October 6, 2009-October 19.2009
Well, boys and girls, it’s been a LITTLE too long since I last wrote. And well, there was this report and presentation on a non-Roman script (mine was Arabic) and lack of Internet and etc. etc. BUT I’M BACK! And in line with on reader’s suggestion, I shall NOT force you to sit through “and then we stood here for 20 minutes and then we rode the bus and then we ate this and then we waited”. Or at least I will try to eliminate such language.
The second host family meeting took place (no big problems exist) and afterwards, my host mother returned with ways to improve my Japanese-wants me to spend time watching Japanese TV and this drama, “Pure Love”, from which I gain TREMENDOUS new vocabulary and Tsukie kindly corrects my pronunciation and spelling. She also has me read along in a children’s folktale book while listening to the reading of it on a CD. More vocab and practice reading out loud.
At Senboku, as I may have mentioned before, I am completing my field study for the Human Development and Social Relations major (psychology and sociology). Its coming along great, as it is ALWAYS easy for me to be detailed and verbose (as is evident in this here blog) I almost have two notebooks full. WOW.
We had an Encouragement Party (6:30-8pm) held by the Morioka Board of Education on Wednesday, 10/7, with the current Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs; all Earlham ’08 and ’09 grads if I hadn’t already mentioned that) joining us. Great spread of food platters-sashimi and sushi roll, kara’age (fried food), pork with sauce, potato and mame (soybeans), sandwiches, chips, popcorn, and many soft drinks. Chocolate cookies for dessert. We did self introductions and heard the B of E introduce themselves (~10 people). Played elementary school-level games after. Cleaning up meant we could take leftover food, so I ended up with two HUGE bottles of ocha (tea) and orange soda.
Thursday, 10/8, was Typhoon Day, as in a typhoon came through. Tsukie would not let me or Ko ride to school, so she drove us. It was our first day of Japanese classes with other Gandai exchange students, so Elementary Japanese II was the four of us SICEers and Dian, from Indonesia, Jadan, from Bangladesh, and Kotan and Nin, from China. The next week, Suripon, from Thailand, would join us. The Intermediate class has ~20 people. With everyone back at school, the cafeteria was crowded, something we have grown to dislike since we all like sitting together and talking about our day thus far (and perhaps dreading Sensei’s class if the homework has not been finished ). After class was the Welcome Party-self introductions to the 40some Japanese students and English majors. Games (Pictionary and the human knot), talking for nearly half an hour, exchanging of phone numbers and emails. One girl, Masumi , likes Angelina Jolie, so we want to watch “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” at some point. Met Bethany, from North Central College outside of Chicago, who is there for the whole year.
On Friday (10/9), Ko made varsity badminton!!!! Previously he had been playing doubles, but he beat a number of other boys and is now in the elite seven (I think that’s how many)-cool warm-up suit and all.
Saturday (10/10) was the PTA bazaar at Senboku (all parents serve on the PTA). Bazaars are very popular and, like most others, many different foods were for sale (bought delicious soba). Was able to talk with my English teacher, Osawa Sensei, for a great deal of time as well as four first year girls and didn’t actually make it in to see the bazaar . The students had school that day until around noon. Helped clean up afterwards. Then, I met Keira (from the nomikai with Dan, a previous SICEer and current ALT) for “coffee” –heard a great deal about her life in Scotland and London. Back home, could joke around in Japanese. *sigh* WONDERFUL.
The family went to an onsen (hot springs) on Sunday (10/11) and this is an exceptional experience. We left around 3:45pm to pick Ko up at badminton practice and then drove about an hour out into the mountains. The site is old, but the building was relatively new. You enter, take off your shoes, then pay the entrance fee (¥500 for adults, ¥300 foe elementary students). Then you can buy some snacks (we brought our own) and sit on cushions at low tables in an open room, lit by natural light during the day, and rest before going in to bathe. We snacked on some chocolate and drank tea from the counter and I looked at the people sleeping on the floor. Relaxing.
In knowing very little about Japanese baths and being oh so very naïve in general (I hope…), I thought “Oh maybe this is a place where you keep a towel around you.” Ummmm no Hannah, sorry to burst your bubble. Tsukie and I visited the bathroom, then entered the female bath changing area, where valuables can be put in locked lockers (and the key is on a bracelet you wear while you bathe) and your clothes go n wicker baskets on shelves. The best thing though was that it was so comfortable of an atmosphere. Every body type was present, though most prevalent were mothers in their late 20s or early 30s with children (after about age 8, male children go to the male bath) and older women.
We entered the bath area through a sliding door. Along the wall to the right were seven seats with manual shower heads and spigots, both operated by a push button which ran for eight to ten seconds. Buckets and cups were everywhere in order to throw water on one’s back or over one’s head. To the left along the far wall were another six seats, shower heads, and spigots. Baths in homes have the same things-a plastic seat with a shallow bucket to make sure backs get washed. Above each spigot was a wall-mounted mirror and a ledge on which people put baskets containing their bathing things, like washcloths, loofahs, soap, shampoo, and rinse. ALSO on the shelf were bottles of soap, shampoo, and rinse/treatment akin to Mane and Tail hair care products. The next day, my hair was SO soft. I wanted to go back JUST to get me some of that sweetness.
Two baths existed-the main, larger indoor bath, and a smaller one outside in the chilly air. Such a good, calming experience. Nearly all of the women had towels they used to sweep their hair back or wore over their head as if to cool them OR keep the heat in (though I don’t know how or why). Tsukie and I both washed our hair (I at first didn’t want to because of all the hair that comes out when I wash-didn’t feel like being the gaijin who comes in and whose hair clogs up the drain or some tragedy like that. But we dried ourselves and met Ko and Otoosan back in the relax room, sitting a little while before heading out. Ko, the active adolescent male that he was, was a bit hungry so Otoosan bought him an ice cream. I said I was oaky, but he bought me one too. We had an impromptu English lesson talking about Seattle and snow. It felt good to help Ko and all talk in two languages.
Ate dinner at Bikkuri Donkey (bikkuri means “surprise”), a hambagu place near Aeon Mall, about 20 minutes from home. Busy busy, so looked around at the “gift shop” of sorts, containing keitai charms with Hello Kitty and Bikkuri Donkey, little keychains, chopsticks, pins, etc. We waited about 20 minutes for a table, then fries came as an appetizer. Ending up having a regular: hambagu, rice, vegetables. Then we ate an ice cream dessert dusted with macha powder and containing mochi balls and a senbei cracker (usually accompany tea). Before and during dinner, songs from “Moulin Rouge” played, as did “Take On Me”, “Stop in the Name of Love”, “Like a Virgin”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, and “Hotel California”. Ah memories.
Monday (10/12) was a break day (oyasumi) and Otoosan took me to a calligraphy showing in a local furniture store (where all pieces are made from a single piece of wood). A former colleague of his had some of is “art” in the gallery (to the rear of the store). Had gyuudon for lunch at home and then headed to a koto (an old Chinese instrument with many strings and bridges like that of a violin; it’s the size of a keyboard, but much wider) concert of nikoo (Morioka’s #2 high school) students (at a hall, much like any concert hall in the United States). Nicole, Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s host mother, Tamara, Mitchell, Ethan, and I enjoyed nearly two hours of beautiful music-according to Otoosan, the best koto high school program in Japan.
A buzzing announced the start of the concert (at 2pm), then another buzzing at 5 minutes past 2pm. Before every musical selection/”act”, two girls who were part of the following piece came into the spotlight in front of the curtain (which was a tapestry of Mt. Iwate), bowed (we clapped), then explained the following performance. First one would speak and tell half the explanation or one part of the explanation, then the other would finish. Then they would bow, we clapped, and they went behind the curtain, extinguishing the spotlight. The curtain would then lift to reveal anywhere from 7-40 girls seated (kneeling), facing the audience. They bowed in unison, we clapped, then they rose slowly and shifted their seated position to play, taking their cue from an individual or two near the center front.
No sheet music was present. Usually the performers were broken into three groups, playing different parts at different times. At the end of the song, they would turn back to facing the audience, bow, we would clap, and then they would rise, no one moving as the curtain lowered. In some pieces, the coach for that specific piece would be called to the stage by one of the girls and they would explain their method/discuss the meaning of the piece/commend the girls on a job well done. At the end of the last piece played (there were six total with a 15 break halfway through), some girls were crying. It was emotional to watch the result of hard work, to see the energy and time be made a reality. On our way out, female teachers/PTA members/mothers stood on one side of the flight of stairs, while the girls lined the other side, a way of saying thank you to us for listening.
On Tuesday, 10/13, I had another holiday due to the PTA bazaar on Saturday, so I went to Gandai and did Internet research on Arabic for Monday’s Non-Roman script paper and presentation. Did much work on Facebook and in email, which felt good. But also did some great research, ending up with around 25 pages of information (in addition to the 15 I had from an earlier Internet search)-too much for a 5-8 page paper. BUT I am getting much better at paring things down, I have noticed.
On Wednesday (10/14), we visited Fuzoku Elementary School. When we arrived, 6th graders were doing a hands on activity on the “playground”-building an open fire in order to make pottery the way Japanese people did AGES ago. We observed an English lesson (for 4th graders) in which students danced to English songs (“Five Little Monkeys”; “Yes We Can”, by Will.i.am, about Obama) and acted like animals in line with an Eric Carle book. We observed two Japanese classes (one 4th grade and one 3rd/4th grade split) and ate lunch with a 4th grade class. A new program has been implemented in elementary schools where no food is wasted and children must eat all foods on their plate. I thought it was delicious, but I am seven at heart -breaded meat put on bun, soup, kiwi, salad with apples and celery.
Prior to the visit, Yuki selected me to assist a fifth year English teacher as an ALT for a lesson. It was WONDERFUL. We met prior to the class so we could talk over how the lesson would go. Talked about where different international foods are from. Due to the short attention spans of children, teachers were very energetic and active, always asking the children their point of view, engaging them in the lesson very well.
The school is owned and operated by Iwate University, not the Morioka Board of Education, and is very much an experimental study in teaching. English is taught to the children all six years of their elementary school education and Fuzoku is very much an active model of how English can/should be taught. The Japanese education system is always thinking 10 years ahead, so Fuzoku attempts to always make the school better and contribute positively to the question of how Japanese students can be taught best. Teachers are trained, educational research is done, and the school contributes to the regional. Fuzoku teachers lecture at Iwate University and other elementary schools. Teachers from other schools visit Fuzoku classes.
Afterwards, we all went to McDonald’s to celebrate Elizabeth’s birthday (Was the day before, 10/13).
Thursday’s (10/14) Japanese class was very much review, as many have been and seem to continue to be, but I think it is good to continually lay a good, strong foundation. Ethan, Abhi, Tamara, Nicole, and I, the Gandai Festival crew (for the festival 10/24-10/25) attended a meeting of all involved groups. Corrected some 2nd year sentences (“I hope…”, “I know…”) Osawa Sensei had them write to me on Saturday (10/10) to me; when I read “I know Hannah is easy” and “I know Hannah’s golden hair is beautiful,” I loved the kids even more than I already did. Oh English…
Friday (10/16) at Senboku was BUSY. Some third year girls invited me to do origami with them after lunch-wow. Now I have iketori on my desk. (Ikebana is “flower arranging”, but I have an origami box filled with origami cranes (“tori” means bird), so I called it “iketori”.) Elizabeth and I did some more bicycle riding practice (she’s getting great!). I ran and then met Abhi, Nicole, Mitchell, and Tamara for dinner at a Thai restaurant ~10 minutes from my house. Suripon, in our Japanese class, recommended the place and it was AMAZING!
Friday night and Saturday night were great because I didn’t go to bed too late and thus was able to wake up at 8am the next days. On Saturday (10/19), Elizabeth and I explored the Morioka Train Station-the department store within it, had a Baskin & Robbins Halloween sundae, and went to Aiina for her to do research and me to pare down my Arabic research. We talked a lot about how surreal it will be to return, to talk to next year’s SICE students…
That day was also the Aiina Friendship Fest with the theme “the world is friends” and Otoosan and I had planned to meet around 1:30pm. Prior to us meeting (Otoosan became delayed, so he didn’t arrive until ~3pm), an older man (probably in his sixties) approached me while I watched a Philippine dance and then a Nepalese flute/drum/guitar group on one of the stages. He (Yamazaki san) knew of Earlham and had visited the United States many times due to his involvement with a Christian church in Morioka. He was with Amnesty International and later on, Otoosan and I visited the photography exhibit he was with. Unicef, Free Trade, and Amnesty International were prevalent at the festival. Also, Japan makes little things seem important where, in America, one may encounter an “Oh, it’s not enough! What are we going to do?!” or dissatisfied patrons who think something was not done well enough. The Japanese just do things WELL. When they do them, they do not do them halfway.
Met a number of people Otoosan knows through his current work or previous engagements, such as Miya Sensei, the general manager of the 5th floor plaza (where we had first met Sugiwara Sensei OH SO LONG AGO), and a couple who, I think, hosted a SICE student some 20 years ago AND the boss of the 5th floor plaza. Otoosan is very popular. While looking at a series of tables, we met the man Osawa Sensei went to Victoria with last year (as its sister city, Morioka sends students regularly), who also happens to be the director of the Gender Equality and International Relations Division of the Morioka Board of Education. Hmmmm. Otoosan had primarily come to see a concert of the same three individuals playing Nepalese music on flute/drum/guitar I had seen earlier-good group with good music; currently helping a Nepalese elementary school (a “charity concert”). Bussed home since Otoosan had ridden his bike and I had bussed with Elizabeth that morning.
Saturday evening and Sunday (10/18) all day (save for Skype time with my mother), was me working on the Arabic report. And it turned out well. I got the 40some pages I had collected down to nine. WOOHOO. And I thoroughly enjoyed making the Power Point, creating a somewhat silly presentation, but I got my point across. Had another Gandai festival meeting tonight (Monday, 10/19) and afterwards, craved daifuku (mochi balls with ice cream in the middle; two-bite size). SO adventure ensued. Ethan, Tamara, and I found a konbini close by that had a package of two large ones, so Ethan and split that. Then, I succumbed to the box of 21 mini daifuku in vanilla, macha (green tea) and azuki (red bean paste). OH BABY. They were individually packaged and everything. I’ve decided that’s what I just might miss the most.
Hope Early Semester Break went well for all you Earlhamites and I hope winter hasn’t come QUITE yet to the Midwest or to Seatown OR to wherever you are.
