Two Weeks of Pictures

I have here many a picture for you! Week 6 Hikone - 91 pictures of Kyoto and other things. Includes Gion Matsuri, Kiyomizu-dera, people in yukata, and Allan doing some Capoeira. Alas, I didn't get any good shots of him rolling around, stupid batteries dying. Week 7 Hikone - 104 pictures of the Naginata lesson and the beautiful Hikone Castle and the Genkyuuen Garden around it. Awesome place. Okay, I have a 15 minute speech in one hour, and I should go pretend to memorize it. After that, I run away to Tokyo for the weekend. Whee!!!

Two Weeks Gone

Yeah, I'm a bad person. Deal with it. I've been really, really busy lately, and I am sorry. Let me start off by saying that this will not (I hope) turn out to be a gynormous post. I have a speech tomorrow, and it's about 10 minutes long and I need to begin to memorize it. I went to Kyoto on the 16th-18th for the Gion Matsuri, one of the largest festivals in Kyoto. It was started when the plague ended many, many years ago. They carry huge "floats" which are like huge wagons down the roads over a few miles. It's a big to-do, and it was crowded beyond belief. Elmer, Allan, Rob, Jamie, Meghan, and Scott went with me. We got there after class Friday, which was after our second mid-term. We didn't particularly want to think of anything class-related, so we went to a huge festival! That night, we went to Sanjo-Keihan to go to Shakey's Pizza, an all-you-can-eat pizza place. I won a pin-badge there, because I am cool. I was a pig and ate about 23 slices of pizza (roughly equivalent to 10 American slices of pizza, these are paper thin!). After pizza gorging, Elmer and I went to go find our little ryokan (inn). It was the cheapest (and therefore shadiest) place we could possibly find. So Elmer and I trot off, and end up going the wrong way for a while, and then backtrack, and hit the place about an hour and a half after we started walking. It seems to have been designed by taking the alleyways behind buildings and putting a roof over it and boards on the ground. Shady. But for 1650Y a night ($15) I would go there again. We slept dorm-style in a room. Read: 6 of us on a floor. But I am getting ahead of myself. Elmer and I rejoined the group at a Game Center (arcade) which wasn't very good. So we went to another one, but it turns out you need a membership to get into it. So we went on. We wandered around, and all the people were having their massive festivities, selling beer on the streets. We walked down a street that seems to scream red-light district with empty rooms plastered with girlie pictures and a door at the back guarded by a Japanese guy in a suit with an earpiece, or the places called "Pink Office," "Pink Tomato," and so on. Pink is the color of eroticism. Guess why. Eventually, a convenience store or two later, we get tired and get back to the Uno House, where we have to cross through two rooms, the place with the sink for brushing teeth, turn left, go down a 3 foot step, walk on the boards down a hallway that I had to turn sideways in (crazy American shoulders), ignore the urinals on the wall (they're fakes, apparently), go to the end of that hall, turn left and go through a cubby hole about 4 feet high (watch your head!) and then on the left is a sliding door to a little room with 6 futon mattresses on the floor. On the right is a mysterious stairway to nowhere, and it's open to the sky also. Lovely place. We slept just fine though, got up, showered, and Rob, Allan, and I wore our jimbe. Scott, Meghan, and Jamie wore yukata. Elmer just wore shorts and a tank top, because he's cool like that. Heading out, we watched the floats. They are amazing, but it was hot and sweaty, and crazy gross being pushed around like that. Meghan and I almost made it all the way to the front of the crowd. The best picture I got was when I picked Meghan up and she took a picture for me. She only weighs 95 pounds! Tiny!! After the parade, we wandered for a while, split up while Elmer, Jamie, and Rob went one way, and we went another. We (Scott, Meghan, Allan, and myself) went to sit by the river on the Kawamachi bridge area and look at the fun little river. We waded into it (the river is about 10 inches deep here, man made), and it was nice and cool. Up the river, I saw some Ronin (masterless samurai). Going up the river a bit, a Shinsengumi (all of you who know Kenshin know who this is) member comes up, and they enact a fight scene!! It was great! One Shinsengumi guy versus three Ronin (one was female). After the demonstration, they had some people come and try a combination. They wouldn't let me though. I kept raising my hand, and he (Shinsengumi guy) says 'Who are you?' I respond with 'I'm me,' to which his reply is, 'Oh, never heard of you. Next?' But it was in Japanese. Oh well. After the fighting is done, we walk a year and a half to Kiyomizudera (the shrine of the pure water), which has the most amazing view, which it should, since it is on top of Kyoto. Uphill the whole way. But it was gorgeous. To be continued. I am only on the 18th right now as a matter of fact. Lots of catching up to do. And miles to go before I sleep. I mean, many things to read before I sleep.

