6.26.2007
Coming home!
I've just booked my flight for home! I'll be in the States to visit from July 26 to August 14. I'm already daydreaming about what I want to eat and where I want to go. Holla if you want to meet up!
6.18.2007
つゆ (Rainy Season)
It's definitely rainy season now. I think it started last Monday. The amount of rain that has been falling is amazing; it's a practical deluge. The sky is cloudy every day and the air is thick with wet humidity. I will leave the house thinking it will just be a grey and muggy day, only to get caught in a sudden downpour. I swear, the weather will be cloudy but calm, but then with the blink of an eye or a trip to the grocery store, it will start pouring buckets from the sky. Like it is right now, with a side of stifling heat. I am completely amazed at the amount of water I'm seeing right now. There's thunder and lightning too, and it reverberates in my ribs. I'm a wuss when it comes to thunder and lightning, but I think it's so cute and funny how every time a bolt hits I can hear the little girls shrieking and the little boys making some semi-manly shouting noise that sounds like "UWAAAAHHHHHHH" in the halls while I sit in the teacher's room. It's totally on cue and it's adorable.
And now I'm hanging out at school waiting to see if it'll let up a bit, otherwise it's going to a mad wet dash to the car. But actually I think it would be so fun to play in the rain right now, it's warm and heavy and perfect for football or dancing! I think living in Japan has definitely made me appreciate the distinctions between seasons and the power of weather; they come swifty and relentlessly and in such extremes. It's pretty amazing!
And now I'm hanging out at school waiting to see if it'll let up a bit, otherwise it's going to a mad wet dash to the car. But actually I think it would be so fun to play in the rain right now, it's warm and heavy and perfect for football or dancing! I think living in Japan has definitely made me appreciate the distinctions between seasons and the power of weather; they come swifty and relentlessly and in such extremes. It's pretty amazing!
6.12.2007
Who's Reading This Thing Anyway??
Hey everyone, I was thinking about it the other day and I'm sort of curious as to who is actually reading this blog. It was originally created so that I could stop sending out mass emails. The idea was that so people could check the blog at their leisure, as opposed to being molested by me on a monthly basis with a long diatribe in their inbox.
So, I guess, just to get a headcount (and to know who my audience really is), could you sign the GUESTBOOK that I've just added? There's a link on the right side ---------> over there underneath my profile. Thanks a bunch!
So, I guess, just to get a headcount (and to know who my audience really is), could you sign the GUESTBOOK that I've just added? There's a link on the right side ---------> over there underneath my profile. Thanks a bunch!
6.11.2007
The Most Productive Trip Ever: Day 5, Kyoto
After the Recontracting Conference, I headed to Kyoto with my friend Dawn to meet back up with Andrew and Kristen. This was my third time going to Kyoto, and I swear I love the city. I don't think I could ever get sick of it, and I'll admit I daydream sometimes about moving there when this is done. I think I'm drawn to it for the same reasons I loved Cambridge so much: it's a city with modern amenities but holds countless cultural and historical treasures, it's easy to get lost in narrow side streets that feel untouched by the passage of time, and it's full of small, family-owned restaurants, cafes, and shops. I don't know how to explain it exactly, but when I'm there, or when I was in Cambridge, I had this sense that I was somewhere important, rife with the history of hundreds of years and that certain je ne sais quoi.
I arrived late in the evening and headed straight to the bed and breakfast I booked for us, which ended up being fabulous accomodation for us. Kristen and Andrew had wanted to stay at a ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese inn where you can sleep on tatami and have that sort of "authentic" (for lack of a better term) Japanese lifestyle experience, but the ryokan I had stayed at before never got back to us, and I didn't want to risk staying at another place in which the pictures I saw on the websites made the place look shabby anyway. Luckily I found B&B Juno, in which we got the traditional experience, but with the comfort of English speakers and Western-style breakfasts. Ian, a Canadian who has lived in Kyoto for 20 years now since he first came to do a woodcarving apprenticeship (and is now also the editor of the Kyoto Vistor's Guide), owns a beautiful house in the Northeast part of Kyoto near Ginkakuji (The Silver Pavilion) with his Austrian wife Sibylla, who recently lived in Kenya. Between the two of them there's enough worldliness to send my wanderlust dreams into overdrive. Anyway, we got a nice room in their house and tasty breakfasts in the morning for only 5000 yen a night per person. Highly recommended: B&B Juno (previously known as Casa Carinho). I guess I'm so excited about it because after having stayed there and talked to Ian a bit, I think if everything else went down the drain I could be happy acquiring a house and doing what he's doing, running a bed and breakfast in a beautiful house with lots of character that is full of tchotchkes from my world travels, shelves of books, and beautiful pottery. I often debate about what is practical and what I'm passionate about and I'm curious as to where my life will go.
Our room at the B&B
Okay, I'm about to go on a total tangent that has little to do with Kyoto itself, so skip it if you don't care. It's stuff that I think about often and I guess need to get out of my system. Maybe this part of the post is more for me than anyone else, in the way that writing can be both cathartic and configuring, so please bear with me or just go to the next line of asterisks:
Anyway, back to Kyoto. That evening, I was really happy to be reunited with K and A and really exhausted from the conference and train travel, so we just vegged out, ate convini food, hit up an internet cafe (with the SLOWEST internet I've encountered since I first used the internet in 4th grade, I swear!) and caught up. Conveniently, K and A had used their 2 day headstart in Kyoto to go see all the things I had already seen the other two times I went, so the next morning, we set out and fulfilled my personal want-to-do list (thanks, guys!).
