Roadtrip...

So, I figured I should spend some time catching you up on the last week.

Tuesday, we took a train to a little town called Kinosaki, with I think just one transfer to a different line.  It was totally about a four hour train ride.  When we stepped out of the train station, a representative of the hotel was there to meet us and to hold our luggage while we went to a couple museums.  We learned about a local craft, a really beautiful dyed reed art that they paste on wooden boxes.  They were amazing!

Kinosaki is famous for its seven onsens.  Two of them were closed, so only five were open.  We were going to challenge each other to go to all seven, but upon realizing only five were open, we honorably withdrew.  We spent a very relaxing night going from onsen to onsen.  Some were hotter than others, some were bigger than others, some were more aesthetic than others.  It was way fun.  The way it works is that the hotel provides a yukata (a light kimono-style robe and tie) for guests to walk around in to go to each onsen.  SOOOOO COMFORTABLE.

After bathing four times in one day, I took a short walk through town.  It was so fun, really beautiful, because there was a small river that ran through town that was well lit by street lamps.  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures.  I was worried about carrying my camera to the baths, and I couldn't have gotten a lot of night shots, anyway.

Kinosaki at night, from the internet

After Kinosaki, we had an early departure to Hiroshima.  First, we hit the Peace Park.

The bombed public building, just half a block away from the detonation site

This is the clock tower in the Peace Park.  The bomb detonated just above this spot

This is the Peace Bell.  It must be run solemnly and with a silent prayer for peace.  If you wish to ring it twice, you must wait until the reverberation of the first peel is ended

Both of these are also in the park.  People fold a thousand cranes in favor of peace

Next, we went to the museum dedicated to the bomb.  That was kind of a painful experience.  The whole building itself emanated a very oppressive aura, kind of like a hospital, but ten times over.  I didn't much like that, although I thought the museum was very well done.  It spoke volumes as to the manipulation and exploitation of the Japanese people by the evil men in government who perpetuated the war long enough for the use of a nuclear weapon.  All in all, it was a good experience.  I would have loved to see more of Hiroshima, though.  The city had a feel to it--like a great, subtle pulse that permeated the area that gave one a strong sensation that the will to live was incredibly powerful.

After the stop in Hiroshima, we continued on to a little town on the coast of the sea of Japan called Hagi.  It is from this region that man great historical figures that none of you have probably ever heard of are from.  The region was featured in many events of the early modern era of Japan, that is the time of Commodore Perry's arrival through the establishment of the Meiji Emperor (1851-ish to 1868).  In Japan, it is also well known for its pottery, a sample of which I did purchase.  We had hoped to go to the beach the day after we arrived (we got in after the sun had gone down, so we just chilled that night), but it was a little too chilly.  I did stick my feet in, just to be able to say I've touched the Sea of Japan.  The water was actually quite warm, for ocean water.  We took a lovely bike ride around the coast, and through some of the residential areas.  One of the charms of Hagi is its antiquity.  The locals are proud of the fact that you can still use a map of the Edo period to navigate your way around (the Edo period is better known as the Tokugawa shogunate, between 1600 and 1868).  On the bike ride, we got to see a little of what it would have been like to live in the Edo period, minus the paved roads and electricity.  It was really neat.  I got a few cool shots of the ocean, but none of the town.  It was took dark by that point.

Kinda reminded me of Second Beach......right, Mom?

This picture didn't turn out all the well because it was so dark, but the colors were really what I wanted to get, the dark blue highlighted but that bright light that mysteriously vanished just after I took the photo..........*aliens*....

We had a few people fall pretty ill at this point, so Sensei kindly delayed our 9AM departure to 11:30.  I took time to do some shopping, and ended up buying some pretty neat pottery.  Hagi is famous within Japan for it's pottery, so I bought some for myself, as well as some for others.  Mom and Dad, you get some! :D

We finally did leave, and I think people were doing pretty much okay.  But we took it easy as we traveled to Mt. Aso.  Long ago, this was a place where a huge volcano imploded, and now it's a caldera.  (At least, that's my understanding of the long, scientific explanation I barely listened to).  There are still plenty of active volcanoes in the area, and we saw a couple smoking when we arrived, but mostly the area is a very peaceful valley surrounded by forested mountains.  In the valley, as far as the eye can see are rice paddies.  It was like a wet version of Nebraska...except with forests, mountains, and volcanoes.  It was really pretty.