More Pictures!

Week 5 Hikone - 128 Pictures for your viewing pleasure. I also left something out of the entry yesterday. At the Tanabata Festival, I was interviewed by a guy from the Yomiuri Shinbun, one of the biggest newspapers in Japan. He said when the article runs in August, he is going to send it to JCMU. So I might be in a Japanese newspaper!

11 Days already? Where Did the Time Go? Read and Find Out!!

This entry has waited about 11 days. I apologize for my sloth. I have done piles of studying mainly, so I'll spare you all my whining. Cut to the chase, David! Last Sunday, the day after Nara, Allan, Jamie, Scott, Meghan, Eric and I all went out in search of the elusive import grocery store and to go to UniQlo, the supposed used clothes store. UniQlo ended up being a veritable Gap of Japan, but with amazing prices and yukata. Yukata are the summery, cotton robe-like-kimono things that men and women wear. So I acquired one. In fact, Allan, that copycat, bought the same one as me! To be fair, there were three patterns for guys. Women get birds, flowers, and floopy things like that in all ranges of colors. Guys get geometric patterns, and subdued, earthy dark colors. It's really soft and comfy also. I am pleased. The import store, however, did not impress me. It had no great import selection. If anything, it was like a Gordon Food Service place. Tiny fridge equals no big foods. During the week, there were a couple runs to the Yuu Store and AL Plaza, but nothing other than groceries came to me. Tuesdsay was the Aikido cultural doodad (yes, doodad. Deal with it.), which was fun. They came from Shiga Daigaku (University) and demonstrated, then showed us a bit, then answered questions. One of the guys spoke no English, so Aizawa-sensei turned me into a translator, which I surprised myself in being able to do!! Last Friday, we Barbequed our hearts out. Rob, Allan, and I got meat and supplies from the Yuu Store, and returned to get Eric and Elmer joining in. This was also the weekend of the optional weekend homestay, so nobody was around. First, we made Grill Gyoza by cooking them backwards. We were supposed to fry then steam, but we had it set for a boil, then a crisping on the grill. Of course, we boiled in a pan... Next, we had Kalbi Pork Chops (Sweet, Korean BBQ Style), Teriyaki Chicken breast chunks, scallions, over rice. Also, we grilled up some dessert pineapple, which was beyond delicious. An ear of sweet corn, and two dry sweet potatoes round out the meal. We were beyond pleased. Saturday was Harry Potter day. Eric, Allan, and I hit Viva City by way of Toys 'R' Us. Toys 'R' Us actually sells Rold Gold and Snyder pretzels. Also, the video game selection was gorgeous. After drooling, we went to waste the half hour before buying our tickets. I played a fun Shooter Game, Allan played Tekken TAG and then some DDR, which he is pretty good at. I would somehow damage everyone around me... Then it was finally time to get tickets. We stood in line for a bit, then got our tickets to see the new Harry Potter movie, finally. I, at least, was really happy, being the huge nerd that I am. While waiting in line for the theater to open, I noticed one middle schooler's handbag. It had a big Playboy bunny logo on it and said something like "Don't ring if you don't swing!" And that just disturbed me. I tried to get a picture of it, but it just didn't work. I just ended up feeling dirty with the results. It's long gone. They opened the theater, and it's about 1/4 of the size of a small Laurel Park Mall theater. I mean, maybe, maybe 100 seats. But it was enjoyable. The opening thing that told us to throw our trash away and be quiet in the theater was an animated Godzilla that we three Americans laughed uproariously at. At the end of the little animation, Godzilla was sitting in his seat asleep while all the other Godzilla monsters around him glared at him. The movie was great though, if you read the book and could fill in the gaps on your own. The whole shrunken head Jamaican things were a little odd, also. We laughed at the jokes that the Japanese people didn't get, and the movie was subtitled. Fun! After the movie, we decided to try to head to the nearby Book Off, another used book store for some more manga. It was close by, so we walked the less-than-1km to get there. Not like we had a choice, our bikes were left on the other side of the train tracks, at the train station. The Book Off was more expensive than Bandai in terms of used manga, but we still got some pretty good deals. I bought the three Trigun manga as well as another GTO. Lotsa manga for David for cheap! It was time to head off after that, and we were getting really hungry, having not really eaten that day. We stopped at what I thought was a 24 hour beefbowl place called Suikya, but it turned out to be (duh) a Sukiyaki place. I should have known from the name. We ordered our food and within 3 minutes, it was at our table, and it was absolutely delicious. Also, it was really cheap. For less than $6 we all filled our bellies with delicious thinly sliced beef over rice in some form or another. Upon returning home, we started watching