First, we went to Sanjuusangendo (something about "30 spaces between columns", I think), which is a Buddhist temple that has thus far only been recommended to me by Japanese friends, not sure why that is, but they were right on. We were all interested in seeing it, and WOW it was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Kiyomizu-dera is my overall favorite temple in Kyoto, but I think Sanjuusangendo wins for most stunning attraction. If you ever go to Kyoto, make sure you go here! Inside the world's longest wooden building (which it supposedly is) is housed 1001 Buddhas. I really had no idea what to expect and it was probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Inside, lined up in 10 rows of 100, are human-sized standing statues of 40 armed Buddhas. The 1001st Buddha is a gigantic seated one in the middle of the temple. You just stand at one end and the Buddhas go on endlessly, impeccably lined in perfect rows. Each of the 40 hands holds a symbolic object with a certain hand position that I'm sure has special meaning. Even more amazing is that this temple and the Buddhas were originally built around 1200 and used to be completely painted in bright colors and flowers on the inside to represent the Pure Land of Buddha. The structure is huge, and there are so many Buddhas. I can't begin to fathom how many man hours it must have taken to put the whole shebang together. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll just have to imagine. It was fantastic; I don't know how long we ended up spending in there, but I know I was completely mesmerized for what felt like hours.
Kristen, Andrew, Me, and Dawn in front of Sanjuusangendo, a rather drab exterior concealing the practically unimaginable feat of human artistry inside.
Afterwards, a group Japanese language effort got us a good lunch recommendation from one of the staff ladies. (I think we said something like "Delicious and cheap food, where is there?"). I can't remember the name of it except that it starts with the kanji for "big" and is right down the street from Sanjuu, but it was tasty and hit the spot. Andrew had udon, Kristen had soba, Dawn had some curry and I had this tasty tofu on rice concoction:
MMM...tofu.
Afterwards, we trekked across town to get to Ryoan-ji, which is a Zen Buddhist temple with a (relatively famous) Zen rock garden. On the way there, I took this picture:
I don't know why this old man waiting for the bus caught my attention. I don't know if it's because it seemed very Japanese to me, or if it's because something about the man reminded me about my grandfather Amang, who passed last year.
Anyway, I really wanted to go to Ryoan-ji after I kept hearing about it from other people and found a beautiful woodblock print last time I went to Kyoto with my family. Ryoan-ji is beautiful in a very understated, serene way. Being a Zen temple, it's really different from the other more elaborate and flashy Buddhist temples we'd visited. I'm not going to even attempt to explicate these differences because I know very little about Buddhism, much less Zen. I think at first I was slightly disappointed, not quite sure what I was expecting. Like, "woohoo, a bunch of rocks!" I know it's because I'm not familiar with Zen tenets, but I did begin to appreciate it after a while. I think it was also because the viewing platform was packed with junior high school students who were really chatty and loud. But after they left, we sat in quiet and looked at the rock garden, which has 15 large stones arranged over raked gravel. I think the idea is that everyone finds their own meaning in the placement of the stones.
Ryoan-ji rock garden
I think it says something like, "I learn only to be contented." I really like that mantra.
A view of the large pond on the temple grounds. I like the mountains in the background. I've decided that when I think of Japanese landscape, the first thing that comes to mind is tree-covered mountains with misty tops.
Later that evening, we headed to the downtown area so that K and A could get a taste of the miracle that is MOS Burger. Kristen's uncle had raved about it and so had I, so a meal there was a necessity. I don't even know how to begin to describe MOS Burger, so I'm just going to say that the burgers are delicious (teriyaki chicken burger...mmmm), the matcha shakes get me every time, and K and A were instantly hooked. We laughed about the fact that Andrew ordered in "Japanese" without a problem because he basically said a bunch of English words with Japanese pronunciation: "chi-kin te-ri-ya-ki ba-gaa, co-ca-co-ra, fu-ri-du-po-ta-to" (that's chicken teriyaki burger, a coke, french fries). And the fact that their slogan is, "Hamburger is my life." Indeed! We decided that we have to figure out how to bring a franchise to California. Dawn was incredulous that we don't have one, apparently there is a MOS Burger in Hawaii. Those Hawaiians!
We capped off a very productive day with some arcade fun. K and A tried their hands at that taiko drum game and we took some awesome purikura.
Taiko! Kristen is hardcore.
Camera-capture of some of our awesome purikura.
Side note: the kanji of our trip was "kin" (禁) which we kept noticing on various signs. It means something like "prohibited" or "no." I knew the kanji combination for "no smoking," and then we noticed it on other signs throughout our trip and figured they said things like "Don't take pictures" and "Don't step on the grass." While doing purikura we basically stuck anything that had any random Japanese on the pictures whether we could read it or not, so I put the one in the upper right hand corner on. But after, we figured out that maybe it says something like "no boys" or "boys suck" or "screw boys!," which would be, well, incompatible with the little message pointing to Andrew's face that says, "I love (the hiragana character for "yu")." Haha, whoops.
I swear everytime I go to Kyoto I fall deeper and deeper in love with the city. I certainly intend to go back there at least one more time before I leave Japan. There are just so many things to do and see, and I feel like we barely scratched the surface. But I think we did really well for a day!
