Day Becomes Eclectic

Last Chance Matsuyama!

2010-07-05T05:24:00.001-07:00

So, the day for my final trip to Matsuyama had arrived. On Sunday Jennifer, Kako, and I all headed to Matsuyama to go visit the castle and try some of the city's famous 5 color noodles. (yum!) Here is the story of that trip...

Sunday, July 4: Matsuyama

Around 10 am, we headed on the highway through the mountains and arrived at Matsuyama, parking the car near the shopping main street of Ohkaido and heading out into the cloudy midday for the walk up to the castle. We climbed up the road next to Starbucks (after stopping in for snacks, of course--starbucks food is awesome: only in Japan!) and headed into the departure point for the tramcar up the mountain that plays home the castle. But first, it was posing for pictures as the main characters from the famous book cataloging a city boy that comes to Ehime (my state) to teach English and the hardship he endures, called Botchan (named after the title character.) Here they are and look how good i fit as a Botchan! (and what a great 'Madonna' and principal Jennifer and Kako make, respectively!) Fits cuz i also have too big of a mouth just like Botchan *yay*! So after that lovely photo op, we headed to ride the slightly old (read: from the 70s) tram car up the large hill/small mountain to the castle (Matsuyama castle.) Along the way, viewing the 'chair lift' that ran parallel to the tram car (these are, in fact, chairs with no seat belts or foot rests. Just chairs dangling. Check out the grainy, hard to see video and see for yourself =)

Next, it was off to wander the road up to the castle, and along the way, I discovered one of the many famous haiku post stations in Matsuyama, a city as famous for its literature as it is for its five colored soumen.(soba style noodles.) and so, i composed my haiku for the day:

瀬戸内海の/白波の上/松山城
above the white waves of the Seto Inland Sea--Matsuyama castle.

with a little help from Kako as my editor! and so, after posting it into the haiku collection box for consideration, it was up the hill to the CASTLE! Well, first view was through the gate. Then of course we paused for the photo op before trekking up what was --unknowingly--to be almost 4 stories up intensely crowded, steep wooden stairs (more like attic stairs...thats what stairs were like in ancient Japanese castles!)

But I'll just post these photos for your consideration:

So these are some views before we entered a nd began the climb up to the higher floors of the building, then there are the views inside...and to the top! (Pausing along the way for the archery ladies to slay some approaching enemies from the comfort of those tricky, easy to shoot from, hard to shoot at windows!)

ah, how refreshing to have the best view in Matsuyama!

view from the top~

...and that same view shared with our feathered friends!

So after climbing up through the castle was our chance to scurry down the other side of the mountain through the forest on the other side, complete with sun-dappled path (theres a specific word in Japanese that means 'sun spilling through the trees' how cool is that?) So we made it down to the castle's park, complete with recreated ancient castle grounds, concrete planters and a giant well with a turtle. Not a stunning park but interesting none the less!

So after the journey to the often strange and always surprising castle-park, we headed back down to the bottom of the mountain--and thus back into Matsuyama--for some five color soumen noodles (you knew I was going to get back to that didn't you!) and here's a cool photo--thats right, they sold the noodles in sliced bamboo trunks! How Zen looking right?

On the way out of the restaurant, we ran into a post office with a strange covered mailbox... is this the official mailbox for royalty in Matsuyama? You tell me!

Finally we went and did some shopping, book shopping and window shopping, then fed our exhaustion with some delicious treats from this place called Angel Heart... which made sense once we realized they were actually raising birds that were being rehabilitated from the wildlife habitat that they were displaced from. How bout that? And they were so cute! This little green one, the youngest, gave a returning customer Grandpa little kisses on the nose. (you can just see gramps out the window.) Feel the love!

Well, that was it! It was a great trip, and an exhausting but well worth it day! Thanks Matsuyama! ;)

Mt. Ishizuchi shrine

2010-06-14T04:52:00.001-07:00

It was a bright, beautiful May Sunday morning. Mt. Ishizuchi, Shikoku's tallest mountain at 6503 feet, beckoned from our backyard. So, we hopped on our bikes, stopping for a quick filling up of the water canteens at the freshest water around, our very own Saijo uchinuki (water springs.) Here's my personal favorite 'spring' where I like to fill up at (aint it purdy?) complete with its own pyramid of water, as you can see to the right. After stopping for water, it was on to traverse the rice fields, rice fields and...whaddya know? more rice fields, finally arriving at the foothills of the Ishizuchi mountain range, just off of Route 11 in Saijo. We brought along our picnic and trekked up the asphalt to the outer gate of the shrine. (The outermost gate, right on Route 11, can be seen below. Pretty tall, huh? Fitting for Shikoku's highest mountain maybe?)
Shrines in Japan are usually built into or onto hills, which are considered holy ground (thats why in Japan, as well as China and Korea, graveyards are usually up in hills as well.) The shrine dedicated to the Shinto spirit of Mt. Ishizuchi stretched out from the shrine at the foothills of the range, the one we went to, all the way up the side of the mountain to the very top of the mountain itself. While the official climbing season for Mt. Ishizuchi kicks off on July 1, we decided that the quite lovely base shrine is a treat enough in itself, as the four tiered approach is a workout of its own! So, we decided to climb to the main shrine building.At the outer gate of the shrine, we viewed the shrine guardians on either side. Often, goblins of the mountain are shown having particularly long noses (Pinocchio anyone?) and are always associated with the 'mountain winds'. (cuz when I think of mountain winds, of course, long noses come to mind..?) So we looked them over and enjoyed a moment in the cool shade before going through and walking up the stony path further up towards the inner shrine.

After climbing up the stairs, we reached a smaller entry shrine, next to a shady pond. Their over the pond was a small arched bridge that went over the pond. Looking off from the bridge, was a small stone shrine statue emerging from the pond. Circling the the stone shrine and crossing beneath the bridge were many koi -Japanese speckled carp- that were at least 2 feet long, some of them! We paused to take a photo and enjoy the view from our current perch at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the water shrine, and finally, the main shrine.
After washing our hands according to the instructions (wash left, then right, hands, clean mouth, left hand once more and then tilt ladle 90 degrees and wash ladle handle,) we walked toward the mountains, where there was a small spring gurgling up, with a dragon's head spewing water into a small pool of water. Presiding over the pool was a stoic figure, presumably a guardian spirit, guarding over the immediate area. There, a man made an offering, bowed, and began chanting a prayer that sounded more like it belonged in a Zen temple than a Shinto shrine!

Finally, it was time to move up to the next--and second to last--shrine. There, a small water spring was bubbling, a spring that people were free to come and take water home from. Standing in front of the spring was a shrine building, guarded by two stone lions. There I made a small offering, intending to come back after I drank the water in my canteen at lunch to refill it with water (which I did.) Finally, we went up the final staircase to the main shrine hall. There happened to be a service while we were there. Actually, two, the more intriguing of which was happening...outside, and, um, around a car. Yes, that's right. There it was, a priest blessing a car. Waving the purity symbols around to get rid of any evil spirits hoping ton inhabit it (you can see them hanging off of ropes at the entrance to shrines in Japan, they look like white lightning bolts,) he was also chanting and throwing something onto the ground around the car. It was pretty surreal! Also in front of the shrine was a little boy, running around excitedly and watching the priests bang on the taiko drums (every shrine in Japan has a taiko drum that is used to open and close the shrine and also during prayer ceremonies.) Whether it was a private, commissioned ceremony for only a few people or a public ceremony I wasn't sure, but it didn't seem to make a difference to this kid. We talked to his mom, and she said he wasn't even two years old! That kid was moving around quite a bit for being so
tiny.

After our stop at the main shrine building, it was down to the park to have a bite to eat for lunch. We walked down to a small garden, complete with pond and fountain. There were even some baby trees,

we tried to gauge their age using Jennifer's height! I carried our lunch in my llama bag as we strolled into a gazebo to eat our lunch away from the heat. After settling into the gazebo, we pulled out our sandwiches and admired the garden with its strange boulders surrounding a pond at the bottom of a hill, as well as trees and flowers around our gazebo. Enjoying our lunch while also viewing the beautiful weather and surrounding garden, I can only imagine what it must have been like to have a patio with one's own private garden to view the changes of the seasons in Japan back in the day...although, they probably weren't enjoying PB&J and apple slices!

Finally, it was one last stop to go grab more water for the canteen, then we bid goodbye to lovely Ishizuchi shrine, the carp, the flowers, and the mountain range it protected!
'til next time, Ishizuchi!

Imabari--the shores of the Inland Sea, and delicious ice cream!

2010-06-02T23:56:00.000-07:00

On a sunny Saturday at the end of May, one of our fellow Saijo friends invited Jennifer and I to go on an 'outing' somewhere with her and her always-inquisitive son. To where we had no idea, so we grabbed our bags, headed over to her place and were told we were going to the nearby town of Imabari, about a half hour to the West. Having never spent a significant amount of time there, but having heard about the castle (as well as seen it from the train) and a certain towel museum, I was more than curious as to where the journey would take us.
As it would turn out, neither of those places.

First, it was down a highway towards Imabari, with a detour just outside of town to go to the very narrow beach of Seto Inland Sea National Park. Let's put it this way, if you were playing freeze tag with a few friends on the beach, you could run up and down the whole 'beach' and everyone could be frozen within a matter of minutes. Yeah.
it was kinda small.
But it was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect with clouds sailing above the distant islands and off towards the mountains of Saijo to the East, and we got to skip stones on the water and soak our feet in the frigid, frigid still waters of the Seto Inland Sea (I have yet to see any waves on this thing. I don't think it happens.) So, Jennifer and I chased Alex while Moto looked on and we all kicked water on each other (as it happened, my mini skirt was actually soaked by one of Alex's attacks. Thanks, dude!) and we made a sandcastle, that didnt last through the water coming ashore (the beach was mainly made of small rocks--or, maybe, large pieces of sand?--so we had to be reallly close to the water to make a castle out of anything resembling, um, sand.)
So, good times! Then we hopped back in the car with our sandy shoes, just in time to head off to a nearby farmer's market, replete with fish, fish, and more freshly caught fish! including some left out to dry (they must get more, um, delicious that way?) and a cafe for sweets, surrounded by small plants and herbs, and this giant cactus. There was a also a nearby restaurant, with this lovely setup of flowers and ... um, a poem I'll venture? Not sure what that says, but its pretty nevertheless. Of course, there was also fresh, fresh, freshly made ice cream (best ive had in Japan so far hands down) and plenty of horsing around. By the time we hung out there for a bit, it was already late and we had to come back. On the way back, we did get to see the eminent towel museum, but it was too late to stop by. Aw, man! I guess learning how towels are made will have to wait for a rainy day...

Okayama: Momotaro`s Hometown

2010-05-14T07:21:00.001-07:00

I left on a Friday. A speeding train across the underbelly of the Great Seto Inland Sea Bridge. The weather was lovely, and the islands drifted above the nearby Seto Island sea like clouds leisurely cruising through the pale. The sunset backlit the scene, from the West, dipping behind the islands as though they were clouds obscuring all from view but the pink champagne and violet purple streaks across the lower back of the sky. It was the perfect beginning to a trip off Shikoku.

Location: Okayama (B)
That being said, my actual arrival in Okayama was fraught with doubt. Although it was a Friday night, the entire city was hushed, with even the street in front of the station muted--if this was the transportation hub of Central-West Japan, like I imagined it to be, where were the crowds of people, the hustle and bustle to go to and from bars and clubs and karaoke joints near the station? I hopped on a
streetcar and set off to find my favorite, internet cafe for my overnight stay. But first, I got lost. In heels.

After wandering with my 2 1/2 inch babies down 4 city blocks down a deserted arcade street, and down the back alley where the bus terminal/internet cafe was(n't), I found an Indian restaurant. The craving for curry superseding all else, I plopped myself down and ordered a spicy curry.
The curry wasn't spicy.
I also asked for directions to the bus terminal (/internet cafe)
I got directions on how to get back to the train station.
After that illustrious beginning, my fortune changed when I passed a Koban (police office box, here in Japan there are stations for police to wait and monitor the area, and they also give directions to lost people. They usually give directions..thats why there's a million maps in their windows and you can't miss them! Thanks po-pos!) And they pointed me toward the bus terminal. There I found my internet cafe--but not before popping into Starbucks!--and settled in for the night.

Next day I threw my bags in a locker, grabbed some breakfast on the go and headed out for the garden on the edge of the river. Short bus ride later, I was entering Ko-rakuen (a reference to pleasure after affairs of the state, a quote by Confucius) and what a pleasure it was! At 9:00 in the morning, not crowded at all, and with gorgeous sunny weather too! I took it easy, wandering through secluded forests glades with teahouses at every turn, over a Monet-esque bridge over water-lily filled ponds, across scenic stretches of open land with commanding views up to the castle, and even a look over the entire garden from a central bluff. After a stop to enjoy the pleasant surroundings with some strong (matcha) green tea, I wandered to the back of the garden where the plum trees and maples could be found, and wandered through a strange outdoor pavillion cut in two with a stream running through it, on the side of which were irises springing from a pond with a zig-zag, Tale of Genji-inspired footbridge running through it. There were forests of rustling bamboo stalks 20 ft tall, and shady coves with mini shrines to the Jizo bodhisattvas.

