The Saga of the Cell Phone

I feel like I've been on a marathon run for the past few days. Seriously, Monday, Tuesday, and today all seemed to pass in a flash. I guess I attribute this to the massive amount of Japanese homework, combined with the adjusting to my new location, plus getting ready for Golden Week (which starts tomorrow -- so excited!). But literally, I'm creeping up on my thirtieth/thirty-first day in Japan, meaning I've been here for approximately a month. It's definitely strange, as I feel that I've been here so long and simultaneously not at all. It's a very strange quasi-temporal stage that i'm in right now. Perhaps it's also strange because being abroad makes everything else in my life, meaning everything back in the states, feel like ages ago. I say all this and imagine my Mother freaking out, telling me I have to come back and I can't just stay in Japan for the rest of my life (lol!). Don't worry Mom, I will be returning to the states sooner or later (meaning in 3 to 6 months, depending on if I can get an internship or not...).

Anyway, moving away from serious contemplation and sentimental thoughts, today was such such a long day. I forced myself to get up this morning at 8:45 like usual (after falling asleep around 2 in the morning), got dressed, ate breakfast, took the subway and walked the rest of the way to school. Pretty normal. Met Austen in the cafe downstairs from the Stanford center and together we groaned about the impending exam. My midterm wasn't actually as bad as I thought it would be. For starters, it was only three pages (not including the kanji part and the listening comprehension, which had their own pages; so if you put them all together the midterm was five pages). The grammar multiple choice on the first page was pretty simple (I say this now and hope I'm not jinxing myself at the same time...), the written portion on the second page wasn't entirely difficult, and the reading comprehension didn't appear to be to difficult to understand, though when I reached that part of the exam I started to feel a tiny bit sleepy, which was most definitely an issue. Have you ever fallen asleep in an exam? I have and it's terrifying. But that is a side story for another time. Anyway, the kanji part also wasn't that bad; I think I only left one or two blank, and the listening portion was not to stressful either (in high school, doing listening comprehension for spanish would always stress me out). To an extent, it, listening comprehension, still does, but not as much anymore. But I'm just glad that the exam is over and I can enjoy Golden Week without studying (to a certain extent....I have a vocab quiz the day we get back to school --- WHY????).

After a quick lunch, Matt and I took the bus to our Ward office so I could pick up my certificate for foreign resident something or other. I don't really remember the name, and the name in Japanese is ridiculously long. The purpose of this certificate, the SOLE PURPOSE, is to allow foreigners to get cellphones. Pause for a moment. Japanese beaucracy is absolutely frustrating. First, you have to go in to get Alien Registration, because walking around with your passport is just not enough. Then after getting your receipt for your Alien Registration card (which you can get in 2-4 weeks after applying), then you get this extra certificate. Generally, you can get the certificate when you get your receipt. HOWEVER, I had to wait a week because the Ward office had so many applicants to get my certificate, which I only needed to get so that I could get a cell phone. What I don't understand is why couldn't the receipt be what is needed to get a cell phone as literally both pieces of paper have the same exact information on them. Why do you need to have another form, have more traffic, create more filing, by creating a separate sheet of paper? For some reason, it is necessary. Anyway, we went to the ward office, Matt leading the way through tiny alley ways and back streets because I had no idea where we were going, I filled out some paper work, and finally received my green sheet of paper. My second step towards getting a cell phone.

During orientation, representatives from the Japanese cell phone company AU came and introduced the various cell phone plans we could get to us. I won't lie, I didn't pay too much attention since a) it was rather confusing and b) I am surrounded by tons of engineering college students who want certain things at the most affordable price, so I figure someone will tell me in plain english without complicated jargon which plans have what and what is most affordable. Sure enough, my plan worked. Matt and I talked about which plans were available and I chose something pretty affordable and flexible. But finding the au store proved very very difficult. So the representatives told us to go to a certain store...well, after an hour of wandering around the Shijo-Karasuma intersection trying to find this one store, following directions that took us in EVERY direction, we finally asked a policeman, who responded with perfect directions in Japanese, instead of struggling and handwaving, we found another au shop. And the clerk who helped me was super super nice. Basically, I told her I wanted this plan, one of the phones that cost me zero yen, gave her all the necessary paperwork, and told her the phone had to be red. Of course, Matt actually did most of the conversing. Granted, my Japanese is a lot better. However, my vocabulary isn't exactly as expansive as Matt's is. But 2.5 hours later, I had a beautiful RED phone (my love affair with the color red continues).

Tangent. Japanese people do not text. Instead, they email! So when you get a cellphone, you get a separate email address with it. Kind of nifty, kind of unnecessary. So now anyone can email me, considering my plan gives me free email (receiving and sending). People can email me from their home emails, work emails, and their phone emails (this is for those with Japanese phones). Pretty neat. End tangent.

Austen and I then walked around the downtown area for a bit (Matt headed home to skype with his girlfriend and set up a taxi to pick him up in the morning), chatted, did some shopping. I found this darling hat that was on the pricey side...but I absolutely love it! Then we went our separate ways, and I took the subway, walked home (there was a full moon tonight -- absolutely gorgeous), and when I walked in the door, was greeted with Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner! Funny thing, when Austen and I were walking around earlier, we walked by a KFC and discussed the possibility of trying it in the future to see how it is different from American KFC. It was so good!! I'd almost venture to say just as good as American KFC, except with A LOT less grease. I didn't feel like I'd ingested a pound of lard along with my meal at the end. :)

Then I spent the rest of the evening packing for Golden Week. Golden Week is a national holiday across Japan, starting April 29th and going till May 5th. I'll be traveling to the farthest island Kyushuu and then a few other places. I'm excited to go see more of Japan!! My shinkansen leaves tomorrow morning at 10:15 a.m. so I have to be up a little bit earlier than I am generally...ARG. One of these days I will either go to bed early or sleep in. Don't know when that will be, but hopefully one of these days. Anyway, considering that I will be traveling a bunch, I don't think I will be doing much/or any updating for the next week considering I don't know where I will have internet etc.

