You Can Change Your Mind, But You Can't Change Your Destiny

I am sitting in the KIX airport, waiting to board my flight back to the states, trying come to grips with the last moments of my time in Japan. Should I be happy I'm going home, sad that I'm leaving my friends? Last night the last few I-House I people that remained wandered through the house, going in the rooms of those who had already left, telling stories and doing impressions. This morning they dragged themselves out of bed at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM to bid me farewell, and in a haze I went through the flurry of movements necessary to end my stay at I-House, load my luggage into the airport shuttle, and say goodbye to everyone. It was over so quickly, only to leave me with what seemed like ages to reflect as the taxi slowly made its way to Osaka. I can still see everyone, waving goodbye in front of the house as we pulled away.

I find myself often thinking that my future is wide open. That there is precious little that can keep me from running off to India to teach English or rubbertramping around the United States or putting off real life in favor of another year of college. This vast and unfathomable uncertainty, while frightening in its own right, is reassuring when it comes to saying goodbye to people you care about. Just as I can never know for certain where I am headed next, nor can I rightfully say that I will never see the friends I have made here. Some day we will meet again. In Japan, or elsewhere.

There is no doubt in my mind. また、あの時。お世話になりました。

And on this note, I believe I will end my blog on my time in Japan. There are more things to share, I'm sure, and I know that if given the chance I could go on endlessly. But instead I will leave it simply. I will miss this country. There are things about it that are more reassuring than any other place on Earth. Even now, listening to people chat in English and having two American tourists rudely cut in front of me at a Starbuck's counter I feel unsettled. It will be nice to go home and see my friends and family, but I think it will take some readjusting. In the mean time, if you'd like to know more about my experiences, just ask. At the moment I have a Pacific ocean to cross.

Just A Rock Floating Through the Universe

Hello again! I'm definitely going to try to not make this my last post while in Japan, but I am afraid I can't make any promises. I just got back from an impromptu camping trip down by a river in a place called "Hozukyo" where people often go to swim. And by impromptu, I mean a friend came to my door yesterday afternoon and said "how much can you throw into a bag, right now?"



We had actually gone out to the river over the weekend, just to swim and frolic and had talked about the possibility, but I completely forgot. Oh well! I managed to pack my bathing suit (but no towel), a pillow (but nothing to sleep on), and my iPod (but no money, a dead cell phone, and a dead camera). Overall, however, it was a success. I had grilled zucchini in hotdog buns, along with pumpkin slices, bell peppers, and the other (limited) vegetarian barbecue fair. Afterwards we built a proper campfire and hung around, telling scary stories and shining the torch into the darkness as people are (for some reason) wont to do on camping trips.




Here's where we swam! The river is gorgeous, and the water is nice and cool. Or quite freezing, if you happen to catch the current flowing down from the top of the mountains. On the whole it was quite lovely. Although I am slightly covered in sand. In any case, let's see. We had another farewell party since I last wrote.



An Australian girl had to leave early because of the similarities of the Japanese/Aussie school calendar. Twas sad, but lots of folks turned out to wish her farewell and celebrate the last day of class. She's the one draped in the Australian flag, by the way. I couldn't begin to tell you where I am in this photo, haha.



Our last day of class was very relaxed. We ate snacks and talked about our "Japan experience". And, at the end of class we took a picture! So here's most (minus my kiwi friend Feliks and a Chinese student named Yui) of my Japanese class from this semester, plus one of our grammar teachers.



Aside from academics, there have been so many festivals since I last updated! Three, in fact! But, to be fair, the first one was a pretty big deal. Called "Gion Matsuri" it's named for a famous maiko/geisha girl area in Kyoto. Super traditional, super popular, super 京都らしい, the best translation for which is possibly "Kyoto-y"? Essentially the festival is week long, but on the final day they have a huge parade with really wicked floats, assembled without nails and moved primarily with manpower alone. (Except for these bums on the roof, who just add dead weight, haha). In any case, the typical way to celebrate Gion Matsuri is to go to the parade dressed up in a "yukata", the summer version of a kimono. It's quite a popular tradition, even the 外人 get in on it...

Myself included! Yep, I got my yukata on, despite it being about 100 degrees outside (or about 38 for you Celsius freaks). It was quite fun though, and afterwards we had an amazing lunch at an Indian restaurant where I used my (limited) Japanese skills to negotiate a meatless version of the lunch special for myself and a vegetarian friend. The next festival fortunately took place at night...

Fushimi Inari shrine is best known for its seemingly endless trails of "torii" gates, ascending upwards along stone staircases to the very pinnacle of the temple. I had never been before the night festival, but it was still stunning, if not slightly creepy, in the darkness. Covered in glowing paper lanterns of all shapes and sizes, we wandered the grounds, still sweating despite the absence of the sweltering Japanese sun, and enjoying some shaved ice on the cheap. Inexplicably enough, the mascot of the shrine is a fox, so there were incredibly cute fox things everywhere, and a Canadian housemate even dressed up in a fox costume, much to the amusement of the Japanese festival-goers.

