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.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, October 13, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Kyoto Excursion #2
I slept in this morning, which was nice. By "slept in" I mean I didn't set my alarm, although I woke up on my own at 9:45. Still, it was nice having the option to roll back over and go to sleep. However, I got up and took my time getting ready for a short day of sightseeing in Kyoto.
At about 10:30 I left the seminar house and, once again, missed the bus I was trying to catch by about 45 seconds. I always do that; it's so frustrating. So I had to stand there for fifteen minutes waiting for the next bus, kicking myself as I watched the other one pull away. Oh well. It's not like I was in a hurry.
After arriving at Hirakatashi-eki I boarded the fastest train to Demachiyanagi, which is the final station on the ltrain ine that I most commonly use, Keihan. In the past two days I've been on both extreme ends of the line! I feel like such a traveler; too bad they're only an hour apart, so it's really not that big of an accomplishment. Still, I have conquered you, Keihan Line! Mwahahaha!
At Demachiyanagi station I used the bathroom. Not terribly exciting, is it? But I just wanted to mention something that bothered me: they had no soap. It's not that they were out of it, there just weren't any soap dispensers. When I was at the station in Himeji there was also no soap, but I thought that was just a fluke. Apparently, though, train station bathrooms sometimes don't feel the need to give you soap. Strange, considering how nasty everything would seem to get so quickly. Also--get this--the Japanese word for restroom, お手洗い (otearai, "oh-tay-ah-rah-ee") literally means "hand washing." Really, Japanese train stations? Could you not give us some soap? It bothered me.
After rinsing my hands and trying not to think about the disease possibilities, I emerged from the Demachiyanagi subway station. I was totally disoriented. Luckily, I stumbled upon a bus stop that was clearly labled "to Ginkakuji." What good fortune! So I just hopped on the bus and exited at Ginkakuji Street. That was great, except that the Ginkakuji stop wasn't smack in front of Ginkakuji, so I, being me, managed to get lost.
I was hungry, so I walked into the first noodle shop I found and had some yummy kakeudon. Oh, and good news: they had a sink with soap, so I washed my hands before I ate. I asked the lady at the register how to get to Ginkakuji, and it turns out I went left off the bus when I should have gone right. It was an easy mistake to fix, and I got a delicious bowl of noodles out of it, so I wasn't concerned.
Sure enough, right down the road was a giant sign basically screaming "GINKAKUJI IS THIS WAY, YOU SILLY FOREIGNER." In any case, things were easy to figure out once I got oriented.
Ginkakuji is situated along something called 哲学の道 (tetsugaku no michi, "teh-tsoo-gah-koo noh mee-chee"), meaning the Path of Philosophy. Basically, the Path is just a nice little walking area next to a pleasant canal lined with trees. These two philosophy professors in the early 20th century used to walk along it every day, hence the name. A bunch of restaurants, especially Western-style cafes, have sprung up along it, as well as quirky craft and clothing stores. It's something of a subdued Brown Country or Yellow Springs, minus the hippies. After walking along the Path for a bit, I followed the signs to Ginkakuji, walking up a very busy little tourist-trap street.
That was a lot of fun, actually. There were all these kitschy little shops, and candy stores, and overpriced restaurants, and everything else that should be in a tourist area. I bought lots of souvenirs, needless to say. Also, I had my first takoyaki. Have I explained takoyaki yet? The Kansai area is famous for it, especially Osaka. It's usually translated as "octopus balls," which really tends to freak guys out. But a better word would be "grilled octopus"--it's balls of dough containing a small square of octopus. Really, it tastes a lot like okonomiyaki, and you can't tell the octopus is in there. It's a fun snack food, and it was delicious.
I then arrived at the entrance to Ginkakuji. (Check out that link, by the way. It's a good one.) You go through a standard outer gate into something very like an English hedge maze, especially like the one in Harry Potter, I thought. ^_^ But it's not really a maze, just a gravel walkway with really high bushes around it. I bought my entrance ticket and had a really nice lady and her husband take my picture in front of one of the outer buildings in the complex.
Ginkakuji is named for the Ginkaku, or Silver Pavilion. However, this building is under repairs at the moment, so I don't have any good pictures of it. Luckily, the gardens surrounding the building were of more interest to me anyway, so it was no great loss. The Silver Pavilion, it is said, was intended to be covered in silver like Kinkakuji is covered in gold, but the project was abandoned before they could finish it. But the nickname stuck, although the technically correct name is Kannonden, referring to Kannon, the bodhisattva of mercy.
Between the Silver Pavilion and the Abbot's Quarters is something really cool called the Sea of Silver Sand. It's basically a big field of sand raked into pretty patterns. There's even a big pile of sand that's supposed to symbolize Mt. Fuji. It's really cool; check out the pictures. The Abbot's Quarters, or main hall, was off limits, although you could look in from off the porch. There were some cool paintings on the sliding doors, some dating from the 18th century. And from the porch there was a spectacular view of the Sea of Silver Sand. Apparently it's a really popular place for moon viewing in the fall.
Visitors then walk along a path through the rest of the gardens. The path winds around a rather large pond with several special stones, symbolic islands, and rock bridges. It's really beautiful. After that, you work your way up the mountainside through this beautiful forest where the ground is absolutely covered in the most beautiful moss you can imagine. There were a couple of gardeners taking meticulous care of the moss actually. It was kinda cool. In any case, I really loved looking at all the forest scenes, especially with the leaves beginning to change. Check out my photos; it's hard to describe.
Anyway, after what basically amounted to a stroll through the most beautiful garden I've ever seen, I was ready to move on. So I left Ginkakuji, did a bit more shopping on the way down, and reconnected with the Path of Philosophy. At this point I was getting tired, so I didn't walk the whole path. I did, however, stop in a few of the strange stores. One that was really cool was this art gallery/studio called Senshin. I bought three original woodblock prints made by Sadao Uetani, the teacher of the store's resident artist/owner. It was really, really cool. I like them a lot. And now I have original, numbered, handmade woodblock prints made and purchased in Japan. I feel so pretentious. I love it. :)
I then purchased a Coke out of a vending machine and drank it while sitting next to the canal along the Path. It was really pleasant, watching all the people walk by. There were many European tourists, as well as many Japanese. It was fun watching the rickshaws go by. After that, I decided to head back home.