Then, it was around the corner to the river that divides the garden from the rest of the city, which has the lovely black Crow Castle standing guard over it. I would feel pretty cool if I was in the shadow of that castle. I'd probably offer it a peach, too, just like this kid is doing. (Actually, this kid is MomoTaro, or the little peach boy, from the legendary Japanese folk tale.) I hung out here snapped this shot and relaxed for a little bit before heading over and into the castle. Walked across the river and entered the castle keep, heading up through the gates and into the restored castle. it was pretty formidable. Luckily the inside not so much, as there was an elevator to shuffle me up to the top floor and I could leisurely drift back down. The display inside is pretty boring, and useless if you dont read Japanese, but the pictures of all of Japan's castles, and the palanquin that they used to carry the noble family in (that I got to take this picture with) made it semi-worth the stop. I headed out of the castle and back out into the beautiful weather, but not before snapping this awesome view of the park from the top floor of the castle's interior. After admiring the castle one more time from outside, I headed along the river before coming upon this sculpture park, at the junction of the riverside walk and Momotaro St. From there I headed right up the street to the Museum of the Orient, where I unexpectedly arrived at the beginning a tour of the ancient Near East history section. It was like having a listening comprehension test and a history lesson, all in one. Who knew the first wheat (=beer) was brewed...er, harvested, in the Middle East thousands of years ago? I do now. There were interesting shaped pitchers, bowls, and even seals for documentation. Then I headed upstairs for the special exhibit on Persia, with artifacts from Iran through the ages. Some were very sophisticated, and I appreciated their fine glazes and extraordinary detailing of scenes and miniatures. Even better, upstairs there was a cafe where I could enjoy something I had never tried before (despite serving it multiple times at Alsolymania hookah bar in Journal Sq...) arabic coffee! So I ordered myself a fingel masboot and waited for her to bring it over and pour it..it was so much richer than average instant coffee, like with actual complex flavors. If that's real coffee, I might become a coffee drinker. Oh the wonderful things we have received from the cradle of the world!In the cafe, I got to have a talk with a Japanese guy with impeccable English who was delivering a lecture later that day on glass and glassware as it had traveled from the Middle East along the Silk Road until the methods arrived in Japan. While I didn't stick around for the lecture, he was a cool enough guy, and mentioned his interest in Middle Eastern culture and the fact that he lived in Africa for two years when he was younger, where they spoke french and arabic, but not english. I think it must have been an interesting juxtaposition, Japanese and Arabic cultures, but not so different. They are both very hospitable and welcoming to guests, after all.

Then, it was off to do some shopping in the arcade, where I met a really nice girl, Hitomi, who is currently studying English in Okayama. I gave her my email address and told her to look me up and to definitely come to New York City! I think it's just a really mind-blowing place for the Japanese, even after Tokyo--New York must seem really wild and untamed to the average Japanese, I think (maybe its wishful thinking haha) but she was really sweet, and I picked up some clothes I desperately needed for zazen the next day. Then I stopped by the bookstore, and finally I surprised myself by running into the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, and as there was a current exhibition on Angkor Wat in Cambodia, I popped in and looked around. Pictures weren't allowed, but I did manage to sketch a couple of the more interesting pictures. There were lots of Hindu references, including some finely detailed panels from the Cambodian version of the Ramayana. Even more interesting were the facial features on the Vishnus, Lakshmis, and Buddhas ... they were very soft and with wide faces, looking more pacific islander than mainland Asian. It was definitely a style I've never seen before...even more interesting were the gold leafmetal shadow puppet looking sculptures toward the end of the exhibit. With the precision of the tips of the figures, I can see how shadow puppetry must be really exciting to witness there.

Finally, that was the apex of my picture taking, at the end of the day it was one last look at the lit castle at nighttime, then an early bedtime. The next morning I was up and on the bus for 6:12 to Sougenji, the temple on the outskirts of Okayama where I had read there was a free weekly zazen meditation on Sunday mornings. And so i arrived, slipped out of my heels, got a refresher course, and then did the one hour meditation (with a break halfway through to stretch, amen.) The most interesting --and distracting, unfortunately--part was during the second half of the meditation, when the priest and his assistant came around wielding sticks that they swatted people with who looked as though they needed to reach enlightenment. They didn't hit them hard, it was mainly the sound that made me flinch! Finally, I got a ride home after a short tea ceremony from a really cool Mr. Mori, who dropped me off at the train station in time for my ride home.

So, in one weekend I got to explore a garden and a castle, visit the Middle East and Cambodia, enjoy starbucks coffee and arabic coffee, and finally, i got some Zen back in my life. Overall, a
pretty kickass weekend!

Golden Week Art Holiday around Japan...

2010-05-14T07:18:00.001-07:00

location: Japan

So start of the journey: Tokyo! showed up a day early and messed around in Ueno Park and in Asakusa near the famous Sensou-ji temple. Tried to walk over to Asakusa from Ueno Park and
cruising through the aboveground art installation that was the walk from Ueno's subway station across the street to Asakusa street, where I encountered various sculptures, such as this walk underneath me black obsidian looking globe. Interesting...

From there, it was a 25 minute walk in the scorching sun down a street full of buddhist altar shops (literally, shops full of items you buy to remember your dead with. An entire street. In downtown Tokyo. Kinda surreal...) Then finally made it to Sensou-ji. It was still a little early in the day, so there weren't too many people. Then, I headed over to Shinjuku to do a little shopping and to meet up with my friend Elin, who's from Sweden, but currently studying in Tokyo. We studied together at Kansai Gaidai. We met up and headed over to Shibuya, and grabbed some dinner. Finally, we got some karaoke, and I crashed over at the first internet cafe I could find, to get up the next morning, grab me some donuts, and go out to Narita Airport to meet Andy...

...from there, we chatted up a friendly group of Lady Gaga and Rihanna lovin' high school girls til we reached our destination at the Sakura hostel in Ikebukuro.
That night, it was off to all you can eat korean bbq, and catching up about life...
then, the next day, Sensou-ji temple in Asakusa again! Here are some more of the pix from that beautiful temple. It's a fun part of town, because there's also an old theme park there, where I took this dorky photo with two popular children's animated feature favorite characters, and this tower of terror is visible in the background behind the temple..

Finally, it was back out through the arcade/shopping street that let to the temple and back on the train over to the airport. Our flight from Tokyo's Haneda airport (wayyy nicer than Narita, for the record, which basically sums up how little they care about foreigners by giving them the shittier airport haha) to Takamatsu was a quick one, and we headed over to the pier to catch the last speedboat ferry to Naoshima..it was a passenger ferry (aka it might have had room for 30 people..there were 9 of us) and not at all what i was expecting! It was a heck of a ride. then, we got picked up by local Fisherman and self-appointed ambassador of the island of Naoshima Mr. Hanbe. He picked us up at the pier, and we headed back to his place for food, beer, and conversation (during which time i acted as translator, of course, much to my chagrin. have i mentioned im not fluent in Japanese???) We trudged around to the Ando Tadao designed Chichu Museum, which is literally in the ground. But, um, the building was the best part of it. The worst part were the lines we waited in. The strangest was an installation piece that was a room filled with a hazy purple blue-ish light that made you feel like you were in the middle of a bad drug trip. it was pretty awesome, actually. Then, it was Benessee House and the beautiful beaches and sunny weather. It's impossible to be in a bad mood and be on Naoshima.
That day, it was a hop on the ferry and a train back to my town of Saijo, then from there a short stop at local watering hole World's End and onto the beautiful--and uber crowded--Orange Ferry for an overnight ride to Osaka. Even got to go out on the deck in the warm night air and look to the Shikoku shore line (spoiler alert: it looks just like the night sea scene in Princess Bride when they've kidnapped Buttercup, minus the eels... i think!) Next morning it was off to meet Jennifer in Kyoto, where we witnessed the glory that was the Tohaku Hasegawa exhibit. He was a contemporary of the Kano school in the Momoyama period of Japanese art, basically characterized by gold background folding screens, wide angles, arched bridges, and plants and animals serving as seasonal markers. It was a lovely exhibit. Next was SanJuSanGendo, which unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures of, but that really doesnt matter because a picture can't capture it anyway. It's this long, darkened hall 10 times as long as it is wide (it used to be an archery stable) and filled with 1000--yes, a thousand--gold covered images of the Boddhisatva of compassion, Kannon. Each has a slightly different face, and statues of the images of the sacred guardians of the Buddha are lined up in the front rows, with the most impressive figure being set in exactly the middle of the hall, a lovely eyes have opened seated Kannon bodhissatva figure easily about 30 feet tall. Always an awe-inspiring place to visit.

Next was a walk to fetch tofu donuts near the Nishiki market on the other side of the Kamo river in Kyoto, then finally saying bye to Jennifer and a train ride back to Osaka to take a stroll in the nice weather. We wandered over by Ebisu bridge, the main hub of Osaka shopping areas, and viewed some art on display near the canal. Then it was dinner at a Japanese-style pub (called an izakayaa here) , and guessing from the pictures what we're eating! always fun. Next morning was a day trip to Himeji-jo castle, the White Heron castle out west a little from Kobe. The main part (donjon) was under construction, so we headed over to the lady's quarters after posing for pictures by the main part of the castle and wandering the grounds. the cool rooms and floors of the lady's wing showed a more elegant side of the castle than I had planned for, with an excellent view of the main building. From there, we headed back to Nara for the evening and ate at a lovely rotating sushi restaurant, before retiring at our former geisha house Japanese style traveler's inn.

The next day it was off to the Big Buddha in Nara at Todai-ji, the world's largest wooden building, featuring the giant indoor Buddha himself and of course his famous nostril-sized hole in the pillar (the line for englightenment was ridiculous this time!) and then it was off to feed deer in the park nearby. After the big buddha himself, it was time to take a break back at the inn during the heat of the day, and then heading off for Kyoto, to go enjoy Fushimi Inari, the fox god shrine of the thousand gates trailing up the hill.

it was nice and quiet, as there was a temple festival nearby that everyone else was at. so we wandered up a bit through the cool of evening and then meandered back. then we got a ride over to Kiyomizudera which was ...closed (thanks cabbie lol) so we wandered through the back alleys and deserted streets back around to Yasuka shrine, which looked amazing at night, as always. then back around to the Kamo River, where we ate dinner on a platform over the river--expensive, as expected, but also an extremely relaxing, and delicious, experience. and the service was incredible, of course. but that goes without saying. we also got entertained by a local, um, Celtic flute band (i couldnt make this up!) it was very, traditional(ly Irish. lol.) and fun!

The next morning we took the fastest possible train from Kyoto to Tokyo (um, try a 3 hr trip, basically! pretty sweet. the landscape went by faster than you could make sense of anything around you!) the Nozomi Shinkansen train. Then in Tokyo immediately checked into the hotel and set off for Akihabara, where we explored the electronics capital of Japan (sans maid cafe, thank god.) and then it was to the performance art izakaya (pub), but on the way, we were lucky enough to run into the beginnings of the local festivities near the castle part of town in Shimbashi. even got to see them bless the shrine before all the men --and even some ladies! -- hauled it off to the temple in their hapi (festival coats.) it was cool to see something so homespun and traditional happen in the heart of Tokyo! Then it was Kagaya downstairs performace art pub, where we got to don silly glasses and watch the shop owner make a spectacle of himself. it was tons of fun--so much fun the owner couldn't resist chasing us down the street with his fake ninja gear. Uh, ok, i'll think twice before crossing you, ninja/restaurant guy!

Next day it was up and after dealing with a bit of a hotel situation I'd inadvertantly caused, it was off to the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi, Tokyo, where we spent our afternoon viewing the provocatively titled "Can There be Art?" dealing with contemporary artists in Japan and their current works. There was everything from noise rock done automatically by household appliances, rigged up record players, and even a car engine, a montage of videos taken in a sports car of cityscapes at night that spawned a drone-induced trance-like state. some were good (i've mentioned my personal favorite two) and some not so good (a hitler dress-up video comes to mind) but overall it was definitely thought-provoking! After that it was over to Odaiba for burgers and a visit with our own lady Liberty
in the Odaiba island harbor.

Finally, the last day consisted of a visit to Harajuku, so of course the crazy gaudy dress-up street of Takeshita dori, and then across the street to Meiji jingu, or Meiji shrine, shrine honoring the Meiji emperor. We were even lucky enough to witness a marriage! And the weather was so beautiful too. Lucky them! Then, before i knew it, I was saying goodbye to Andy and the end of my golden week...

Trips around town: English Camp, Fancy Lunch, and Jazz...

2010-04-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

So, all of these next three excursions happened within city limits. Let's move through the pictures, shall we?

First was our ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) volunteer English camp. We volunteered and worked for three days during what was otherwise holiday time for the kids to teach them English for 2 and a half days, with fun filled skits and activities. To the right are some of the kids with fellow ALTs interacting in English conversation; it was challenging, but rewarding, to see kids of all levels interacting (or, in more often than not, attempting to interact) with us in English. The kids ranged in age from elementary to early high school. Below are pictures of the much more interesting parts: making chikuwa, or ground fish patties, and cutting wide swaths of bamboo to cook rice inside of them (that was truly delicious!! its like pizza in a wood oven, baby... just, um, with rice instead of pizza...) Finally, me and the girls in my skit posing with King of Banana. our skit was about things that you should buy (in this case, a banana.) we all used some props that i brought to explain who likes bananas and why you should buy one. it was pretty interesting... even included the fact that people in Finland AND Hawaii eat bananas! (see, we're not so different after all... haha...) and of course, gratuitious pictures of the beautiful, serene mountain landscape... it was on the outskirts of town, after all!

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Next journey, also on the outskirts of town towards the mountains (and right near a temple on the 88 pilgrimage, Yokomine-ji) was to a ryokan, or traveler's inn, for lunch. Often ryokan, traditional lodgings, here will serve their homecooked meals either for their guests or often just for visitors who just come to eat. We were the latter group; my fellow Japanese teachers at my base school and I all went out for a 4 course meal at this quaint little cabin like inn in the mountains. It even included a hot tub that looked out over a beautiful lake below (you can catch a glimpse of the view here, the hot tub is under the roof and you are supposed to bathe there naked.) So we entered the main hall of the restaurant/ inn and looked around, finally being brought into our totally private old style Japanese style room (complete with straw mats and sliding doors, of course!)
We sat down to our meal in the Saijo-style Cracker Barrel (except with fresh ingredients!) for lunch and were treated to pickled veggies, soup, tofu, and of course, noodles (yum!) and sashimi.. some pretty fresh sashimi too! hooray for yummy sliced raw fish from the Seto Inland Sea nearby! (the pot on the left side is our noodles boiling above an actual fire in an iron pot. and it was soo delicious!) After the meal I took a look about the inn, it was an interesting mix of rustic and streamlined design, I especially liked the ambience of the room with these interesting light fixtures! The inn from the outside was pretty
welcoming, I gotta admit. I had no idea a place like this was within my
city limits!