Last, but certainly not least, was the "Tenjin Matsuri" in Osaka. Osaka is actually only about a half hour by train away from Kyoto, but I don't find much reason to go over there, so this was my first real excursion there since the beginning of the semester. The "Tenjin" festival consisted of two things: boats and fireworks. We wandered down the riverside, looking at all the classic Japanese festival tents which include snacks ranging from fried cheese balls (which I steered clear of), takoyaki (or fried balls of batter and squid, yum!), and ice-cold fruit on a stick (I had two amazing slices of pineapple). We watched the boats go down the river for a bit and there was much traditional drumming, dancing, and costumes. After a while the fireworks started and we wandered to find a place where we could see them. Easier said than done...

We ended up in a back alley with about a thousand Japanese people, whose every other word we joked was "やば" or "見えへん", something along the lines of "crap!" and "I can't see!". Osaka, being a city with tall buildings, is not very conducive to fireworks displays, but overall we got a good eyeful. Afterwards I went with two Canadian friends to a place called Spa World, a huge multi-floor bathhouse where for about $35 we got to spend as long as we liked in the many, varied baths and have a place to sleep for the night. Some of the baths were pretty amazing, we were on the Europe floor so we had a Mediterranean cave bath, a Spanish waterfall, a Finnish ice bath, and a salt sauna (among others). It was basically the most relaxing thing in the world, and the perfect end to a day spent wandering about Kyoto and Osaka in the ample humidity.

At this stage I'm sure you're wondering how much longer this entry could possibly get, and the answer is: just a little bit. Outside of everything I've mentioned so far I've also...

Graduated! Yep, they had a little ceremony for us, then fed us free food and showed a slideshow of pictures from the past year. The beginning ceremony was a bit taxing, not only did I rush to bike there in dress clothes (sweating like nobody's business), but then we had to sit through what had to have been the longest single speech in Japanese I have ever heard. The only amusing part was I received honorable mention from one of my teachers for my "Show & Tell" project in which I came in wearing a hat, spoke about the origins of the "Mohican" hairstyle, then pulled off my beanie to reveal that over the previous weekend I had shaved my hair into a mohawk. Even for those of you who hated the mohawk, you have to admit, that's pretty funny. In any case, I received a bound diploma and a decorative box with the Ritsumeikan insignia on it for my trouble.

So that's what's been going on in my Japan life this past couple of weeks... And now, it's almost over. My friend Xi-chan will be arriving tomorrow evening and spending the final days with me, running around and doing lots of touristy things in Kyoto. Then, on Saturday August 2nd I will fly out of Kansai International Airport, homeward bound. (Or, at least, Detroit, Michigan bound). I find it hard to believe where the time has gone... Lately I've been going around on my own quite a bit, taking photos with my 35mm camera. Yesterday I went out to a place just beyond the boundaries of Kyoto, near a lake and the foot of some mountains that are bordered by endless planes of rice fields. I thought a lot about my time here. I snapped shots of the rich green fields, the sunset over the top of the mountains, and a white crane standing serenely at the water's edge. There were a surprising amount of other Japanese people wandering about this seemingly uninteresting place. Some were praying at a small shrine. Children ran about trying to catch the small frogs hopping about in between the rows of rice. Many more still were sitting in their cars, alone, stopped on the side of the road, reading, smoking, or watching the sunset. Some even had the engine cranked and were running the A/C. Japan is full of things like this. People with one foot in, one foot out of the past. It was as though they were all feeling some sensation of loss for something they never really possessed. I took photos until the light disappeared, slipping behind the edge of the horizon and back towards the side of the earth I call home.

Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night

Well, I should be writing an exceedingly boring essay about the Kuril island debate between Japan and Russia, but I think it's been long enough since I last updated (over a month?), that it's just becoming absurd. So here I am! Back in style. A lot has happened since I last wrote, but at the same time I've been quite boring. The end of the semester crunch sort of caught up with me and I just couldn't bring myself to make the time to update. So... Since much has changed I think I'm going to make this a "word light" entry and satiate your desires to know all about my Japanese adventures with pretty pictures!

Well, I think it's always important to begin with first things first. In case you haven't heard, there were circumstances, and I came to have a mohawk briefly (for a little less than a month). Brace yourself...



You only live once, right? We had a good time, my mohawk and I...


We met a Maiko-san! (A geisha-in-training). Maiko-san are very young, they start at age 14 or so, this girl was 17. She was very awesome. She did traditional dances for us and answered our nosy questions about what Maiko life is like. They only get two days off from work a month. Our Maiko-san usually goes to the movies. My impression overall was that Maiko/Geisha have a serious dedication to their art.


