ドライブ旅行！！(Driving Trip) Part 1

Hey everybodyyy!

So I decided to try a new form of updating.. where I would write a little everyday.   I’ve been thinking about ways to try and make my updating a little better, because it frankly sucks.. as I’m sure you all know.  I figured if I write a little about my travel each day, not only would that keep me in the habit of updating the blog, I would be able to remember each and every day a little better without the assisted use of pictures or other people to remind me what the hell we did then.

Here it goes… Wish me luck!

I’m currently on a roadtrip here where we just began yesterday on an EPIC JOURNEY around western Japan.  The drive takes us through a ridiculous number of cities.. we’re stopping in 13 or so?  I dunno. something like that.  Here is a picture of the trip:

All of the indicator dots are cities that we're stopping in.. except for about 2 of them which we just used to make the lines work better

Basically how it is going is that we are starting in Kanazawa and driving forever, while stopping at different cities along the way.  I’m going Patrick and Takashi, so to manage all of this we obviously needed someone else to drive aside from Takashi, or ME! w00t!  I’m really excited about it because it has been SOOO long since I’ve driven.  I got to start out yesterday when we left Kanazawa and we drove for about 5 hours or so to Himeji.  One of the awesome parts about Japanese cars is the incredibly wide use of Navicational systems, or Nabi as they like to say.  Because of my recent discovery of how awesome they are, I really want a GPS system back in America.  Honestly, these things are so awesome!  There are really no downsides to them that I can see.. unless we’re talking so crazy future shit with like Terminator or Eagle Eye where the government is spying on us at all times.  I recommend that everyone gets one. You won’t regret it.  We got to Himeji around 2ish or so and went around to the castle, which was really awesome!  Himeji Castle was actually registered as the first Japanese National Cultural Treasure by UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is one Japan’s “Three Famous Castle’s,” and it is the most visited castle in Japan.  In other words, its awesome.  If you get a chance, you should really go see it because it is a very impressive building.

There was a large park before you get to the actual castle. Being reasonably good weather, lots of couples brought their children

Patrick and Takashi in front (way in front) of Himeji Castle

And then a Ninja Popped out! like.. literally.. we were walking up and he came outta nowhere!!! it was really funny

and then the sword was passed along to the next great hero...

wood or metal is alright. If you see a stone wall, don't even think about it.

One of the things about Japan that I’ve been noticing, especially with Himeji Castle, is the lack of handrails compared to the amount of steep steps/steps in general in Japan.  Obviously for cities and other staircases built generally within the last few centuries, there are generally handrails or some sort of supporting, safety device for people who have trouble with stairs, but at Japanese historical landmarks, there are almost none.  It was something that really struck me with Himeji Castle and now thinking back upon other trips, I think it is generally the same everywhere.  Thinking upon this, it may take a small amount away from the historical aspect of the whole experience.. maybe.. but it would not only make it safer for visitors in general, but it would expand the range of the people who are able to visit and enjoy such historical places.  I feel like things such as handrails shouldn’t come in the way of people being about to experience these things… oh well. Just something I noticed.

After Himeji Csatle, we went to a garden called Kokoen, right next to Himeji Castle to the west.  It wasn’t that big… or didn’t feel too big (not compared to some other gardens that I’ve been in before) but it was very beautiful.  There were a lot of different smaller sections within it that comprised the whole garden, so that you could get a really full experience going through the entire thing.   Another thing that was amazing was the size of the Koi fish there.  I swear, they were the largest and fattest Koi I’ve ever seen in my whole life!  Holy crap were these things big.  I’ve heard Koi doesn’t taste very good but you could feed a lot of people by sacrificing one of those suckers.   Another cool thing was the presence of the Ume blossoms (Pear Blossoms).  It was really nice to see some plant life and nice to see flowers, because it has been so wintery back in Kanazawa!  Here is what the garden looked like:

This was in the gardens near the Castle. Someone had just stuck this blossom on the wall and I really liked it.

These were plum blossoms that bloom a little before the sakura. What's a photo album of Japan without lots of flowers?!?

All in all, for because you can get a combination ticket of Himeji castle and Kokoen Garden for ￥720 (roughly 7.35$), it is totally worth it.

From there we drove out Himeji to end in Okayama to spend the night.  We were pretty tired from driving and walking around and whatnot so we sorta crashed.

The next day we spent the day going around Okayama, which turned out to be way better than I could’ve imagined!  First of all, the city is really interesting and has an interesting metropolis feel in certain areas until all of a sudden there is a huge park and a little castle.  To get to these places we also took these really old-school trams, which were really sweet and loud actually.  We rode from the hotel to one of those areas where it opens up a little… and suddenly we were at the edges of all these trees!  It was kinda crazy.   Crossing a bridge to get to where the park we wanted to visit was, I saw another interesting thing, which were small swan boats on teh river that you could rent and paddle around with your feet.  It was pretty interesting and really reminded me of Boston.  The park that we were going to is called Korakuen, and it is one of the three famous parks in Japan.  Since I already know Kenrokuen, I thought this would be pretty similar and therefore obviously beautiful but potentially just more of the same.  What surprised me was how breathtaking this place was.  Once you get in, you walk around some fences and small buildings, to be subsequently blown away by expanses of grass, flowers, ponds, etc.  What killed me about this experience was that ALL of the (would be) grass was brown from the Winter.  For us, it was a huge expanse of brown for the grassy areas, but even so, it was still mind-blowing.  There are so many different flowers and trees all over the place.  One of the most interesting parts about it is that there is a center section, but walking around the edge areas of the park, the view and image of what lays before you changes so much that it is acutally almost a separate experiecnce from a different area.  It is very cool in this regard and I can’t imagine ever getting sick of this park.  Because it was all brown, I actually want to go back.  I would not only very seriously recommend that everyone makes a stop here if they ever come to Japan, but if you do come and I’m here, hell, I’ll go with you!  I really, really loved this park.  What is in interesting for me is that it is grouped together with Kenrokuen for two of the top three parks,but Kenrokuen has nothing compared to this park.  I don’t think that I could ever put them together actually.   I suppose that if there is nothing else that gets even close to them, it is unavoidable, but visiting this park is honestly a visit of a lifetime.  Do NOT miss this park if you have a chance.  What is also cool is that they have free tour guides in the park as well, in Japanese of course.  They do not have English tour guides, but you honestly do not need one.  You just really need to enjoy the scenery.  Here are some of my pictures and others to try to and begin to do justice to this beautiful place.

