Picture Time!!! - Part 6

Kyoto Pictures!!!

 In Nara, there is a park where Deer will come up to you for food. You can pet them, and they bow to you. Its really fun, unless a lot of them are hungry, then you gotta watch your back!

Todaiji temple, in Nara. Big, and beautiful. My favorite...

The Buddah in Todaiji temple. This picture does not demonstrate how huge that thing really is. Remember his ear is bigger than you...

Its said that if you can make it through the hole in this pillar (the same size as the pupil of the Buddah's eye), you will be prosperous in life. I didn't fit (stupid boobs), so I ended up buying a good luck charm to offset the bad luck...

Me at the silver pavilion, ginkakuji

The Wabisabi of ginkakuji

Ninja cafe! I couldn't get a picture with the real ninja... they were too fast, it came out blurry.

Outside the door to our youth hostel.

kinkakuji, the golden pavilion!

Asuka and I in the mountains.

I found about a million tanuki in kyoto. They are good luck charms! And adorably creepy.

Kiyomizudea temple!

Being in kyoto makes you feel like you've been transported to the past...

Well, that's it for now! Vblog to come... eventually about what I have been up to lately. Thanks for reading... I'm off to go do homework.. maybe... probably... hopefully...

ja! matta!

So last weekend I went to Kyoto...

Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan. Its where the old imperial palace is, and its full of shrines and temples that are thousands of years old. Its probably the most historically/culturally rich place in Japan and I saw it all in two days...

Asuka and her friend Noel planned the whole thing. Yulia, Kerry and I just came along. We took the night bus from Shinjuku station at about midnight and slept the whole trip there. It was just under seven hours. When we got there we changed in the train station bathroom (super classy, I know) and then ate a quick breakfast at McDonalds.

Then the real fun began. I met up with my friend Leah from High School back in KC and we all went to Nara to visit todaiji temple. Todaiji temple is located at the back of this long park that is full of deer. Tame deer that will bow to you in order to get food. They are adorable! And aggressive... haha. Todaiji temple in its self is breathtaking. It has a gigantic Buddha who's ear is 50% bigger than I am. His EAR.

We went to a few other places in Nara and even ate lunch there. Then we headed back to Kyoto station and took a bus to ginkakuji (the silver pavilion). The was what the Japanese call wabisabi, which means simple beauty. After that we met up with my friend Travis from LMU and some of his friends and went out to eat at a ninja cafe. It was tabehodai (all you can eat) and half of it was sweets. Oh... and it was ninja themed! Kinda awesome. Very delicious. After that we headed to our hostel for the night.

The hostel was nice. Very traditionally Japanese. We meet some nice buisness men on a vacation there. One of them had been a missionary in Uganda and told me that he felt very close to me and wanted to be friends because.... well, I'm black. Awkward.... but he meant well, haha.

The next morning we were up bright and early and headed for kinkakuji (the golden pavilion) which is REALLY gold, and really shiny... Its pretty, but I much more prefer the wabisabi of the silver pavilion. Kyoto is very close to rural Japan. So we took a train ride to arashiyama, which is this beautiful countryside mountain town. We took a scenic train ride through the mountains. It was breathtaking. My pictures do not do it justice. Then we walked down the mountain through a bamboo forest. Gorgeous. We stopped at a really nice temple too, on the way down.

After all that excitement in arashiyama, we ate lunch and then returned to Kyoto. There we went to kiyomizudera. The most beautifully scenic temple in Kyoto. After we wandered around that for a while, we went and got dinner. Then it was almost time to go home, but not before going to an onsen! Onsen is a traditional public bathhouse. We found a nice one near by kyomizudera (which is also where our hostel was). It was very relaxing. My favorite bath was dark green because it was full of tea. There was one that was slightly electrocuted... but we agreed that apparently only old women can get in that one...

Then we took the night bus back and arrived in Tokyo on Monday morning at like... 6:30. Kerry and I did homework in a KFC for over an hour while waiting for school to open. Then I went to a full day of school and choir practice and didn't get home again until 9:30ish on Monday night. I was tired and sore all this week, but it was so worth it!

Pictures and an update about my week to come later...

matta, ne!

Picture Time!!! - Part 5

I still don't feel like doing homework... so Golden Week Pictures!!!!