I'm so behind on all of my emails. I promise promise promise I will answer things eventually!! And I promise lots of pictures and a huge update when I get back though! Off to explore JapanLand!

Truly the Daughter of Direction Man

Yesterday, since I ended up not having class in the afternoon (for some reason "Political Economy" was canceled), I decided to see if I could find my way back to my new house on foot. The distance (after looking it up on google maps right now) is around six kilometers. So I knew the general direction in which I was going, but I was without a map so I kind of had to rely on my knowledge of how Kyoto is structured. Disclaimer before I continue: I DID NOT DO THIS AT NIGHT. I may be into exploring, but to allay all your fears (if you have any), I did this in the middle of the afternoon with plenty of time before sunset. Granted, I don't have a cell phone yet (crossing my fingers that I'll finally be able to get one tomorrow afternoon -- the wonders of Japanese bureacracy) but I felt that if I stuck close to popular and highly trafficked streets I would be alright. And funny thing, I was! There was a point in time when I was unsure which way to go as my main street had reached a dead end (I'd been using the subway stations as markers of going the right way as I live right by the end of the subway line), but I found the nearby station, looked at the subway map, and inferred from that which way I needed to continue on. I won't lie, the entire thing took me about an hour and forty five minutes (long to most people, fine by me), but I successfully found my way home! That was my big accomplishment for the day.

Today, I had my oral midterm exam in Japanese. Yes, I do have work. Japanese class is a little bit out of control. I've had a quiz/presentation/test every class day since two Mondays ago. It never ends and it's actually starting to get on my nerves. My friend Matt and I calculated that we've learned between 200 and 250 vocab words since starting class (though the percentage of those retained is debateable...). And that's not including the kanji characters for some of these words. But the oral exam actually went just fine. It was actually surprisingly quick, basically consisting of me answering questions about myself, my plans for Golden Week, and a few "role playing" scenarios (e.g. if a person is sick what should he/she do? etc.). After, we reviewed for our written midterm that is tomorrow (well...considering what time it is I guess it's later today, haha) and that ended up being pretty amusing. Generally around 11:30-11:45 I start to develop ADD and other fidgety symptoms because class is an hour and a half long RIGHT BEFORE LUNCH. I'm sorry...that's just not fair. Today though I managed to focus for the rest of class.

Since I didn't have class this afternoon, I decided to head down to the International Manga Museum despite the rain (yesterday was a wonderfully warm and beautiful day -- apparently the weather here in Japan is bipolar because it was torrential rain and typhoon winds today). The Museum itself is rather new, only opening in 2006. However, it's HUGE. Actually. They have bookcases filled with different genres of manga, ranging from the earliest Japanese manga of the 20s to today. They don't have every single manga ever issued (From my understanding, quite a few of the manga have been donated to the museum by private owners etc.) but the collection is impressive as it covers bookshelves on three floors. Besides, they have manga not only in Japanese, but also in English, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Tawianese, Polish, etc. It's pretty intense. I couldn't really take pictures because of copyright issues, but let me tell you, these are impressive. And you can just pick them off the bookshelves and read them, though obviously returning them once you're done. There was also an exhibition basically detailing the history of the 'manga' in Japan, how it turned into 'anime', the differences between 'anime' and American animation, and so on. It was actually pretty educational. And I got to see lots of pretty covers. :)

(So this was mounted up in the Museum...I don't know what it is but it's pretty impressive. It took me a while to get the entire thing in my picture frame)

From there I headed home. I decided to walk again just to see if I remembered the way and I did. I actually did the walk in a shorter time span though there were many times I thought I would be swept off my feet because of the wind. I stopped in a CD store on my way home and bought another CD. I PROMISE I'm making good choices! It was only 500 yen (equivalent to 5 or 6 dollars -- CHEAPER THAN itunes!!). The pictures below are from my walk home today.

When I got home, I hung out with my host mom and Kenji. We had yakiudon (literally "grilled" udon) -- delicious -- and then I spent the rest of the evening studying. Except for the interval when I met Kenji's english tutor. Surprise: I'm pretty sure my host mother was trying to set me up with him. I didn't catch his name (way to go, Saroya), but he's the captain of the soccer team at Kyoto University. We talked a bit about soccer (he couldn't fathom the fact that I'd played keeper in high school), some about my stay in Japan, basic info about ourselves (school year, major etc.) and then he and Kenji went to go study. My host mother made sure to tell me that he was planning on becoming a doctor. Too bad he wasn't cute.

Okay, I need to get to bed. One day till Golden Week!

"The most wasted day, is one in which we did not laugh."

Oh wow! So a lot has happened since I last updated (which I believe was Thursday night, maybe early Friday morning)... A quick summary of what happened this weekend and then I will go into large detail: Friday morning I moved into my new host family's home, then went on a field trip to see a Rakugo. Saturday, I went to the Welcome party hosted by the Stanford Kansai Club (basically a whole bunch of alums that live in the area) and then in the evening went out to a club till 6 a.m. (ish). Sunday, I went to a BBQ at Austen's host family's house. Wee, busy weekend!