There are swan boats in Okayama too

When I saw these boats and the color of the sky in the water, I really wanted to take a picture of it. They're just so old school and cool

Momotaro is a very famous legend in Japanese history. Okayama is famous for being the the city (thought?) to be involved in the story

This is a very famous part of Korakuen. Its too bad that it was.. brown.

Luckily there actually was a part of Korakuen that was green and beautiful, so there were tons of people over there

This is one of the views of Korakuen... just try to imagine all the brown parts are green

Kurashiki was a really cool area posing as a traditional village kind of a thing. It has a pretty cool feel and is pretty sweet to walk around and stuff

Patrick at the Sanryo shop. He got really excited when he saw it!

O RLY???

This was the sky as we were leaving Kurashiki. I wish I knew how to capture it correctly

Next to Korakuen is the small Crow Castle, which got its name from the black outside and appearance that is somewat crow-like.

To be quite honest, don’t waste your time here.  It is very small and pretty lame.  If you do deccide that you want to go here, just don’t go to Himeji Castle the day before.  Himeji castle is awesome enough to be used in many movies and is just an incredible structure.  Okayama Castle is just really small and not worth much of anything.  Here’s a picture. thats about all that I have because we left shortly after.

That night we left Okayama to head out to Hiroshima, which I was really excited to go to.  Obviously everyone knows about Hiroshima but I never imagined (before I came to Japan) that I would ever be able to go, so it was a really cool experience.

On a side note, this updating as I go thing is only working a little.  One of the problems that I’m running into is dust wanting to sleep once I get back from a long day of.. whatever.  I’m about 2 days behind now, but I think it’ll be ok.  This is the most I’ve written in a long time so I think things will all work out as far as getting this out.  Hopefully it doesn’t take me until July like my mega update #1 took.

Anyways, on to Hiroshima.

Hiroshima is a really cool city!  There are lots of things to do all over the place and it is really beautiful.  In the middle of the city around where two of the several rivers running through the city split.. sorta split.. they have Peace Park, which is the memorial to the Atomic Bomb.

When we got to Hiroshima, we obviously first stopped in our hotel(?) place. Its not a hotel but this place called the World Friendship Center, someplace that Patrick found.  It is really awesome because it is only ￥3900  a night, which is about $40, but it includes breakfast as well as arranging a free tour of Peace Park and a meeting/chance to listen to a Hibakusha story.  The Hibakusha are the survivors of the Atomic Bomb (more on them in a second).  The World Friendship Center was started after the war by a Quaker woman and now it is run by a larger group.  The people who are directly in charge of the stays and the upkeep are volunteers on 2-year shifts.  The people that were there for us were a very nice couple from America who are leaving in May.    If anyone goes to Hiroshima, this is definitely the place to stay due to the cheap price, nice hosts, and services that they provide.  Here is a link to their site:

http://wfchiroshima.net/

check it out!

TO BE CONTINUED…….

MEGA UPDATE NUMBER 1!!!

Hey Readers.

Look, I’m sorry. I realize that it has been several months since my last post, and I really regret not updating more frequently.  Soon, in 2 days actually, I’m going on another long vacation around western Japan. Between now and then, I’m going to make a few blog posts and catch up to where I am now.  I can only blame it on myself and the fact that I’m an idiot and absolutely terrible with time management as well as prioritizing.  I know I’ve lost many readers so I’m going to try and win back your confidence as I try and organize my life.. and my room (it’s in dire shape…).  This is going to be a continuation of a post I began to write a few months ago and just saved it in my drafts.. in December.  This is going to be a large project, but totally worth it.  Sorry again!!!!

Thus begins the series of updates I’m going to call the MEGA UPDATES!

MEGA UPDATE NUMER 1!!

Luckily, I’m able to somewhat piece together a reasonably well organized timeline of major events over the past month because of the wonderful program of Picasa and its chronological organizing defaults.  I love that program…

Starting off after hanging out with people at Kenrokuen and going to dinner, I guess one of the next biggest things was a Takoyaki party that we all did in our dorm.  Takoyaki is sort of like.. small balls just over an inch in diameter of some sort of dough-ish mixture with a piece of octopus (tako) on the inside that you fry (yaki.. sorta).  I know that sounds very odd but they’re SOO good.  There are many other small changes you can make as well.. for instance instead of Octopus we did ones with chunks of chocolate and used chocolate sauce on them.. I cannot describe how good those ones were either.  It was just a lot of fun to get everyone in the common room and get other Japanese student friends that we’re trying to hang out with more and get to know better.  Unfortunately, a few days later during the monthly all-dorm meeting, they announced that you cannot cook food in the common room… so I don’t think that we’ll be able to do that anymore.  We can cook food in rooms and bring it to the Common Room to eat.. but I dunno.  Oh well.  Nothing to be done… but here are some pictures from it!!!

The supplies table where everything was prepared.

These are friends from Kanazawa University, hanging around over the cooking machine

After the takoyaki party, we went out again with our Anthropology teacher to have some food and such.  The occasion was that his ridiculously smart and wealthy radiologist friend was visiting.  It was a ton of fun, and so many people came from the Kaikan out to eat.  I don’t even want to say how much the bill was, but he paid it all blowing it off as if it were nothing.. it was A LOT to me.. like a lot a lot.. it was crazy. but so much fun! Here’s a picture from that too:

This is about everyone who came out with us. The friend, Tom, is on the left, flipping me off.

It was a really great night and we got everyone out together, which is always a really fun time.  We need to have more times like this with just everyone I think.

