I'll be Home for Christmas, You can Count on Me..

So, since I last wrote, I have endured two papers, two Japanese oral exams, and two Japanese written exams. I still have one more paper to write. So, whilst I procrastinate on writing yet another paper in such a short expanse of time (and since facebook is beign a brat and I can't do anything on it for the time being), I shall compose a list for you of words all family and friends are expected to know over the winter break. This list is of Japanese words that have entered my english vocabulary and are very difficult to delete.

A note about pronunciation. A=ah, I=ee, U=oo, E=eh, and O=oh. All consonants sound the same except r, which sounds kinda like a cross between an r and an l. a double vowel means that the sound is elongated. A slide is when a consonant gets a y sound before the vowel, such as kyo, which is like a ki and a yo smashed together into one syllable. Otherwise, syllables are made by combining one consonant and one vowel. ts and sh are considered one consonant.

And now that you're thoroughly confused, here is a list of words you must know before I return home.

Japanese Vocabulary List
おはよう - (ohayou) Good morning.
今日は - (konnichi wa) Hello (good afternoon)
今晩は - (konban wa) Good evening
何に？ - what? (usually said with a puzzled look)
どうして？ - why?
ちょっとまって - hold on a second
ちょっと - well.... (usually said when I don't want to do something but I don't want to tell you so)
すこし - a little
いつ？ - when?
いくら？ - how much?
今は何時？ - What time is it now?
何時？ - what time? (also can mean when)
だれ？ - who?
あの人 - that person... (usually said when I wish to start talking about some random person)
いてきます - said when leaving the house.
ただいま - said when returning home.
おかいり - said when a family member returns home (as a greeting)
じゃあ - then
じゃあ、まった - see you later
まった - later
そして - and
いこう - let's go
何にをしっている？ - what are you doing?
勉強している - I'm studying.
です - japanese verb whose closest english equivalent is the word "is"

That should be enough to get you started. Just so you'll know because we at Kansai Gaidai speak a very strange language of half-japanese and half-english. There will be a quiz the minute I step off the plane (not really). This list is mainly given to you so that if I suddenly say one such word as listed above, you won't give me a confused face. I hopes.

See you guys in less than a week!

A Trip to Nogi Shrine

Written as a field report for my Shinto class. The requirement of the report is that it be at least two pages and be about an experience I had with Shinto. Shrine visits are recommended. I chose Nogi Shrine because it seemed to me to be an oddity. This paper is written with the fact in mind that the intended audience (Kenny-sensei) has visited the shrine before.

A Trip to Nogi Shrine

Date: November 17, 2007

Location: Nogi Shrine; near Fushimi-momoyama station on Keihan Line

History: In 1912, General Nogi Maresuke, a hero of the Russo-Japanese War, positioned himself and his wife in front of a portrait of Emperor Meiji. As cannons announced the passing of the Emperor’s funeral procession, the couple committed ritual suicide in order to follow Emperor Meiji into death. The act was highly reminiscent of feudal Japan and shocked a public who at that time thought it had long since cast off such cultural values and stepped into a modernized and Westernized world. (McCain) I have yet to find an exact date for the shrine’s construction or who proposed the shrine’s creation and why.

Description: Nogi Shrine is small and made up of a few buildings and monuments that encircle a little garden. Starting with the gate, the nature of the structures flows in a clockwise motion from structures that have very little to do with Shinto to structures that are distinctly Shinto.

Memorials to Nogi

To the left of the gate are many memorials to Nogi Maresuke as a person. There is a bust of the man cast in bronze, a monument with a large anchor attached, and a museum dedicated to the artifacts of the once-living man. The only hints the shrine gives at first to the fact that it is indeed Shinto is the purification water stationed near the museum for visitors to wash their hands in and a distinctly Shinto altar on the second floor of the museum that houses a statue of Nogi and his wife. Everything else inside the museum is more reminiscent in nature to artifacts found at Graceland—even General Nogi’s dentures are proudly displayed on the second floor.

The Unknown Building

Next to the museum is a small and narrow building that seems to be either the priest’s quarters, a storage facility, or quite possibly both. The building is protected by Shinto ropes indicating the kami’s presence. Inside the door at the center of the building is a smaller Shinto altar that looks more like a family altar than anything else. An empty room with tatami floor can be seen through the window to the right of the door. In the room to the left of the door, however, is something quite interesting. The room is filled with wooden dolls, ranging from approximately two to three feet in height and all except one wearing a red cap and a slightly scary smiling expression that looks strikingly like Daikoku-ten (the one different doll had a white cap instead of a red one). Though the dolls may actually be someone other than Daikoku-ten, there are a few other strategically placed items on the premises that make me suspect that the dolls are indeed of him.

Additionally, in front of the Unknown Building is a small alter to a red-bibbed stone person, complete with a brass statue of Buddha sitting next to it. This raises some interesting questions: What is a guy like Daikoku-ten, who is clearly of Buddhist origin and one of the seven lucky gods, a guardian of children, and a miniature of Buddha doing in a Shinto Shrine to General Nogi Maresuka, of all people?

Clearly Shinto Aspects

Moving clockwise, the rest of the shrine is distinctly Shinto with only a few small nods to General Nogi himself. Directly next to the unknown building is a model of Nogi and his wife preparing for suicide. Next to that is a statue of Nogi in full priest’s costume, indicating that not only is he a kami, but the head priest of his own shrine. Next to that is a two-building complex that I would like to call the Outer and Inner Sanctuary. The Outer Sanctuary is the much larger building of the two and is accessible to the public. Located behind the Outer Sanctuary is a separate building that is off-limits to the general public and is most likely the Inner Sanctuary. Guarding the Outer Sanctuary are two statues, one of a mare and one of a stallion. This is the only shrine I have been to that does not have a statue of a horse inside a building, but instead has the horses on full display. The fact that there is one male and one female possibly indicates Nogi and his wife. Another interesting feature to the Outer Sanctuary is that it has an entire row of rice bags lining the building on the outside just below the rafters. Firstly, these rice bags reminded me of Daikoku-ten, who is often seen seated on top of them, and secondly, rice represents wealth. So a man who killed himself to follow Emperor Meiji into death suddenly becomes a kami of wealth?

Next to the two-building complex is a much smaller and much newer (judging by the color of the paint on the wood and the fact the paint hasn’t begun to peal) building that has a prayer bell and offerings to the kami inside. Interestingly enough, more of those huge rice bags are positioned on the structure. The food offered to the kami are red apples, a traditionally wrapped offering (similar to what I saw at the Kurama Fire Festival), two bottles of sake (one for each kami, I guess), and… a plastic wrapped bag of the local favorite doughnut-like candy? Maybe the reason that Nogi had dentures is because his teeth fell out due to eating too much sweets. In that case, it must be awfully hard for him to eat the apples offered to him without his dentures!

Visitors

Visiting Nogi Shrine on November 11, 2007 were two blond-haired foreign girls (myself and my history-buff friend Ruth who I had brought along for the company), two older women (who stayed approximately as long as we did), an older man (I never saw him actually leave but he was gone within fifteen minutes of my seeing him), a young woman (who visited the children’s diety for a very brief second and then quickly left), and a young man (who darted in with camera in hand, disappeared into the museum, and then darted back out in a matter of minutes). The place was surprisingly quiet and no one rang the prayer bell while I was there. At least a second visit is needed to be able to say for sure if the low traffic at the shrine is normal or if people did not visit Nogi that day due to shichi-go-san festivities going on at a much larger local shrine that is conveniently close to all three train stations (Keihan, Kintetsu, and JR).

Priests

There were no visible priests at the shrine during our visit but I am almost positive that there are indeed priests at this shrine. First, if you go clockwise from the prayer bell structure, there is a long and narrow building devoted to the sale of o-mamori and ema, items that are normally sold by priests. Second, the empty second half to the unknown building could possibly be a priest’s quarters. Third, there is an Inner Sanctuary that is off limits to the public. Come to think of it, I could smell faint incense coming from the Inner Sanctuary when I was standing nearest to it.

Thoughts

To be perfectly honest, Nogi Shrine is downright weird. It has the feeling of a Shinto Shrine crossed with Graceland and with a dash of Buddhism thrown in for flair. But because it is weird, it is really fascinating. I will definitely go again to see if I can find an answer to any of my questions.

Class Video

As an end of semester project, our Japanese speaking classes asked us to write, memorize, and present a skit entirely in Japanese. We of level three were given the specific directions of no more than four to a group (though you can bring in outside assistance for a very short period of time), and the skit itself had to be approximately 9 minutes long, videos prefered.

And this is what we came up with. Ruth, Autumn, Amanda, and Nikki star in a stunning film about a drunken salariman who comes home, hits his head, and dreams up a manga about beautiful women samurai. It has ninjas, samurai, honor, fantastic death scenes, and a few guest appearances from Jack. We called Johnny but he was too busy with Sweeney Todd so we got the monkey instead. We hope you enjoy...

The Genuine Life of Samurai

Time, why are you not my friend?

Life is insane and I certainly don't have enough of this little thing we call time. I have less than three weeks, three papers, a video that we have to make, as many interviews as I can fit in, a trip to Nara, two afternoon finals, and four Japanese finals (it's actually two finals with two parts but each part is a final in and of itself so...). And then it's back home to the States to spend Christmas with my family! I'm so excited about that! But there's still three weeks of stuff to do and stress is definately not fun...

It's been almost two weeks since I wrote last, and I'm sorry about that. So, here's what has happened. After I last wrote, I spent that Saturday shopping in Umeda with Ruth, where I saw a camera for 300$ that I wanted (since mine is old and starting to fall apart). It's a canon, and when Ruth looked it up on Best Buy's website, it is a 600$ camera in the states, available only by special order. It is a freaking awesome camera, with 10X zoom, image stabilizing tech (so no more blurry night photos), and really nice video capability. Thus this camera is staying in the back of my mind as a maybe. It's a fantastic buy, if I can come up with the money. But first things first, of course, so the camera must wait until next semester when I can finally assess whether or not I am capable of buying this thing. Because that's a lot of money and I don't impulse buy things that are that expensive. We'll see if I decide that I really need it.

