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! :)