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 :'(

A Few Trinkets...

It's time I talked about the souvenirs I've gathered.  I've got quite a lot, but I think that I've spent the money wisely.  Most of these things didn't cost much more than $4-5, and the few things that did were totally worth it.  (Mostly, that last sentence was for my parents' benefit--don't freak out, okay?)

Here goes.  We'll just go chronologically.

So this is a fan I purchased in Beijing, both sides.  I also bought a Qing warrior statue, but for some reason, Katie has that, and we're nowhere near each other, so...

Next, I picked up some essentials...

...like samurai socks.

The cliche bag was also necessary.  But I wan't completely ready for this trip without my trusty side arm.

Once I was better equipped to deal with anything that came my way, I felt much better.  I then moved on to more classic Japanese souvenirs.

This is the kimono I bought while we were at Fushimi Inari shrine.  Below is the obi, the wide belt.

The people selling these kimono I guess were so happy about all the merchandise we bought (at least six of us bought one) that they threw in a scarf as a free gift.

I bought both the fan and the stickers at Ginkakuji.  That fan is a very distinctive Japanese shape, and the stickers are for a cell phone.  The Japanese are really into decorating cell phones, just the way Chinese and Koreans are.  I've seen some that are really elegant, others are really cool, some are just down-right gaudy...just depends on your personality, I guess.  I also bought this cell phone charm (at least, that's how I plan to use it).  It's my Chinese zodiac sign, the sheep:

Neither Katie nor I could resist this flute.  We both bought one.  Maybe we'll put on a performance when we get home.

Later that day, we made mochi.  Here's how mine turned out.  The middle one is supposed to be a chocolate-mochi taco:

You know what else the Japanese do that I kind of love?  They wrap anything you buy, usually at the more touristy spots.  For example:

Really pretty, nice and neat.  But then I feel obligated to leave my stuff in the package.  I mean, I love tearing wrapping paper off birthday and Christmas presents as much as the next kid, but this is a little nicer than that...

Yesterday, we went together to a used bookstore as a class.  I'm sure my parents are cringing now.  They know how much I love used bookstores.  I used to go to Wonder Book & Video to hang out after school when I lived at home.  I've missed that store so much--cheap, amazing, old books are my favorite, and Utah doesn't really have that.  Our teacher wanted us to buy books we wanted to read for our daily reading assignments.  I decided on:

Yep, that's right.  Anne of Green Gables.  Although in Japan is called something like Anne of Red Hair.  Oh, well.  I had also made it a non-negotiable goal of mine to buy as much of a manga that I love as I could.  The series is called Swan, and it's an older manga about ballet.  I love it more than I can say, and I've wanted it in Japanese forever.  But I couldn't get it in America.  So, no matter how I can, I will buy as many volumes as possible.  I started to make a dent in that goal yesterday:

The first four of those are the story I've already read.  The last two are each from two different series by the same author.  I can't wait to read them, and I can't wait to add to my collection!

A Little Catch-up...

Okay, let's back-track a little.  Here are some photos of Osaka en route to Kyoto.

Katie at the train station that will take us away from the Osaka ghetto to Kyoto

Elementary school kids (shougakusei) on a field trip, I imagine, in somebody's fields.  There were all kinds of fields intermittent in the cities

This is a pretty representative shot of what most of the towns looked like between Osaka and Kyoto

That lighter green stuff is bamboo (take).  Sensei said that this is what's call "take-aki", or the autumn of bamboo.  Now is when the bamboo changes colors.  Cool, huh?

The front of Kyoto Station.  It's a major landmark in Kyoto, because it connects withe pretty much the entirety of the public transit system

Kyoto Tower Hotel...I just thought it was cool

This is the entrance to the train station.  Those two Chinese symbols put together read "Kyoto," and mean "capital metropolis"

So after we finally got to our hotel, we got some much-needed sleep, and headed out the next morning to find some new luggage.  Katie's roller broke the second we landed, and we were trying to downsize, so we went walking pretty early.  Because of the time difference, I woke up around 5a, and was ready for the day by 7a.  Can't even remember the last time that happened.  We were walking around the area by 8a.  We were located near a zoo, and there was a little shopping-area in front of the zoo.  Most shops weren't open yet, and it was full of old Japanese people who kept staring at us.  It was starting to dawn on me that maybe this wasn't the best of neighborhoods for two young American women to be staying alone.  Clearly, these people weren't used to seeing tourists.

We got the luggage we needed, and headed back to finish downsizing, then checked out and got to the train station.  It was supposed to be a very simple matter of taking the train to Kyoto Station, then the subway to a particular stop, and Sensei told us via email that from there it would just be a very short walk to the ward building.  Right.  About how all our simple, fool-proof plans always work out.