That Sunday, the original plan was to go to Fushimi-inari and then continue from there. What happened was that for the two minutes we were at Fushimi-inari station the weather had decided to pour down rain. So, we got back on a train because the shrine has no cover and all those stone steps plus rain didn't sound like a fun idea. However, as soon as we left Fushimi-inari for Kyoto Station (where we would be dry), the weather cleared up and there was no need for an umbrella. So...

On the way to Kyoto Station, we stopped at a buddhist temple just a block away. It was described in Heather's guidebook as "the largest wooden structure in the world" but it was under renovation so the largest wooden structure was completely encased in a large steel structure. We could walk inside the steel structure and see the outside of the wooden structure, but heaven forbid we see the inside. I was not impressed. I'm sure when it's finished, it will be quite beautiful but... I probably won't get to see it. The interesting thing about this temple is that you don't have to pay to go in. (most buddhist temples charge you to go inside, which is why I have been inside so very very few) Additionally, inside the main gate is a stone courtyard that is covered in pigeons. While Heather resisted the urge to kick one, I completely gave into the urge to terrorize them. Yes, I acted like a complete two year old and ran to the center of the flock, hoping to make them all scared and fly away. But no, instead of humoring me, they all just kinda waddled out of my way. I was very disappointed. And I'm sure I looked like a fool but I don't care.

Now, on to Kyoto station. Kyoto station is an 11 story building about three blocks away from shichijo station, filled with shopping and, by the way, completely decked out for the holidays. We completely bypassed Thanksgiving and gone straight into Christmas. Which downright annoys me. Plus, Christmas here is completely the retail version of Christmas, so it kinda depresses me because Christmas here has no soul. Another reason I'm happy to be going home for Christmas. We did not actually go shopping in Kyoto station because it was fantastically busy and we felt no need to trapize through womens clothing that neither Heather and I can possibly fit into because we're both way too tall. We did travel to the top floor where we had probably the most fantastic pizza I've had in Japan yet. It was cooked by a real brick oven. Didn't think I'd find one of those in Japan but oh my goodness... fantastic.

Then, after Kyoto Station we decided to walk from Shichijo to shijo (for those of you who can't tell, Shichi is the word for 7 and shi is one of the two ways to say 4. Jo, I assume is either stop, street, or something along those lines. On the Keihan line, there is a Shichijo, Gojo (5), shijo, and Sanjo (3). Not sure where the other numbers ran off to, but this is Japan and I have learned not to ask. So from Shichijo to shijo was approximately 5 or 6 blocks. We stopped at the sister temple to the Tallest Wooden Structure in World Temple (I remember no names, I'm sorry) along the way, but that one was not anywhere near as impressive. Both were under renovation.

At Shijo, we walked back to the Keihan line and stopped at what Heather called the "incredible store of insane cuteness" and is actually an accurate description of this place. This is where I found a present for Yoshi, since Sunday was her birthday. I was quite proud of myself because when I gave it to her later that evening, I had apparently chosen the perfect gift. Makes me happy. That evening was spent with Yoshi and family, where we had a small cake, her favorite meal, etc. She turned 16.

Last week was downright busy. There was originally a plan to skip Shinto class and go see Nogi Shrine but we were tempted with a movie and decided to show up that wednesday. How I wish we hadn't! It was the most senseless movie I had ever seen! I could see where aspects of the movie had shinto references but in all honesty? It was pointless. And the sad part is that this was the highlight of that week. Not to say I didn't have anything to do last week, far from it, but that's the only thing worth writing about. Most of what I did that week was homework. And lots and lots of it.

Last Saturday, I finally did make it to Nogi Shrine during shichi-go-san. I am working on a feild report of that trip and I shall post it here when it is done. That will be one paper less for me to write. But for now, just know I went to Nogi shrine during the day, then left for home before it started getting dark. Then, I went to Kyobashi to have dinner with a friend over Subway (best subway sandwich I've had in my life, thank you). Sunday, I went to Seminar house four to watch Princess Mononoke. Then it was back home to do even more homework.

This week too has been characterized by two things--homework and cold. The homework is more annoying than anything else; our video is due next week so we are hurrying to get it videotaped and stuff like that. It will be a really cute video, so I'm happy with the plot and we've poured a lot of work on it. It's just the actual practicing the lines and filming that we have to do now. Sigh. And no one has time.

As for the cold... During the day, I am just fine, even without a coat that I stupidly forgot to pack. I just wear layered clothing and normally only need two layers to be quite comfortable. It's like a typical fall day in Arkansas. It's like the days when its warm in the sun but cold in the shade (which are the kind of days that I love anyway). But oh at night... At night there is no sun so it gets really cold. And the best part of it all? My room is the same temperature as the outside. Why? Because I have no significant heat source whatsoever. The only thing I have is a small foot-pad thing that's about a 3 inch by 5 inch square and even on its strongest doesn't get very warm. And my host mother has specifically warned me not to run it while I am sleeping. Well that's great and all but I kinda would like to keep all my toes thank you.

Now before you start freaking out, my friends, let me explain. It is quite normal in a Japanese house to have no central heating and air. For heat, most families use a variety of electric heaters and no one thinks this is strange. It is not normal, however, for those living in a Japanese house not to have some form of electric cover or electric rug under their futon. Many people say that they are actually quite comfortable at night with the electric rug or cover, depending on which they have. I am sure I would be comfortable too if I had such things. But I do not. All I have is that foot pad, which I guard with my life. But I still have to turn it off when I sleep (lest my host mother get angry and take it away) so... I generally end up doing my homework while huddled up under the covers, which is actually fairly uncomfortable because there is no flat surface to write on and not enough room to spread out whatever I am working on. In general, I look forward to going to class because at least in the CIE they keep things nice and warm. Sometimes too warm, but I can't be too picky. I'm just trying to last until the 16th, when I come home for Christmas.

I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me...
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams.

International Festival 2007

So. Last weekend was the International Festival, presented by the Japanese students of Kansai Gaidai for the community of Hirakata. It started Friday (Japanese students had Friday off from class, whereas for 留学生 such as myself, class was in session) and ended Saturday. Friday was spent having to go to those pesky things we call classes, say "yo, I'm here, k, see you, bye." Fortunately, most teachers simply took roll because they were forced to by the CIE and told us to go enjoy the festival. I saw a group of pre-kindergarden aged kids in their little pre-kindergarden sized band do a band preformance with such a high level of cuteness that it almost outdid the Razorback Band. Almost. I also watched the cheerleaders do their routine. As a competeing entity, their preformances were really good!

And then, instead of being a good little kid, I chose to go with Heather and Zack to Kiyomizu Temple in hopes that we'd catch it in it's bright red finery. Many photos were taken, but the maples on the temple grounds hadn't quite begun changing their colors so it wasn't as fantastic as we had hoped... Oh well, we'll just have to go again. I also discovered three very important things in Kyoto while I was there. First, there is a candy store near Kiyomizu where you can try the japanese candy before buying. Normally, the traditional candy of Kyoto is red bean paste wrapped in a soft floury substance. It is absolutely fantastic, but... Even better, I discovered, was the same thing essentially, but with chocolate instead of red bean paste and the floury thing flavored into either banana or strawberry. Oh goodness. Second, there is a little shrine at the bottom of Kiyomizu that was selling, of all things, candied clementines and red bean paste in fried pancake batter. Both were also absolutely fantastic, but the clementine was the best. And third, I discovered indian food. This being Japan, Indian food is much less spicy than the real thing, but that suits a spice weakling such as myself just fine. I had dal, nann, and a pomegranate lassi (I simply must learn how to make this amazing food), and tried butter chicken, and some sort of mutton curry (the mutton curry wasn't so great, but that's because that curry was the next step up on the spicy scale (which, in Japan, medium is nothing and high is OMGMOUTHONFIRE!!!). I also tasted mango lassi and blueberry lassi, and decided that I was the wisest of the three in choosing a pomegranate lassi. And decided that I must learn how to make this thing called a lassi myself.

Saturday, I spent most of the day at the festival. Justin was the gaijin-on-display for the opening ceremony, so of course I had to be evil and show up and take photos. Heather was busy being Canada for a day, so I of course went and harrassed her at the Canada booth as well. Nikki preformed for the world dance exhibit (more blackmail photos), and Ruth was America for the Fashion Show. Strangely enough at the fashion show, America was the only country besides Japan that got an excited applause. Interesting. I have photos of the fashion show too (evil laugh). I also watched Tomoko and the rest of the Cheerleaders one more time in an attempt to get better photos (a successful attempt too). After the fashion show, Ruth and I went and caught the last half of the Sound of Music, preformed in butchered english with cues and tones taken straight from the movie. And completely off-key, with the exception of Captain Von Trapp, who managed to sing Adelweiz fairly decently. Ruth and I have determined that we must watch this movie again soon. Especially since the Japanese preformance ended immediately after Von Trapp sings for the first time and tells Maria to stay.