Having gotten lost on the way to Ginkakuji, it would follow that I would get lost going back home. It happened. I tried going back to the bus stop where I had disembarked in the afternoon, but it seemed from the bus schedule, a nice Japanese family whom I thoroughly confused, and their equally confusing map, that that wasn't the best way to get back to the station. So I found a different, less perplexing bus stop that I was sure would get me back to Demachiyanagi. It worked; I took the train back home to Hirakata; I took the bus back to the seminar house. And here I am.
Oh, but I did some shopping at a 100yen store at the station and got some grocies, toiletries, etc. I now have everything I need to make okonomiyaki now, I think. Tomorrow for lunch will be my next attempt at it.
In other news, I used my new deodorant for the first time today. I'm not so sure about it; it's been years since I've used spray instead of gel or roll-on. Plus, I think it's deodorant and not anitpersperant, which is a Bad Thing for me. Not that you needed or wanted to know that. But oh well, I suppose I'll get used to it. I just hope I don't disturb the rest of the world in the transition process.
Tomorrow is Health and Sports Day, a national holiday, so there's no class. How will I celebrate this festival of fitness? Probably by sleeping in, surfing the web, eating lots of Choco-chippu, and napping. By the way, the Japanese word for lazy person is 怠け者 (namakemono, "nah-mah-kay-moh-noh").
And again, remember that my Internet might not work properly over the next day or two, so please don't count on anything essential reaching me.
At about 10:30 I left the seminar house and, once again, missed the bus I was trying to catch by about 45 seconds. I always do that; it's so frustrating. So I had to stand there for fifteen minutes waiting for the next bus, kicking myself as I watched the other one pull away. Oh well. It's not like I was in a hurry.
After arriving at Hirakatashi-eki I boarded the fastest train to Demachiyanagi, which is the final station on the ltrain ine that I most commonly use, Keihan. In the past two days I've been on both extreme ends of the line! I feel like such a traveler; too bad they're only an hour apart, so it's really not that big of an accomplishment. Still, I have conquered you, Keihan Line! Mwahahaha!
At Demachiyanagi station I used the bathroom. Not terribly exciting, is it? But I just wanted to mention something that bothered me: they had no soap. It's not that they were out of it, there just weren't any soap dispensers. When I was at the station in Himeji there was also no soap, but I thought that was just a fluke. Apparently, though, train station bathrooms sometimes don't feel the need to give you soap. Strange, considering how nasty everything would seem to get so quickly. Also--get this--the Japanese word for restroom, お手洗い (otearai, "oh-tay-ah-rah-ee") literally means "hand washing." Really, Japanese train stations? Could you not give us some soap? It bothered me.
After rinsing my hands and trying not to think about the disease possibilities, I emerged from the Demachiyanagi subway station. I was totally disoriented. Luckily, I stumbled upon a bus stop that was clearly labled "to Ginkakuji." What good fortune! So I just hopped on the bus and exited at Ginkakuji Street. That was great, except that the Ginkakuji stop wasn't smack in front of Ginkakuji, so I, being me, managed to get lost.
I was hungry, so I walked into the first noodle shop I found and had some yummy kakeudon. Oh, and good news: they had a sink with soap, so I washed my hands before I ate. I asked the lady at the register how to get to Ginkakuji, and it turns out I went left off the bus when I should have gone right. It was an easy mistake to fix, and I got a delicious bowl of noodles out of it, so I wasn't concerned.
Sure enough, right down the road was a giant sign basically screaming "GINKAKUJI IS THIS WAY, YOU SILLY FOREIGNER." In any case, things were easy to figure out once I got oriented.
Ginkakuji is situated along something called 哲学の道 (tetsugaku no michi, "teh-tsoo-gah-koo noh mee-chee"), meaning the Path of Philosophy. Basically, the Path is just a nice little walking area next to a pleasant canal lined with trees. These two philosophy professors in the early 20th century used to walk along it every day, hence the name. A bunch of restaurants, especially Western-style cafes, have sprung up along it, as well as quirky craft and clothing stores. It's something of a subdued Brown Country or Yellow Springs, minus the hippies. After walking along the Path for a bit, I followed the signs to Ginkakuji, walking up a very busy little tourist-trap street.
That was a lot of fun, actually. There were all these kitschy little shops, and candy stores, and overpriced restaurants, and everything else that should be in a tourist area. I bought lots of souvenirs, needless to say. Also, I had my first takoyaki. Have I explained takoyaki yet? The Kansai area is famous for it, especially Osaka. It's usually translated as "octopus balls," which really tends to freak guys out. But a better word would be "grilled octopus"--it's balls of dough containing a small square of octopus. Really, it tastes a lot like okonomiyaki, and you can't tell the octopus is in there. It's a fun snack food, and it was delicious.
I then arrived at the entrance to Ginkakuji. (Check out that link, by the way. It's a good one.) You go through a standard outer gate into something very like an English hedge maze, especially like the one in Harry Potter, I thought. ^_^ But it's not really a maze, just a gravel walkway with really high bushes around it. I bought my entrance ticket and had a really nice lady and her husband take my picture in front of one of the outer buildings in the complex.
Ginkakuji is named for the Ginkaku, or Silver Pavilion. However, this building is under repairs at the moment, so I don't have any good pictures of it. Luckily, the gardens surrounding the building were of more interest to me anyway, so it was no great loss. The Silver Pavilion, it is said, was intended to be covered in silver like Kinkakuji is covered in gold, but the project was abandoned before they could finish it. But the nickname stuck, although the technically correct name is Kannonden, referring to Kannon, the bodhisattva of mercy.
Between the Silver Pavilion and the Abbot's Quarters is something really cool called the Sea of Silver Sand. It's basically a big field of sand raked into pretty patterns. There's even a big pile of sand that's supposed to symbolize Mt. Fuji. It's really cool; check out the pictures. The Abbot's Quarters, or main hall, was off limits, although you could look in from off the porch. There were some cool paintings on the sliding doors, some dating from the 18th century. And from the porch there was a spectacular view of the Sea of Silver Sand. Apparently it's a really popular place for moon viewing in the fall.
Visitors then walk along a path through the rest of the gardens. The path winds around a rather large pond with several special stones, symbolic islands, and rock bridges. It's really beautiful. After that, you work your way up the mountainside through this beautiful forest where the ground is absolutely covered in the most beautiful moss you can imagine. There were a couple of gardeners taking meticulous care of the moss actually. It was kinda cool. In any case, I really loved looking at all the forest scenes, especially with the leaves beginning to change. Check out my photos; it's hard to describe.