Next we had a meeting of the Tufts Friends, at a very nice restaurant.  The Tufts Friends are a group of people organized around Matsuda-san who all have a mutual interest in foreign exchange and bridging cultures.  They all help out this process by bringing us to their English classes (many of them are teachers), letting us do homestays at their houses, hosting tea parties (we did that yesterday), bringing us out to view foliage and go to temples and other things (we’re doing that today, so more on that later once I get back), or other things like that.  They’re all incredibly nice people and are just one of the many reasons why this is an incredible year.  That first day, we had a gorgeous meal with everyone so we could all meet.  Afterwards, we went on a drive around Kanazawa a little with one of the friends and her Husband.  They took us up to a really nice mountain in Kanazawa where you could see the whole city, and the ocean!  It was really nice and interesting because this the city actually made a law that no buildings could be higher than that peak, so there are no real skyscrapers in Kanazawa! Interesting little trivia.  From there they actually drove us to the ocean–surprisingly close actually–to this little viewing area and beach.  It was very beautiful. On top of this viewing platform that was there, the wind was just incredibly strong. I don’t think it was even that hight, but it was obviously right next to the water so it was very strong there.

This is up on the viewing platform. The wind was SO STRONG!

Patrick at the Ocean. I just thought it was a nice picture.

It was such a fun day.  Its just amazing how nice these people are!!

Shortly following that, we had another Experiences in Japanese Culture Class.  This was a lot of fun–we did the Tea Ceremony!  So we all piled into a bus and were brought to this really beautiful tea house.  There we learned a little about different rooms and why they were special and important.  It is interesting because in tea houses, there is usually a room for negotiations where there is a very short, small door so you need to bend down to get in, this creates a great difficulty to draw one’s sword.  Also, the ceiling is made with this interesting pattern of criss-crossed.. something. I’m not sure what exactly. But it basically will catch a sword and stop it immediately in its path.  Its very interesting… Amazing what the Japanese think of.  After the brief history lesson we all went into a larger room and learned the process of the tea ceremony.  This involves sitting incredibly uncomfortably for a long time.  I’m still getting used to sitting like the Japanese.. goddamn it hurts.  Anyways, the master makes the tea,  going through this process and a half to do it… I don’t remember exactly the process… so maybe, check it out here if you want to know a little more. It really is quite interesting.

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

At the end of the large tea ceremony for everyone, a fwe people got a chance to actually make the tea themselves while the master watched.  This was really amazing to watched and I really wanted to make it but right when it was coming to my turn, we had to go unfortunately… it really sucked.  oh well. Tea Ceremony:

This is Whitnee, Patrick, and me outside the Tea House. Very pretty there.

This was the beginning of the tea ceremony.

All in all, it wa s alot of fun and a great experience of Japanese culture!

Lets see… There may be too many things to explain in detail.. for Halloween, which is not big by any stretch of the imagination in Japan, we all went out to Karaoke, because it was my friend Nae’s birthday.  She is from Thailand and it was all lots of fun! there were soooo many people in one room–it was pretty amazing.

This was everyone in the common room before we went out to Karaoke.

So much fun.. I have a video of some things that maybe I’ll find a good place to upload it.. for now, its on my facebook for those who can view it.

Gaijin make a full-frontal attack on the Karaoke center!

One small interesting thing is that I went out and got a new gameboy… haha.. it may not have been completely necessary, but I ran mine into the ground.. I had it since the DS’s first came out.  So I got a new one, which came out in Japan in the beginning of November, not to be released in the US until sometime next year.  It has a camera and its really fun to play with.  Sorry, I just had to talk about it.. its really awesome haha.

Also in November there was a 5 day weekend… which was amazing.  It was completely necessaty and I don’t know what I would’ve done without it.  During this weekend, there was a 3 day festival at the university called Kindaisai.  There were lots of stands with food provided by various clubs wanting support and then there were countless exhibits inside some of the buildings.  There was live music ALL the time and other little events. One of the examples of the live performances was a break dancing group that performed just at the top of the stairs, near all the buildings.

The girls breakdancing team. They weren't actually that great... oh well.

The best part of Kindaisai was the fried chicken and french fries from one of the stands.. it was sooooo good.  Everyone loved it best.

After Kindaisai we also went to see the place where Takashi works that weekend.  He works at a place known as Ninjadera (Ninja temple) by everyone, the real name I do not remember.  Basically it is a temple from.. who knows when, very old.  It has no relation to Ninja whatsoever, but its so friggin cool that people just call it the Ninja temple anyway.  How it works is that there are tons of little hidden passageways, stairways, rooms, and other tricks in it.  Back when it was built… a long time ago… buildings were only allowed to have about 3 layers or so, but this one has 7!! When you can find the secret passageways, you’ll find so many more rooms and fun tricks.  If anyone goes to Kanazawa to visit, it is an absolute must-see for them.  There is even an English translation of the tour in a little book if you need it while walking around, so don’t worry about it.

This is the front of Ninjadera, just in case you pass it when you're all walking along the streets of Kanazawa

After Ninjadera, a few days later we had another Experiences in Japanese Culture class.  It was a lot of fun, as the topic was traditional Flower arranging.  I know it may not sound so terribly exciting to everyone, but it is really quite good.  What was most neat about it was that we went up in the hills around Kanazawa Unversity to pick out the pieces for our arrangement–so it didn’t have to be super special and expensive pieces.  They all came out really great and it was so much fun… except I was once again reminded that I have no artistic ability whatsoever.. oh well.

This is a picture of what I made.. I know it is sort of difficult to see, so sorry...

Another really amazing thing was to see how much wild bamboo there is in the forests that surround the campus.  I’m not sure what I thought about where Bamboo grows really, but walking through the path up the hill, there was so much of it!  Patrick and I found a nice.. 30 foot or so stalk that had fallen down to take pictures with.

This is me trying Panda food. Kind of troublesome for a snack though..

All in all it was a really nice experience.  I have been enjoying this class immensely and learning about traditional crafts of the area/Japan.