I spent the rest of the day Saturday at home, working on the powerpoint for our presentation due on Monday. Mind you, my host family recently bought a new computer with windows vista on it, so nothing in powerpoint is where its supposed to be anymore (not that I was that familiar with powerpoint in the first place). Secondly, its entirely in Japanese, so I spent my time saying things like, "Hm, what's this say? Su-la-i-do. Slaido. Slide! Okay, slide, okay, I need one of those. *click* Okay, I have a slide, now I need a graph. Oh hello, random kanji that I don't know. Um... Kay. That looks like a graph, let's click it! *click* Oh, wait, no, that's not a graph, that's a picture, back up. Okay, that ALSO looks like a graph! *click* Yay! I found the graphs! So that's the kanji for graph. Okay, now how to enter data into the graph... Okay, that icon looks like the icon for excel, which is usually used to put stuff into graphs... *click* and she finds the data input! Yatta! ...more kanji I don't know. Hm. Kay. This one's on the left, so it probably means okay, this one is the middle and I have no clue what it means, and this one says Ki-a-n-so-lu... Cancel. No, I don't want to cancel, I want to click okay..." It went on like this for hours and by the end of it all, it was midnight thirty (yes, midnight thirty is a perfectly acceptable time word), my brain was mush, and I'm sure my host family (who doesn't go to bed until 1 I found out) thought I was absolutely crazy because I was saying all this out loud to myself to make sure I was doing things right. Then I had to figure out how to save it in a non-vista-compatible format. That was a real trip.

Sunday was spent sleeping, having lunch with Heather, and then going to Yawata to finish working on our presentation with Ruth and Nikki. I evilly added the blackmail pictures to the powerpoint presentation. Mwa ha ha. Anyway, we worked on that for a while, had dinner with her host family, and then Nikki and I went home.

Monday was presentation. We were first. Apparently we did freaking awesome and scared everyone else. We did not feel so confident. But then again, I hate presentations. Went home, went to sleep.

Tuesday and Wednesday were Kanji tests (of two sorts). My free time (what little I had) was spent making an emergency birthday gift buying run to Hirakata on Tuesday and an emergency birthday gift wrap buying run to Kuzuha on Wednesday. I love wrapping gifts, so naturally, I had fun.

Yesterday was a three person birthday day. Audra, Nikki, and Nikki's friend Sara all turned 21, so that evening I went with Nikki to her birthday dinner. We took her to a sushi restaurant where the sushi comes to you (see here). The sushi there wasn't as great because it had this little dash of wasabi they put in the rice under the meat. I didn't know until I bit into the sushi and went "what is this thing that's biting into my tounge? Oh, it's wasabi... >.< (<--unhappy face)" But for 100 yen a plate, it wasn't so bad. After sushi, we took Nikki and Sara to Ages Cafe. If you think coffee house and substitute the coffee for alcohol, you have Ages. You can order snack food at Ages, but the main menu is the bar. And by the way, peach snops with apple is fantastic.

This weekend is going to be busy too. On Saturday, I will be going to Umeda in the morning to go electronics shopping with Ruth. My headphones are a piece of crap and I can only hear out of one ear now so I'm going to go buy some freaking nice headphones in a country where quality electronics are their number one export. So for the same amount I spent on my good headphones that are sitting at home in the US, I will get not "good" headphones, but "freaking fantastic!" headphones. I likes this idea...

And Sunday is a trip to Fushimi Inari. We're starting out at Fushimi Inari but we might somehow end up in Shijo for candied clementines, indian food, and maybe this little place called Kiyomizu that we've all heard about but never been to... :) Have to be home before dinner though. I am eating dinnerwith my host family because its my host sister's birthday! I fully intend to do my birthday shopping while I'm going to shrines and temples (shrines and temples always have tons of shops around them, which of course is a fantastic business location because of tourists).

Thus is the extent of my plans. And before I end this blog, I must give a shout out to Reggie, being the bravest of us in the computer lab to complain to the staff that it is entirely too hot in this room (it's like 85-90 in here while the rest of the world is like 50). It's been like this for weeks and finally someone complained.

A Breif Recap...

１０月２３日、火曜日 - Transend Workshop

After the Kurama Fire Festival, I woke up around noon and went up to the university for the workshop hosted there for my Dynamics class. I signed up because the speaker of the workshop is the founder of the organization Transcend, which works for "peace through peaceful means." I thought that not only would I learn something, but I could put this event on my resume and it would make me look unique--this guy normally does not give workshops to college students.

At least I get the resume part. According to this guy, China is the best place in the world to live and America thinks that it is the chosen people, who choose the chosen president, who then is God's voice on earth. Oh, and apparently we're not an enlightened society either because a recent survey suggests that nearly three fourths of the United States still believes in a higher being.

Another issue is that whenever he would back his statements up with proof, that proof would be incredibly vague. For instance, he once backed up his claim that our media lies to us by saying that a Japanese reporter (no name, no affiliation given) once told him that the western reports of tiananmen square were horribly wrong. If I had not heard a comment (that was well backed up, mind you) before that sounded somewhat similar to his claim in this particular case, I would never have been inclined to believe his statement. A name and maybe the newspaper the reporter worked for would have sufficed but please, don't use a source if you aren't going to name it. Much of his dialogue in explaining China, Korea, and the United States was delivered with this vague approach to sources (I heard a friend of mine say...).

Another complaint is that he only answered the questions he wanted to answer, and if he didn't want to answer the question asked, then he would turn it into some other question that he did want to answer. Ruth asked how China intended to lead the world in health care and education for ALL of its citizens when it hasn't addressed its human rights issues--such as womens rights and the fact that people disappear whenever the government so much as thinks that they have said something against the government--and his responce was how health care and education would be accomplished in China because the Chinese government was capable of doing so. Human rights never came into the answer. Our resident representative of the former Soviet block (whose name I can't remember, but he's in my Dynamics of Modern Japan class and he speaks up frequently) is old enough to remember a time when human rights were ignored in his country in much the same way they are currently ignored in China. He asked basically the same question as Ruth, only his specific example was freedom of religion since he attributes that to a cause of unrest within his home country and he wanted to know how China intended to address the freedom of religion issue. The guy's answer had nothing to do with that question.

And lastly, according to this man, Johann Gultung (sp?), the model for peace in ALL areas of the globe should be based off of the model of the European Union. We should therefore have an Asian Union, a Middle East Union, a Central American Union... Etc. Which tells me that this man has yet to learn that just because you design something that works very well for you doesn't mean that it works at all for anyone else. Asia is not Europe. It does not think in the same way as Europe. Therefore a European model is not going to work for Asia because Asia simply is not Europe. Something based off the European model but made distinctly Asian by Asian countries for Asian countries might work, but I highly doubt we'll be seeing an Asian Union that looks just like the European version any time in the future.

I've said my piece, so I'll end my rant.

１０月２４日、水曜日 - Shinto Midterm
Studied absolutely none for my Shinto Midterm and received a B. So, I shall study for my second test and write a really good paper about my (hopefully soon to take place) trip to Meiji's tomb and Nogi's shrine, and I'll walk out of that class with an A. Provided her tests remain as simple and easy as the one she gave on this day. Went home and studied for seven hours for an Anthropology midterm.

１０月２５日、木曜日 - Anthropology Midterm
Seven hours of studying (which I never thought I'd ever have the fortitude to pull off in my life) payed off and I missed only five points on the quiz, four of which I am currently contesting due to the wording of the question. I want my 99! So, provided that I get started on my research project soon and survive the second test, I should also be able to walk out of the class with another A.

１０月２７日、土曜日 - Halloween Parties
I spent Saturday afternoon at my host mother's halloween party, where I finished carving a pumpkin for the children there and we dressed up in makeshift costumes. The only costume my host mother owned that would fit me was a witch's costume, so for halloween I was a witch. With a black trash sack tied around my neck as a cape...

Then, I left there, met Ruth at Gotenyama Station (the stop between Makino and Hirakata City Station), and road the keihan line all the way to Kyobashi, where we switched trains and headed to Justin's apartment where we were promised a small (maybe 5 or 6 people) party with pizza, cola, and a scary movie. It turns out there were at least 20 people there, and most everyone did not know everyone else. So, we introduced ourselves and sat on the floor (because there was no where else to sit) and had fun. We did indeed have pizza, from Dominos. It was probably the most expensive Dominos I've ever had (Ruth and I split what they called a medium but what we thought was a small, and the cost came up to 1300 yen). At Dominos Japan, you can order the ocean on your pizza (according to Kyle, Justin's roommate), but we ordered something remotely American, except for the fact it had corn on it. It also was no where near as good as any other pizza I've had in Japan either.

After interesting conversations and having to explain for the thousandth time where in the United States is the state of Arkansas (to an American, no less!--to which I said we're the little state better known as the state of Walmart and therefore we own your souls...), we finally turned off the lights and started our movie of the evening, the Descent.

The Descent is a movie about six rather unintellegent women who decide to go caving in Chattanooga, TN (I loved the images of TN; looked like home) in an undiscovered cave, without an expert among them, and after commiting several idiotic mistakes (Ruth and I were picking the movie apart at the beginning since she's a hiker and a mountain climber and I know just enough about caving to be dangerous) find themselves caved in and therefore have to find a new way out. What stands between them is mountains of uncharted underground territory, and a clan of (for lack of a better word) critters who were once humanoid, but having evolved in the darkness are now blind, hunt by sound like bats, ugly as all get-out, and oh, by the way, eat raw meat, including the unfortunate human who dares to try and discover their cave. I shall neglect to tell you the ending on principle but being a person who hates most scary movies, I shall also recommend not seeing this one.

So then Ruth and I had to endure the hour long train ride home, where we got home and stayed up until 2 texting each other back and forth whilst we tried not to be afraid of the dark. She somehow managed to go to sleep while I snoozed with the light on until 7:30 in the morning when the sun rose and I could finally turn out my light. Consequently, I missed Kamigamo Jinja on Sunday, and I'm told that I missed a lot of interesting things. I could care less; I wanted sleep and so I got what I wanted. I can always go to Kamigamo another day.

１０月３０日、火曜日 - Dynamics Midterm.
So here's the test: four questions, given to us two weeks in advance, and a requirement to write an in-class essay on two of the questions, which two being our choice. It can't get any easier than that. All you have to do is study for the two questions you think easiest to answer and then actually write the paper in class. Each should be approximately two pages. Time has yet to tell how I did on the test, but I am sure I did well. We'll probably find out for sure tomorrow.