Love from the Orient,
Hannah (if you need anything: bananasmile@softbank.ne.jp)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Adventures in Kyoto and Tokyo! (2 of 2)
September 28, 2009-October 5, 2009
So we got to
When we got out at Kyoto Station, it was like déjà vu times a trillion. Again, hate to be a broken record, but it felt like I had JUST left. The underground restaurants right outside the station, Kyoto Tower standing pretty, Isaten department store…We taxied to another Toyoko Inn and then went out to get our own dinner (all of us, incidentally, ended up going to Sukiya, a gyuudon (meat on top of rice)/karee (curry) place across the street). In the restaurant, what comes on the radio, MOM<>J
We met back at the hotel at 7:30pm, joined by a friend of Mariko’s, to walk through Pontocho (narrow street/alley off the main drag, full of restaurants and bars) and Gion, if you wanted to (many geisha there). And this “main drag” is the street our hotel is on, so you literally walk thirty minutes in one direction (to get to Gion) and then turn around/cross the street (for a change of scenery) and walk thirty minutes back. Not too hard, which is good for the MALES in our group. Just kidding. J
Ethan wanted to go to a jazz club he had seen on our walk down the “street”, so we (Mitchell, Abhi, Tamara, Samantha, and I, flowing our fearless leader) end up at this tiny bar playing jazz over the stereo. Samantha left faking a phone call because she didn’t feel comfortable (doesn’t like small spaces) and we all paid too much money for beers, some ginger ales, some Coca-Colas, a rum and Coke, and popcorn. It is customary, when going to a Japanese bar, that all people must order a drink. Food is usually a given too. We were being stupid Americans, even with half Japanese Tamara on our side. It was good to get out of there…
Throughout the trip, starting Sunday or Monday, I got bit by SOMETHING on multiple places all over my calves. I still have scabs now, but they were itching like CRAZY. Maybe the bites were going to my head because I woke up Tuesday (9/29) and thought, “Wow. I will not have eaten black olives for nearly four months by the time I chow down on them next. Hmmm.” I don’t know if I was hungry when I woke up at 7am or what, but when I got downstairs, I found something better than black olives: croissant rolls filled with a creamy Danish-like substance. Delicious rice balls and miso soup too. I lost track of my carb intake, which I should start caring about.
All our cell phones died faster in the Toyoko Inns because we got no service in the rooms and, according to Intelligent Indian Abhi, when there is no service, the phone constantly SEARCHES for service, so the battery is drained quicker.
We taxied to Ryoanji, which is currently under construction (and will be closed January-March). I wanted to be alone because of the peacefulness that the garden represents (it is a garden of twelve, I think, rocks representing islands off of
Mariko said that you should sit and think and when you contemplate hard enough, the answer you are searching for will come to you. I think we could always do with a little more quiet time in our lives, a little more time to sit and think, a little more time to just BE. I bought postcards (because post is a great thing) and wandered around for free time (we were to meet @ 10:30am). We walked the ~18 minutes to Kinkakuji (the
Kinkakuji, as always, was a sight to behold (the weather stayed very nice for our stops in
On the way back to meet up with the group, I went into the bicycle rental shop and got myself a t-shirt. Dad, the kelly green t-shirt I brought back for you last time that has the bananas and water bottle on it and says “We are bike riders. These are our fuel” (I think) is from the same place.
So we then rode the bus to Ginkakuji (
Everyone had to switch to another bus (I know not why) to continue on the route (for us, the remaining 10 minutes to Ginkakuji). Listened to Tamara’s iPod with her, we all disembarked, walked around the corner, and up the shop and restaurant-lined street to Ginkakuji.
Ginkakuji was under construction (scaffolding in place), not that it took anything away from its grandeur. Especially beautiful was the sand
So I walked around, took some great pictures, (throughout the vacation), which are going to overload my computer and take an HOUR probably to turn to the left or to the right. J Bought more postcards when we got all the way through (still have a love for gift shops-that’ll never die). Then Ethan had to go to Morioka Station to buy his shinkansen ticket from Kyoto to Tokyo to Morioka (for 10/5), so we all separated into “taxi groups” and were given money to get back to the hotel whenever we wanted to return. I was carrying some of Abhi’s things in my backpack, so we were a package, and along with Tamara and Samantha, we wandered down the shop-lined road. Some Nagoya elementary schoolchildren stopped us to practice English (“What is your name?” “Where are you from?” “What is your favorite color?” That kind of thing. Then, like in 2007, Mom, they had us sign our names on the back of the paper they were carrying.)
Ended up buying a shirt (Abhi told me to) that is mocking Adidas-it has the symbol, but the three top flower-like parts (okay, they’re not REALLY flower-like, but you get what I’m saying, right), are flames instead. And underneath, it says kazides (kazi means fire; des is desu, which goes at the end of a sentence). I felt like such a tourist. In Miyajima, I saw aidesu (with hearts; ai means love) and azides (with fish; azi is fish). Before walking along a nearby little river to get back to the road the bus had come by, we walk past a table where the man whose bar we had gone to last night is sitting (he is somewhat of a silversmith and makes jewelry out of old coins). Very beautiful work. For example, he took an American quarter and cut out everything but Washington’s head and the “One quarter” letters along the top (if that is even what it says). Much precision. Along the river we saw three GINORMOUS carp-one orange and two dark grey ones. Abhi was SEVERELY tempted to jump in and grab one.
Before catching a taxi back, I wanted to go to the post office (I had seen one close on the ride over) and make sure that the ¥70 stamps that the Morioka post office had told me would work for international postcards, actually would work. ¥70 WAS enough, but I needed to write Air Mail on them/use some stickers that they gave me.
¥1620 later, we were at the hotel (cabs vary from ¥550-¥640 depending on place and time (maybe)). Sensei gave us ¥1000 for the cab ride and reimbursed us later the ¥620 we paid out of our own pockets. At around 4pm, when we got back to our room, Tamara and I set to napping. We had alarms for 5:30, but when they went off, we turned them off and kept sleeping. At 6:30pm, I woke up and she awoke shortly after me, saying it was 7:30pm (I’ve heard that excessive sleep inhibits clock-reading ability). We decided it was a good time to get dinner. Still tired and drowsy, we trudged across the street to Yoshinoya, a favorite eatery of hers (saw Abhi and Ethan there), which has much the same feel as Sukiya (both, INCIDENTALLY use red and yellow in their signage and inside, which McDonald’s uses because APPARENTLY the colors make you hungry or you associate the colors with the restaurant so you think of it more often and therefore want it more often; I’m probably getting it a little wrong, so Mike, if you care to help me out here with your accurate knowledge of the corruptive nature of corporations, please be my guest J) Had butadon (pork on rice) and tea, free of course.
After food, we were MUCH more awake, so we set out trucking-down to Takashimaya (famous department store) where Tam saw a ¥13600 ($136.00) Ralph Lauren t-shirt she wanted to buy (had big polo pony on the left front and a “3” on the back, like a jersey). Her mom wants her to change her wardrobe (hmmmm, sound familiar?). We walked to Gion and passed the same corner where Mom took a picture of me as I slumped down, hungry and tired. Took another photo for ya J
We walked around exploring in the dark (I felt like I was with Mike a little) and came back via a McDonald’s bathroom stop, a corner concert by a two-man band, and Baskin & Robbins. Had “Candyman”, the Halloween special flavor, chocolate ice cream with orange crispy candies (Mike) and “New York Cheesecake” (Eric). That night was the only night, thus far, that I didn’t drink since the trip started. Tamara and I talked a lot instead. And went to bed too late (3am), but hey, we napped, right?
Tuesday night, watching TV, Feist’s “One Two Three Four” music came on during a commercial and the “Upside Down” disco song that’s on one of your CDs, Dad, was on another commercial. Then “Take On Me” came on and I almost DIED, Eric. AND there was a commercial for an iPod nano with a built in CAMERA (pictures and video). *GASP*
I was up at 7am on Wednesday (9/30) and downstairs before 7:30am. I ate three plates of two rice balls, a roll, and the croissant filled with Danish-like cream. We left around 8:30am in taxis to Kiyomizudera (Kiyomizu Temple). Mom and I had walked from the bottom of the shop and restaurant-lined street that leads up to the temple last time, but the taxis took us about halfway up. There was a little bit of light rain, so I put my light rain jacket over my backpack and my towel around my neck. Rain for a Seattleite is nothing ;)
In 2007, there were so many people in the actual temple that we didn’t make it all the way inside. We, as a group, went in and it was BEAUTIFUL. There is a saying that to throw yourself fully into something, you must throw yourself like you would off Kiyomizu budai (the stage of Kiyomizu). The view looks out to the main part of the city a little ways away. Near the end, three streams of water come out and over a small platform. You reach out a long-handled cup and drink from each to gain intellectual wisdom, health, and longevity. Abhi, Claire, Mitchell, and I, who were walking through with or close to Sensei and Mariko, did just that.
We slowly regrouped-Abhi went off to find Samantha, Tamara, and Ethan, but when we were all together, Mariko led us (just seconds from the temple grounds) to the studio of a friend of hers who makes EXQUISITE ceramic pottery. He and his wife used to live in the house we were welcomed into, but now it is their gallery. We saw his studio around the corner (he has ~12 people working for him total in Kyoto and Tokyo combined) and saw some of his creations. Beautiful beautiful BEAUTIFUL.
We broke for lunch and I tried to go out on my own (I found the place Mom and I ate when we visited in 2007-YES!) and looked around at the shops. I ran into Samantha and we got karee (curry). Afterwards, we bought strawberry cheesecake crepes and I bought two boxes of the mochi triangles as omiyage (one box for Yoko, one box for my host family) AND I bought mitarashi dango (pieces of skewered mochi cooked over an open oven with this sauce I don’t know how to describe…it’s sweet, but also kind of like teriyaki sauce…).
We all met at 1pm and taxied to Fushimi-Inari shrine, the land of many, many torii gates. I believe there are said to be 1,000. I carried Abhi, Tamara, and Mariko’s paper bags of goods bought around Kiyomizudera (Abhi and Tam bought ceramic sake cups from Mariko’s friend), and we were given an hour to walk through. It was raining a little harder, but not bad.
When we came back together again, after many pictures among the torii and contemplative walking and cats and many alters, Sensei decided that taking the train from Inari eki (station) right across the street to Kyoto station and then taking a taxi from THERE would be better than taxiing from here. It was also cheaper. We got back to the hotel around 3:15pm and they were still cleaning our rooms, so we waited (they were hurrying, apparently).
That’s a cool thing-they tell you when they will be cleaning your room. AND cleaning is an important part of Japanese culture. Tam and I, the day before, had asked them not to clean our room because we could just use the same towels and could sleep in the same sheets. We didn’t care. BUT that was an American mistake on my part. I was thinking of being ecological when in fact, it might have appeared as dirty/unclean/unhealthy.
When we got to our room and I napped 4-5:30, then Tam fell asleep, so I woke her up at 6:10. At 6:15, we all met in the lobby to go to our group dinner at Bistro Nozomi. About 9 courses Kyoto style (small portions). DELICIOUS. We sat on the floor, on a ledge, with our feet under the table (as if we were sitting in chairs). There were two tables-it was me, Nicole, Samantha, Claire, and Elizabeth versus Ethan, Tamara, Sensei, Mariko, Abhi, and Mitchell. Tam and I ended up switching seats halfway through because she came over to tell a story (she had gone to a ski resort with her host family over Silver Week (9/19-9/23) and she had seen some diapers for older people (or something). She took a long time to explain the story, so I went over to the other table to see what was going on. I didn’t intend to stay, but I ended up sitting with them.
The last course prior to dessert is something I now fondly call The Death of Me: a plate of sushi with probably 12 pieces, mostly sashimi (raw fish on top of rice). Nix, I think you would have liked it. Well, there was this one big roll that was, NO JOKE, the width of a clenched fist. I was seriously wondering if I could eat it in one bite (like you’re supposed to do with sushi) and Abhi must have read my mind. He said if I could do I, he would buy me a drink. Now, the drink wasn’t so much the drive-it was the POSSIBILITY that I could get that whole thing in my mouth. BUT as anyone I have eaten lunch with in saga (at Earlham) knows, my mouth really isn’t as big as I think it is. I have SERIOUS delusions of grandeur. SO I tried. And I’m pretty sure I had already scarfed down half my plate and pieces from others. Long story short: I didn’t quite make it. It was hard to swallow/breathe when you have a sushi roll taking up your whole mouth (there’s a video of it somewhere…). Then Abhi tried, I held the same reward of a drink, and he BEASTED it. The secret, I think, (from extensive observation), is to chew looking UP. I tried again, TWICE and they both ended poorly. So after THAT debacle AND finishing 2.5 plates of sushi (because I am The Garbage Disposal) AND ice cream (which I will never say “No” to), I was in SEVERE amounts of pain. Fullness x 34. Because of that, I came out feeling bad juju towards sushi (but it’s all good now, Nix.) I really want to go to Ginza (area in Tokyo) and do dessert hoodai (all you can eat dessert for 1.5 hours) so maybe I will have that SAME reaction to sweets and not eat them.
I REALLY needed to walk so I took and hour and walked to Gion and back, but I still felt SO full. And in my walking realized that I cannot be responsible for others. My eating of their food in order to (in some twisted way) save the planet does not really help anyone. IF we could bring Tupperware everywhere we went, THAT might help. But my getting full for a “cause” doesn’t do good things to my health. Tamara had left the restaurant early because she didn’t feel well and when I got back around 11pm, we went and walked more because she felt full as well (she was feeling better health-wise though). (While walking, I saw a girl with an Utrecht shirt, Dad. Like from the school. It reminded me of the Utrecht art supplies store that was sort of near LeRoi when you lived in First Hill.) We both didn’t want to eat anything more. Ever. The next day, we embarked on our Tokyo adventure.
Ah Thursday. (10/1) Got down to the lobby a little early to send a fax to my mom (that would go my insurance company) regarding my insurance coverage not changing when hers does due to her NEW JOB. I kept pressing the copy button when I wanted to send because it said “start” next to it. Luckily, Sensei came down and she helped me THANK GOODNESS.
We all met at 9:30 (Abhi had left earlier; he was staying with his aunt in Chiba, outside of Tokyo) so Sensei could say goodbye. Samantha had to finish packing and some people wanted to eat more, so we got into our two taxis at around 10:15. When “my” taxi got to the station, I mistakenly didn’t specify south terminal SO our taxis became separated. The other taxi took them on a strange detour and they arrived SOMEWHERE after us. The shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo didn’t leave until 12:22, but Samantha still hadn’t bought her ticket. I called Ethan and they were just getting out of the taxi. I called him again and they were in the station, I told him to meet us outside the main entrance, he said okay. Turns out they went to go get the ticket FIRST and THEN come meet us. It would have been GREAT to hear THAT rather than be standing outside the main entrance for 20 minutes wondering if they were all okay.
Due to the Unfortunate Sushi Event of the previous night, I wanted to eat NOT AS MUCH, so when we got into the station and were buying our lunches, I chose bananas and a sandwich. Had a few tiny bites of Tam’s Godiva Chocolate Caramel ice cream because she enjoys tempting me. We got into the shinkansen terminal and still had time, so some of us visited the bookstore, etc. Got on and on our way-the two hour ride to Tokyo went great (read and dozed).
When we arrived in Tokyo and had to train to the Asakusa station (where our hostel was), it was confusing because we were already IN the station, but we needed to buy train tickets. We went out of the shinkansen terminal, bought tickets, and proceeded to the Ginza line. Tamara and her fluency helped. BUT, because I had no rolling luggage/didn’t want to take the escalator, I always took the stairs that a) got me to the same place first, but b) often diverged from the escalator path. I got to the platform for the Ginza line (to Ueno, Asakusa) and Ethan called me to tell me that I was at the wrong place. I read the platform and destinations to him (it was the right place) and everyone soon arrived. Probably shouldn’t have diverged from the group, but we all got to the right place in eight pieces and didn’t get lost.
