Still Playing Catch-Up, and I am Caught Up!

Okay, where was I? Kiyomizu-dera on the 18th of July. It was rough getting there because it was uphill the whole time, and Jamie, Meghan, and Scott were in yukata that were particularly warm. Not a good combination. Stopping at a multitude of fairly pleasant shops, we finally made it up to the temple. And it was fairly awe-inspiring just from the entrance gate. It overlooked the whole city, and the view just kept getting better as we went in. Inside, there were three tools made of iron. One was a pair of sandals, the next a walking stick, and the last was a prayer staff (jingly staff that priests carry in anime). If you could lift them in succession, you were considered a superman (choujin). Or so the story goes, that the guy who founded the temple carried them around. The first two were fine, but the third must have weighed 400 pounds. Elmer and I decided to be han-bun (half) choujin and shouldered the load together. After that, we wandered through the complex, wondering at all the green and the trees around us. It was amazing. After seeing the sights and enjoying the views, we went down to the spring from which the temple gets its name (Kiyomizu-dera means clear water temple). We had to stand in line, and use these long poles to fill the little cup from three streams of water falling down, but it was good. Nice, cool, clean, fresh water helped so much. Even if I poured it into an Aquarius bottle (sports drink). Supposedly, they give you luck in romance, work, or money depending on which you drink from, though they all come from the same stream. So I don't know how they are different. Afterthe Kiyomizu-dera experience, we hit a few shops on the way down, and decided to head home. Just a little more walking and we were at the train station. The girls and Scott changed out of yukata and we hopped a train home. We did have to sit and wait for a transfer train at one point, and after a few minutes, Elmer looks at all of us and then pokes me and there, on the train across the platform, is a swarm of middle schoolers waving frantically at us. They were inordinately excited to have someone wave to them. But they headed off, and I got a picture, and then we were off ourselves. An hour later we were back at JCMU. That Tuesday we had our koto lesson. A koto is a 13 stringed (some have 16 or 18) floor harp. We played it a bit, and I personally really enjoy the sound it makes. I didn't do so badly on it, really. But it was really nice, getting to sit in the tatami room and listen to good music. For the weekend of the 24th, we had no real plans. I went to the Ohmi-Hachiman Mall with Becca, Rob, Allan, Jamie, Meghan, and Scott. This was a two building mall that was pretty impressive actually, but it really had nothing that I wanted to buy. I blew some money on a game that could have won me a Game Boy Advance SP. But I didn't get it, so I left it alone. After the mall, we barbequed. It was a nice, lazy barbeque. Besides, we had to make up for the lack of one after the Gion Matsuri trip! That was pretty much all of the weekend, besides the studying. Following Tuesday: Final Cultural Activity! Shoudou, Japanese Calligraphy. It was interesting to see how it was done, and it just felt really odd to me to be doing it. I write properly, but not holding the pen vertically. That was odd. I made 6 or 7 sheets of paper. They said things that ranged to 'Gibb' 'Vicious Circle' 'Shinbashi' 'Love' and more. We submitted our best to be displayed in the lobby, and the sensei told me to submit love over vicious circle. I wonder why.... That Thursday, the 29th, everyone was flipping out, including myself. We had presentations the next morning and nobody was ready. I rewrote mine, and it took 6 pages, wrote notecards, got my props (Coke, Fanta, Aquarius, and Georgia Coffee, since I wrote about bringing Japanese Vending Machines to America), and reread it many, many times. In the morning, I was first, and I think I rocked it out. I had my speech fairly well down and it rolled out pretty well. I got a good grade on it. After, Elmer talked about Street Dancing, Bednar-san (Daniel) talked about Japanese Fender Stratocasters, and Megan talked about clothing of the Heisei period. Then we had an hour of class that nobody prepared for. After that, I found Allan, and we ran away to Tokyo. Final on Tuesday be damned, we wanted to go to Tokyo!! Allan and I bolted to the station, and on the way I ran into Matt Sullivan, with whom I went to JCMU three years ago. It turns out that he is living in Hikone these two years with his girlfriend. Small world, eh? Anyways, I had to keep moving. Allan and I got the train to Maibara, had a half hour of a wait, so we went and got some Katsu Curry from the local Heiwado (grocery store) and ate it on the platform. The next train came, we hopped it, rode it for a few hours, transferred, rode another train, and thought we were making good time. At one point we were an hour and a half ahead of projected time. Then we missed a transfer, buggered things up, and then got to Tokyo on time. Tokyo station is just as I remembered it, and just as busy. We went to Shin-Koiwa where I thought our ryokan was, but I was a stop off. Koiwa was the destination, and we got there, walked our 10 minutes to the ryokan, and checked in. Ryokan Toki has changed since coming to Tokyo three years ago. They completely renovated it so the check-in building has a little kitchenette, three big tables, a computer that is online, and so on. Much different than the cramped little entry of before. Allan and I dropped our bags off and went into Tokyo proper. We went to Ikebukuro where there were supposedly some amazing game centers. Personally, I thought they just had a lot of the crane games and fighting games. But they had Taiko no Tatsujin 6 (the drumming game), and I got to play the theme from Kenshin on it. It made me happy. Dinner