１０月３１日、水曜日 - Halloween Proper
I spent Halloween Proper mostly in bed. I woke up and made it to my speaking class where apparently I looked so ill that everyone insisted that I go home and go to bed. I tried to eat lunch but found myself feeling too nauseous to eat. So, I road home, surprised my host mother (who promptly asked if I had a fever, to which I said I didn't think so), and went to bed. I woke up around 4pm starving and wondered why until I realized that I hadn't had anything to eat. So, I took the two second trip to the 7-11 two blocks away, got myself a sandwich, ate it, and got home just in time to go to the second halloween party at my host mother's school where I got my picture taken with the jack-o-lantern that I carved. I then went home and went promptly to bed at 8pm, without dinner.

１１月１日、木曜日 - Return of Anth Project Proposals
So we finally got our lovely anthropology project proposals back (after a month of waiting). I am now officially approved to interview college students on what they think of Meiji and Nogi (which will eventually become a small part of my honors thesis, I hope). And guess what! We have a month in which to do all these interviews, so I shall start moving quickly. Fortunately, I already have several contacts in mind.

I now currently smell (and hear the crackle of) home made tempura downstairs, so I shall leave you with that. My workload is ever increasing as we get closer to the end of the semester so I appologize in advance if updates get even less frequent than they have been. My best to everyone!

Kurama Fire Festival

All day Monday I debated whether or not I should go to the Hi Matsuri in Kurama Japan. Seeing as it only happens once a year and is supposed to be a really big and really beautiful festival, I finally decided to go. Since it is a fire festival, I had all day to decide since the fires aren't lit until dark anyway. So at 6:00, I boarded a train to take me to Kurama.

Well, actually the train doesn't go directly to Kurama. It goes to Demachiyanagi (henceforth called Demachi), which is in Kyoto. From there you have to switch from the Keihan line to the Eizan Line and take the train all the way to the other end of the line--Kurama. But, at Demachi, there is an absolutely wonderful little ramen shop where I can get what essentially translates into a Chinese steamed vegetables and meat donburi (rice bowl). It is absolutely wonderfully delicious. So, we stopped there to eat before we switched train lines.

Kurama is thirty minutes up the mountain by train and is a lovely little town (we're talking a town the size if Cass, Arkansas on a normal day) that once a year has a festival that makes it into a town the size of Conway, Arkansas for one night. The festival is a harvest festival that is meant to welcome the kami home (because apparently the Kurama kami are migratory and only spend part of the year in Kurama. Who knows where they go during the summer). Kurama is a surprisingly tolerant town for Japan--international students and non-Japanese are regularly allowed to participate in the festival, including pulling the portable shrine. While I did not take part in this, I saw several familiar faces pulling the shrine from one end of town to the other. For Japan, this is exceedingly unusual because we live in a group society that doesn't generally like outside groups trying to do inside group things. Normally, a non-Japanese participant is frowned upon, but in Kurama, they were welcomed in droves. But, this is Japan, of course, so non-natives of Kurama were NOT allowed to play the big drums.

When we arrived in Kurama, the torches had just been lit and were led from the far edge of town up the hill to the shrine. These torches require at least three people to carry them and are often three times taller than the men who carry them. They are brought to the other end of town where the shrine is located and cast into the fire at the foot of the shrine. This fire is a very large bonfire that is wonderfully warm on a cold night. Most of the night I always managed to be at just the right place for a perfect camera shot; however, my camera's batteries died so I only have three pictures to show for it. I have several that I took with my phone's camera but I cannot get them from my phone to the computer yet.

Once the fire is built, the portable shrines are brought out of the temple by the townsfolk, carrying the ornate gold-plated and highly detailed box on their shoulders. Actually, there are two of these gold boxes. Only men from the town are allowed to carry the boxes on their shoulders, but once the boxes have been moved from people's shoulders onto rolling carts, one cart is generally pulled by men of the town and the other is pulled by women and gaijin. Crowds are allowed to see the fire and the temple while the two portable shrines are moved from shoulders to rolling carts.

The shrine itself is absolutely beautiful at night. I have decided that I must go back during the day too because only the path is lit at night. But, you can hear many streams and waterfalls nearby so I imagine that it is quite beautiful in the daylight too. You climb up about one and a half block's distance to get to the shrine entrance, and then up about two stories of stairs to get to the main part of the shrine. Along that flight of stairs is a very VERY large tree. I had heard in Shinto class that trees sometimes become kami (gods) but until you actually see such trees, it is difficult to understand why. But when you see this tree, you are so struck by it's sheer size and height that you are in awe and it's easy to see why someone might call it a kami. It is a simply amazing tree! And at this time, it was 11pm and I missed my chance to leave and catch the last train from Demachi to Makino station. So, I realized at the top of the shrine that I wasn't going home until morning. Oh well, the festival was supposed to last all night, or so we were told...

Back down out of shrine, the carts are finally prepared and pulled down the main street to the bottom of the town (this town is built on a mountain, remember?) where there is a wooden stage that has been built in preparation for the coming of the portable shrines. There is where the rest of the festival takes place, where the shrines are put side by side on the stage and where preists offer the first fruits of the harvest to the kami. There is dancing and squid is cooked around two fires for the kami. None of this food is eaten by anyone. After the large torches are burned on top of the two fires in front of the two portable shrines representing the two returning kami, the festival slowly begins to die down.

And continues to die until about an hour after we finally left. We were tricked into staying with rumors of more festivities but that proved wrong, so we decided to walk down the mountain. At 1:00 in the morning. So we walked down the mountain until 2:30, when we were at least halfway down the mountain and still no where near Demachiyanagi. About that time, all the taxies at Kurama who had not found jobs carting people down the mountain made their way down the mountain. One stopped for us and took us the rest of the way to Demachiyanagi. Split four ways, it cost me 550 for the ride.

So, we found ourselves in Demachiyanagi at about 3 in the morning, where we were forced to wait until 5 in the morning for the first train out. That train was a local train stopping at every station between Demachiyanagi and Makino. To keep ourselves awake, we talked to each other, and to keep ourselves warm, we circled the block. When the train finally arrived, I can't begin to tell you how relieved I was. Though there are a great deal of stops between Demachiyanagi and Makino, I remember stopping at sanjo, then nothing until I got to Yawata. I'm not sure what woke me up, but I was fortunately awake to be able to announce, "Makino!" when we got there. Fortunately, we were the only people on the car (at that early in the morning, the japanese can discriminate against cars with gaijin in it). But, of course, falling asleep on the train is a quite normal phenomenon too among Japanese so I wasn't offending anyone either.

I arrived home at 6am the next day, utterly exhausted. I neglected to go to my morning classes--instead I slept until noon and got up to go to a workshop that I had agreed to attend on Friday. More later, my friends, because this has been an incredibly busy week!

Miyajima, Japan and Midterms Week

Ruth went home shortly after the museum and eating dinner at a little italian cafe the size of my room, where I had the best damn pizza ever, and Heather and I stayed the night at Hiroshima Central Hotel. The room was very very tiny and we were certain we'd been put on the haunted floor but we survived the night and had a rather lovely breakfast the next day. From there, we went back to the station and took the train to the dock where we could take a ferry to Miyajima island, home of the famous torii (gate) in the ocean (one of Japan's top three must-see sights).

No one, and I repeat, no one prepared me for the fact that there were tame deer that were allowed to run free on the island. So, as we walked out of the station, I stopped mid-sentance in my conversation with Heather and just stared. And took pictures. Have I mentioned that I love deer? Especially tame ones?

Miyajima is absolutely beautiful. I could sit for hours on its sand near the shrine and just stare at the torii, the cranes, and all the little hermit crabs that hang out in the water. Not a beach to go barefoot in, but we did it anyway. It really made me miss the beach. I have decided to go to the beach next spring (it's too cold to do that now).

We went to the shrine (whose name I have forgotten) and the nearby buddhist temple, the Miyajima park, and hung around all day enjoying nature. We waited as long as we could for the tide to leave so we could walk out and get pictures of the torii. It was wonderful!

From there, we hurried back to ride the Shinkansen back to Shin-Osaka. We navigated back to Makino Station and then I went home. When I woke up on Monday, I felt so sick that I killed my alarm and neglected to go to school for the morning classes. I managed to get up for my 1pm class and by 5pm was dying because I felt so bad and so tired. So I went home and went directly to bed.

Tuesday was better (still felt miserable) because I managed to go to my morning classes. I had to--I had a midterm. In fact, I had a midterm every day this week except for Monday, all of which were in Japanese. When I was not at the university either having class or waiting for class, I was at home sleeping or studying.

So, when Friday came and went, and Ruth invited me to a party at Ages Cafe, of course I said yes. Her speaking partner (who works there) invited us for free food, conversation with japanese students, and cheap drinks. We thought from the word "cafe" that maybe there was coffee. Shows you how innocent we were. You can probably get alcohol with coffee IN it at Ages, but you're not drinking anything without liquor. Not that we were terribly disappointed--it's after midterms and Ages was small enough that it had a very warm atmosphere. It wasn't like going to a club, it was more like just hanging out with friends at a little diner that happens to have a bar. I really liked it because there weren't a whole lot of people there (we had plenty of room) and it was a fairly even mix of foreigners of Japanese. It's one of those little-known places in Hirakata so all the crazy gaijin haven't discovered it yet (thank god) and though there were drinks, most people weren't there to get drunk. The food was really good too and the manager invited us back for our birthdays for cheesecake! So, we're pretending my birthday is the 7th, not the 20th.

And now, because I have no plans this weekend, I came up to the university to use the computer lab. I'll probably see what Krissy or Heather are doing and see if maybe one of them wants to have dinner with me (because I can't just stay home--that would be too boring!)