One of the smoking volcanoes

The rice paddies

 

Pretty luna moth that had its lower wings ripped off....sad.

We took a short hike, and saw some cool views.

~Pretty~

After our hike, we ate dinner at a fun little diner, then were free to do what we wanted.  I went to take a quick bath with some of the girls, then went back to my room to catch up on some homework that badly needed to be caught up.  As I was sitting in my own quiet, tranquil hotel room, there came knock and the sound of the door being opened.  Before I could say anything, my friend Derek entered my room and asked, "Do you have any extra futons?"

Of course, I did.  I had two Western beds in my room, and six futon sets.  Getting up to help, I asked, "How many do you need?"

He gave me a look that clearly said he knew what my reaction to answer would be.  "All of them."

I provided the expected answer.  "What?"

"We're building a fort!"  He smiled proudly as he jacked my extra futons.  He enlisted my help carrying them to his room by bribing me with being able to help.  Words cannot describe the epicness of this fort.  So pictures will have to do:

We had a little bit of trouble to begin with...

We got it worked out, though

Getting the roof up

The finished product, and the builders

 After we were done, we decided that it was time we headed off to bed.  A few hours earlier, upon our arrival and the decision that I would be in a room alone that night, I made a deal with the boys.  See, there were three boys' rooms, then three girls', and mine was the last in line, buffering the boys and the rest of the girls.  That realization, plus the discovery that one could conceivably walk from one balcony to another by stepping around the paper dividers on the concrete railing, incited threats of midnight scares.  So, knowing myself to be able to withstand such things pretty well, I made a deal.  "If you guys can make me scream bloody murder, I'll buy you pudding."  Pudding in Japan is different than in America, and our boys have an inordinate amount of love for it.  The response: "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED."

So, we all separated, but not a word was said about the challenge made and accepted hours before.  Suspicious, I checked every square inch of my room before I actually started getting ready for bed.  Once I confirmed my room was free of any other living soul, I hopped into my Western bed, the first one I'd slept on since my first night in Japan, and the last one since.  I decided to stay up a little later playing a game on my computer.  I wasn't 10 minutes into it when I hear scraping sounds on my glass sliding door that lead to the balcony.  "Here it comes," I thought.  Suddenly, there was a huge BANG on the door.

I waited for a second, to try to throw them off beat.  I turned on the light and threw back the curtains, and the sight of three boys running around aimlessly met my eyes.  One was so startled by my appearance, he hit his head against the glass.  It was such a pathetic failure, I bought them pity pudding a couple days later.

After Aso, we headed to Kumamoto to see the castle there, and to go to church.

This is Kumamoto Castle

A samurai of Kumamoto

A ninja of Kumamoto (he's in the doorway....if you can't see him, that's probably because he's already on the ceiling, poised to kill you)

Admittedly, that was a pretty rough day.  We were all tired, and it was hot, and we got slightly turned around getting to church, so I slept through pretty much the entirety of sacrament meeting.  But I felt pretty refreshed after that.  Good thing, too, because we continued on to Kagoshima, where there is an active volcano that is apparently constantly spewing ash over the city.  They have special places marked for specifically ash disposal, and the hotel we stayed at gave out free masks to anyone who wanted one.

I ate dinner with a friend at an Italian restaurant, which was AMAZING.  Then we headed over to a mall that had a sight-seeing Ferris wheel and rode it.  It was so cool to see the city lights.  We were hoping to see the volcano, but it was already nighttime by the time we got there, so it didn't quite work out.  If I imagined really hard, I could see it...

This was the support of the beside desk in my hotel room....the hotel kinda had this attempted-Western feeling...I thought it was funny :D

Afterwards, we did laundry at a nearby laundromat.  That was an experience.  We got some help from a local bum doing his laundry at the same time.  He was pretty nice.  We left pretty quickly, though.

The next morning, we pretty much hated the breakfast, so I accompanied two of the guys to the local donut shop, a chain called Mister Donut.  No where near as satisfying as American donuts, but it at least gave us the feeling of a normal breakfast (not that I usually eat donuts for breakfast, but...), and we were content.  We packed up, and headed back to the station, stocking up on food to take on our literally all-day train trip.  However, I realized twenty minutes before departure that I had left my Hagi pottery in the hotel room.  I literally ran all the way back to the hotel, got there and quickly explained myself, grabbed the bag, and ran back, making it with three minutes to spare.  The trains in Japan are precise to the minute, so you can trust they'll come on time and leave on time.  I was lucky, I had that working in my favor.  If I'd realized three minutes later, I wouldn't have.