was a Yoshinoya, which I remember having some delicious beefbowl, but they only had pork this time. Stupid beef ban. In any case, we were getting tired from our long day of sitting, and decided to head back in lieu of going to another game center. It was a good idea we did so. We got the last train, where they had to pack people in like sardines. Oh, in Japan it is called Sushi-zume (packed like sushi). I couldn't exhale without pushing someone, so it was an interesting experience to say the least. Back at the ryokan, with a bit of chu-hi and sake, Allan and I relaxed while watching some tv of a group of Gaijin at a matsuri (festival). Sleep came easily on the comfortable futon on the floor.... In the morning, we got ready for our full day in Tokyo. First on the list was Tokyo Tower, and if we were going to get sucked into an alternate dimension, this was the place it was going to happen. Allan and I took a nice walk through a temple called Zozouji to get to the Tower, which has a bunch of trees around it. It was very nice, actually. At the Tower, we got a surprise. A guy with a trained monkey was performing! The monkey would jump over a hurdle, walk on stilts, climb stairs on its hands, and do backflips. Also, he walked like a man! Man Monkey!! We were entertained for a while with this, then headed up the tower ourselves. It is not really anything i can descreibe with words, being 160m in the air and looking out over a city that DOES NOT END. You will see the pictures soon enough. After the Tower, we went to go find Anna Miller's in Akasaka. Anna Miller's is a restaurant known for their pie and there, uhm, waitresses. At least that's what they say in MegaTokyo. I got to have a monterey-jack, crispy bacon burger with a toasted sesame seed bun, lettuce, tomato, onion, and ketchup with fat french fries, and a slice of Black Cherry pie afterwards. It was heavenly, if a bit expensive. With our bellies full of food it had been missing for months, we struck out again on to the city of Tokyo. Shinjuku was the next stop, to find the big Times Square like place. Instead of finding that, we found a Kinokuniya, which is a huge (7 story) book store, that didn't even have the book I was looking for. Sheesh. On another note, if we didn't come to Shinjuku, we would not have found the Okinawan Festival. Okinawa is a southern island in a chain of islands off of Japan, and they did a bunch of fun dances with drums. And ghosts. I think they were ghosts. Guys would leap around playing the drums, girls would dance around in really, really short yukata, and some other guys with their faces painted white would be the ghosts... or something. It was fun to watch though. After the third group soing similar stuff, we decided to head out to Akihabara, the electronics district. In Akihabara, we found Gamers almost immediately, though we took the wrong exit from the station. Gamers had expanded from their one story from three years ago, to 8 now. They had different floors dedicated to different things. It was amazing. 8 floors of anime goodness, and all I got was the first Slayer's novel. I am getting good at this not-impulse-buying thing. It appeared that Akihabara was starting to close down, so we headed back home, stopping for bento at 7-11 (no Lawson's for us, unfortunately) as well as a bit o sake to celebrate our conquering of Tokyo. More random tv was in order, and we enjoyed our night, and got ready for another travel day the next day. In the morning we checked out of Ryokan Toki, and meandered our way to the train station. We headed out a little earlier than we expected, and caught a couple good trains. One of them was non stop for three hours, which was good, but we didn't get to sit down until almost two hours had passed, which was bad. At that transfer, in Toyohashi, we decided to get some food. The next train left in either 15 minutes or 45 minutes. We figured the 45 minute one would be us, so we went up and found a really fast ramen place that served us ramen of lesser quality than Chanpon (but lesser price too, so it all works out), and we were back on the platform in 10 minutes. How's that for fast food? We did make it home in time for the fireworks, which made the streets crowded with yukata-clad people of all ages. It was almost difficult getting home. Quickly, I got into my yukata, and then got some beer to watch the fireworks with, as they shot up over the lake. The fireworks were impressive, and may have overshadowed the Detroit fireworks. They were pretty awesome. Not a bad trip to Tokyo at all, finishing up with fireworks and friends. Next, was our last Monday of class. Our last real day of class. It went well, actually, and then we spent the day studying for the exam. Of course we had katsudon for lunch at Shirumon, that's tradition! Study, study, study. For the final exam the next day! It actually wasn't as bad as the others, it seemed, and either I had given up or I started to get it. I prefer to think the latter over the former. After the exam, Karen organized a trip to an onsen (hot springs public bath). Elmer, Allan, Kevin Balint, and I were the guys involved, and Jamie, Meghan, Karen, Claire, Amanda, and Lauren were the women involved. We had a train to catch at 2:15, and it was about 1:55, so we hauled ass to the station, bought our tickets, and got on the train. The doors started closing, and a couple more were coming down the stairs, so I stood in the path of the doors, and bodily held them open. Twice. We had hoped that Karen and Claire were on the train, but they weren't. So when we got to our transfer point, we had to wait for them. It was fun though. The train station we ended up at was so small, it had no train ticket machine. You just got on it and bought your ticket later. Or that's what we did on the way home. From the station, a bus picked us up and took us to the onsen. Of course it was segregated. We went to our