Hiroshima, Japan

I woke up early Saturday morning to meet Heather at Makino Station. We road from there to Hirakata-shi Station where we met Ruth, Dr. Paul Scott, and an overwhelmingly large amount of non-japanese all going on the trip to Hiroshima. We took the train from Hirakata-shi to Yodoyabashi, then the subway to Shin-Osaka, and from Shin-Osaka we took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima Main Station. We arrived in Hiroshima at about 10:30am. Though there is a trolly/cable-car system in Hiroshima, Ruth, Heather, and I opted to walk the distance from the station to Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum (you see more and you don't have to pay the dollar fifty to ride the cable-car).

Hiroshima is a city built almost entirely after August 6, 1945. It looks nothing like any other part of Japan I have seen. Because it was built in the era of the car, all of its roads are much wider than those in Hirakata. Its buildings are designed to look relatively modern. There were almost no structures designed to look older than 1945. Hiroshima is a city of tall buildings, modern architecture, and short trees (almost all the plants in Hiroshima are post-1945 too, of course). You could tell what structures survived the bomb simply based on how they looked. The only structures that I saw that were reminents of pre-bombing Hiroshima were two bridges and Hiroshima Preficturial Industrial Promotional Building (which is not in use). Also dotting the landscape are several memorials to family businesses (which have since been re-built) and the bombing in general. These little memorials may be a small koi pond or just a plaque.

Within thirty minutes, we arrived at Hiroshima Peace Park. The most striking memorial in the park is the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotional Building (in Japanese, the longer the phrase, the more honor it receives). This building is only 600 meters from the hypocenter and has been repaired just enough so that it can stand on its own. It survived the blast because it was made of steel-reinforced concrete, but "survived" only means that most of the walls didn't fall down.

The park is filled with several other memorials too. The next one we saw was the Children's Memorial, for all the children who suffered from the after-effects of the bomb. It was built originally for Sadako, a girl who was the star of the track team until she suddenly was diagnosed with luekemia. She folded over 1000 paper cranes in the hope that her wish of getting well would come true, but it never did. The Childrens Memorial has one small monument with a metal sculpture of a child holding a large paper crane. Behind the sculpture is a showcase for thousands of paper cranes that are continually donated by groups around the area. These are housed in glass boxes so that the rain doesn't harm them.

Across from the Children's Memorial is the Torch of Peace, which sits on a pedistal in the middle of a very large and very shallow tiled fountain. Until all nuclear arms are disabled, the torch will continue to burn. While this is an honorable wish, this means that the torch will probably never go out.

Also on the grounds are several other Peace monuments (one of which was the lantern of peace, which I think was a bit of a stretch). There is the Peace Mound which is said to be over the largest cremation site. After the bomb, it was almost impossible to identify the bodies usually and so many people died that rarely was there anyone to claim the bodies either. So, they were given mass cremation (in Japan, the average citizen is always cremated).

Further away from the museum than even the mound is the Korean Memorial, a small monument set up in memory of the Koreans that died in the bombing. Originally, this memorial wasn't even part of the park. The Koreans that died during the bombing weren't even in Hiroshima out of their own free will--they had been taken from Korea as forced laborers earlier during the war. To me, this monument seemed rather pushed to the side and forgotten.

There are also sites in the park where no monument exists and perhaps should. On the bridge over the river in the middle of the park, there is no monument to the American soldier, who, during the occupation, was mobbed and hung from the bridge, literally where I had been taking pictures. While I understand that the people of Hiroshima were angry (and had every right to be angry), the museum claimed to be giving a complete view of what happened. This lack of monument and the tiny Korean monument almost discredits their claim, along with a few other minor mistakes they made within the museum itself (Truman and Churchill did not meet to discuss whether the bomb should be dropped on Hiroshima or at all--Churchill was not aware of Truman's plans at the time. Stalin was aware that we had a new powerful bomb due to his spies in New Mexico, but what happened at Hiroshima surprised even him). Additionally, the museum downplays the fact that both sides were at war--it's not like we just randomly decided to bomb Hiroshima. Our reasons for choosing Hiroshima may have been wrong (it was virtually not attacked prior to the bomb so that the makers of the bomb could see the full effect it would have on the city, and the bomb was aimed not at any militery target, but at the center of the city) but the fact remains that we were at war and that makes neither side innocent. Plus, at the time, Pearl Harbor was still vivid in our memories and we sought revenge. Not the right course of action, but an understandable one.

As for the museum itself, I entered and went downstairs to hear our guest speaker talk first. She was in junior high school at the time of the bombing and she is incredibly brave because she frequently retells her story, meaning that she has to relive that day in her mind every time she speaks to a group of people. She was much further away from the hypocenter (which is why she survived), but she recalled that when they dropped the bomb, she thought they were aiming directly at her. Most survivors express the same thought--that the bomb was aimed at them. She was blown several feet away from where she had been standing and then was covered with dust and ash. When she woke up, she had several heavy burns all over her body and she could not find the three people she had been standing with. She did eventually find one of them and they went on a search for water. They found the river where people, seeking to ease the pain of their burns and their thirst, jumped into the river only to die. The river was already full of bodies. Our speaker, seeing that, decided not to jump in the water. On the way to the red cross hospital (one of the few buildings still standing after the blast), her friend told her to leave her. Her friend had died by the time she returned with water.

Even after the bomb, she suffered facial scars from the burns, was unable to have children, and never married. Like many bomb victims, she is constantly in and out of the hospital, being checked and treated for various cancers. The first time she saw an American after the bombing, she ran away. Later, her brother and his wife died, leaving three children that she raised as her own. She also became a Christian about 15 years after the event and has since found her peace.

After the speech, we were free to go where we wished. Ruth, Heather, and I went through the exhibits. The first three rooms are fairly straightforward, showing pictures of the city and the buildings. The first floor shows a model of the city before and immediately after the bomb. The entire city was completely decimated, leaving only three or four buildings still standing. The second floor explains some of the history leading up to the bomb--why Hiroshima was chosen (it had very little war damage), including that picture of Churchill and Truman "sealing the deal" with a handshake (which, like I said before, is incorrect). The third floor's first room talks entirely about the dynamics of the bomb itself, showing pictures of its tests in remote north america, and including a globe with marks for which countries have nuclear warheads and how many. When the warheads are disarmed, their numbers are removed. The US still has the largest number by far (russia is second, of course) but already half of our arsenal has been scratched through (meaning instead of leading the world by having four times as much as our largest competitor, we now only have twice as many).

The third floor second room is a mini-giftshop, filled mainly with books (most in Japanese) that are filled with memoirs of survivors so that (if you can read Kanji) you can read the thoughts of the survivors first-hand. Since I can't read kanji very well, there was very little of interest here for me. However, it does make me with that I knew more kanji.

The third floor third room is dedicated to artifacts and information about what an atomic bomb does to people and to material culture. This was the most difficult room to go through and it is powerful enough to make you cry. The first thing that you see once you enter through the hallway is a to-scale model of the bomb that was actually dropped on Hiroshima. It is surprisingly small--a little over a yard in length and maybe two feet in diameter. Near it is another model (larger scale) of the city immediately after the bombing. Next is a junior high school student's uniform, completely in rags. Also, there is a half-sized model of what it would be like to walk around in Hiroshima immediately after impact. You walk through rubble and fire, your body covered in burns, your clothing turned to rags, and your skin torn and dripping off your hands and arms. It is like a scene from a horror movie. Your skin just melts. Other exibits are of stones with shadows on them, found close to where the impact was. The people who died this way were completely vaporized in a flash. The flash turned the stone steps white but where the person was sitting is left the original color. There are no bones, no evidence a person was even there except for the hollow shadow. People in buildings either died from shattered glass flying at such speeds that they become imbedded in concrete, the collapsing roof tiles, or the fires that gutted the buildings still standing. Glass that is further away from the hypocenter doesn't shatter, but instead fuses together within the fires, telling us how hot the flames were. People's insides are suddenly outside their bodies, burns are everywhere, and cries for water are everywhere. Additionally, the bomb causes changes in the atmosphere, such as moisture which falls down as black rain. People were so thirsty that they drank even the black water.

Even those who survived the blast, fires, and black rain couldn't survive the acute affects of radiation. Those with their insides completely ruined died shortly. Radiation also causes the lining of your intestines to fall off, causing internal bleeding and a very slow and very painful death. Also, those who appeared unaffected would suddenly lose their hair, and have purple spots suddenly cover their entire bodies from bleeding under the skin. And even if you survive the acute affects, you live in constant fear that something will suddenly show up. Within many people, the bomb affected them through cancers that only showed up later in life. Sadako is the most well known of these people. So, the survivors who speak to audiences around Japan (of which there is a list of less then 30 still alive) live in constant fear that something will suddenly arrise and they will find themselves dying in a hospital.

The last exibit is of images that survivors drew. The most vivid to me was one of a child who went with his uncle to his uncle's house where his aunt had been. All they found was her skeleton, still standing.

I left the museum shortly after, where I finally broke down and cried.

Sleep Would Be Nice...

Okay, so I'm a little less freaked out by midterms. My japanese midterms got moved around (was announced this morning) so instead of being piled one on top of the other in one day, they are now spread out across a three day period. This is much better.

This weekend, however, is my trip to Hiroshima and there's no way I'm giving that up for something as silly as a midterm. I'll bring my papers with me so maybe I'll study (even if only on the Shinkansen). I'm going to enjoy my trip, but I'm also anxiously awaiting next thursday when I can (hopefully) go home early and crash and burn from all the work. Also, I woke up this morning with a minor itch in my throat and it hasn't gone away yet. Bad sign... Am drowning in it water in hopes it doesn't fester into some horrible illness... Like strep. That would really suck right now. Especially since I can't miss the midterms for anything (short of hospitalization) and I don't know where I would go to get the strep meds, or even how much such things cost in Japan. Let's just hope and pray it's a sore throat. Still going to ask my host mother if she can find me some cough drops or something to take with me to Hiroshima. I REFUSE to get sick!!!