Friday. Somehow I finally managed to get to sleep despite the massive butterflies flying around in my stomach. Woke up early, quickly finished packing, and met Uehira-san (the woman in charge of host families for SCTI students) in the lobby of the dorm at 11:00 am. From there we taxied to the home (there was no way I was taking my luggage on the subway, especially the way I packed it). The taxi ride itself seemed rather long, though the entire time Uehira-san basically gave directions to the taxi driver, who didn't really seem to know where he was going (Shouldn't a taxi driver know the city he is working in?). After two wrong turns, and going in reverse in the middle of the road, we managed to get to the new house, which by the way is in the "country-side" of Kyoto (in the northern part of the city). Anyway, it is in a beautiful, beautiful part of the city, and I really couldn't be happier with its location. Tangent: It takes me approximately 20 minutes to get to school -- five to walk to the subway, ten to take the subway, five to walk to school. Anyway, we unloaded from the taxi and my host mother invited us in. Mostly Uehira-san and my host mother chatted about stuff and occasionally asked me a question or two, which I answered to some extent. Uehira-san eventually left, to my dismay, and I was left to basically fend for myself. But my host mother and I got along very very well, despite my initial hesitation and fear. I unpacked a bit and we conversed mostly in Japanese, though sometimes she spoke to me in broken english when I didn't understand. Then, she proceeded to walk me to the station so that I wouldn't get lost. :)

These are all pictures I took while walking back to the house the other day. The area I live in is absolutely gorgeous and I can't get over how amazing it is!!

Anyway, so Friday afternoon, I met up with the rest of the Stanford students and we went to a Rakugo, which is essentially, as my friend Yan defines it, "a dude sits on a mat and tells a story." However, this "dude" is more like the equivalent of a comedian. While he is Japanese, he does his show all in English. When we first got there, Takano-san asked us if there were three of us who would volunteer to be part of the show when required. In the past, and sometimes even now, I would shrink away from such an offer. NONETHELESS, I am in Japan, so I eagerly raised my hand. And so did Ben and Elvia. The show itself was quite entertaining, as it interchanged between the storyteller and then this guy who performed balancing and spinning trips:

Anyway, I had avoided the first two opportunities to participate (as the first one involved improving slurping udon noodles and I'm not much of a fan of improv -- so I volunteered Ben for that one -- and the second one involved repeating the story teller, and Elvia decided to take on that task). So, as the last volunteer, I was asked to try and imitate the guy as he used these bamboo blind/shade/stick things that put together to create different things (he would throw these sticks and arrange them into different shapes, like the eiffel tower). Anyway, I was very very bad at this, it was so so funny. Everyone was laughing; granted, I should've felt embarased, and people said I looked a little bit terrified, but I thought it was a bunch of fun. I was actually laughing so much I ended up crying. Apparently, people got lots of amazing pictures of the whole experience. I guess I should be seeing these on facebook soon (lol)!

Then I went home and hung out with my host family. I spent time with my host brother -- his name is Kenji. He's 14 and in his third year of middle school. He plays soccer, specifically forward/striker, and he's in high school level english. So he spoke to me in broken english, I spoke to him in broken japanese, and we got along just fine. I met the grandfather, and he is hilarious. He's just this jolly old man who kind of keeps to himself but he's super sweet. And my host mother informed me that Maki (my host sister, who is 22) was going to come for the weekend as she lives in the city next to Kyoto. She goes to nursing school there but came out to meet me! Though I was super tired, I wanted to stay up and wait for her. She finally got in around 10:00 pm and then she, me and Kenji (I know that is totally bad grammar, I apologize), but we sat at the dining room table, talking and getting to know each other. My host mother made hot chocolate and then my host father rolled in around 10:30. He's a doctor at Kyoto University and has very very long hours. So then we had family time till 11:30ish, then I took a shower, set up my futon, and went to bed. Went to bed happily I might add. My host family is pretty cool.

The next morning I headed out to school to meet at 10:00 am to go to Nishijin Textile Center, where we watched a mini Kimono fashion show and then learned how they make kimonos. The kimonos were so so pretty!!

From a critical fashion connoisseur perspective (via CFS), the models themselves needed a little bit of work but the stage was the right size in order to present and showcase the kimonos. It was interesting to note that the announcements (e.g. "Welcome to Nishijin.....) were in english, japanese, mandarin, and I believe, korean? Anyway, I want the red and yellow kimonos in the pictures because they were AMAZING!! After the show we went on a tour of the building and saw how kimonos are made. Basically, they grow/breed silk worms, take the silk worms, boil them, harvest the silk, dye the silk, weave it, make the kimono. I have yet to decide whether or not this is animal cruelty considering that the silk worms get boiled. The arguement is that they wouldn't really survive in wildlife but I don't know....

Then we went back to Doshisha for a small party. The party was long but at least it had good good food. Then I headed home for a bit, chatted with Maki and my host mom. And then a group of us met up at 9:30, my host sister included, and we went and hung out in Kyoto downtown till the epic 5:00 AM. Maki and I rolled in at around 6 AM and crashed (after showering). HAHA, it was absolutely fabulous. I had so so so much fun. And Maki and I majorly bonded.

Sunday was pretty low key. I went to Austen's host family's house for a barbecque with Matt. We were there for three hours and some. Lots of good food, lots of Japanese conversation, lots of fun overall. Then I rolled back home, hung out with my host fam, took Maki to the Kyoto Station so she could catch her train on the way home. :( I won't get to see her till next week, but that's okay. My host mom and I hung out, I studied, then we both went to sleep around midnight. All in all, amazing weekend, amazing friends, amazing life.

Wanderings and Musings

Not too much to report. Last night, Nancy and I decided we wanted to go see Yasaka Shrine in Gion at night. When we got there, there was hardly a soul around, which was so wonderful. I've been there during the day, and while the Shrine is still beautiful to wander around, at night you can hear so many new things without the background noise of kids screaming, college kids gabbing, elderly in conversation, and so on and so forth. The lighting of the Shrine too is very different in the night. There is definitely that tranquil feeling to be experienced when walking around Yasaka. From Yasaka we decided to make our way towards a Buddhist Temple up the way a bit. I haven't been there yet in the daytime (and it's closed at night), but the skyline was absolutely gorgeous.