We also went to one of the monthly markets! There were tons of very Japanese things there. Here I am picking out a frosted glass bead that I haggled down to 200円. If you have any specific requests for souvenirs, by the way, now would be the time to get those in! I'd like to try and bring back everybody at least a little something. :)


We journeyed together to a very big castle called Himeiji. It was quite pretty. The train ride there actually cost more than entrance to the castle, though...


I also have gone out for some beers with friends! Look at me, I'm legal! :) In any case, shortly after this was taken I said goodbye to my mohawk. Sufficiently less cool, I decided to try to remedy my awesome index with a trip up Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan! (Well that wasn't the real reason, but it does score pretty high on the awesome index I think).


So! The tale of Mt. Fuji. We started out at the train station, looking and feeling alert, even though it was about 7:30 AM on a Saturday. We took a very long bus ride out to the mountain and up to the "5th station", a little less than halfway up. We started climbing from there at about 6 PM in the evening.


It was pretty rough going. The beginning of the trail was made up of "switchbacks", or gravel paths that switched back and forth like a zigzag so you didn't have to climb straight up. Darkness fell pretty soon after we started, and we all whipped out our various forms of light. And yeah, I know you're pretty jealous of my LED headlamp.


At about 10 PM me and my climbing mates reached the first "8th station" (roughly three hours from the top, yeah!). We were supposed to stop here and rest for a couple of hours, but because there are inexplicably three different stations called "8th station", we forged on to what was called "the original 8th station". (By the way, for the Americans in the audience, 3,250m is about 10,662ft!)


Well, in the end we were wrong about the "original 8th station". We were supposed to stay at the first "8th station", but by the time we realized our error we were about an hour and a half of climbing up rocks too far afield. Sad that we weren't going to get our power nap on the floor of one of the mountain huts (Mt. Fuji is all about the splendor), we resigned to waiting until the rest of the group caught up to us in the next couple of hours. We made a nest, but no one really slept. We just kept warm for a while, entertained ourselves, and drank some hot cocoa to keep warm. Finally, when the group caught up to us, we began the last stretch up to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise (scheduled for about 4:30 AM).


And we made it! About 10 min. before sunrise everyone was awake, alert, and at the top of Mt. Fuji, all 3,766m of her! The sunrise was breathtakingly beautiful and made the whole 9 hour climb worth it.


Predawn...


The sun creeps up.


In all its glory.


After watching the sun come up (and waiting 20 minutes to use the only toilet on the top of the mountain), we made our way down, which only took about 4 hours, but was incredibly painful. (This photo was taken before we really started...) By the end of it we were exhausted, sweaty, dirty, sore, and ready for some new feet. I climbed on the bus and passed out almost instantly. On the way home we visited a hot spring, which was lovely for my poor blistered feet, and then made the rest of the epic bus journey back.

And I believe that's all the photos I have for now. This past week has been a couple of final exams and projects, interspersed with extreme bouts of sleeping in an attempt to recover from Mt. Fuji. Last night was our first official "goodbye party". :( We went out to eat at a restaurant where they showed a slideshow of pictures from this semester and the previous one, then we hung around by the river. It's still early for true goodbyes, but in reality we really don't have much time left. I'm uncertain what's in store for me in these last few weeks. (Aside from the inevitable pain of finals). I'll try and keep you updated, but I can't make any promises! (Such a terrible blogger...) Peace and good will from the land of watching the sun rise from above the clouds...

Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

I apologize for the lack of updates! It's been a whirlwind here lately. This week I had a report, a presentation, a portfolio, and a "show and tell" due. Last night was the first time I've had some alone time to just relax in a while, and I used it to watch "The Royal Tenenbaums" instead of talk to you fine people. :P I am a terrible blogger. My apologies. So I will try and make this an entry of redemption!

It has been almost two weeks since I have written... That's hard to believe. After my last post, I was finally able to get in touch with a friend of mine that was staying in Osaka and we arranged for him to come out to Kyoto (only a 30 minute train ride away, for future reference!) and I would show him and his friend Demario around. Being a tour guide is much easier said than done, I found. I have something akin to the disease that causes most New Yorkers to never visit the Statue of Liberty, most of the uber-touristy places in Kyoto I have never been, I guess because I often think: "eh, it will always be there".

Ultimately I decided to take them down to Arashiyama, the beautiful foothill area that we I-Housers often venture to for picnics and other frolicking. (I place that I love more than words can describe.)

We wandering about there for quite a while, taking in the scenery and exploring into some areas I hadn't been yet, including a sickeningly cute store that sold every variety of music box imaginable (even a Hello Kitty one!) Afterwards the guys were in to the idea of eating some more food, so I took them to Kappazushi, quite possibly the most amazing 回転寿司 (conveyor belt sushi) place in existence. 105円 a plate at night, 90円 at lunch! Oh so, so, so delicious.

