Japan and Back Again

The Ring Goes South... er, sorta... Well, more Like Dan and I go west

2008-12-07T03:04:00.000-08:00

From Kyoto we decided to head to Hiroshima and Miyajima. I was at first a bit skeptical, but it turned out to be all right. When we arrived in Hiroshima, my heart instantly felt a bit heavier than in Kyoto. We were planning to stay in Hiroshima because we wanted to visit the island of Miyajima, but we spent that evening seeing a few of the sights in Hiroshima.

After resting a little while in the Hostel (Dan was feeling a bit under the weather), we headed out and decided to make our way down the Peace Boulevard, which was near our hostel. Walking down the Peace Boulevard was so... um, peaceful, and made my heart feel a bit lighter. It was totally decked out in Christmas lights. Yes, that's right. The Japanese are totally insane about Christmas, however, they do not acknowledge the religious side of it. We saw many santas, reindeer, elves, toy trains, even a dragon and pirate ship, but no nativity scenes or even an angel. Christmas to them is more of a romantic holiday anyway; it is said that there are more proposals here on Christmas than any other day of the year. They even have a tradition of serving a Christmas cake to their lovers! Haha. Anyway, I'm not writing this post about Christmas. Back to Hiroshima...

At the end of the Peace Boulevard was the Peace Memorial Park, which contained the Flame of Peace, which was lit in 1964 and hasn't been extinguished yet; nor is it meant to be extinguished until all nuclear bombs have been destroyed on Earth. Needless to say, few words were spoken between Dan and I during our walk through this park, and neither of us took pictures of the area. I was doing fine until I saw an older woman stand humbly in front of the flame, and bow deeply several times to it. It was quite touching. Dan and I then made our way to the A-Bomb dome, the closest building to the bomb that wasn't completely destroyed. Needless to say, it was a very strange feeling to be standing in front a place with a history like that. The A-Bomb Dome was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List to help promote international peace.

Our next day was spent at Miyajima (formally known as Itsukushima), an island off the coast of Japan near Hiroshima, which literally means "Shrine Island". The entire island was deemed sacred in the 1500s , and is where the famous Itsukushima Torii stands (the reddish orange thing that looks to be floating in the water). It is so sacred that no one is allowed to give birth on the island, and no one is allowed to die on the island (I'm not sure how they would punish someone who did happen to die suddenly on the island, unless it meant they would come back as some low status creature in their next life). Anyway, once Dan and I finally arrived there (we had some trouble hearing the train announcements and got off at the wrong stop, and ended up wandering around the logging district for awhile), we had a wonderful time. Miyajima is absolutely lovely, with the trees in bright shades of red and gold. There are even wild monkeys on the island (who are known for rummaging through unwary travelers' bags), and the deer are tame and run free. We took a ropeway up to the tallest point of the island, and had a great view of the Inland Sea/Ocean and of the coast of Japan.

When we made it back down to the bottom, the sun was setting, so we hurriedly made our way to take some picture of the famous Torii before the sun set, and casually walked back to the ferry.

When back in Hiroshima, we decided to try this city's famous style of Okonomiaki, which is a type of Japanese pancake. Hiroshima is famous for theirs because they not only have batter, egg, cabbage, and meat in theirs, but they also have noodles! It was great watching the cooks make these meals- right in front of us!

Anyway, I've jabbered on long enough; I hope it hasn't bored any of you. One last thing I have to add is that on the way back to our hostel we passed a few bars, one of the name "Bar Pee," and the other with the name "Assfort." Needless to say, we didn't need any drinks to find the names of these places to be hilarious; I rarely hear Dan laugh as hard as he did when we passed those places.

Anyway, I'm going to bed. Yesterday Dan and I hiked up a mountain in Nikko, but I'll post that later.

Sayonara!

I <3 Kyoto!

2008-12-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

I am in Hiroshima right now, typing this post. However, this post is not going to be about my experience in Hiroshima, but in Kyoto! It's difficult to post faithfully when I'm trying to see as much as possible.

Anyway, I love Kyoto. It is quaint, comfortably paced, with extremely friendly people, and a lot of history. It was once the capital city of Japan during part of Japan's Medieval history, and literally means "capital city." A few of Japan's most well-known sights can be found here, the most well known being Kinkaku-ji, the "Golden Pavilion." It was originally built in the late 1300s as a villa for the head shogun at the time, and was converted into a zen temple shortly after. The golden parts of the builing are covered in pure gold leaf. Not only is the building itself a breathtaking sight, but the watery garden that surrounds it as well. It evokes quite a peaceful state of mind (despite the crowds of tourists nearby... including hoards of those darn schoolchildren!!).

After visiting the Golden Pavilion, Dan and I found ourselves to be quite hungry, and went on a search for food. Yes, I mean search. Most of our time is spent searching for food, which is quite hilarious when you think about it. We'll see some nice looking places but decide against dining at them because we can't decipher the kanji; it's not the food that scares us, but the prices. Then we'll pass a few that have decent prices, but decide against them because the displays of food do not look very tasty. When we finally decide on a place to eat at, it is usually an hour or so after we realize we're hungry. We then end up ordering things by pointing at pictures, hoping that the pictures show what we think they are (I once ordered a tempura dish with some blackish brown thing in it... I couldn't tell if it was a large mushroom or a piece of squid... or worse... gross!).