Golden Week

Golden week is when there are three Japanese national holidays in a row, so its three days off of work/school bumped right next to a week. Also, Japan having an emperor, his birthday is also a national holiday. The current emperor's birthday happens to be the Thursday before Golden Week. So This is how I celebrated...


Thursday - Emperor's Birthday
Kaitrin came over to DKH for lunch. We went out to LaLa Garden, the local mall, for sushi. When we got there, there were guys outside running a booth for children where you could shoot at a target while balancing on a bucking "horse". The prize was candy! So Kaitrin tried it and hilarity ensued. They also had a taiko drum up there for show, but of course I wanted to play it. So I did, and they were really surprised that I knew what I was doing.... that was fun! We had sushi and shopped for a bit, then left to meet up with Bryce in Ueno.

In Ueno we went to the national park there, and hit up the zoo. Animals in Japan know how to put on a show! They all came right up to the bars and looked at you and acted out... it was fantastic! I took a million pictures... most are on facebook, but I will make a picture post here later (after I finally do that homework that I am currently trying to ignore).

After the Zoo closed, we went out for dinner. While at dinner, the girls (not me, I was sitting with the boys somewhere different, most Japanese places can't handle large groups) starting chatting with some college boys sitting near them. They ended up inviting us all to go drinking. We agreed, but then they found out that the party they were going to was invitation only, and we weren't invited. Oh well, easy come, easy go. When just wandering around Shibuya, Mary runs into a friend of hers, and  at the same time I run into two of mine from SAfro (choir). We end up forming two little conversation groups across the street from the station and talking for about an hour and a half. It was fun! That was it for Thursday...



Friday - not a holiday, but I made it one
Woke up and went on a bike ride with Mary and Meghann to pick up our alien registration cards. We got lost and went in a big circle, but it was a nice day, so  we really didn't mind. We then went out for lunch. The rest of the day was just spent laying about and relaxing. It was much needed, and much appreciated.


Saturday
Woke up early and took the train with Bryce, Yong, and Pricilla to Yokohama. Yokohama is the 2nd largest city in Japan, is right next to the ocean, and was about an hour away to the main station. Once we got there we met up with Haga and some others from the social circle I joined at school. Then we rode the seaside train to Sea Paradise. That was quite an amazing aquarium! We walked through the aquarium, then saw a sea world esq sea mammal show, then went to the petting zoo (yes, at an aquarium), and finished it off by chilling out at dolphin fantasy. All in all it was a great day. We headed back to the main part of yokohama and got ramen and just hung out. Then it was back home.


Sunday
Kerry, Yong, and I went exploring Kawaguchi, the next city over from where we live. It was really pretty. We wandered aimlessly until we found these two cute guys performing on the street. We stopped to listen and they were REALLY good! All three of us bought an album, had them sign them, and took a picture with them. It was pretty great. They made their first American fans! That was pretty much it for that day, another lazy one...


Monday - Constitution Day
Monday we went to Ome and met up with Moeko in her home town for a Matsuri (festival). It was a celebration of the twelve villages of the city that are protected by this one Shinto Shrine. So there were vendors everywhere selling food and what not, but then there were these twelve floats that each had its own oni (demon) and taiko band. They were being pulled up and down the street doing a sort of battle of the band against one another. It was fantastic. But dangerous, I had to save an old lady half my size who got wrapped up in the giant roped used to pull the floats.

The strangest thing about the matsuri was the fact that clearly Ome is not used to foreigners. I was there with a lot of gaijin (foreigners) and we got a lot of double takes. But Meghann and I were getting blatant stares, pointing, people sneaking pictures of us when they thought we weren't looking, and even people coming up to the two of us asking to take our picture! We were more of a spectacle than the actual Matsuri for these people... it was surreal. I still don't know if I liked it or not....

After the matsuri we went to Moeko's house where her mom had created a Japanese feast for us. We all sat around the dinner table (it was a bit cramped) and talked about the cultural differences between us gaijin and the Japanese. It was really fun, and very interesting! We taught them american slang and they told us about Japanese stereotypes for americans. Apparently we eat hamburgers all day every day.

After dinner we went home together on the train. They were close to empty for a better part of the way, so there was a lot of dancing and climbing up onto luggage racks and what not. It was hilarious. That was definitely my 2nd favorite night of the week!