We arrived at Asakusa (on a very full train) and left out of a different exit than the Sakura Hostel directions said to. Tamara then asked for directions. WHY we didn’t just follow the directions provided by the hostel I DON’T KNOW. This is an instance where some people in the group seem to not TRUST others or have FAITH in them or WANT to make them the leader (as in, relinquish the leadership). It’s a problem that needs to be addressed, in my opinion. So out the exit, down past multiple rickshaw drivers, past the HUGE lantern that marks the entrance to a shrine, past the am/pm konbini (convenience store). Then the road Ts with a busier road and we take a right (at the vending machine with the fighting demons on it), continue past Denny’s and 7-11, and take a right at the restaurant where there’s a pachinko (gambling) parlor down on the left and a porn theater on the right and take the left fork when the road splits at the entrance to the amusement park. We arrived about 4pm and checked into our rooms. Thanks to Elizabeth’s promptness in both ASKING us if we wanted to room with her and in RESERVING the rooms, she, Claire, Tamara, and I were settling in in no time (in a 4 bed room on the 2nd floor). Samantha was in the mixed 6 bed room next door, Nicole was in a 6 bed room upstairs (on the third floor I think; 6 floors total I think), and Mitchell and Ethan were two floors up. For our four bed room, it was ¥12600/night, so essentially we (due to our four night stay) owed ¥12600 each. When I had taken money out of the Gandai ATM before leaving, I thought I was ROLLING in money. Like always, however, things take money. And I was humbled in the first few moments as we paid before “moving in.”
The rooms were clean, a window looked out on the street we had just entered from, 2 sets of bunk beds with 4 lockable cubbies (could get a lock from the front desk for ¥250), and there was a power outlet up by the top bunk! We made our beds with the sheets waiting for us on the beds (instructions were on the back of the door, as were rules like no eating or drinking in the room (do so in the lounge downstairs) and noise stops at 9pm (if you want to talk, use the lounge downstairs).
Elizabeth, Nicole, and Claire went to Mos Burger for dinner (on the way from the station to the hostel). Ethan, Mitchell, Samantha, Tam, and I went to Shibuya (30 minute train ride; Asakusa is one end of the Ginza line, Shibuya is the other) to meet up with a friend of Samantha Lynch’s (Ethan’s girlfriend), Amelia, and Amelia’s friend Anneliese. (Kelsey, it was Anneliese Irby, who went to NOMS and then to Ballard-WHAT a small world). Amelia goes to Temple University and is on a study abroad program, much like us. Anneliese is studying too and staying with her sister who is living in Tokyo currently. Meting them was relatively easy though Shibuya is the location of “Japan Times Square”, which is REALLY a sight to see, especially at night. We walked around for a great deal of time, in true Japanese fashion, wondering what to eat for dinner. After about 30 minutes and looking and asking the group and indecisiveness, Ethan saw a good spot. Bowls of raamen (noodles) or dinner sets of rice, miso soup, and noodles. I had rice and gyoza (potstickers)-small and good. AND cheap! (It has been interesting to hear people in our group talk about how much they need to save $, but order too much food and don’t finish all of it.
Ethan, Amelia, Tamara, and Anneliese craved bubble tea (at First Kitchen, a fast food-like place that was just a few feet away; in Tokyo, people call it “fuh-ki” for short; sounds like a swear word). In a moment of “What do we do now?” (it was 8:30pm) we discussed purikura (picture booths). Middle and high school students decorate their pencil cases, planners, cell phones, etc. with pictures of them and their friends in picture booths. A number of different backgrounds are available and then afterwards, you DECORATE the pictures with pen-wands and can put nearly everything imaginable on them. More background detail, stars, glitter, hearts, sparkles, cartoon characters, numbers, kanji characters, glasses, hats… So we did THAT for an hour. (The place we went was part of an arcade and the sign at the entrance to the purikura area had a message to all who wanted to enter: pictures of a girl, a girl and a boy together, and a boy (but with a red X through the picture). Boys cannot go in by themselves or in groups of JUST boys. It is more popular for many girls to go together or for a couple to go together or for a large group of mixed gender to go, but only boys is dame (bad).)
When we were done, Anneliese walked back to wherever she and her sister are (might have taken the train or a bus) and Amelia took the Ginza line with us and got off at her stop (she had to be home (host family curfew) by 10:30). We proceeded to Asakusa, I showered, and went to bed around midnight.
It rained on Friday (10/2). There was a breakfast at the hostel-¥315 all you can eat toast and soup. Didn’t seem worth it (Elizabeth and Claire said so after eating). I had set an alarm for 7am, but I slept through it and got up at 9am. Now that we didn’t have to be anywhere at a given time AND it was the tail end of our glorious adventure, I was much more fatigued, I think. I had set the alarm specifically to do laundry. The Toyoko Inns we stayed at had laundry too, but Tamara and I (at least) figured that we would do our laundry when we got to Tokyo. Well, it wasn’t getting done THAT morning.
I was ready to leave around 10. Nicole, Elizabeth, and Claire set out to the Edo museum and Akihabara (anime/geek central is what it’s known for). Tam and I waited for Ethan and Mitchell and then got a little breakfast (at a nearby Lawson, the BEST konbini ever, though I think my loyalty lies with Lawson because it was the first convenience store we all visited due to its close proximity to Kumagai Ryokan (where we stayed when we first arrived in Morioka)). I had eaten one of m leftover bananas, but I bought an onigiri (in a continued effort to eat less and NEVER feel like how I felt post-Sushi Experiment). Mitchell, Ethan, and Tamara all bought raamen or rice and shrimp tempura (in Mitchell’s case). Mitchell offered me his leftover rice, but I refused (and was SO proud of myself) and they all ended up MORE than satiated.
By 11, we made our way to the large lantern we passed en route to the hostel the previous afternoon and met up with Masaki (Ethan’s plans), a Waseda University student who came to Earlham two years ago, during our first year (07-08). Waseda is a VERY good school in Tokyo and Masaki and Ethan had been roommates during that year. Masaki helped us decide where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do, saying that a tower in Roppongi may offer a better view than Tokyo Tower (Mitchell’s suggestion) and Tamara added that the tower in Roppongi also had an aquarium. We ended up train-ing to Roppongi and up to the sky view floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Arts Center, which USUALLY offers a panorama of the city. BUT due to the rain, we were in the clouds on the 52nd floor and thus all we saw was WHITE. Which was WICKED cool. The student ticket for the view, the aquarium, and the arts museum (3 attractions in one!) was a fabulous ¥1500. We did purikura at the top (though no decorating, just the city behind us) and hit the aquarium.
OH. MY. GOSH. Glass tanks like you wouldn’t believe. Use of color, of light, of darkness, of shapes. Wow. The art museum was doing a special exhibit on Ai Weiwei, (the architect of the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing), which was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. I never knew I loved modern art so much. The audio tour was a great addition, too. The exhibit (and the art) was clean, uncluttered, and utilitarian but at the same time genius. For instance, “One Ton of Tea” is a three dimensional cube of compressed tea. Yup. GENIUS. I wanted to buy a t-shirt of a great piece-bicycle frames joined together in a ring, four high. But I bought a postcard instead. AND they let you take pictures, so that’s great. The exhibit was very much about past tradition vs. the present modern age. Interesting. CAPTIVATING.
For lunch, we headed back to the station and a plethora of choices. Decided on a raamen place with a great price-¥880 for noodles with vegetables and chicken. We then all took the train to Akihabara (Masaki left us to go to a meeting at Waseda) and went to Don Quixote, where Tamara got the Pikachu costume she has. It’s a full body zip up and it’s probably on of the greatest things I have EVER seen. So she bought an Elmo one. J Don Quixote (8+ floors) also has a maid café and the cheapest SoyJoys around (¥98) and lotion (YEAH! I was SO glad to see that because it was on my grocery list) and slutty Halloween costumes (you got about eight four different “student” outfits or “tutor” or “schoolgirl”, your “pirate”, “pirate captain”, “maid”, “nurse”, “bumblebee”, etc.).
We then got dinner before Ethan was to meet Amelia for drinks. Mitchell and Ethan chose McDonald’s (which Tamara gave them a hard time for) and Tamara and I stepped into a small place nearby and got noodles (Tam) and toridon (chicken on rice, me). We thought we should regroup, so we found them at McDonald’s and all took the Ginza line together back to Asakusa (Ethan then took the Asakusa line to Gotanda). Since he was a little unfamiliar with the area of Asakusa and then way back to our hostel, I said I would meet him at 11pm/11:15pm at the lantern so he could find his way back. I told him directions (akin to what I typed previously-the route we took from the station the first time), but I really didn’t want to risk losing him.
Tam had the idea to go to a public bath nearby, so I asked Mitchell (who was walking with us) Nicole and Elizabeth (and assumed Claire’s “no”) just to make sure everyone felt included. Everyone said no and frankly, I wasn’t so up to being naked PERSONALLY. Tamara was a little let down though, I think. I had one priority that night: laundry. And Tam seconded that. We got back to the hostel (to a BUSY lounge), Nicole lent us the remainder of the laundry soap she had purchased, we paid ¥200 each for a washer , then (when the time was up) put our laundry in together on HIGH for 30 minutes (¥100x2). The putting it on “HIGH” was a detail we learned from Nicole and Elizabeth-people who DO not do something first get to learn from others. Thank you Elizabeth and Nicole. ‘Wanted’ was on TV (yeah Liza, you Israeli street fighter, and Breanna, you mixed martial artist!)-so THAT was nice. And it was dubbed in Japanese, so that was even nicer. I got distracted from writing in my journal by Facebook (on Samantha’s computer) via the free wireless and by Tamara’s bottle of sake (she bought it in Kyoto station at the grocery store where most of us bought lunch), yuki (fragrant orange/lemon) flavor. We had a few cups of that and I also bought a ¥150 can of chuuhi, a type of sake…maybe….Went to the lantern at 11pm and Ethan’s phone had died previously in the day, so there was no way to communicate with him. He came at 11:30 and we walked back fine. (I sometimes wonder why I put myself at the mercy of others, abiding by their schedule-first trying to help Tamara get to yabusame (archery on horseback), now waiting for Ethan to make sure he gets home okay. It’s because people matter. That’s my conclusion, the only one I’ve got.) Showered and went to bed around 1am.
Oh (10/3) Saturday. Slept through my 7am alarm again; awoke at 10:45 moderately upset that I had just slept 1/3rd of the day away. It was raining less and Tamara (who had ALSO slept late), Ethan, and Claire (who had been awake for hours WAITING for us to wake up) waited in the lobby for Mitchell to finish showering. Ate a banana. Then when the five of us were ready to go, Ethan, Mitchell, and Tam were hungry. So we stopped at an Indian restaurant on the way to the station. HUGE naan. No joke, the actual size of baby elephant ears. The menu pictures are a tad deceiving. I bought ¥250 turmeric rice (which the man/owner didn’t fully understand, I think, since restaurants are where you EAT; Japanese people don’t eat on the go usually and they don’t snack much) and felt great when others felt full from their curry sets.
Tamara took us to Ginza (via the Ginza line; about halfway to Shibuya), one of the most expensive areas of Tokyo. Up out of the station and into a gift shop kind of store (within the Sony building) with great pencil bags, stickers, bento boxes, planners, etc. Z, I think you would have loved it. A great place, I think, for middle schoolers and high schoolers. Plus, the Halloween display was very cute. We went up to the next floor and it was the headquarters, maybe, of the Miracle Project, a Sony driven photography project that I’ve seen on television commercials-a bunch of elementary school students create sea creatures with arts and crafts supplies in their classroom and a man with a Sony camera documents the project. Above that space were headphones/cameras/iPod-like mP3 players (all Sony) for people to test out. Picked up one set of headphones and what song is playing on the mP3 but “Beautiful Girls”. I’m glad you’re with me, EJ.
After a little while, we went outside and tried to decide what to do for the limited time we had since it was already around 1 (Ethan was going to meet up with Amelia and Anneliese at Shibuya station at 2:30). He chose the Asahi Shinbun (newspaper company-owned building I think) building across the street and looked around at the shops inside for about twenty minutes. Hello Kitty, lingerie, shoes. It’s like a totally magical world here, so I love to just LOOK.
We hopped the Ginza line to Ginza (~20 minutes) and Amelia found us before we left the station. We waited for Anneliese outside while Amelia complained about her friends who would rather write papers than come meet Ethan and his cool friends. I said I liked doing homework too. J
When Anneliese showed up, we walked in the direction of the karaoke place they wanted to go to. Amelia was hungry, so we stopped at a Sunkus (like “Thanks” perhaps; a konbini), but then Anneliese was thinking Wendy’s while she was inside, so then we went ACROSS THE STREET to Wendy’s. I didn’t get anything (had 2 fries, one from Tam and one from Anneliese, who both bought kid’s meals and received handkerchiefs! SO much better than toys.). It’s not really my thing…AND I wasn’t hungry. Tam had been so adamantly against Ethan and Mitchell going to McDonald’s the previous night, but now freely bought Wendy’s. That was a little strange in my mind. Yes, you’re in Japan and should eat Japanese food (or at least not “American” food). Yes, burgers are great when you need a reminder of home. Now I see why, when I agree with two viewpoints and DON’T have an opinion (CE), it’s frustrating. Sorry about that.
We continued walking in the direction of karaoke and had to ask a policeman for directions because Amelia and Anneliese couldn’t exactly remember where it was-after going in circles in Shibuya, many intersections/streets look the same, so I don’t blame them. We found it and went in and they were all planning to stay for two hours or so. I, however, had scheduled dinner with Yoko, an old exchange who came to stay (at the age of eighteen) with my mother and me when I was eight. Our original plan was to have dinner at her parent’s home in Saitama (about 40 minutes outside of the city; where she still lives) so that we would all be able to see each other-her mother, her father, her, and me. Then Naoko, her sister, was going to be available for dinner and we were going to go to her house in Iriya, about 20 minutes from Asakusa (on the Ginza Line then on the Hibiya Line). We were going to meet at 5pm at Ueno (the transfer/shared station) and then go on to Naoko’s together. THEN Yoko’s father said we were going to go out to a shabu-shabu (cooking meat in boiling water) and sukiyaki (thin noodles cooked in boiling water with lettuce and meat) restaurant in Ueda on him (only about 20 minutes from Ginza on the Ginza line). Yoko emailed me the final plan when we got into karaoke at around 3pm. Yoko and I would meet at 5:40 at the station and walk to the restaurant where we (Yoko, Naoko, Naoko’s 2 year old son Tomo-chan (chan is used after children’s names normally), Yoko’s mother, Yoko’s father, and I had reservations from 6pm). That meant I would leave Shibuya at ~5pm instead of the 4pm/4:30 I had previously thought. SO I joined Ethan, Amelia, Anneliese, Tamara, Mitchell, and Claire for karaoke. Sang ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Take On Me’, ‘Stronger’ (Kanye West), ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, ‘Glamorous’ (Fergie; wish it could have been more T-O-P-H-E-R-O-U-S). Ethan sang some Frank Sinatra, Mitchell sang some Queen, Amelia sang some Prince. Great variety.