The next great thing that I got to do after that was go to see Kenrokuen at night, something they like to call Kenrokuen Light Up.  You can’t go through the whole park, but the main sections with the really pretty parts have paths through them.  We got to go with some our friends from school and our Anthropology Teacher, John. It was a LOT of fun and it was really nice to hang out with our school friends.  We don’t get to do that often, not even now after we’ve known them for a whole semester.  I guess I wonder how to call them.. they’re really acquaintances rather than friends I guess.  Anyways, I got some sweet pics, so check them out!:

As you have seen I've been messing around with Black and White photography. I think this one came out nice.

similar to the last picture, but in color. This is what those trees actually look like

This is an interesting one with the reflection from the lake. I dunno, I just liked it.

One of the interesting things you can see is the set of ropes they use to support the trees in the winter.  I may have written about this already.. I don’t remember.. but they do this to ALL THE TREES like EVERYWHERE.  I begin to imagine the ridiculous task this is in this city.  I feel so bad for the city workers.

Since it has been.. tooooo long, I don’t remember how much space was between the light up and the next group of various meetings with Matsuda-san and Tufts Friends people.  I’ll just put pictures and smaller descriptions of our events.

First there was this CRAZY AMAZING SUSHI!  It was so awesome… It was a very tiny place where we were practically the only customers then and I’m pretty sure there is just one little bar to sit at.  It is a small place tucked away and practically impossible to find, but I’m so glad we did.  We went there for our meeting and basically.. it can be summed up as a meal worth hundreds of dollars.  I REALLY want to go there again.. I can’t do it justice, how amazing it really was, so here are some pictures:

Here you can see the fish they used. They were SO FRESH and delicious

This was unagi sushi (eel sushi). I think I can understand about dying and going to heaven with food now.

Next is one picture from a tea and waffle party we had at one of the Friends of Tufts’ member’s house (there are lots of apostrophes in that sentence.. I don’t think its right).  It was a lot of fun and they have such a beautiful house!  It is Japanese style and western style in different parts of it and really pretty.  The family is very nice as well and making waffles was a lot of fun! Here is one that Whitnee made that came out beautifully!

She's really artistic. and Japanese (even though she denies it)

After that we had another outing with Tufts Friends members (Tufts Friends/Friends of Tufts… I may use them both. I’m not actually sure which is correct….oh well).  We went out for steaks at the wonderful steak restaurant…. I love that place… (we went later on with Matsuda-san again.. it was so awesome), then off to a beautiful park and shrine area.  Eventually we got to another small place where we were able to do some Japanese traditional arts. It was really cool and lots of fun and I made a plate that I sent home.  Here are some pictures of that as well:

I got this kinda cool picture of a swan.. it was raining and I was close enough to be able to use the flash and the telephoto macro. sweeet

Isn't it pretty there? Especially with Friends!!

It was a great day and lots of fun.  If I can shrink them all down I’ll try to upload the rest of those pictures up somewhere because it was really nice.

Next there was a night for one of the Residential Adivsor’s birthdays, where we went out to this restaurant for food and drinks and then karaoke.  It was kinda crazy at points and lots of fun!  We inadvertently ran into Takashi and all the other English and American literature major students having their own outing, so it was especially fun.  Some pictures from that are:

These are the literature majors. They're a lot of fun to hang around and with!

Shun always does this for a certain song... its so crazy!

Going to Karaoke and having outings with them are always a lot of fun.  Some Japanese people are just crazy…. no better way to describe them.

THEN THE FIRST SNOW HAPPENED! well.. not the first snow, but the first important snow! It was really awesome and we made a really badass snowman!!!!  Here is  a picture of him:

Nampa no Kamisama!!!

Yes, that is a pikachu with a pumpkin on his head.  We got the name from Patrick, who is frequently called Nampa, which translates roughly to something like.. pick up chicks or something. As he has met more and more girls his reputation has begun to precede him.  It has been an interesting process to watch actually.  Almost like a little.. anthropological experiement or something.

ALRIGHT!

This is the end of MEGA UPDATE 1!  Now.. I realize this is RIDICULOUSLY long and sort of.. not much interesting content, but that is because half of it was written November and December and I just wanted to finish it off.  I had saved a draft a while ago and then finally got around to finishing it.  amazing… I know.

I will try to maybe.. include a little less and more content, or give more personal opinions rather than just summaries of experiences… I’ve heard from many people, especially my parents, that I tell the story too nicely.. and they like reading Patrick’s blog (for example) because they find out the real information.  I’ll try to make it more like a regular journal or something if possible.. because I think I would enjoy writing in it more anyway.

Well, I’m sorry that this is so epically long, but it can’t really be helped.. I sort of have.. most of an experience to catch up on.

stay tuned… for… MEGA UPDATE NUMBER 2!!!!!

Finally, an update.

Hi again everyone!

I know it has been a while and you had all given up hope on me, but just know that I almost did too!  But I’m back!  and I’ll hopefully be much better now.  HA. I keep saying that. oh well.

So I guess I left off at the Snow monkeys.  WELL, A LOT has happened since then.

We left Takashi’s house around the 28th of September and made the journey to Kanazawa.  (it only took about 2 hours or so–not the most exciting journey).

The first few days were just exploring the city and taking showers/baths at the local public baths (onsen) since Takashi’s apartment has a small boiler and therefore a small amount of hot water.  It was really nice and good to see at least a little of the city before we had to move into the dorm.

This is the giant rock as you get to campus. It says Kanazawa University. Or かなざわだいがく　（金沢大学）

Finally after 3 days of JUST fitting into Takashi’s apartment, we got to the dorms.  We all have singles in this building that is reminiscent of a prison when gazed upon.  It is a concrete building with interesting balconies for each room and a large common room above the entryway.  The rooms are quite small… maybe the size of.. 10 feet by 8 feet? or 12 by 8? for the main room, then there is a little area with a small entryway for the room that has the refridgerator, the 3 foot by 3 foot (or so) bathroom, the sink, the cooking area, and some cupboards.  The main room has a desk, a movable closet, and a bed in it, with a small amount of extra space for throwing laundry and whatever you don’t want on your bed or desk.  On the small balcony, there are racks built in so that you can hang your clothes to dry.  Japanese people are crazy about conserving energy and recycling and trash related things, so there are many rules you have to follow.  Oh, and the dryers in the dorm suck.  People in Japan don’t use dryers really, so they’re used to hanging up clothes.  I guess I just have to get used to it.. its not bad, I just need more hangers.  Here are some pictures!