Haha, but I digress. Afterwards we walked around the shopping area of downtown, and then, since we had missed the final bus, decided to take about a 40 minute walk to a "nearby" train station, so we could both depart to home.

Viet and Mario. :) It was quite a fun evening, and oddly relaxing. Just a bit of a different feel than spending time with SKP students. Plus it was entertaining playing interpretor (especially when it came to helping the guys chat with Japanese girls, haha.) People would often attempt to speak to Viet (who is Vietnamese, from the MS coast), assuming he was Japanese, only to immediately turn to me when they discovered that I was the most competent in the language among the three of us (which isn't saying much, considering my language skills, ha).

After that evening it was, unfortunately, time to return to focusing on school. I had a presentation in my Public Health course (an English lecture class about healthcare systems all over the world) on the Philippines. It went quite well, although I think my group gave about 20 minutes for what was described as a "10 to 12 minute" presentation. :P Oh well. After that, it was almost time for my birthday!

Quite a lot got packed into the 48 hour period surrounding the 21st anniversary of my actual birth. I received, without exaggeration, roughly 40 e-mails from friends of Mom's congratulating me, and providing me with a (somewhat overwhelming) influx of advice for my new adult lease on life, for which I am, of course, very thankful! :D Memorably enough, around the exact time the clocked rolled over to midnight of May 29th, my Italian neighbor Filippo emerged from his room and attacked Junko and I with a water gun, sparking a brief but hard fought water war among third floor residents. A pretty good way to ring in adulthood, I'd say.

The day of my birthday I was also awarded with a character test. :P I spent most of the morning studying for it, but since I only had one class that day, afterwards I felt quite free! I went with my friends Sara C, Sara E, and Spence downtown to shop for a costume night that was going on on Friday evening. We tried on crazy wigs in the basement of a department store before it was time to meet our parfait destiny!

So, without further ado, the moment you've been waiting for...

信じられへん！ Even now! It was so huge. Look at it in relation to the size of the people in the background! It's absurd. In any case, as you can see it was loaded down with fruit, cookie, cake, cream, and of course loads of different flavors of ice cream. :D The chocolate bar (yes, that is a whole chocolate bar) says "kelly, happy birthday!" in Japanese.

Here I am about to take the first bite!

Here's everybody! We ended up with just about the perfect amount. And okay, names, going in a circle from left to right: Dana, Steve, Junko, Kyukyu (sorry if that's horribly mispelled!), Sara E, Spence, Sara C, 私, Charles, and Ian. We were able to finish completely in a little under 45 minutes, because we 外人力が多い. Charles who is like 6' bajillion" helped out at the last leg when most of us were in a diabetic coma, haha. Overall it was quite a fun time, and afterwards we wandered and shopped some more.

This group (featured here in an infamous Japanese "purikura" or essentially ridiculous photobooths) splintered off and went on a sugar fueled adventure, playing UFO catcher until we were all fairly burdened with prizes and frustration. But, oh man, I was quite excited. I somehow managed to win Pichu, Pikachu, AND Raichu from one machine.

Here's Dana and I showing off some of our prizes (and wearing our $4 wigs, haha). In any case, thoroughly fueled by sugar we stayed out fairly late, and biked home super fast! Whoo. The next evening we had quite a fun time going out dressed up (and received a 1000円 or about $10 discount at the club for doing so). Afterwards I was a bit weekended out. On Saturday I had my "field trip", essentially part of the culture course where we were allowed to select the trip that most interested us. I chose 座禅 or Zen Buddhist meditation. We went to this beautiful temple at the foot of the mountains, with gardens and everything...

We spent about thirty minutes sitting in the meditation position, a sort of "indian style" position, straight spine, hands folded left over right in your lap. It's a bit difficult, and about halfway through the Zen master comes out and "encourages" you, as it were, to sit up straight with a straight piece of wood. I was fortunate enough not to need any "encouragement", hehe. In any case, I feel that's all that's occurred of merit as of late. This week, as stated, has been busy academically, and next week I have two tests. :(

Tonight I relaxed a bit though and watched "The Spanish Apartment" with I-House mates. It's a very good movie, about a French guy who goes on exchange in Barcelona and shares an apartment with lots of people of different nationalities. It's very much a movie about studying abroad and the experiences one has. As it came to an end and so did his time in Barcelona, on the night before his flight back home he walked down a familiar street from a cafe he often visited back to his apartment for the last time. The idea of seeing these familiar places for the last time is alarming. I know my time here isn't long, and that my time left is equally brief. I know that truly, even if I return, it will never be quite the same as it was. My friends will be gone, and others will replace them. Different bonds, different dynamics, different foreigners walking down to the conbini every other day or bicycling to campus. What a strange and short time in my life. I don't think I'll ever forget it.