An average shinkansen--the bullet train

After that, the day was pretty much uneventful.  I watched the Miyazaki film "Castle in the Sky" with Katie.  Definitely one of my faves.  Then I played a lot of my computer game while listening to "Mansfield Park."  Loving that so far, but I have to admit I'm slightly irritated nobody is doing what I tell them to.  And I do tell them what to do.  In fact, my friends on the program asked me later that night what I was listening to, because they could see me reacting to what the characters were saying and doing, and even talking back to them, commenting out loud what I thought of them.  Oops.

We finally made it to our hotel in Nikko, a place about two hours (by train) north of Tokyo.  I was in a dormitory-style room with most of the girls, so we had quite the set-up.  A common area, two showers, three bathrooms, and a kitchen.  Even a shrine, for those moments when we just couldn't repress our religious urges, I guess.  I was slightly disturbed by the fact that all the beds (there were bunks and futons) were equipped with electric blankets.  That said to me it was going to get cold.  AND IT DID.  It was no bueno.  But I survived, by turning the blanket on to high the whole night.  The amazing ramen we had for dinner probably helped, too.

We were scheduled to leave the next day around 3 in the afternoon, so in the morning we hiked up to where Tokugawa Ieyasu is (supposedly) enshrined as a god.  It was a beautiful morning, and the scenery was gorgeous.

I loved the blue, red, and green working together

The shrine...more of a Chinese, gaudy style, because apparently that was in style back in the day

These are the three monkeys--kikizaru, iwasaru, and mizaru.  These guys are featured nearly everywhere here for some reason

I thought the work on this gate was just gorgeous.  It's super intricate (ignore the scaffolding)

On our way home, we stopped in an antique store and bought a couple cool things.  Then, then rain came.  At first, it was just a trickle, but it quickly became a deluge.  The locals must have thought we looked funny--three Americans running down the hill through the rain, trying desperately to keep their souvenirs dry, and, at least in my case, carrying their shoes.  We got soaked to the bone.  The next couple of hours were dedicated to drying ourselves out, and by the time we got on the train, we were all quite ready to sleeping in a house again.

That pretty much catches you up on the JR pass trip.  Later I'll post about my adventures in Yokohama.  Until then :)

No Swimsuits...

Okay, I am alive.  For those who were concerned, I live.  I have a lot to catch y'all up on, so get ready.

The day after we went to Nara, we took a hike up Kurama-san.  "San" is the Japanese approximation of the Chinese word for mountain.  So basically Mt. Kurama.

The sign at the train station

The hike was really beautiful.  It was a little hot that day, and very humid, of course, so there was the right amount of complaining the whole way up.  I think this area was one of my favorites to walk through.

This is a Tengu, which is a supernatural being that was supposed to have taught Yoshitsune how to fight....or something.  I forget.

A lovely garden about halfway up the mountain.

Random piece of modern art

Once we reached the top, we went into this shrine where they keep the ashes of

After that, we went to a hot spring there.  In Japan, hot springs are called "onsen".  We were all really excited to go, but also pretty nervous.  Most of us had never been, so it was going to be a very new experience.  In Japan, onsens are half pool of spring water to soak in, half public bath.  Which means, as the title of this blog indicates, you don't wear swimsuits.  Imagine the horror flashing through thirteen Mormon BYU students' minds at the thought of de-robing in front of everyone.  The tension was nearly tangible.

As it turned out, the whole experience wasn't nearly as traumatic as we had anticipated.  It's amazing how normal anything can become when everyone is doing it, and treats it like it's normal.  It was actually way fun.  Of course, the girls and the boys were separate, so the eight of us girls went in together.  Our female teacher with us had been before, and showed us the ropes.  Thankfully, there weren't that many other people there, so we didn't have to worry too much about using Japanese while dealing with being naked.  Basically, this is what you do:  Undress, wash off at little shower stations, then soak in the onsen water.  Public baths usually have body soap, shampoo, and sometimes conditioner sitting at each station, where you sit on a bucket (no joke, a bucket), and use a shower head and another bucket to wash yourself as thoroughly as you can.  You don't want to get the onsen water dirty.  It's got natural minerals in it that are supposed to be good for your skin.  You also have to keep your hair pinned up.  You don't want the minerals getting in your hair, nor do you want your hair to end up floating in the water.  That's just unsanitary.