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Finally was a jazz concert at the dessert cafe Apple Pie (it does have some bangin' apple pie!) roughly a ten minute walk from my house. Although we had met the owner, or master, of the cafe and he told us he played bass in a jazz outfit, I wasn't quite expecting the rockin' time I got with this crew! They played what I can only conjecture were jazz standards, as the only other times I've listened to jazz has been unwillingly while hostessing brunches at the Light Horse in Jersey City. However, they really got into it and had such passion for all of it--it started with just the sax and the piano, then branched out to the Master (owner) on bass and the pianist and saxist, then the drummer joined in--he was my favorite, man, his solos were so fresh! Enjoy--and sorry, I didn't take any videos, you'll have to take my word for it ;).

Osaka Field Trip

2010-04-20T06:20:00.001-07:00

April 17-18:
location, Osaka
(A is where I got my tattoo =)

Arrived on a Saturday morning in Osaka, and first it was off to Cafe du Monde in Osaka as usual, and then straight to Namba with me! The weather was beautiful, and I walked across the canal at Namba in Osaka and was surrounded by the surreal architecture of the FM Osaka building and nearby canal-crossing pedestrian footbridge. The sun was shining, and it was off to consult with the guys at Three Tides Tattoo in Minami Hori-E about my new ink. They showed me the prototype, and we made some alterations and from there got a price and time approximation hammered out. Then from there I had a nice picnic in the park, where I was surrounded with the surreal cherry blossoms in Osaka, perfect time to be there! Finally after lunch was some shopping, including at an incredible gallery cum art space called The Art House near the park where I had lunch, and there I picked up many adorable postcards, including this one of a girl wistfully drawing the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island saying in Japanese 'Man, I wanna go to Coney Island...' well, how can I NOT pick that one up! Along with that amazing postcard, came these other 2 very diverse looks, from a series about contemporary Asian artists. (hooray for curating postcards! Gotta start somewhere!) Tell me which one(s) you like!

(this last one is an artists rendering of Osaka)

From there I went and checked into my capsule hotel (how cool did the tiny space-age capsules look! amazing. you could even control if you wanted to watch miniature TV or put on a radio station!) Then from there it was time to go grab some dinner and then I wound up listening to Japanese Billy Joel out on the waterfront at Namba's Ebisu bridge, the Times Square of Osaka.

Next morning, it was sleep in and get ready for the day! Did some vintage home shopping and popped back over to the park for a snack and got to witness the Osaka Police Band, right at the end of their act! (These are the gentlemen and Ladies exiting in formation from their performance.)

Next, it was an afternoon (well, really about 2 hours) of, hm, extreme discomfort for this lovely beaut to be added to my upper back.

Then, I ran back to an art gallery where I had met an artist earlier with his pet dinosaur (he created this creature out of aluminum foil, including several other creatures on the floor that all made noise when plugged into amps. He also created this kitty, seen here on my purse.)

The gallery was called Oso Blanco, and along with Art House became my new favorite place to frequent in Hori-E! There at 6 pm was where I saw this lovely Butoh dance performer react and dance to the moving, clicking aluminum sculptures around her. (Butoh is a form of modern dance unique to Japan that emphasizes how the body moves and reacts to certain sounds and situations spontaneously. Also this woman doing the dancing seemed legit crazy, she was from Kyoto. I loved it. Definitely not for kids.) These are some shots of her performace.

Well, I didn't take too many photos because the entire trip was full of experiences interacting with many of the young (and older) Osakans I came into contact with; in fact it served as more of a field trip for me and less of a photo opp. But definitely a memorable trip!

Night Cherry Blossoms vs. Day Cherry Blossoms

2010-04-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

location: my town, Saijo
So, I went on 4 separate cherry viewing trips, but I'm just gonna talk about 2 of them here.
First was the night viewing with friends out in Tambara, on the outskirts of town. We pulled up to a nicely lit riverbank complete with food stalls and sprawling night lit cherry blossom trees and all sat down to drinks and snacks, and just chattin about whatever. It was a nice night of comradery and cool breezes by the river.

-------

Next was my day party with Jennifer a couple of my Japanese friends, Rie and Tako, and a couple of the other JETs in my area. My friend Rie made this delicious looking sushi cake! Thats right, rice krispies on top, rice and sushi in the middle. Yum! We all hung out under the cherry trees by a small creek under the bright sunshine. Usually, cherry blossom viewing is seen as a way to socialize with your friends and enjoy the beautiful marker of spring season, cherry blossoms (the blossoms themselves only last for about 10-14 days,
depending on the weather...) so, we all hung out, Jennifer and I wound up explaining the Thong Song to Rie and Tako (haha...loong story!) and then the others showed up and we all goofed off and ate this delicious feast. I hope these pictures do justice to the beautiful blossoms of my town!

Thailand, pt.3: A Revolutionary day!

2010-04-20T04:47:00.000-07:00

Chumpon up to Bangkok, by bus/train
Bangkok

so, boarded the ferry to go back from Koh Tao back to the mainland; specifically, the town of Chumpon. While on the ferry, approaching the shore, i realized we should be outside on the bow enjoyin the evening breeze and the setting sun--but it turned out we enjoyed a lot more than that, as we ran into a ska band that had played the previous evening on Koh Tao and was headed back as well, enjoying the evening sun with beer and cigarettes and the appropriate ukelele. so, after playing one of their songs--they got the whole front deck to sing along!--it was 'sell out' by reel big fish, a crowd favorite! (if by crowd you actually mean me; i wouldve preferred 'beer', which would have been more appropriate considering me and cookie went and bought them all beers, but hell ill take any RBF song to be honest with ya!) then i asked them if they liked other ska bands, like dropkick murphys or streetlight..being true ska musicians, of course they were fans! i was pretty stoked...we even got a cd for free (considered it fair trade for the 30 bucks' worth of beer! ;P) well, all good things must come to an end, and we eventually got kicked off the front end of the boat for causing a disturbance--and cuz we were almost to shore. probably the only time ive ever been kicked off a part of a boat and banished to another part. (oh, what rebels!)
so then we arrived at the pier
...
except it was really about a 250 foot long rickety ass pier made out of driftwood..no kidding when we really reached the beach the people getting off the boat looked like ants!
well, then it was on board the bus to Chumpon in order to get on our train to Bangkok..except me and Cookie got put on the immigrant bus, basically, and got to the train station way before everyone (their bus broke down.. nanny nanny boo boo! haha nah im just glad everyone made it OK) and so we went and grabbed cold coffee from the cafe across the street (where the shopgirls were watching true blood in thai subtitles! interestin...) saw a blinged out ghetto sports car, and got to eat some crepes, fried rice, and other thai street food for dinner. Finally, they showed up and we went to wait for the train... and the Oriental Express, complete with butlers and waiters clad in tuxedos in the chandelier-hung dining car, showed up (!) classiest thing I've ever seen on tracks! Finally our, um, not so classy train showed up, and we bunked up and tucked in for the night...
...aboard the demon train, which seeemed at times to fly over the tracks more than, um, ride them. Cookie poked his head up in the morning like...'so was that the scariest train ride you've ever been on?' and i was like 'um yeah i was thinking the same thing thanks' haha. oh, boy.
then it was arriving at the station, and everyone splitting to go their own separate ways, all sleepy-eyed and half awake. our separate way just happened to be *clears throat* the Grand Hyatt Erawan, in the shopping and business hub of Bangkok's Central Square area (which has been since taken over by the red shirt revolutionaries calling for a repeal to the current government. bit of a messy situation!) but, at the time it was still live and bustling... we pulled up and got checked in in the lovely spacious chandelier heavy, poshly decorated and spacious lobby (hey, it's the nicest place I've ever stayed let me get a little excited about it!) and then went up to our room with a view over the city on the 24th floor, hallways dripping with contemporary artworks by Thai artists (whoever curated these walls gets my stamp of approval!) then it was a short nap and setting out on our day trek across the city! It got started on a good note, as neighboring Erawan Shrine, for which the hotel is named, was playing host to a party of religious dancers doing a worship dance in full costume. Very graceful and dripping with golden ornaments, and the headresses! Those things must be heavy... then it was off to the monorail like train system that runs through central, business Bangkok... up to the Victory Monument, another huge roundabout just like the Democracy monument, then a hot, sunny walk over to near the current King's Palace, and although you could only see the tops of buildings from outside the palace walls, we got to take pictures with some cute mural animals near the zoo and encountered lots of troops resting and preparing for the ever greater swarms of protestors that kept infiltrating different key areas of the city trying to cripple the government (we walked along the road with all the major government buildings--the Dusit Throne Hall, which we wanted to see, was closed because of all the commotion going on, they were serious about keeping things on lock!) so then it was back to meet up with Matti, my friend Nancy Marie from college, who is currently in the Peace Corps north of Bangkok teaching English. she showed us around the major shopping centres, and we even got to spy on how new Audis and Porsches on the 4th floor (!) of the shopping complex. Pretty snazzy! Then it was back to the hotel to primp and prep for our wonderful evening dinner on a rooftop restuarant near the river. And. although we left an hour earlier than intended, it turned out being just the right time, as it took us almost an hour to go what amounted to less than 10 miles by taxi. Oh, Bangkok traffic! The protests didn't help, of course, but on that note our taxi driver was more than happy to share his opinion: 'the guy in power now is driving us out business-the taxes have become so high I can't afford to be a taxi driver anymore and have to move back home. thaksin was a much better man to have in power, thats why i'm a red shirt. he at least kept things reasonable.' he made being a red shirt sound so rational, it's hard to reconcile his mild mannered comments and recollections of his kids and family back home with the violent attitudes and extremism that is being repressed by the government now in Thailand. Interesting bit of civics for me, that day. Finally we arrived at Sirocco's, the rooftop restuarant on the, ahem, 64th floor of a hotel near the river, complete with nearby Sky Bar. We were all dressed up, and the walk down a curved staircase to the restaurant overlooking the entire city made you feel like royalty! It was simply incredible, the food, the wine, everything. The service was impeccable, unlike anything I've ever encountered, and the food was pretty good as well! We spent 2 hours just dining, talking and enjoying the view, eventually after dinner sidling over to the Sky bar to get a better view towards the river. Time was winding down, however--we had to make it back to the Hyatt in order to savor an experience at the basement floor cigar bar. And enjoy we did, a Macanudo and single-malt scotch whiskey each (i did the Glenlivet, myself) later, it was reveling-in-the-glories-of-our-trip heaven. We were on top of the world!

Well, that was the end of our trip.. the next morning was our flights back to Japan, then off to our own respective countries *tear!* Can't wait to go back to Thailand, but hopefully the country will calm down and recover from the violence and turmoil it's experiencing right now. I echo the words of a Bangkok resident when I say 'Thailand is the land of smiles, and I can't wait for all the turmoil to subside so people can go back to being their happy, laid-back selves.'

