate at the middle size of the three cafeterias today for lunch, which I really enjoyed. I had curry rice, and the portion was more filling than the curry rice I get at the other cafeteria. It was a bit more expensive, but worth it. Plus, this cafeteria sits in a nice garden area with pretty views, and it’s not as crowded as the other.

In reading/writing class after lunch, we reviewed for our midterm exam that will be on Friday. That one really shouldn’t be a problem at all; until now, everything in that class has been a review from last semester for me. Plus, I really like practicing my kanji and particles. It’s fun.

Asian Psych was frustrating today because we spent so much time going over the format of our midterm debate and paper projects that we barely got to any of the Taoism material. I really like this Taoism section, so that was disappointing. On the bright side, I got a 5/5 on my paper comparing translations of The Thirty Verses, and there were some really nice comments on my paper.

In Film and Fiction we talked about Japan leading up to WWII, and we watched The Battle of China, a Frank Capra propaganda film from the Why We Fight series. It was really interesting how they drew such clear lines between the gentle, cultured Chinese under attack from the savage Japanese collective warrior-state. Super interesting. It makes me wonder, though, sixty years from now what presently popular movies will be shown in film classes as examples of the horribly skewed nature of our present thinking.

It was 4:00 and I was finally done with class, so I grabbed a snack of some udon at the cafeteria, went to the QQ to grab some juice and eggs, and came home to nap. I had okonomiyaki and tater tots for supper, and now I’m here.

Yeah, so that was my day. Nothing really exciting to speak of. Now I’m going to study for that exam, I think.

Oh, tomorrow afternoon should be fun. At 2:30 I’m meeting Jessica, my friend from Michigan, and Yukari, my speaking partner, to go to a hot spring in nearby Ibaraki City. I’m a little nervous because:

1. I’ve never bathed in public, unless you count being like two years old and taking a sponge bath in the lake when camping
2. I’ve never been to a hot spring and I don’t know what it’ll be like
3. Yukari has been in charge of planning all of this, so I hope she knows what she’s doing. As a control freak, this is scary.
4. I don’t speak really good Japanese, and I’ll be with my speaking partner and the friends she’s bringing for a long time
5. I’m not exactly in the best physical shape and I’m pasty white with terrible tan lines and I need to shave my legs and I don’t particularly want to be standing there naked in front of people
6. I don’t know what to bring—Towel? Washcloth? Extra shoes? Soap?
7. I hear that the water at these places is really, really hot, and I don’t want to burn myself
8. Sitting in near-boiling water with naked strangers who could be talking about me in Japanese and I wouldn’t know it just inherently has the potential to be awkward

But hot springs were one of the things I was most looking forward to doing in Japan, and it’ll be a nice little day trip. I think we’re going to have dinner after the soak, so that should be fun, too. I’m just really, really thankful Jessica is coming! Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Oh, and last night I got to talk to Betsy on Skype. She's doing really well and having a total blast here, like I knew she would. Yay! It was so nice to see her. I really miss sitting in her room in Polis and watching Good Luck!! and being really goofy together at half apps and such. ;_; Miss you, Betsy!

Um, please send me emails and comments and such. I didn't get a single non-spam email today. Please? I wanna hear from you!

Countdown, Fashion Rant, and Politics

I leave for home two months from today on Saturday, December 20.

I had my two Japanese classes this morning, and I kicked a kanji quiz’s butt. We also started talking a little about our midterm exams, which will happen at the end of the week. It’s changing our class schedule a bit, which is confusing. Oh well.

I had some udon and curry rice for lunch, and ate outside at the student center while I reviewed for art history. Instead of getting a Coke to drink, though, I tried the melon Fanta for the first time. It was really good, but super sweet. Bright green, too, like green apple Jones Soda.

After lunch I went to the library and got four books to start doing research for my short art history paper that’s due next week. I’ll be writing about four pages on a portrait of Shōtoku Taishi, an Asuka Period prince who became an important culture hero. It should be fairly interesting, reading the legends about him. Plus, the essay isn’t very research-oriented, so I get to spend a lot of time talking about my personal reaction to the painting. Yay for opinion papers!

They say that there’s a stage in the culture shock process where you get angry about the new culture. I think some of that hit me today. Well, I’ve been kinda irritable recently because of “SDs,” as Erin would say, but this was different, I think.

I was walking back to my bicycle and I saw all the Japanese girls looking so cute with their high heeled furry boots and leggings and berets and miniskirts and Louis Vuitton purses and blonde highlights and fake eyelashes, and I just got really mad. I kept thinking, “For crying in the mud, you’re going to CLASS, not a dance club.” They overdo it so much. It’s one thing to not be in your pajamas in public; that bothers me about American college students, how they always look like they just rolled out of bed. (Brush your hair and put on a sweater, dang it! Have some respect for your profs—they’re wearing real pants and so should you.) But really, walking through the cafeteria at school is like being at a fashion show. When I first got here I found it amusing; then I felt like a slob because I don’t dress like that; now I’m just mad about it.

