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....