Is It Possible That All This Magic Went Unnoticed?

So, in Japan, it is customary when writing a traditional letter or communication to make some introductory reference to the weather. We were given some sample phrases this past Saturday when we had class (yes, Saturday class, it was terrible), such as "during this time of oppressive heat" or "it has entered the unpleasant rainy season". So let me say, in this time of extremely confusing weather patterns in which one day it is rainy, windy, and cold and the next searing hot with sunshine the caliber of which can burn you in about 20 minutes flat (dang ozone hole), I apologize for letting a week go by once again before I have written. But here I am anyway... :D

It's been a busy week. I had a character test this past Thursday and I have another next week, in addition to an in class presentation. Outside of class I've tried to maintain a certain level of relaxation, hehe. This past Sunday I went to a "matsuri" or festival dedicated to boats called the "Mifune Matsuri". The name means "three boats", but there were actually quite a lot. It took place at the mountainous area near I-House called Arashiyama, where one is essentially in the foothills near a large river. It's far and away the most beautiful place I've been so far. I bike down on my own every so often just to stare at it. The road leading down to Arashiyama is filled with traditional shops and eateries, all in a very Kyoto style. The day of the matsuri we had a picnic while we watched the boats, then afterwards I went with a few of the girls from our group to a more secluded area near the river where we waded a bit in the water and enjoyed the scenery. I took some pictures, however with my 35mm, so I won't be able to share them until I get home. But I did steal this one from Facebook...


The whole gang on the rocks by the river. (I am fairly at the back, in a gray tank top). :) In any case, this past week I finally got the foreign identification card I mentioned before (and with much better directions, I found the place in no time!) Afterwards I went to a giant "depato", which is a long word for "department store". It's not quite like any department store in the states, though. Most have floors that are grocery stores, in addition to clothing, toys, kitchenware, and almost everything else imaginable (this one even had a McDonald's). I bought a cheaper, larger enclosure for Ippiki (who grows larger, consumes more worms, and still swims about merrily when I come home). There was an 80's themed club night and a futbol game on Wednesday evening, but I sadly abstained as I had a character quiz the following day. Sadness.

My weekend was a bit cramped by having class at 10:40 AM on Saturday. :P Because Ritsumeikan is... Hm, a bit silly, to put it politely, we are forced to make up any holidays we have on weekends. So the two days we received off for "golden week", we are making up this past weekend and a weekend in June. Hmph. Anyway, on Friday night I went out for a short while to karaoke, then came home and got in bed fairly early. Class felt very surreal, but afterwards I came home and had a lovely nap before going out with a large group of girls to a club called "World". World was quite fun, they played lots of good music, although at one point in the night a not so talented Japanese girl came on and began singing and we decided it was time to make our exit.

Today has been a lazy day. I went downtown to place the order for my birthday celebration this Thursday (a $100 parfait the size of a small trashcan, hehe) and then wandered about the shopping district for a while. As I was walking about I came across a "UFO Catcher" arcade. A "UFO Catcher" is basically the Japanese equivalent of a claw machine. For those of you who may not know, I have a bit of an addiction to claw machines, so I decided to play a few. About half an hour later I walked away with two shopping bags worth of prizes. Now, I am in no way saying that Japanese claws are that much easier, in fact some are downright unfair, but the staff are just way too helpful. In a Walmart or a grocery store in the states you can pump quarters into a machine until you're blue in the face, and no one will say a word (except maybe your friends, who will mock you without mercy). I literally put two coins into one machine before a staff member came over and rearranged the toy so that on the next play I won. It was quite amusing. I've actually acquired quite a lot of UFO Catcher toys since I came to Japan...


Hehe. (And yes, that pink pillow was also a prize, it is quite awesome compared to my bean pillow). I suppose that's all I have to report at the moment. I am quite full of delicious conveyor belt sushi (at 105円 a plate!) so I think I shall relax and do some homework until it's time for bed. Love to all and I hope you are doing well.

Just Like You're Checking If You're Alone

Hello once more from the city of ancient temples next to a thousand and one convenience stores. It's been a pretty relaxed week. In fact, I didn't receive a single homework assignment until Friday afternoon, but I did find out I have a character test on my birthday (the gift that keeps on giving). Outside of lazy school days, I have had similarly lazy school evenings. I haven't been cooking as much as I used to. I eat a lot of toast and jam. And raw fruits and vegetables. It's difficult to say why, I guess these things are just what is simplest and cheapest here in Japan. But if there has ever been a time in my life in which I have been getting my five fruits and veg a day, this would be it.

Wednesday night we had a dance party at I-House II, the much nicer (and more expensive) version of I-House I. It was quite humorous, actually, and in the end much of the party was I-House I people making a lot of noise in the rec room of I-House II while the actual residents huddled in their rooms out of possible fear or resentment. The pictures are all quite silly, so I have decided instead to include an older picture from the first karaoke outing I mentioned because it is possibly the only picture in existence of the entirety of the SKP study abroad crew.