I left at around 4:45pm to get back to Shibuya station (paid Tam back), bought my train ticket, got on the train (they DO come every 2-3 minutes) and got to Ueno with no problem and time to spare (in at 5:25pm). Was a little nervous because I wanted to make sure I was in the right place at the right time. Early is ALWAYS good, especially in Japan. Yoko arrived shortly (we were mailing each other to make sure we were in the right places) and she looked/looks as young as always. The restaurant was a short walk from the station and until around 8:30, we had a delicious dinner and great conversation. We had our own private room with the same table as was at our group dinner in Tokyo-we were seated on the floor with our feet under the table.
We (Mom and I) saw Tomo-chan as an infant-now he is 2 years and 4 months old, in his words. J Talking a great deal and likes to touch everything. Before her mother, father, Naoko, and Tomo-chan arrived, Yoko gave me omiyage (gifts) because she did not want Tomo-chan to destroy them: 2 sets of exquisite chopsticks (with one containing a rice scoop) and a beautiful handheld, hand painted mirror. Later on, Okaasan (Yoko’s mother) gave me a key clip with a mini fan on it. Tomo-chan was very well-behaved though, which is a constant with Japanese children. Though he was tired towards the end, the idea of pears (2 plates came: one with plain slices, one with slices toped with wine-like flavored jelly topping) and ice cream (we had macha (green tea), he had vanilla) kept him in good spirits. Tomo-chan had some bread from a bag decorated with Anpanman, a cartoon character. Yoko said that because it has Anpanman on the bag, children want to eat it though it is just regular bread. Naoko’s husband works late on Saturdays, so he was unable to join us.
Naoko talked about her visit to Seattle while Yoko stayed with us and a restaurant chain called Boston Market (that specialized in mashed potatoes, gravy, rotisserie chicken, etc.; don’t know WHY in the world it would shut down, not from lack of interest at least) and how much she LOVED it.
After dinner, Naoko and Tomo-chan got into a taxi to get home and Yoko, Okaasan, Otoosan, and I walked back to the station (I saw a Sweets Paradise-dessert hoodai (all you can eat dessert for an hour and a half)) via a narrow street marketplace of booths and garages (the kind of marketplace/back alley greatness that is so characteristically Japan to me). In the station, Okaasan bought me two boxes of different sweets omiyage (gifts), one for my host mother/family and one for my friends, if I wanted to share with them. Both sweets were small, roundish, and soft with soft filling. One was whitish and usagi (rabbit) shaped, the other was brown. The insides of both were matching in color to their exterior. Okaasan also bought me a pancake sandwich, two pancakes with azuki (red bean paste) between them to eat as a snack sometime later.
They walked me to where I could get a ticket and then I bought and proceeded through to where I would descend to the platform. BUT I almost went down the stairs to the wrong side of the tracks (I would have read the sign on the track and KNOW I was in the wrong place), but before I could go any further, they were calling to me, telling me to go to the other side. AS much as I LOVE Shibuya, I don’t think I wanted to go back there that night. J I was thankful. I walked towards the right stairwell and there was much smiling, waving, and “Jyaa ne”-ing (“See you later.”) I think I was also a little nervous-Yoko is a very important person to me and my mother and there is no way to say “Thank you for letting your eighteen-year-old daughter come stay with us, foreign people in a foreign country, for three years and for letting her stay in the United States for five. Thank you for having a daughter who loves adventure and who really made me love Japan, the language and culture. Thank you for all you have given me and my family, both tangible and otherwise. You and YOUR family have changed my life.” So I will attempt to say that IN Japanese. Also, in America, we hug goodbye (and sometimes hello too!) and in my vain attempt to thank them enough, I hugged them goodbye. They were caught a little off guard I think AND the Japanese way is not one of hugging. So it was funny. While on the train, I emailed Yoko a thank you and perhaps I will make it back to Tokyo to see them before I head out of this beautiful country. On the train, I saw a guy with combat boots, Eric.
Walked back to the hostel and thought everyone was asleep or no one was back (because from the outside, I didn’t quite know which room was ours). However, much to my glee, Elizabeth and Claire were in the room talking. It was such a déjà vu to last year-me and two of my very good friends (Liz and Clairellyn) roomed in a triple in the basement of one of the residence halls on Earlham’s campus. There were three windows that were right at ground level and often I would be coming back from a meeting or a friend’s room at 10 or 11 at night and I would usually be exhausted. I would look at the windows, which I could see when I came across the Wellness Center parking lot, and if the lights were off, I would think, sadly, that I was coming back to a room of sleeping roommates and I didn’t want to wake them up when I came in. HOWEVER, usually when I turned the key and opened the door, light greeted me (the shades had been pulled on the windows AND/OR the lamps were on and so the light wasn’t bright enough to be seen from outside) and my two smiling roommates (probably watching an episode of “Bones”, “Veronica Mars”, or “Gossip Girl”), and maybe an empty pizza box, were there, making me one of the happiest people on the face of the planet. And no matter how tired I was walking BACK, I woke up the minute I entered that room. And I loved that. And I told Elizabeth and Claire that and now writing this, I think I just might cry.
Elizabeth and Claire and I talked a lot about the program, the trip we were on, the people we were with…it was really good (it always is) to talk openly with people, to build trust with others, to hear the viewpoints of others. Borrowed Samantha’s laptop (she had said I could use it) from where it was plugged in in her room and was able to Skype with a friend while taking advantage of the wireless on a landing between the first and second floor. Talked for about an hour, Samantha and Tamara came back while I was talking, and I soon returned Sam’s computer.
In the lobby, I talked with Mitchell and Ethan while ‘Man on a Wire’ played on the TV (dubbed in Japanese). Once again, god to hear people’s points of view on the program, trip, and people. Went BACK to the room and Nicole had come in to visit, so the four of us (Elizabeth and Claire were still there) talked more. Showered around 12:15am, started writing in my journal around 1am (lights were mounted on each bunk; I used mine and covered it with my jacket to try and allow Elizabeth and Claire to sleep), and fell asleep around 2. Tamara came in around 1:30. AND I was getting up at 7 to go to Yokohama the next day…
Light rain continued to fall on Sunday (10/4) and FINALLY we were up at 7, though I did have to wake Tamara up. Left around 7:45am after calling Samantha to ask if she wanted to join, but she sleepily declined and said se would talk to us later. Apparently, we three were originally were going to go to Yokohama to meet Haruna (another Waseda University student who came to Earlham during our first year, 07-08). Got to Asakusa station around 8:15 (after Tam stopped to get an onigiri (rice ball) and an energy drink). Went on the Ginza line to Ginza (20 minutes), transferred to the Hibiya line to Naka-Meguro (15 minutes probably), then got on the JR (Japan Rail) Tokyuu Toyoko line (I think) to Minato Mirai (around 30 minutes). Minato Mirai is also the name used for the amusement park that sits on the Yokohama waterfront, which was our MAIN destination.
We, thanks to my desire to be up and at ‘em (to sort of prove that YES I COULD use an alarm), got to Minato Mirai station at around 9:30, too early to shop at the shops. So we rode the escalator (one of Japan’s longest escalators; maybe 30 seconds) up and down and up to the sunshine. We hit the ATM and then sat at Starbucks so Tam could rink coffee and smoke and we could watch the time tick by via the GINORMOUS Ferris Wheel CLOCK. Yes, that’s right ladies and gentlemen, the wheel has a digital clock and it is PROBABLY one of the greatest ideas since hand sanitizer, but motion sensor lights are good too. We also were at a GREAT vantage point to witness child-parent relations on the plaza-like, park-like open space (you knows, you’ve got your planters and your benches and your wide open space where street performers can do their thang) in front of the station and across from the amusement park. FOR EXAMPLE, a boy (probably 8 or 9) fell on the ground and did not cry, but rather crawled on his stomach towards his mother who was continuing to walk, then got up and walked with her. LOGICAL young lad. A father and a young daughter (who later met the mother and came to sit outside Starbucks) were holding hands and walking down some nearby steps. When she slipped and became a little flustered, he just changed the way he was helping her: rather than walk next to her, he faced her and walked down the steps backwards, but if she fell, she fell into him and I’m sure she felt more secure. The important thing to notice here, class, is that he did not coddle her. He did not make her slipping a big deal. This is why the Japanese are the most successful people in the world.
We went back into the station around 11am and looked around the Snoopy Store and the Disney Store. I had called Hanako, my host sister, who goes to school in Yokohama and thus lives there now (went back after Disneyland trip) and she said she would come after washing her clothes, bussing to the train station, and training to Minato Mirai. After about 20 minutes, she called again and asked if we could meet her at Sakuragicho Station instead, a 5-10 minute walk away. The answer is ALWAYS “Yes” on Sundays, SO we met up with her around 11:15am. We did a little dance for getting together (HOORAY!) and headed for lunch with our capes rippling behind us. Found a soba restaurant in the building between the two stations. Tam and I had ocha (tea) soba (green noodles) (LOVE soba, just btdubs) and Hanako had the manager’s recommendation-soba with some hard boiled egg and radish in it. We all ate fast. We’re like a secret SOCIETY of Should Eat Slower-s. Went for Coldstone Creamery (YEAH. Seriously, with Starbucks, Krispy Kremes, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and COLDSTONE, HOW can you be homesick?) and all had Like Its (the smallest size, which I THINK is smaller in Japan, as is everything). Chocolate Decadence for Hanako, Romancing the Cheesecake for muah, and Very Berry Cheesecake in a waffle cone in a bowl for TamTam.
THEN we went to Sweet Factory, another way you are never left wanting in Japan. We had seen it en route from Minato Mirai to Hanako and we just HAD to go. Dried grapefruit, pineapple, and watermelon; chocolate-covered strawberries, Ramune hearts and stars; the small, spiky candy Claire loves so much (for her). So almost $10 LATER (for me; Tamara spent nearly double probably), we were off to the park! Tam spent ¥2800 worth of tickets which was actually worth ¥3500 (which maybe gives the illusion that you’re getting more for your money…) and we went on a spinning ride together-it went on a half-pipe like base, up and back down, and spun too. It was then suggested by Tam that we should each by our own tickets, though I don’t think it was ¥2800 worth. THEN we went into the Polar/Ice Room, literally FREEZING. MY GOODNESS. ICE and BREATH and PAIN and everything.
Went across the bridge to another section, the “big kid” rides, like the Ferris Wheel and roller coasters and a water log ride. Went on a sort of scary (it was attempting to be scary) ride where we were in a cage that went on tracks through various scary incidents (much dropping down and popping out, so if you’re scared by such things, go ahead). Then we went on a roller coaster that spun the seat as well (4 people total in a small round “car”; much back and forth movement). My head kind of hurt afterwards, which worried me. Haven’t had bad headaches here so far, but I’m thinking the kind of movements on roller coasters and jolting rides like that might adversely affect my brain case.
Went on the BIG rollercoaster that wove in an around the base of the Ferris wheel and the large arcade center there on that side of the bridge and THEN up in the gondola. WOW. 60 gondolas (reppin’ the 60 seconds of a clock)-it was quite warm with the sunshine and we could squint and look out onto the bay and the city. BEAUTIFUL. Afterwards, we killed the remaining ¥ left on our cards by going to the kiddie area and riding on this pedal car ride and a carousel.
We hit the Snoopy Store and the Disney Store on last time and received a call about dinner-meeting Machiko (another Waseda student who was at Earlham our first year, 07-08) in Shibuya. Hanako was invited, but the trouble was, Shibuya was the OPPOSITE direction Hanako needed to go (as we were in her ‘hood). I thought this kind of problematic, but she said she didn’t mind riding the train at night and had done it before from inner Tokyo. We called Machiko to explain this and she said, after much shuffling by us and ‘What would be better?” and Hanako saying Yokohama station was the most convenient for her, Machiko said she could meet us at Yokohama station, just a short ride from Minato Mirai and Sakuragicho. We all got there, met up with Machiko after looking around a little, and had okonomiyaki for dinner in one of the MANY restaurants to be found in the station. Like usual, I was given the pleasure of deciding since Hanako and Machiko (and Tamara too) could have this food whenever they wanted. We ordered three, and then cut each one into 1/4ths which was GENIUS (Thank you, Machiko!).
Afterwards (around 9:30pm), we said goodbye to Hanako (who bussed home), and Machiko, Tamara, and I took the Hibiya Line to Ginza, a very full train back. At Ginza, we parted ways-Machiko to home, Tamara and I to the Ginza Line to Asakusa. It was AWESOME. Got back to the hostel and did a little bit of packing in preparation for leaving the next day.
Monday (10/5) was relatively easy-we prepared enough ahead of time so that we weren’t rushing that morning. In other words, we left the hostel at 10:15am and got to Asakusa Station, then took the Ginza Line to Ginza I THINK and caught the shinkansen from there. We were in the waiting area at 11am and our train didn’t left until 12:59pm. We all had bento (boxed lunches) and went up to the platform around 12:45. There, like clockwork, was our train. We got on and it rolled. We were in Morioka around 3:15pm and we all got home in various ways. I took the bus with Elizabeth and Claire to the bus center, then got on another bus (with Elizabeth) that dropped me off 7 minutes from my house. Claire got on another one at the bus center. Some people took taxis, some called their families.
Walking out of the station into the afternoon sunshine and knowing that we were back in Morioka (which has 30,000 people, not the 300,000 I thought; you would think I would notice a big difference like that…), it was such a good feeling. Like being home.
Hope everyone at Earlham has a good Early-Semester Break and plans for Halloween are proceeding nicely. Love to all the students, parents, and family. May your days be rich in joy.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Adventure Time! Disneyland and Hiroshima-1 of 2
September 19, 2009-September 28, 2009
Again, I have relegated myself to writing two weeks worth of experiences. My mother and father tell me my writing can be too detailed and confusing at times, so I shall (as I always, but half-heartedly do) strive for conciseness. I am quite sorry for the delay of this posting. SO much to say…
The end of Ethan’s family’s BBQ (Saturday, September 19) went well (or at least what had to be my end and Samantha’s end) and I biked home just fine (left at around 6pm), back at my house by 6:35pm. THEN, because Hanako wanted gyoza (potstickers), we MADE gyoza. Dinner was a little late (~8:30pm) because Otoosan made the inside and then went to buy the dough circles that are the outside and then we (Otoosan, Tsukie, and myself) dolloped the insides in the center of a circle, wetted the outer edge, folded the two sides together, then crimped the ends and folded one end back on itself. (This is confusing I’m sure, so if we ever make gyoza together, I can explain it better by doing it.) We probably had 60 gyoza; though Otoosan burnt one batch, we just ate the non-burnt parts and pitched the burnt bottoms. Watched the ‘Veronica Mars’ episode (season 2 opener) that came with Hanako’s favorite magazine. (LIZ AND CE-WE NEED TO WATCH THE SECOND SEASON or YOU GUYS ARE SO RIGHT-IT ROCKS!!!) I’m addicted basically. Afterwards, a hilariously violent Chinese (dubbed in Japanese) film was on. Did laundry and showered simultaneously.