Anyway, after what basically amounted to a stroll through the most beautiful garden I've ever seen, I was ready to move on. So I left Ginkakuji, did a bit more shopping on the way down, and reconnected with the Path of Philosophy. At this point I was getting tired, so I didn't walk the whole path. I did, however, stop in a few of the strange stores. One that was really cool was this art gallery/studio called Senshin. I bought three original woodblock prints made by Sadao Uetani, the teacher of the store's resident artist/owner. It was really, really cool. I like them a lot. And now I have original, numbered, handmade woodblock prints made and purchased in Japan. I feel so pretentious. I love it. :)
I then purchased a Coke out of a vending machine and drank it while sitting next to the canal along the Path. It was really pleasant, watching all the people walk by. There were many European tourists, as well as many Japanese. It was fun watching the rickshaws go by. After that, I decided to head back home.
Having gotten lost on the way to Ginkakuji, it would follow that I would get lost going back home. It happened. I tried going back to the bus stop where I had disembarked in the afternoon, but it seemed from the bus schedule, a nice Japanese family whom I thoroughly confused, and their equally confusing map, that that wasn't the best way to get back to the station. So I found a different, less perplexing bus stop that I was sure would get me back to Demachiyanagi. It worked; I took the train back home to Hirakata; I took the bus back to the seminar house. And here I am.
Oh, but I did some shopping at a 100yen store at the station and got some grocies, toiletries, etc. I now have everything I need to make okonomiyaki now, I think. Tomorrow for lunch will be my next attempt at it.
In other news, I used my new deodorant for the first time today. I'm not so sure about it; it's been years since I've used spray instead of gel or roll-on. Plus, I think it's deodorant and not anitpersperant, which is a Bad Thing for me. Not that you needed or wanted to know that. But oh well, I suppose I'll get used to it. I just hope I don't disturb the rest of the world in the transition process.
Tomorrow is Health and Sports Day, a national holiday, so there's no class. How will I celebrate this festival of fitness? Probably by sleeping in, surfing the web, eating lots of Choco-chippu, and napping. By the way, the Japanese word for lazy person is 怠け者 (namakemono, "nah-mah-kay-moh-noh").
And again, remember that my Internet might not work properly over the next day or two, so please don't count on anything essential reaching me.
Things I forgot to say
Well, I'm about to head out for Kyoto to see Ginakakuji. It was nice to sleep in this morning, and I'm looking forward to some leisurely sigthseeing.
When I was coming home from Saho's house last night, there were newspaper people handing out free extra editions. Turns our the "Japanese OJ Simpson" committed suicide in Los Angeles. It seems to be a big deal here, although I had never heard of him before. Luckily, the news articles were printed in both Japanese and English, so I was able to figure out what all the fuss was about.
And some more things about yesterday that I forgot to mention:
When I was coming home from Saho's house last night, there were newspaper people handing out free extra editions. Turns our the "Japanese OJ Simpson" committed suicide in Los Angeles. It seems to be a big deal here, although I had never heard of him before. Luckily, the news articles were printed in both Japanese and English, so I was able to figure out what all the fuss was about.
And some more things about yesterday that I forgot to mention:
- Turns out Saho's brother really likes The Beatles. Yay! That was exciting. He said his favorite song is "Something," but that George Harrison isn't necessarily his favorite. That was a cool connection to make. ^_^
- As part of the salad we made, we included 春雨 (haru same--"hah-roo sah-may"), a kind of really thin, clear noodle. They were okay; not as goood as udon, if you ask me. But what I really like is the name. Literally, it means "spring rain." Okaasan (it means "mom"--Saho's mother) explained that the name comes from the way the noodles look when you hold them up and down. They're long and clear, so it looks like rain falling from the sky. Super evocative! I love it. The verdict? So-so on taste, but totally awesome on creativity!
- As my obligatory bug reference for the day, I'll leave you with this. Saho's family seems to really like pets: they have a cat, two birds, and some fish. Also, they have a chrysalis that they're growing into a butterfly! It's attached to one of those little plastic tanks you keep hermit crabs in. I think that's really cool. It was probably a school project for her little sister or something, I'm not sure. But I thought that was neat. I want to grow a butterfly.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Homevisit Fun
I woke up a bit early this morning so I could talk to David on Skype, which was a lot of fun, but I'm really ready for a day to sleep in. Maybe tomorrow.
Then I walked to campus to meet Saho at 11:30, and it sprinkled a little along the way, but I had my umbrella with me, so it was fine. Anyway, the rain stopped shortly after I left the dorm. Saho and I met and walked to Hirakatashi-eki, which is quite a trek. Luckily, it was cool and breezy outside, so the hike was pleasant enough. Still, by the time we boarded the first train, I had been walking for an hour.
We went to Shinsaibashi for some sightseeing and shopping. I LOVE THAT PLACE. Totally going back to spend whatever money I have left over at the end of the semester! It was amazing. You come out of the subway station and it's like I imagine New York City at its ideal. There were all these tall buildings, but the streets were wide so the sun actually reached the ground, and there were people handing out coupons and free packages of tissues with advertising on them, and there was a band that had just decided to set up shop and sing on this bridge. The place was full of people, but no one seemed to be in a terrible rush, although everything was lively. We even saw a Buddhist monk begging on a streetcorner.
And the stores in Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Center. Everything imaginable! Clothes of all kinds, shoes, pets, discount toiletries, books, purses, groceries, street food from all around the world (I can tell you where to get a really delicious-looking kabob in Osaka now, by the way), jewelery, games, etc. And they're all in this nice open-air type setup, like Fourth Street Live on steroids. Really wonderful steroids with no negative health effects or legal consequences.
We had lunch at Subway. ^_^ That made me really happy. I got my regular 6" sub (well, 15cm, here), and it was good, but not quite as delicious as the ones at home. I'm not sure what the difference was. The Subways here seem to have a lot more wrap options than the ones at home, as well as different meat choices. There was a chicken tandoori wrap, for instance, but I didn't see any salami. Interesting. The store setup was like the American ones, where you order your bread and meat and go down the line picking out the other toppings. Anyhow, I'll be glad to get back to my own American Subway, though this was fun.
After eating we did more window shopping. We even passed a real Mikimoto pearl store. It sounds crazy, but I'd love to buy myself some pearl earrings from there. Really, I'm not at all into jewelry, but pearls are downright classy and timeless, and where better to get some nice ones than Japan? Too bad about the prices. Maybe I'll find something on sale?
After gawking at all the pretty things for sale and taking some silly photos with the various famous signs including Glico Man and the giant Kani Doraku crab, we got back on the subway at Nanba (yes, Nanba, Erin!) and headed to Saho's house.