Thailand, pt. 2: The Islands to the East

2010-04-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

Days 5-8: Koh Samui through to Koh Tao (Koh Tao is the tiny white island in the very middle.) So, first was our ferry ride out to Koh Samui, the Seaside Heights of the Thailand Gulf (eastern side of Thailand, opposite from Phuket.) We hung out on the ferry, playing cards--I even won a grandpa-aged Thai admirer, and offer of beer from said grandpa (no thanks gramps, says I!) Arrived on the island, checked into the hotel and wandered off onto the beach--the glorious beach! Ahh, aside from the European men in mankinis, the beach was perfect--placid waters, transparent and warm, with nice soft sand. Actually, it was perfect--but definitely not my favorite beach, I prefer waves, and this beach was wayy too calm for my tastes, although very, very beautiful! and right down the beach was a chill beachside snack bar where we could get pizza, fruit shakes, and enjoy the beautiful weather!
So, then it was back to decide our plans for the night over dinner--and decide we did! It was over to the main 'shopping road' of the island--complete with starbucks and gaudy same T-shirt stores everywhere (with a few higher end items off on side streets!)--and souvenir shopping. Luckily Dana stuck by me while I deliberated over exactly the right gifts for others--oh, and tropical clothes for myself!--and we made it to the bar to hang out with the group, then on to a dance club. dance clubs are so fun, even sober! the music was good, we did a 'dance off' with everyone, and even wound up dancing on stage! What a long--not to mention awesome--night. Next day it was sleeping in and enjoying breakfast before our ferry ride out to Turtle Island--Koh Tao, the farthest in away in the Koh Samui archipelago, and supposedly tiny. And it did turn out to be small, but it's not THAT Small--probably about the length of Houma from Evergreen to Hollywood Rd., the downtown area of Greenville from the river over to the Shipley's road, and Manhattan from South St. Seaport up to Houston St. (hope that helps everyone!) So we were waiting for the ferry, not letting ourselves get bored, me and Dana decided to play a little game of melt-on-the-chessboard-not-in-your-mouth checkers with peanut m&ms (used our brains AND our taste buds!) and on the way to get the M&Ms, and provide slapstick comedy for the shop women when we hit each other with the door getting out of the dang store, we noticed a sign for the Koh Tao festival--and we were going just in time for it! How awesome! So finally board the ferry and make for Turtle Island, arriving just in time for some sightseeing, and boy, did we! First, it was to the beach yet again, and how long this beach was! And much less crowded, fortunately! The sand was just as lovely, and even in the sandy stretch near our hotel there was the smallest bit of remnants of coral reef, that was explorable borrowing our friend Thomas' goggles. So then, it was renting a bike to explore the island, and get off our resort property (um, and what a resort! The rooms and restaurant and everything was perfect.) And we did, got to see sunset from the north end of the island, and we even explored an empty construction site--erm, site of my future home, of course! Then on the way back to the resort, we ran into the festival--literally! It was as though the whole town had turned out--so out we all went to the festival, eating some street food for a good cause ...raising money to keep Koh Tao ecosystems safe! So, the theme of the festival was underwater festival, so there were all these cool decorations to make you feel like you entering an underwater grotto. But what a cool, delicious food and fun filled underwater grotto! I had some fried chicken, green curry, even learned the dance to Rocky Horror, thanks to a dive team that was entertaining for a good cause. After dinner, it was off to try our hand at the carnival games, where we came up short winning a prize but met some winning older gentleman who were gracious and, um, quite hiliarious. one of them even noticed the st. christopher medal around my neck and noted that he liked that ' i was a good catholic girl and not afraid to show it.' LOL! you say it, old dude! haha.. well, then it was off for sweets, and I enjoyed a crepe while playing peek-a-boo with a Thai toddler. Well, after a long day it was time to turn in...and wake up early the next day to go witness sunrise on the southern side of the island at the well-marked on the map John Suwann point--only, once we got our bikes up to that side of the island, the roads kept ending at--condos. Until, finally, we got to the end of one of the roads and found a promising wooden post that said "Path -->" so --> we went! And, the better part of an hour and an exhausting climb up a partially marked path later, there we were, enjoying a cloudy sunrise over the best view of the island! Nothing wrong with that, although knowing the extent of the hiking we were to endure beforehand would have been nice! And so, we enjoyed our time at the roof of the world (at least in terms of Koh Tao!) and then it was back down to bike around for our free door--after a nap, of course! So we went searching for lunch, and even found a little hidden beach down a dirt road to a 'resort', and wound up renting snorkel masks for a few bucks and exploring a beach with gorgeous (but painful! yikes!) coral reefs. I got to see the many kinds of coral in all shapes and sizes--yeah, they're all different!--and fish of all different colors and sizes, along with the waves rushing in, I had to be careful not to get water up my snorkel tube--sputter, sputter, gasp! On the other side of the beach was another reef, where among the fish I bid good day to, was a bottom dweller shark! It was kinda flat and white, and totally pre-occupied (oh, and a mere 4 ft--a baby!) so I wasn't too worried. Then it was brief beach cleaning and off to another, much smaller beach, that was uphill on another dirt road, then down through a housing tenement and even someone's house/restaurant. It was starting to get dark at that point, so we hung out near the surf and talked. Then it was back down the treacherous road and back to the resort to meet everyone for Italian food! Yum! we had great brick oven pizza, and even had some tiramisu to celebrate Dana's birthday! double yum! Then it was down the beach to go check out an oceanside lounge, where we hung out before going back to the resort and all playing cards together. Then, the next day was already time for our return, by ferry, to the mainland---sigh, end to the island adventures, and it was wayyy too soon!

Thailand, pt. 1: Arrival Bangkok, south to the Rainforest

2010-04-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

3/14 Arrival Bangkok, 4 p.m.
Waiting at the airport to take the airport bus to near Khao San road (it couldn't go the entire way because the route was blocked by protestors convening at the nearby Democracy Monument.) Hung out and chatted with a Japanese grad student on the same bus, then we split up when we walked a few blocks from where the bus dropped us off. Hopped on a motorcycle taxi and got dropped off at my hotel, Hotel De'Moc (highly recommend for travelers in Bangkok, centrally located and nice rooms.) Then wandered through the nearby back alleys until I stumbled upon this (I had been wondering where all the noise was coming from!) Maybe not so surprisingly not the only farang (foreigner) there--altho maybe the only tourist!--; I saw a few foreigners with red shirts on who seemed to have taken on the cause (of course I didn't venture too far into the crowd!) Met a Thai lady that was like 'so what do you think?' and i was like "wow, a lot of supporters here" and she pointed to her red shirt and was like "Yeah, but you know, I have a yellow shirt at my house just in case." (the yellow shirts are the opposers of the red shirt faction, like the repubs and dems. except that they throw tear gas at each other. so, maybe relatively not that different, seeing as bricks get thrown in the U.S.)
Interesting.
So then, back to the airport to pick up Dana, and boy was I glad to see he'd arrived safely! And then it was the beginning of my first trip abroad shared with someone! ( seeing how I usually travel alone...) so back to the center of Bangkok (the airport's pretty out of the way) and we wandered through the back alleys again, until we reached a street with little side streets full of tiny mom-and-pop restauarants. So we picked one, sat down and had some Pad Thai. The owner was this really cool guy, spoke some English and came over and said Hey. The food was really good, too! Hope I can find it again someday and eat there again. (I highly recommend going to sit-down restaurants al fresco dining in Bangkok is pretty much always a good idea--as long as at least a few other Thai diners are there, its probably not a bad choice!)
So, next day was a full day of sightseeing before meeting up with our tour group! And sightseeing we did--off on a walking trip by the Democracy Monument, still full of red shirts and being circled by pick-up trucks with cabs full of protestors waving flags and sounding off foghorns, even a few trucks driving around with old ladies selling food and drinks for the protestors out of the back of the truck (pretty ingenious if you ask me!) Then, hopping a ride in a tuk tuk to the big monuments, Wat Pho and the Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaeo. Arrived, and rounded the corner to go through the main entrance (this lovely gate pictured is merely a side entrance.) Entered, paid the fee, and immediately eschewed the main building to encircle the property and to go on a search for the famed Thai massage school. Wandered through multiple courtyards and past elaborate ornate statues and halls dedicated to the Buddha (including an entire outdoor cluster of statues lining the walls of an outdoor courtyard.) Finally found the massage school, and paid the ten bucks for a massage (best massage of my life--although a little bit, um, more painful than i was expecting!) Then wandered around the chedis (aka stupas) and back up to the front hall for the reclining buddha. And reclining he was, he was a happy, chillin' dude! Here he is below, along with a close-up of his feet. He was gigantic!
And, on the opposite side, where you could see his back (and a close up of the cool lookin snake coil-hair he has) there were a series of little bowls that you threw coins into to make a sound (me and Dana took turns, but it was hard keeping track of all of them, there were probably about 50 in a row. maybe more.) I guess as some kind of meditative form of prayer. The sound of the metal hitting the copper bowls was actually very soothing. Then, it was up the street to Wat Phra Kaeo and the Grand Palace, where we had to don our respectful leg-and-arm covering outfits out of respect to the Royal Family and the Emerald Buddha (a two foot statue of the Buddha, actually carved out of jade, not emerald.) So we got our tix, then stopped for a snack break and got our bearings...first it was over to the Emerald Buddha, and on the way we ran into a group of three cool Japanese college dudes, and started wandering around with them. Me and Mighty, the self-appointed group leader, traded convos in English and Japanese, as I was helping translate the English tour guide's more complicated passages into Japanese (very simply) and Mighty was supplying all the laughs, English and otherwise. Here he is meditating outside the hall of the Emerald Buddha, where we went in and gazed at the Emerald Buddha and his multitudes of offerings (pictures werent allowed, but he was dressed in his dry-season, golden-robed finest) and many of his followers were crowded around the front of the spacious audience hall-type building praying. The Buddha himself is far away and high up, about 8 feet off the floor, in his golden throne. After that, we headed out in our newly formed group of 5 (3 Japanese speakers, 2 English speakers) and headed off to the Grand Palace. But, boy it was hot and the middle of the day! We ducked into the fan-containing throne room to get out of the heat, and admired the ship's bow looking royal throne at the center, as well as the golden decked out thrones in other parts of the building, then headed back out to view the old Palace, a Beaux-Arts/Thai style mansion in the center of the grounds. From there, we viewed more artifacts in a side building, then it was time to bid Mighty and crew goodbye as we departed for the hotel, and meeting up with the group. From there it was meeting with Tommy, our Thai tour guide, and the rest of the crew--three Brits, two Canadians, a German, Dane, and Belgian. Surprisingly, we were the only Americans (and boy, what a learning experience that was!) So, the next morning, it was an early morning van ride out to the floating market of Damnoen Saduak, which was interesting (although it did feel mostly set up for tourists!) I taught Dana his first steps in bargaining, and we enjoyed a nice break with coffee and tea in the shade after an hour ride around in the longboat through the bustling market. After lunch was a little more free time, during which time we wandered down Khao San road, amidst the hustle and bustle. Then it was on to the train station, where we waited in the evening for the arrival of the train we were taking down to Khao Sok national park. However, at the train station itself two interesting events took place: first, at 6 pm sharp when the national anthem was played and everyone immediately came to standing and remained standing throughout the anthem, after which business returned to normal. And, I also found myself a copy of the Little Prince in Thai (!) Which brings my copies of the Little Prince in foreign languages count up to 4 officially (english, japanese, thai and french... yay!) After that, it was on to the overnight train to the National Park, which in defense of Thai trains was much more comfortable (yay air conditioning!) than any other overnight train rides I've had in sleeper cars. Then it was a songthaew (aka covered ride in the back of a not-so-tall truck..here's a picture of us in one) out to the resort where we stayed in the rainforest. That day it was taking it easy, then an inner tubing adventure on a nearby river (the best part was diving into a swimming hole about halfway down the river.) But, really fun after that was a stop to play with the monkeys at a nearby temple! We fed them some peanuts, until one of the more adventurous ones decided to jump on Dana and the Papa monkey got a little testy.. so we chased off the baby monkeys and fed them from afair after that! Then, after that was dinner back at the homestead, and...celebrating St. Patrick's Day! Many Thai Singha beers to go round for all..along with watching a Thai soap opera and dubbing the Thai over in make-believe English (hey, what better way to spend St. Patty's day??)
...which entailed getting up early and riding out in the covered back truck again to the dam, where we took a motorized longboat out into the mountainous 'islands' that composed the landscape in the dam. Along the way, the boat took a stop and we were dared to jump from a rock into the dam...which all the guys and Isabelle the Belgian, bravest of the fairer sex, jumped off. From there, we rode out to a group of houses for rent on the water, and had a nice meal for lunch. After lunch was kayaking and relaxing, before the ride back in the sun. Then it was the return trip back to our 'rainforest resort' and a huge BBQ dinner, which we couldn't finish at all, so much meat! Then from there it was an evening of packing and resting up for the next day's journey to the islands near Surat Thani....

Searching in Kamakura--part 2

2010-04-01T04:20:00.000-07:00

Kamakura afternoon 3/13

So, after the exhausting, but lovely, mostly uphill climb to the temple, I arrived at Jochi-ji from the side entrance and on my approach to the temple was greeted with the view of the lovely garden with beautiful moss-covered stone lanterns, plum trees finishing bloom, and colorful, early spring flowers slowly unfurling their majesty. It was a relatively small temple, but it was a pleasant place to wander, especially because there were more entrances/exits carved through rocks, a peaceful cemetery, and a hidden corner beneath a rocky overhang where stood the stone
statue of a smiling

Hotei, deity of contentment and the only one of the deities based on a historic Zen priest. I even got to walk around him, and rub his belly for good luck! Yay! I guess its like rubbing Buddha's tummy, right? (and obviously his belly's been rubbed quite a bit!)
Next, it was a walk across the train tracks and back down from the North Kamakura JR station to the famous Tsurugaoka Hachimangu --or just Hachimangu --shrine.
Hachiman, patron god of the samurai, is honored by his noble symbol: the pigeon (I couldn't make this up. That's really his symbol.) And, in this grand, spacious, and noble shrine, they are EVERYWHERE.
I mean it, terrorizing small children, perched atop visitor's hands (one even flew on my arm, presumably to score food? Dude pigeon, if I had food, I'd have already eaten it. for sure.) I decided they were just too much for me, and preceded to nearby the front gate where the shrine for the next of the 7 lucky deities, Ms. Benzaiten herself, was located. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the naked Benten statue I was expecting (the lascivious statue of a partially nude Benzaiten in question is on the island of Enoshima, which I plan to visit on my return trip this summer.) So, as my reward for suffering through the pigeons, was an anti-climactic mini-shrine where you can make your pleas and supplications to the goddess Benzaiten, goddess of music and wisdom and lone female of the group (kinda reminds you of Snow White a little, huh?) From there, it was on to the station of origin, Hase, which was a great downhill walk through this strange tunnel. The weather was beautiful, and I still had a couple more temples to go, so I soldiered on with my mini-map of Kamakura, and took a side street down to the next temple, dedicated to the god of warriors, Bishamonten, whom I prayed to to guide me through my kendo training (which I am taking an indefinite hiatus on because I don't understand enough Japanese to get anything done in that category!) once I resume training. He was a faded statue, visible only from waist up to his chin, and obviously well loved and looked after. After visiting him, I walked around and admired the tranquility of the small temple quarter and the garden near the side. Next, it was up the street to the first of my last 2 temples, Myoryuji, to pay a visit to the god of Longevity, twin god to Fukurokuju, and also based in Chinese lore. His attribute was a deer, and his tiny stone statue was kept inside a little side shrine with doors slightly ajar. Finally, just down the street, was the interestingly shaped rooves of my last temple/shrine of the 7 gods, and my favorite god, Ebisu, at Hongakuji. One of the larger temple complexes, he himself was kept in a circular building just near the entrance, the largest of all the buildings holding such a figure (except maybe the very first figure at Hase-dera.) Ebisu is the god of commerce and fisherman, and well loved (he's always chunky and smiling.) There was a little boy there, maybe 3, with his mom, and she kept trying to get him to ring the prayer bell (I offered some 'you can do it!' pluck for him, but he mostly just stared at us. lol.) After saying hey (and throwing him some coins) my journey was over!
Next, it was back along the main road for some Kamakura cider (just the ginger ale type cider, nothing alcoholic, silly!) and a view of the ocean, up close and personal! There was a narrow beach just at the end of the main road, and I wandered along, admiring the towering, in some cases, 5 foot waves (some of the biggest I've ever seen, personally) and the surfers that would disappear and reappear among the swell. Even cooler, I got to spot some windsurfers, and I decided to trail a couple of em back to their base at the Salty Dog hangout for surfers. I talked to the head guy and got his card, and I hope to go back for a day of windsurfing lessons this summer! (hey, the prospect is much more exciting than skiing for me and like half the cost, if not less!) So that's something to look forward to this summer.
Finally, after a day of basking in the laid back atmosphere of Kamakura, it was time to board the streetcar back to Tokyo, and get ready for the real adventure, Thailand....!
Next up: A Tale of Thailand in 3 Parts

Searching in Kamakura--part 1

2010-03-27T01:33:00.000-07:00

3/12-3/13

Saijo-->Tokyo-->Kamakura
(Saijo is "A" Kamakura is "B", near Yokohama on the map)

Rode the bus overnight (as you can see it's quite a hike, basically half of Japan here!) and arrived at Tokyo's Shinagawa station. With my free day in Tokyo, I decided to do some out-of-town-trip sleuthing and see what all the fuss was about down near Yokohama at Kamakura and check out its famous outdoor 'Big Buddha.' Little did I know, I not only had the Great Buddha in store for me, but also a scavenger hunt for the 7 Japanese deities, amazing sweet potato ice cream, decent Kamakura cider and an eyeful of windsurfing and waves!