I am at the very very rear throwing up a peace sign in my newsboy and pink button down (and I wish you the best of luck in locating me!) But yes, quite impressively, I can tell you the name of every single person in this photo. And equally impressively we all came to this karaoke building together, on bicycles. A gaijin parade, if you will.

This weekend has been quite lazy. Yesterday I attempted to locate the ward office with a friend, which is a government office where we were hoping to acquire the equivalent of our Japanese "green card". In reality we spent about two solid hours biking through the backstreets of Kyoto, through tiny alleyways, parking lots, and one lumber yard, and we never did find that ward office. Overall it was an enjoyable bike ride, if not a fruitless one. It certainly brought me face to face with the realization that there are many cities in the world where it is clear that, at least at some point in time, they were designed on a grid. Urban planners in Kyoto obviously had something quite different in mind. What exactly, I cannot be sure.

Hmm. Not to begin some sort of trend in which I end every post with a reflection on the differences between here and back home, but today I have been pondering a bit. Perhaps we don't know each other well enough yet, or maybe it's just not normal, but no one ever hugs here. I haven't had a hug since the day of my flight. And maybe it's just a southern thing or perhaps an Ole Miss thing or maybe it's just a people-in-my-circle thing, but back in the states it seems like when I run into a friend, when I say goodbye at the end of the night, when I'm headed home for the weekend, I always get a hug. At the end of a party or gathering, in fact, even if I didn't know people that well they'd usually go in for a hug. And it isn't even that I'm a touchy feely person, I am usually quite the opposite and feel sort of awkward hugging strangers. But in reality I really wouldn't mind one. At least every now and again.

The Last Snake That Lived in the Creekbed

It's hard to believe that I've been in Japan for over a month now. Things have definitely fallen into a fairly steady routine. My room is finally starting to feel more like a place I live than just a place where I throw my things down at the end of the day...

Here's some more Hello Kitty banners I found at the 100円 store. They make a nice little display over my bed. :D

Those are actually seat covers pinned to the wall, haha. And of course it wouldn't be Japan without a paper latern. :)

Two cute little wind chimes that I hung up in one of my windows.

And finally my current capsule toy collection. Not really that much to it, honestly, although I have a bit more in a shoebox that I'm saving as souvenirs for you folks back home. I've gotten a hold of some pretty silly things, most recently a series of fairly realistic egg shells which cracked open to contain a song bird, a duck, a chicken, or, if you were a particularly fortunate soul, a tiny sunny side up egg, haha.

The weather is starting to change here. It felt rather unseasonably chilly for the longest time (which was very unfortunate for me, as I had packed with the expectations of a Mississippi level summer). However it has been heating up, and last week the humidity at times was enough to give Jackson a run for its money. That was until this weekend, however. Saturday's all day rain not only cooled things off, but also made for a rather dull weekend. I had intended to go out on Friday and do something fun as it was a classmate's birthday, but decided to rest instead. So Saturday was spent going slightly stir crazy inside, watching "Reservoir Dogs", "Spirited Away", and "Juno". Sunday, however, the clouds parted and I was able to go downtown with some folks for some shopping and general Kyoto wandering.

If you ever do come to Japan you will obviously experience some sense of loss with regards to things you are accustomed to back home. It will either be the Japanese squat toilets, the strange and often questionable addition of raw egg to the top of many foods, or the talking trash trucks which will inevitably wake you up in the early morning hours at some point during your stay with their altogether too cheery announcements and strange whimsical Japanese music. That said, on Sunday I went to an organic foods restaurant called the Sunshine Cafe and had an avocado and cream cheese sandwich on real wheat toast. None of the elements of this sandwich exist for casual consumption in Japan, and that makes me very sad. So go on and keep appreciating your whole grain bread, delicious cheeses, and incredibly cheap apples, my fellow Americans, while I continue to attempt to unlock the secrets of tofu, bean curd, and extremely bitter pickles (although preferably not at the same time).

I Wake Up to the Sound of Music

Hello again! Look at me, posting so closely in succession. I may actually keep to my promise of posting more often, hehe. In any case, I wanted to update you all and introduce you to my mud puppy creature friend that I made today. :D I and another girl that live in I-House had been pondering getting some fish recently, although we discovered that the fish we wanted were all tropical (requiring much more expensive heated tanks and accompanying accessories), so I opted for a classical fishbowl friendly creature. I was just going to get your average 金魚 (literally "gold fish"), but I spotted this guy and couldn't resist.

