fall broken

So my fall break trip to Kyuushuu was a mild disaster. It was fun, parts of it, but other parts were by turns stressful, uncomfortable, awkward.... I was led to believe that it was well planned and organized. Had I known beforehand that the trip leaders had in fact no idea what they were doing, I would not have gone. Anyway, I went, and saw some cool things, and spent entirely too much money, bonded a lot with Lindsay, and felt incredibly homesick. One question that came up was, what was I homesick for? Kyoto? Bay area? Walla Walla? Not Los Angeles, but I thought a lot about people in Los Angeles (as I always do). And on this note, in homage to The Flying Squirrel and to plagiarize my brother, here are the top 10 moments of my Kyuushuu trip. 

10. Spectacles Bridge, Sunday afternoon

Japan has some weird tourist sites. This is the oldest arched bridge in Japan, or something like that. It's in Nagasaki. I thought it was just a regular bridge, but I guess saying something is special makes it special, even if it's ordinary. 

9. Site of the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan

6 Christian Missionaries and 20 Japanese Christians were killed on this spot in Nagasaki. On Saturday night, we walked there after just arriving in Nagasaki. It was a really nice night out, and the hill had a pretty view of the harbor. 

8. Urakami Cathedral

Just after going to the Nagasaki Peace Park, we went to the Urakami Cathedral. It was the oldest church in Japan until it was destroyed in the a-bomb. I sat alone inside for a little bit and thought about the old churches I visited in Europe, the bomb, and religion. The church had really pretty stained glass windows. 

7. Nagasaki Peace Park, Sunday morning

The one in Hiroshima was definitely more powerful, but this one was really interesting. It had a lot of statues symbolizing peace. This is the big, famous one; the right arm points to the threat of nuclear weapons and the left arm signifies a peaceful future (?). Fun fact: my host mom's best friend's uncle designed it! 

6. Karaoke in Kagoshima, Monday and Tuesday nights

By the time we got to Kagoshima, after being in Fukuoka and then Nagasaki, we were fed up and exhausted. Lindsay's all-purpose solution: Karaoke! This was actually only the second (and third) times I have been to karaoke in Japan, and as a result of this trip I am going to start going more, it's definitely a great way to spend some time and relieve some stress. 

5. Dinosaur Park

On Tuesday, we took a ferry from Kagoshima across the bay to Sakurajima. This was our first stop. Why there are giant dinosaurs is beyond me. But it was some more grass we got to lie on. 

4. Arriving at the hotel in Kagoshima

We arrived in Kagoshima around 2 on Monday but didn't leave the station until 345 or so. This was the moment when our trip really fell apart. Earlier that morning I had decided I wanted to come home early, and dealing with ticket stuff and planning for the remainder of the week was really stressful and annoying. Lindsay and I could only laugh when we saw our tiny hotel room. 

3. Furusato Onsen

The main reason we went to Sakurajima was to go to this onsen (bath house). It was absolutely beautiful, probably the most amazing onsen I will ever go to. There is this giant, old, crazy tree next to a shrine. Sitting in the hot water underneath the tree's roots was like being in a mermaid's grotto. The bath is pretty much on the ocean, so it looks like the water in the bath extends out into the ocean. When I got too hot, I cooled off in the cold ocean water before getting back into the hot water. We timed our arrival really well with sunset, and the view was so breathtaking. 

2. Sangen'en, Tuesday morning

This was a famous villa back in the day, with an amazing garden. When I entered the garden I realized that this was why I had gone all the way to Kyuushuu. Back in the day, poets would sit along the banks of the stream. Cups of sake on boards of wood would float down the stream towards them, and they would have to write a poem before the sake reached them. Upon finishing the poem they would drink the sake. 

1. Returning to Kyoto

There's no place like home. As a result of this trip, I am sort of disillusioned by travel. Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and Kagoshima were all nice cities, but more and more I understand that cities are more or less all sort of the same, and not necessarily worth traveling to. I am glad that the next trip I take will be with my mom (there's that homesick thing again). 