Am considering falling asleep in the Student Lounge (ha, that can't happen, Richard's way too loud to allow that) just to try and kill this before it turns into a real cold. Can't go home b/c I have a class. Oh, and it's the class that's going to Hiroshima, so more reason not to miss it.

I'll tell you all about Hiroshima when I get back!

Visiting Kyobashi and Preparing for Hiroshima

This week is frightfully busy so please forgive me for lack of communications... I have midterms coming up and am already stressed... But anyway, here's what happened over my weekend.

Friday
I spent the day attending four classes and all were given almost completely in Japanese. Of course, Speaking and Reading classes were naturally in Japanese, but there was a guest speaker for two periods of Dynamics (I had to show up at 1 and at 4 that day) and he only spoke in Japanese. Though Dr. Scott translated, my head still hurt because I found myself doing my own translation as best I could. It was quite interesting because I knew so much more than I thought I did. However, my head REALLY hurt. Hence, I must work harder at my Japanese so my head doesn't hurt so bad when I have to think in Japanese for the entire day.

Saturday - Peace Osaka
My dynamics class went on a field trip to Peace Osaka (we're beginning our preparations for Hiroshima this week). I got up early (for me anyway) and road the train with Krissy to meet our group at Hirakata. We took the train to Kyobashi and then switched to the JR Loop Line and road to the second stop on the JR Loop (with a long name that starts with Mori and I can't remember the rest of it). There, we took a two minute walk down the street to Peace Osaka. The museum features only three exhibits (it was very small).

Exibit A is of what happened to Japan during the 15 year war (which, btw, is the Japanese name for the Pacific War of WWII because it was involved in fighting long before it attacked Pearl Harbor). Osaka was almost completely burned to the ground--so everything you see built today is relatively new. Osaka was chosen as a militery target because it was the base of many factories during the war. Exibit A also had several letters, diaries, and draft notices on display, as well as a to-scale firebomb model and a model of a house with a bomb shelter--which were completely ineffective against fire.

Exibit B is downstairs and mostly displays what Japan did during the war. Most of the exibit was on Japan's occupation of Korea. Nanking was there but if Dr. Scott hadn't instructed us to look for it, I never would have noticed it. It's in a corner and is difficult to find unless you're looking specifically for it. The museum also addressed Pearl Habor in a fairly large section, and had a small section on treatement of POWs (in the rare occasion that the Japanese took POWs). Next to Pearl Harbor is a section on Hiroshima that is of equal size and mostly filled with artifacts showing you what happens when an Atomic Bomb suddenly blows up in your city. In a lot of ways, these two incidents are interesting when viewed side-by-side. The only thing I didn't like about this exhibit was that on the other side of the Hiroshima Section was a small section on Auswitz. Draw your own conclusions, but to me, sticking Auswitz in an exibit about the Pacific War seems out of place and out of context. It seemed to be saying "yeah, we did all this, but the Germans did worse things." But, when you look at the photo of an allied POW and a Jewish concentration camp survivor, the only physical difference I could see was that one was wearing a dog tag and the other wasn't...

Exibit C was a special exibit that is changed approx every month. This month's exibit was split between a few different things. First, there was a few paintings of samurai, a small corner dedicated to Darfur, and a corner dedicated to the Iraq War. Interesting to see your own wars through another country's eyes.

A note about Peace Osaka. It was built by the Osaka City Government and is subject to controversy in Japan. Conservatives feel that the museum is too graphic and represents Japan beating itself over its past. Liberals feel the museum isn't graphic enough--it doesn't give you a really good picture of what exactly happened and only by seeing is Japan going to remember what happened. I think that (excepting the Auswitz section) the museum was just right--it's not so graphic that it's revolting and frightening, but it doesn't glaze over the painful parts either.

Saturday - Osaka Castle
After Peace Osaka, Dr. Scott let us go and told us that if we walked through the Osaka Castle grounds, we'd eventually find ourselves in Kyobashi and save ourselves 200 yen in train fare. So, of course, Krissy and I went and walked through the park. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the park is definately a good place to go. The grounds are fantastically beautiful and it takes a good hour just to walk through it (especially if you're like me and taking many pictures while you're at it).

Inside the main gate there was a peddler with a pet cockatoo that performed tricks for us (roll over and play dead was one of them). For 100 yen, we could watch the tricks, feed the bird some sunflower seeds, get our picture taken with the bird (with our own cameras), and buy a photo of the bird in various places around Osaka. That's a whole lot for 100 yen!

As for the castle itself, inside is a museum. I'm not sure who it's dedicated to (I think the Tokugawa shogunate judging by how many times his name showed up, but I can't say for sure). The view at the top is beautiful, but the museum is frightfully dull and such a let down. It has only a very few artifacts (one floor out of 5) an the rest of the museum is dedicated to videos you watch describing acts of samurai (in the most boring of possible ways to describe it) and has almost no visual interest (no models of what the castle grounds looked like before it was reconstructed, no models of what the inside of the castle looked like... sigh). So I recommend you go to Osaka Castle if you're ever in the area, but don't spend the 600 yen to go to the museum inside.

There is another museum of some sort on the castle grounds--I think it is a history museum--but by the time we finished Osaka Castle, we were museumed out and ready to find somewhere to eat. Fortunately, Dr. Scott had mentioned that in Kyobashi near the Crystal Tower there is a Subway and a Wendy's. Though we never found the Wendy's (another adventure for another day, I guess), we did find the Subway. And it was absolutely wonderful. Krissy and I were so happy after finding it.

I returned home around 6 pm, at dinner around 7, and went to bed around 8 because I was exhausted.

Sunday
Not much happened on Sunday except that my purse broke (it's about time--I've had it for five years) so I was forced to go buy a new one. So I went and spent the day at Kuzuha (it's only 15 minutes by bike) and finally found a purse that I liked. It's rather nice and it wasn't on sale so I spent more than I would have spent in US but purses here are expensive even on sale. And besides, this purse will last me at least another 5 years (if not 10) so I'm happy. Spent the rest of the day studying as best I could.

Monday
Monday was Health and Sports Day, so there was no class. Aki-chan celebrated by going to her volleyball club, my host father celebrated by spending some quality time with his bicycle, and Yoshi-chan and my host mother cleaned the house. I slept in and then cleaned my room after going out for lunch with my host mother and Aki. We ate at this place called Tomato and Onion, where I ate what I can only describe as a Japanified hamburger. It was the meat, some mushrooms, and mayonaise, and that's all. And fries on the side. It was delicious but it was definately not a real hamburger! Aki asked if it was like hamburgers in America so of course I said no but that it was good. She was surprised to find out that hamburgers come with bread, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, ketchup, and mayonaise, and sometimes pickles, relish, and everything else too. She said Makudo? (which means good old Mickey D's) and I said sorta only a whole lot better.

After dinner and cleaning my room, I discovered how to get to Makino from my house, hopped on a train to Kyobashi, switched to JR Loop Line and ended up in Imamiya, where I met with Justin and watched rented episodes of TV shows from the US. In english, with Japanese subtitles. Because we had nothing else better to do. I never thought I would say this, but three day weekends are overrated because there isn't enough time to go anywhere special and by the third day you get really bored out of your mind. The tv show is called Supernatural and is like crossing Ghost Busters with Butch and Sundance, and then trying to make this combination as suspenseful as Silence of the Lambs (and being rather unsuccessful), but being a stereotypical ghost hunter flick at the same time. The show was good entertainment because we sat there predicting what would happen next and making fun of it. It was good though because every once in a while it would throw in a plot twist you weren't expecting. I'm no where near hooked though...

Ate at a restaurant in Kyobashi on the way home where I had Japanified italian food, which, surprisingly, was absolutely fantastic. As in "must remember where this restaurant is" good. Oh and strawberry shortcake which was entirely too much sugar but oh so good.

And Currently...
And now I'm sitting in the computer lab catching up on my notes of the weekend. I have lots to do this week and next week--I have midterms next week and no chance to study this weekend because I'm going to Hiroshima, so my studying has to take place this week. Great. I also changed the information bar to the right--hope you enjoy it.

Life is stressful and busy and will remain so until midterms are over. Hope I make it to the weekend...

Okonomiyaki and Shopping

I'm very tired this week because I have an insane amount of work to do. So, like the procrastinator that I am, I am instead updating this blog and not working on my field project...

This weekend I--completely randomly--decided to go and learn how to make Okonomiyaki. It, Gyouza, and Tempura are the three things in Japan I absolutely MUST master cooking before I return to the states because I loves them dearly. So, Saturday I joined a group that was teaching international students to make okonomiyaki. Oh it was heavenly.

Afterwards, Krissy and I went to get the back tire on her bike fixed (it had a flat) and then ate at Bikkuri ramen, a little restaurant near campus that serves absolutely delicious gyouza and ramen for a very inexpensive price. Afterwards, we road to Kuzuha where we went shopping and I bought a box to put all my new hair clips and pins in. (I loves my new box, it's made of bamboo and all prettiful) On the way home, it poured and I still have not mastered the truly Japanese art of holding an umbrella and riding a bike at the same time (I'm getting better though). So, I got completely soaked.

Sunday was spent catching up on homework (of which I have a lot still to do but am neglecting by writing to you, oh dear family and friends). I'm not sure where my host family went (they are rarely at home) but they all left so I had the house all to myself. I quite enjoyed the quiet and solitude while studying.

Monday and today were spent doing classwork. I'm actually sort of half-heartedly working on my anth homework which is due thursday and is actually rather fun (if you call preparing a proposal for a research project that will eventually be incorporated into your honors thesis "fun")

I need to go to an electronics store (supposidly there is one near top world) so that I can buy better headphones. I didn't bring my good ones from home so I needs to buy a freaking fantastic pair. I doubt they'll be as expensive since my nice pair is sony brand and, incase you haven't noticed, Sony is indeed Japanese.