Really, when I think about how much money all that stuff costs…it’s ridiculous. Seriously, clothes here are very, very expensive. Like $40 at least for a regular shirt that you’d wear every day. And the style now is to wear lots of layers, which makes things complicated. For me to buy a normal outfit like these girls wear, with boots, leggings, a skirt, a camisole, a shirt, a sweater, a necklace, and a hat—that’s a standard, just going to class outfit—would cost me at least $350 at a regular store. That’s not going upscale, either. And ALL the girls dress like this EVERY day. I can’t imagine. I think it’s sickening. I feel bad for the men, really. All the women are obviously trying so hard; how do boys know what their girlfriends look like under all that eye shadow and hairspray? Really, it makes me mad. I’ve never been much a fan of heavy makeup and personal adornment, and this goes beyond any of the gaudiness I saw at grade school mixers. Maybe that’s the problem. Mostly, though, I think I’m starting to look for things that bother me here.

Because when I went to get my bicycle out of the parking area, there was a security guard there who helped me get my bike out because someone, once again, had parked way too close to me and I was having trouble. But it was weird, I was more frustrated with the helpful security guard than anything. I kept thinking, “Wow, this is the best thing you have to do? Help gaijin disentangle their bikes?” And he was trying to make nice conversation and asking me about the weather in my home country, but I was just angry at that point. (Actual thought that went through my head: “Um, yeah, it’s autumn in America too. Wow, hemispheres work like that! Sheesh.”)

It was very strange. Normally I really like people and have a fair amount of patience, but apparently not today. It makes me kinda sad. I hope this mood stops soon. I don’t like being critical of things people aren’t actually trying to do wrong. I’ll chalk it up to PMS, culture shock, and prednisone.

Anyhow, then I returned home, finished reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and napped. I was able to shake off the crabby mood, too. Mondays are nice for me, because I finish with everything at 11:50AM, and I usually have all my homework done over the weekend.

Around supper time I headed back to campus, picked up some McDonald’s, and went to the screening of the third presidential debate. I’m such an American, eating a cheeseburger in front of CNN! Haha, oh well. See the bottom of this post for my reactions to the debate. Let’s just say I’m going to be very proud to cast my vote for Obama.

After the debate, I printed off some notes for psych class tomorrow, returned Incident at the library and checked out The Red Tent to read in my free time, and came home. And that’s been about it for the evening.

Oh, I finished choosing the nonpartisan candidates in the judicial races, so as soon as my ballot arrives in the mail I’ll be able to quickly fill it out and return it. I actually feel fairly well-educated about most of these races. Unfortunately, I usually wait until the day before the election to do any really looking into the issues, which is a Bad Thing. But I was considerably more responsible this time, which makes me feel good.

Regarding the final presidential debate

First I have to say that I absolutely adore Colin Powell, and you wouldn’t believe how happy his endorsement of Obama made me. He’s such an eloquent, intelligent person with a level head. I have so much respect for him. And I’m so glad he finally made the point that’s been bothering me for so long: No, Obama isn’t Muslim, but so what if he were?

Okay, so I missed the first debate, but I saw the VP one (highly amusing), the second one (meh), and this one. They were definitely saving the best for last! I particularly liked the format of this one. I liked that the candidates could address each other, and they had lots of time to fully explain their stances. I thought Bob Schieffer did a really good job, too, of keeping them civil and on track while allowing them time for details. And I thought it was important that they got to rather air their dirty laundry, especially with Obama carefully explaining his non-involvement on the ridiculous non-issue of Ayers.

McCain was so obviously on the attack. Which was fine; it made thing interesting. I rather wish, though, that he had come out swinging like this earlier in the campaign. Not that the negativity is pleasant, and he spent so much energy being aggressive that he wasted valuable expository time, but his directness forced some good explanations. And Joe the Plumber? Brilliant move. I feel really sorry for the poor guy, who’s being hounded and analyzed like you wouldn’t believe. But a really elegant strategic play on McCain’s part, keeping a named individual a central issue in the debate. Very smart. And this was classic: “Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”

But Obama, characteristically, handled it all with supreme skill. His responses were even, well thought-out, and on-topic. His demeanor was very reassuring, in contrast to McCain’s almost spastic grasping for attack points. He has grown so much from being an upstart speaker from Illinois; he looks like President Obama now. And he’s someone I’d be proud to say I support, which is nice considering my entire conscious political life until this moment has been spent under the glory that is Dubya's supreme ineptitude. Obama wasn’t perfect, though. One thing that bothered me was his assertion that 100% of McCain’s ads have been negative. Obviously, obviously not true. And he severely downplayed his involvement with Acorn, according to the facts checkers.

Still, highly entertaining as these things go, and Obama undoubtedly won. I don’t think McCain did badly, but he definitely got shown up. It’s uphill for him now, and you can see the strain.

Not much

Today was wonderfully productive, yet wholly uneventful in terms of excitement. It was the perfect Sunday.

I slept in until 11, read a really nice email from David, put my laundry in the wash, had an egg sandwich for lunch, made flash cards for my art history midterm exam, chatted on AIM with Alex, got all the laundry folded and put away, did some pleasure reading, fixed some hash browns and pizza toast for supper, and had a nice shower.

Since not much else went on today, I will now dump various thoughts on you.