This is from my doorwayThis is my bathroom/toilet/shower. Yes, it is all in one. Trust the Japanese for convenience!

This is my bed and my desk

This is my bathroom/toilet/shower. Yes, it is all in one. Trust the Japanese for convenience!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention about the toilet shower.  Its ridiculous.  Patrick couldn’t get over it for a long time as well.  The thing is that its such a small space and then the shower is on the toilet.. I guess in Japan, when people take showers they usually sit down actually, but it feels weird sitting on the toilet to take a shower. I dunno.

All in all, living in the dorm is awesome.  There are students from France, Germany, Poland, England, Ireland, India, Mongolia, Thailand, China, Korea, Australia, and various other countries.  Tonight I’m actually sitting in the common room while they’re watching dodgeball.  Its really intersting to see how different people react to American humor.  Also, the Japanese subtitles are really really funny.  As dodgeball has a lot of interesting language twists, especially from White Goodman, so things are interesting.

Life here is really great.  I got into Japanese C-1, which is right about where I should be, but it’ll be harder than 3rd level at my school.  unfortunately, the kanji class that matches up with my Japanese level is far too difficult.  There are many kanji that I have not seen before in the class that I have ended up taking, so I moved down a level.  Its all good.  Aside from that I’m taking some other really cool classes as well!  I am taking:

Japanese Ways of Thinking and Culture, Japan in Anthropology, Experiences in Japanese culture, this non-credit conversation class, Comparing Cultures, and Budo.  I think my favorite classes will be possibly the Japan in Anthropology, Experiences in Japanese Culture, and Budo.  In Japan in Anthropology, its taught by this American guy who just came this year to teach here for however many years he wants.  He’s really cool and we’ve gone out to hang out with him a bunch outside of class.  He introduces us to really cute japanese girls and cool japanese guys and he gets to hang out with people.  Its a lot of fun.  My Experiences in Japanese Culture class is basically a class where we go on field trips and do really awesome stuff like make tea cups, traditional flower arranging, gold leaf art, and ohi pottery.  Everyone wants to take it so I think it might be difficult to get into.. We’ll have to see.  I just had my first class of Budo today as well.  I think it is going to be really awesome.  I wish I could take Karate, but with my knee it would be certain disaster.  This is a picture of me in my Gi!

This is a picture of me in my Gi with my Jo

It  was taken with my phone during class.  Really cool class.

Another great thing that we have here is the people who take care of us.  For the Tufts in Japan students, there is the sweetest woman in the world and her equally sweet assistant.  I really have an amazing time with them.  It is terrible because i heard in years before students haven’t been as thankful to her or anything and she has taken a lot of heat from the university for stupid things they’ve done, but I cannot imagine ever doing anything like that to her! She’s so nice and has neverending patience with everything.  I also feel bad for the students who go to Tufts from Kanazawa University, because there is absolutely no one like that at Tufts to help them and make sure things are going well for them.  Also, if you want to do something or go anywhere, she’ll make it happen.  Somehow she is able to essentially make anything happen in Japan.  For example, she arranges for a onsen trip to the most elaborate, expensive onsen in Japan.  I’m pretty sure that its hundreds of dollars to go, but she does it for us.  Its amazing.  We’d definitely be a lot more lost without her.  Recently her assistant brought us around Kanazawa to some of the really nice sights and touristy attractions.  It was a lot of fun!  One of the places we went was Kenrokuen, a very famous garden in Japan.  I have to say, its definitely one of the most beautiful places that I’ve been ever.  It is just amazing walking around there and seeing the trees and flowers.  I heard also that if you go when the trees are changing, it becomes fantastic, but also many of the trees are Cherry Blossoms, so in the spring it is really really beautiful and very Japanese.  I’ll have to go and get tons of pictures.  I do actually have some pictures of the garden and going out to have some dinner with friends that I took yesterday.  You can see them at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Nathan.Paine/KenrokuenAndDinner#

I’ll also post the link on the side or something.
I’ve been hanging around a lot with some of the Korean guys and girls, along with some of the advisors living here in the Kaikan.  They’re a lot of fun and just like to hang out.  A lot of them also cannot speak English really, so it is really nice practice when I hang out with them and its pretty much all in Japanese.  I’ve been trying to do more things like that lately.  On that sort of subject, it is interesting to watch how people are getting to know eachother more and more… as people meet one another and become friends, slowly the common room gets louder and more crowded every night and some inside jokes start being made.  I’ll have to talk to my Anthropology teacher about this progression.  I know it is nothing remarkable and that is always how it is, but I have never seen it measured so clearly.  The dorm and the common room are so small, that changes like that are very easy to notice.  It is a nice feeling that people are becoming friends.  I think we got lucky this year because everyone who lives here that I’ve met and talked is very nice and cool.  Everyone is very open to all other cultures and races and languages.  I’ve already talked to lots of people about exchanging some English help for help in their languages, such as Thai, French, Korean, among others.

I know this isn’t really organized by any stretch of the imagination… so sorry.  But honestly, you should see my room!  You should be glad this is so neat! Ha. oh well.

On another random tangent, my cell phone is the coolest thing ever.  It is a slide phone with a large screen on the front.  It has a 3.2 megapixel camera on the outside and some smaller pixel camera on the front for taking pictures of yourself easier and video calling.  I can watch tv on it, scan phone barcodes, take pictures of business cards and extract all the information from them, and more stuff.  It is so cool.  Another interesting technology that Japan uses is the infrared capabilities.  All phones in Japan have an infrared sensor/sender.  They use it to send the contact information to one another. It is really awesome and very quick.  So if you want to give your phone number out, you just aim the ports at eachother and it only takes a few seconds.  Basically, America sucks in comparison of technology.  Also, just about all the cars here have really awesome navigation systems that do radio and television, but only tv when you have the parking break on.  Its just crazy stuff.