separate baths, scrubbed up on the little seats, and hopped into the water. The water was kind of reddish with minerals in it. It felt nice, but got really hot. And it's not easy to just get up when you're in a giant bath with a bunch of other naked guys. At least I didn't have my glasses on. We soaked in those two indoor tubs for a while, then went and found an outdoor bath. The girls were on the other side of the fence, and Allan tried peeking. Well, not really. He just put his hand through a hole in the fence to scare them. It was gratifying. All done with soaking, we eventually got back to the station, where we had to wait for the train. We passed the time by playing a game where a group of people stand in a circle, then everyone reaches out their left hand and takes someone else's (not the person next to you) and then you do the same with the right, and try to untangle yourselves. We tried twice and lost both times by the time the train came. Oh well. Later on, we had a barbeque, our last one. It was sad, but we enjoyed ourselves. Not a bad way to spend a day after taking a final exam. The next morning, Rob showed up and wanted to do something immediately. So he and I went to Osho, which was a Chinese place his host family took him a lot. We had Charshu-men (ramen with pork in it. A LOT OF PORK), gyoza, and Anindofu (almond jelly), and it only cost 1008Y. Cheap, really. After that, we went to McDonald's for a giant coke. It was a Jumbo Coke served in a carton. I was pleased with it. Coming back to JCMU, I had to start on my cleaning, and then everyone kinda took off their own separate ways, and I went to catch up to people out on Castle Road an hour or so later. We came back and organized a trip to Shougestsu for a final okonomiyaki. Yes, you have seen this before if you read my journal. I am not explaining it again. There were seven of us who went. Karen, Bednar-san, Scott, Meghan, Jamie, Allan, and me. We gorged ourselves and had a good time, then came back here, watched some anime, and then trundled off to bed. And then we woke up for the graduation ceremony! The ceremony was not bad at all. There were some good speeches by the students of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year. 4th year was lazy and didn't do one... But Dr. Johnson, who is the resident director at JCMU is not a public speaker. It seems my Japanese is better than his, he couldn't pronounce names properly, and just wasn't into it. His speech in English didn't talk about us, he talked about Japanese humility, and then insulted us at the end by saying the teachers have done everything for us, even if we didn't put forth the effort. But I graduated, with a B- just like last time. I spoke with Rob's host mom after the ceremony, and she seemed like a really cool host mom. I wish I had gotten a higher grade, but I will survive. I tried my best. Then it was a mad flurry of cleaning so that rooms could be inspected, which was easy. The plans for the night were laid out as follows: go to Shirumon for dinner, then go to Viva City for game center. That was about it. Dinner was with Kevin, Jamie, Meghan, Scott, and Allan, since Rob had to go to his host family's place for dinner. Then we walked to the station, which took about 45 minutes. Ugh. Hopped a train one stop to Viva City, went to the game center and promptly picked up a shotgun and started destroying zombies. I was playing Time Crisis 3, by the way. I also went and tried to get some slimes from Dragon Quest, since everyone loved them so much. It was fun, and I made the machine tilt by hip checking it. It actually yelled at me and told me not to do that. Ha! We met up with Bednar-san and Karen there, who were going to see a movie, and got Purikura with them (photo stickers) After game center madness, we did some karaoke upstairs. Yes, I did karaoke. It was fun with the other people, in our own room. Rob pretty much took over and was doing a bunch of songs at the beginning, because he had to leave early. It was fun. We ended with Bohemian Rhapsody, which seems to be a standard for them, or something. It was good times. We got a taxi home from the Hikone station, by the way, no more silly walking for us! In the morning, everyone left. It was really sad to me, watching everyone except for Karen leave. It is not something that made me feel good, but empty, thinking that all of these people will probably never be in the same place again, and everything that we made this summer might live on in our minds, but never in action again. I know I'll see the people I hung out with, but everyone else is just on the outside. ::sigh:: Karen and I hung out a bit, and didn't do much else that day. I bummed around feeling sorry for myself. The next day, I slept all day, took a nap, then Karen and I went to Castle Road to look at the shops (she had two bikes still!), and we were going to go to Osho, but we ran into a Tanabata festival on Ginza Road, so we inspected it instead. We ate there instead, at the little stalls and stands. I had some Karaake (fried chicken breat chunks on a stick), a banana-chocolate crepe, and yakisoba. I was pleased. After getting home, we sat and talked until about 4am, and I told her the drama that was David's love life. Mainly because she had some questions come up that she had never dealt with and wanted advice. I woke up in time to wish her well as she went off to Kyoto, then home to Taiwan, and I really was alone. Sure, Ross is still here, but I never really talked to him. So pretty much, alone. I slept most of yesterday, and read when I was awake. I wasted the day. Now today I have a lot to do, since I have to be out of here by 9am. I can do it. And when I leave, I go to Osaka, then the next day, dad and Kevin show up and it's wacky fun time in Japan for us! My pictures from the last week or so should be public very soon, so I will have them posted when I have internet access again.