• My former roommate, Sure (yes, I’m fairly certain at this point that that’s her name), who had been in a wheelchair after falling off a bike, got her cast removed. She can now walk about the dorm without crutches. I imagine she’ll still be wheeled to school, but I was glad to see her regaining mobility. Suika, her new roomie, did a really good job of taking care of her. They’re really good friends, I think.
• Today around 6PM my whole body started shaking. It was really weird. My muscles were hurting a lot after doing the zazen sitting and then hiking up a mountain, so I’m not sure if that was the problem or what. I didn’t feel particularly weak or sick or anything, but all my muscles were kinda twitchy, especially my back and arms; even my face was shaky. It was very bizarre. I wasn’t hungry or anything, so I’m not sure what the problem was. I drank some water, and it stopped shortly afterward. It hasn’t come back since. Probably it was a combination of drinking too much Coke, not having enough water, straining myself yesterday, and not having properly eaten fruits and veggies in a while. So tomorrow I’m going to be sure to get some fruit with lunch to make sure I’m getting some vitamins. Man cannot live on udon alone.
• You would not believe the murses that guys carry around here! It’s amazing. Half the time I can’t tell if a man is holding his girlfriend’s purse while she’s in the bathroom, or if he just has a really fabulously stylish bag of his own. Some of them have pink on them; some of them have really intricate pocket systems. We’re not talking about manly messenger bags or practical briefcases here, either. These are full blown murses/man bags/European carry-alls. I’ll have to take some pictures. It’s men of all ages, too, and in all kinds of places: malls, around school, in train stations. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…it’s just not something I’m used to seeing in the States.

Kyōto Self-Cultivation Field Trip

Today was my field trip with my Asian Psychologies class to Kyōto. We visited various “places of self-cultivation.” The idea is that while Western religions can be described as faith-based, often Asian religions are better described practice-based, with elements of faith and ethics usually separated from ritual. (This is why Japanese people see absolutely no problem with one person having a Shintō birth celebration, a Christian wedding, and a Buddhist funeral; it's all about the merits of the ritual itself, not the belief behind it.) Therefore, anything, if done with care, can become a means of improving self and society. So today we went to places where practitioners of various Japanese religions and worldviews do their thangs. It was very cool.

I was determined—determined, I tell you—NOT to miss the 9:22 bus from the library. I always, always see it leaving me in the dust by about thirty seconds, and it wasn’t going to happen again today. So I set off plenty early, and caught the bus on time. Success! Additionally, I met up with my friends Lauren and Daniel from Psych on the bus, so it was nice having company.

We arrived at Hirakatashi-eki with plenty of time to stop at a convenience store and buy some bentō for lunch. I got a thing of yakiudon, and when I was paying for it the employee asked a question that I didn’t understand, so I said yes. Turns out he asked if I wanted the noodles heated up, so I ended up with microwaved noodles that I didn’t intend to eat for about three more hours. But it ended up being a good thing, because as we were waiting for the rest of our group to arrive at the station, I realized I was really hungry, so I just had the noodles for breakfast and planned on buying another bentō when we arrived in Kyōto.

When our group—Dr. Pawle and twelve students—arrived in Kyōto, our first stop was a small Zen Buddhist hermitage of the Rinzai sect run by an American professor named Jeff Shore. It was a small, simple place, off a side street near Gion. Really, it looked just like any other building on the street, and when you entered, sure enough, it was basically a regular traditional Japanese house. We left our shoes in the genkan and sat on cushions in a tatami room, where Jeff explained the proper body posture and breathing practices for zazen, or meditation. Then we sat for about fifteen minutes, which was very interesting.

I wasn’t uncomfortable; I was sitting on a convenient stool that made seiza actually doable, and the room was a nice temperature. But it’s hard to sit perfectly still for fifteen minutes! I kept wanting to move my shoulders around, or let my eyes close too much. Really, though, my body wasn’t the problem. My mind was crazy, though! It’s really, really hard to not think about anything. Every time a car went by—which was often, and the walls were thin—I noticed it. That’s not a bad thing according to this school of Buddhism, but the way I was noticing the things around me wasn’t conducive to anything good. Every time I had a thought, I’d be like, “Okay, a thought; now let’s not think.” Then a few minutes later, I’d be like, “Hey, I’m not thinking! Wait a minute, now I'm thinking about not thinking. Dang it!” It was all very frustrating. I guess that’s why people spend their whole lives getting good at this kind of thing. But fifteen minutes was plenty long for me! As cool as it would be to become a Zen master, I haven’t the proper inclination. I’m too much of a questioner. Anyway, after the sitting, we had a short discussion about zazen, and then it was time to move on.

We walked through part of Gion, where the maiko and geisha live and work, and saw some maiko heading out for the day, which was cool. Then we arrived at the train station and headed to our next destination. We stopped at a convenience store, where I bought some fried chicken fillets, takoyaki, and a Snickers bar for lunch. We then went to the riverside to have a nice picnic. I sat under a tree and had my food, which was rather frustrating. I was tired and hungry and hot, and I was feeling about ready to go home, so I wasn’t a happy camper when I kinda melted my candy bar on the hot takoyaki, and then spilled takoyaki sauce on my skirt. And I hadn’t thought about the chicken still having gobs of skin on it, so I had to try to pull all that greasy mess off the filets, which were otherwise very tasty. But it was pleasant to sit under the shade tree and watch the birds of prey circling over the river, and the waterbirds wading in it, and listen to my classmates talk with the professor.