I arrived late in the evening and headed straight to the bed and breakfast I booked for us, which ended up being fabulous accomodation for us. Kristen and Andrew had wanted to stay at a ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese inn where you can sleep on tatami and have that sort of "authentic" (for lack of a better term) Japanese lifestyle experience, but the ryokan I had stayed at before never got back to us, and I didn't want to risk staying at another place in which the pictures I saw on the websites made the place look shabby anyway. Luckily I found B&B Juno, in which we got the traditional experience, but with the comfort of English speakers and Western-style breakfasts. Ian, a Canadian who has lived in Kyoto for 20 years now since he first came to do a woodcarving apprenticeship (and is now also the editor of the Kyoto Vistor's Guide), owns a beautiful house in the Northeast part of Kyoto near Ginkakuji (The Silver Pavilion) with his Austrian wife Sibylla, who recently lived in Kenya. Between the two of them there's enough worldliness to send my wanderlust dreams into overdrive. Anyway, we got a nice room in their house and tasty breakfasts in the morning for only 5000 yen a night per person. Highly recommended: B&B Juno (previously known as Casa Carinho). I guess I'm so excited about it because after having stayed there and talked to Ian a bit, I think if everything else went down the drain I could be happy acquiring a house and doing what he's doing, running a bed and breakfast in a beautiful house with lots of character that is full of tchotchkes from my world travels, shelves of books, and beautiful pottery. I often debate about what is practical and what I'm passionate about and I'm curious as to where my life will go.
Our room at the B&B
Okay, I'm about to go on a total tangent that has little to do with Kyoto itself, so skip it if you don't care. It's stuff that I think about often and I guess need to get out of my system. Maybe this part of the post is more for me than anyone else, in the way that writing can be both cathartic and configuring, so please bear with me or just go to the next line of asterisks:
*****************************************************************************************
I think if money and practicality weren't an issue, what I would want to do is something along the lines of pursuing letterpress printing or owning a bed and breakfast in a beautiful historic city, or even both. Letterpress is the only thing I've ever done so far in my life that doesn't feel like work at all. I remember spending hours upon hours at the press and it felt like only a few minutes had passed. I would skip meals to work on my projects, which is huge for me, the girl whose life centers around what I'm going to eat next. A step up from complete impracticality would probably be pursuing book editing of some sort because I love words and language and accuracy, but I think it would be really hard for me to find a job with no prior experience, except for whatever sporadic academic editing and compiling and fact-checking I did when I was Prof. Cooppan's research assistant at UCSC. Which by the way would also be an awesome job, being someone's right hand-man...er, woman. I loved hunting down whatever Vilashini needed and doing seemingly tedious tasks such as changing lists and lists of citations from MLA to Chicago formatting. But anyway, I gues I bring this up because although I think I like teaching alright, there are days where I get serious anxiety about being in front of a class, or I think about being a teacher in the future and just am not sure. I think I've always just told people I wanted to be one because it was the practical, obvious profession following from my majors (Classical Studies and Pre and Early Modern Lit). Everything is really uncertain right now and that's okay, but it'll be interesting to see what ends up happening. I have the voices of reason and practicality on one side, coming from family and the current societal norm, which advises acquiring a stable and profitable profession so that I can save and not have to worry about security when I'm older. But the other side, the bit inside of me that doesn't care about the money, maybe dreaming too much and just wanting to do what seems interesting and enriching, ponders sometimes about how bad it would really be if I kept up this nomadic lifestyle. All thoughts, just thoughts. I like to think I'm still young and have a lot of options, but I know the years will pass quickly and at some point I will have to make decisions and get my life together.*****************************************************************************************
Anyway, back to Kyoto. That evening, I was really happy to be reunited with K and A and really exhausted from the conference and train travel, so we just vegged out, ate convini food, hit up an internet cafe (with the SLOWEST internet I've encountered since I first used the internet in 4th grade, I swear!) and caught up. Conveniently, K and A had used their 2 day headstart in Kyoto to go see all the things I had already seen the other two times I went, so the next morning, we set out and fulfilled my personal want-to-do list (thanks, guys!).
First, we went to Sanjuusangendo (something about "30 spaces between columns", I think), which is a Buddhist temple that has thus far only been recommended to me by Japanese friends, not sure why that is, but they were right on. We were all interested in seeing it, and WOW it was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Kiyomizu-dera is my overall favorite temple in Kyoto, but I think Sanjuusangendo wins for most stunning attraction. If you ever go to Kyoto, make sure you go here! Inside the world's longest wooden building (which it supposedly is) is housed 1001 Buddhas. I really had no idea what to expect and it was probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Inside, lined up in 10 rows of 100, are human-sized standing statues of 40 armed Buddhas. The 1001st Buddha is a gigantic seated one in the middle of the temple. You just stand at one end and the Buddhas go on endlessly, impeccably lined in perfect rows. Each of the 40 hands holds a symbolic object with a certain hand position that I'm sure has special meaning. Even more amazing is that this temple and the Buddhas were originally built around 1200 and used to be completely painted in bright colors and flowers on the inside to represent the Pure Land of Buddha. The structure is huge, and there are so many Buddhas. I can't begin to fathom how many man hours it must have taken to put the whole shebang together. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll just have to imagine. It was fantastic; I don't know how long we ended up spending in there, but I know I was completely mesmerized for what felt like hours.