On Sunday (9/20), Hanako and I got up at 7am and left by 7:20am to get ramen at the local morning market . I thought I had brought a ¥500 coin in my coin purse, but I neglected to remember that I had spent it on omiyage (gift) for Ethan’s host family. Rats! Ramen was ¥400 and Hanako was kind enough to spot me. I gave her ¥300 on the walk back home and ¥100 later. In the beautiful free time that came upon me that morning, I wrote letters and did the rest of my reading and summary for the next Thursday class (9/24). Hustle and bustle took place in preparation for Ko’s piano concert. Tsukie took Hanako (who would be announcing the players as well as turning pages for the adults who were performing) to her aunt’s house (whose concert it was) at around 10am and Otoosan was in and out. Then Tsukie took Ko at around 11:30am/noon. I was able to Skype with a friend before Otoosan, Tsukie, and I left at 1:10pm (after VERY QUICKLY eating a DELICIOUS lunch of rice, gyoza innards-stuffed tofu, and all sorts of yummy leftovers. My host family does a GREAT job of leftovers-a lot like my American family J We drove to Tsukie’s mother’s house to pick her up for the concert.
It was taking place at a hall near Morioka Station (train, shinkansen (bullet train)) in a medium-sized room with cathedral ceilings (very intimate and welcoming) with a large organ against the upstage wall, shining a brilliant gold. The concert was WONDERFUL. 16 pupils of Maya, Tsukie’s older sister and the middle child, ranging in age from 6 (pre-elementary school) to Ko’s 17 (and high school third year). 2 boys and 14 girls and two of the girls have been students of Maya’s for TEN YEARS. Hanako told me at breakfast that two other pupils had decided not to play in the concert-one had too much pressure on her and the other was a mentally disabled woman. Both had performed before though (concerts take place at various times during the year). All pieces were memorized. Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart… A visiting piano player, a middle-aged woman who was in a piano conservatory-like group with Maya, played. Maya did too. WOW. All involved posed for pictures following the concert, received cake in individual boxes as well as flowers.
Afterwards, we returned to the house to change clothes and then rode our bikes the ~18 minutes to the Italian restaurant to meet Maya, Mire (Tsukie’s oldest sister), Obaasan (their mother), Maya’s husband, Maya’s son, ad Maya’s son’s girlfriend. Great conversation. 95% in Japanese, which I prefer, which was AMAZING. IT FELT SOOOOO GOOD. Hanako always wants to practice English, so we talk in English.
Maya’s son’s girlfriend is from Nagano, but lives in Tokyo now. I asked her about the snow monkeys and the onsen (hot spring) I want to visit during our individual travel time, but she said that now there is no snow (duh!), so I might not go. She went to Michigan near Kalamazoo College as an exchange student when she was 17 for a short amount of time, so she speaks English well. It was great to be part of such a welcoming atmosphere, with delicious food, and to feel at home in a way. A growing experience to be sure.
We rode home and I stopped at Jois, a local grocery store, to make change for Hanako (to give her the last ¥100 from when she paid for ramen that morning) and bought bananas and aisu (ice cream) for the household. It is impossible to say thank you as many times as they deserve to hear it. J
Monday (9/21) was Respect for the Aged Day, and the formal (I suppose) start to Silver Week (shiruba uiku). I was up at 8, then at 8:30 thanks to another alarm. Breakfast was at 9, but it was a relaxed affair, with Hanako and Otoosan coming down slowly. Ko had badminton practice from 9-3 or so, so I had heard him leave. I was planning to join Sensei (and whoever else showed up) at her apartment at noon for lunch and a sightseeing tour by bicycle. I finished my homework (the summary part of the weekly journal assignment), then I asked Sensei via text message if I could come by her place a little early and be on the wireless Internet. She said around 11am would work well, so I left soon after (at around 10:20am), mailed some letters at the post office, and did my best gaijin impression when I nearly fell off my bike near some schoolgirls.
My main aim in using the Internet was to complete some loan information and I needed the FAFSA pin from my mom, so I texted her en route to Sensei’s to see if she could get it to me. She tried to call me when I reached Sensei’s, but making the call (presumably because it was an international dial) wasn’t in her “calling plan”. She emailed me the pin and then I burned the evidence. A faithful partner in crime she is. It worked-HOORAH!
Mitchell and Ethan joined us for hard-shell tacos and taco rice (DELICIOUS!!!!). I had brought some vanilla ice cream bars as omiyage (gift), so those were a great dessert. Abhi also came, but only to eat and use the Internet. There was much Ethan-Abhi-Ayano (Abhi’s Skype partner) banter which led to us all weighing ourselves and stretching out our spines on the floor (one person lies on their back and grabs the back of their neck; the next person pushes down their elbows into their chests). Ethan’s back cracked like fireworks.
Rode around to Hoonji Temple (the underground part has many statues), saw another Demon’s Handprint on the Rocks, went to a sweets store Sensei loves (she bought us each a special treat that is specific to this week-azuki (red bean paste) in the middle of a mochi ball dusted with green matcha-like powder (green tea)). We were right across the street, incidentally, from the taxi stop where Sensei, Tamara, and I caught a taxi back to our bikes after the dashi (float). We then biked down the street to a famous senbei shop (crackers to eat with tea-GREAT omiyage) that was RIGHT across the bridge from the shyakusho (city hall) and was on the dashi (float) route the previous week. THEN we continued to a shop where all the products were made from bamboo or some other grass-like natural resource. Baskets, hats, mats, shoes, etc. Will come back for omiyage. THEN we went down a street where the wanka soba shop lies (we will be eating this in late November-small bowls of soba noodles; Sugiwara Sensei of the Morioka Board of Education ate 125 bowls one time! Abhi will give her a run for her money…) Next door was our destination-a shop Sensei had talked about where the soy sauce, juice, ice cream is soy WITHOUT THE SOY. Magical, really. Omiyage ONCE AGAIN.
Mitchell wanted a happi (festival jacket), so we went into Sakanacho and looked around, No happi, but Ethan DID buy an umbrella-a HUGE paper one. J That shop has WONDERFUL tea they gave us. YUM. Sensei, lastly, wanted to take us to a nearby building (I ride past every Monday and Thursday) that is somewhat of a Morioka matsuri (festival) museum has, on the second floor, a LARGE display of a matsuri procession made entirely of PAPER. There were about eight dashi and one mikoshi displayed, with the people to accompany each. We parted ways because Sensei wanted to catch a bit of the sumo championships that are taking place until Sunday (9/27) and I came home to read and reword (to better understand) some of the Arabic research I had found and copied to Word.
I was full from lunch (that was probably the source of my fullness-taco rice really does you in) and the mochi sweet and the not soy ice cream and the tea (though I felt I had eaten more), but I ate dinner. I really want to feel hungry again (sorry for the quick magnifying of the personal here). I’ve become a garbage disposal, but am not nearly as active as I used to be or think I am.
Left at 2:30am (Tuesday, 9/22) for TOKYO DISNEYLAND!!!!! Went to bed around 10:45pm and woke at 2am. We left by 3am (Otoosan had wanted to leave by 2:30am) after much hurried car filling and a tired teenage boy. After being in a speeding car this morning as Otoosan rushed to get on the road and drove fast to save time (U-turns are also more accepted here, the red lights had no other cars around, lane change after lane change) and Tsukie was saying “stoppu, stoppu, stoppu” at red lights, I think about driving and it scares me. AND I received my license four days before leaving for Japan. These streets are SO narrow and bicycles and pedestrians are everywhere-it is a MIRACLE that more people and cars do not get injured/battered. I can’t imagine how tame American driving must appear to Japanese people, how WIDE our streets must be, how a “close call” in the U.S. is NOTHING. Didn’t get great sleep during the drive, but there were multiple rest stops to stretch and change drivers and seats. The “rest stops” are like American ones, but with less woods and more amenities-formal food (cafeterias, aisu, etc.) and good restrooms.
We arrived in Tokyo, the sprawling vastness that it is, at 8:30/9am, but sat in three hours of traffic. Cars pass on the right and slow cars travel on the left AND most backseat windows are tinted. AND nearly every car has a GPS system on the dash or near the radio. AND the cars have the coolest names: the Nissan March, the Mitsubishi Minica, the Daisatsu (I think that’s the brand) Move, etc. names we’ve never HEARD of. And NO, not all of them begin with M. When it’s Silver Week, what better way to celebrate the aged, the country, and the fall season then to go to DISNEYLAND?!?! Otoosan did a great job of trying to cheat the traffic and force the GPS system to find every possible way in that WASN’T blocked. Due to the busy-ness, the park shut down ticket sales until around 5pm (we arrived at around 12:30pm), so we couldn’t get in on Tuesday. While we were driving around though, I felt (finally) the feeling of OH WOW I COULD EASILY GET LOST HERE. Many places we drove through, intersections, areas, etc. have the same feel as places I went in 2007 and places I have been in Morioka. Places RESEMBLE each other. I found myself thinking I was in Shibuya (an area in Tokyo) or in Morioka though I knew I wasn’t. That’s why I’m a LANDMARK person, so I don’t get lost as easily…maybe.
We had trouble deciding where to eat (it’s not that the Japanese are indecisive, it is that they want to look at all options and make the best choice for the group OR allow all individuals involved to see the possibilities and then choose the best choice for THEMSELVES) and I was becoming that irritable beast I am when I’m either a) tired, b) hungry, or c) sick AND I was two out of three, becoming three out of three. We looked at the main area (the hotel right outside the entrance gate had a restaurant and there was another area up further near the train station, which included a konbini (convenience store), a coffee shop, and a burger place. (Disneyland has its own line that connects the hotels to the park as well as a normal station that has train lines going into and out of the city.) Up near the konbini, there was a magician/street performer doing two diabolos surrounded by HORDES of people. I IMMEDIATELY thought of you, Ben Okin. And then you, Liz. It was great to have reminders of Bundy and those beautiful summer and spring days when that diabolo would FLY outside of Bundy dormitory. And the best part, he was doing his act to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ music, Zeze. *sigh* It was beautiful.
We made our way back to the hotel, found out it had a konbini (because the line at the restaurant was so long and the maître d recommended we go there) and ate in the hotel courtyard. Ko and Otoosan, however, went back to the further konbini and then back to the car, where they slept and Ko studied. Tsukie, Hanako, and I visited the mercantile shop at the hotel (OH MAN. Those Disney princesses, Zeze!!!! And especially Belle reminds me of you, CE!! Saw Tinkerbell things and thought of you, Nix. J There were also Disney pocket notepads-one: “Gelato Mountain” was ALL Mike and another, Indiana Jones with Chip N’ Dale or some other characters SCREAMED Eric) and then returned to the previous area where there was a larger mercantile/gift shop. (I bought a tin of Chocolate Crunch, a candy they both suggested AND the same gift they bought. It was omiyage for my host school teachers and for the SICE group.)
We drove away around 2:30pm and went to Hanako’s apartment, which was about an hour away. En route, I saw a bus that said something like “Magic Dolphin” on it and I thought of Tim Anderson, who did this great dolphin impression during swim practice one day in high school. Out of the water, sounds, and everything-like he was performing. I was still sleepy and my sits bones hurt from sitting so long (yes, Dad, I did just use that word J because YOU use it-a butt pad would have been REALLY nice). Hanako’s apartment was small (probably less than a studio apartment), but Japanese small so it made sense. Bed, bookshelf, desk, closet, refrigerator, sink/kitchen, bathroom. Two windows. It’s up this STEEP hill, so she hates to walk up it, and she has to walk her bike up it too. In her pencil pouch on her desk, I saw the same Stabilo Bros. highlighter you have, Dad. It made me so happy. We all relaxed in our own ways- Ko studied; Hanako “moved” back in; Tsukie folded the laundry Hanako had left hanging up prior to summer vacation; Otoosan put the contents of some Tupperware-like containers into other containers, thereby restocking Hanako’s fridge; I tried to not be in the way. Ko saw something dart under the bookcase or bed, then Tsukie found a lizard while cleaning the floor, so Otoosan picks up a Kleenex and grabs the thing, killing it with his bare hand. I tried to protest for the “catch & release” method, but I was too late. The lizard scared Hanako and Ko and Tsukie VERY much.
For dinner, we planned to go to Yokohama Chinatown, so we left around 6:15pm from Hanako’s apartment. Were looking at parking prices (15 minutes for ¥200, etc.) and chose the six floor garage (30 minutes for ¥300), though I would have chosen it based on the HUGE DRAGON on the side in fluorescent lighting-reds and greens and oranges, accompanied by a few intermittent flashing white lights. The garage also had a deal with local businesses-patronize their establishment with more than ¥1000 (I think) and the parking fee was reduced (or free). There was much disagreement about where to go-the decision-making process of the Japanese-look everywhere and compare prices/quality/quantity/selection, then ask the group. Prior to going to dinner, I saw hum bow-like creations (called nikuman, niku meaning “meat”) being sold by many of the outdoor vendors. Steamed chestnuts were also a popular item. Ended up eating at a restaurant I thought was pricey, but included shark fin soup, fried rice, soba, dumplings. I thought of dim sum with you, Nix. J Afterwards, I bought one nikuman, as Tsukie and Ko did as well, and mango tapioca (BUBBLE TEA!) because Ko had talked about it earlier and I have ALWAYS wanted to try it (sorry I never gave it a chance on Aurora, Nix). It was SO good. After dinner, Otoosan gave us the night tour of Yokohama-saw minatomirai (the amusement park on the bayfront). Over in that general area was “Meet the Herbs”, a pasta place (and I immediately thought of Bill, Becky, Kristin, Liza, Patrick, and Matt-the greatest neighbors we ever never asked for. J Also, in Yokohama, is jonathan’s, a “Neighborhood Coffee & Restaurant”-saw three in our drive around after dinner.
Long day and we were all tired tired tired. We dropped Otoosan and Ko off at a hostel they were staying at and Tsukie, Hanako, and I returned to Hanako’s apartment. We all showered and they slept on a futon , giving me the bed. Because, they said, the futon sleeps two. We awoke at 5:30am so we could pick up Otoosan and Ko and eat some of the food we had brought with us as well as stop by Lawson, a konbini (convenience store), then hit the park by 8am and play until 4, then drive (what could be) the 9 hours back to Morioka.
On my last jaunt out here (in 2007), I bought a Hiroshima Carp (baseball team) jersey. And, pulling past Yokohama Stadium after dinner, I wanted to get a Yokohama Bay Stars t-shirt. ALSO really looking for some t-shirts with English on them that isn’t grammatically correct. That’s the beauty of so many products here as they sort of try to emulate American fashion, etc.
On Wednesday (9/23), we went to Disneyland. It was ¥2000 ($20) to park, ¥5800 ($58) for an adult ticket, and right when we entered, I saw the first and ONLY thing reminiscent of America: an outwardly disruptive crying, hysterical child (probably 6 or 7 years old) sitting down on the ground, lying down, needing the parent to cart him off… The park is run effectively, lines are long (like any major family-focused place), but they go quickly and smoothly (You wait 20-70 minutes to ride for 10 minutes, but people are not stressed or irritable. They are PATIENT.). My goodness they do American better than we do. Maybe it’s that Disney is not ordinary for the Japanese, like it is in America. The merchandise ere, at least, is cheaper. The food too. A mug I saw was ¥880. Ticket holders (necklace like things with a character’s face and a clear window in the back so your ticket can be seen are VERY LOVED) of Mickey and Minnie went for ¥1200. We had Fast Passes (we acquired RIGHT when we entered) for Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Otoosan waited in line for us at Splash Mountain for an hour while we went to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ (Ko’s choice and he studied while IN LINE-he is SERIOUS about his studying, or at least realizes that it is necessary to study BUT also knows breaks are important too (like when he watches TV at night); Zeze, the ‘Pirates’ ride was beautiful, much more detailed than the Disneyland ride in America), Western River Railroad (the Early West, basically, with Indians; they grouped many different tribes together though; had painted horses, Indians shooting with darts, Indians shooting with arrows, a railroad station, elk, fish drying racks; dinosaurs afterwards, in a cave; saw a Pteronodon and thought of you, Emily Frye) and the Jungle Cruise (hippos (cruise “guide” who drove the boat used a gun to ward them off), elephants (CE!), a rhino, crocodiles, toucans, alligators, zebras, pythons, lions, tigers, monkeys (they made semi-violent as they depicted them in a diorama ransacking a “field post”, one waving a pistol). The Cruise was very well done-movements were not robotic and animals were in the water, in trees, moving their tails, heads, eyes, etc.