So, headed out from Tokyo in the morning and arrived mid morning in kamakura, had some trouble finding the train from the station.. til i realized, it wasnt a train, but a streetcar! (i LOVE streetcars!) so, hopped on board when I finally found it, and got treated to amazing views of Enoshima, a nearby island that I'll be visiting next time, and the great waves being kicked up by the wind. Most amusing part of the streetcar ride? A ride on a streetcar down a one way street lined with old-towne style shops. Definitely charming!
Disembarked near the Great Buddha, at Hase. Snapped a pic of this map, and then checked an article I had found online describing a 'Treasure Hunt for the 7 Lucky Gods of Japan in Kamakura.' Well, mention the words 'lucky' 'treasure' and 'Japan' in one sentence, and I get pretty excited. So, I double checked the map for the locations of all the temples/shrines to go visit my deity friends, and then off I went to the first place on the list: Hase-dera.
First, at Hase-dera, was a view around the splendid grounds, which go from a slight valley to a hill with a great view of hase and kamakura, then on to visit lucky God #1, Daikokuten, god of wealth and grains--even got a stamp saying 'you were here!' hooray! Then, on to the interesting caves devoted to the goddess Benzaiten (or Benten, as immortalized as Bloody Benten in Tarantino's Sukiyaki Western Django.) It was creepy, and water kept dripping on to me, but very surreal and, I'm gonna go out on a limb here--in a sense, metaphorically 'womb'-like. Pretty cool stuff! There was even an elevated enclosed room where you could copy a sutra dedicated to her. I didn't have the guts (or the time, in my defense!) for that though, so next it was off to right down the street, visiting a little, out of the way, a small shrine called Goryo shrine, dedicated to a hero immortablized in Kabuki plays, and containing the second of my 7 scavenger hunt deity images, the image of Fukurokuju, god of wealth and Siamese-twin god of the god of longevity, one of the final gods I would encounter that day. Originally from China, Fukurokuji seemed more than happy when I found him habitating a small enclosed space off from the main shrine buildings and near the side entrance I had come in from, standing jovially on a blanket of nothingness on a hanging scroll in the middle of a room decorated with various memorabilia of his and the 7 lucky gods. I was surprised not to find a statue, but a scroll! Compared to Daikokuten's painted wooden nearly 5 foot statue, it was quite the discovery! Then, on to the highlight of any trip to Kamakura.. just a 10 minute walk up the road was the world famous 'Daibutsu', the great outdoor budda of Japan (the biggest outdoor bronze Buddha.) How he wound up outside is a whole different story, but first, entering the 'temple grounds' of the Daibutsu...
...and enjoying a lovely cone of sweet potato ice cream (it was purple! and way more delicious than it sounds cuz it was pumped full of sugar! yay!) Then, entering through the gate into the...stone courtyard of the outdoor Great Buddha! The story it, back in the day he was an indoor Buddha, then after a fire burnt down the building, then it was rebuilt and, you know, a few years later, a tsunami knocked it down--well, they figured maybe the Buddha was just happier being out in the elements. And so he remains today! And doesn't look too much the worse for it, I must say. It definitely lends him an air of distinction, I believe. Well next it was on to the path that would lead me atop a ridge of hills and down through a forest to the northern end of Kamakura, and the rest of the shrines/temples in my lucky deities scavenger hunt! First, up on the Kamakura hiking path, that runs between the Big Outdoor Buddha and Jochi-ji temple, in northern part of town. On the way, I would run through a nice small park for resting and a shrine where you can multiply your money! But not before getting lost twice--once on the way to the path (an older lady smiled and kindly pointed out the entrance to the path for me) and again when the path split between an uphill hike and a smooth path (I was tempted to take the smooth, non-uphill path--only an explosion of 20 hikers exiting the uphill path and making a beeline towards me convinced me I should probably go wherever THEY were coming from...after they all breezed past me of course!)
So from there it was a lovely, though at times daunting, mostly uphill climb (for a girl from a place below sea level, hills are mountains to me) through lovely woods and bamboo forests. The view back down to the village and the sea was also incredible. I ran into a few fellow hikers along the way, including a few older couples, and even a family collecting cedar chips as mulch for their garden, which I thought was very clever and eco-friendly. Then, I stopped and had a bit of my picnic at the park before following the signs down to the Zeni-Arai shrine, literally 'Cash (money) Washing shrine', where I lit the required candles and washed a couple hundred bucks (the legend is that any money you was will double, as long as you let it air dry) most people were washing tens and twenties, but you know--the more the better, in my case! I run through money! I was even adopted by two nice Japanese ladies who showed me what to do (despite it being the first time there for one of them, who was even more clueless than me!) Then it was back out of the cave and into the sunlight, where I climbed the steep uphill trek back through the park and along the next half of the trail towards the temple...

(to the right is the sign above the cave for the money washing shrine...)

Hina Matsuri--3/3 (Girl's Day Doll Festival)

2010-03-06T05:52:00.000-08:00

Today I went to a party that my co-worker, Kako, threw for a few friends at her house here in Saijo. The party was in honor of Doll's Festival, as the Japanese call it in English, or what I like to call, Girl's Day Doll Festival. In order to protect young girls from the apparent evil demons that get ushered in with spring, starting from the Heian period (about 1000 years ago, roughly) a festival was begun based on a Chinese festival (very, very loosely based) in which dolls representing the emperor and empress, court attendants, ministers of the emperor, musicians, and various court furniture and related items would be displayed on a 3, 5, or 7 tiered altar, along with plum, orange, and peach blossoms. March 3rd is also the day of the peach blossom festival, as peach blossoms and peaches, throughout China and Japan, are an auspicious sign. Here's some photos from the festivities. We had a giant feast, including a ton of sashimi (high grade, too! yum--but a little, um, uncomfortably filling!), fried chicken and shrimp, and miso soup, of course. Then, we got to see the altar with the display, listen to the 'Hina Matsuri' song, and even got an impromptu recital from Kako's nieces' (thats them in the picture) piano teacher, Yumeiko.And most of all, thanks to Kako's mom playing amazing hostess, tons and tons of green tea.

--Recent Adventures--

2010-03-02T03:57:00.000-08:00

So, this blog post is just a quick update on 3 mini-adventures I've gotten to do from mid-to late-February:

#1: All-Ladies Valentine's Day Party:
So, my friend Emily (Emm) from NJ had an all-ladies Valentine's Day party a few towns over in her town of Kawanoe. It was a lovely event; some of her teachers came, and a few of the foreign English teachers in our area came as well. It was really nice! We eat had a hand in providing food/drinks, and we had lively discussions (in English and Japanese.) Even picked up some of the local slang! All in all a great way to spend Valentine's day~!

#2: Mochi-making party:
So, this is my own party, where my co-workers Tankako and Rie, and fellow JETs Emm, Jennifer, Daisuke, Derry, and Caleb all swung by and helped to make some of the delectable rice and sweet bean cakes you can see here on the left (filled with such delicious treats as sweet bean and strawberry, sweet bean, even peanut butter!) We made soo many, I made people bring them home and I STILL had a ton left over! they were soo good though...especially the strawberry/sweet bean (daifuku) Yumm....

AND LAST, but not least....

#3: Osaka trip, Aquarium:
These are some fantastic pictures I took while on the town with Jennifer in Osaka! I went in on Friday and stayed overnight to wander around town all day Saturday, first stopping by the aquarium (where these lovely photos were taken,) then on to the hip parts of town, even coming across this interesting little temple complex just one block off from a major shopping area. Oh, how I love Osaka! <3

bye now!

Plum Blossom Festival in Saijo city, Ehime Prefecture

2010-02-14T05:08:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures from the Plum Blossom Festival they had here in Saijo on Sunday, Valentine's Day. We got to have a nice picnic under the flowers, run around and meet half of our town, and even got to check out the archaelogical museum for the first time (not to mention free treats for being 'visitors'!)

Enjoy~

New Year's 'Hatsumode' (annual worship trip) to Ise 'Grand Shrine'

2010-01-26T02:38:00.000-08:00

Ise Grand Shrine is arguably the most important shrine in all of Japan. The head of the shrine is always a descendant of the royal family; this Head Priest or Priestess over the two Inner and Outer shrines of the property is in charge of protecting the grounds, which they are pretty good at, seeing as you can barely see the buildings themselves. Ise Grand Shrine, or Ise Jingu, has in its posession one of the sacred treasures of the Japanese royalty, the sacred mirror. This sacred bronze mirror, along with a sacred sword, are the two posessions of the royal family said to have been passed down directly from the ancient gods of Japan, and are the legitimacy behind the throne that has lasted for millienia (the Japanese like to point out that their monarchy has been the longest continuing monarchy kept in one royal family in the history of the world...that being said, theyve had about as many schisms as the Popes of the Roman Catholic faith, so its not a perfectly straight line of royal family...) but it does make a drastic counterpoint to the Chinese with their 'mandate of heaven-screw that last royal family cuz now we're the big dogs' mantra. And it does drive the point home that the Japanese like tradition, and are NOT fond of change.
So, enough diatribes! Here's the scoop:
Ise Jingu, Mie Prefecture, Japan (1/9/10)
This map isn't very high quality..but see the red balloon at the lower left hand corner? And the other one at the middle right? Yep, that one on the right is Ise shrine--an easy 7 hours away from my sad little left-hand corner home by bus. But not just any bus, the commercial prepacked tour Ehime bus (Ehime is the name of my region.) So, our ragtag bunch left at 5 am in the morning from in front of our town's train station. It was Jennifer and I and our friend Tako and another of my co-workers, Akemi. We conked out for the majority of the morning, zooming along the highway, until we stopped for lunch at a rest area near Lake Biwa to the northeast of Kyoto. There, I got a nice shot of the lake--the weather was so clear, and it was really a dazzling view. and arrived around 1 in the afternoon.
When we arrived in Ise, I didn't know what I expected--but it wasn't these crowds! There were so many people, it was scary just walking down the cobblestone path lined with stores selling everything from traditional handicrafts to any and all kinds of food. And this was before we even got to the entrance of the shrine itself! From there, our group split up and was told to meet up again at a certain time. From there, we crossed a giant wooden bridge after passing under a huge read Shinto torii (gate) called Uji bridge, that stretched to the far shore and therefore the sacred grounds of Ise shrine, Inner shrine, to the goddess Amaterasu. You could tell how important this land was to even ancient Japan, because the huge Japanese cypress trees lining the path were definitely hundreds of hundreds of years old; these things were huge. I've never been to a redwood forest in the US, but if those trees are anything like these babies, I can see why they're so awe-inspiring!
Then, the walk to the river to make a wish and throw in a coin.. the river was so pure and clear, crystal clear with different color rocks..then up the path, past the booths at the front of the shrine grounds selling home purification amulets and New Year's good luck/warding off evil trinkets, and on to the path that circled a giant, tall wooden wall over the top of which you could see a glimpse of the famous traditional Japanese architectural roofs that Ise is so famous for. We went to the stairs where you could enter and pray, but the line was so long...it would've taken at least an hour had we waited in that line! So instead, we opted for the queue to the right, which was a temporarily set up worship sight to the immediate right of the regular place. It,too, was crowded, and as it was it was a grueling 20 minute walk up the stairs just to toss our coins into the makeshift worship spot, but it was worth it; we got to catch a little glimpse of the first building of the three buildings that comprised the main shrine at this sight. Even better, someone (undoubtedly someone verrry rich) had commissioned one of the shrine priests to let them in to do private worship, so we got to watch them enter the gates, the priest did a few ceremonial actions, then they clapped and bowed. That was cool....lucky bastards!
After that, it was circling around the back of the shrine then back out into the woods. Around the main shrine to the goddess Amaterasu, the sun goddess of Japan, were lesser deities' shrines as well, where you could pray. We stopped at a couple of those. Then it was back to the crowded merchant street, where I got a couple of trinkets, and even a cheese and fish covered piece of potato (not as good as i thought it would be..the fish part was a bit of a surprise!) It was super crowded though, so we kept ducking into the stores! I gave a monk I saw some coins for his journey, and we grabbed some ice cream, then back to the bus...
...for a stop back at the west part of the shrine, closer to the Ise city center. It was also surrounded by forests, and although it was near the streets of the town, once you walked through the shrine gate, it was nothing but silence. We pressed on, winding through the forests, and sooner than we thought we had arrived at the main shrine, where flanked by two huge trees surrounded with sacred white lightning bolts, there was, visible through the gate, another one of the thatched roof shrines with the tall eaves. We paid our respects, then our attention was diverted by a strange stone in front of the shrine surrounded by the sacred paper lightning bolts. We walked past the rock, past a pond, then over to two smaller shrines a little ways uphill. When we finished paying our respects, though we were loathe to leave, we headed back over to the bus. Although it felt like the adventure was over, we had no idea what awaited us--a hilarious stewardess/pilot comedy courtesy of ANA's Japan training course. Who knew we'd be watching a flight comedy on a bus? One of those oh, Japan moments...