Again, the train rides were excessive, I thought. I can't imagine having to make that commute every day to get to class. But when we finally arrived at Furuichi, I had recovered from the overwhelming shopping joy/exhaustion that was Shinsaibashi. Unfortunately, we had quite a walk from the station to her home. We walked along a small stream where we saw some huge, awesome spiders, a cormorant, and some sort of heron-ish bird. We then walked through a newly-built neighborhood, then had to walk along a dirt path between two rice paddies. I kid you not. It was fairly epic, and completely exhausting.
However, her town (a suburb of Osaka proper) was having a big festival today, which made the walk more fun. There were lots of street vendors and families lining the streets waiting for the festivities to come by. It seemed to be something like a parade, but not as organized. We saw several groups of men riding these wooden float-like things and banging drums. I'm not sure what any of it was about, but it sure looked cool. I have some pictures of this and everything else from the day, which I'll post later.
We stopped in a convenience store/grocery-type place called Japan where we bought some sweets and I bought deodorant. My American deodorant is almost out, so I was glad to have Saho help me find some more. There seems to be no stick deodorant here, at least as far as I've seen, so I settled for some spray stuff. We'll see how it goes.
After more walking uphill through neighborhoods, we finally arrived at Saho's home. It's a fairly large house in the traditional Japanese style, with a blue tile roof and a high garden wall. The rooms I was in were all tatami rooms, except for the kitchen and bathroom, of course. It was pretty cool.
I gave her family the souvenirs I had brought from home, and they seemed to really enjoy them a lot. Saho and I went throught the photo book page by page and talked about the pictures, while her bother, a high school runner, checked out the U of L athletics page online after finding the University on the map I brought. In any case, they were at least very good about pretending to be interested! I think I did pretty well, though. Which is good, because they were very, very kind to me.
We cooked supper together. I think Saho told her mother like every kind of Japanese food I had mentioned that I like, because we ended up with okonomiyaki, eggplant tempura, sticky rice, and gyoza. Plus, we made onigiri (rice balls) and a cold noodle salad with cucumber, ham, and mayonnaise. Saho's younger sister, Mizuho, and I had a lot of fun with the onigiri. The rice was really hot and sticky and you have to wad it up by hand, so one of us fanned the rice while the other squished it so we wouldn't burn ourselves. ^_^ Teamwork!
We also handmade the gyoza, which was a lot of fun. I got to mix the chives, ginger, pork, and cabbage together with my bare hands, which reminded me a lot of the good old days with Play-Doh. Kinda gross, but in an awesome "this is like brains!" way. They had bought pre-made wrappers, so there was no need to mix the dough or anything. It was fun putting the filling in and sealing it all up with water. Of course, they turned out to be delicious!
Everything, really, was wonderful. So yummy, and fun to make. We were all able to communicate fairly well, I think, too. I had a blast, really. When it was time to leave, they sent me home with leftover pasta salad and gyoza. Saho's father drove us to the train station, which was nice.
When she was escorting me home, Saho and I got talking about my schedule, and when we were on the train from Furuichi to Abenobashi, I pulled out my cute little planner and we flipped through it. Really embarrassing moment: I discovered that I wrote my own birthday on the wrong day. Honestly, who does that?! Seriously, it was hilarious. Saho and I had a really, really good laugh about that one. I still can't get over it. My birthday is the 20th, not the 21st. Is that really so hard? No. Yet I couldn't find the right day on a calendar. ::headdesk::
When we got ready to transfer trains, though, I realized I had a bigger problem than an inability to remember my own date of birth: I didn't have my ticket. The deal with Japanese trains is this: you buy your ticket from the little machine, put it through the gate, pick it up again on the other side, hold onto it while you're on the train, and insert it into the exit gate to get out of your destination station. I had, apparently, in my haze of birthday confusion, somehow lost my ticket on the train. So basically I had to pay another 390yen to get out of the train station. Darn.
Needless to say, Saho and I had a good laugh about that one, too. From then on, I held very tightly onto my tickets. I generally do that, actually, so I'm not quite sure how I lost my first ticket. Oh well. There are worse things to lose than a $4 train ticket.
Speking of money, if the economy keeps up like it is, I'll be making some money off any leftover yen I have at the end of the semester with the current dollar/yen exchange rate. Um, yay?
The rest of the train rides were uneventful, although I really had to go to the bathroom but couldn't find one. Oh well; I was able to wait it out until I got home. And that's about it for the events of the day. Took the bus from Hirakatashi-eki to the dorm and met a nice girl form Minnesota who lives in Seminar House 3. w00t.
Regarding politics: Check out this article. How very disappointing, regarding the hecklers. I can't believe people could be so heartless. But good for you, McCain. I'm really proud of him. It's hard to stand for a side of any controversial issue, but to be booed by your own supporters and stick by what you know is right...that's pretty awesome.
This plan is still to go see Ginkakuji in Kyoto tomorrow, but I'm really wiped out from the today. So I think I'll just sleep in and go to Kyoto whenever I feel like it tomorrow, rather than getting up early to catch a morning train and having everything planned out.
Then I walked to campus to meet Saho at 11:30, and it sprinkled a little along the way, but I had my umbrella with me, so it was fine. Anyway, the rain stopped shortly after I left the dorm. Saho and I met and walked to Hirakatashi-eki, which is quite a trek. Luckily, it was cool and breezy outside, so the hike was pleasant enough. Still, by the time we boarded the first train, I had been walking for an hour.
We went to Shinsaibashi for some sightseeing and shopping. I LOVE THAT PLACE. Totally going back to spend whatever money I have left over at the end of the semester! It was amazing. You come out of the subway station and it's like I imagine New York City at its ideal. There were all these tall buildings, but the streets were wide so the sun actually reached the ground, and there were people handing out coupons and free packages of tissues with advertising on them, and there was a band that had just decided to set up shop and sing on this bridge. The place was full of people, but no one seemed to be in a terrible rush, although everything was lively. We even saw a Buddhist monk begging on a streetcorner.
And the stores in Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Center. Everything imaginable! Clothes of all kinds, shoes, pets, discount toiletries, books, purses, groceries, street food from all around the world (I can tell you where to get a really delicious-looking kabob in Osaka now, by the way), jewelery, games, etc. And they're all in this nice open-air type setup, like Fourth Street Live on steroids. Really wonderful steroids with no negative health effects or legal consequences.