After Splash Mountain, I ate a TORTILLA DOG. Yes. That’s right. A hot dog wrapped tightly in a TORTILLA. GREATEST INVENTION EVER!!!! And only ¥320!! Tsukie bought the photo of us coming down the steep waterfall. (It now sits on top of the television.)Then we took our seats for the HALLOWEEN PARADE. Yes. That’s right AGAIN. There was a PARADE for HALLOWEEN (Disneyland in Tokyo is the same as America in ONE respect-they try to make money and increase attendance at any opportunity). It had COSTUMES. It had CHOREOGRAPHY. It had FLOATS (one with the witch from Snow White was GREAT!) and each prominent Disney character, and some lesser known ones, were aboard the ten or so floats. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Chip and Dale, Pooh (maybe), Goofy, and SO MANY OTHERS were dressed in their Halloween best: capes, hats, purple, orange. There was GREAT music too and I WANT IT ON AN iPOD FOR A DANCE PARTY-“It’s Haaaalloween, a freaky, spooky frightening scream. We’re gonna have a party…You might just see a villain/dancing with a ghoul…” because the whole premise was that the villains might ruin Mickey’s Halloween bash. Would they? Find out when the Halloween Parade begins at 11:45! AND the villains appeared! In smoke even! And there was MORE choreography to try and fight the villains and make them NOT ruin Halloween. I was worried there for a little bit…
Then we were hungry apparently (I wasn’t and Tsukie and Otoosan had had chicken legs during the parade and shared them with us), so we went to the Blue Bayou restaurant near the ‘Pirates’ ride. It was decorated like an outside patio, night sky, the occasional comet, lanterns strung up, it was even COOLER inside…I had a salad and then Hanako gave me some of Ko’s chicken and Otoosan gave me some of his lamb (maybe) and Tsukie gave me some of her Cajun chicken (I actually don’t think it was Cajun) AND Otoosan and Hanako ordered rolls which were BOTTOMLESS (great and terrible idea), so I had three or so rolls (and really the bottomless roll idea is the best I’ve heard since motion sensor lights). BUT a downside of being part of the plans of others, more importantly a host family’s plans, more importantly a Japanese family’s plans, is that you can’t just say “I’m not hungry.” 1) It’s rude. 2) It’s rude. 3) It’s rude. (But you CAN explain after you return from the trip that you want to diet and go back to eating the portions you SHOULD be eating and WHEN you should eat.) We went to Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, then I wanted to go on a raceway (where Hanako drove for the first time!), then we rode Space Mountain. It was calming (like what you said skydiving felt like, Kyra-lin), though my head hurt afterwards, like it had been put under pressure. (Haven’t had many headaches here, but I’m starting to think Space Mountain-like rides are NOT good for my head.)
After all the joyous fun, we said goodbye to Hanako (~4:30pm) who would take the train from the station up the way (by the other gift shop and coffee shop and burger place and man on double diabolos) to Yokohama. Like the rest of Japanese culture the goodbyes were, while sweet, not emotional. Otoosan hugged her from the side, cheek to cheek and smiled, Tsukie hugged her and did the French cheek-to-cheek press on both cheeks, Hanako said “jyaa ne” (“See you later.”) to Ko, who responded with the same and a wave. It was very detached from what I know. There were no tears, no full on tight hugs (the lack of REAL hugs is one of the more difficult things to get used to in Japan). Bring me tearful goodbyes! Bring me spine-popping hugs! Nope. Just a “See you later. We’ll talk tomorrow,” attitude, which is probably healthier.
So we’re walking back to our car and a couple (male/female) walking in front of me caught my eye. They walked towards us and passed us, but I continued watching. The girl had a large silver purse and the guy took it from her and carried it, heaving it over his shoulder. It was at that very moment that I saw (and more clearly see now) that the girl didn’t lose any strength in that interaction. She let the guy help her or she asked for help and he kindly obliged. I had this epiphany that it’s OKAY to let people help me, it’s OKAY to ask for help if something is too heavy or too much. You lose no pride, no ability. You gain greater self-respect, in a small way. Somehow, I feel I must bear all burdens, all weight alone and I know not why. I am too used to lugging crap with me from house to house, I am used to carrying too much, but needing all of it (or feeling I need all of it) for some reason or another. I figured that was how it was, from childhood to now. Be prepared (which is always good) and be independent. I have scaled back while here, though. I have calmed a bit within. I took only a tiny purse to Disneyland because I did not want to be the person with the large backpack being a hindrance to others. Well Ko brought his backpack and Hanako and Tsukie had shoulder purses. Otoosan even pointed out that they should have brought less like me. Ha! No one is going to believe THAT.
Otoosan cares SO MUCH for his family. He loves to document the trip by having his children pose or offering to take my picture in front of places. I’m glad I took him up on a pose of us in front of the Disneyland sign before we departed. He asked me to take a picture of the family at lunch (Blue Bayou) because there are so few photos of all of them together (don’t know if that’s me being a part of the family OR me not being wanted as part of the family OR me being paranoid and them just wanting a family picture J).
We left at 4:50pm. And en route back, flew down a hill almost into a safety barrier and through a red light. Otoosan is a crazy driver, but I am not afraid (clarification: the idea of driving in a place where the cars go opposite than they do here scares me, not driving itself). I am not getting stressed out as often as I used to-maybe I have learned to become clam or at least not make big deals out of small things that don’t need to be given that much attention. I also think the change of scenery is good for my mental health. (As it will be for you, Liz, when you go to London J) We had dinner around 8:15pm at a rest stop place-the radio was playing parts of “The Wheels on the Bus”, “Since You’ve Benn Gone” (Kelly Clarkson?), and Pachelbel’s “Canon” (YES MIKE!!!) in a spliced fashion, so I heard little bits of them and stopped eating my toridon (meat on rice; in this case, tori chicken) and was severely confused, but glad to hear such familiar songs. Why those three I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA. Also in the cafeteria-like place (which has a meal ticket vending machine-like contraption; you pay in the coin slot or bill slot and press the button of the dish you want, then take the ticket you receive to the counter ; they’ll keep one part of the perforated ticket and you’ll keep the other so you can pick up your food when they call your number) was an AED device with a safety video being shown on a screen. It had the poke poke “Are you okay?!” bit we learned in the CPR workshop (Thought of you, KB J). Not so much with the STOP of the stop-look-listen; the person in the video rushed to the victim lying unconscious. WHAT IF THERE WAS A FAULTY WIRE? OR A POISONOUS SNAKE?
I’m all about buying my own food. I tried to buy my own lunch at the hotel konbini and help with dinner in Chinatown and help with lunch at Blue Bayou, but I FINALLY UNDERSTOOD (when I didn’t have many coins left and Tsukie insisted I eat enough, so she bought dinner) that when they had kept saying “later” and I thought I would get to treat the whole family later, they actually meant that the trip total would be tallied later and then I would be told what I “owed” or could contribute. We got home around 1am, but I showered and didn’t get to bed until around 2am which is, yes, I know NOT THAT LATE in college world. We don’t have enough appendages to count the 2am pizza runs and ‘Gossip Girl’ sessions we had last semester, right Bundy?
Thursday (9/24) felt like a Monday. I was tired from getting back, but we had our Japanese placement test! When we returned from vacation, Gandai University would be starting up, SO we needed to find out, after this first month of classes, what level we would be going into (with other Gandai international students). The classes stayed the same (as Sensei told us in her class that afternoon) and though I am still in elementary level and it is wicked easy, I am glad (SO very glad) I am not going blindly into a level (A GREAT POSITIVE OF THIS SEMESTER). I finished early (as many others did) and I was able to get on Facebook for a little while, finished my host school diary and host family diary (for Cross-Cultural Educational Perspectives class), and received an email from Patrick Olson (Hope your visit to Earlham was AMAZING!!! J). Other people had not finished the readings for class. (We had a five day weekend too.) Lunch was yet another great meal of fish and rice and vegetables and the ATM was successful in giving me money for the upcoming SICE trip to Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Tokyo.
We all owed Yuki around ¥10000 for our first month’s cell phone card (¥3000), the two “textbooks” (2 packets of photocopied articles, 1 for each Earlham class), and the festival tabi (socks) and zouri (shoes). I broke a ¥1000 bill in the co-op (buying a Soyjoy bar (dried fruit bar) and a waffle with ice cream inside that I THOUGHT was ¥105, but was ACTUALLY ¥85. OH. GOSH. SCORE!!!!! Many of us still had time to kill, so we went to get online on nearby computers in the gakusei sentaa (student center). Thus, I was able to give Yuki exact change. Others paid exact change, which is what she requested; others took out loans on their Earlham accounts to pay. I also felt MIGHTY good handing the money to Yuki in the envelope (she requested we put the money in an envelope) she had given us our August/September lunch money in (recycle!), as well as our homework (article summaries, host school experience diary, host family experience diary), and the mini diary we keep of the tasks we do at our host school. Others didn’t do the homework or the mini diary because they thought we didn’t have to and/or because we had only spent one day at our host schools. It feels good to be on top of things to say the least.
Watched a great movie about the bombing of Hiroshima. And by “great”, I mean well done. Nothing about our savagery was great. After class, Elizabeth, Nicole, Claire, Tamara, and I went to the travel agency behind the Gandai co-op and bought our shinkansen (bullet train) return tickets from Tokyo to Morioka. Yuki had given us the money in class and the tickets were EXACTLY that amount (even though Elizabeth had looked online and saw that the price was about $40 more). Biked home via the yuubinkyoku (post office) and bought ¥70 stamps for postcards. I have realized I could go broke just from buying cough drops and stamps since that’s all I ever REALLY want to buy. But I USE both of them, so that’s worth it, in my mind. That’s the life I want to lead.
I go home and did some preliminary packing, compiled a list of people to send post to and my dream life of going broke buying stamps becomes a desired reality. Helped with dinner (didn’t realize I was hungry until I started eating; BUT clarification: wasn’t NOTICEABLY hungry)-hambagu (hamburger), salad, vegetables. TV before dinner had a commercial playing an Eric Clapton song (just for you, Eric). IF ONLY I COULD WRITE DOWN WHENEVER I THINK OF SOMEONE, MY GOODNESS!!! Laundry and shower. Hanako called and I thought that hopefully we would see each other while I would be in Tokyo. I also talked with Otoosan and Tsukie about the Gandai pool and wanting to use it, but being told that because we are not full time students, it is not for our use. Otoosan suggested talking to the Board of Education. That seems a bit extreme, but perhaps.
Friday (9/25) was a great day-I gave out my omiyage (Disneyland Chocolate Crunch) and received another letter from a third year student (right before our vacation). I left three candies for the two janitors and the senior clerical worker who were not present when I left at the end of the day (I really hope I am not becoming a hindrance in my desire to include everyone. I got home after school and washed my running shoes in the spigot outside because I was going to volleyball practice with Abhi’s host mother!!!!! And shoes that have never touched ground are worn in the gym. (Man, look at how much they care about their buildings.) I talked with Tsukie as she prepared dinner early for me, Yoriko picked me up at 6:45pm, and we drove to the elementary school gym (about 20 minutes away) with Tamo (her son; 8 years old?) and Ako (her daughter; 6 years old?). They played basketball (and, when other women arrived, ran around with the other women’s children) while we set up the net and jogged around (each person did their own jogging warm-up) and warmed up our arms (overhead throwing to each other, overhead bouncing to stretch out our arms, setting to each other, passing, then pass-set-hit). Yoriko said she wasn’t young, but I beg to differ. The women ranged from 20 years old (me) to late twenties and early 30s to 40s to a woman whose daughter was older than me (and whose age, after open discussion, was close to 60). It was greta to see people active and waning to continue to be active.
There were nine of us-eight women and one man and maybe seven children. In the gymnasium, like most other schools I have seen, the auditorium and gym are the same place (GREAT idea) so there was a stage and curtains, but courts on the floor. It was, literally the BEST practice ever. I wish that my middle school and high schools coaches could have seen me (but I am DEFINITELY glad they weren’t there, because they would have made us run more or do sit ups or do push ups)-it was SO MUCH FUN. I was, like I’ve never been before-constantly moving, constantly ready (especially in the squeaky Mizuno shoes Yoriko lent me) and my platform was good and I did the triangle push away from my forehead when I set (middle school volleyball, anyone?) and I moved TO the ball. And, Rams, I only did the one armed pass (very traditional Hannah move-sticking one arm out to pass the ball rather than moving to the ball and passing more accurately) ONCE. Wow. The best thing was that I was reminded of all the great people with whom I’ve played volleyball with and Kelsey, Katherine, Erica, Nikki, Tashayla (TaShayShay), LaToya (LaToyToy), Sabo, Kristin & Sydney, April (AP), Nina (partner), James Malcolm Hood: THAT rocked. J The best thing was that it was JUST structured enough to provide support, but loose and fun enough to encourage the players to keep going. That particular group practices there on Tuesday and Friday nights from around 7-9pm (I think the boy’s basketball team of the school practices beforehand), but Yoriko only goes on Fridays.
On Saturday (9/26), at 8:15am, we all met at Morioka Station’s south shinkansen (bullet train) terminal. Tsukie took me and hugged me goodbye (yay!) and Ko wished me a good trip before he left for badminton practice that morning. Tamara bought her HUGE suitcase, but had very little in it (that DEFINITELY changed on the return trip and she had planned just so). Claire and I had the least. I explicitly did NOT want to bring luggage. I had my backpack and a bag with thread handles (like from a department store). And that was more than enough.
Tamara (who got home a LITTLE too late the night before from a former SICEer’s birthday party), Mitchell, Samantha, Samantha’s host mother, Ethan, Nicole, and I went up (2 trips up) and met up with Sensei, Sensei’s friend, Mariko (who would be helping us in Hiroshima and Kyoto), Yuki (Program Contact in Japan), Claire, and Elizabeth. When Abhi finally joined us, we took the escalator up to the platform and in the middle (between the up and down escalators), there was an ad for “Creamy Cheesey Cake” and MAN did that fluffy, creamy desert look appetizing. Eric, Rebecca, Alisa/Liza-you know what I’m talking about. (The Cheesecake Factory takes a lot of our money…and we should really only EVER get two entrees with three people…) It felt great to be off to some of the same places Yoko and Mom and I visited in 2007. I didn’t know I would be back so soon, so that really rocked my socks.