Kristen, Andrew, Me, and Dawn in front of Sanjuusangendo, a rather drab exterior concealing the practically unimaginable feat of human artistry inside.
Afterwards, a group Japanese language effort got us a good lunch recommendation from one of the staff ladies. (I think we said something like "Delicious and cheap food, where is there?"). I can't remember the name of it except that it starts with the kanji for "big" and is right down the street from Sanjuu, but it was tasty and hit the spot. Andrew had udon, Kristen had soba, Dawn had some curry and I had this tasty tofu on rice concoction:
MMM...tofu.
Afterwards, we trekked across town to get to Ryoan-ji, which is a Zen Buddhist temple with a (relatively famous) Zen rock garden. On the way there, I took this picture:
I don't know why this old man waiting for the bus caught my attention. I don't know if it's because it seemed very Japanese to me, or if it's because something about the man reminded me about my grandfather Amang, who passed last year.
Anyway, I really wanted to go to Ryoan-ji after I kept hearing about it from other people and found a beautiful woodblock print last time I went to Kyoto with my family. Ryoan-ji is beautiful in a very understated, serene way. Being a Zen temple, it's really different from the other more elaborate and flashy Buddhist temples we'd visited. I'm not going to even attempt to explicate these differences because I know very little about Buddhism, much less Zen. I think at first I was slightly disappointed, not quite sure what I was expecting. Like, "woohoo, a bunch of rocks!" I know it's because I'm not familiar with Zen tenets, but I did begin to appreciate it after a while. I think it was also because the viewing platform was packed with junior high school students who were really chatty and loud. But after they left, we sat in quiet and looked at the rock garden, which has 15 large stones arranged over raked gravel. I think the idea is that everyone finds their own meaning in the placement of the stones.
Ryoan-ji rock garden
I think it says something like, "I learn only to be contented." I really like that mantra.
A view of the large pond on the temple grounds. I like the mountains in the background. I've decided that when I think of Japanese landscape, the first thing that comes to mind is tree-covered mountains with misty tops.
Later that evening, we headed to the downtown area so that K and A could get a taste of the miracle that is MOS Burger. Kristen's uncle had raved about it and so had I, so a meal there was a necessity. I don't even know how to begin to describe MOS Burger, so I'm just going to say that the burgers are delicious (teriyaki chicken burger...mmmm), the matcha shakes get me every time, and K and A were instantly hooked. We laughed about the fact that Andrew ordered in "Japanese" without a problem because he basically said a bunch of English words with Japanese pronunciation: "chi-kin te-ri-ya-ki ba-gaa, co-ca-co-ra, fu-ri-du-po-ta-to" (that's chicken teriyaki burger, a coke, french fries). And the fact that their slogan is, "Hamburger is my life." Indeed! We decided that we have to figure out how to bring a franchise to California. Dawn was incredulous that we don't have one, apparently there is a MOS Burger in Hawaii. Those Hawaiians!
We capped off a very productive day with some arcade fun. K and A tried their hands at that taiko drum game and we took some awesome purikura.
Taiko! Kristen is hardcore.
Camera-capture of some of our awesome purikura.
Side note: the kanji of our trip was "kin" (禁) which we kept noticing on various signs. It means something like "prohibited" or "no." I knew the kanji combination for "no smoking," and then we noticed it on other signs throughout our trip and figured they said things like "Don't take pictures" and "Don't step on the grass." While doing purikura we basically stuck anything that had any random Japanese on the pictures whether we could read it or not, so I put the one in the upper right hand corner on. But after, we figured out that maybe it says something like "no boys" or "boys suck" or "screw boys!," which would be, well, incompatible with the little message pointing to Andrew's face that says, "I love (the hiragana character for "yu")." Haha, whoops.
I swear everytime I go to Kyoto I fall deeper and deeper in love with the city. I certainly intend to go back there at least one more time before I leave Japan. There are just so many things to do and see, and I feel like we barely scratched the surface. But I think we did really well for a day!
6.05.2007
Most Productive Trip Ever: Days 2, 3, and 4, Kobe
So after Hiroshima, Kristen, Andrew and I temporarily parted ways due to my having to attend the JET Recontracting Conference in Kobe. I was sort of dreading it because I was having a lot of fun with K and A and didn't want to leave them, but the conference ended up being a lot of fun and really helpful too.
First off we stayed at a really beautiful hotel. Kobe Portopia Hotel is on a manmade island right off Kobe (but still part of it) and WOW I have never stayed at a hotel so nice. The lobby had beautiful chandeliers and stained glass ceilings, and my room was enormous, with nice beds and even a couch. The hotel was sort of in a weird location though, it was completely deserted in the day and in the evening, I think development of this manmade island is still in progress. Usually I don't have to walk more than a block to find a convenience store, but here it took a while to find one. Anyway, Day 1 of the conference was relatively mellow, with an opening ceremony, an explanation of the Japanese education system by a Japanese fellow from the government who spoke English with a French accent (strange, believe me...), and then a couple of workshops that must not have been that helpful or important because I can't remember them.
Vanessa, Suzy, and Nolan at one of our workshops.
Me and Anna, hot in glasses!