Anyway, it was really fun.  The water wasn't heated too much, so we could stay in for awhile.  Although you have to be careful--stay in too long, and you get lightheaded.  You really have to regulate yourself, and make sure you stay hydrated by drinking lots of water, especially if you're in for long, or going to multiple onsen in one day.  Needless to say, this part of the trip has no photographic evidence.

The next day was Saturday, and my family had plans to take me to see the shrine at Ise.  This shrine is a very famous one, because they rebuild it every 20 years, and the architectural style is reminiscent (possibly) of Polynesian descent.  You can't take pictures of the shrine, so here's one from the internet:

Kinda pixelly...oh, well

For fun, we walked a lovely trail to the shrine, where we "paid homage" to the kami that lives there.  Remember, "kami" is like a spirit deity thing.  It's usually translated as a god, but that's not entirely accurate, in my mind.  But whatever.  Paying homage includes tossing a monetary offering (in our case, since we weren't actually worshipping, it was a one-yen coin, which is even more worthless than an American penny; there were some 1000-yen notes in there, though, which is about $13 bucks) and clapping twice before bowing your head to pray.  We just clapped our hands, though.  That attracts the attention of the kami to your prayer.

So basically, we didn't stay very long there.  The real attraction was the shopping nearby.  I didn't really buy a whole lot, but I did manage to get some pictures of my family:

So, from right to left (Japanese style), Sonomi-chan, Sakura-chan, and Subaru-kun

I think this is the only shot I could get with everyone in it...Again, right to left, Sister Matsunaga, Subaru-kun, Sonomi-chan, Shizuku-chan, Brother Matsunaga, and Sakura-chan

Me with Sonomi-chan and Sakura-chan

Subaru-kun.  Not the best shot of his face, but the best shot of his personality.  If anyone was wondering, he IS the cutest thing on the face of the earth

The trip was super-duper fun, and I got closer to Shizuku-chan and Sakura-chan, the oldest and third-oldest.  It was a really long day though.  We drove, and one way took 3 hours.  We did get to amuse ourselves with movies.  We watched "Coraline" (which was very, very creepy in Japanese, more so than I think it was supposed to be), "Arrietty", and some movie about an Australian girl and and man in New York....that one was pretty trippy.  But some of that was in English, so it was amusing to me, cuz I understood the jokes the kids didn't.

Sunday was interesting, because another BYU study abroad came through.  It was the Asian Business group, and because of that, the stake YSA has a social, and invited us to go, as well.  I can now attest that YSA is the same all over the globe--awkward.

Monday we went to Kinkakuji, which is the famous Golden Pavilion.  It didn't take too long to see, so afterwards some of us went to the Toji shrine, aw well.  Every 21st of the month, a flea market is set up at Toji, so we went to do some shopping.

The Pavilion

Katie and me in front of the Pavilion

Our classmates, some triumphant middle school boys, Katie, and me in front of the Pavilion

The next day was our last full day in Kyoto, so we had a farewell party with all of our host families.  That was really fun, to be able to see the people everyone had been living with.  Everyone found my family excessively cute.  Which they are.  Subaru-kun and I ran around the building afterwards from his older sisters, taking the elevator for no reason, and hiding.  I think we got disapproving looks, but I was just happy he was playing with me.  He's usually so shy of me...  Then he, Sakura-chan, and I started to challenge each other to rock, paper, scissors.  In Japan, it's jankenpo, and the rhythm is just different enough that I get thrown each time we do it.  So we did it American style, too.  Although the Japanese have a different American style than Americans do.  They slowly chant, "rock, scissors, papers."  Which threw me off just as much as jankenpo.  So I taught them the thumb war chant.  By the end of the night, neither one would be satisfied to just let me sit.  I always had to be challenging them in one contest or another.  It was so fun.  I was really sad to be leaving in the morning.

I did get to see the kids off to school the next morning, though, and I obligatorily conceded both the thumb war and the slap game (which I also taught them) to both Sakura-chan and Subaru-kun.  Then the Matsunagas drove me to the train station and saw me off.  And I've been on the road ever since!

Nightingales and Deer...