On the train to Hiroshima, I was between Tamara and Samantha. Tam spit on me while she was talking and I thought of (and mentioned) the ‘Friends’ episode where Phoebe meets Paul Rudd’s characters parents for the first time and she talks about her life and says “…then I was homeless and this pimp spit in my mouth and I got Hepatitis C…” and this just HORRIFIES them. Well, I though of you, Zeze. And if any of you have NOT seen that episode or that TV how, it’s worth a shot. I didn’t mean to make light of Hepatitis C, however.
Out the window of the train at one station (when riding, I can write down my thoughts more easily because my journal is open and RIGHT THERE), sat another bullet train, a yellow and blue double decker one called “Max”, like the Portland transportation system and Maximillian Alexander Dun Thayer, someone we already miss (an Earlham friend who transferred to U of Oregon to be a duck, if I am correct, and who visited Earlham earlier in the semester while we weren’t there! Alas!). Samantha offered me an ear bud of her iPod, so I listened to a number of Japanese and Korean groups and Kanye West (YES, Liz and Stoeve), Ne-Yo’s ‘Miss Independent’ (Stoeve!), Regina Spektor (CE), Beyonce’s ‘You Had Me At Hello’ and ‘Single Ladies’ (Liz and Stoeve, again!), the Plain White Tees (again you, Liz), Tegan and Sara (LP and E Frye), Jack Johnson’s ‘Go On’ (which reminded me of 103.7 The Mountain and sitting at work at Elliott Bay Marina over the summer and hearing that-thought of you all Kat, Logan, Carolyn, Dwight; Logan, there’s a great pastry shop in Morioka called Michel and when I first saw it, I thought it said Micheel (her last name) and I FREAKED) and Train (Mom). There was also Immortal Technique’s ‘Point of No Return’ (which just got me thinking of Dance Alloy, Earlham’s end-of-the-semester performance of pieces choreographed and danced by students; this song was done last year) as well as Imogen Heap’s ‘Hide and Seek’ (which got me thinking of the New Measures, Earlham’s female a cappella group; they did this song last year too).
I also had time on the train to ruminate on the ways this semester has, so far, gone smoother than any previous ones. 1.) EC provided leather wallets for all of us and so I always put the lunch money SICE gives us (in it’s envelope) in the same pocket and so I always know where it is. No digging through a cluttered purse; stress decreased. 2.) I packed small and live simply. I have nothing on my walls, I keep most anything I can stored away in my drawers to avoid clutter, I went on the “vacation” with a backpack and a ‘carry-on’ bag. That way, I am not forced to roll a suitcase behind me in the melee that is Tokyo and I can move quickly in crowds. It feels good to not have too many attachments. Maybe when I get back, this simplicity will continue. GOSH I HOPE SO. The minimalism in my room really calms the human spirit.
I am continuing to have flash forwards, to sitting on my couch at home, to going to Husky Deli in West Seattle, (which is on my top ten list of places to go when I get back), to walking on the Heart at Earlham, to walking into saga (the dining hall at Earlham), etc. It is surreal and it is because I feel like so much of myself is back at Earlham so I feel like I should be there, living my life there. But Earlham will still be there. The people will still be there (unless they’re off on their own adventures to London (Clairellyn, Liz, Pablo), New Zealand (Meg), or transferring to another school). There are experiences that will be had. I am SO ready for spring, but not so much that I do not enjoy Japan.
I also fell that, upon returning, culture shock will hit me as it did last time. I have a sneaking suspicion that for the first week, I am going to HATE America and that fact that it is NOT Japan. I’m not going to want to do anything, but I WILL want to see people (hopefully!) and do work and keep busy and get healthy. I miss all of you PEOPLE. That’s part of why recording when I am reminded of you is so important. You MATTER. I want to get back to you, Wendy (lunch!). And you, Judi (journalism talk!). And you, Mary (lunch!). And you, Stacy (Chipotle?). And you, Jana (BONNER!!). And you, Derric (Miles is about to be SO OLD isn’t he?). And you, Liz (to talk about internships!). And you, Sonia (to talk about the field study!). And you, Susanne (to talk in the BCSV!). And you, Nelson (to talk about Japan and the next *gasp* one and half years). And you, Rich (to loiter at Runyan Desk). And you, Brad (to ruminate on narcissism). And you, Bill (OH NO, MISTER BILL!!!). And YOU, ZAVIER!!!!! LET’S GO SWIMMING!!!!
When we reached Hiroshima Station and were walking out of the shinkansen terminal, I saw the Starbucks Mom and I ate breakfast and drank coffee in while waiting for a train (it had glass windows for walls and you had to walk up steps to get in). THAT was trippy. When we got to Hiroshima station, we piled into taxis to get to the hotel and on the dash of ours was a small peel away calendar. The partner day with 9/26 was 8/8 Mom (her birthday), that was cool. Got to the Toyoko Inn we were staying at. We were all in double rooms: Tamara & I, Samantha & Elizabeth, Claire & Nicole, Ethan & Mitchell, and Abhi was the lucky guy who got a single. We had free time from 4:30-6, so Mitchell, Ethan, Tamara, and I went to 7-11 across the street. BUT it’s Hiroshima, so we had to cross the street in front of the hotel (small side street) to get to a park, which ran down for a long way. From the park we then crossed one lane to get to an island of sorts. Then we had to cross two more times in marked crosswalks across 4+ lanes of traffic each time. BUT it wasn’t all that busy, so it didn’t seem like a lot. It just wasn’t the normal across-the-street jaunt I think we had been used to in Morioka. Nicole and Claire met us there by accident. Gaijin (foreigners) are like MAGNETS. Got more money out of the ATM there. Larger cities have ATMs in their konbini, but smaller cities, like Morioka, do not. Actually, I bet we have them in Morioka, but they’re just not the konbini we go to. It was warm out, so we all bought ice cream or soda of some kind or both. Inside, the music to ‘Momma Mia’ was playing as was another popular pop-like song.
Prior to leaving, we thought we didn’t have power, but we learned from the front desk (when we returned from 7-11), that we had to insert the long plastic piece our key was attached to into a little switch-like thing by the door. We did so when we got up to our room and the lights came on, I could charge my phone, we could watch TV (sumo!). Abhi, of course, figured this out on his own. When we met downstairs at 6pm for our group dinner of okonomiyaki and we mentioned our power epiphany (thanks to the front desk), he nonchalantly said “Oh, you guy didn’t know that?”
The restaurant was across the street, but to the side, so we only had to walk 50 meters MAYBE (WE could see the restaurant from our window). We had a round of beer for those who wanted to drink or any other drink (any subsequent beverages were our own ¥). Also, they provided plates of cabbage with Worchester sauce and sesame seeds. A good food to partner with beer, apparently. Most people had the supessharu okonomiyaki-you could choose from three different interiors: nanamame (raw ramen noodles), udon (think noodles), and one other. Okonomiyaki, a dish native to the Hiroshima region is two thin pancakes with lettuce, ham, green onions, noodles, squid, shrimp, and fish flakes inside. On top is then a special sauce and mayonnaise. After my beer, I ordered a yuzu sawaa (a yuzu sour), a fragrant orange-like concoction on ice. (¥400→SICE). In addition to my okonomiyaki, which is the size of a small pizza (think 8 slices), I ate ¾ of Claire’s and 1 slice of Sensei’s. So, CLASS, ¾ of 8=6+1=7 PLUS the 8 of my own and I ate ALMOST two whole okonomiyaki. MY goodness. Macha (green tea) ice cream to follow up the glory.
Afterwards, Tamara, Samantha, and I went bowling at a multi-floored alley another MAYBE 50 meters away. Tam had seen coupons in the hotel lobby for “two games for ¥1000!” We played three games, the last one with bumpers. The shoes were VELCRO and very skater boy. Tamara wanted to get a coffee, so we went to McDonald’s (behind 7-11) and Samantha and I got McShakes.
On Sunday was the start of Sightseeing Whirlwind Adventure. Up at 7, hotel complimentary breakfast in lobby until 8:30am. We were down by 7:30/7:40am, ready to eat miso soup, rice, biscuits with sausage inside (like pigs in a blanket!), pickles, radishes, a dish of egg and spinach. BEFORE we got down, there were noodles and AFTER we were done, there were rolls. Computers in the lobby allowed me to feel mildly connected to the other world via Facebook and email.
Our whole group met at 9am, but Ethan and I were done and ready to go at 8:45, so Sensei took us (early) to Hiroshima Station via taxi to buy the train tickets for everyone. Mariko brought everyone else shortly. We all received a ticket. Much Hiroshima Carp paraphernalia (the local baseball team) in the station-wanted to buy a towel.
Took the train to Miyajima guchi, walked out, then under the street (so you don’t have to cross traffic), back up, and into lin for the ferry to Miyajima (saw Madre Padre aisu kurimu, a place I laughed at and took a picture of in 2007). On the ferry there was a young boy with a Brown University t-shirt, which made me think of Dominique (Is Emma Watson there yet? Does everyone stop to take pictures of the girl who played Hermione Granger in the ‘Harry potter’ movies?). When we disembarked and walked up the ramp and into the main station of Miyajima, where people could sit and wait for the ferry, it was a memory rush. I felt like I had JUST left.
Miyajima is known for four things: 1.) deer; 2.) momiji manjyuu (momiji is the shape of the Canadian maple leaf and manjyuu is sweet filling; it is a soft leaf-shaped dessert/snack that has a filling of cream, azuki (red bean paste), chocolate, etc.; 3.) torii, the large red gate marking the entrance to Itsukushima Shrine (the largest shrine on the island); and 4.) okonomiyaki, easily found in the region. This time, there were noticeably less deer near the station, but they have no predators, so overpopulation and lack of fear is a bit of a problem. We got there around 10am and had free time until 1pm. I looked around at shops with Tamara and Samantha. Many keitai (cell phone) charms. Bought MANY postcards and stamps and a keitai charm.
Like in 2007, street vendors along the main “route” (gift shops and little food shops) sell anything from nikuman (dough ball with meat inside, like hum bow) to momiji manjyuu (different gift sets and sizes and types) to okonomiyaki restaurants to sticks of deep fried squid or shrimp or fish or vegetables to sofuto kurimu (ice cream soft serve). One place had a display of all sorts of Ramune (soda-has been made into gum, candy, alcoholic drinks, etc.) flavors. We ran into Abhi, Mitchell, and Ethan there and they had Tamara buy the kimuchi (Korean spicy cabbage) bottle. Had a bite to it, but it was good.
After having a deep fried kurimu (cream) momiji manjyuu (like the experience that I had with Yoko and Mom-I saw the place where Mom and Yoko and I ate our deep fried ones!!! AND the place where we had mitarashi dango, mochi balls on a skewer warmed on an open burner) and an eel nikuman (where the lady treated me like a total gaijin (“Pork?” “Eel?” “Hot.”)), we met up with the group at 1pm.
Sensei gave us ¥300 so we could go in the shrine (for 30 minutes). The tide was coming in, so it was especially wonderful. When the water is up high, the entire place looks like it is floating. It was SO good to see the shrine entrance where there are white flags attached to sticks that you wave to purify the space (a small alter sits there as well). I took a picture of Yoko and Mom waving them in 2007, so it was like a flashback… A Japanese man who spoke English (and was decked out in New York Yankees gear) asked me where I was from and if I was a Cubs fan. I said I was from Seattle. Some loyalties NEVER die.
When we met at 1:30pm, we walked behind the shrine and caught a bus to go up further to the roppu uee (ropeway), a gondola-like contraption that takes visitors (8 people max) up to another station where they move into larger gondolas (that hold 30 people max) that take them to the top station, from which visitors can go to the highest point on Miyajima, Mount Misen. OR you can stay at the top station, in the coffee shop, or go to the observatory (a flat part from which you can look around at the islands around Miyajima, which we saw on the ride up). AND there were MONKEYS. This way, I sort of got the Nagano Snow Monkey and onsen (hot spring spa) experience… These monkeys (sandy colored with pink butts!) are the type that DO NOT like to be looked at directly. We should not feed, touch, or look at their eyes, a sign directed. Up the trail to the top, there is a fire that has been burning for 1200 years (about 15 minutes from the top station) and then on to a three-leveled lookout kind of building with no roof, (another 7 minutes) from which you can see 360 degrees. Mariko, Sensei, and I went all the way to the top (and ran into the same New York Yankees fan on the way down-I joked that I was STILL a fan of Ichiro and the Mariners), whereas us and Nicole, Tamara, Samantha, and Claire made it to the ever burning fire (as did Mitchell). Abhi and Ethan preferred to stay and eat inside and smoke outside the top station. Sensei, Mariko, and I RAN down in order to meet the group at 3:30 (a time Sensei had set), we passed a girl in high heels, which didn’t make any sense to us. We made it back and caught the 3:30 gondola down the mountain. (There were these wide steps leading down to the “docking” area and a man coming off the gondola we were going into had a shirt that said “never under estimate the power of a woman”-I was looking at it SO intently and loving it that I nearly tripped down the step. It was so worth it though.)
It started to rain, we caught two buses, and we reached the ferry terminal at varied intervals. I tired to relax on the ferry so my shoulder would loosen (it tends to tighten up into sharp pain after I carry my pack for a while). Sensei and Mariko said that we wanted to catch the 5:02pm train from Miyajima Station. I led the way, not so much out of a decision, but rather due to the fact that I walk quickly and I recognized the need to get to the station quickly in order to catch the desired train. We had to cross the tracks to get to the other side to catch the train we wanted, but we made it with minutes to spare.
Many people, thirsty, spent (often spend) money at vending machines, which is A) what companies want them to do and B) a waste of money. I find carrying a water bottle and filling it up at the start of the day works well. But that’s just me. I introduced that idea to someone and they said “Yeah, I should do that.” We were all tired from the day, but we got back to Hiroshima, taxied back to our Toyoko inn and were free to find dinner on our own.
Tam and I watched TV (one show played the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ theme song in the background-YES!), I journaled (which isn’t a word apparently), and we decided to go out and find food at around 6:30pm. The night before, Sensei had handed out coupons to the okonomiyaki place (“10% a meal”, “one free drink”), so we went there. Had a butaniku kumuchi plate (which I can’t even remember the appearance of now; butaniku is pork though) and a free drink of a Ramune sour. Nicole was there, but we left her to be by herself because we thought she probably didn’t want to see any SICE people after spending the whole day with them. Had another sour, then water. Tam ordered some kara’age (fried food, in this case, chicken I think). Nicole joined us at our prompting and she and I both had choko aisu (chocolate ice cream) and watched Tam eat and drink more. It was ¥1860 for each of us, even with the one free drink and the 10% off. In Japan, restaurants usually total the check, all dishes and drinks ordered, and then split it evenly between the people paying. Often you are paying for someone else’s drinks or food.
We parted ways when Nicole wanted to go back to the hotel and Tam wanted more cigarettes and I wanted more aisu. So we went to the one logical place: 7-11. I ended up getting the same bar I had gotten the previous day: ¥62 vanilla ice cream with chocolate shell. Bought a can of Suntory horoyoi momo (peach) and a can of Karupisu (Calpis) sawaa (sour). All of this together was LESS than ¥400 MY GOODNESS. Only in Japan, ladies and gentlemen.