I know my picture is a tad bit blurry. Hopefully I can snag Nancy's when she uploads it. Seriously, the view from this mountain top is amazing. From here you could see Kyoto Tower, which was south west from the mountain, and dozens of other high rise buildings in the northern part of the city.

Tonight, we actually met some other students studying abroad while we were out and about. One girl went to Wellsley, another went to Occidental, and I forget where the other two were from. However, they were just finishing up school, having arrived in Kyoto in late August and staying for the entire school year. I asked Abbey (the girl from Wellsley) if she had become fluent in her time here and she shook her head and replied emphatically that she could basically get by but was in no way fluent. They're leaving in a few weeks, but it was still nice to meet them.

I need to pause for a moment and comment on a fashion/pop culture trend that is everywhere in Japan. Cell phone charms. Japanese people, especially the younger generations, LOVE cell phone charms. You can get almost anything as a cellphone charm. We were actually talking about this today in Religion class: shinto shrines and buddhist temples sell cell phone charms (of course that is a whole other discussion about whether selling protection is "okay", if this commercializes religion etc.). Now, as my parents, especially my Mom, know, I love to collect things. Thus, the cell phone charm trend (despite the fact that I do not currently have a cellphone, though I hope to be getting one this weekend) is a dangerous dangerous thing for me. Anyway, I made the mistake (or perhaps wonderful discovery depending on how you look at it) of buying a beverage the other day at the convenience store before class. This beverage was "milk tea" and around its top came a little cell phone charm of a cute cake. There were 8 in all. Instantly, I was hooked into buying milk tea for the next few days just so that I could collect all eight of these charms (as seen above). They currently hang on my Stanford lanyard, which its size would cause my Mom to have a seizure (or at least tell me I was weighing my shoulder down by keeping it in my purse -- I won't lie, it does carry a great amount of weight). But they are absolutely KAWAII!! I don't regret my "milk tea" binge (especially since they were each 100 yen for this 160z water bottle size of milk tea -- good deal). I will try to avoid such gimmies later on though...

Tomorrow morning I will move into my new host family's home. My host father is a doctor at Kyoto University. My host mother is a house wife. They have a 22 year old daughter who attends Nursing school in the area. There is a 14 year old boy in the house and the 80 year old Grandfather. I'm really really nervous about tomorrow, but seeing as there is nothing I can do to delay the inevitable, i'm going to just avoid thinking about it and go to bed promptly after I finish this. I will really miss my room here and living right next door to Nancy. But getting a host family as inevitable.

On a lighter note, Golden Week is coming! I'm excited!

"If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is." -Angelina Jolie

On Sunday I decided to do a fair bit of exploring as it was a nice warm day (such a vast change from the rainy weather we have been having). After doing a bit of Japanese studying in the morning, I ventured out and decided to explore the area around Doshisha University. Along the way I passed a soccer game at a local elementary school and watched for a tiny bit (there was that nostalgic tug as I watched the little kids squander around the field chasing the soccer ball -- gosh I miss the sport). I stopped in a local Shrine and walked around the vast complex. Being respectful (and also desiring to look more like a local and demonstrate my newfound knowledge of the Shinto religion), I washed my hands and the purification station (usually located right next to the entrance). Then I ambled around, looked at the various sub shrines and then stopped at the main worship hall. From the looks of it, the altar must be dedicated to a kami that provides success in the athletics? There were lots of soccer balls and other athletic paraphenalia covered with Japanese writing (I'm assuming prayers to the kami asking for success). From there I made my way towards a CD shop and found the Japanese pop section. And the Jpop clearance section. Music is one of my favorite things, and cheap music is always something that makes me excited! However, I curbed my enthusiasm and actually, after about an hour of debating, bought only one CD for 500 yen, about equivalent to five dollars, maybe a little more. But the real success in this was not finding a cheap CD (though if you understand, Japanese music is atrociously expensive generally so 500 yen is a steal), but understanding the Japanese classification system. Just like any American music store, the Japanese order their artists by name. However, there is a problem as there are 2 different alphabets, and depending on the artist sometimes they go by first name last name instead of the traditional last name first name (in Japanese culture). So finding my artists proved rather difficult and time consuming (considering I didn't really figure out the system until about 30 minutes into my search). But in the end, all turned out well and I figured out where I would be able to find my favorites!

From the CD store, I took a brief detour home, dropped off my purchase, changed my shirt, and boarded the subway for Gion. I met up with David, one of my fellow Stanford peers, and we proceeded to walk around the Gion district for the next hour and a half. The Gion district historically was the Geisha district. Today, it is one of Kyoto's main primary culture hubs, as there are dozens of theatres, temples and museums within the area. So we toured the area, found (fake) Geisha/Maiko (more on this later), wandered side streets away from tourists...basically Gion is my favorite part of Kyoto. Officially. Many may prefer the downtown area of Shijo/Kawaramachi/Shijo but...Gion just bustles with activity with a touch of old fashion-ness. I told Austen the next day that we would have to devote an entire day to just walking around Gion. After the trip to Gion, I opted to walk back home instead of taking the subway. Previously, I had walked home along the river. This time I took a back ended route, going through various side streets and then ending up on the northern part of Kawaramachi (definitely not as lively and crowded as its southern, downtown part). Eventually, I made it back to the dorm (probably in an hour...) and I settled in for the evening, doing my little bit of homework, my sparse duties as a class assistant, and then watched a movie. :)