We had lunch at Subway. ^_^ That made me really happy. I got my regular 6" sub (well, 15cm, here), and it was good, but not quite as delicious as the ones at home. I'm not sure what the difference was. The Subways here seem to have a lot more wrap options than the ones at home, as well as different meat choices. There was a chicken tandoori wrap, for instance, but I didn't see any salami. Interesting. The store setup was like the American ones, where you order your bread and meat and go down the line picking out the other toppings. Anyhow, I'll be glad to get back to my own American Subway, though this was fun.
After eating we did more window shopping. We even passed a real Mikimoto pearl store. It sounds crazy, but I'd love to buy myself some pearl earrings from there. Really, I'm not at all into jewelry, but pearls are downright classy and timeless, and where better to get some nice ones than Japan? Too bad about the prices. Maybe I'll find something on sale?
After gawking at all the pretty things for sale and taking some silly photos with the various famous signs including Glico Man and the giant Kani Doraku crab, we got back on the subway at Nanba (yes, Nanba, Erin!) and headed to Saho's house.
Again, the train rides were excessive, I thought. I can't imagine having to make that commute every day to get to class. But when we finally arrived at Furuichi, I had recovered from the overwhelming shopping joy/exhaustion that was Shinsaibashi. Unfortunately, we had quite a walk from the station to her home. We walked along a small stream where we saw some huge, awesome spiders, a cormorant, and some sort of heron-ish bird. We then walked through a newly-built neighborhood, then had to walk along a dirt path between two rice paddies. I kid you not. It was fairly epic, and completely exhausting.
However, her town (a suburb of Osaka proper) was having a big festival today, which made the walk more fun. There were lots of street vendors and families lining the streets waiting for the festivities to come by. It seemed to be something like a parade, but not as organized. We saw several groups of men riding these wooden float-like things and banging drums. I'm not sure what any of it was about, but it sure looked cool. I have some pictures of this and everything else from the day, which I'll post later.
We stopped in a convenience store/grocery-type place called Japan where we bought some sweets and I bought deodorant. My American deodorant is almost out, so I was glad to have Saho help me find some more. There seems to be no stick deodorant here, at least as far as I've seen, so I settled for some spray stuff. We'll see how it goes.
After more walking uphill through neighborhoods, we finally arrived at Saho's home. It's a fairly large house in the traditional Japanese style, with a blue tile roof and a high garden wall. The rooms I was in were all tatami rooms, except for the kitchen and bathroom, of course. It was pretty cool.
I gave her family the souvenirs I had brought from home, and they seemed to really enjoy them a lot. Saho and I went throught the photo book page by page and talked about the pictures, while her bother, a high school runner, checked out the U of L athletics page online after finding the University on the map I brought. In any case, they were at least very good about pretending to be interested! I think I did pretty well, though. Which is good, because they were very, very kind to me.
We cooked supper together. I think Saho told her mother like every kind of Japanese food I had mentioned that I like, because we ended up with okonomiyaki, eggplant tempura, sticky rice, and gyoza. Plus, we made onigiri (rice balls) and a cold noodle salad with cucumber, ham, and mayonnaise. Saho's younger sister, Mizuho, and I had a lot of fun with the onigiri. The rice was really hot and sticky and you have to wad it up by hand, so one of us fanned the rice while the other squished it so we wouldn't burn ourselves. ^_^ Teamwork!
We also handmade the gyoza, which was a lot of fun. I got to mix the chives, ginger, pork, and cabbage together with my bare hands, which reminded me a lot of the good old days with Play-Doh. Kinda gross, but in an awesome "this is like brains!" way. They had bought pre-made wrappers, so there was no need to mix the dough or anything. It was fun putting the filling in and sealing it all up with water. Of course, they turned out to be delicious!
Everything, really, was wonderful. So yummy, and fun to make. We were all able to communicate fairly well, I think, too. I had a blast, really. When it was time to leave, they sent me home with leftover pasta salad and gyoza. Saho's father drove us to the train station, which was nice.
When she was escorting me home, Saho and I got talking about my schedule, and when we were on the train from Furuichi to Abenobashi, I pulled out my cute little planner and we flipped through it. Really embarrassing moment: I discovered that I wrote my own birthday on the wrong day. Honestly, who does that?! Seriously, it was hilarious. Saho and I had a really, really good laugh about that one. I still can't get over it. My birthday is the 20th, not the 21st. Is that really so hard? No. Yet I couldn't find the right day on a calendar. ::headdesk::
When we got ready to transfer trains, though, I realized I had a bigger problem than an inability to remember my own date of birth: I didn't have my ticket. The deal with Japanese trains is this: you buy your ticket from the little machine, put it through the gate, pick it up again on the other side, hold onto it while you're on the train, and insert it into the exit gate to get out of your destination station. I had, apparently, in my haze of birthday confusion, somehow lost my ticket on the train. So basically I had to pay another 390yen to get out of the train station. Darn.
Needless to say, Saho and I had a good laugh about that one, too. From then on, I held very tightly onto my tickets. I generally do that, actually, so I'm not quite sure how I lost my first ticket. Oh well. There are worse things to lose than a $4 train ticket.
Speking of money, if the economy keeps up like it is, I'll be making some money off any leftover yen I have at the end of the semester with the current dollar/yen exchange rate. Um, yay?
The rest of the train rides were uneventful, although I really had to go to the bathroom but couldn't find one. Oh well; I was able to wait it out until I got home. And that's about it for the events of the day. Took the bus from Hirakatashi-eki to the dorm and met a nice girl form Minnesota who lives in Seminar House 3. w00t.
Regarding politics: Check out this article. How very disappointing, regarding the hecklers. I can't believe people could be so heartless. But good for you, McCain. I'm really proud of him. It's hard to stand for a side of any controversial issue, but to be booed by your own supporters and stick by what you know is right...that's pretty awesome.
This plan is still to go see Ginkakuji in Kyoto tomorrow, but I'm really wiped out from the today. So I think I'll just sleep in and go to Kyoto whenever I feel like it tomorrow, rather than getting up early to catch a morning train and having everything planned out.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Things I should have known by now, a gloomy mood, and my toes
This morning was good; the weather was nice, I woke up chipper, and did really well in my speaking class. I even got a delicious slice of fresh pineapple with my udon for lunch today, and I thoroughly enjoyed eating it outside in the nice sun with my friends. It was good.