Anyway, after lunch we walked to a place called the Kyōto City Budō Center, which was flippin’ awesome! It’s interesting; it’s kind of like a YMCA for traditional Japanese martial arts. All these school clubs and local groups use the city-provided facilities for their training. We got to see some sort of really cool sword fighting; I’m not sure what it was, but check out the videos I’ll upload. It was so sweet! The people were really nice, too; they just let us sit in on their practice, and the Sensei even let us hold one of the katana (they used wood swords during the actual practice). We also saw a junior high school kyūdō club at practice. That was cool; it was much more ritualistic than the archery I’m used to at home. But I guess hunting deer and self-cultivation are rather different goals, so it's no surprise that the styles are different!

Then we walked around the corner to catch cabs to our next destination; turns out we ended up right in front of Heian Jingu, a shrine dating from 1895 that commemorates the anniversary of the Heian capital in Kyōto and hosts an annual “Festival of the Ages” in which people wearing Japanese styles from throughout history march around town. So it was cool to stumble upon that, because I wasn’t expecting it.

After a taxi ride through a nice, almost American-like neighborhood with wide streets lined with trees and actual sidewalks, we started a drive up the mountainside. I have never seen a more treacherous road in my life, I think. It was nuts. So, so incredibly narrow, with high walls on either side, and it was “two-way.” Yeah, about that…our driver was kind of aggressive, I thought; he honked at this family leaving their house and kinda pushed them back up the hill so we could get past. It was insane! Not as terrifying as my experiences in Chicago taxis, though, I have to admit.

But we finally made it safely up the steepest, narrowest road ever and arrived at Tanukidanisan Fudōin. This is a temple of the Shingon Buddhist sect dedicated to Fudō Myōō, the Unmovable King of Light, an important Buddhist figure who purifies the world and devotees. He’s a fearsome being, usually shown with a grimace, blue skin, holding a sword and a rope, and standing in flames.

Tanuki, on the other hand, are a kind of native Japanese mammal that’s often called a Japanese raccoon-dog in English. They appear a lot as trickster figures in folklore, and there are statues of them everywhere. They are associated with getting a lot of money, so businesses often put statues of them outside their doors. Anyway, Tanukidani means “Tanuki Valley,” so I guess there were a lot of them there at one time. In any case, there are statues of them absolutely everywhere in the temple grounds! I’m not sure why--they rather seem to contradict Fudō stern nature--but they’re cool. It’s really funny, the statues always show the tanuki tanding upright with pudgy bellies and wearing a hat; they always have really large testicles, too. I think that’s funny. But then again, I’m really immature and I think everything is funny.

So, at this Tanukidanisan Fudōin ("Tanuki Valley Mountain Fudō Temple"), perched high in the mountains overlooking Kyōto, there are a lot of esoteric rituals that go on; all the “weird” stuff is a central aspect of Shingon Buddhism. They do a lot of fire rituals, including some fire walking, I think. Anyway, you have to climb up this mountainside until you reach the 250 stairs (they had a sign saying how many there were) to get to the actual top. I swear, these temple complexes are so misleading! You think you’re there, and then they’re like, “Haha! Silly gaijin tourist. You thought you were done. No, your upper thighs have not received enough exercise today. We must continue to tone your butt and calves! Keep hiking! Up, up, up! Mwahahahaha!” At least, that’s how it happens in my head. I suppose more actually goes into the planning of temple complexes than concerns about lazy visitors' rear-end comfort.

So we climbed and climbed, passing huge collections of tanuki statues, various shrines and offering places, and a really neat meditation path around an altar where there were many statues of various buddhas. I lit some incense for 10yen at that place, but I kinda burned my finger because I’m no good with cigarette lighters, and they didn’t have matches. I had to get a smoker to help me. (I couldn’t smoke if I wanted to, quite honestly. I’d never be able to light a cigarette! But smoking is Bad For You, so you shouldn’t do it even if you can set things on fire. Plus it’s expensive and smells bad. Public service announcement.)

Finally, with a burned thumb and newly-acquired buns of steel, I reached the top. It was amazing. The main hall of the temple is this huge wooden structure that hangs over the side of the mountain, and there are smaller buildings all around it. There was another tanuki shrine, as well as a waterfall/spring area with some Fudō images. Interestingly, there were two separate staircases to reach the final level of the complex, one for men and one for women. I was glad I got to use the women’s stairs, because there happened to be this little red fiddler crab crossing the stairs. It (She, hopefully? I’m not sure if he/she read the sign prohibiting men.) was very like the little forest crabs I had seen at the Osaka Aquarium. It was cool.

And in the main hall, we actually got to go up onto the altar area, so I got to see close up what it’s like in temples. It was really neat. It reminded me a lot of an old Catholic church, with dim lighting and lots of candle and incense scents. It smelled very holy, as Orual would say in Till we Have Faces. I liked it a lot. The main statue of Fudō was quite intimidating; he was set way back in this dark recess so you couldn’t see anything of him but his glowing eyes. Really cool. Not someone I’d want to make angry, although I’d love to have him on my side cutting away illusion and evil. That’s why people come to him.