Tuesday - Greenery Day
Kerry and I met up with Bryce and Yong and we hit up the Tokyo Dome City amusement park. Roller coasters baby! Every ride was lots of fun. Waiting in line was also really fun. We played hand jive games and cards and were generally really giggly the entire time. We ended the night with a ride on a huge ferris wheel... priceless.

Then we met up with Pricilla and went for nomihodai (all you can drink). We ate and drank and played drinking games and sang Karaoke and danced. Our waiter (who was super cute) was drinking with us and the two other groups of two in the bar, so by the end of the night we were all just a giggling mass of bad singers belting out lady gaga and random Japanese songs at the top of our lungs.... Good times.

Then it was time to try and rush to catch last train home! Kerry, Yong and I didn't make it. So we took a taxi to Katrin's place and crashed there until the trains were running in the morning. Of course I don't sleep well (snoring keeps me up) and by the time we get home, I am on my 2nd wind and can't sleep anyways. I ended up taking a 3 hour nap or so today... so I am good to go for now.


Wednesday (today) - Children's day
Grocery shopping and homework.... I got school tomorrow!

Picture Time!!! - Part 4

So since all I have been doing really is going to school... I don't have much of anything to say. Here are a few pictures of random adventures after class and what not.

No one has class on wednesday afternoons, so one week we went to asakusa, and pretended to be tourists!

This is my main group of friends at DKH and Sophia... (from left to right: Kerry, Meghann, Mary, Yong). They are kind of amazing.

This is me waiting for a friend at Hachiko. Its a very iconic spot in a very busy location. Here is the story of hachiko, incase you aren't familer.

Samantha Thavasa is a popular Japanese brand... so my name is everywhere!

Lions pride all the way in Japan!!!

Apparently I had to go all the way to Japan to have more than one black friend in a group at once... This is me with my son and law and long lost sister. Also, I may be really short with them... but in Japan, I am average height!


That's all for now... But its Golden Week, which is a week long holiday. So there will be a big update of my escapades during this week sometime next week... lol

Culture Shock

 So here is a list of things that I have learned/experienced/struggled with since coming to Japan that is just so completely different from anything that I have ever known...

Shoes
Firstly, shoes. You don't wear them indoors... Now I am used to coming home and taking my shoes off as soon as I get in, or doing the same when I go to a friends house or some such. But here there is a certain area just inside the door where you remove your shoes and then actually step up into the home. DKH has a bunch of little compartments for us to keep our shoes, and it reeks of feet. I still get tripped up sometimes and grab my shoes and put them on before going over to the designated shoe area. Then its like this awkward stuck in place thing, when I take my shoes off and walk 8ft just to put them back on on a different part of the floor. But everyone isn't walking around barefoot, we all just have house shoes. Its a cultural must. And those can never go outside. AND you have to wear shoes in the bathroom, your house shoes are okay though. And this isn't just in the home, schools (not college) and even some restaurants do it too! And while I am talking about shoes... Japanese women wear heels all day, all the time. Jeans and a t-shirt and heels. A business suit and heels. Long dress and heels. How are their feet not dying?!

Choir
I joined the african american gospel choir at Sophia called the SAfro FAmily (SAFA). I absolutely love it! They are really good, and its great to be singing again. But it is SO weird seeing all these Japanese people singing and dancing and trying to act black. Surrealism aside though, they are super legit. Another strange thing is how they pronounce the words. They try so hard... but if you listen closely, its just not right. Jeeze does not equal Jesus, and you can't just live the final t and d off of words... lol.

Suicide
A tragedy anywhere else is just an annoying inconvenience here.  The train that I take had someone jump in front of it earlier this week (an almost daily occurrence on some line or another in Tokyo), and the line was backed up from the platform, up the stairs, past the ticket gates. It was insane. When I finally got on to a train, I was squeezed in so unbelievably tight that I literally couldn't breath properly, and my arm was pressed up to a pole in such a way that I was sure it was gonna break if I got jolted in the wrong direction. Suicide is almost... blase here. Back in the day, Samurai would perform ritual suicide to avoid disgrace. Now office workers just turn into emotionless drones, and some can't take it. But remember to take your shoes off first, its the polite thing to do...