Monday proved to be a normal school day. During student hours, Director Horvat brought in Professor MacDougall (former Director of the SCTI center) to discuss the changing patterns of immigration in Japan and the lack of immigration law that actually exists in Japan. Did you know that it's harder to obtain permanent residency in Japan than citizenship? It's very very strange. To get permanent residency, you have to be in the country for 10+ years. However, visas only exist for 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years. After that, you have to reapply. So so strange. I was going to ask if there had been any affect on American immigration into Japan (or at least the number of American visitors to the country) due to the rise in protests of the Okayama base, but time ran out before. Then for a change, we had a lively conversation during Political Economy about the American health care system and how it compares to the Japanese version; how the American mindset is different from the Japanese. Somehow those three hours flew by (I can only hope this may be indicative of the coming weeks). Nancy and I then proceeded to head to Shijo via subway. The original intent was to just get dinner, but then she showed me this AMAZING wig store...and following our arrival she bought a long light purple wig. And these wigs are wonderful! They're all about half off right now...so I will inevitably get one because they are just to to wonderful to pass up! I just have to decide on the color...hehe. Dinner was then at a small ramen stall -- totemo oishii katta (very delicious)! Because I'm still without a cell phone, I told Ben I would meet him at Doshisha at 8:30 so we could finish booking our hotels for Golden Week...and we were only 10 minutes late. But by 10:30, we'd figured out our entire itinerary.

Today, after class, Nancy and I discovered this shop that would literally make my Mother scream. There is stuff EVERYWHERE. And the stuff isn't restricted to one category, it is possibly everything you could think of, from ceramics, to posters, to fridgerators, to old kimonos, to books, to antiques...the list goes on. I was at first skeptical to go in, solely because looking at the immense amount of items and the tiny makeshift walkways between the packed isles just stressed me out. But, Nancy convinced me, and it was definitely fun to just browse and see what we could find. I'll be going back at least a few more times just to browse. Oh the amazing things you can discover day in and day out. :)

On another note, I might be getting a new host family soon. I'm completely terrified once again, but I knew it was bound to happen some time. Hopefully it'll be a primarily female household and I can make sister bonds and everything will be fine (cause I know I can function in that sort of environment). But, I know, I didn't come to Japan to be comfortable. I came to explore, discover and learn. So it goes.

Kami, Kyoto University, and Karaoke

It's been a little while since I last updated. I guess I've fallen into something of a routine of going to class, hanging out at school with people, and coming home to do homework late into the evening. While routines tend to have the connotations of being boring, as it appears you're falling into a regimented, non-spontaneous lifestyle, I have to disagree with those thoughts in the context of Japan. Having a routine in a way for me seems to be more illustrative of the fact that I am now comfortable in my surroundings, that I have created my own lifestyle here in a foreign country. Sure, I may have the routine of going to school, class, and coming home during the week, but it never gets boring because there's always something new that happens. Inevitably. I get to wake up every day in this foreign country, wondering what new discovery I may make or new place I may see, a new person I might meet etc. In summary, life is never boring here, but perhaps that is only because I am abroad. Perhaps that's not endemic to Japan, but to any study abroad experience. I'm just so glad though that it's Japan that I'm experiencing currently as there are only a few places that I could see myself while living there being equally emphatic about each and every day.

So on Thursday, my religion class took our first field trip to Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is in the southern part of Kyoto. We left at about two in the afternoon, took the train to the Shrine, and arrived approximately at three. A little bit of background on the Shrine (though you probably could wikipedia it in a few seconds): this is a Shinto Shrine dedicated to Inari, the kami (in simplified terms, the Shinto "god") of fertility, rice, business/financial success, foxes, and a bunch of other things. Inari is one of the primary kami worshipped in Shinto. It was built in 711, and has been continuously visited every since.

(Worship Hall)

Anyway, the Shrine starts a the base of a mountain/hill and goes all the way up the mountain. It's pretty intense. And of course we went all the way up, but it was totally worth it, despite the steep steps and rise in elevation. Considering this is one of the first major Shinto Shrines I've been to, I don't know if it's true for any others, but the sheer amount of "torii" on the mountain (the large orange/red "gates") is incredible. Truly, seeing all these torii lined up one after the other is a little bit mind boggling! Of course, some torii are older than others; each has its own date on it from when it was erected/placed. Apparently, businesses and other financial organizations donate torii to the temple as offerings for the kami as a way to ask for financial success.

(At the foot of the climb; Torii in the Background)

So the route we took was one of the many routes a pilgrim coming here could take in order to petition the kami and seek spiritual fulfillment. In a word, we went around the mountain counter clockwise, starting at the Third peak, traveling to the Second peak, then to the first. The greenry up on the mountain is totally breath taking and I would love love love to go again sometime during the quarter. It is an intense climb though and there are many rest stops in addition to the many small restaurants that serve tea and other tiny finger bites. Of course, if you're hungry, you can always get something from the vending machines (yes they even have vending machines on the mountain hikes).

(View from the middle of the Hike)

One of the really interesting things to see in this shrine is the constant interplay between Shintoism and Buddhism. On the mountain there are tons and tons of personal sub shrines to the kami Inari but there are also representations of Buddhist figures of worship. If I understand correctly, Buddhists, at least Japanese buddhists (some if not all) believe that the Shinto kami are actually manifestations of Buddhist figures of worship, so in a way, it makes sense to have figures from the Buddhist tradition in their own smaller shrines on the mountain as well.

(Buddhist Figure in Sub Shrine)

"Echo Pond"

It is said that if you call out for a person who is lost in your life, the echo will indicate the direction in which the lost one can be found.

("Sacred Trash" -- Old Charms returned after they've outlived their use. The Temple staff subsequently burn them. I wonder if that's sustainable/environmentally friendly....)

Ultimately, the Fushimi Inari Shrine is not something to be missed. And it is definitely a place I want to revisit.

On Friday, a group of us went to Kyoto University to attend a series of lectures (we nicknamed it an "engineering progressive") at the Computer Science Building. The first lecture was a little long as it was just describing what the researchers at Kyoto University were working on. Primarily they've been working on alternative energy transportation. For example: the BamGoo is the electric car made strictly out of Japanese bamboo.