Japan in Western Film and Fiction today was great. I took so many notes. It was a class basically reviewing Japanese foreign relations during the Meiji Era. I took a fantastic class from Professor Huffman about Meiji freshman year, but unfortunately I forgot a lot of the facts. (But I still have the seashell he gave me on the first day of class--it's on my desk right now, actually.) I have never been able to keep the Treaties of Shimonoseki and Portsmouth straight for the life of me, for example. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but for a third-year student of Japan, this is absolutely shameful. So today was a nice, simple, chronological review of everything I wanted to know about Meiji Era international developments but was too afraid to ask or admit I didn't know. ^_^ Plus, I love history. And note-taking. And PowerPoints.
By the time class was over, the udon noodles and pineapple were totally gone from my tummy, I think. I was starving! So I grabbed some chicken nuggets from Makudo as a snack, did a bit of reading, and biked home. By this time some really glorious clouds had come in, and I was pretty sure it would start to rain on me on the way home, but it didn't. The weather was pleasantly cool, though. Fall is awesome.
There's a little drainage canal between my seminar house and Seminar House 1. Today when I was parking my bike near it, there was a little red crawdad picking his way through the canal. It was pretty cool. I had been wondering if anything lived in them, or if they're too drainage-ditchy for animal life. Apparently at least some things live there.
By the time I made it home, I had suddenly become really mopey, and I'm not sure why. The Debbie Downer mood has continued throughout the evening, unfortunately. Yuck. I'm just feeling kinda bored and apathetic, and I'm wondering why I'm not at home. Sometimes high doeses of my medicine causes this; I suspect that's the case now. Or maybe it's homesickness and culture shock finally starting to set in. In any case, all I want at the moment is a Subway sandwich, an episode of Deadliest Catch, David, and a nap. Blah. Hopefully this will clear up soon. Usually a good night's sleep and a little chocolate is all I need.
But tomorrow I'm supposed to go to Saho's house to cook, and to go shopping in Shinsaibashi if there's time. I wrapped up my souvenirs from home to take to her family tomorrow. There's a coffee table book about Kentucky, a kinda cute little reusable Target shopping bag, and maps of Louisville. I hope those are all okay gifts. I don't know. It was fun to wrap them, if nothing else. I do love wrapping presents.
Oh, and I have a bit of a strange health complaint. My toes hurt. A lot. My toes! What a strange thing to be in pain. It's not from silly shoes or anything; the actual joints and inside bits have been hurting fairly constantly for about a day. Again, a side effect of medication, I think. Just not one I've had before. Toe pain. How bizarre!
Hmm, I'm off to take a shower, I think. Showers are always nice. And the warm water will be nice on my arthritic toes. Oh for crying in the mud, I'm a mess! Hahaha, oh well. If achy toes are the biggest of my concerns, I'd say I'm doing pretty well.
Conversation of the day (In Japanese Speaking class)
Me: I love the Swirl of Approval!
Guy sitting next to me: The Swirl of Approval? Oh, I think that's a big "maru" for being correct.
Me: Yeah, I know. I just like to call it the Swirl of Approval.
Guy: Hahaha! Well, that's okay for you, I guess, but it sounds a little bit feminine. I don't think I could pull it off.
Me: Hmm, you're right. I am wearing a flowery sun dress and a cardigan. But you could call it something else. Something more dramatic. Like a Vortex of...something.
Guy: It's a Vortex of Manly Accomplishment!
Japan in Western Film and Fiction today was great. I took so many notes. It was a class basically reviewing Japanese foreign relations during the Meiji Era. I took a fantastic class from Professor Huffman about Meiji freshman year, but unfortunately I forgot a lot of the facts. (But I still have the seashell he gave me on the first day of class--it's on my desk right now, actually.) I have never been able to keep the Treaties of Shimonoseki and Portsmouth straight for the life of me, for example. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but for a third-year student of Japan, this is absolutely shameful. So today was a nice, simple, chronological review of everything I wanted to know about Meiji Era international developments but was too afraid to ask or admit I didn't know. ^_^ Plus, I love history. And note-taking. And PowerPoints.
By the time class was over, the udon noodles and pineapple were totally gone from my tummy, I think. I was starving! So I grabbed some chicken nuggets from Makudo as a snack, did a bit of reading, and biked home. By this time some really glorious clouds had come in, and I was pretty sure it would start to rain on me on the way home, but it didn't. The weather was pleasantly cool, though. Fall is awesome.
There's a little drainage canal between my seminar house and Seminar House 1. Today when I was parking my bike near it, there was a little red crawdad picking his way through the canal. It was pretty cool. I had been wondering if anything lived in them, or if they're too drainage-ditchy for animal life. Apparently at least some things live there.
By the time I made it home, I had suddenly become really mopey, and I'm not sure why. The Debbie Downer mood has continued throughout the evening, unfortunately. Yuck. I'm just feeling kinda bored and apathetic, and I'm wondering why I'm not at home. Sometimes high doeses of my medicine causes this; I suspect that's the case now. Or maybe it's homesickness and culture shock finally starting to set in. In any case, all I want at the moment is a Subway sandwich, an episode of Deadliest Catch, David, and a nap. Blah. Hopefully this will clear up soon. Usually a good night's sleep and a little chocolate is all I need.
But tomorrow I'm supposed to go to Saho's house to cook, and to go shopping in Shinsaibashi if there's time. I wrapped up my souvenirs from home to take to her family tomorrow. There's a coffee table book about Kentucky, a kinda cute little reusable Target shopping bag, and maps of Louisville. I hope those are all okay gifts. I don't know. It was fun to wrap them, if nothing else. I do love wrapping presents.
Oh, and I have a bit of a strange health complaint. My toes hurt. A lot. My toes! What a strange thing to be in pain. It's not from silly shoes or anything; the actual joints and inside bits have been hurting fairly constantly for about a day. Again, a side effect of medication, I think. Just not one I've had before. Toe pain. How bizarre!
Hmm, I'm off to take a shower, I think. Showers are always nice. And the warm water will be nice on my arthritic toes. Oh for crying in the mud, I'm a mess! Hahaha, oh well. If achy toes are the biggest of my concerns, I'd say I'm doing pretty well.
Conversation of the day (In Japanese Speaking class)
Me: I love the Swirl of Approval!
Guy sitting next to me: The Swirl of Approval? Oh, I think that's a big "maru" for being correct.
Me: Yeah, I know. I just like to call it the Swirl of Approval.
Guy: Hahaha! Well, that's okay for you, I guess, but it sounds a little bit feminine. I don't think I could pull it off.
Me: Hmm, you're right. I am wearing a flowery sun dress and a cardigan. But you could call it something else. Something more dramatic. Like a Vortex of...something.