Anyway, we eventually found our lunch place in Kyoto; we couldn't read the menu, and there weren't any pictures to go by. We just walked in and sat down. Now for the fun part... we were the only people there, and this place was somewhere between a hole in the wall and an average looking place. The woman in charge spoke no english, but luckily Dan was able to understand the Japanese word for "chicken," so we followed her inquiries about the chicken with "hai, hai, hai, hai," and a few bows. This place turned out to be a place that specialized in Okonomiaki, a type of Japanese "pancake." They consist of batter, some type of meat (shrimp, chicken, eel, or squid), egg, and cabbage. At some places they give you the raw ingredients and you cook it yourself at your own table's grill (Dan and I did that in Tokyo), and at others they cook it and you eat it straight off the grill (which is what we did here). It was a great meal, and afterwards the woman attempted to have a conversation with us; we were able to answer her questions about where we were from, what we did (music students), and what school we attended. But that was the extent of our conversation. I really wish I could have understood her better; she seemed like a really nice woman, and seemed pretty laid back and friendly.

After this we stopped by another shrine, which was also very beautiful. We attempted to find the Silver Pavilion and the Philosopher's Walk, but after 2 hours of taking busses around the city and walking, Kyoto's map and address system proved too much for us, and we turned back. Lucky for us, we found out from someone at the hostel that the Silver Pavilion was closed for construction, anyway.

I'll write more soon. Today Dan and I went to Miyajima, which was absolutely beautiful, but that will be in a later post (complete with pictures!).

Sayonara!

The Fairychildren of Japan!

2008-12-03T04:40:00.001-08:00

Children are so... enchanting!! Especially the little elf-like schoolchildren of Japan...

First of all... they are so adorable! They are incredibly lively compared to adults (as children usually are). Their chatter and giggles can be heard everywhere all the time, but the adults rarely say anything at all. I have had several encounters with them, which usually go something like this: I see a group of schoolchildren out of the corner of my eye and notice them staring at me; I turn my head to look at them and smile, and expect them to smile back. However, to my surprise, an explosion of childish giggles occur! This is followed by them running away, pointing and giggling.

Dan and I were standing on the bus today because there were no seats available. As we entered, I again had my classic encounter with the schoolchildren, and after the explosion of giggles I heard a "hello" from one of them, so I said "Hi" back, which yet again caused an explosion of giggles. I then realized it was hopeless to have any serious sort of meeting with these elfish creatures, so I decided to make goofy faces at them instead. The rest of our bumpy bus ride was accompanied by the bursts of giggles every time Dan and I nearly bumped our heads on the low ceiling of the bus.

Kitties... Kitties... and more KITTIES!!!!!!!

2008-12-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

I had to do it... I see them everywhere here, and had to post about it.

When I see cats, I can't help but to squeal in my high-pitched voice, "EEEE! Kitteeeeeeeeeeeees!!" And guess what? The Japanese LOVE cats, too! Do you not believe me? Everywhere we go there are cats... cat games, cat toys, cat stuffies, live cats!

I LOVE this country! Cats are everywhere... on the streets, in the parks, in the decor, in toy stores... SO CUTE!!! The pictures say it all...

Three is Company

2008-11-30T17:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend was great! Yesterday Dan and I, plus a few Australians from our hostel all went to Yoyogi Park together and saw the Meiji Shrine. The part of Tokyo that it is near is highly fashionable, with a lot of international designer stores (Dior, Prada, Armani, Gucci, etc). The streets were filled with people, shoulder to shoulder (I have a picture posted here at the bottom).

Anyway, we got to Yoyogi Park, we walked down the trail to see the Meiji Shrine. This area was very close to the jam-packed area of Tokyo that I just described, yet the contrast between the two was remarkable. We went from modern to traditional and from fast paced city to pleasant paced nature in simply minutes. It's a beautiful place, with many tourists as well as Japanese; we even witnessed a wedding procession. These pictures are second and third from the bottom.

We then wasted a couple of hours searching for food, for despite the area being full of people, there was a shortage of restaurants. Once we finished lunch, we made our way to the other side of Yoyogi Park hoping to find the line up of rock bands that Dan had witnessed last year at this time, but found that was not the case. Instead, we saw a 6 year old Japanese guitarist standing up on a podium asking for song requests... he sang a few beatles tunes for us, and was quite good. His lack of self consciousness was inspiring; he really got into his playing and singing!

All right, it's already 11am, and we have a lot to do today (none of which we have planned yet, haha). Sayonara!

The Last Homely House... K's Hostel!

2008-11-29T17:44:00.000-08:00

FINALLY. Connected to the internet... now before my computer decides to kick me off, I'm going to attempt to add a few of my observations and thoughts.