We also saw other electric vehicles they were developing. Essentially, it seems that Kyoto University is to Kyoto like Stanford is to Silicon Valley. Lots and lots of new innovation happens in this area; the city is just deceptively aged. The second lecture that was given was by Dr. Tomotaka Takhashi, President of Robo Garage. And they are AMAZING AND SO CUTE. I actually hope that somehow they will be released commercially soon that I may just buy one. No for real though; they are adorable.

(How could you NOT want one??)

Then the last lecture was on animation, 2d and 3d CG, given by Mr Eiji Mizutani, and Mr. J Honma of Production IG and Xbec, respectively. They showed a few demo reels and watching the creation of different scenes and how everything comes together was neat.

Later, a group of us met up with a few Japanese students and went out to Korean BBQ for dinner. So Korean BBQ is where they bring you food stuffs and you cook it yourself on a heater in your table. And it's so so so good. The place itself was a bit pricey but the experience is just too much fun to pass up. One of the meats we got was apparently beef tongue and it was actually good (surprisingly!).

And I managed to carry full out conversations in Japanese. Win! So good food, good company, good language skills...all in all a great dinner. And subsequently, our Japanese friends decided we should go to karaoke. So they called up two more friends, and then we ambled over to the karaoke place and got a room till 5 AM. Yes, that's right, 5 AM.

I managed to sing four songs in Japanese with Yuri-chan. Finally listening to Jpop instead of just American music has paid off! It was a ton of fun as we sang (or perhaps shouted) our hearts out and made new friends. However, we were all exhausted by the time 4:30 rolled around, so we decided to take off, stop off at a McDonald's (just like last time...I see a trend developing in the future), then catch the first train. That's why we stayed out so late, because the trains stop running at midnight (which is totally stupid, but whatevs) and our Japanese friends who live in Kobe (1 hour away) just karaoke until the train comes. So I've experienced the way Japanese stay up so late just to pass time till they catch the train...and it's absolutely exhausting. I rolled back into my room at just a little bit before six a.m. just as the sun was rising. All I can say is WOW, what a night. What an amazingly fun night. And then I promptly crashed and slept for five hours.

I love being abroad. :)

"Listen; there's a hell of a universe next door; let's go." e.e. cummings

Definitely had a lazy Sunday, which was very very nice. After I updated yesterday, I did some Japanese studying and reading for religion. I also decided to go take a little bit of a walk since the weather was nice out. I actually ambled over to the Kyoto Imperial Palace and walked around a little bit, perusing the small stalls etc. I exited from one of the west entrances and made my way down the alley between Doshisha University and Doshisha Women's College to Shokuji Temple. Since it was a Sunday, the temple itself wasn't open but the grounds were very pretty to walk. I guess I'll come back with some peeps to see the actual temple's insides.

From there I went on to see if I could find the other two Doshisha University campuses (there are four total, and three in the same vicinity). It was just nice to be out and to be able to tell where exactly things were. I'm getting more and more comfortable with my environment, which makes me feel a little more secure here.

Later, Nancy and I decided to go see the night show at the Nijo Castle, which only happens during the Sakura season. Last night was the last night so we google mapped it, and headed out. Of course, it started to rain a little bit. Not too bad. And it was still a little bit light out when we got there. I think that it was best not to be there in the complete dark. It was nice to see the Sakura trees accented by soft lights and the sunset. :) Even though the Sakura were dying, it was still a sight to definitely see.

Then we walked back and watched Pirates of the Caribbean 1 (Nancy's choice though obviously I was happy to oblige as it is my fav movie), ate crackers and cheese, basically had girls night, and then Nancy fell asleep, and I proceeded to do some Japanese and then go to bed. All in all a very fun and productive day!

Subways, Singing, and Spontaneity!

Wow, this post is going to be pretty epic as it is going to cover my Thursday through Saturday. I can't believe everything is just happening so fast; it feels like I've been here forever yet simultaneously it does only feel like a week and a half. Japan is just beyond belief wonderful and I'm so so so glad I'm here.

On Thursday I had my "Religion and Culture" class, which has a good eighteen to twenty people. Somehow though, being in a small classroom with an interactive teacher reminded me of high school a little bit, in a really good way. The lecture she gave was actually really interesting; it wasn't just "an introduction to the course, here's the syllabus, we'll do serious stuff next time." It was rather "Hi everyone. Can you name the religions of Japan?" And then we made a collective effort to put together a list, from which she gave short explanations of each item, proceeded to go over the syllabus with us, and from there she started lecturing on Shinto. Note: this is also a three hour class. But she was nice enough to give us a five minute break since she planned to end early too! :) There are also some auditors in the class; this girl named Mo-Mo (I believe...) sat at my table; she's a senior of Doshisha University majoring in PoliSci/IR, currently living in Osaka (she makes a daily commute of 2 HOURS on the train -- INTENSE much?). New goal: be best friends with MoMo.

Cause class ended so late, I assumed I would go back, find Nancy, and then we would scavenge for dinner. However, I got back to the dorm and found an email from Nancy saying she went off to explore but she wanted to meet up between 7 and 7:15 in front of the Hankyu Department Store at the Shijo-Kawaramachi intersection. I figured I could just make it if I got to the subway then. So I made the subway, and got to the Shijo stop by 7. Of course, from here...I didn't know where to go or what exit out of the subway to take. So, I ended up outside, somewhere, trying to remember the map in my head...and ended up going the completely wrong way. Direction Fail. I ended up walking from the downtown district though to Kyoto Station (kind of a long walk) but it was actually really fun! Then I proceeded to get on the wrong subway, ended up at the end of the subway line, realized I was probably not in the right place, and found the right one. Subway Navigation Fail. I compensated my failures by getting back to Kyoto Station and getting Starbucks (which I successfully ordered in Japanese).