After some internet research I have discovered he is essentially a "mudpuppy" or aquatic salamander, and a very young one at that. His name, by the way, is "Ippiki" or "EEP-peekee" which means "one animal", but mostly I just think it sounds cute. :) The shopkeeper told me how to care for him and said that while the bowl I have for him currently is fine, I may need to get a bigger one soon as within a year he will be about five to six inches in length and much larger. Of course I will not be here in a year, but as is often the fate of I-House pets I will probably pass him along to a continuing resident.

In any case, outside of Ippiki and I's thankfully uneventful bike ride home from the fish store, today has been rather long. I had my big lesson test, and it was fairly difficult, and took the entirety of my hour and a half class period. I could have done with even more time, to be honest, and was forced to rush to finish my final answers. However, I think it went okay. The rest of the day I rested my brain and chatted with folks, soaking up the sunshine and trying not to get bitten by ants, ha. And that's about all I have to say about that.

Just Something Quaint, A Couple Ships in the Night

It seems it's been quite a while since I posted, apologies for letting time get away from me once again. Things are definitely starting to gear up in class. Since I last wrote we've had two character tests (which went fairly well) and on this coming Wednesday we have our first big lesson test. I am a little anxious, as it's a lot of material, but I've already started studying some and I have a fairly good study guide to go by.

This coming week is "golden week" in Japan as a number of holidays all fall right in a row, with companies and schools usually giving people the whole week off. However, as Ristumeikan is fairly infamous for limiting holidays, SKP students only have off this Monday and Tuesday, so it's been more of a "golden weekend", ha. However I've been enjoying myself. The previous weekend I didn't do much, although on Sunday I had a fairly fun time a small barbecue near the river downtown. I was feeling a bit under the weather, though, and this past week has been stressful with the test coming up, having to give a speech in class, and starting on a project for one of my lecture courses. The past few days I've been having an earnest break, though. :)

On Friday evening I went with a group of girls downtown to the large shopping district. It was fun, although I did discover that buying pants here is going to be something of a challenge (my formidable gaijin bottom was too much even for the double L size, haha). However, I did buy two shirts I really like from a store where everything was 490円 (or a little less than $5) and I picked up some fun souvenirs for folks. :D After shopping we went to this amazing parfait place. I know in America parfaits are thought of as generally a light food made with yogurt, but in Japan they are quite the opposite. My parfait was a small one, it had frozen berries, whipped cream, and chocolate ice cream and is just one of (no exaggeration) 150+ varieties available. There's even a $100 parfait that you have to order several days in advance, served in a bowl roughly the size of a small trashcan, piled high with whole fruits, ice cream, pancakes, donuts, and everything else imaginable. Needless to say, it's all quite delicious.

On Saturday morning I got up fairly early and went with the same group of girls to a ninja village. In case no one has ever told you, ninjas are awesome (although I don't care to weigh in on the ninja vs. pirate debate at this time). The ninja village is located in a town about a two and a half to three hour train ride outside of Kyoto. Even the town itself is quite into ninjas, providing a ninja themed just about everything (there were even ninja manikins hidden throughout, lurking above streetlights and rooftops). The actual ninja village included a ninja style house, a ninja museum, a castle with extremely high walls intended to keep ninjas out, and even a ninja demonstration in which several actors, fully dressed in ninja costume, came out and explained various ninja techniques and weapons before demonstrating them for us. I even have a short video of the final "fight"!
The ninja village, while satisfactorily full of ninjas, was also surrounded by very beautiful scenery.

A shrine at the ninja village.

The anti-ninja castle.

The gorgeous view of the river and mountains, from the hilltop anti-ninja castle.

And finally, although there was a slightly more expensive option that would have allowed us to walk around as ninjas all day, we decided to go the cheaper route and rent costumes for 20 minutes to take pictures and have some general ninja shenanigans, hehe. After all that, it had become rather late in the day, so we all climbed on the train and headed for home. When we returned we decided to stop by an 'onsen' or public bath, where we ate dinner at the adjoining restaurant and then had a nice luxurious soak in the hot pools of the onsen. If you ever get the chance to come to Japan, I highly recommend it, especially after a long day of walking around a ninja village.

In any case, not too much else to add. Last night I went to this amazing Thai curry place and had some really good peanut chicken curry and some mango sherbet for dessert, which had real chunks of mango in it, and today I haven't done much other than relax and try to grip on to the last few moments of my vacation. I'll try and up the posting a bit, hope everyone is doing well back home! :)

Building Newsprint Boats and Racing Sewer Mains

My apologies for the lack of updates this past week. A combination of school related busyness and waiting in hopes of pictures being posted has delayed me a bit. (As consolation I have included a picture from my cellphone of some cherry blossoms in full bloom). In any case, much has happened since I last wrote!