Of course most of the fun happened after hours. A bunch of people were going to go eat Kobe beef (called Kobe-gyu in Japanese) and I decided to tag along. I knew it would be expensive, but the fact that everyone I told that I was going to Kobe asked me right off the bat, "Oh, are you going to eat Kobe beef?" meant that perhaps if nothing else I should, well, eat Kobe beef. Suzy had a list of restaurants from the hotel and I recognized one from the Lonely Planet that was affordable but delicious so we headed there, Kobe A-1 Steakhouse. And I will fully admit that it was everything I dreamed of and more. Sure, it was 6500 yen (about $65) for a small slab of steak, salad, vegetables, rice, and a glass of wine, but it was worth it. The beef was soft and tender and melted in your mouth. My teeth went right through it, minimal chewing required. Silence fell upon the table as we savoured the meat, some with eyes closed...okay, maybe just me. I can focus on the flavor better that way!!
The chefs cooking up our beef.
That's 6500 yen meat you're looking at right there.
Close up. It was SO GOOD. (My mom said it BETTER have been good for 6500 yen!)
Me and The Beef
Afterwards, most of the ALTs went out on the town to various recommended watering holes. It was nice to hang out with a lot of people I don't usually hang out with and meet a lot of new people too. I had a good time, though I don't quite remember how we ended up at karaoke...
Sannoymiya-dori in the downtown area of Kobe.
Karaoke-ing
A lot of people told me that Kobe is a nice city to live in and hang out in, but it's not like other big cities, where usually there is something to see. The main pull of Kobe is its multitude of cool bars, cafes, and restaurants. I'll agree with that; it was a cool city. It has a very international feel to it (since it was rebuild after the earthquake, it looks like any modern city), and you can get a lot of different kinds of food there. I have been telling everyone that it reminds of San Francisco, sort of, since it's by the water and there's a lot of good places to eat and drink.
Day 2 of the conference started off nicely with a great presentation talking about Japanese and Western (for lack of a better word...) work ethics and how these differences affect the way we work and communicate with our Japanese counterparts. For example, in the West, frankness is a virtue; we like it when people are direct and speak their minds. However, in Japan, this is often seen as a sign of insensitivity. The rest of the day was spent in seminar with ALTs of similar job situations (elementary, junior high school, high school) and was admittedly excruciatingly slow and tedious. It was a 3 hour stretch and so difficult to get through, despite the fact that I consider myself to have a relatively patient and enduring composure in such situations. (That means it was really that bad..).
That evening, we decided to tone the fun down a little bit and go do some sighto-seeing. A group of us headed out to Harborland, which is a small area by the water that has nice shops and restaurants and a little amusement park with a huge ferris wheel. We rode the ferris wheel and got some beautiful views of the skyline at night. We had some Indian food for dinner, and then spent the rest of the evening hanging out, taking purikura (photobooth pictures), and playing the taiko drum game, which from what I hear unfortunately hasn't made it to America yet. It was really relaxing, and the skyline was really stunning.
View of the Kobe Skyline from Harborland
The ferris wheel at Harborland
Story of the night was probably that we met this guy who was operating the ferris wheel. With such a large group of foreigners travelling around together, at some point a brave soul will ask where we're from. We told one of the woman ride operators and she was like "oh, this guy speaks English!" and drags her coworker over to us. We all usually speak really slow and premeditated English the first time we speak to a Japanese person to gauge their ability, and it turns out this guy is fluent. He spent 6 years in Australia during high school because his parents wanted him to. I mean, I asked him, "So, are you fluent in English?" and he say, "Yeh, I guess so" in a thick Australian accent. We were totally floored. And then we found out he was only 18! And then my friend Becky was disappointed because she was totally going to ask for his number until she found out, haha.
Brenna, Becks, and Dawn intently purikura-ing.
Me and Zane, the taiko drum game master
The last day of the conference was the most useful for me. We had to choose two workshops put on various professionals, and I chose Strategies for Coping in Japan and Learning Japanese Whilst on JET. They were immensely helpful, more helpful than anything else I'd encountered yet. I'm realizing that maybe no one will care to read such products of a meditation, but I'm going to put them here anyway, if for no one else but me. Something about writing, getting something down in words, almost confirms, affirms the ideas. Anyway, during the Strategies for Coping in Japan session, a clinical psychologist came and guided us in evaluating what we like and dislike about Japan. A sampling of what we came up with:
Likes:
karaoke
nomihodai
festivals
onsen
service at stores
ease of travelling via trains, especially the shinkansen
convinience stores
100 yen shops
respect and honoring (at least the semblance of it, anyway)
Dislikes:
Being paraded around as the token foreigner
Bureaucracy, group decision making
Lack of house insulation
Mukade (scariest bugs I've ever seen...and dangerous too. See here).
Slow drivers, drivers who cut in front of you and slow down, one lane country roads
Indirectness
Disposal of Garbage, not knowing how to do it or where
Pollution, illegal dumping
He admitted that this session was half for venting and half for evaluating. I will admit it felt nice to vent. And he reminded us that regardless of where you live, there are going to be things you love and hate about a place. Next, we were asked to evaluate how we've changed over the past year, both good and bad. I hadn't really thought about it in an organized way before, and it was so cathartic to get it on paper:
I don't know what's good and what's bad, and maybe some of them aren't categorizable or maybe it doesn't matter, so I'll just list them:
-More resilient; it's difficult for anything to faze me these days because of experiences I've had.