the GTO drama. GTO is short for Great Teacher Onizuka, who never went to college, was always a problem student, and even led a biker gang (bosozoku in Japanese), but has a good heart. he has wanted to be a teacher so he can make a difference in the kids' lives, unlike the majority of the teachers who just worry about their image, bow to the kid's demands, and placate the parents. He passed the interview by impressing the director of the school (Prinicpal) by doing a jumping roundhouse kick into the neck of the Head Teacher (Vice Principal) when the Head Teacher wouldn't do anything about a problem in the school. Good interview. I really like this drama, and it's funny. Last Sunday was pretty much all homework, with a little bit of GTO and Azumanga Daioh mixed in for good measure. Good way to celebrate the birth of the country, instead of hanging out with loud, obnoxious drunk people, it was a quiet night laughing our asses off. I was pleased with it. Monday brought the studies. Monday night I studied in the AC Study Room, which was wonderful, and it was more wonderful, because it is the day that the PDA I bought came in. It is a Hitachi NPD-20JWL, which runs Windows CE 4.1, and has a brilliantly clear color screen. Since it is a Japanese PDA, it has excellent Kanji recognition, and can double as an mp3 player, as well as go on the internet using WiFi. Oh, and I put dictionaries on it, so I was going to sell my electronic dictionary to Allan on Tuesday. Monday night I went and tried to get the drivers for the PDA on to the computer (not in the study room), and got caught up synching it up... I got really tired, gathered my computer and went to bed. I didn't even think about the stuff in the study room, stacked in its nice little pile. In the morning, I went to reclaim my stuff, but it was no longer in a nice little pile. It was scattered about the table, and my electronic dictionary was gone. It was the biggest boneheaded mistake I have made; leaving my electronics out. But this is Japan, no theft here, and I live with all the Americans here, and I would like to think that they're honest. Well, looks like I have been proved wrong twice now. One other girl had her 40GB iPod (worth $500) nicked from a room they were partying in. It was last seen by Fumiaki at 2:30 in the morning, and I got into the room at 8am. So somewhere in there, someone took it. It could have been any of the students. And I have no way to get it back. The Resident Director here said he would try to do what he could, but he doesn't know if he can just go searching rooms or not. So I get to wait, but I am not very optimistic. I was out of it all day on Tuesday, and even skipped the Tea Ceremony to sleep a bit. I was really pissed off. It was not a good day, and it still hasn't shown up; I am not harboring any thoughts that it will. Wednesday and Thursday were spent studying and trying to get the PDA to accept other programs, but it's tough to get the American programs to work on the Japanese OS. I have yet to succeed with putting the Adobe Acrobat reader on to it. Thursday night was the Tanabata Festival at Shiga Daigaku with Allan, Eric, Scott, Jamie, and Meghan, which was amazing. We all wore our yukata, and caught the bus (since it would have been impossible to ride our bikes in them) to the university. It was a tiny campus, so a small festival. They had stalls with shaved ice, draft beer, curry, fries, sake, fried chicken chunks, grilled fish, grilled squid, fruit, and candy. They also had cold noodles, ice cream, and games to play. It was a really cool atmosphere, especially when it got dark, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We grabbed some shaved ice since it was so unbearably hot (melon flavored, of course), and wandered about. Then they started the pounding of the mochi. Mochi is the glutenous rice powder that is pretty sweet, but has a really odd, smooth, soft, sticky texture. After the first two older guys pounded some, they pulled me up on stage to pound the mochi. The first couple guys went for a minute or two, and then I was pounding it for over three minutes. Believe me, it felt longer than that. Using a 20 pound wooden sledge continuously for three minutes (very quickly) turned my arms into jelly. When I was done, I was applauded, and I felt like a rock star again. I mean, we were Americans in the traditional dress, and I was up on stage in front of them. Then some kids tried their hand, and another guy from JCMU tried it. He didn't have his heart in it though. I was better, hehe. When it was done, they rolled it in roasted rice flour, and gave it out to the people in line. I noticed it too late, and wasn't going to get any, but they saw me, and since I pounded it, they gave me the last bits of it. It was warm and delicious, and I shared it with my fellow gaijin. It turns out they took a picture of me and printed it out, so I have that. Yay! Wandering around, talking to random Japanese people was fun, and the little kids in their yukata were adorable. I munched on some fried chicken breast also, which made my belly happy. Then I hit the sake booth. They were generous enough to