New Year's-more Kyoto, return to host Mom's house--12/29-1/2

2010-01-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

Kyoto and Hirakata-City, 12/29-1/2
so after the flight back into Japan, it was time to return to Kyoto and settle into my room for the next couple of days while I explored Kyoto again. So got settled in, went out for some ramen, and then got up bright and early for the next day's sightseeing mission, which was supposed to have begun at Ni-jo castle except for one little hitch--it was closed for the new year's holidays. So, straight from there it was time to take a bus up to the Golden Pavillion in the foothills Northwest of the City, near Ritsumeikan University, and after that a pleasant stroll over to Ryoan-ji, or Dragon peace temple.
First was the Golden Pavillion, Kinkakuji. It was first built in the 1379 during the time of the Ashikaga shoguns' reign, by the great Yoshimitsu Ashikaga, shogunate ruler of Japan at that time. Instead of responding to the multiple plagues and famines and disasters of the people, he elected instead to build this golden pavilion 'outside' of Kyoto in the mountains (in that time it would have been completely removed from the town, even now it lies on the outskirts.) He retired and spent the rest of his life at this idyllic retreat. However, the original building burnt in the 1950s, this past century. The current building is an exact reconstruction. This is a problem of authenticity for foreigners, but not for the Japanese--Shinto shrines, the indigenous religion of Japan--often tear down and rebuild their main shrines several times a century, keeping the plans the same but restoring the buildings. So, the fact that the current Golden Pavillion is a reconcstruction provides almost no problem for those that come to view it. I have to say, on that clear wintry day, it was impressive, reflected in the water like that. Also on the grounds was a fertility stone, in a little patch of grass leaving the viewing area of the pavillion, a tea house where I paused and had a little tea and snack combination, and the original thatched roof house, one of the original teahouses of Japan, so tiny with only one room in it! Finally, on my way out, I bought new charms--one for good fortune, one for money!--for myself for the coming year.
...Next, it was time to move on to Ryoan-ji, Dragon Temple. About a 25 minute walk down, then up, hill and to the east of Kinkakuji is a hermetic Zen temple known as Ryoan-ji. It remained an obscure little temple until its Zen rock garden (called karesansui, meaning a dry rock garden with no water,) was suddenly 'discovered' and became well known. The walk over from Kinkakuji bisected the Ritsumeikan campus, and while there were people along the way, the cold weather assured that it was nowhere near crowded. First upon entering Ryoanji, you encounter the wide pond, that seems to resemble a sea more than just the small lake it is. There are two islands, one pretty tiny, and one a good size, containing a tiny Shinto shrine to Benten, the Japanese goddess. On this island is an ancient pine tree, a cloud descending down to the lake. Beyond the lake is the main building of the Zen temple, including the famous rock garden. Not only was there the rock garden, but the dragon paintings on the walls of the main audience chamber were especially beautifully done. Walking up the grounds to the side of the main building was a monument to a monk who was killed helping the Burmese people resist the government during their war in the 1970s, and countless trees on either side of a silent rocky path, which took me back around to the lake, on the other side from the islands. Having made the full circle, it was time to exit. The rest of the day was spent wandering the shopping arcades of Kyoto, eventually deciding on a place to eat dinner and then going through the maze of streets that is the Gion district in Kyoto. By then, it was getting cold, so it was time for me to return home to get ready for the next day's sightseeing...
...which led me off to a trail famous in Kyoto as the Philosopher's Path, trailing up the Northwest corner of Kyoto from Nanzen-ji temple, by several smaller sub-temples, then up along a small creek to the famous Ginkaku-ji, or Silver Pavillion.Starting at Nanzen-ji, which was the most peaceful temple that I almost didn't go to, the most famous attribute of this temple is, in fact, not something Japanese at all. Look at the picture down and to the right. I think this is the farthest away the Romans managed to build aqueducts! Except that, of course, it wasn't built by the Romans, but by the Japanese during the Meiji era when they were borrowing architectural motifs from the West. This was apparently built to carry ships and/or water from nearby Biwa Lake to Kyoto, depending on who you talk to. Either way, it was quite a surprise! Then of course, it was off to the famous Silver Pavillion, which was built by the grandson of the Ashikaga shogun that built the Golden Pavillion. As it would have been rude to outdo his grandfather, he originally planned to coat his entire retreat house in silver. However, this never took place. Despite this setback, the very elegant pension and associated landscape garden (Japanese landscape gardens are famous for utilizing borrowed scenery techniques, incorporating elements of the view from the garden itself to distant mountains, etc. to add to the beauty o the garden) is worth a visit in its own right! After a frigid (but uncrowded! Winter's a great season for solitary contemplative walks in Kyoto that's for sure!) walk along the Philosophers Path (哲学の道ーtetsugaku no michi）led me to a crowded narrow street filled with shops and stalls leading up to the entrance for the Silver Pavillion. There was a front mantle auspicious decoration for welcoming the New Year, and the entrance to the Pavillion grounds itself is guided along by large hedges on either side, in a rather Alice in Wonderland-esque entryway to the open view of the building and its wonderful garden. Like his grandfather before him, this building too became a Zen Buddhist temple upon his demise, and the associated buildings of the Zen sect are to the right as you are led away from the initial building. (As you can see they are doing construction, but in March it will be over, so you better believe I'll be back in May!)
Finally, time for my final field trip of the day before heading to my home away from home, to visit Kazuyo in Hirakata City for New Year's: Off to the top of Kyoto in the South at Fushimi Inari shrine, the main shrine in Japan to the Shinto fox deity. There I got to see an altar featuring New Year's offerings including ridiculous amounts of Japanese sake! and a smaller altar with mochi, a traditional household New Year's tradition. I got to participate in a New Year's Eve warding off the evil spirits hay-throwing shindig. Below are the priests and shrine maidens holding the ancient rites of the New Year's Eve rituals, then they are moving the god's shrine, then it was up the hill for the hike through the famous red wooden torii, donated by businesses in Japan for good luck and blessings from the traditional Japanese gods. Finally, we have the New Year's Day food (osecchi ryori) traditional in New Year's festivities, and a feast with my host mom Kazuyo and her family in nearby Kuzuha.... enjoy!

上海: Shanghai, City Above the Sea..12/23-12/28

2010-01-16T07:08:00.001-08:00

Shanghai, China 12/23-28

So in the afternoon on Dec 23, 2009, I rolled into Pu Dong International Airport in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Direct from the airport into the city, I took this super-fast MagLev train, and the speed can be seen here on the LED screen (that translates to oh, roughly 267 miles/hr.) then, I switched trains at the ridiculously congested People's Square to meet Liz in a Coldstone (! yay!) at South Shanghai Station. From there, it was back to her place, then off to hot-pot... yum! basically, there was a pot divided between a peanut sauce and a spicy sauce that you could dip meat into. Say what you want about Shanghainese cuisine, but you can't accuse it of not being flavorful!
Next day it was off with Liz to her schools to help her out and take some pictures. She dressed like Santa for Christmas Eve, and even passed out gifts to the kids. After work, we relaxed for awhile, even caught some fireworks for Christmas Eve! then went to a delicious Thai place for dinner before going out to a club.... it was ridiculous! There were people dressed as the Winnie the Pooh characters walking around, and people with blow up hammers, and tons of Christmas decorations. We stayed out til about 4 in the morning, to let Liz's friend hang out with some guy she'd met, then headed back home to sleep in. Liz and I had a sleepover of sorts, staying in the bed, til her friend Ashley and I went shopping to pick up some food she needed for the party later that night, where we all hung out and had delicious Christmas cookies and apple cider and watched Love Actually, the best, girliest Christmas feel-good movie out there (oh, Colin Firth...) then, the next day was the first actual sightseeing day--and it snowed ! On top of seeing the YuYuan Garden with its famous teahouse (currently under construction for the World Expo in Shanghai later this year, as was the Bund. Oh, China and your construction...), we wandered around Nanjing Road. I also got a look at the French Concession and, most rewardingly, a peek into the Shanghai Museum, viewing scrolls and furniture from the Ming and Xing periods, as well as Buddhist sculpture. All around, a very eventful weekend! Also, I got to eat the most delicious chicken and rice combo meal I've ever had in my life--all for the unbeatable price of about 3 bucks USD! Overall, the sights and sounds--not to mention overwhelming traffic and hordes of people--are definitely something I won't soon forget.--more pictures will come once I get the film developed, my camera phone died while in China--

Kyoto and Nara--Winter Break Part 1--(12/21-12/23)

2010-01-16T07:08:00.000-08:00

First stop on the whirlwind tour of this area of Japan (the Kansai Area, as it's called) was Osaka, where I arrived on the ferry, then stored my bags in a locker and headed straight for the temple of To-ji,where I promptly joined the 8 AM crowds at theTo-ji monthly flea market (21st of every month at To-ji, south of Kyoto station.) To-ji is a second home to me of sorts because of its association with the Buddhist Shingon sect's patron saint and well-known Buddhist chief monk and scholar Kobo Daishi, whose pilgrimage I want to walk around Shikoku (the 88 temple pilgrimage.) Also, To-ji is famous for having the tallest pagoda (multi-layered tower) in Kyoto. I got a couple of shots of the pagoda while I was there. But first and foremost, shopping! Wandering through the stalls, I picked up some dried mango and delicious hand made rice and bean paste sweets, then scouted for some books and interesting Japanese memorabilia. I found a nice lady who showed me around to some of the hanging scroll tables (she was a calligrapher herself, and gave me a card to come see her exhibit the following day, but unfortunately I already had plans to go to Nara--see below) then met a guy who was trying to pass off a woodblock print as a genuine Hiroshige to some guys from Europe. I warned then in English that he was full of shit (a Hiroshige print is NOT going to cost the equivalent of 200 bucks USD at a flea market in Kyoto) and kept wandering... I finally picked up some Edo period yakimono, pottery, for my Aunt Terry and some books on Japanese art for myself.
After touring the market itself, which is on the grounds of the temple but not the inner part, I bought a ticket and let myself in to see the buildings. I did get a closer look at the pagoda, but I especially came in to get a peek into the main hall and the lecture hall, in which lies a mandala (cosmic world representation) composed of statues, supposedly set up by Kobo Daishi himself. It was exactly as impressive as I remembered. It was definitely worth the admission fee. Then, I took a break and had lunch by a pond... and a little egret was having lunch there as well, as I watched him hunt his prey, succesfully getting a fish lunch!
Well, after an exhausting day touring To-ji, it was time to head back to Osaka, where I got thoroughly lost trying to find my concert venue in the big city to go see Bloodthirsty Butchers and Shonen Knife..finally made it, good show! Then off to sleep in Osaka before pulling out early the next morning for Nara----
Day 2, Nara: arriving and just putting my bags down was a nice feeling, then pulling out the maps and getting situated was a whole different experience in itself. Somewhere in this sleepy town famous as the first capital of Japan, currently celebrating its 1300 year anniversary of becoming the first capital (next was Kyoto and finally, as we all know, Tokyo,) was the ryokan - traveller's inn- that I would be staying at that night. About a 25 minute walk, department store clerk's map, and phone call later, I was finally set on the right path to the ryokan--and yep, sure enough it was uphill with 3 bags in tow. Great. But, actually, it was! I dropped my bags off at the inn and headed out, and it was pretty centrally located! Yay! I walked up to Tofuku-ji temple and wandered into their Treasure Hall, checking out some of the oldest sculptural representations and temple memorabilia in all of Japan...then snapped some pictures of its fun Chinese building. Next was the giant Todai-ji temple, with the giant Buddha and the park of wandering deer fame. I got to feed biscuits to the deer, and its true! If you hold up the biscuits, they BOW for them! Smart deer! =) Then, inside the temple, they were selling new roof shingles, so sure enough I bought one and wrote my own message on it, for world peace (I know, how trite. But hey, gotta start somewhere! John and Yoko would be proud.) Then, met an American family from a military base in Japan, explained a couple of things about the temple to them. That felt pretty cool (oh yeah, I've been there before... no worries!)
Then, it was off to a slightly lesser visited temple, called Toshodaiji, on the outskirts of the city of Nara, to go see a temple established by a Chinese monk, and famous for its sculpture as well. I snapped this photo of a Thousand- Armed Kannon figure (the goddess of compassion) that actually has 1000 arms. Wow. And the grounds were really peaceful.. I got to talking to one of the guards, and he told me the time periods for the figures in the temple dated from samurai times. He was like "why are you interested in Buddhist art?" and I was like "Idk but I'd love to know myself." But he was impressed, I guess. Well, then it was back to spend the night in my lovely guest room overlooking the inner courtyard garden of a former geisha house. So serene! Next morning, it was off in the airport bus to Kansai Internaional Airport and, that afternoon, Shanghai...

Christmas Cooking Party + Sign Language Club

2010-01-16T04:17:00.000-08:00

Well, the end of December came around, and soon Christmas break was right around the corner--but first, I signed Jennifer and I up for an event that promised to be an all-day cooking class extravaganza. So, we were told to come back on Sun, Dec. 20 for the class, and to bring two gifts, as it was a Christmas party.
And what a Christmas party it was! We show up, and we're getting ready to dive head-long into the 'cooking class'. And then we start to meet some of the other women and men in the club... so, our introductions went well, until suddenly we met a short haired woman who wasn't quite getting what we were saying. Then, she started to move her hands as if she was trying to motion to us and figure us out through our muddled Japanese. Then, another woman came up and talked to her with her hands. Then we realized--it wasn't our Japanese. It was that we were speaking. Sure enough, the newcomer woman confirmed it--it wasn't a cooking class we had been invited to persay, it was a party for the hard of hearing club of Saijo, a party that--you guessed it--involved cooking. We still chipped in and had a great time anyway.We were there for the all day affair--we got there at 9 AM to begin setting up, then starting cooking around 10:30-11 or so for the meal, then enjoyed the meal together. Then were games and gifts, until the party officially ended around 3. Long, fun-filled day! For lunch there was a salad, and veggies, a souffle, baked chicken and potatoes, even delicious --and adorable!--Christmas themed cupcakes! Jennifer helped out with the souffle table and I got to help with the cupcake table. We both did the decorations for the board, which is in the background covered with tissue paper flowers and it says 'Christmas Party- Kakehashi club' in Japanese letters....and, of course! We all got to wear the Santa hats...here are pictures of our group leader guiding use through Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in Japanese (with hand motions!) The Christmas Candlelight Vigil, at which Santa made an appearance, Santa with his helpers, and the Kakehashi Christmas Party Crew!