This week so far hasn't been as eventful as last week.  Both Monday and Tuesday we had no organized field trips, so we didn't do a whole lot.  We mainly did homework.  Wednesday, we did stop by the local shrine--which happens to be a UNESCO site called Shimogamo Shrine--to catch a bit of a festival, the Aoi (or hollyhock) Matsuri (or festival).  I forgot my camera that day, so no pictures, but we actually couldn't see much of it.  We were too impatient to wait for the procession to leave the shrine, but we did catch a few men dressed in the Heian imperial style riding horses.  Apparently, horses are quite the luxury in Japan.  Most people haven't seen one.

According to Google, this is an example of average everyday clothing for men in the Heian Period

We got tired of the horses pretty quickly, since we were crouching down behind the cloth background and peeking out from under it.  We decided to move on to see Nijo Palace.

Originally, this was constructed by the early Tokugawa shoguns as a show of power.  They had moved the political capital of Japan to Edo, which would later be known as Tokyo, but Kyoto continued to be the seat of imperial power.  So Tokugawa Ieyasu used this fortification as a way to establish his dominance and justification to power.  Again, I didn't have my camera, so I'll have to get the pictures the others took.  But I'll say this--it's super cool.  The palace actually doesn't allow photos or any kind of images rendered of the inside, but we took plenty around the palace of the beautiful gardens.  The coolest thing was the floor.  The wooden floor was made of huge planks of wood that were fashioned in such a way that they would squeak every so slightly, so no intruder could walk through without alerting the inhabitants.  The floor is called the Nightingale Floor because the squeaking sounds like the chirping of a thousand little birds.

After Nijo, a couple of us went to the Kyoto shopping district that runs the length of a major avenue called Shijo.  We were basically window shopping, but we found some great stuff.  And by that I mean, we found some stuff we would totally buy if we had the money, and some other stuff we would totally burn if we were above the law.  It was way fun.

Today, we took an extra long trip out to Nara.  It's about an hour train-ride from Kyoto, but it's so worth it.  Nara was the ancient capital of Japan before Kyoto, back when the process of Sinofication was still going on.  As a result, Nara looks much more Chinese than Kyoto, which took on a much more distinctly Japanese look.  Thankfully, I did not forget my camera today!

This is the five-story pagoda at Nara.  This structure is more directly Chinese, as indicated by the turned-up eaves

Another Chinese-y looking building

Nara is home to the world's oldest wooden buildings, of which the pagoda is one.  It is also home to a HUGE Buddha statue housed inside another super-old wooden temple.

This is the giant Buddha statue.  Just to give you some perspective on his size, there is a column behind this structure with a hole cut out of the base, through which a small human behind can fit.  Many do.  They line up, and do everything they can to get through.  It's supposed to be good luck, or get you salvation or something.  This hole is the size of Buddha's nostril.

My friend Anna, crawling her way to salvation

The buildings are way pretty, and Buddha is super neat, but the real draw to Nara is the deer.

These little cuties are EVERYWHERE, and they're tame.  You can buy them some little grain biscuits for ¥150, and these little guys go crazy for them.  They wait patiently for you to hand them out, and by "patiently" I mean that they follow you around quietly until you feed them.  They can smell from at least a couple of feet away if you have food or not.  Those who do, end up surrounded...

"It's like they were... organized!"

Those who don't, get no attention at all.  However, the deer have learned how to work or their food.  If you bow to them, they will bow back.  Observe my friend Derek demonstrating this:

Step 1: Pick your deer and carefully approach it

Step 2: Bow respectfully and await its judgment

Step 3: Wait patiently as it bows in return

Step 4: Provide the tacitly promised bribe for the show of deference

Step 5: Rinse, lather, repeat

Of course, the day wouldn't be totally complete without being bombarded by Japanese students.  Not only did we get stopped for a little EiKaiwa (English conversation), but we we assaulted with little chougakusei (elementary students) shouting "Hello!" at us.  It was the more adorable thing ever.

Walking up the steps out of the subway, we met the kids all boarding to leave, and after one brave soul greeted us and got a greeting back, soon every one of these kids was vying for their chance to say hello to the foreigners.  It was like being hit in the face by a sonic wave.

One last little note for my mom--I wanted so badly to buy this little stuffed Snoopy that was holding the deer snacks while I was in Nara!  He was so adorable, but I didn't have enough cash on me to buy him and then get home :'(