Friday. I have no class on Fridays (isn't that AMAZING? I don't even have that luxury at school!) so I slept in a little bit and got to school by 10, because Austen and I decided to walk the Kyoto Imperial Palace Grounds (which opened for the week to the public!). So I went and hung out at Doshisha until Austen got there, we peeked into the E40 lab, and were joined by Matt, who had finished the lab early. David decided he'd also like to see the palace so together we headed off down the street to go see the inside of the Imperial Palace.

I can't believe that it's only open to the public once a year and we were lucky enough to be here to be here when it was open! The ground were very very pretty, but there was a sad quality to it at the same time though considering that the cherry blossoms are dying. You can actually see the flowers drooping and falling. But it was awesome.

After we headed back to Doshisha for lunch and Nancy, Austen and I proceeded to the bus stop near school. Our plan for the afternoon was to do some shopping at the mall near Austen's house! The bus ride itself was 30 minutes, but buses, no matter where you're going in the city, cost a flat rate of 220 yen. That's such a good deal as you can get off anywhere. I guess it's only a bummer if you're only going one stop...but then I suppose that you should probably just walk then considering the bus stops are not actually that far apart. Anyway, we stopped off at her host family's so she could get something and I proceeded to have a conversation (in Japanese!) with her host mother. And then we went to this FABULOUS mall. I won't bore you with the details of shopping and atm searching etc. but I came out with a cute skirt and three tshirts in engrish (:-D) -- all of which I got at a wonderful deal (I promise, Mom!).

Nancy and I headed back to the Dorm and I planned to meet up with Austen at 7ish at the bus stop next to school to pick her up. We got a small, quick bite to eat, came back to the dorm, and got a little bit dressed up to go out. The night itself was a lot of fun as the three of us just ended up hanging out, cracking jokes, exploring, and carousing.

Saturday was also filled with activity. First off, Nancy and I decided it was time to do laundry. It took us about an hour to figure out how to work the washing machine since it was all in japanese. You'd think they would have instructions in another language considering this is supposedly the international students dorm (despite the fact that Nancy and I appear to be the only occupants...as we have seen no one else so far). I was trying to find kanji symbols in my dictionary, Nancy was looking online for a manual that she could google translate...it was a mess, but we ended up figuring the majority of it out and then asking an attendant at the gym for help.

Later in the day, Austen bussed over and the three of us decided to walk to the downtown area instead of subway it (good exercise!). On the way we stopped and saw a small taiko/flute performance at this shinto shrine. We walked by the Kyoto Museum of Manga and saw a bunch of cosplayers, so we sat and watched them for a little bit. Then in the downtown district we encountered a protest against the American base on the southern island Okayama.

However, we were all so hungry that we headed to the Sushi conveyer belt restaurant and had an early dinner since we all missed lunch. Austen was amazed by it and we proceeded to learn about the restaurant a little bit more when we discovered the hot water dispenser at the table and the green tea instant powder. Ingenious. On our way out though we ran into some of the guys from Stanford and made plans for Karaoke later. So Nancy and I raced back to the dorm because our laundry was still in the dryer and made it back. And proceeded to have an AWESOME 3 hours of karaoke.

We proceeded to MacDonald's after (totally my suggestion since they are 24 hours here) and all got food for our tummies. Then Nancy and I proceeded to head back towards the dorm, having a wonderful heart to heart. Lucky for us the weather was so nice today that it wasn't cold at all going back. All in all the weekend has been amazing.

I plan to do homework today actually (considering this is a study abroad program -- I've done the abroad thing very very much and will proceed to catch up with the studying part now). Nancy and I plan to walk up to Nijo Castle later today and see the evening lights show that they have during the Sakura Blossoms season.

Sushi, Fun, and More

Yesterday was just a whirlwind of activity, filled with awkwardness, emotional ups and downs, and amazing adventures. In this entry I'm going to address things by topics rather than in chronological order. First I'll address a few of the questions that came up from my last entry! "How did our presentation go?" Well, considering the fact that we didn't "formally" prepare, it was....interesting. However, we hit up on the major points that were necessary to impart to the rest of our SCTI group (e.g. there are 1001 Kannon statues; 1 of them is the major deity, 5 meters tall; the other 1000 are all made of japanese cyprus painted gold etc. We couldn't take any pictures because they don't allow that inside the temple...). The least to say I kept the presentation up in an articulate manner and Yan (who only speaks in Japanese) contributed in only Japanese, which amused everyone. "Is the politics class in Japanese?" No. That would be positively awful if it were. The only class I have exclusively in Japanese is Japanese. "Do you write the 10 page paper in Japanese?" Absolutely not!! My written Japanese is most definitely not that good yet! "What's the third class I'm taking?" I'm taking Religion and Culture in Contemporary Japan. It meets on Thursdays in the afternoon for three hours like Political Economy of Japan. However, the field trips for that class are usually on Fridays and sometimes Saturdays. "How is Nancy managing?" HAHa, she's managing. I teach her words that might be necessary for her to know. :) Last night we went over the numbers 1-10, 100 and 1000 and some other words related to food.

Japanese Class yesterday was so much fun! We had our other teacher Fuji-sensei and she is so so nice!! Seriously, I kind of wished she taught every day...we did "Survival Japanese", meaning we studied more of "Kansai-Ben" (the Kyoto dialect of Japanese) and learned about Japanese menus. It's funny, in Japanese, sure the first thing they teach you is your name and how to introduce yourself. But they don't do units like "the Supermarket" or "Colors" etc. The way we learned vocabulary and grammar is very strange. So occasionally you'll run across words like "vegetable" (yasai) or meat (nikku) but it's not like a chunk of words devoted to a certain subject. Anyway, she was really nice; much less intimidating than the other teacher (Ueda-sensei).