After taking lots of pictures, which will appear online shortly, I hope, we made our way back down the mountainside to the waterfall associated with the temple. Now, when I said the other day that people stand naked under this waterfall to be cleansed and purified, it sounded very dramatic, probably. At least, I wanted it to, because I thought it would be. Not so. What Dr. Pawle called a "waterfall" would be better characterized as "a bit of water falling out of a suspiciously contrived-looking pipe." See the coming pictures for it in all its underwhelming glory. I mean, I’m sure it’s still very useful for practitioners and all, but it wasn’t the spectacle I wanted to see as a tourist. No one was freezing in a loin cloth; there was barely any water. But oh well.

We continued down the hill until reaching Ichijōji, a temple where 17th century master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi defeated 70 of his opponents from the Yoshioka clan, according to the tales. One of the opponents was the clan's twelve year old leader, so people are still kinda iffy about that part being so cool. It’s said that Miyamoto used this huge cypress tree to cover his back as he fought alone, and now the tree’s remaining stump in enshrined there. It was pretty okay, I guess, and there was a neat bronze statue of Miyamoto. The connection to self-cultivation in this case was a bit vague, but I think it was about Miyamoto’s commitment to being a great fighter. At that point, though, I was just getting kinda tired, and my knees were killing me, so a lot of the impact of this last stop was lost on me.

When we finally reached the base of the mountains, we boarded a small commuter train—absolutely jam-packed, by the way—to reach the main train station and come home. I got back to the seminar house at about 7:30, and since then I’ve showered and written this incredibly long update. And now I’m off.

Short Interview, Silent Film, Missing Bowl, and Good Book

Today was up and down. I find that lately I've been waking up cheerful and losing my enthusiasm throughout the day, which is just the opposite of what generally happens at home. I wonder why.

Anyway, speaking class today was good. After that I killed some time surfing around online before I was to meet Saho for a quick interview. For one of her English classes, she and a friend have to interview me about something or another. I thought the full interview was today, but it turns out today I was just supposed to meet the friend, whose name I can't remember, and fill out a form saying my name, hometown, home college, and major. The whole meeting took about five minutes, which was nice, because I had expected it to be much more long and involved.

For lunch today I decided to do McDonald's, so I got some chicken nuggets and fries and ate them in the little student lounge on the third floor of the student center that I just discovered the other day. It has been exclusively Japanese students both times I've been in there, so I think many of the foreigners don't know about it.

Art history today was good; we looked at Heian Period mandala paintings. It was neat, because the ones we studied most, the Taizokai and Kongokai mandalas, are images that we looked at extensively last fall in my Asian Religious Traditions class. It was cool to see them from an art historical perspective rather than a Buddhist perspective. I love that kind of thing.

Japan in Western Film and Lit was cool today, too. We talked about The Cheat, and then we watched parts of another movie, from 1919 by D. W. Griffith, called Broken Blossoms. In this one, this poor little English girl with an abusive father befriends a lonely Chinese immigrant, and tragedy follows. It was not nearly as enjoyable as The Cheat, I thought, but still highly interesting. In this film, the Chinese man is the tragic hero, but he's only allowed that role because he remains in his "exotic aesthete" stereotype. Very interesting.

In discussing The Cheat today in class, I came up with my topic for my midterm paper that I have to write. I'm going to look into Okakura Tenshin, the guy I did my big Meiji research paper on, as a historical character and compare him to Tori, the villain of the film. They've got some interesting similarities, although as far as I know Okakura never took a hot poker to Isabella Stewart Gardner.

After classes were over, I bought some snacks for the weekend and returned home for a nap. This evening I ran the sweeper and changed my bed linens, so now everything in my room is nice and clean.

Supper tonight was really frustrating. Apparently yesterday I forgot to put away my large plate and soup bowl, and they have now disappeared. Luckily, there was an extra plate that has just been sitting about for several weeks, so I have claimed that one for my own. Still, I’m out a bowl, and if I don’t find it by the end of the semester I’ll be fined. Yuck. Oh well; it’s what I get for not paying proper attention. Also, I couldn’t find any tongs or cooking chopsticks to fish my curry out of the boiling water, which was a lot more upsetting than it should have been. Really, at that point I was fairly livid. Normally I have absolutely no temper, but sometimes on these meds I really lose it.

Anyway, after realizing that there are worse things in the world than a lack of chopsticks and Corelle bowls, I sat down with my curry rice and began to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Now, I have to admit I’m quite the literary snob; for years I’ve read really little beyond the established cannon of classics. But honestly, that leaves out so much, so I’ve been trying recently to open myself up to more recent and more popular selections. I’m really glad I picked up this book. It’s a quick, easy read—I’m nearly halfway done with it, and I’ve probably been reading for an hour and a half. Plus, instead of numbering the chapters 1234etc., they’re numbered only in primes: 2357etc. Very cool! In any case, I like it a lot; definitely check it out if you haven’t read it. Mom, especially, I think you’ll like this one. It’s rather in a Flowers for Algernon line, I think, though much less depressing so far.

Tomorrow I go on a field trip to Kyoto with my Asian Psychologies class. I’m pretty excited, and I plan to take lots of pictures and let you know how it goes. First activity of the day: half an hour of zazen (Zen sitting). Very exciting! I’ve done a Korean variation of this meditation when I went to Furnace Mountain Zen Retreat Center with the Governor's Scholars Program in high school and really liked it. It should be cool.

Note to self: If you eat a large bowl of curry rice at 10PM, you will get indigestion. Next time eat lighter or start earlier.