Basically, my time here so far has been amazing.  I love Japan.  I may have already said this in this post–I have split it up over a few days– but I don’t want to leave.  I love everything about Japan.  I could definitely see some part of my life living in Japan.  It is beautiful here, the services for everything exceeds every possible category in America, people are nicer.  I don’t really know what is going to happen when I get ready to leave because it will be so hard.  Its also interesting because I’ve been speaking a lot of Japanese that english is getting harder.  You may see my ability to write sharply decrease this year due to that.  Oh well. Everything is totally worth it.  I honestly don’t know what I would be doing now at home. I’d be having fun, but this experience is beyond anything I could’ve imagined.  Everyone must come here and experience this if they get a chance.  You will not regret it.

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I’ll work on that.  I’m trying to get over my laziness and structure my time better.  Updating this is one of those things as well.

Oh, lets see.  I have a skype: Npaine01.  If anyone has skype (and by that I mean everyone go get it), please talk to me!  I very much enjoy talking to people at home and showing off my toiletshower.  Ha. But yeah, give me a call sometime.  Its free!!!

Hopefully talk to you all soon!

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

*For you dedicated readers, I just had to create another picasa web album. There are lots of pictures of monkeys so you can get the full experience.  See them at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Nathan.Paine/SnowMonkeys#

I know you are all still recovering from the unreasonably long post I wrote last time, but I just had to write about what happened to me yesterday.

Last year in Japanese 4, I had to do a travel brocure for some city in Japan.  I ended up with Nagano because my group decided that it might be a nice place and with the history of the olympics there, we’d have at least one thing to write about.  One of the things that we stumbled upon during our research was the existence of this place called Jigokudani Yaenkoen.  Jigokudani is the name of the place, which essentially means hell’s valley, and Yaenkoen is broken down to yaen, or wild monkey, and koen, park.  If you can guess.. which if you’re literate I suppose you can, this is a wild monkey park in the middle of nowhere.  We found out about this place because of a small picture of some monkeys hanging out in an onsen (hotspring) when researching Nagano.  Any picture of monkey’s would’ve caught my attention, but monkeys in hotsprings?? what??  heres the picture:

Aren't they just adorable??

After getting to Japan I mentioned to Takashi offhand once about the monkeys.  He took that and found out that Nagano is only about “one hour” from Niigata, so we decided we might just check it out.  It was really cool of him because I forgot I had even said anything about it.

After a 2 hour drive, we got to Nagano.  To get to Jigokudani, you have to drive up a 2 way road up a mountainside that zigzags up, but it is only the width of a Japanese car.  Their cars are SO TINY! ALL OF THEM!  it was CRAZY to think that we actually had to come back down the road later because of potential oncoming traffic.  Luckily we did not run into anyone on the way up, so it ended up being alright.  Oh and also, that road is so dangerous that it is closed down at the first sight of snow until the following spring.  When you go in the winter to see the monkeys (which are actually snow monkeys), you have to walk up the mountain.  I’m very glad it wasn’t winter.

When we arrived, we parked and looked around at the beautiful scenary surrounding us.  The place is essentially completely isolated in this valley except for the one road going up, and it was fantastic.  Here is an image from what we could see:

Very Beautiful Valley

Natural Geyser with Rainbow!

Those are basically taken from the same location looking left and right.  As you can see it is amazing there.

From that location you have to go up the valley a few minutes in the direction past the geyser to find monkeys! Everywhere!

This was actually taken before we got to the monkeys, but its just to show they're actually everywhere

I had at first thought that it was just a hotspring where every once in a while monkeys came down to hang out and rest, but we were all taken by complete surprise when we entered their real habitat.  I had read that they come down from the mountains to go to the hotsprings, but they were ALL THERE.  They were everywhere around the hotsprings!  It was RIDICULOUS!  I have never been so close to wild animals of that sort before!  They would be walking around and grooming eachother, sleeping, wrestling, and even stole Patrick’s waterbottle.  We could get within literally inches of them as we walked by, since we all shared the same pathway.  **as a side note of caution, do not wave at wild monkeys.  They perceive this as a threat.  Scared the crap out of me.**  We made our way up to the hotsprings, passing scores of monkeys hanging about on the way and ran into a few people including a very nice woman travelling around Japan from Holland.  She was very nice and we helped eachother out by taking pictures with the other’s camera with the monkeys.

Really nice woman, really cool monkey

At the hotspring, there were only a few monkeys actually hanging around, maybe three or four at a time.  There were potentially at least one hundred monkeys around us outside though.  I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of being surrounded with the monkeys in their home.  It was incredible.  And the little ones were so cute!!!

The younger ones really liked our umbrellas.. I actually had to stop one from stealing Patricks.

That picture is a baby monkey.. they were so cute.. I wanted to take one home, so I got a little nuigurumi (stuffed animal) of them instead.

One of the most amazing things about this place is that it is apparently not very well known.  There a much more famous monkey park called Nikko Monkey Park that has a lot more monkeys.  I can’t even imagine that.. There were so many here!  This really is one of those places that is just incredible for the location and the monkeys!  Any sort of normal zoo will never compare to this essentially once in a lifetime experience (unless i come back or go to Nikko park, which is likely).  If anyone comes to Japan, I strongly reccommend coming to visit Yaenkoen.  It was easily one of the most amazing things I’ve taken part in in a very, very long time.

Such a great experience!

Check out the pictures and keep reading!

An Amazing Start to an Amazing Year.

Well.

I’m sorry that I haven’t been writing lately, this is now the official beginning of this travel blog.  You can expect more frequent updates and hopefully more stories than I have been putting up lately (none so far really), so please stay faithful and believe that I am actually going to stick with it.

***As a forewarning, this may be a long post, because I want to update with all of the amazing things I saw.  There are quite a few, so if you want to skip over some, do not feel bad. Just do it.***

I would like to start off by saying that Japan is amazing.  It is not altogether that different and I have not experienced any sort of culture shock yet–in fact I really, really like it here.  I love the food, the way that shop attendants try their absolute hardest to please you, the idea that you can actually trust that your things are not going to really be broken into, and the whole sentiment of respect for others.  There are a lot of things that Japan has that I really appreciate, but things that I do sort of miss… like american-sized burgers. Goddamn, their portions are small.  Supersize me, Please!