Koryuji temple, Imperial designated worship center in Tambara

2009-11-27T18:55:00.000-08:00

Funny when you find something amazing in your backyard, right?
I don't even have to say anything about this trip, I'll let the pictures speak for this entry. We went, me and Jennifer with a few members of the ELIS group, to a temple about a 30 minutes away from our apartment. here's what we found:

Trip to Yokomineji, one of the 88 Temples, and BBQ!

2009-11-21T03:29:00.000-08:00

So, fall has come to Ehime, and that means explosions of beautifully colored leaves in the mountain woods around my town. Even better than just going on a leaf-viewing excursion, today's adventure features a trip to one of the temples that I promise you'll get sick of me writing about that's on the 88-temple tour of Shikoku. We started by heading off in separate cars with our English speaking club of our town, going through the foothills near our town and passing a lovely dam that was visible from the highway. Even though I'm kind of ambivalent about dams in general, I do have to admit the deep blue-green of the water contrasted nicely to the changing leaves. At the rest stop,our English speaking club tour guides explained to us one by one about the pilgrimage, the articles of clothing worn, and the temple. Here's some photos of us watching the explanation, and I even got to deck myself out pilgrim-style.Also included are photos of the rest stop, including old working wooden stove (it smelled so old-timey by the stove, i felt like i was in a japanese edition of a laura ingalls wilder book! lol!)

Finally, after a very long and winding (yuk) drive up to the parking lot, we headed down the path to the temple itself. This is the bell tower that you go to ring the bell before beginning your prayers. We got to watch them going up and reciting the sutra in unison, and went through the motions of ringing the gong and putting our lit candles and incense by the temple halls. We even got our special commemorative books signed by the temple priests!
After that outing, we got to make the small hike back up to the car, then split to go eat some barbeque at one of our hosts' houses. After cutting up some of the veggies and throwing everything on the grill, we got to cozy up to the fire and eat a delicious, freshly picked feast of veggies and a nice helping of beef. Nothing could have topped off the day better!
And that was my trip... probably the most interesting part was having a chance to view my entire town from the summit of the mountain that the temple was on. It all looked so small and far away! I think it's amazing how a different world can be a ten minute drive, but you can go halfway around the world and cook a meal together and it's the same as having a cookout down home. Go figure, huh?

Well, next up: Monday's Kimono party! Can't wait. =)

Day Trip to Iya Valley and Zentsu-ji Temple

2009-11-08T05:41:00.000-08:00

Today's day trip was with a good friend and co-worker of mine and her husband, another co-worker and her friend, and moi. Usual partner in crime from TX was off on another trip with one of our friends, so we each got different experiences up in the mountains of Shikoku. Because it was a day trip, I'll start with the usual map then go by a timeline...

8 am
(A)Saijo City--->(B)Iya Valley
Headin off in the car, the mountains looked particularly forbidding today, wrapped in mist and the like. Started off heading east, then started to move south, through tunnels that separated different sections of mountain ranges and really amazing valleys, with views through over winding rivers from the towns on the cliffs hugging the riverbanks. I was really amazed with the scenery. I have to say with the clear water running through the boulders in the riverbed and the rolling mountains covered in the changing leaves of fall surrounding us, it really was a magical morning. At one point we got out to walk over a small bridge and cross the river about 300 feet below. These are some pictures from that first view, over the river (Yoshino river) and across to some of the great views of the fall leaves on the mountains. (The only place that can compare to me in the US is the area around Pittsburgh, and I have to admit I was struck by the same atmosphere in these mountains..something about really old, rolling mountains. they have a good atmosphere about 'em!) Then, it was deeper into the heart of Shikoku to Iya Valley...
...for an island that's the most remote of the 4 main islands of Japan, Iya Valley is the most remote location. That puts it as a forerunner for most remote valley in All of Japan. Back when the battle was raging between the Genji and Heike clans for rule over Japan (immortalized in Quentin Tarintino's atemporal juxtaposition of Western and Japanese history in Sukiyaki Western Django) and the Heike clans realized they were losing, they retreated to the only location where they knew they were likely to never be found by those fighting for the Genji (winning) side... that's right, Iya Valley. I was pretty stoked to be going somewhere so isolated....luckily, we were going there behind the Kazurabashi taxi buses, so we couldn't lose our way. And we got to park on the second deck of a bi-level parking area underneath a tourist mall. So...back to the most remote location in Japan! =)
We got to the area where there's a bridge famous for being the largest (=longest) vine bridge left in Japan, and paid the obligatory 500 yen (about $5.50) to cross the bridge. So I get on thinking, sure, vine bridge, slats between the wooden beams supporting us, big freakin deal...until I stand about a 1/3 of a way across the bridge readying my camera for a picture and suddenly the guy behind me's leg falls between two of the slats and his leg plummets down--completely beneath the bridge at this point--and by this time he's grabbed my ankle for support. I immediately grabbed the side of the bridge --jammin my fone between me and the vines so that i don't lose it--and go into damage assesment mode. I pick him up by the ankle while his wife's screaming at him, grabbing his other arm and telling him to be more careful while taking pictures. Noticing thats what he was in fact doing, I grab his 800 dollar Nikon and hand it back to him. From that point on I made it a point to never underestimate things with holes in them, including vine bridges! Well, eventually made it across after all these photos, and then it was off to see a waterfall and grab some grub!
So, we walk downhill a ways to this waterfall--let me just say that in advance my host, the gracious Japanese co-worker of mine--had asked if I was willing to try the regional specialty, and of course I said yeah, who wouldn't be? Luckily for me, the regional specialty was: a piece of potato, a piece of tofu, and a piece of a rubbery substance (called konnyaku) fried and all slathered in a sweet soy sauce. Hm. Well, the potato was good, and the tofu was edible. And we got to eat it all under the sheltered cove of a wispy, 50 m tall waterfall, again some of the clearest water I'd seen in my life. There's definitely something to be said for mountain water.
And--as if the three-texture variety of sauced up carbs wasn't enough, we went in for the kill--we each got a whole small-uber-salted salmon on a stick! Yum! Actually, no sarcasm there, it was so delicious I even caught myself eating some of the skin. Tasty.

12 pm
(A)Iya Valley--->(B)Zentsu-ji
Well, then it was time to hit the road again, after doing just a little shopping for my teachers (here it's customary to bring back food as souvenirs for your co-workers wherever you visit.) We twisted back through the winding roads out of the valleys and got back on the expressway for Takamatsu. All 4 prefectures having been driven through and 70 minutes of mixed English and Japanese conversations later, we arrived on the outskirts of the town housing the famous 'Zentsu-ji' temple, one of the bigger temples on the 88 temple pilgrimage I plan on doing and the temple famous as being the birthplace of the head honcho himself, Kobo Daishi (Kukai, monk who founded the 88 temple tour and is a widely renowned historical figure both as a scholar and a religious figure in Japan.) We get there, and it's not so busy! Awesome! We even got to peek into the inside stairway leading up to a 125 year old house. Boy, were those ceilings low for the entryway! We walked up to the gate, with the usual Nio figures, and after walking through paused to soak in the 5 story tall pagoda. Last, but not last, after viewing a lovely 1700 year old tree, we posed as henros (pilgrims) at these lovely wooden figures set up near the entrance. Lovely! I can definitely get some fashion sense from these guys! =)
Then, it was up the steps to the first temple building, and viewing a wooden statue of the medicine Buddha by Uncho, famous Japanese sculpture. There were several small about waist-high stone statues of religious figures with strange, funny, and sometimes grotesque expressions on their faces and body contortions. What they were all about I don't know, but I noticed people rubbing their heads. I decided to rub the ones head that looked like he was having the most fun. Should've gotten a picture of him, it looked like he had had a Lot of head rubs! Then, it was through a long outdoor hallway to another of the main temple buildings, with an incense burner and another boddhisattva image, then it was another 500 yen for a walk through a darkened underground tunnel (they love these here at temples! you can't see anything and have to guide yourself by running your hand along the well...) Then, to a museum of national relics, where I impressed my hosts with my knowledge of the Vajra symbol from Tibetan Buddhism (the sect of this particular form of Buddhism is derived from Tibetan Buddhism.) Thanks Buddhist Art class for that one! Then it was back to begin the drive home...but not before we stopped off on the side of the road at what looked like an abandoned shed for someone's farm equipment.
Nope.
Turns out it was a restaurant, hidden away by its hideous decor from wanna-be tourists, and instead serving the best Sanuki (meaning the Kagawa region that we were in) udon (noodles) I've ever had. They were clearly homemade noodles, even the scallions were hand cut and fresh from the backyard. It was sooo delicious... the cats that lived out back, all 100 of them, had to have been lured there by the tantalizing smell of noodles cooking and fish being fried. Yum! And...to top it all off.. only the equivalent of 4 bucks. How's them apples?

4 pm
(A)Zentsu-ji---->(B)Saijo City
Well, that was my day trip to Iya Valley in Tokushima prefecture and to the Zentsu-ji temple in Kagawa prefecture.

Art Field Trip--Hokusai and Hiroshige in Southern Ehime

2009-11-02T23:15:00.000-08:00

Sat. Saijo City-->Seiyo City
So, here's the route I had to take from my city to the Ehime Prefecture (my prefecture's) Culture And History Museum. It was, one way, about a 3 1/2 hour trip (yikes!) But I was on a mission--to go see the famous woodblock prints on display--until today, Tues 11/3. So, this was my last chance to go..even though I had a couchsurfer coming in that afternoon (!) and i had to pick her up in matsuyama. So, I got to matsuyama and had to change trains...and I told the station attendant that I had to go to Seiyo. She then smiled and said to me: No trains go there. Is that OK? So, not to be outdone with nonchalance, I just smiled back and said, Sure, thats fine! Then promptly ran off crying to the folks at the ticket booth. Luckily a much more helpful lady got me the name of the station I was going to, directions to the museum from the station, and this lovely picture I'm holding of the flier for the exhibit. Then, off I went! I took the express train from Matsuyama to Unomachi, the station for Seiyo city, and it had these pictures on the side. How adorable! They are of Anpanman and his friends, a popular TV show for kids in Japan. As you may have noticed, they are all shaped like food, and have special powers. What more could you want from your superheroes?
From the train I saw this slightly less impressive small mountains and this cool lookin old school locomotive. There ya go. So, I get to the station, and yeah... I thought my town was small...how the prefecture's museum wound up in This place, I have no idea...(who bribed who.) But armed with a map and a sandwich for lunch, I set off for the museum with about an hour to look around once I got there..
...so I'm walking for about 20 minutes, knowing where I'm going, feelin pretty good about it. Then I see the museum.
It's right to my left.
and about 500 feet up at the top of a hill.
THAT wasn't on the map.
So... I groaned and bugged these two ladies talking in a field to ask how to get up the dang hill...so, after that pleasant exchange (and laughter after we fudged through an english/japanese hybrid mix of instructions) I sucked it up and started climbing up the winding road to the top of the hill at 1:30 in the afternoon. (*yay*)
So, get to the top after a good 15 minutes, and buckets o'sweat, and this sight greeted me:
Beautiful trees just beginning to change color, including this bright brick red number there in the middle.

The view on the right is from the balcony of the restaurant where I got some ice cream.

Well, toured the exhibit and got to see some works of art that I have only seen in books---right in front of me. As close as I wanted. Including some works by Van Gogh, inspired by the Japanese ukiyo-e master Hiroshige. It was interesting to see Japanese works rendered in western Dutch oil paint style. Talk about a global world! After touring the prints, I even got to make my very own ukiyo-e print myself....nice, right? check out the sail, what detail! It was easy to make...rolling ink on the upraised stamps, then stamping on the different colors at different times...red, yellow, blue, green, and black ink, in that order. It was eye-opening to see how easy the process is. Much easier to understand once it's done by hand.
Then it was time for the train ride back, and meeting Khaya, my Russian/American couchsurfer. That's a whole other story!

The one and only Saijo City Festival!