I change to a slightly less than fun subject. Yesterday I decided that I wanted to move out of my homestay. I don't really wish to go into the details, but I actually had packed my bags yesterday morning before I went to school. I chatted with the staff and eventually the outcome was that I would stay in a hotel for the evening and then move into the international students dorm until a new host family could be found for me. I'm really so very grateful that they responded to me with such speed. Both the director and head of the staff at Kyoto SCTI were absolutely understanding.

However, yesterday evening, I had an absolute blast! Nancy met me at my hotel and we decided to go to a conveyer belt sushi restaurant, which was absolutely delicious. In the restaurant, you could either sit at the counter or at a table. We decided to sit at a table. However, upon being seated, we had absolutely NO IDEA how the restaurant worked. So...we first just assumed that we took plates off of the moving conveyer belt. Since we were both super hungry, and since one plate of two sushi is just 100 yen (basically equivalent to one dollar), we both took three at first. Of course, we neglected the computerized monitor mounted above our table. After having a preliminary discussion with one of the waitresses (of which I understood about only half) and then another conversation (well...it was mostly a one-sided monologue from another waitress whom seemed to be possibly frustrated to have to teach two American students who clearly had no idea what they were doing), we understood that we used the monitor to order which ones we wanted, and then a cute little train above the conveyer belt would bring the sushi from the kitchen (even if the food hadn't been delicious, I would go back because the train is so cool!!). And then halfway through the meal, we realized that the chopsticks were in a box on the table (we had been eating with our hands before, foreigner faux paus two; of course we'd washed our hands!!!). During the course of dinner I tried octopus sushi, eggplant sushi (ew), of course I got tamago (love!), inari (my new favorite), some salmon, tuna, and then extra special tuna topped with some cabbage and avocado and mayo (?). At the beginning of this meal though, when we were just figuring out the mechanism, Nancy and I accidentally ended up getting 4 plates of the last sushi dish I described; lucky us it was delicious, lol! After we had our fill of sushi (many plates after; there was just so so much to try!), we ordered dessert from the cute monitor. I ended up ordering a cute little flan (yes I realize I've used the word 'cute' excessively in this one paragraph so far -- welcome to Japanese culture where everything is small and dainty basically) and a mochi/bean paste sweet (so good!) while Nancy got a small chocolate mousse and the same mochi/bean paste sweet. Take a gander how much this all cost each of us? $13.00. AMAZING. And paying ended up being pretty painless and easy. Definitely a place to go back to during the quarter. Oischikatta (it was delicious)!

After our sushi adventure, we decided to walk around a bit in the downtown area as Nancy wanted to get some tights and skirts. As we ambled around we happened upon a store that had a clearance on all tights and socks...inevitably I bought a few pairs of over the knee socks (a definite weakness of mine) for only $9.00 (only my second purchase this trip!). Finally I've started to get a grip of the layout of the downtown of Kyoto. It's not that I can't read the street signs (they have the japanese in roman characters so you can read it in "english" versus just in kanji), I just get so turned around while I'm there! But Nancy and I ended up happening upon the nightlife scene, so we scoped it out a bit and now we have preliminary plans for Friday and Saturday evenings. Exciting!

Then we went our different ways; I headed back to the hotel and began my Japanese homework (lucky for me I'd done some earlier in the afternoon so it didn't take me as long as it could have). I just had to write a short two paragraphs introducing myself for our teachers in strict Japanese essay format (meaning writing from top to bottom, right to left). I popped into the shower afterward, washed my hair, and then studied for my quiz that was also the next day (yes, I had a quiz day three of class - welcome to the intensity that is Japanese at Stanford). Japanese itself is probably going to be 7-10 units itself, so I have made the conscious decision to NOT take the Intro to Anthro course and put myself at 19 units, despite how this does grieve me so...I wanted to do a research project on the Geisha or something about the changing role of Japanese teenage women in Japanese society or something to do with Gender Identity (thank you Westridge education). Anyway, made it in bed by 1, couldn't fall asleep till 2ish, ended up getting up at 6:30 to pack up my stuff, study more for my quiz, go over the Doshisha extracurricular group info (as I had my 15 minute meeting for that today), and get breakfast before my taxi arrived at 8:45.

I managed to do all but get breakfast, lol. No worries though. I checked out, loaded my luggage into the taxi, and then was taken to the International Students Dorm a few blocks away from Doshisha. I found out my room wasn't ready, but I could store my luggage and come back later in the afternoon. So I headed out for school, had my quick meeting, went to Japanese, aced my quiz, found out we had another quiz tomorrow (ARG, when will it end?!?), and then went to lunch.

Later, I came back to the dorm and unpacked. I live right next to Nancy, which is really wonderful. :) So this is only temporary right now (boo face) while they find a new host family for me...but I won't lie. I would much rather just stay here. It's close to school, close to the subway, near a friend, I don't impose on anyone, I can run on my own schedule...it's very very calming and relaxing.

This evening Nancy and I, since both of us were so tired from last night, actually decided to just brow the stores nearby, find portable food, take it back to the dorm, and watch a cute chick flick! We actually had a bunch of fun going into convenience stores, and a few 100 yen shops and a grocery store, seeing what we wanted to eat for dinner. We finally settled on two obento boxes, chocolate, and bread with some drinks. Fun fact: we found juice boxes for sale at the convenience stores; however these weren't juice boxes, but SAKE boxes. HOW amazing is that? They're super cute as well!! We ended up just watching Valentine's Day off the internet, eating and bonding (it was super cold today, as was also a factor in our decision to stay in rather than go out and explore). Now though I'm back in my room, happily full, contemplating which to do first: shower or make my flash cards. I plan to go to bed on the earlier side tonight because I'm rather tired off the four hours of sleep I got. It's all good though; at least I'll sleep well tonight.

Basically life in Japan is amazing.