give me a taste tour at no charge. I tried three sake, the first was pretty heavy and sweet. Almost cloying and thick on the tongue. The second was a little drier, with good green apple crisp sweetness at the finish. It cut through the humidity really well. The last was the ultra premium, and was exceptionally smooth. I was really pleased with it, but it was too expensive, so I bought a tiny bottle of the second one for 250 yen, and had a little bit of a drink. It was only about 12 ounces, but we all got to taste it well enough. Also at the festival were some other JCMU people. Becky and Kevin, both from EMU, as well as Tom (from New York) hung out a bit. The stall that had grilled sausages and spare ribs gave me a free rib because I pounded the mochi! Not as good as ribs back home, but great in its simplicity. Meghan played a game to get a "yo-yo" which was a ballon with a bit of water in it on a rubber band. It amused her. Then they were doing the Orihime contest, which was getting the kids in yukata on to the stage area and picking the crowd favorite. They picked two boys and two girls, and they were filmed for something, whether for tv or for Shiga University stuff, I don't know. But they were damn cute. From 3-7, I would say. Around this time, the festival was drawing to a slow close. They were doing a raffle in the cafeteria, and since I had a ticket, I went. They were giving away watermelons, sake, entrance to Hikone castle, and some green tea gift sets. I didn't win anything, but it was a lot of fun with how high-energy it was in there. After that, we got a taxi back to JCMU. We did a bad thing, we put 5 people in a 4 person taxi, but Meghan's so tiny, she doesn't count as another whole person... The taxi driver told us no, but I apologized profusely. I think he was mad at me. We all went and (separately) got out of our yukata, showered, and then met up in the tv room to watch some more anime and a half an episode of GTO. It was a great night, leading up to our field trip in Kyoto yesterday. Well, we went to Kyoto for free yesterday. It was really cool, and we got to ride the ghetto-fabulous pimp buses again. They had the lighting system that was designed to look like fancy chandeliers, but were instead pretty tacky. It was funny. The bus ride was uneventful, so I'll gloss over it to when the buses drove through Kyoto proper. On the one road we drove down, I counted 5 Lawson's. A good sign. We stopped at a light, and there was a dog grooming school, and the women in there waved at us, and I waved back, so more of them waved, and one picked up the daschund that she was grooming, and had him wave at us. That was pretty damn funny. A few minutes later, we arrived at Ritsumeikan Daigaku (Ritsumeikan University, you should all know that word by now), where we were grouped into groups of four and given two Japanese student guide. My group had Allan, Becca (from Beloit University in Wisconsin), and Kevin (from EMU). Our tour guides were Take, who was a pretty tall Japanese guy, and pretty tanned, and Yochi (Yoshie actually, but she went by Yochi), who was pretty tiny. I am sure that if they tried, they could have gotten into modelling. We went from the Ritsumeikan campus to walk to Kinkakuji. Kinkakuji is the Golden Pavillion, built in the 1500s, and is absolutely amazing. Let me take a minute to describe to you how unbearably hot it was. On the bus at 10am, it was 90 degrees. It just got hotter. In fact, today, I heard the number that yesterday, in Japan, 3 people died from heat stroke, and 85 were hospitalized. We now continue with the day of walking outside in Kyoto. Oh, and it was horribly humid also. Yochi, Becca, and I were talking about Japanese movies and other things like Harleys on the way to Kinkakuji. Turning that corner and having that gleaming, golden building come into view was as breathtaking as the last two times I had been there. In fact, this year, they had paid special attention to cleaning and taking care of the gold on the temple. We got our pictures, and talked about when it was built. Walking up the paths, they still have the same Success in Studies charm I bought three years ago. We talked about the waterfalls there, which was where the guy who built Kinkakuji (Yoshimitsu, I think?) took water to make his tea... et cetera. Kind of mythical now, since one of the statues denotes a place where he napped and was inspired to build the temple by a white snake from the heavens. Pretty cool, actually. The Kinkakuji shop had AC, so we stood there for a few, Becca got a fortune, and it was the best one, so she kept it. There was a little stand a bit further on, by the exit, which had Frozen Coke. I think it was the only place in Japan that has them, and I don't plan on being stopped by it. Allan and I have been tossing the idea around of bringing Slurpees to Japan and Japanese vending machines to America. It would be a smash hit. From there, transposing some other cultural differences; American pizza to Japan, Japanese convenience store food and breads to America. We'd be millionaires. Back to the present, we decided to head back to campus for lunch. The cafeteria was