Musings

I have decided that I really want a pet cat. I love cats, but I’ve never had one. I really, really want to get one at some point. It’s weird to think about, but pretty soon I’ll be living on my own, and I can get a cat or an alpaca or whatever I want, really. It’s weird, growing up. Anyway, I think obtaining a cat will be something I do early in my adult life.

Today I had to give the school my notification of whether or not I’ll be staying for spring semester. The semester is almost halfway over. My total stay here is 110 days, and there are only 64 days left. It’s gone by quickly, but I don’t feel like it’s slipping by too fast. I think one semester is a good length of time for me; a year would be way, way too long. I don’t know how people are going to manage to stay so long. But that’s just my personal preference.

Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of my music on iTunes, and I’ve been trying to listen to a better mix than my usual picks. There are a lot of songs that I didn’t know I had. I actually have a lot of Guster, Rod Stewart, and Gackt that I wasn’t aware of. It’s fun to discover or rediscover a really fun song.

For some reason, today I’ve been missing Grandma a lot. ;_; Dunno why today, but oh well. By the way, since she collects salt and pepper shakers, I’ve been on the hunt for them over here. But I can’t find any. Of course they use salt and pepper shakers in Japan, but they don’t seem to be made as souvenirs. So maybe I’ll bring her back just regular old salt and pepper from the grocery, with nice Japanese labels on them. Or maybe she’ll have to settle for a Hello Kitty spoon rest or something. ^_^ Anyway, Grandma, I’m keeping my eyes peeled for something for you.

Today was another successful okonomiyaki and gyoza supper. I’m getting good at the okonomiyaki thing. I’m looking forward to making it for everyone at home when I return. Yum!

I’m really sleepy today, which is strange because I slept exceptionally well last night, and I had a good nap this afternoon. Hmm.

I’ve been doing my research for the upcoming elections. So, this Katie King scandal—quite the mess, isn’t it? My goodness, I can’t believe there’s such a fuss over a minor district judicial race. Is there really a need to mail out pictures of the woman’s tattoos as part of a smear campaign? The amount of hatred that has come out of this is astounding, really. I don’t think she’s anywhere near qualified for the position she’s seeking, but for crying in the mud, keep it clean, kids! You kinda have to wonder, though, what it is about her that inspires such opposition. It’s so strange; it sounds like some sort of botched high school homecoming court campaign. In any case, I’m voting for Holton because of his experience and reputation among the legal community, but I really couldn’t care less about the state of Ms. King’s lower back decorations. What a bizarre local news story. Way to, Louisville.

A Horrifyingly Graphic Lunch and Postal Adventures

My Internet has been really slow today. How bothersome.

Fall is my favorite season; at home I like September better than any other month, because it starts off with acorns form our oak tree and ends with the most beautiful weather. I also love October for the weather, the colors, and the harvest celebration mood. Fall is terribly romantic, too, I think, with hayrides and apple cider and bonfires.

It’s mid-October, and it’s just now starting to feel like autumn. I think I'll really like fall here. It’s been slow coming, so I’ve been able to enjoy the buildup. It would be really nice to be home, though. I want to go to Huber’s to pick pumpkins. And Witt’s campus is probably gorgeous at the moment. Anyway, I’m enjoying the season.

Speaking class this morning went well, but I made a silly mistake on my vocab quiz. I had to write the meaning of the word “dōryō” in English. I wrote “thief; burglar.” The correct answer was “colleague.” ::headdesk:: I got it confused with the word “dorobō.” Oops. So, sorry to anyone I've ever worked with; I'll try not to needlessly question your moral integrity in the future.

Then I returned home and talked at length with my family, which was really nice. Um, I hope you guys enjoy those chats as much as I do. I really like talking at you…. After that, David logged on to Skype and we got to talk, too. Sounds like the new car is a good thing. ^_^ So that was a good morning.

I went back to school for lunch and decided to try something new. There’s a kind of dish called donburi, which is basically a bowl of rice topped with a sweet sauce and some kind of meat. It’s really popular in our cafeteria, and it looked delicious. I wasn’t sure what kind to try, but there was something labeled “親子丼" that had a picture of a chicken on it. Okay, I like chicken, I thought, so I got it. I wasn’t sure how to pronounce the Chinese characters although I vaguely suspected that it had something to do with “intimacy” and “child,” so I ordered by just kinda pointing at the sign.

I took my 親子丼 outside and ate at a semi-shaded table. The food was was pretty good. I didn’t like it as much as some other things I’ve had, but it was definitely a nice option for a change. The chicken in it, though, still had the skin on it, which kinda grosses me out. It seems that they don’t do the skinless thing here, so chicken dishes taste really fatty to me. Yuck. Other than that, though, it was good. Sweet, if a bit bland.

A German guy named Henrik who is in my Film and Literature class and his friend Julia came and sat with me, which was nice. We chatted about generic things because we don't know each other well, but it was really enjoyable. Julia also had a bowl of 親子丼, so I asked her about it. She said it was pronounced “oyakodon.”

Then it hit me, the meaning of the characters: “don,” 丼, just kinda means “bowl of stuff;” “oya,” 親, means “parent;” and “ko,” 子, means “child.” I was eating a BOWL OF PARENT AND CHILD—chicken and egg donburi! How incredibly overly-graphic! Just call it chicken and egg rice, for crying in the mud! Really, is that necessary? Parent and child. Poor little chicken families. I felt terrible. Nice, Japanese food naming people. Nice. So I’m not sure if I’m gonna have that again. Delicious, but way, way too evocative in name.