But I have just spent one hell of a week here and I will start to recount some/most/all of my adventures.  To begin with, I have a small recommendation for avoiding jet lag, which I actually never got:

DO NOT start packing until you have no less than 5 or 6 hours before you have to be at the airport.  This is imperative.  I started packing very, very late at night before my flight and finished about an hour before I had to be at the airport. I then got about a half hour of sleep before I left for Logan at about 6:50 am for the long journey that awaited me.  since I got about half an hour of sleep, I was able to sleep on the plane from Logan to Chicago O’Hare.  I cannot usually sleep on airplanes, so this was a great success.  After my transfer in Chicago, I had another.. 12 or 14 hours on the plane to Narita Airport in Japan.  I slept a tiny bit, but mostly just made flashcards and watched Indiana Jones.  It actually wasn’t that bad travelling so long–just a little tiring.  My flight was pretty ghetto though.. for one of the snack sort of meals, I got cup ramen.. on a plane? what???

This was just sort of funny

After the long flight, I arrived in Narita at about 3:30 pm, Japan time.  I met up with Takashi and then Patrick at the airport.  We shipped our large luggage (30 dollars for 2 very big bags, and next day delivery? what?? where is such a service in America?) and ventured out to Yokohama.

The first few things I noticed were that there are drink dispensers everywhere along the streets in Japan.  These serve anything from water to beer.  They’re incredibly convenient and definitely another thing America could have.  In Yokohama we went on “one of the world’s biggest ferris wheels” and visited a shopping area in very old brick buildings.  Aside from a little rain it was very beautiful for the two days in Yokohama.  Yokohama is famous for being a location that Commodore perry stopped in in the 1850’s with his black ships.  they have lots of touristy souveniers with his picture.  Yokohama also has a very nice Chinatown section where ironically, everything (aside from food) is really cheap and not incredibly well made.  I felt right at home among the ripoff products and the outrageously low prices.  It was a nice, peaceful night after a long day of walking.

After the first day of Yokohama we stopped in Kamakura for a while, which is famous for an emormous buddha statue, a beautiful shrine, and the resting place of Minamoto Yoritomo, who not only created the Kamakura Shogunate, but started the samurai government in Japan.  A very historical figure.

Enormous Buddha in a beautiful setting. It was amazing.

(I saw Japanese guys making a buddha pose, so its cool. don’t worry)

We started off from there and went to a an island called Einoshima Island, which was another very beautiful island, you can see pictures of it on my flickr, or better ones on my Picasa album, which I’ll post a link to on the side bar thing, and here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Nathan.Paine/FirstWeekInJapanTokyo#

I tried to get the birds in the sunset. It was beautiful on the island.

Check it out.  But this island was also interesting because I guess it is infamous for pets that have been left there by owners who no longer want them.  There were SO MANY stray cats hanging around everywhere as well as signs talking about a large fine for leaving animals.  Very interesting.

The night was concluded with my first contact with Capsule hotels, in which we stayed for a few nights.  They’re actually more spacious than you would imagine, and cheap for the services offered.  There is a TV in the capsule and a large showering/bath room for everyone with the Japanese style showers.  They’re pretty nice and I actually like them.  My modesty has pretty much been blown out of the water since when I wanted to shower every day it was in a room of naked strangers. its cool.

The next day we headed over to Akihabara, or home of Otaku.  Otaku, for those who do not know, are basically the extreme form of nerds.  A definition, graciously provided by Urban Dictionary:

“an otaku person has nothing better to do with their life so they pass the time by watching anime, playing videogames, surfing the internet (otaku is also used to refer to a nerd/hacker/programmer).”

Basically, these are people who have jobs.. full or part-time, who spend all of their free time and money on anime, games, movies, computers, trains, etc.  There are many different types.

Akihabara, or Akiba, is a section of Tokyo that has endless electronics shops, several-story-high gaming centers, internet cafes, and anything that could possibly be associated with those sorts of activities.  It was really awesome to walk around.  I tried to start a phone plan there, but I didn’t have my alien registration card so they wouldn’t let me. it sucked.  but I have been obsessing over a phone, which they have actually ended production of already, but it is fantastic and I want it.  here it is: http://www.i4u.com/article13567.html  The black one is mine.  I will not rest until it’s permanent residence is my pocket.

Later in the day we went to Ueno Zoo, which was fantastic.  There were some very cool penguins and I got this cool picture of this awesome bird.  It may show up as a profile picture on facebook sooner or later.. I dunno. look for the scary bird looking straight at the camera picture. you’ll know it when you see it.

That night, we found an english pub and decided to have a nice relaxing time there.. somewhere, some kami smiled upon us and a man started talking to me who was very drunk, but quite good at english. It turned out he is a Director or the Brand Strategy Office of Sunstar, an enormous company dealing with oral health.  He took a liking to us and said he could introduce us to a branch in the US and maybe get interships.  Sunstar owns a lot of companies, including GUM, a logo which is prominent among the US oral health brands.  He is possibly the most important contact I may meet this year.  What luck.

After that day we went around Tokyo to very large shopping centers and met up with Takashi’s friend Soya, who was a lot of fun to hang out with. I look forward to seeing him at Kanazwa University. We also actually went in a Krispy Kreme… oh how I miss them in Medford.  Needless to say, it was delicious.  Lots of walking around for that day and part of the next, except that we ended up being in a city called Yebisu, pronounced ebis.  This city is actually centered around a beer factory, producing Yebisu beer under the Sapporo label.  Before the city was really made, the beer Yebisu became so famous that they actually named this city after the beer.  This obviously meant that we had to go to the factory, from a historical landmark standpoint of course.  You can see images of it in my album.  It would also have been a sin not to have at least tried the Yebisu, which was pretty delicious.  They had very interesting things at the factory to buy.. like beer jelly and beer chocolate.  weird.  But lots of fun!