-Flexible
-More relaxed, worry less, plan less (I have a funny story about this from my trip w/ K & A).
-Not afraid to take chances or face challenges
-Still not completely there, but I try think less about what people think of me
-Have learned how to keep stress and problems inside
-Have become more introverted at times (maybe this isn't bad...
-A little more sarcastic, a lot more judgmental, without even meaning to. (This, actually, is a change I don't like. I don't know what happened and I don't want to be this way, but thoughts pop into my head that I never thought I would have about other people, and I find sometimes, perhaps because of the language barrier, I assume things about people that may not necessarily be true. I don't know why or how this happened, but I'm working on stopping it).
-Not afraid to make a fool of myself anymore
-Appreciate my home country more and its values and amenities
-Not that I'm an alcoholic or anything, but I drink more frequently than I ever did in the States, partly because enkai and organized drinking parties are the way people bond here, particularly with coworkers, and going to as many of these of course puts you in a more favorable light.
Then we were told to think about why we came. And I guess I really thought about it for the first time, because for a long time I didn't know. Even before I left, I think the prospect of excitement and newness, and the adrenaline that came with it propelled me along. But I think if I had to narrow it down, I came to Japan because
1) I was looking for an adventure, to travel, to be challenged, to feel uncomfortable. There's something empowering in voluntarily putting myself in an unfamiliar situation and then working my way through it, hopefully to emerge victorious, meaning that I can become comfortable.
2) I wanted to be a world traveller. It's something that I daydream about, travelling to different countries. Not that there's a checklist or anything, but everyone that I know or have read about who has travelled has that other-wordly aura about them, and talk and pictures of places and things and experiences are something I covet. I love finding the differences and similarities between cultures and places. I guess also I don't want to be thought of as just another ignorant American, as we have unfortunately been stereotyped around the world. It doesn't help that our continent only has a couple of countries on it, versus, say, Europe, where there's a multitude of countries you can visit just by jumping in the car.
3) I'll admit the money was a big draw. Everyone says that I could easily make the same amount of money at an entry level job in the States, but why do that when I can get paid that same amount to go somewhere I'd never been before?
Now that's why I wanted to come here, but I never really thought about what I wanted to get out of it. That's a question for another day, I think. So far I am very content.
Anyway, to sum it up, the rest of the session we discussed different styles of dealing with problems, learning to identify how you function in those situations, the cycles of culture shock and how to deal with them, etc. Immensely helpful.
The other workshop I went to was equally enlightening. The presenter basically encouraged us not to be afraid to make fools of ourselves because the only way our Japanese is going to improve is by talking to people. There was a funny video involved, ridiculous role playing, and things of that sort, but whatever he said, I felt a billion times more pumped to learn more Japanese because he highlighted the fact that is accessible and necessary. I am surrounded by Japanese on a daily basis, I might as well use it. The idea is to pinpoint specific goals and then learn the vocabulary, practice and memorize, and use it over and over again. Such as:
Yes, that was an actual slide from the presentation. Obviously that slide is not necessarily an accurate representation of my own personal goals because a) I actually like squid and b) I have a fabulous man in my life, but you get the point about setting specific goals.
And with that the conference came to a close, and I think it was good I went. It was a nice refresher before Year #2 starts, and I definitely feel a lot more in tune with what I think and feel about where I am and what I'm doing. もういちねんかんよろしくおねがいします。
Slow drivers, drivers who cut in front of you and slow down, one lane country roads
Indirectness
Disposal of Garbage, not knowing how to do it or where
Pollution, illegal dumping
He admitted that this session was half for venting and half for evaluating. I will admit it felt nice to vent. And he reminded us that regardless of where you live, there are going to be things you love and hate about a place. Next, we were asked to evaluate how we've changed over the past year, both good and bad. I hadn't really thought about it in an organized way before, and it was so cathartic to get it on paper:
I don't know what's good and what's bad, and maybe some of them aren't categorizable or maybe it doesn't matter, so I'll just list them:
-More resilient; it's difficult for anything to faze me these days because of experiences I've had.
-Flexible
-More relaxed, worry less, plan less (I have a funny story about this from my trip w/ K & A).
-Not afraid to take chances or face challenges
-Still not completely there, but I try think less about what people think of me
-Have learned how to keep stress and problems inside
-Have become more introverted at times (maybe this isn't bad...
-A little more sarcastic, a lot more judgmental, without even meaning to. (This, actually, is a change I don't like. I don't know what happened and I don't want to be this way, but thoughts pop into my head that I never thought I would have about other people, and I find sometimes, perhaps because of the language barrier, I assume things about people that may not necessarily be true. I don't know why or how this happened, but I'm working on stopping it).
-Not afraid to make a fool of myself anymore
-Appreciate my home country more and its values and amenities
-Not that I'm an alcoholic or anything, but I drink more frequently than I ever did in the States, partly because enkai and organized drinking parties are the way people bond here, particularly with coworkers, and going to as many of these of course puts you in a more favorable light.
Then we were told to think about why we came. And I guess I really thought about it for the first time, because for a long time I didn't know. Even before I left, I think the prospect of excitement and newness, and the adrenaline that came with it propelled me along. But I think if I had to narrow it down, I came to Japan because
1) I was looking for an adventure, to travel, to be challenged, to feel uncomfortable. There's something empowering in voluntarily putting myself in an unfamiliar situation and then working my way through it, hopefully to emerge victorious, meaning that I can become comfortable.