After being freaked out, but pleasantly (and guiltily) full, I went to art history, which was interesting as usual. We’re getting into the Heian Period, which is one of my favorites, so that’s good. Oh, and check out this particular wood statue we looked at today. It’s called the Nyoirin Kannon. I think it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Once classes were over, the next order of business was to go to the post office to make my medical insurance payments and mail back my request for an absentee ballot. Luckily some classmates were able to tell me how to find the post office, which was really close to campus, actually. I was a bit confused, though, because it seemed to be both a post office and a bank. However, post offices and mailboxes in Japan are clearly marked with a nice T-like symbol, so I was fairly sure it was the right place.

I went inside and the lady at the counter was really helpful. I just kinda shoved my invoice at her, handed her money, and said I wanted insurance through December. She did the rest for me. Very helpful. I had also wanted to mail the voting paperwork, but had no envelope; I figured I could buy one at the post office. No such luck; there was a sign posted in very clear English saying that they didn’t sell envelopes. Strange, I thought. So I exchanged my one remaining international postal stamp for the appropriate Japanese stamps and went back to the convenience store on campus to buy an envelope. Sure enough, the convenience store had them, so I addressed and stamped the mail and dropped it off in the campus box.

Health insurance? Check. Civic duty? Check. A good, responsible, adult day.

This afternoon, having really no homework to speak of, I played FreeCell and napped. For supper I made an egg sandwich (apparently the horror of lunch had worn off), which was really, really filling for some reason tonight. And now here I am. And that was my day. Also, be sure to check out the pictures of everyday life that I uploaded; the link is below.

Photos: Everyday Life in Japan 2

Photobucket Album

Daily Minutiae

Today was busy, busy, busy nonstop. I got up a little before 9 for my 10AM class because they were calling for rain, and that always makes the ride to school take a little longer than usual. The other day I bought a bike basket cover, so now I no longer rely on Kroger bags to keep my things dry while I bike in the rain. It was very convenient.

Speaking class today went well; I've kinda learned who tries and who doesn't care, and I try to position myself in a seat so I don't get paired with a slacker for the dialogue practice. Now that I've got that trick figured out, I enjoy the class a lot more.

Then at 11 I went and had an early lunch of curry rice and udon. I had never had curry before coming to Japan, but I've discovered that I love it. It reminds me of the really delicious Paramount tamales, before they shut down the Louisville plant and they got gross. Also during my lunch break, I bought a Kansai Gaidai t-shirt. It's light blue with navy, reading "Kansai Gaikokugo Daigaku" in Japanese. I'm using it as a pajama shirt, because my only other casual tee is starting to get kinda gross.

At noon was reading/writing, where we got our lesson tests back. The class average was an 84%; I got a 96%. Yay! I've really been working hard to remember all my kanji lately, and it's been paying off.

In Asian Psychologies we split ourselves up into three groups for our midterm project. We got to pick from Yoga, Buddhism, and Taoism as a belief system to briefly defend in a class debate and paper. It was kinda funny, though, how the devisions fell. No one wanted to be on the Yoga team; I don't think I was the only one who totally didn't understand that whole topic. Everyone seemed to love Buddhism, though, and about half the class wanted to be in that group. Luckily, I had my heart set on Taoism, which was only moderately popular, so I got a Taoist slot with no problem. I think they're going to have to janken to see who gets the remaining coveted Buddhist positions and who gets stuck with the Yogis.

Really, I think all the Taoist stuff is quite easy, once you grasp the idea that nothing is absolute. The answer to everything is either "it depends on the circumstances," "maybe," or "both at once." It's like the standard grade school Catholic religion class responses of "Love, care, share" and "Paschal Mystery"! I love plug-and-chug answers, especially when I can apply them to intricate, millennia-old belief systems that offer hope and a coherent worldview for billions of people.

On Saturday I'll be going on a field trip with that class to Kyoto to visit various places where there are traditional Japanese practices of self-cultivation. We're going to see some kyūdō, we'll do some zazen sitting, and visit a temple where practicioners stand naked under a waterfall for purification. I'm pretty excited.

Then was my fourth and final class of the day, Japan in Western Film and Lit, thank goodness. With the cool, dreary weather, I was really having a hard time keeping my energy up, but that's always a low-key class. We watched The Cheat, which I explained yesterday. The music in it was really, really good, actually, and I enjoyed it much more than the other silent films I've seen. Probably because I had done a good deal of reading on it beforehand, so I was able to pick up on a lot of the visual cues that would have gone over my head because I'm so used to talkie motifs.

The film, I thought, was very visually interesting, but the plot just drove me absolutely nuts. Edith, the main character, was the most shallow, ridiculous, unthinking person imaginable. She lives beyond her means, embezzles from the Red Cross, emotionally cheats on her husband, attempts to prostitute herself, renegs on a contract, shoots a man, and encourages perjury. Yet at the end of the film she gets off completely free from criminal prosecution, with the full moral support of the other characters, to the intended relief of the audience. It was ridiculous. I wasn't really bothered by the fact that the "villian" was a horribly stereotyped Japanese man, but more the fact that Edith, as a wealthy white woman, could get away with all that. It was disgusting.