We made our way from Yebisu to go see Tokyo Tower.  Once competing for tallest structure in the world (I think. I actually just made that up), this is pretty friggin tall. Takashi and I actually walked up the stairs to the top instead of the elevator.  It looks a lot like the Eiffel Tower, which is very interesting.  A new Tokyo Tower is in the works for construction because this is to broadcast television signals, but as Tokyo has expanded over the years, it no longer suffices to cover the entire area.  The new tower (and this is a fact) will try to win as tallest structure. Thats what Takashi said anyway.  It was a really nice view from the top and pretty sweet seeing the whole city.  It is a really beautiful city, with lots of greenery in many areas amidst the metropolis.

Great views from up there.

The day began to conclude with seeing a baseball game in the Tokyo Dome: the Hanshin Tigers vs. the Yomiuri Giants.  For those who don’t know, this is a rivalry equivalent to the Red Sox and the Yankees.  The seats to this game were sold out when Takashi checked in June, but we were able to get standing room tickets.. though we couldn’t see anything.  Baseball is very interesting in Japan because when your team is batting you cheer on every player who goes to bat, so for any instance in time, one ENTIRE half of the stadium is shouting in unison. It is quite amazing to watch.  When the other team is at bat, you are basically silent.  Another way that the Japanese show respect and honor.  It is truly a sight to behold. (as a side note, as I was just writing that, Patrick found a curse the Hanshin Tigers have.  It is called the Curse of the Colonel.  Go look it up.)

After the game, we went off to a section of Tokyo called Roppongi.  This is basically a district full of foreigners, rich people, and clubs.  At night this place is fully alive with thousands of people in bars and clubs.  It was way too overwhelming for us and we could not stay too long.

The day after we went to a museum called the Miraikan (broken down, that is Mirai:future, and Kan:museum).  Basically this is a museum of all the scientific developments and other really cool things in Japan.  It holds Honda’s Asimo robot (really awesome robot.. I have videos I’ll try to put up sometime.. in the meantime, here is a link to what Asimo is like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASIMO.

We actually missed Asimo that day, but went again the next day to see it. it was totally worth it.  it runs and does all sorts of cool stuff.  It’s also in every honda commercial in Japan.

Very close to Miraikan is a huge Toyoto building (or two or three) that is basically a toyota museum, but you can actually test drive cars, there is lots of fun things to do, and in one building close by there is developmental ideas, whereas in another one there is a historical building showing Toyota through time.  It was very cool.

To end that night, I had my first experience at a real Kaiten Zushi, or Rotating Sushi restaraunt.  It was unbelievable.  You can either take plates off of the sushi that is on a belt, rotating around the room or you can just order them for the same price, fresh.  It was a lot of fun. I tried whale, which is very delicious.

The last day of Tokyo had Asimo and more Toyota, finishing with just missing entry to Yasukuni Shrine, which I will make it to eventually. This is where all of the war heroes are remembered–a huge, somewhat controversial landmark, especially after they included people regarded as war criminals by the rest of the world.

That was the end of our unbelievable and ridiculously expensive week in Tokyo.  I don’t even want to talk about how much money I have spent this past week, but it has been completely worth it.  Now I’m in Niigata, in the middle of nowhere.  This is Takashi’s hometown and his home is surrounded by rice fields.  I had no idea it would be so rural.  We’ve kept ourselves busy over the past two days, going to visit an Onsen, which was very nice. Imagine a huge Jacuzzi… but everyone’s naked.  It was not actually that big, but the one we went to is apparently known for it’s healing abilities or whatever.  It has apparently been scientifically proven that Onsen help some sort of healing process, but I haven’t looked this up at all yet. It might just be a Japanese feeling.

Now I am trying to get ready for what is to come.. school.  I have not studied nearly enough, and although my Japanese is getting better by some practice, I need to speak more.  I have to just buckle down and practice it a lot.  Takashi is too good at english, so it is easy to just speak in English all the time with him and Patrick. i’m trying though. I’ve started learning a bunch of new words and phrases as different situations pop up. its nice.

It hasn’t really hit me that I am actually here though. It does not feel very foreign to me and I feel very comfortable here.  As I said before, I like it very much.  I could do with a little more money and some cheaper prices, but that is alright. I need to learn budgeting better anyway.  I have a problem with money. heh. oh well.  Everywhere here is just so beautiful and the people all seem so nice (at least on the outside).  I am really happy that I chose to stay here for a full year as opposed to just one semester. I already get the feeling that I will be miserable when I have to leave.  I think this will be a really good year to sit back and really think about what I want to do with my future.  I also hope that maybe I’ll finally be able to appreciate being home more, as I have never really missed home.  This is my first time leaving it and so maybe it has just been that aspect of a new place being so exciting, but I’m not homesick.

Everyone should visit Japan if they have a chance.  It is a really amazing culture and everything is a sight to behold.  Tokyo is a lot of fun and there are endless lists of things to do, so you could never really be bored.

I know this was very a very rambly post, but I have never done this sort of travelling before, so it is really exciting for me.  I wanted everyone to know what I’ve done so far and be able to see at least a little of what I’ve seen.  Please check out my pictures and keep reading. I’ll try to make future posts a little more organized than this epic story of a blog entry.

Until next time.

-Nathan

My attempt at a Travel Blog

Dear Readers,

This will be my attempt at recording my time spent for the next eleven months in Japan.  Just as a forewarning: I am not an eloquent writer, nor have I ever had any sort of real consistent journal before, so this will be an interesting experience in itself.  As I rush to prepare as well as see everyone that I can in the next few days leading up until Sunday…the departure…I am caught up in the reality that I am very underprepared for this trip.  I have not studied nearly enough or prepared at all for what is to come.  I can only hope to get as little sleep as possible as I really dive into my work now.

I will hopefully be uploading many pictures, which you will see on the side through the clever addition of widgets that WordPress has conveniently provided, as well as maybe some other fun little things that could help anyone interested… some potentials are a small dictionary or the latest word that all should know or maybe striking differences between cities/rural areas in our two countries, based upon a comparison of Massachusetts area land and Japan.  We’ll see what I can actually figure out how to make on this wordpress thing before I get too far ahead of myself.

As I am incredibly far behind in my preparations, this will be the end of the first post, but I hope that people will continue to read and encourage the development of this archive.

Thanks!

Nathan