2009-10-17T06:11:00.000-07:00

So from this past Thurs, Oct. 15 til early this morning the taiko drums were heard everywhere in my town of Saijo, in Shikoku. Thursday night at around 10 pm was when things really started picking up, from my balcony I spotted the first danjiri, or portable mini shrine, from my apartment balcony. That was interesting--from about the height of the top of it, it just appeared like a strange floating bunch of jellyfish wandering through the darkness to a strange drumbeat. But, it did give me pride in my neighborhood! Basically, the concept behind the portable shrines--from what I can muster--is that for this festival, the gods enter the mini shrines once they are blessed at the big shrine near the river and from there they wander around town together and stop at certain places along the way, all the way being pushed along on wheels or carried by the men of the neighborhood they represent. In my town there are 77 neighborhoods (they're more like subdivisions..and yes, I've been trying to picture in my head what the one for Broadmoor would look like if Louisiana had this festival..) so there are 77 of the mini portable shrines being carried around from about 25 or 30- 50 or 60 (mostly) men each. So, thats the jist. They look like this, and in the middle under the curtains is the taiko drum. So, this all starts about midnight on Thursday, when they all start heading out together along the main roads to the shrine by the river. Jennifer and I were lucky enough to come across a group of old and young men and women alike that adopted us into their raucous group. They chatted us up and we wound up walking along with them over the bridge after many of the other shrines.. our 'adopted neighborhood shrine' was about midway between the group of mini shrines, so we followed them across the river, where there was a bit of traffic as the mini shrines were waiting to go into the Big shrine. We got impatient, so we wandered ahead and watched as some of the others were being blessed. By this time it was the wee hours of the morning, wee enough that after seeing the blessing of the small shrines, I decided that the threshold of a side building at the big shrine looked like a comfortable enough place to pass some time and took a nice solid 3 hr nap in front of the building's altar. (Don't worry, I had no valuables and it was pretty common--there were folks passed out just about everywhere near the shrine!) I woke up right after sunrise and hiked it from there back to my apartment, to sleep for real. It was a pretty enough walk back, but I definitely left after all the mini shrines had gone!
So, sleeping done, took care of some stuff around the house before heading out again to become a night owl! Left around the same time, arriving with the folks at the shrine. Brought a bottle of sake this time, which everyone signed (and I took back with me as a souvenir of my first festival, of course!) So, walking around town again, I met up with a couple of girls my age with the same mini-shrine, then we all walked together with the mini-shrine, helping to push a little along the way to a big shrine. Along the way people lined the road, it felt like a parade with floats...except, instead of the tractor, just everyone gettin' out back n pushin', the old fashioned way...
So, finally we get to the shrine, n me and the girls go to search for snacks..we get some at a stall, and munch..chocolate covered bananas! Yumm! Then, we go off with another friend, a male coworker of mine, to find a famous seafood dish we thought was for sale at the food stalls, but instead...we found a fight, blossoming near one of the food stalls, with gangsters! Yikes! so we backed away slowly...headed back to our mini shrine. There was a two hour break (at this point it was 3 or 4 in the morning) and just hung out and talked..there were guys sleeping or passed out drunk anywhere you looked! I just stayed up and talked and ate some of the food they had. Finally, we started to roll out..only, this time no rolling! They took out the wheels and all the guys shouldered the weight themselves! It was intense..I just pushed. No shouldering for me! But, we all sang.. I pretty much knew the words by heart by the time the sun rose, even though I had no idea what they meant! The lanterns came off and we marched along to the main road, in front of the high school, where we were headed..
well, finally the day got brighter and 3 miles later, we arrived at our destination, in broad daylight on the main drag, where all the mini shrines had lined up. (Here's me with my ridiculous cap pretending to be a guy so I can hop into the festival...hehehe...)Our mission (should we choose to accept it!) was to meander along the road, then walk over the moat to where the castle used to be (now its the high school..strange, right?!) bounce up and down and sing, and then go park our shrine! Along the way we ran into other strange shrines, as well as the gold coin-i prefer to call it blinged out-shrine for the gods that was the focus of the whole festival. So, we get to the high school, everyone lifts our shrine....and it falls! Ah well, everyone's pretty worn out. Apparently it's not a rare occurence..at least everyone was ok! So we move on, park the thing, and get some breakfast--hooray sushi and soup! At that point I had been awake for about 16 hours so I was like.. I'm gonna go take a nap! And what a beautiful nap it was!! Then, I woke up again for the end of the festival, where, that night, we lined up all the shrines along the levee on the side of the river, while a few of them went down into the river. At that point, the legends say the gods return to the big shrine they came from. So, return they did, and then I returned home to my apartment for a full night's sleep..(and I hope so did these guys, that I caught sleeping in the middle of the day!!)

Just an FYI ....

2009-10-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

to all those folks interested in a little bit of homespun japanese tradition, this is the reason I wanted to come here in the first place... eventually, I intend to walk this little bit of heaven... it's been done by many a foreigner. I just hope I can finish!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage

And yes, I will definitely wear the get-up featured on the page!
and, I will only do it on foot.
For sure.

Travels #2: Naoshima, Art Island-->Takamatsu

2009-10-11T08:10:00.001-07:00

So, the route was by sailboat from the little sliver of land poking out over on the far left hand side of the map to the 1st big island on the middle/right hand side (the one with the little anchor next to it.) Looks far, and it seemed like it.. it was about a 1 day trip!
Sliver of land---->Naoshima (island)

woke up around 8 on Sat., headed to the port on the far side of the 'finger' sticking out into the Seto Inland Sea.. from there, packed the boat and headed out east/northeast for Naoshima. We were hopin for good wind but it was only so-so..there were 5 of us in all, so we tried every now and then to lift up the front sail but in the end it just wasn't helping, so we wound up motoring most of the day. Gorgeous weather, though, with great views of the islands....
So, we all sat around and made some music together, had some lunch, napped and took it easy.. I went and hung out in the water off the back of the boat when the wind picked up..man, that was interesting! Then, we approached the huge Seto O-hashi (big bridge) that famously connected the main island with the smaller island.we went under it..and boy is it huge! pretty impressive. From there it was just gradually approaching Naoshima..and gradually approach we did..as the sun was sinking, we pulled up to the port. Well, that was only the beginning of an incredible night...! Next was pulling into a spot in the harbor..luckily a couple
of fishermen were hanging around the docks and they helped us pull in...then that led to hanging out on the boat with one of the guys and his girlfriend, and then we all went back to his place...where we had fresh sashimi and raw baby octopus and this weird crispy whole shrimp number. It all made for an Interesting, delicious, and raucous time. The kind of experience where you get under the skin of a place, that's for sure! Then it was back to the harbor, and figuring out sleeping arrangements.. I opted for the pumpkin by the beach. It's a piece by Yayoi Kusama that she did for the island, she has a few sprinkled around the island. I slept in this red number by the harbor. It was surprisingly warm inside, and pretty trippy... like sleeping in a Tim Burton film......waking up at sunrise.

Sunday---Naoshima
Today was spent wandering around the port at Miyanoura...found the ridiculously housed public bath, basically a regular Japanese public hot bath room but surrounded with ridiculously bright art and in a quaint, delightfully dilapidated oddly decorated cottage. That's my best description. I wish I had taken a photo but my camera died... so, stumbled across the town preparing their festival, men with their mini portable shrine, women with theirs. The men had gone out to the sea to sprinkle the participants with sea water (in an way oddly reminiscent of holy water at Mass...) then biking off, through the lovely weather and hilly terrain,hah to the Benessee house, where there was a good mix of modern and contemporary artists from around Japan and the world. Maybe one or two key pieces from the masters..but it's really worth going to for the outdoor sculptures and installations. And what outdoor sculptures they are! This is a "cat". Hm...
From there, it was back to witness the ending of the festival, then back to the hot bath for a quick dip before my ferry ride back to Takamatsu...

Sunday: Naoshima--->Takamatsu(-->Saijo)
So, early afternoon, and I hop on the ferry from Naoshima back to my island of Shikoku, this time the city of Takamatsu. What's in Takamatsu? I wondered. Well, I found out: some new high-falutin looking architecture near the train station and ferry terminal, castle grounds with no castle by the sea, a flock of birds..and some really tasty udon noodles. And on a Sunday evening, that's about it. There was a garden I didn't get to go to, but...moral of the story is, Matsuyama--on my side of the island--is wayy cooler than Takamatsu. And I'm not just being biased. Takamatsu had this demon statue, and there weird buildings.

Well, that's it for this weekend! Next stop: unknown....

Travels Around Japan--one month at a time

2009-10-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

First, THIS IS MY TOWN: (A)

So! It has been decided that once a month I, usually in tow with fellow Saijo JET Jennifer, will take (at least) a weekend trip out of our town and go visit somewhere different! This month's trip...for Silver Week, we went to.... *drumroll* Hiroshima!
So! Here was the lineup, and the obligatory photos, below...

First:
Saijo-->Matsuyama Sat., 9/19
so, after a horrific bout with the internet ppl, Jennifer and I leave Saijo city, our town, around 5:10 a.m. on the first train to Matsuyama. Little do we know the trip is NOT the 3 hours we imagined, but instead merely about an hour and 40 minutes (huh!) this is on the LOCAL train, where we sit at middle of nowhere stations for ten minutes at a time. So...not so bad after all! So we get to Matsuyama with some time to spare... we had already scouted out all the places we wanted to go the week before when we got our visas taken care of*, so now we knew exactly where to go and in what order. First, we went to the foreigner's center, called EPIC, where we used free internet and they even allowed us to drop off our bags--awesome! Then, off for shopping, where we got useful and necessary objects. Like this sweater (new) with shirt (gift from grandmom--thanks grandmom!) combo which makes me look like a Real Elementary Teacher, lemme tell ya! Then, the cutest outfit ever assembled, to the right (in total only 60 bucks, not bad!) In a country that puts the utmost emphasis on clothes..... then, the most necessary item of the season: a good coat. It's got room all over, and I can wear it with anything. How about that for a bargain at eighty bucks! Nice, huh?

So, after a couple of hours of shopping, we kicked back with some junk food from McDonalds and Starbucks (hey, after spending all our waking hours in a city with more rice paddies and mountains per square mile than ppl, who could blame us?!)

We also took what is called here Purikura, short for Print Club (how, I dont know either, ask a Japanese person.) This is an example of the ones on my cell phone:

they're great cuz u can write over the picture after you take it, so we did that.. for $4 a pop. not bad, esp. when you can write all over them..its surprisingly addictive! So, next we hopped onto a tramcar across Matsuyama, and headed back for our bags, then straight to the ferry we had decided to take to Hiroshima. Took the express ferry, to make sure we'd make our hostel curfew! Paid off! We had a quick dinner, hopped on the ferry, and made it to the hostel in Hiroshima just in time!
Matsuyama-->Hiroshima Sat.evening, 9/19

Hiroshima-Sun.,9/20
So began our first day in Hiroshima! Waking up in a cramped bed in a full of Japanese tourists holiday season hostel out in the moutains...talk about a wake up call! At least there was a pretty mural on the walk down to the bus station and it was a quiet area... well, we got what we paid for! it was pretty cheap. First, we got off the bus in town and walked around the Hiroshima castle moat..then it was inside to take a peek at the <--shrine inside. Met a couple from San Francisco and their Japanese guide, who was nice enough to translate our fortunes for us, apparently I've already met my true love *gasp*! and things will work the way I want them to...yeah, not to boast, my fortune was pretty good. It's what helps me get up in the morning..haha. So, then a walk through the park, then over the moat on a bridge to get off the castle grounds...we witnessed a kindergarten 'sports day', after we'd already worked a sports day for our jr. high, it was interesting to compare the two events! From there, we walked over and ran <--into this interesting mural, on the walls of a government building, and from there over to the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art, where they had a Russian Masters exhibit on tour from the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Not bad! My-> favorite work was this one: (yeah, thats right, i bought the catalog. im an art major. so sue me.) And, got a cheap Russian cookbook! Because, nothing says delicious in winter like a thick Russian stew!After a quick peek at Dream of Venus by Dali, some Dada and Bauhaus art and some art by Hiroshima native Ikuo, it was time to check out the gift shop...
Then, it was back to pay for entry into Shukkein Garden, behind the museum. I had no idea when I visited the last time that the garden dates from the 1600s, and the original plan was restored after the garden was devastated (all but the stone bridge, here:) after the bombing. I mean, any garden cool enough to have a nickname is good with me! Then, rode the streetcar up to the shopping area, bought some great home stuff at a Dept store called 'Tokyu Hands' (it literally means, Fast Hands. Hm..wonder if i got my money's worth?! haha...now you see your money now you don't? anyone?) Then, over to the ....Subway for lunch! Thats right, there's a Subway sandwich shop in Hiroshima. Nice. And, its totally touristy, cuz my town doesnt have it. so Hah! No Krispy Kreme though..haha only in Tokyo. Well, then we wandered up and down the shopping road a bit window shopping, then walked past a couple of smaller temples on our way back, then back to the hostel to take it easy...it was still a vacation first, after all!
Hiroshima--->Miyajima.,9/21

Well, more beautiful weather, and today Jennifer, our Dutch friend Morten, and I headed off to the famous shrine with the gate that looks like this:
and this:

depending on the tide! We also saw it riding in a little boat pushed by this guy, like you can see below. That was fun! I even got Jennifer to climb a mountain! haha... we climbed Mt. Misen, the holy mountain on the island, which has a few Buddhist temples on the way up, one of which was holy to the monk Kukai, whose trip I plan to undertake in a couple of years (in case I haven't explained to you already, the reason Why I'm here is to eventually undertake the 50 day walk around the island of Shikoku called the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage. Long story... Anyway, went to the top of the mountain, got a little girl to help us feed the deer, headed back down for a quick spot of afternoon tea, then headed back on the evening ferry. A more tiring day than it looks! And to top it all off--real Hiroshima style cooking, Hiroshima okonomiyaki at okonamura. Yummy!

Hiroshima-Tues.,9/22
Well, finally our string of good weather cut out--we rode the bus from one hostel to another, and wound up with our bags in front of the World Friendship Center near the Peace Park in Hiroshima. It's my most highly recommended spot to stay in hiroshima. Immediately when you enter there's an aura of calm about the place, and the volunteers there, Ron and Barb from Ohio, USA, are the sweetest most accomodating people you could ever hope for in meeting place and hostel managers. Honestly, next to couchsurfing it was the best, most open experience I've had staying anywhere---and we only stayed there one night! Well, off to rent bikes..which was an amusing disaster, as every time the rain began just happened to be the same time as we mounted our bikes. Go figure. But eventually we got around the Peace Park, by the Dome, rode along the river, up to an obscure Chinese Szechuan style garden, over by the castle again, then back to the World Friendship Center for karaoke that night. Karaoke was the perfect goodbye to Hiroshima, after a walk back through the street performers and artists that hung out in the shopping streets after dark, and a stroll by the river one last time, it was a great evening!

Hiroshima-Imabari-Saijo City, Wed.,9/23
Ride back on the bus, island hopping the inland sea. Views from the bridges, lovely weather. Perfect ending.

*planning on going to China, so I need the visa now.