First of all, we got to Kyoto Station around lunchtime--hours before we were going to meet everyone at the church.  So we decided to do something in the meantime.  But we were both feeling pretty bad, physically.  I was feeling sick.  I think it was a combination of moving suddenly to a humid climate and catching a cold.  Not to mention the traveling halfway around the world.  We both needed food and rest.  After a tense few minutes of trying to connect to the internet so we could get the info about where to meet and how to get there, we left the station for some fresh air and food.  We took a good hour to just sit and snack, during which time I saw a sign for a temple nearby.  Neither of us wanted to go far, but I was really tempted to see just how close this temple was.  We set out, and we found it pretty easily.  It's called Higashi Honganji.

Katie and I decided that this didn't sound like a good thing...

Lovely moat surrounding the temple

Me, looking and feeling totally proud of myself for being at a real Buddhist temple

I love the pine trees they use in these temple gardens

Here's the main building of the complex.  Unfortunately, there was some construction going on at the time

Triumphantly holding up the trash I couldn't let stay on the ground

That gold is beautiful against the black (I want to say lacquer...).  Everyone should also take note that this is photographic evidence that Airbenders still exist, and walk among us as Buddhists.

Katie took this shot intended to illustrated the steepness of the steps, but I think it's just a cool photo

Remember that gate I was posing so proudly under?  That was a side gate.  This is the main entrance.  Because of the construction, however, you had to enter in via a side gate

Haha, this is a middle schooler (chuugakusei) who hesitated because he wasn't sure if he was in the picture.

This poor child was traumatized by that pigeon, methinks...

 After exploring outside, we were able to go into the main building where the priests were going about what I can only assume is their usual business.  I'm not really sure what they were doing, but people were taking off their shoes, going in, and praying, so we did, too.  Minus the praying.  The inside was gorgeous!  The floor was covered totally in tatami, or bamboo floor mats.  There were columns, and in the back were the altars (not sure if that's the right word), and there were beautiful golden relief scenes lining the walls near the ceiling.  I would have posted photos, but no cameras were allowed inside.  It was so neat to be in there, and the whole diversion was incredibly refreshing, so we headed back to the station to catch the chikatetsu (literally, underground-below iron, aka the subway) to our stop.

We got off the subway and asked the guard where we needed to go.  He explained to us that it was a 30 minute walk from where we were.  I laughed in his face, turned to Katie, and said, "That's not happening."  We hailed a taxi and told him the exact address of the ward building.  Rather than input that address to the perfectly good GPS he had perched on his dashboard, the taxi driver immediately said, "Ah, zenzen wakanei yo"--a very casual, slightly slangy way of saying "I have no idea where that is."  Great.  So I tried to explain in clumsy Japanese the directions from Sensei's email.  "Wakanei yo."  Katie pulled the email up on her phone, risking fantastical roaming charges for it.  "Mada wakanei yo."  I was so close to hijacking the car myself when Katie got the much better idea of calling Sensei.  We listened intently as he explained to the driver how to get there.  I'm here to tell you, Sensei said pretty much what I did, only in prettier Japanese.  I was vaguely miffed, but mostly just glad we were finally going to be done.

The driver took off, and, after about five minutes, breathes, "Shimatta!"  "Shoot!"  He pulled over and stopped, and I looked out the window to see if I could see anything helpful.  I did.  I saw foreigners, or gaijin.  I was about to comment to Katie how rare that was when I realized something--I recognized those gaijin.  What the....?  At the same time, Katie and I began to say things like, "Stop!  Here's fine!  Those are our friends!"  They were other BYU students making a quick stop at the local convenience store.  He let us out, and they graciously aided us in getting to the church, carrying our heavier bags.  We were so exhausted, I thought I could have slept on the street right then.

We made it to the church, and once we were all gathered, we were treated to a dinner at a now-quintessentially Japanese restaurant--Kentucky Fried Chicken.  It was disgusting, totally greasy and whatnot, but they have a melon-flavored soda that was AMAZING.  We were all pretty giddy and nervous about meeting our host families soon, though, so we didn't complain.  Well, I did.  But I was tired, and that's what I do when I'm tired.  I complain incessantly.

At last, we had all assembled--BYU students and host families sat in the chapel, awaiting the final verdict of who would be with whom.  I was placed in the Matsunaga home, and Matsunaga-kyoudai took me home.  I was completely jet-lagged, and he understood that.  When I got home, Matsunaga-shimai drew me out a very careful and surprisingly accurate map to get to the correct bus stops that would get me to the church for school the next morning.  I almost died while watching her.  Not only was I sick and jet-lagged, but I was sitting on my ankles, Japanese style.  After about fifteen minutes of that, I couldn't feel my feet!  That hurt so bad, I had to take breaks to massage my calves.

Mercifully, I was dismissed for bed.  It was about 10:30p.  I was taken to my room earlier to drop off my things by the two youngest children, who quickly disappeared to bed.  My room obviously belongs to them, normally.  The 8-year old, Sakura-chan, has a congratulatory certificate for her baptism on the wall, and there's lots of chapter books and magazines on the bookshelf.  I walked in and immediately rejoiced: I would be sleeping on a futon.