Bathrooms
No paper towel, no towels, no nothing to dry your hands. Its just not economically efficient. If you are lucky you have an automated air blower. Speaking of automated, automated toilets are amazing! Warmed seats... A in-toilet bide (sp?) that you can adjust the temp, placement, and strength of the water, and (my favorite thing) a sound system that fakes a flushing sound while you are going to the bathroom so as to avoid any embarrassment. You either get all that... or a porcelain hole in the ground that you squat over, and it flushes sideways... I actually like those ones too, super easy and hygienic!

Customer Service
Everyone is super nice to you in the stores! They run to go get things for you. Everyone greets you as you walk into a shop, well... that part is actually really annoying. They go out of their way to please you, and its all just because they can! They aren't working for tips or commission, these things don't exist. Its simply because they should since its their job. Brilliant!

Personal Space
Doesn't exist in Japan. You cannot be the salmon swimming upstream unless you have a serious sense of determination. You go with the flow, packed in with the rest all the time. Hold tight to your bag, not cuz someone might pick pocket you, but because it might get pulled off of your arm and lost in the crowd. However, if you happen to be in a place with plenty of space, do NOT stand closely to someone else... If you don't like crowds and/or are claustrophobic, NEVER go to Tokyo... end of story.

Religion
There is a weird mix of Buddhism and Shinto (the ancient Japanese religion) here. Often a Buddhist temple can be found right next to a Shinto shrine. I honestly can't tell the difference between the two most of the time. But there are a few factors that help. Basic cultural things pertaining to the temples and shrines exist in daily culture... and yet no one apparently really claims to belong to a religion... Its a weird concept from the western perspective, but the melding of religions is completely normal here. Born buddhist, marry christian, and die Shinto...

Trash
Japan is a series of four relatively small islands. And its already overpopulated... They don't really have a space for landfills. So trash here separated diligently. There are like... 8 different trashcans outside DKH that we are supposed to put our trash into. The main ones are plastic bottles (pet), anything else plastic, and everything burnable. Trash cans in public places (few and far between in existence) have these three distinctions... it was annoying at first. But now I've really gotten the hang of it, and its pretty handy!

Basically, I am starting to miss the little things from America that I always took for granted... I ordered dominos pizza for dinner last night and got the american special (pepperoni). It was amazing. Now I'm off to the international market to buy some hot sauce and mexican food, lol.

Ja! Matta, ne!

First Week of School

My class schedule is awesome.

Monday and Thursday I have:
Japanese M1 (wayyyyy too slow/easy)
Christianity and Japanese Culture (very interesting!)
Lunch
Modern Japanese Fiction (fiction about post-war Japan, WWII from the Japanese perspective)
Indian Thought and Culture (best class ever)

I start at 9:15 and end at 4:45.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday I only have Japanese... then I am free for the rest of the day! Its kinda awesome, and I am really happy with it. The only class I have an issue with is Japanese, but it could be worse.

Sophia University is small but mighty. Its one of the top five universities in Japan. I am in the Faculty of Liberal Arts, which means its full of exchange students from around the world, and the classes are taught in English. Not that many Japanese students take these classes (unless they are REALLY good with English). So to meet more nihon jin (Japanese people) I have joined two clubs!

One is a social club that meets at lunch every Friday. Lunch was a bit awkward, but we all went out to dinner that night and then for coffee. That was a lot of fun. There was definitely a language barrier, but we all did what we could to get our points across. There was a lot of mixing of languages. Despite all that however, we had really interesting and culturally profound discussions and really got to know one another.

I am also planning on joining the Gospel Choir at Sophia. They seem to be pretty hard-core, so I am really looking forward to getting back into singing. I have really missed it this past year and a half or so since I quit...

Other than that, not much going on this week. But I am enjoying getting to know my new friends and finding my routine here at school. Life is good...

... except for the trains. Words cannot express the sardine hell that I go through every morning during my hour to hour and a half long commute during rush hour every morning. I've tried to take pictures but it doesn't quite work... Below are a few links to youTube videos that might get the point across. I literally have to deal with this every morning and sometimes in the evening (but only right before last train, and I don't stay out late enough for that on school nights). Make sure you watch the videos to the end, see just how PACKED they really get!

this is the train line that I take from my home station: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCbdD8aGHRg&feature=related

this is the 2nd (out of three) train that I take during my commute to school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_qgpfmx0a4

this is the last train that I take to get to my school station: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0A9-oUoMug

Thats all for now! ja! Matta!