We returned to our room (it was 8:30pm) and turned on the TV to Sasuke, which is the EPITOME of Japanese game shows: a grueling obstacle course (what was being shown was the first of FOUR stages; the fourth is free climbing four stories up a rope). During this particular episode, 95 people attempted the 2 minute (maximum time given) course and nine made it under the time limit or AT ALL. This is much akin to the Olympics or firefighter preparation in my mind-some people TRAIN for this show (and I only, sadly, saw male competitors). Around 9:15pm, we went out for more. I bought a can of grapefruit Kirin chuhi and a bag of chocolate cookies and a bag of crispy mame (edamame, soybeans, but made into cheese/rice puff consistency). Ethan texted/e-mailed us prior to us leaving letting us know they were watching The Chappelle Show. We checked Ethan and Mitchell’s room, then to what I THOUGHT was Abhi’s room (but was really Nicole and Claire’s). They told us to go to Samantha and Elizabeth’s room and low and behold, there they all were watching downloaded episodes on Samantha’s computer.
We joined them, shared the crispy mame, tried Abhi’s whiskey and sake and stayed for about an hour. Tam, Abhi, and Ethan went to smoke and I went back to the room. Pretty soon, we were watching TV again (some anime cartoon was on that took place in a marina with boats-thought of my own floating home back in Seattle, Mom). The TV channels are great here-during TV shows, commercials, the news, etc. when music plays, they show the music title and artist. A special on Bothwell, Scotland came on (hope your year is going well, Kate!)
Again, we were up at 7am on Monday (9/28), had breakfast at 7:30 (rice, rice balls with flecks of seaweed, plain rolls, sausage and pasta dish, egg and spinach dish), and met at 8am in the lobby (SO EARLY :P), in order to go to the Hiroshima Peace Park. Tamara said she didn’t want to eat breakfast, so I got ready, did the last minute bit of packing of toiletries (we would leave for Kyoto that day), and turned the TV and lights on to help her wake up. I made sure she was awake before taking me and my stuff down to the lobby. Breakfast at the hotel is busy, so I went on the computer while waiting for an empty table. It’s not that I am afraid of sitting with strangers; it is that I do not want to impose. Elizabeth, Ethan, and Nicole soon came down, just in time to snag an empty table. Mitchell and Samantha cut it close time-wise and Sensei gave them time to eat a little (though Samantha, at least, hadn’t planned on having breakfast). We were all expected to have brought our luggage down and were able to leave it in the lobby (under a net with bells attached to it).
We walked straight down the road, along heiwa no michi (Peace Path), for 15-20 minutes. We came in from the opposite side Mom and I had come to the park by previously, so we first came to the Peace Clock-some 23,000 days since the bombing of Hiroshima; 126 days since the last nuclear test. ARE YOU &#$¥©@% KIDDING ME?! This is where I got pretty angry. It just doesn’t make ANY sense to me-why we would let such an atrocity happen and not LEARN from it. Sometimes I hate being American: I hate being tied to enslaving another culture, killing off a few others, dropping a nuclear weapon on an ENTIRE city. I don’t care if it ended the war faster. I KNOW other peoples have caused similar destruction, but Hiroshima is a LESSON. And it is a HUMBLING place. Nagasaki was a on a MOUNTAIN for GOODNESS SAKE.
We had free time from 8:30-9:20 and I just went off on my own. I was just SO angry, fuming mad, to the point of being speechless. Death affects me. And common sense deserves to be observed. Sometimes I really don’t enjoy people coming with me simply because they do not have their own idea/opinion of what to do during unstructured time. And I just don’t see how people can’t be OUTRAGED. (Here am speaking from my PERSONAL frame of reference again, so I realize that others will not feel the same, but I WANT them to.) I walked to the memorial to the survivors, but didn’t go inside, though I think it was free. “Those who have not experienced the past are doomed to repeat it.” When I saw people from the group, I just walked the other way. If I wanted to see something and they were nearby, I waited for them to disperse.
When I walked up to the memorial (the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, a.k.a. the Memorial Monument fir Hiroshima, City of Peace) and saw what I didn’t think I would see for years and years, it felt oddly like I had just been there. I looked in the pool and where there were tadpoles before, there were none now. Saw a water strider/spider though. Some sign of life is good. Walked to Sadako’s cranes (Sadako, a young girl, became ill with leukemia due to her exposure to radiation from the blast; she set upon folding paper cranes because, as the legend goes, your wish will come true if you fold 1,000; sadly, she died after a four month battle and did not complete her folding), where there were, as there were before, thousands upon thousands of paper cranes in all different forms imaginable-strings of them, different colored cranes glued or tacked onto a board to create a picture, posters with them hanging off, etc. To a tour group who came towards me, I tried to look sorry. Because I am. I can’t stand being related to people who created such an atrocity. You may say I’m foolish and that I don’t need to think that way and it’s a waste of effort and I KNOW THAT. But sometimes I just feel humbled and need to try and convey some of what I feel as an American, as an individual, as a single person. One single person CAN change things.
I headed towards the A-Bomb Dome and t occurred to me, Mom, that I don’t think we went up close to it and read the signs out in front of it. I know we walked over the bridge, but then we went into the city…So me and my sullen self approached the Dome and I saw some SICE people so I kept my distance. At this point, however, once I am given time to cool off, I was growing more contemplative rather than angry. You just gotta let me be a little angry sometimes because injustice makes my blood boil (and I put “injustice” as the WIDEST umbrella imaginable; don’t try and quiet me, don’t try and tell me that what I FEEL is insignificant or not worth worrying about. No. Just let me BE. (Luckily the SICE people did that, though later on, Sensei tried to reason with me.)
So I’m standing there, reading a sign on a pole across from the Dome and a man approaches me and asks, in English, where I’m from. I explain about how I’m with a group who is from a college in Indiana and we’re on vacation from our stay in Morioka. He THEN asked if I wanted to hear a survivor’s story. I said “Yes! Of course!” (He should be around (practically) 64, but he looks 40 (such is the Japanese skin and lifestyle). ) He sat me down at a nearby bench and began to tell me the story of Hiroshima, aided by a folder of pictures (photographs and drawings, some famous). He was in his mother’s womb (4 months along; born the 21st year of that ruling Emperor, January 22-he showed me his classification card from the government). His grandfather was in the basement of the rest house (located right next to the bridge we all walked over, just a few hundred meters from the Dome AND one of the only buildings in that area left standing after the blast) and he was thus protected from the majority of the damage. When his grandfather emerged however, he did receive some blasts of radiation.
The survivor’s, the man who was speaking, house was very close to the hypocenter (which was just a little bit away from the Dome) and both of his parents were burned. On his classification card, it says what class he belonged to. There were four, in descending order of importance/severity. His mother belonged to class one, his grandfather to two, his father and aunt to three, and him to four. His father was burned a great deal, if I remember correctly, and has died since the bombing, but his mother is currently living with leukemia (at age 93) or some other complication from her exposure. His whole premise, he wore a badge that said “Free Guide” was to tell a true story, a story we probably would not hear in the museum. He talked about censorship and melting skin and a river flooded with bodies. He gave us (by the end, Mariko, Sensei, Samantha, Mitchell, Nicole, and Tamara had stopped, though I do not know for how long; they came in at different points of his story and stayed for varied periods of time) a great perspective and sadly, we could only listen for a little while before we had to get back to the place near the Peace Clock we had dispersed from. Before we left, he gave us all a piece of paper with a web address where we could read his mother’s testimony. It also had his, Mito Kosei’s, email. I could not thank him enough for his time. It was some of the best ten minutes I have ever been given. Check it out if you feel inclined: it is on Dona Sauerburger’s website, a woman from Maryland who he knows somehow: http://www.sauerburger.org/dona/mito.
While he was talking two presumably American women came to listen. They spoke VERY LITTLE Japanese-“What is it you say? Oh-ha-yo go-zai-mas?” I feel like straight up tourists who know very little about the culture and the language and are on some HUGE group tour bus or something are the kind of people who we have to work to not be aligned with. I’m sorry for the blatant rudeness, but it was severely irritating, probably also because I had just come off being angry very shortly before. Please don’t forgive me. The women were probably in their 50s and kept interrupting him (SO AMERICAN) and using these strange slang words (watch, I bet they were from Indiana :P) like “Where was the fall point?” as in HYPOCENTER or EPICENTER (‘cept that’s more with earthquakes, right?). I was thinking Midwest or Florida retirement community or something, but they were pretty pale. They also acted like he didn’t speak the wonderful English that he did, like he HADN’T just told his early life story in a language foreign to him and done it to the point where we could all understand him. I really didn’t want to have to leave.
We got back together by 9:30am. Nicole and Claire were already there, Ethan and Abhi were at the same bench I had passed by earlier, Tamara and Elizabeth came from far off one side. Nicole asked how the guy was as “Was it interesting?” and I said “Yes” in probably a too obviously angry and disrespectful tone. The she said “That’s cool.” What kind of question was that? It was so flippant, so casual. And “That’s COOL”?????? Um YEAH it was kind of AWESOME to have someone who was NOT YET BORN at the time to come up FREELY and ask if I wanted to hear about his FAMILY and their EXPERIENCE in one of the WORST manmade disasters this world has seen. It ROCKED. But in the worst, most devastating way possible. I had no ACTUAL words to respond to her statement of “That’s cool,” so I just shook my head and distanced myself more.
We were to meet with a hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) and hear her speak on her experiences. It was beyond amazing to have such real stories as part of our trip. It was great to connect a broad tragedy to real struggle. Like I said before, I am angry at our atrocities. She had much to say (in English)-how the blast looked and felt was especially made real for me. She was burned on her arms and legs and had to have surgery on her eyelid and hands. She had been working in the field (she was around 8 years old) at the time of the blast. Blown to the ground, she called out to friends who had been working nearby, but they were all killed instantly. She went to the river, which was full of dead bodies and injured individuals trying to cool themselves, then went home to look for her parents. She was lucky enough to find them. When school time came around (the blast was in August), school proceeded like normal and classes were held anywhere they could be. Orphans (from the blast) and surviving children who had NOT been sent to the country when the air raids began (8-11 year olds were still in the city) ended up at shrines, eating, sleeping, and studying in the same place. Until 10:35, we were privy to her sharing of a real and terrible tragedy of her past.
At the end, we asked questions. Ethan asked if she thought humans would able to, essentially, uninvent something as powerful as the A bomb. She answered that the bomb takes money and she would love to see the money go to better things and places. She is working (and has been her whole life) to raise awareness about, and fight against, the use of nuclear weapons. She had a stroke six months prior and has had great difficulty regaining her speech. She is every bit a hero to me.
Tamara asked how Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as bombing locations, differed. Nagasaki was a mountainside apparently whereas Hiroshima was a full fledged city. Hiroshima was August 6, 1945. Nagasaki was bombed August 9, 1945. (I REALLY hope those dates are correct, because I am going to feel like SUCH an idiot if they’re wrong, kind of like how I said the time difference between the East Coast and Japan was 19 hours. Yeah…)
My question was about the healing or pseudo-healing that she underwent post-bombing. She was one of 25 women who received treatment in the U.S. and was teaching Americans about the violence of nuclear weapons. She then returned to Japan and taught Japanese people the same thing. She began going to church and through talking with the pastor and fellow survivors, she has healed greatly. She was very angry at the Japanese government initially for not doing more to support the survivors of the bombing. (Many people were.) She said how, on the train, she felt so isolated because of her scars and how she was seen as contaminated. People did not want to touch her; no one wanted to marry her. Often, survivors of the bombing have a great deal of guilt.
It was a very eye-opening, very enjoyable experience. Due to her stroke, her English was sometimes hard to understand, but she was a great individual to listen to and learn from. Before we had gone down to the separate meeting room (in the basement, under the museum) to hear Ms. Matsubara, Sensei bought us all tickets to get into the museum after her presentation (she had an accompanying slideshow that was a wonderful addition to her talk). We then were free to stay at the museum, get lunch on our own, and meet at the hotel at 1:30pm in order to taxi to the station and get on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto.
The Japanese like Obama. In the middle of the museum, at the gift shop (between the museum and the hall of artifacts), there was a t-shirt for sale that read “Obamajority”. Yeahhhhh!
At the end of the museum, where all the declarations of peace sit from all the world leaders who have visited or who have written to the museum pledging peace, there was a letter from the mayor of Hiroshima that read “We are part of the Obamajority. Yes we can” in relation to ridding the world of nuclear weapons and bringing peace to all nations and peoples.
I didn’t think I would see the museum ever again, let alone this soon. On the first floor is a scale model of Hiroshima, more specifically the area of the city that was the most destroyed by the bomb due to its close proximity to the hypocenter. Two models exist-a before and an after. A woman standing next to the models has a tour guide look about her and I’m sure she was wearing something that identified her as someone who could answer questions. She approached me as if I didn’t understand the signs written in English and didn’t understand what the models signified. I was kinder to her than I was to Nicole-I answered that I thought I understood. She started to tell me, with relation to the “after” model, that one man survived from the rest house and in an elementary school two rivers from the A-Bomb Dome, a female teacher and one female student survived. In both cases, the people were in the basement of the building at the time of the blast. The man in the rest house, I think, was the survivor’s (Mito Kosei’s) grandfather. Walked upstairs and across into the artifacts section (past the gift shop and “Obamajority” tee). Good as always, in the worst possible way of course. I had been close to Abhi and Ethan at certain points in the museum, but as I went at my own pace, I was often alone, left (pleasantly) to ruminate and be sullen at times.
I walked back to the hotel via 7-11 for lunch (not really “via” because of the Red Sea I had to part to GET to 7-11). I bought two onigiri (literally THE BEST and THE EASIEST lunch food EVER-rice balls wrapped in seaweed with innards of either salmon or tuna or roe or seaweed or egg or…) and a squeeze bag/bottle of aloe yogurt. I went into the lobby of the hotel to eat my second onigiri (ate my first and drank the yogurt en route back, but while I was STOPPED; it is uncommon to eat and walk simultaneously, though nowadays it is more often seen; BUT I try to blend in as much as possible) and wait. I got on AOL and deleted the mass craziness that comes in the form of the American Jewish World Service, ONE, Move On, and other groups I want to be part of, but just aren’t yet.
Many others arrived and we waited a little longer. Mariko, due to her having a Rail Pass (very handy for traveling around the country-gets you through train stations fast), was catching an earlier train to Kyoto. We taxied to the station a little while later, I bought myself a Hiroshima Carp towel (I have YET to see a game/be in Hiroshima for long enough to see a game BUT I am a fan nonetheless). On the shinkansen platform, I witnessed another act of “couple chivalry”-a girl and guy walking together (sorry for all the hetero couples, but it gets better later) and he took her bag from her and carried it…
Kyoto and Tokyo to come…
My family is great-I love them. And they love each other. No one tells another to “get out” or “go away”. They are close and caring and they have let me part way into their lives. For that, I am so grateful. I was talking with Otoosan once about Hanako-she went to the number one high school in Morioka, but he said she “failed” because she is now at Yokohama rather than some other prestigious school most Ichikoo (ichi number one, koo high school) students set their sights on. It is interesting that he used the word “failed”…
I love how the lights in the house DON’T turn on automatically after pushing the switch or pulling the cord. It makes you patient.
Continuing to learn with each passing day, but clearly NOT learning how to be succinct. Oh well, I’m sharing experiences with you and THEY matter to me and YOU matter to me. J
Always just an email away, Hannah
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