really busy right then, so we wandered around, melting, and stopped in the air conditioned library for a few before going to get food. I can't get over how cheap and delicious these cafeterias can be. I got Kalbi-donburi (Korean style barbeque pork over rice), a side of Kinpira (lightly pickled julienne carrots and burdock), some yogurt with fruit in it, and a ginger ale for 700 yen. After this, it was time to bid adieu to our newly met Japanese friends, so we got back on the bus, and headed out towards Arashiyama, our next stop. Arashiyama was really close, and had a multitude of choices of things to see. Alas, we only had two hours to see them. There were three or four temples, a music box museum, bamboo forest, and Monkey Mountain. This place is also famous for the Shinsengumi (the Way of the New Order) who helped bring about the Meiji Reformation in the 1840s. If you have seen any Rurouni Kenshin, you should know them. Saitou Hajime was in them. This time, Allan, Rob, Jamie, Scott, Meghan, and I wandered around. We hit the shops to see if there were any ATMs around. No, there weren't. But I saw a fan I wanted, and decided to get it on the way back. It's a Shinsengumi fan, heck yeah! So we decided to go to the bamboo forest first, since it was closer. It was pretty cool, and only a few blocks away, but we couldn't practice our ninja running in the forest, it was blocked off. I got a few cool pictures though. We headed back, and Rob and Jamie both bought really cool fans. Let me remind you, it is over 95 at this point in the day. What do we decide to do? We want to see Monkey Mountain. It can't be that bad, right? Wrong. We pay 500 yen for the privilege to climb a mountain on the day that 3 people die from heat stroke, and 85 hospitalized. I know I have said it before, but emphasis is the key. Emphasis is the key. I thought that the first staircase was bad, then we took another half hour of constant trudging up the switchbacks on the mountain, and it was over a mile, pretty steeply uphill. By the time we were three quarters the way up it, I was starting to feel light-headed and see spots. But I survived. I felt re-energized when we came across the first monkeys in our path. There was one monkey, grooming the second, who had a baby clinging to it. Three for one! And they are free-range monkeys, so you have to keep out of their way. A bit further on , there was one just sprawled in the path. He looked at us as we passed, but that's about it. Then we inexplicably ended up in a playground. Bring your kids here, maybe? Let them play with monkeys? Never in America, I could almost feel the lawsuits from that one. But there was a big Monkey Slide (but the Americans were using it. I wouldn't fit, so I didn't. There were baby monkeys wrestling in trees, and falling down, there were mama monkeys feeding babies, there was an old monkey just hanging out in the crook of a tree. They were everywhere! Up at the top, there was the view of Kyoto. You could see the whole city from there, and it was worth the hellish climb itself. It was pretty breathtaking, monkeys and a view. Not like I had any breath to spare anyways. The way down was much easier, but the path was just steep enough that you wanted to run instead of walk, and I had to try hard to not roll down the mountain. Once down, we headed back towards the bus, since it was time to head home. We stopped and drained some Dakara Life Partner (sports like drink) and went and I bought my fan. It is really cool. And cooling. The ride back was accompanied by sleeping. Apparently I have a "cool" sleeping breathing pattern. I start to snorer lightly then I catch myself, and stop. But I do it at fairly regular intervals apparently. We turned the bus seats so we had a giant U shape in the back of the bus, 4 seats on each side, and 6 across the back. It was nice for napping. When reaching the dorms again, we headed off to the Yuu store for food for this week's minimalist BBQ. We got pork for teriyaki pork, pineapple, and I bought a little mochi. I also got 3 2-liters of Life Partner. The grill was a pain to light this week, from the humidity, and Rob almost set himself on fire three times. A record for him. But we eventually got it started, and the grill cooked chicken wings for Jamie and Meghan first, then our pork, pineapples, Scotts chicken-thing skewers, then finally some calamari for the girls. It was a pretty good Pineapple Teriyaki pork donburi night. I was pleased. We were all exhausted also, so when Rob headed out back to his homestay, we adjourned to the tv room for one episode of Azumanga Daioh, and one of Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, which I just found out got licensed, so no more downloading that, I guess... Then it was sleepy time. I woke up this morning to the sound of huge rolling thunder, which I had not heard in Japan at all until now. It was reassuring. I slept in until 11, and got out here at 1130, to the Air Conditioned room. It was pretty nice out, if not really muggy. I plan on getting a head start on some studying today and maybe watching some GTO. I am uploading pictures now, so keep yer pants on, kids.