Guy: It's a Vortex of Manly Accomplishment!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Body Types and Grilled Cheese Frustrations
This morning I had a test in reading and writing, and I did really, really well on it. It was one of those tests that was exactly like I thought it would be, and I was prepared. I love it when that happens. Speaking class also went fairly well, although today's second grammar point (ironically, "It's easy/hard to...") just didn't stick with me for some reason. It's not that complicated, so I don't know why it's not clicking. Maybe I just need practice. It's hard to understand this "it's hard to" construction. >.<
We started on Daoism in Asian Psychologies today, and had a really interesting discussion about Taoist vs. European concepts of the ideal body type. We compared a 16th century Belgian anatomical drawing with a 14th century Chinese drawing. The European artist was really concerned with musculature and support structures and how the body moves voluntarily. But the Chinese artist showed someone who, to me as a 21st century American, looked terribly out of shape. It was a man with, basically, a beer belly, and all these little lines and circles written in on him. So it turns out that Western thinking about the body, pathology, and psychology is more focused on voluntary actions and controlling intentions, while Daoist thinking is more about using techniques to facilitate involuntary processes. It was pretty fascinating, especially because there were a few students who really were holding on to the idea that a fit person is a muscular person; the prof was trying to get us to see that as a culturally-influenced point of view. It was a really fascinating discussion.
Monday is a holiday, and a lot of people, including William, are going to Tokyo for the long weekend. Sounds like fun, but I'll be glad to stay here and do some local sightseeing. I'm thinking of going to Kyoto on either Sunday or Monday to see Ginkakuji and the Path of Philosophy. (Wow, that sounds like a Harry Potter title: "Ginkakuji and the Path of Philosophy.")
Tonigh for supper I heated up leftover curry, which was so-so. It had lost a lot of the flavor, unfortunately. I also made some grilled cheese. I had mentioned before that the bread here is really thick, so that complicated things a bit. I had to cook it on really, really low heat to make sure the cheese melted. Also, cheese slices here are a little smaller than the cheese at home. I bought an 8-slice pack of Kraft cheese (white American, it seems, although it wasn't specifically labeled) and had to use four slices for my sandwich! Two slices to cover one piece of bread, and I like my bread=cheese, so since the bread was so big and the cheese so small I used half my pack of cheese for one sandwich. But it was very tasty, to tell the truth, and quite filling. I was rather proud.
I've been really sleepy lately, although I have been sleeping much more soundly. I think it's all because of my medication; I'm coming down on the dosage after it started to take effect, and the side effect of needing very little sleep is starting to decrease. It's nice not waking up every hour and a half, but I also feel like I'm really dragging compared to my super-hyped state of about a week ago. Oh well.
Here's an example of what NOT to do in Japan, in case you haven't seen this story yet.
Oh, and just to let you know, on my Monday (which is Sunday/Monday for most of you), the school will be doing some computer server maintenance, so if you try to email me anything on Sunday or Monday, there's a good chance I won't get it.
We started on Daoism in Asian Psychologies today, and had a really interesting discussion about Taoist vs. European concepts of the ideal body type. We compared a 16th century Belgian anatomical drawing with a 14th century Chinese drawing. The European artist was really concerned with musculature and support structures and how the body moves voluntarily. But the Chinese artist showed someone who, to me as a 21st century American, looked terribly out of shape. It was a man with, basically, a beer belly, and all these little lines and circles written in on him. So it turns out that Western thinking about the body, pathology, and psychology is more focused on voluntary actions and controlling intentions, while Daoist thinking is more about using techniques to facilitate involuntary processes. It was pretty fascinating, especially because there were a few students who really were holding on to the idea that a fit person is a muscular person; the prof was trying to get us to see that as a culturally-influenced point of view. It was a really fascinating discussion.
Monday is a holiday, and a lot of people, including William, are going to Tokyo for the long weekend. Sounds like fun, but I'll be glad to stay here and do some local sightseeing. I'm thinking of going to Kyoto on either Sunday or Monday to see Ginkakuji and the Path of Philosophy. (Wow, that sounds like a Harry Potter title: "Ginkakuji and the Path of Philosophy.")
Tonigh for supper I heated up leftover curry, which was so-so. It had lost a lot of the flavor, unfortunately. I also made some grilled cheese. I had mentioned before that the bread here is really thick, so that complicated things a bit. I had to cook it on really, really low heat to make sure the cheese melted. Also, cheese slices here are a little smaller than the cheese at home. I bought an 8-slice pack of Kraft cheese (white American, it seems, although it wasn't specifically labeled) and had to use four slices for my sandwich! Two slices to cover one piece of bread, and I like my bread=cheese, so since the bread was so big and the cheese so small I used half my pack of cheese for one sandwich. But it was very tasty, to tell the truth, and quite filling. I was rather proud.
I've been really sleepy lately, although I have been sleeping much more soundly. I think it's all because of my medication; I'm coming down on the dosage after it started to take effect, and the side effect of needing very little sleep is starting to decrease. It's nice not waking up every hour and a half, but I also feel like I'm really dragging compared to my super-hyped state of about a week ago. Oh well.
Here's an example of what NOT to do in Japan, in case you haven't seen this story yet.
Oh, and just to let you know, on my Monday (which is Sunday/Monday for most of you), the school will be doing some computer server maintenance, so if you try to email me anything on Sunday or Monday, there's a good chance I won't get it.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Planning, Yukari, and a New Dining Option
After writing about the Asa Banana Daietto this morning, I got to talk to my family for a long while on Skype, which was very nice. I also got to talk to David for a while, but not as long as I wanted because I had class. But I skipped lunch, so that gave me some extra time to talk. I snacked on some strawberry Pocky in art history to tide me over.
At 2:30 I was supposed to meet Saho. We made plans for Saturday; we're meeting at 11AM at school, going shopping in Shinsaibashi, and cooking some potstickers. It should be fun.
At 2:45 I met with Yukari, my speaking partner. I was really glad to get to talk to her. She was so friendly in our emails over the summer, but we've both been really busy (and kind of shy after our first meeting, I think) so we haven't seen each other in a month. Today we made plans to go to an onsen, or hot spring, on Wednesday afternoon. I'm so excited! It's one of the things I really, really wanted to do in Japan. After working out the details, we went together for a late lunch at the small school cafeteria, which I hadn't used before.