The 13-hour flight was miserable... I really could not sleep, and every passing moment felt as long as a day. When we finally reached Narita Airport, my mind was so fried I felt as though I was drunk out of my mind.

Where to start... so many things... being here almost feels like it is make believe. These people have a language that I can barely understand. I can't hold any sort of conversation; all I can do is barely indicate what I want (ordering food) or where I need to go (riding the train). It feels strange to say "arigato" for thank you and "sumimasen" for excuse me. I'm saying these things to people who use this language every day, and the people I say these things to are real people who use it as part of their normal interaction! I'm not in class pretending to talk in Japanese... this is for real! My mind cannot comprehend this yet, I think. But in the meantime, it sure is fun!

Anyway, one of the first things I noticed when I got to the area of my hostel was how quiet it was. I thought, at first, that the reason was because it was evening, but I found that not to be the case. Even the daytime feels very quiet and calm, despite it being in one of the largest cities of the world. I read in a travel guide, though, that Tokyo is more like a huge collection of lots of different neighborhoods and towns, and that each area has it's own feel and pace. I found this to be true last night when we went to Shinjuku, an area known for its nightlife, excitement, and quick pace. When we got there, I told Dan that I finally felt like I was in a city despite our adventures in the past day. There were lots of people, traffic, and general bustle that I associate with city life. It had a certain amount of "noise," similar to what I "hear" when in Chicago, or New York. These two areas (Shinjuku and the neighborhood that my hostel is in) are very different in feel and pace despite their being in the same city.

Ahh! It's almost noon here and I'm not even close to writing everything I want. I guess Dan and I will be off now, and I'll try to post more tonight.

Until then,
Sayonara!

2008-11-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

Hello, Everyone!

In a little over a week, I will actually be in Japan! I'm not sure what to expect when I go, but here are some ideas of what I think I may experience:

The writing... It will be odd knowing that I will be quite illiterate despite my quarter of studying the language. I may be able to sound out and pronounce a few words written in hiragana or katakana, but it's likely I won't even know what they mean. Japanese babies will understand more than me, at least of the spoken language.
The people. I'm looking forward to experiencing first hand this unique quality of politeness that the Japanese people are so famous for.
Cleanliness. I hear Tokyo is one of the cleanest cities in the world... will it fulfill my expectations?
The toilets! I've heard so many wonderful things about Japanese toilets... I hope they're everything I imagine!
Appearance. From what my teachers and friends have told me, I may get a lot of attention due to my stark difference in appearance... I'm probably twice as tall as the average Japanese person, and I'm almost as white and blond as a Caucasian can be. I'm really interested in the reactions of the people.

That's all I can think of right now. This will probably be my last post until I cross over that big, giant, OCEAN!!! (I hope you read this, Sarah... the ocean comment was for you!)

A Shortcut to... (not mushrooms) Dan In Japan!

2008-10-23T09:17:00.001-07:00

I'll post the itinterary once we have it figured out, but in the meantime I think I've decided what kind of blog this is going to be... Well, more like what kind of blog this isn't going to be.

First of all, I want to say that I'm going to Japan in 3 weeks, but there's one other person going with me... my boyfriend Dan! That's right! He's totally crazy about Japan, and is applying to teach English there in a year (he's applying to JET program right now). His blog is incredibly informative, entertaining, exciting, and pretty much everything you could ever hope for to see in a well designed blog. He's even going to include podcasts with music that he composed himself!!! Isn't that great?!? DanInJapan is the site if you ever want to check it out, which I highly recommend.

You must be asking yourself, "What does this have to do with the contents of Cally's blog?" Well, I'm going to tell you right now. In this blog I'm going to record what I see, how I feel, how I react, how others react to me, and other things such things from my personal experience. I don't plan to inform people about how to obtain a JR pass, when the best time year to visit is, how much the plane tickets cost, and so forth. That's not why I'm going to Japan or why I'm writing this blog.

I'm going to Japan because I want to experience this culture with my own eyes, ears, body, and mind. And I'm writing this blog so that you, my readers, can feel like you have felt a little bit of that culture as well.

I'm referring DanInJapan because I think it will help to give you an even better idea of the country. Dan and I are two very different people, and so our blogs will be very different and may possibly help you create an even better sketch of this beautiful culture in your mind.

But I suppose the only way one can truly experience it is to experience it for one's self.

*Yawn* Anyway, it's time for bed! Oops... and time to study for a Japanese vocabulary quiz... uh-oh...

Good night for now!
Cals

An Unexpected Party

2008-10-10T23:36:00.000-07:00

In 6 weeks and 5 days, I will be on a plane, flying to the other side of the world to visit a culture that I can hardly imagine exists outside my own. I have some vague images of Japan in my mind; majestic Mt. Fuji, the glittering streets of Tokyo, delicate cherry blossoms, ancient ink drawings, hello kitty, anime characters, and of course the legendary tales of the Geisha and Samurai.

How exciting-- my first trip overseas!

Until next time, Sayounara!
~Cally