I also found out what happened to the Sony building in Shinsaibashi--they were going to tear it down! Well, sorta--in Japan you don't tear the building down if the new owner can turn the old building into a workable space for the new building.

I also watched a show with my host family called (in english) That's a Dramatic Change. It was about this 30 year old house they gutted, repaired, and redesigned into something new. I got a lot of neat architectural ideas from it. The house is on a super small lot so everything was space-saver crazy and just amazing. tables that stack so you can have double the table space when you have guests, under-the-floor storage so you can put pillows (for kneeling at the table) away when not in use, a fold-out coat rack for guests, storage under stairs, and just about everything else you can think of. It was amazing. I really enjoyed it because half the time I saw the problem before the show pointed them out--sometimes it's nice to have a dad who is a structural engineer. The house before remodel was an utter nightmare, but after it was simply beautiful.

I have no more thoughts for the day because if I do not begin my homework, I'll be up all night. And we don't particularly want that....

September Information By Request

For those of you who do not have facebook and would like to see my photos, please check here
for Japan photos. The album I have linked here is empty, but has sub albums sorted by what month the photos were taken (most of those photos should be in order of date too). Choose a month to view. I will update on the last day of each month with that month's pictures. Hence, the September photo album is rather small at the moment, but check back on October 1st.

For those of you interested in news in Japan, please check out Japan Today's website by clicking here. If you are interested in a second opinion about Japanese news (it's always better to read two newspapers), please view the Japan Times website (the oldest newspaper in Japan) by clicking here. Both sites are in English and Japanese. The lastest news of interest is that Fukuda was announced new Prime Minister. His regime is not expected to last more than a year, according to native academia.

For the person interested in how much a Kimono costs in Japan, the cheapest one I've found is 7300 yen and was pretty ratty. Most new Kimono are 30,000 yen and up, depending on the quality.

For the person interested in Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable (PSP) prices in Japan, a DS costs approximately 19,200 yen and a new PSP costs about the same. However, you can buy "recycled" PSP (which is basically a used PSP that works just as well as a brand new one and shows no damage) costs about 13,000 yen. DS games cost between 2500 yen and 4000 yen while PSP games cost between 2500 yen and 3500 yen.

For the person interested in Harley Davidson prices in Japan, I found a bike shop near Kansai Gaidai that sells used bicycles, motorcycles and... indeed, Harleys, but the store was closed when I went so I couldn't ask how much the Harley was worth (in Japan sometimes shops don't put the price of the item where you can immediately see it). I will investigate this further.

If anyone would like to know any random information about Japan, please request by emailing me at this address or leaving a comment on this blog with your request. I will do my best to research your request while I am here and let you know!

Military Time - Oh How I Loathe You...

Allow me to clarify quickly: Every clock in Japan EXCEPT for analogue watches (of which there are very few) displays military time ONLY. And having grown up used to reading a 12 hour clock, looking at a 24 hour clock just throws me off. It takes me forever to read what time it is because I'm sitting there going "What's this 22:48 I see?" It's a constant frustration that I can't even read the clock on my new cell phone without having to think, "okay, what's this minus 12?" Thus, I heart my watches because they tell me what time it really is without me having to think too much.

Anyway, on to why I haven't written in a very long time... Please forgive me on the weekends--right now I am currently unable to type a long post on the weekends because if I do, I will be typing on my host family's computer, meaning I'm hogging their family computer, and typing anything takes twice as long because a) it's a Japanese keyboard and NOTHING is where it's supposed to be, and b) it's a really old computer so the spacebar is sticky and I have to mash it two or three times to get it to insert a space. I am investigating the possibility of going to a Media Cafe (I hear there's a new one in Hirakata), but until I get this all figured out, gomen nasai for not being able to write much on the weekends.

Just to clarify, a Media Cafe is different from an Internet Cafe in that a Media cafe is a little nicer, cheaper, and doesn't just give you an internet connection but allows you to rent all forms of media. Most have a huge comic book archive for you to read (sometimes they're called Manga Cafe's for this reason). Based on the description I was given, I would not be surprised if such Cafe's also rented CDs and DVDs. If not, I'm sure there's a Tsutaya (a very big CD and DVD rental chain in Japan) nearby.

Allow me to sum up the past few days. I have been exceedingly busy, so this shall be a long post. Grab a cup of coffee and sit in your favorite comfy chair, you know, the one with the leg rest...

Saturday
I woke up at about 10 in the morning so I'd arrive in Shinsaibashi by a decent hour. On the subway, Shinsaibashi is the stop just before Namba. My Dynamics teacher (whom I adore) had mentioned that there was a Sony building right by the station where you could play with applied science--i.e. new technology not out in the store yet--for absolutely free. So, the plan was to find this "tall, silver building that you can't miss" and play with the new technology for a day. However, when we arrived to Shinsaibashi, we couldn't find the building. When we finally asked, the girl who responded to us said, in English, "It's broken," and then told us where to find it. The building itself is covered in lovely white cardboard so we couldn't see the construction going on inside. We weren't allowed inside. So, from what we could see, the Sony building in Shinsaibashi was either under repairs/remodel, or it may even have been sold and was being turned into an office building. So, a little dishearten, we decided to make the trip worthwhile and explore Shinsaibashi.

Shinsaibashi has a street that is completely covered and has many many stores on either side. Some stores of note are the Hello Kitty Store (three stories filled with an overdose of cuteness), the Disney Store (that changed its entire outdoor framework to reflect Halloween), and the Engrish t-shirt store. There were also several clothing stores, a few "hippy stores" (as we called them; think romancing the stone, darkstar visuals, and passages combined into one place; I love these stores!), and even a military shop. I wish I had gotten photos of the military shop because it was fascinating from an anthropological perspective. This shop sold everything you associate with the military (excluding weapons, real and fake, because most Japanese don't own guns apparently) but there were only two military groups represented at this store, and neither of these were Japanese. The two military groups (very accurate models of their uniforms were in the windows) were the American modern soldier, and... guess what... 1940s Germany???? Complete with Nazi arm band and fake Hitler mustache.

We spent the day mostly in Shinsaibashi, but we actually walked from Shinsaibashi station all the way to Namba station and back, plus a few detours on the side. It took us all day. In Shinsaibashi, I had Subway for lunch (we found a subway shop in Japan!) where I had roast beef on sesame bread (I loves sesame bread!!!).

By the end of the evening, we'd been everywhere we wanted to go in Shinsaibashi but weren't yet tired and didn't feel like eating at Subway again, so we hopped on the subway and took it to Umeda, which is one step backwards from Yodoyabashi (Shinsaibashi is two steps forward; Yodoyabashi is the station where you can get to the subway from the Keihan train line that runs through Hirakata). In Umeda, we had a wonderful curry dinner where we got a 100yen discount for being foreigners (that's a major reason we chose said restaurant; sometimes it's good to be a foreigner), and for dinner we went one floor down to visit the sweets museum. Then, Heather and I followed Tony and Kyle around while trying this place Kyle wanted to go to--well, we never found it. So, we went back to Yodoyabashi, caught the last train to Hirakata, the last bus to Seminar House 4, and then Amanda road her bike up to Makino where she lives. The ride home is almost all downhill and I haven't had anyone even try to keep up with me yet--not even cars can keep up with me when I go down that hill! Which means, I'm on a bike going over 30 kmph, which makes my heart smile.

Sunday - Monday
On Sunday I went through the stressful process of buying a phone at Kuzuha Mall (and went shopping there whilst I was at it--I figure if I've got two hours of free parking, I'm going to spend 2 hours at Kuzuha!). The process of buying the phone was bad because at first the guy to whom I was speaking could not understand me at all. Buying a phone has specialized vocabulary and I was standing there wishing my host mother would have at least offered to come with me. Lucky for me, another employee came in and she spoke English so I was able to get a phone. I bought the cheapest plan I could get. I get 100 min per month, approximately 150 emails (Japanese phones have full blown email instead of text messages), and a free phone for signing up for a 3000yen a month plan (approx 30$). Oh, and cancellation fee (this was important to me since if I get a plan, I'll have to cancel it when I leave Japan in May) is also 3000 yen. AND calling AU phone to AU phone is 50% off (AU is not quite cingular/att&t). And the free phone is a pretty snazzy phone too. I mean, it's not an iphone, but it's so much better than my crappy little phone I had in US. On Sunday, I also went exploring while it was still a decent day and arrived home just in time to take cover from the rain. I napped during the rain.

Monday was Autumnal Equinox Day, meaning I had no class so I spent the day catching up on sleep and homework. I also watched a TV show with my host family called Doors. Apparently it is a game show that is run once every year. Contestants are faced with several challenges, in which contestants are eliminated based on how they do. One challenge was to drive a bike across a 250km long, approx 1 foot wide floating platform. If you fall in, you fail, however, if you lose the bike but you yourself don't fall in the water, you can run across to get half the points. Another challenge was a memory game. You see a series of 8 colors and you have to recall them in order. If you do not recall them in order, a bungee throws you up in the air and you hang there and wait for them to make fun of you and then let you down. The last challenge was to drop a metal ball into a basket with a hole the width of a CD, only you must do said task from the top of a cliff that's at least 5 stories tall. I really enjoyed it.

Tuesday
Tuesday was spent freaking out over the amount of assignments I have this week. I just need to make it through Friday... Tuesday afternoon, after attending the absolutely wonderful class of Dynamics, I purchased my discounted ticket to Hiroshima. I will be going to Hiroshima on October 13 (Whee!!!) and will probably spend the night there (which reminds me, I should probably check out studentuniverse for a cheap hotel). I have decided that instead of riding the bus home, I will spend the extra 30$ and buy a shinkansen ticket back home too so that I spend 1hour 30 min in traveling instead of 8 hours of traveling via bus. 30$ is worth my sanity. And if I do nothing else while I'm here this semester, I absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, MUST go to Hiroshima while I am in Japan. Now that I bought the ticket, I can officially say that I am going to Hiroshima.