2) I wanted to be a world traveller. It's something that I daydream about, travelling to different countries. Not that there's a checklist or anything, but everyone that I know or have read about who has travelled has that other-wordly aura about them, and talk and pictures of places and things and experiences are something I covet. I love finding the differences and similarities between cultures and places. I guess also I don't want to be thought of as just another ignorant American, as we have unfortunately been stereotyped around the world. It doesn't help that our continent only has a couple of countries on it, versus, say, Europe, where there's a multitude of countries you can visit just by jumping in the car.
3) I'll admit the money was a big draw. Everyone says that I could easily make the same amount of money at an entry level job in the States, but why do that when I can get paid that same amount to go somewhere I'd never been before?
Now that's why I wanted to come here, but I never really thought about what I wanted to get out of it. That's a question for another day, I think. So far I am very content.
Anyway, to sum it up, the rest of the session we discussed different styles of dealing with problems, learning to identify how you function in those situations, the cycles of culture shock and how to deal with them, etc. Immensely helpful.
The other workshop I went to was equally enlightening. The presenter basically encouraged us not to be afraid to make fools of ourselves because the only way our Japanese is going to improve is by talking to people. There was a funny video involved, ridiculous role playing, and things of that sort, but whatever he said, I felt a billion times more pumped to learn more Japanese because he highlighted the fact that is accessible and necessary. I am surrounded by Japanese on a daily basis, I might as well use it. The idea is to pinpoint specific goals and then learn the vocabulary, practice and memorize, and use it over and over again. Such as:
Yes, that was an actual slide from the presentation. Obviously that slide is not necessarily an accurate representation of my own personal goals because a) I actually like squid and b) I have a fabulous man in my life, but you get the point about setting specific goals.
And with that the conference came to a close, and I think it was good I went. It was a nice refresher before Year #2 starts, and I definitely feel a lot more in tune with what I think and feel about where I am and what I'm doing. もういちねんかんよろしくおねがいします。
Engrish at Its Finest #3
Okay, so maybe it's not English per say, but it's still pretty telling of Japanese pronounciation. A little boutique at Harborland in Kobe. If you haven't figured it out already, it's supposed to be "Ooh la la."
6.04.2007
Most Productive Trip Ever: Day 1, Hiroshima
On Sunday morning we got up bright and early to get to Hiroshima. First, we went to Miyajima, where we saw huge orange torii in the water. It was really amazing to finally see it, I think it's a relatively famous shrine that a lot of people know about. It was low tide (and rising) so we waded out to it and touched it and it was really cool. Afterwards, we wandered through the shrine in awe at the beauty of the island and the view.
After Miyajima, we headed to the A-Bomb Dome in the Peace Park. We saw the ruins of a building that was still standing after the atomic bomb was dropped, though now it's just spindly skeleton of a building. There are a lot of very contemplative monuments in the park and it has a really chilled out atmosphere. I think my favorite bit was the arches "peace" written in different languages on it.
Kristen and Andrew had been thinking about going to a baseball game while were in Hiroshima, and we could hear the cheering from the park, as the baseball stadium was right across the street. I was supposed to leave and start heading for Kobe to get to my hotel for the conference, but I'd never been to a baseball game before, even in America, so I figured why the heck not and went with them. We got 1500 yen outfield seats and the experience was quite a spectacle. I can't compare it to an American baseball game because I've never been to one, but K and A said that it was more lively and that people cheer constantly here in Japan. It was amazing, this sort of organized cheering that included lots of hand clapping, flag waving, and the other team had brought their own cheering squad and trumpet players. We ate yakisoba (fried noodles, kind of like chow mein I guess) for dinner. Part of the reason we went to the game was just to see what people eat at Japanese baseball games. So yeah, no hot dogs or garlic fries, but yakisoba, onigiri (rice balls), bento boxes. But lots of Asahi beer.
Kristen and Andrew leaving my apartment. The time went by too quickly!
At Ogawa Station waiting for the train.
On the ferry to Miyajima.
This cute little baby was running around trying to pat the deer on Miyajima (I swear, Japan and it's deer....they have em in Nara too). She would toddle after them, then with her little baby hands pat them in a way that looked like she was more smacking them with force, but not intentionally, I think. It was adorable.
Whew it's hot and I'm sweaty! Andrew tasting his first POCARI SWEAT drink. We've since decided that between Pocari Sweat (least sweet), Aquarius (middling), and Dakara (most sweet), Aquarius is the refreshing winner.
The triple threat in front of Miyajima torii.
Me, having waded out to the torii. It's so beautiful, and I love how organically shaped it is. I think they used an actual, unrefined tree trunk for this torii.
Admiring it from the beach.
The A-bomb dome at the Memorial Peace Park. The story with this is that the bomb exploded right above this building and basically gutted it, so it was left up as a reminder of the event.
Arches at the park with the word for "Peace" etched in different languages.
Close up
Origami at the Peace Park
Hiroshima Carp baseball game. Looks pretty normal to me until you see...
The cheerleaders in pink happi coats that say "Ladies"
Andrew and Kristen with Asahi beer and yummy yakisoba.
The opposing team's cheering squad complete with happi-coated men and big drums.
The crowd blowing up balloons at the start of the 7th inning...
And letting them fly!