This past weekend was fairly eventful. On Friday night a large group of people from I-House I had planned to go to a karaoke place, and it sort of ballooned into this giant thing that included most of the SKP study abroad students. So in a giant herd of bicycles we headed downtown for a Friday night deal that included "free time" and "飲み放題" for only 2380円 (or around $24). As karaoke places in Japan work much differently than karaoke in America, groups are given rooms that fit anywhere from 10 to 20 people and all the songs are punched in electronically (with fancy touch-screen devices, of course, this is Japan after all). Our "deal" allowed us to stay as late as we liked (some karaoke places here are open 24hrs on weekends) and order as many drinks as we liked off a set menu (which fantastically enough also included ice cream).

Karaoke was quite a blast. I ended up in a room with lots of Americans, so the songs we sang were all familiar and everyone could sing along (which is the best kind of karaoke). From Everclear's "Santa Monica" and other nineties classics to the The Beatles' "Oh! Darling" and Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee", we sang our hearts out. Many hours later, when we felt our $24 had been sufficiently spent, we retired for home. However, as I was with the SKP buddy Junko, the only remaining I-House I resident at this point, we ventured off to retrieve a few stragglers at a bar called "Moon Walk". After gathering up the last few SKPers, we had some "kebabs" (which were not so much kebabs but pita sandwiches and prepared by a very Japanese man) and finally made the long journey back to I-House.


Saturday was mostly a recovery day. I spent it indoors watching movies and doing homework. On Sunday, as the weather was beautiful and the sun was shining, I went on a picnic with a small group of people to a park near Kyoto Station. We bought "弁当" or Japanese lunchboxes at a conbini and snacked on them in the grass (as you can see above), playing frisbee and soccer until we were generally exhausted and ready to make the 40 minute bike ride home, ha.

By Sunday it had also become clear that I was losing my voice. Mostly from karaoke, but I believe a cold was also partially suspect. As I woke up on Monday with a very sore throat and feeling generally unwell I decided to stay home from classes and rest my voice for a day. For the next few days my speaking abilities slowly recovered, and as of today I feel I'm mostly back to normal. I had my first test today, and I feel it went very well. I have no immediate plans for the weekend, though I'm sure I will be outside frolicking if the weather is nice. I hope all is well back home, I love hearing from all of you, so please keep me updated! I shall try and do the same for you. :)

When A Crumpled Up Pair of Trousers Lost a Brand New Dime

The sakura are almost over here in Kyoto, and with every wind another flurry of blossoms blows by. The rain lately has them sticking to everything. On Thursday I went to the ward office again to pick up more alien registration materials and observed lots of the little pink petals stuck to the windows of the train as we rode into the downtown. Classes are getting tougher, and time is getting tighter. I had a lot on my plate to do this week, and only just managed to get everything in under the wire. Sometimes I feel utterly incompetent and other times I sincerely doubt my ability to ever become remotely functional in this often absurdly complex language, but I will "がんばります" or "try my best", a phrase that is in fairly constant use here in Japan.

The week came to end without too much trauma, though. On Thursday night I went out with my friend Sara shopping and then to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. I bought some socks (at last!), a rain jacket (also incredibly necessary here), and some tennis shoes for less than $50 all together. :D My tennies are really cool, they're a Japan only brand called "Dragon Beard" and they are green and white. The store clerk (who spoke some english) told me I would be "the only one in Mississippi with those shoes". That's for sure, hehe.

Friday night was the I-House welcome party and the "traffic light" party for all SKP students. A "traffic light" party (which I had never heard of) is where people who are single wear green, people who are sort of in between or hesitant wear yellow, and people who are taken or not interested in dating wear red. It was just a sort of silly theme to encourage people to dress up and have fun. The I-House welcome party was a potluck, though, so we all got to make (and eat) some delicious food beforehand. I made "daigakuimo" which is a fairly simple Japanese treat consisting of fried sweet potatoes coated in a soy sauce and sugar mixture. I do not personally have any pictures, but I have stolen some from Facebook!

Here we are cooking beforehand, you can sort of see me in the background.

Food! There was much more food, but this is one table of it. The Chinese students are all super good cooks. (And you can see me on the left!)

Here's me and some various folks from I-House. The dorms are co-ed, but separate bathrooms and what not. As you can see, not everybody bowed to the "traffic light" dress code, as only one person is wearing a suitable color.

The second half of the party took place at a club called "The Bowl". It's fairly unpopular, as essentially every person who came was SKP or Ritsumeikan student. I don't think I'm in this photo anywhere, but it does show all the traffic light colors pretty well. :D

Anyway, after the party was over I definitely came home and slept pretty hard. Today I went out with SKP buddy Junko and some other people to get cell phones. Because they use USIM cards here instead of SIM I couldn't simply get an SIM card to put in my phone. Hmph. But I picked the cheapest cell phone they had available, and the most basic plan, so I think it will all even out. Text messages (or e-mail as they call it here) is free between Softbank phones and only costs 3円 (or about 2 cents) to others. So I am quite content. Now I think I shall spend the rest of the evening cleaning my room and being lazy. Until next time!