This cafeteria was a little different, which is why, although I had checked it out, I hadn't eaten there before today. When you go in, you look at the plastic food choices on display and pick out what you want, which is typical of a Japanese restaurant. But then, in this cafeteria, you have to purchase a ticket from a vending machine saying what you want. Then you take your ticket to the cafeteria workers, who then get your food for you. It wasn't complicated, but I'm still not sure why they use the ticket system instead of just asking you what you want. Oh well. In any case, I had some really yummy beef curry, and Yukari had tonkastu don. We were able to have a fairly smooth conversation.
Yukari is really sweet; I like her a lot. I do have some trouble understanding some of her phrases, though. I'm glad I'm getting to talk to people with lots of different speech styles. Saho uses a more tomboyish style, while Yukari is very timid and uses hyper-feminine patterns. Momoko is somewhere in between; her grammar and vocab are pretty standard, but her inflection makes everything sound so cute. I have a lot of trouble understanding Japanese boys, still. Probably because I haven't talked to them much, and also because they tend to use the more direct types of speech that we don't practice much in class because it can sound a bit rude. I seem to be best at talking to middle-aged women, actually. Every woman between about 35 and 55 has been really easy for me to understand.
After lunch with Yukari, I returned home for a nap. At 6:00 we had our monthly seminar house meeting. It was really uneventful; basically they reminded us to do our dishes and not get too loud at night. Then I studied, fixed some supper (rice pilaf, potstickers, and pizza toast this evening), showered, and studied some more for my lesson test in reading/writing in the morning. Now I'm here.
I'm completely wiped out from the day, and I'm not sure why. In any case, I'm off to bed a bit early tonight.
At 2:30 I was supposed to meet Saho. We made plans for Saturday; we're meeting at 11AM at school, going shopping in Shinsaibashi, and cooking some potstickers. It should be fun.
At 2:45 I met with Yukari, my speaking partner. I was really glad to get to talk to her. She was so friendly in our emails over the summer, but we've both been really busy (and kind of shy after our first meeting, I think) so we haven't seen each other in a month. Today we made plans to go to an onsen, or hot spring, on Wednesday afternoon. I'm so excited! It's one of the things I really, really wanted to do in Japan. After working out the details, we went together for a late lunch at the small school cafeteria, which I hadn't used before.
This cafeteria was a little different, which is why, although I had checked it out, I hadn't eaten there before today. When you go in, you look at the plastic food choices on display and pick out what you want, which is typical of a Japanese restaurant. But then, in this cafeteria, you have to purchase a ticket from a vending machine saying what you want. Then you take your ticket to the cafeteria workers, who then get your food for you. It wasn't complicated, but I'm still not sure why they use the ticket system instead of just asking you what you want. Oh well. In any case, I had some really yummy beef curry, and Yukari had tonkastu don. We were able to have a fairly smooth conversation.
Yukari is really sweet; I like her a lot. I do have some trouble understanding some of her phrases, though. I'm glad I'm getting to talk to people with lots of different speech styles. Saho uses a more tomboyish style, while Yukari is very timid and uses hyper-feminine patterns. Momoko is somewhere in between; her grammar and vocab are pretty standard, but her inflection makes everything sound so cute. I have a lot of trouble understanding Japanese boys, still. Probably because I haven't talked to them much, and also because they tend to use the more direct types of speech that we don't practice much in class because it can sound a bit rude. I seem to be best at talking to middle-aged women, actually. Every woman between about 35 and 55 has been really easy for me to understand.
After lunch with Yukari, I returned home for a nap. At 6:00 we had our monthly seminar house meeting. It was really uneventful; basically they reminded us to do our dishes and not get too loud at night. Then I studied, fixed some supper (rice pilaf, potstickers, and pizza toast this evening), showered, and studied some more for my lesson test in reading/writing in the morning. Now I'm here.
I'm completely wiped out from the day, and I'm not sure why. In any case, I'm off to bed a bit early tonight.
Bugs and Bananas
Okay, I really do think about things besides bugs, I promise. But today there were the most fascinating little black and orange caterpillars around campus. They were about the size of mealworms, and looked a little fuzzy.
I just got out of my speaking class, which was a lot more fun than it should have been today. The grammar point we were practicing was how to include questions in larger sentences, like "Do you know what time the debate is tonight?" Pretty pedestrian, right? But Sensei always tries to come up with fun topics for us to practice with, and today's was sweet.
In Japan, like in America, people get really into the fad diet thing. We had South Beach and Atkins a few years ago; I'm not sure what the newest one is. But in the past few months in Japan, there's been a very popular fad diet called the 朝バナナダイエット (asa banana daietto)--the Morning Banana Diet. You know how I said not to read the Thirty Verses link yesterday? Definitely go to this link; it's hilarious! The deal with this diet is that you eat a banana and water for breakfast (more bananas are okay if you're still hungry). After that, you just eat sensible foods and don't gorge yourself before bedtime. Simple, right? So why did they feel the need to write a book about how to eat bananas in the morning? Hmmm.
Apparently the book came out this year or last year, but over the past few weeks a couple of famous people have mentioned it on talk shows and the like, so it's gotten really popular. Sensei even said that a lot of supermarkets are running out of bananas because so many women are buying them for breakfast every day. Bananas have become even more expensive in the wake of the diet, too. How funny!
Anyway, we learned all this by asking Sensei questions about the diet embedded in longer sentences. It was pretty cool.
I just got out of my speaking class, which was a lot more fun than it should have been today. The grammar point we were practicing was how to include questions in larger sentences, like "Do you know what time the debate is tonight?" Pretty pedestrian, right? But Sensei always tries to come up with fun topics for us to practice with, and today's was sweet.
In Japan, like in America, people get really into the fad diet thing. We had South Beach and Atkins a few years ago; I'm not sure what the newest one is. But in the past few months in Japan, there's been a very popular fad diet called the 朝バナナダイエット (asa banana daietto)--the Morning Banana Diet. You know how I said not to read the Thirty Verses link yesterday? Definitely go to this link; it's hilarious! The deal with this diet is that you eat a banana and water for breakfast (more bananas are okay if you're still hungry). After that, you just eat sensible foods and don't gorge yourself before bedtime. Simple, right? So why did they feel the need to write a book about how to eat bananas in the morning? Hmmm.
Apparently the book came out this year or last year, but over the past few weeks a couple of famous people have mentioned it on talk shows and the like, so it's gotten really popular. Sensei even said that a lot of supermarkets are running out of bananas because so many women are buying them for breakfast every day. Bananas have become even more expensive in the wake of the diet, too. How funny!
Anyway, we learned all this by asking Sensei questions about the diet embedded in longer sentences. It was pretty cool.
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