* * *

In other news, today is Thursday, making it Thanksgiving. I spent all day today decompressing from my trip. I cooked my own breakfast, read, watched some movies, colored, took a little nap... I am very thankful for being able to be in Japan, I am very thankful for my host parents, I am very thankful that there are people far away in other parts of the world who are maybe reading these words and thinking about me, and I am thankful that I am able to think about them. 

blah

So I suddenly became really busy the last two weeks. I had two tea ceremony classes and two Taiko practices, and last weekend I had events all three nights of the weekend, which I really didn't like. Friday was the AKP Thanksgiving party, which was way more fun than I thought it was going to be. It was great seeing everyone's host families and afterwards a couple friends and I wanted to see a movie but ended up at the river instead. Saturday Richard and I finally hiked Atago-san and Saturday night I went to my host mom's friends' going away party. Sunday I was too hung over to do anything and then went to a dinner party with my host dad and his golf friends. Which was actually sort of funny, the food was great, but it was three hours long and all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole. 

And tomorrow I am going to Kyuushuu (a different island) for fall break with Becca, Eric, and Lindsay. I am really excited. I really need a break from my host family and from classes. I am most excited to go to Nagasaki and to Yakushima. Nagasaki, to see how their portrayal of the a-bomb is both different and similar to Hiroshima; Yakushima, because it is probably more rural than Walla Walla (!) (it is a smaller island off of the small island of Kyuushuu, which is a small island off of Honshu, the main island of Japan, which is just a series of islands). 

When it is Thanksgiving in California I will be in the Kumamoto/Aso-san area of Kyuushuu, so I wish anyone reading this a lovely and filling meal! 

authentic Japan?

On Saturday morning, I went to an international event at South Uji Junior High School. My host mom asked me weeks ago if I would give a speech and presentation, and of course I said yes, but did not work on it at all until maybe two weeks beforehand. My speech was about the bay area and California, middle school life in America, and what middle school students do on summer and winter breaks. I had an accompanying powerpoint as well. The presentation had to be 20 minutes, to be performed three times to three different groups of 5 or 6 students. My speech ended up being only about 15 minutes but that left 5 minutes for questions, which turned out to be a really good idea. 

So on Saturday morning, I went with my host parents to the school, where I and the 17 other international presenters met and prepared. The whole process was really funny and interesting. Just before 10, I went into my assigned classroom with 2 other presenters, and did my presentation. The first group was pretty interested, but one girl was sort of disruptive. The second group was really interested. The third group wasn't interested at all, but listened very quietly. All three groups asked me what sports I liked. Only the last group asked me about my piercings and my curly hair. 

On Sunday, I went with my host dad to the Uji Stamp Rally. This event is sort of hard to explain, but was probably one of the most fun things I have done in the past 2 months. Basically, we spent four and a half hours walking 14km around Uji, going to all the cultural/historical/famous spots. There is a short course that only takes an hour and a half, but we did the long course. The short course has 10 points, and the long course has 22. At each point, we received a stamp on this giant piece of paper that also had a map of the courses. 

I feel like that wasn't a very good description of the event, but thats pretty much exactly what it was. Uji does the Stamp Rally for three weekends every autumn, and while we were walking I couldn't help thinking that it was probably the most "authentically Japanese" thing I will do this year. I saw maybe three other foreigners all day, because this event is pretty specifically for the local people in Uji. I saw lots of parents and young children, I saw lots of people running the course, I saw many many middle aged friends and couples walking it together. Because it's really just walking around town with your friends or family, but also walking with thousands of other people at the same time. My host dad and I had some really good conversations while we were walking, and now I know where all the great hiking trails in Uji are. 

New things

1. New regime

-this one seems self-explanatory at this point. Hooray!

2. New train

-the bay to LA in 2 or 3 hours?!? Can't wait

3. new bike

-on Wednesday morning, just as I was feeling tense and nervous and excited about watching the election results come in online, my host mom told me her English teacher was giving her a mountain bike. Because his girlfriend moved to Australia. So now I have a SWEET new mountain bike. 

4. new music

-at Tea Ceremony class on Tuesday, Kojiro gave Kendall and me 3 cds of music. But really it was 3 dvds of music, in total almost 9 gigs of mostly japanese techno. So far the best thing is the katamari damacy soundtrack.....

5. New camera

-sometime in mid-september, we were at karaoke (still the only time I have been to karaoke...) and I accidentally dropped my camera. It's worked sort of okay since then, sort of. the lens would freak out all the time, which prevented me from being able to take pictures, and most of the time when the lens wouldn't freak out, it let light in in a funny way. So finally I said screw it and today got a really nice Canon camera that can do all sorts of nifty things. 