After rolling my eyes repeatedly at Edith's outrageous behavior, I went to the language lab and did some homework, then grabbed some food from McDonald's for an early supper. It was still rainy and cold.

At 5:30 I watched a showing of the most recent presidential debate. No commentary on it for the moment; it didn't strike me as particularly opinion-inducing. Maybe later. While I was watching, I did some kanji practice, so that was nice multitasking.

I checked my mail before leaving campus, and what I thought was my absentee ballot came from home! But when I opened it, it turns out it's the legal stuff I have to sign promising that, yes, I'm really out of the country, so please government send me my ballot. I'm afraid now that my vote won't be counted, because I have to mail this back to Kentucky, and then they have to mail my the actual ballot, which I have to send back a week before the election or it won't be accepted. Eep! I'm cutting it really close. I'm still not sure how post offices work here, either, or what size envolope to use, or even where to get stamps. What a mess! I'll try to get that all cleared up ASAP. At least I have all my candidates picked out except for two or three judicial races, which I still need to research.

Um, then I rode home in the rain, which had lessened but was still coming down. And I showered did some homework, and here I am.

One thing I should mention: When I get back to the States, I think I'm really going to be bothered by American customore service. It's amazing how polite all the store personnel are here. Even at the campus McDonald's, even at Big Wave Karaoke where they have to clean up after drunk foreigners all the time, employees are attentive, respectful, and quick to serve. They always smile. It's amazing. I have not had one bad customer service experience here. No long waits, no sighs of frustration, no eye rolls when you ask for extra ketchup. It's great! It bothered me enough before to go to a fast food place and have bad service, but now I'm sure it'll absolutely kill me.

Neolithic Living, Chuck Norris, and a Hate Crime

They had warned us that there would be some possible Internet interruptions today, but that was an understatement. You couldn’t use the school-provided computers at all, nor could you access the Web from your own computer. How bothersome! I even missed a Skype date with David because of it.

It was kinda funny, though, how much people were freaking out about not having Internet access. It was the discussion topic of the day, really. My generation honestly and truly feels lost without our Internet. It’s how we connect with each other, so it’s really scary when you can’t contact someone online at will. Plus, today was a holiday so there were no classes and everyone was planning on doing their homework today, so that created a few problems. I, for one, felt like I was living in a cave, although the homework thing was fine for me.

For lunch today I made my first successful okonomiyaki! It still wasn’t as good as the stuff you get a Sachi, but at least this was edible. Next time I think I need to add a little more flour and cabbage, and to cook it a bit longer. Overall, though, it was very good. It helps when you have the proper sauce and spices to put on top.

Early in the afternoon I did my reading for Japan in Western Film and Lit for next week, which was a really interesting analysis of 1910s silent films, the rape fantasy, and Asian cultures. It was fascinating. Tomorrow in class we’re going to be watching a 1915 DeMille film called The Cheat, in which a white American socialite gets too close to this highly questionable Japanese guy, who ends up branding her with a poker, causing basically a lynch mob. Interesting. We shall see.

I went on a quick excursion to the QQ and Top World for some grocery shopping. I’ve got a few different meal options now, so it’s nice to have a regular rotation and know what kinds of supplies I’ll need. I can make the following things very easily and regularly: egg sandwiches, grilled cheese, pizza toast, curry rice, potstickers, hash browns, pancakes, and okonomiyaki. Supper tonight was beef curry rice and hash browns.

I took a nap today and had a really weird dream. I was doing some sightseeing and came across this old paddlewheeler that had just been discovered with all these beautifully preserved 19th century murals on the walls. Then it was snowing and I was in a park, and I was accompanied by two mannequins. To prevent crime, the park system had bought these robot people who walked around the park. You could have one follow you, so it would look to a potential mugger from far away like you weren’t alone. Good idea, really, huh? And then there was the part of the dream where I—but I wasn’t really me, but it was—was watching this boxing/extreme fighting/WWE match type thing here in Japan. Appropriately strange for a dream, right? But it gets weirder: I was there on a date with Chuck Norris. I kid you not. In the dream, I was really enjoying watching the fight, but he kept kinda rolling his eyes. I think he thought he could have done better. And then I woke up.

Oh, and I just found out some really disturbing news from Witt. This weekend was Homecoming at Witt, so a bunch of the clubs put together floats for the parade. The GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) float was set on fire. None of the others were damaged. Scary. Really, really scary. Like, I’m really glad I’m in Japan and not on Witt’s campus at the moment. Geez, after last year’s anti-gay graffiti (in sparkly teal paint pen someone wrote “My God sends fags to hell! <3”—heart and all; I have photos—in one of our classroom building’s women’s bathroom stalls), I’m really concerned. Not cool, people. But I guess that’s why GSA is necessary. Honestly, though, I’m a little glad I’m not an officer in the club this semester, because this stuff would NOT be fun to deal with. Anyway, love and miss you, GSA! がんばって！And do be careful. How terrible.

In other news, tomorrow evening they’re showing a recording the most recent presidential debate, and I’m really excited to see it. Another commentary to come!

You know what’s some great music? Dvořák’s Symphony #9 in E minor. David introduced it to me, and it’s awesome. Check it out some time.