Today
Today has been exhausting (this whole week has been such and I've only spent two days in class!). I have so much work due tomorrow and Friday. H2P has been replaced by Japanese as the class that eats away my life. Just incase you didn't know, I have two Japanese classes. Spoken Japanese meets five days a week while Written Japanese meets three days a week, and both classes demand all my time and energy. Obviously, my writing and speaking is getting so much better, but at the same time, I always have a headache because I've been thinking so hard. For instance, I just spent 30 min recording three dialogues. The actual recording took less than two minutes. However, I'm always encouraged because I can understand most of what's being said to me now. For instance, yesterday I acted as translator for Heather (who is in the beginning level of Japanese) so she could buy a bike, and did so rather successfully (she bought the bike with no troubles). In any restaurant, I am able to order my own food and understand what they say to me. And it thrills me to no end when I see a sign written in Kanji and I can read its entirety...

Hope you have enjoyed this entry and thank you to everyone who commented here and emailed me and made sure I knew you were reading. I heart you guys, you make me feel very loved!

Two Long Weekends in a Row

I have very little time, so this will be done as quickly as possible. This week has been outstandingly busy (and continues to be so) so I'm sorry for the lack of updates.

Saturday, September 15
I woke up rather late and spent the day navigating the train and subway systems of Japan. I went to Umeda, where there is a five-story electronics mall and bought a card-reader for my camera so that I can now transfer photos onto the computer. Photos of Fushimi-Inari shrine are on Facebook--if you do not have Facebook, be patient with me while I attempt to find time to put them on photobucket for you to see.

Sunday, September 16
I went to the Eisaa festival in Osaka. I was rather disappointed in the festival itself (it was great for 5 minutes and then got incredibly repetitive). So, after about an hour in the sand pit on a hot day, several of us (myself included) decided we would leave said festival and go shopping. We found a shop that sells Playstation Portables (PSPs) for 16000 yen (approx 160$, which is a fantastically good price). I intend to research the PSP (can I play US dvds and games on the Japanese system, do I have to have a converter, and if so, how much does it cost...) and then reassess my finances and decide if it is possible to buy myself said item. I REALLY wants one because it plays dvds, cds, and mp3s, but I MUST research it some more to decide if it is worth the money. Also went shopping again in Umeda, this time at a 7 story mall, where I bought nothing (it was all so expensive!).

Monday, September 17
Respect for the aged day. I slept in until 1:00pm because I was so tired from walking all day Saturday and Sunday. Then I spent the rest of the day catching up on homework.

Tuesday, September 18 - Thursday, September 20
Classes and tests. Kanji test, vocab test, and still tired from the weekend so I've been exhausted. Today is my short day so I intend to hang out with Heather for 15 minutes after class and then go home and go to bed.

Friday, September 21 - Monday, September 24
Another three day weekend. My Dynamics class is cancelled tomorrow (I'm actually really disappointed!) so I'm going to Osaka with Heather. Saturday, we have decided that we are going to go to Osaka again to find the Sony building. The trip is between 400 and 600 yen (depending on which station you come from) and once you get there, I hear that you can ride the elevator to the top and explore the top floors for free. The top floors, by the way, are filled with electronics that Sony hasn't even put out on the market yet. You can play around with said objects, but I don't know if you can take pictures (probably not). For under 10 dollars round trip, that's not a bad deal at all!

Saturday, October 13
Okay, this is what has had me so busy all week--on this day, my Dynamics class is going on a fieldtrip to Hiroshima. I REALLY want to go because there's so much must-see places and must-do things in Hiroshima. First off, one of the top three sights in Japan (the torii in the middle of the lake) is there, plus we're going to hear a atomic bomb survivor speak about her experiences (once in a lifetime opportunity here) and of course exploring Hiroshima afterwards. Due to the timing, I will be spending the night in Hiroshima, and I have to take the shinkansen (bullet train) to get there. So, this week has been filled with paperwork, calculations, and making sure I can afford to go. This is one of those "I will give up going to tokyo if it means I can go to hiroshima" descisions, I think. Maybe not. We'll see. But no matter what, if I can go and still afford to live here in Japan, I am GOING to Hiroshima.

Rain, Rain, Go Away. Come Again Some Other day...

It's threatening to rain again today, which would be just fine except between 5 and 6 pm. I have to ride home in the rain and though I have an umbrella, ella, ella, I haven't quite mastered the ability to ride a bike and hold an umbrella at the same time. This appears to be a common ability in Japan, but I can't even direct a bike with only one hand yet. Not to worry, though, I am practicing my mad bike-riding skillz... So by next semester I might be practiced enough (and brave enough) to use this special talent.

Yesterday I went shopping at the hyaku-en store at Kuzuha mall and bought for myself two desk organizers, two cute letter sets, and a hairbrush for essentially 6.30$. I love hyaku-en stores--I always check there first whenever I need something. Unlike US dollar stores, you can usually find just about anything at a hyaku-en store, and of fairly good quality too. The only thing I've bought at a hyaku-en store that I haven't been happy with is an umbrella (it's too small and it leaks so I use instead a bigger and better one that I got for free...) I enjoyed my shopping trip. I saw many stationary with engrish written all over it. One set is covered with sentences that supposedly have to do with fashion, but when you actually read them, the english makes absolutely no sense. I tried to read the Engrish with a Japanese eye (sometimes if you do that, the Engrish makes sense), but in this case there was just no way to make the words make sense except that they sounded sorta pretty together (albeit sorta disturbing too)... The sets that I got are of Charmmy Kitty (I'm guessing from the looks of her that she's Hello Kitty's younger sister?) and of a pattern with a little bit of Engrish on it: "Textile Collection. The colors that make the colors of a grown woman." I bought both because I think they're prettyful :) I have, however, been inspired to create a Engrish collection of photos. Assuming I can find a card reader to transfer the photos to the computer. I'm slowly running out of room on my card, and I have the Eisaa festival on Sunday so...

For dinner last night I had very mild Shrimp Chili (my host sister Yoshi, thankfully, prefers things super mild like I do so I didn't have to worry about anything super spicy. Yes, I'm aware that I am a weakling). I went to bed shortly after because I've been really tired all the time. I study too much; that's what I'm blaming my fatigue on. Seriously, I spend at least two hours on studying and homework every day, as compared to two hours a week at the most on studying and homework back in the United States. My brain is overloaded and tired.

At breakfast today, my host mother and I discussed politics. In case you don't know, Prime Minister Abe resigned. I asked what happens when a Prime Minister resigns in Japan, and she said that usually the party's representatives will elect a new Prime Minister from within their party, but that this time things will be different (according to her, the current public opinion of Prime Minister Abe is so low that a complete new election may be necessary). Just so you'll get a perspective on this... Prime Minister Abe was elected with significant support, went through three Agricultural Ministers in the past year, and also has several other Ministers that the general public dislikes. Therefore, he got to spend only a year in office before his situation forced him to resign.

Things are about to get really interesting (to me anyway). With Prime Minister Abe gone, I can watch how the Japanese government deals with such a happening. Plus, I can compare this situation to what I know of the United States and impeachment (or at least, resignation before being kicked out; I'm thinking Nixon here, who also when he was elected had a high support among the population...) Comparative Politics, and I get to experience it by being there! And, of course, it helps that at home we have a bi-lingual news channel (so I can understand what's being said) and I'm taking this class called the Dynamics of Modern Japan, which of course will definitely discuss what's going on since it deals with politics and history... I think I'm going to have to start reading the newspaper. More details when I have them.

I also had the very encouraging experience today of reading a passage in Japanese and not once having an english translation cross in my head. Meaning, that I was thinking and understanding what I read entirely in Japanese. This means (to me) that I'm making progress in becoming a competent speaker. For the past few weeks, I'd been a little discouraged because I could remember so few words (well, the words are coming back now), and my Japanese is slow and broken. But, to be able to read a passage in Japanese and comprehend it in Japanese... I'm really thrilled and it was just the encouragement I needed.

This weekend is a three-day weekend because Monday is Respect for the Aged day, so I intend to spend Saturday catching up on homework and buying a cord for my camera so that I can transfer pictures, and Sunday at the Eisaa festival in Osaka, where I will fill up my camera memory card yet again, I'm sure. If I'm lucky, I may even be able to get the battery door on my camera fixed since Nikon is a Japanese brand...

Miss everyone!

Just Another Day in the Adventure

I visited Soft Bank yesterday and I was... sorta victorious. The Soft Bank shop near the 99yen shop does indeed sell prepaid cell phones to foreign students (yay!) but due to the fact that there are so many of us all looking for phones, they were sold out when I visited. I will visit again Friday to see if they have any more in.

Last night I had Chinese so nothing really new to relay about the meals I have been eating.

This weekend:
This weekend is a three day weekend since Monday is "Respect for the Aged Day," which means that I can procrastinate on my homework until Monday (hee hee). Though my plans for this weekend are very vague, one thing is for sure. I will be going with my Anthropology class to see the Eisa festival.

For those of you (like me) have never heard of the Eisa festival until now, here's a little background information. After the war, America held juristidiction over Japan until they wrote Japan a new constitution (which is currently a subject of debate within Japan, but that's another story). However, the Americans held onto the island Okinawa for a significantly longer amount of time than they did the rest of the islands. After the Americans left, Okinawa experienced a diaspera that resulted in a large group of Okinawans settling in the Kansai area (Osaka-Kyoto). Because of this diaspera, every year, the Okinawans in the Kansai area hold a festival that acts as an ethnic assertion festival. This festival is huge, and features ethnic dances as well as Japanified rock and roll (the result of the longer period of American occupation in Okinawa).

I think this will be very enjoyable, and on top of everything, we are encouraged to take pictures. So, saturday I will go on a quest for batteries for my camera and hopefully will have enough space on my card to capture the event. Then, having a card reader will become my top priority.