Hiroshima's a nice little place, would definitely go back and visit again. Miyajima was particularly amazing and moving. And I guess now I have to go to a baseball game when I get back to the States. A's game, anyone?
After Miyajima, we headed to the A-Bomb Dome in the Peace Park. We saw the ruins of a building that was still standing after the atomic bomb was dropped, though now it's just spindly skeleton of a building. There are a lot of very contemplative monuments in the park and it has a really chilled out atmosphere. I think my favorite bit was the arches "peace" written in different languages on it.
Kristen and Andrew had been thinking about going to a baseball game while were in Hiroshima, and we could hear the cheering from the park, as the baseball stadium was right across the street. I was supposed to leave and start heading for Kobe to get to my hotel for the conference, but I'd never been to a baseball game before, even in America, so I figured why the heck not and went with them. We got 1500 yen outfield seats and the experience was quite a spectacle. I can't compare it to an American baseball game because I've never been to one, but K and A said that it was more lively and that people cheer constantly here in Japan. It was amazing, this sort of organized cheering that included lots of hand clapping, flag waving, and the other team had brought their own cheering squad and trumpet players. We ate yakisoba (fried noodles, kind of like chow mein I guess) for dinner. Part of the reason we went to the game was just to see what people eat at Japanese baseball games. So yeah, no hot dogs or garlic fries, but yakisoba, onigiri (rice balls), bento boxes. But lots of Asahi beer.
Kristen and Andrew leaving my apartment. The time went by too quickly!
At Ogawa Station waiting for the train.
On the ferry to Miyajima.
This cute little baby was running around trying to pat the deer on Miyajima (I swear, Japan and it's deer....they have em in Nara too). She would toddle after them, then with her little baby hands pat them in a way that looked like she was more smacking them with force, but not intentionally, I think. It was adorable.
Whew it's hot and I'm sweaty! Andrew tasting his first POCARI SWEAT drink. We've since decided that between Pocari Sweat (least sweet), Aquarius (middling), and Dakara (most sweet), Aquarius is the refreshing winner.
The triple threat in front of Miyajima torii.
Me, having waded out to the torii. It's so beautiful, and I love how organically shaped it is. I think they used an actual, unrefined tree trunk for this torii.
Admiring it from the beach.
The A-bomb dome at the Memorial Peace Park. The story with this is that the bomb exploded right above this building and basically gutted it, so it was left up as a reminder of the event.
Arches at the park with the word for "Peace" etched in different languages.
Close up
Origami at the Peace Park
Hiroshima Carp baseball game. Looks pretty normal to me until you see...
The cheerleaders in pink happi coats that say "Ladies"
Andrew and Kristen with Asahi beer and yummy yakisoba.
The opposing team's cheering squad complete with happi-coated men and big drums.
The crowd blowing up balloons at the start of the 7th inning...
And letting them fly!
Hiroshima's a nice little place, would definitely go back and visit again. Miyajima was particularly amazing and moving. And I guess now I have to go to a baseball game when I get back to the States. A's game, anyone?
Funny Story: Kumamoto
I think Andrew has the picture evidence, but when we were in Kumamoto, we went out with my friend Noriyo, who took us out to a nice traditional style Japanese lunch. Afterwards, we went to Tsuruya department store to look at food and omiyage. This is where we found that 10000 yen watermelon. Anyway, we're walking by one of the food stalls and stop to get samples of this doughy bread ball thing and the lady behind the counter, who we later find out is Teramoto-san, sees Andrew and starts shrieking, "kakko ii!!!!!!" over and over again, which means "You look cool, attractive." I explain to her that these are my friends from America, I live in Ogawa, etc. etc, and she can't stop saying "kakko ii!!!" She tells us that her daughter goes to Waseda University and that she's really cute, does Andrew want to date her? We walk away laughing but decide to come back to take a picture with her. After we take a picture, she takes out her cell phone and shows us a picture of her daughter, who is pretty cute. Teramoto-san goes on to tell me her daughter can speak German and Italian and can travel around the world. We take this as the hint that she's trying to hook up her daughter with Andrew, who apparently is the cool and attractive kind of foreigner that Japanese people like, because throughout the trip this sort of attention happens regularly. Anyway, should Andrew decide to stay in Japan, at least he already has a Japanese girlfriend set up at Waseda University because he's kakko ii!!!!
Happiness is...
- Having an insanely fun and productive trip with two awesome friends and realizing that in only one week we went to Hiroshima, Kobe/Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and Ise-shima.
- Speeding along on the Nozomi shinkansen at 300km an hour while devouring the latest issue of Vogue (thanks K!) and daydreaming about couture and African safaris as the scenery turns into a beautiful green blur.
- Finally getting home after 8 hours and 7 different trains.
Our trip was amazing! Too many good pictures and crazy stories to do in one post so over the next few days I'll try to break it up into smaller posts of each leg of the trip. Definitely not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow, travelling is too much fun. But I guess the money has to come from somewhere...
- Speeding along on the Nozomi shinkansen at 300km an hour while devouring the latest issue of Vogue (thanks K!) and daydreaming about couture and African safaris as the scenery turns into a beautiful green blur.
- Finally getting home after 8 hours and 7 different trains.
Our trip was amazing! Too many good pictures and crazy stories to do in one post so over the next few days I'll try to break it up into smaller posts of each leg of the trip. Definitely not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow, travelling is too much fun. But I guess the money has to come from somewhere...
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