6. new regime

-this one can't be understated

GOBAMA

The past few weeks I have felt SO FAR AWAY from the election (probably because, well, I am). I watched Tina Fey being Sarah Palin on youtube. I watched some of the debates online. But there are so many elements lacking, notably in advertising. It wasn't until I was skyping with my mom when she told me that Obama had a 30 minute infomertial on 3 major networks?!?!?! and that the pro-Prop 8 fanatics have been running really terrible ads?!?!? And I thought, wow, yeah, I really have no idea what has been going on in the US, I have been so removed from all the election fever that has been brewing.....

So now as I write this, it is 950pm on the night of Tuesday the 4th, but it's only 5am in CA. Very strange...election day is almost over but the polls haven't even opened. 

Even though I am so far away both in time and space from US politics right now, I am still proud that I was able to cast my [absentee] vote for Obama in my first-ever presidential election. I can't help thinking that this election literally affects everyone in the entire world. Hypothetically...how much better will our world be if Obama is our president until 2016?

halloweekend

Even though it technically is a 'long weekend,' tomorrow is a national holiday, AKP still has classes tomorrow. So it was really just a long weekend, lots of busy activities.

Friday night I went to a Halloween party, because it was Halloween, go figure. Jason K. rented out an entire bar overlooking the river, with free food and drinks for 2+ hours. Very fun. Good people, good view, good dancing, good costumes (I went as Tengu, a famous demon in Japanese folklore. Small history lesson: Tengu appeared to Minamoto no Yoshitsune at the end of the Heian period at Yoshitsune's hiding place on Kurama and taught him how to use swords, enabling Yoshitsune to defeat the Taira clan and usher in the Kamakura period). After the party, Jason B. spent the night at my house, making me realize that something I really miss about life in the US is slumber parties. 

Saturday, I went with Jason and my host parents on an optional AKP field trip to the Miho Museum and a pottery studio in Shigaraki. It was a pretty good day. It was fun seeing people's host families now that I am familiar with the identities of my AKP peers. The Miho Museum was absolutely beautiful. The special exhibit was called "Japan is Beautiful" or something like that, and focused on the writings and artwork associated with Kawabata Yasunari (the first Japanese person to ever win a Nobel prize) and Yasuda Yukihiko. But the theme of the museum is 'beauty' --the way I understand it, the museum was founded by a New Religious Sect that prizes beauty above all else, artwork being the means by which humans reflect what we see in nature. For example: "It is important for us to reflect and carefully observe the work of our predecessors. By looking at them extensively and observing them deeply, one gradually cultivates a true appreciation of the good, and whit is truly good becomes apparent. A lofty mountain is not beautiful when gazing at its foot. It is something like that when we raise our eyes higher, and the height of the mountains become higher and the lower peaks become lower. That reveals the true beauty of high peaks." --Yasuda Yukihiko

The pottery studio was funny. It was filled with raccoon statues, some enormous, most creepy, because to place a raccoon (tanuki) statue at your front door is good luck. I made a bowl just the right size to either drink tea out of, or eat donburi out of. 

Then Sunday, I went with the History of Kyoto class on their field trip up Mt. Hiei. The hike was really great, I loved the moment when I was high enough on the mountain that the kinds of trees changed and suddenly I was in a forest of Japanese cedars. At the top of the mountain was the "Hiei Garden Museum," which was really pretty but really stupid. The top of Mt. Hiei is associated with Shimogamo and Kamigamo Shrines because of the spirit that lives in this one rock on the top of the mountain. But as Prof. Boggett says, "history is slowly being erased"; the god-rock is huge, and beautiful, but not marked at all, and surrounded by flowers. (The Hiei Garden Museum has lots of reproductions of Monet and other impressionist painters next to really pretty, but totally random, European style gardens. ???) Apparently the Japanese government, in their attempts to nationalize Shinto, are trying to cover up the way Shinto mythologies stem from local legends... 

After this, we went to a Buddhist temple complex, Enryakuji, which was way too touristy for being on the top of this mountain. But the west side of the complex was totally deserted, and I saw the tomb of Saicho, one of the most important people in the history of Japanese Buddhism.