Here's the futon after I laid it out

It's a small room, but cozy and clean

And there's a delightful little piece of home hanging on the wall :)

This is so Japanese.  They've got storage places hidden up the yin-yang here

I love being here with the Matsunagas.  I'm always worried, though.  I'm afraid I'm not doing my best to be a good guest.  But they seem to enjoy me, so I'll keep being as attentive as I can.

I talk a lot with Matsunaga-shimai.  Like I said before, she studied in Utah, so we usually use that to fall back on for topics.  Tonight, after I surprised her with a Mother's Day gift, she and I chatted about all kinds of things--Utah, weather, schooling.  The other day, my teacher told me my Japanese has improved, even after a few days.  At the time, I was reluctant to believe her.  But after today, I'm starting to.  After chatting with her for awhile, she started making dinner, and I headed upstairs to play with my new internet connection the Matsunaga-kyoudai showed me how to use.  Once I got there, I started chatting tentatively with the two youngest, Sakura-chan and Subaru-kun, both of whom got to say hi to my family when I was on Skype with them after church.  I think that helped to break the ice.  We started chatting about the toys they had, then they started shooting me with one of those nerf-disk guns (teppe).  In all my years of babysitting, I've found that nothing builds good rapport with children like letting them mercilessly gun you down while you stand defenseless.  So that's what I did.

The next thing you know, all five of us are playing Uno, and I'm fitting in easily with all of the kids.  They are way fun.  They taught me a new card game, too, which was interesting.  Between their Kansai-ben (dialect) and the fact that they don't really know how to dumb down their Japanese as effectively as their parents do, I came really close to not understanding the situation at all.  But we made it work, and we all had a good time.

Curry over rice for dinner, and a special Jell-O-like dessert afterwards.  I was having so much fun, but I remembered that I had homework left still.  So I excused myself, and came up here to blog.  Oops.  Actually, I did get my homework done, too.

But I digress.  After class the first day, we took a walk down the river to a shrine where there is a tiny archery hall, where we got lessons on Japanese archery.  It was so fun!  Archery here is a martial art, just like any other, but the style is so different from that of the West.  I would take up Japanese archery in a heartbeat.

 

Here's some picture of the river, and the wildlife there:

Baby nutria and their ugly Mama

Hawks that will apparently attack you if you look them in the eye

Lots of beautiful cranes, which are considered good luck in Japan, as they are a symbol of longevity

Neat bridge that spans two forks in the river.  This is the convergence, and that median marks the split

Isn't that just beautiful?

This is the gate of the shrine where they had the archery hall

 And now, at last, the long-promised photos of Fushimi Inari shrine.  A few notes--it's technically not called a shrine, but a "taisha", or complex.  And it's not exactly Shinto, but more animistic, in the words of Sensei.  It belongs to a particular religious minority, and is something of a fusion between Shinto and an ancient reverence for the fox.

So there's the torii that marks the entrance to the shrine, but there you can see the statue of the fox with the fire at the tip of it's tail.  Sensei said that in this area, the fox was sort of revered the way the coyote was by some Native American tribes

This place also happens to be the documented origin of the fortune cookie.  The phenomenon began in a Japanese-owned Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, and they were modeled after a type of cookie that's been made here for generations.  The cookies here are less sweet, of course, but same basic idea.  How cool is that?

We were stopped by a group of chuugakusei on a class trip, and they asked up some questions in English for one of their assignments.  They were adorable.  The lighter-skinned one on the far left was named Hirato-kun.  The darker-skinned one standing next to Katie got really embarrassed for asking Katie her age when she responded that she was 23.  He apologized profusely, and began to praise her looks to make up for it

Once you enter a shrine, you use these spigots to cleanse yourself--first your left hand, then your right, then using your left hand you bring some water to your mouth and rinse it out.  There is still some debate amongst us BYU students if you're supposed to swallow the water after that, or spit it back out...

Katie and me inside the path of 1000 torii

You can't see them when going forward, but the second you turn back to look, you can see the names of donors to the shrine carved into the torii.  It's super neat.

A fantastic photo accredited to Katie

 

Katie, Derek, and me

Katie and me, up where the kami lives

Then Saturday, Katie's host mom took us to Ginkakuji, where there are beautiful gardens.  Matsui-shimai, her mother, took this for us.

This is us in front of the pavilion

I just love these gardens

This flower Matsui-shimai called a sutsuji, and it blooms in white, lavender, purple, magenta, and this color, which she called apricot.  This one is my favorite

Just look at that.  These gardens are why I started learning Japanese

 

We got stopped by more chuugakusei.  I have never been so popular with middle school boys...

That's been the adventure so far.  More exciting trips planned this week!  Tune in again!