JIJ Vol. 010 Fukuoka, My Room, strange culture in Japan

Fukuoka... it's like living in a city but not really. I have to say, the city life here is not so congested as it is in Tokyo. Tenjin which is the main shopping area of Fukuoka perfecture definately has that pippin city feel. What makes Tenjin a busy city compared to the little area I live in (called Ijiri) probably has to do with density. Honestly... there isn't TOO much of a difference between Tenjin and Ijiri. I think the only difference is the occasional patch of rice field you'll see in between the house flats. The strange thing is when I look at home in Ijiri I don't think of it as "the city." I think here in Japan I have labeled what is 'city' to what is not 'city' by the density of buildings and most importantly population. Tenjin is so CROWDED. When you get off the train it gets so packed! people are always busy about doing something, going to work, comming home from work, going going going. It isn't so relaxed. There are so many bicycles outside, so many cars, taxis, people. There is constant media advertisement and it never seems to end. Tokyo is a lot more worse than this... in my opinion. As you start heading away from Tenjin the density of people reduce just a little... I mean in Ijiri there is still that dense feeling, but it isn't a big sidewalk full of parked bicycles and full of people. What also makes Tejin more city like is... everything is in Tenjin. The shops you want to go to are in Tenjin, the events (festivals, concerts, etc) happen there, the big shops and better deals are in Tenjin (though there is a shopping outlet somewhere east of Tenjin, but I haven't been there yet), the movie theaters are here so on and so forth.

Alright - I'll have some photos of around Fukuoka... the next time I actually go downtown. I'll take some photos of the shopping areas and other strange things. But... some of you are wondering about my room! So I was lucky enough when I arrived at Hakata station that I was able to move into my dorm room immediately. Which was great! I was really glad that I was able to settle down! Travelling for a whole month can get to you. But I'll slowly introduce to you parts of my room. I'll start with the kitchen. Now that I'm a bit more settled in - I feel more comfortable sharing my room with you... it looks more like a room instead of it being bare.

The "kitchen" in my room is rather small. In my kitchen I have: an electric heater, 2 shelves, 1 strange rack (which has now become my drying rack), 1 minature fridge, 1 sink, and 'storage space under the sink'. Well there isn't anything stored under the sink. Actually I store a handful of items in the cabinet next to my kitchen. I took some photos of the kitchen area...



A general photo of the kitchen. Note the bag that I use for trash, and in the lower right hand corner is a small floor area (green) by the door... that is where you leave your shoes before entering the room. :) I have a few pairs of shoes down there...



my Fridge, and the controls to a kitchen light, air vent, and the turn dial to turn on my stove.



my electric stove and the sauces I cook with. From left to right: olive oil, sukiyaki sauce, soy sauce, mirin.
The first time I went shopping I was looking for oil, but I didn't know what the japanese word for oil was. So to play it safe I bought a small bottle of olive oil instead. I use this in my cooking and it tastes good when I cook italian food... so I guess it was a safe choice to make. Sukiyaki sauce is for when I make sukiyaki. For those who are wondering what sukiyaki is please refer to this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukiyaki Following that is Soy sauce... you use it a lot in most asian foods; a good base for sauces. Following that is Mirin sauce. I bought Mirin sauce to make "Donburi" (donburi is basically a rice bowl with food on top). Mirin is a condensed sweet sake sauce. It is the base for donburi dishes as well as Teriyaki sauce. So now I can make teriyaki sauce no problem. :)



My sink! all spick and span with all of my dishes completely washed!



My shelving unit. From left to right.
Top shelf: my small tea collection, some red bean mochi, some dry noodles (ramen and soba), and food from a care package that my mom sent me (tasty cambells chicken soup! and asian sauce packet for stir fry cooking [coconut curry sauce]).
Middle shelf: pepper and salt, my sweets pile, my fruit pile.
Bottom shelf: a place to dry my dishes.

I think that was an extensive introduction to my tiny kitchen. Probably more than you wanted to know... but I'll move onto the bathroom. It's more exciting! I promise. So the bathroom is well... interesting. Here's the first picture:



A sink... a spot to shower... top left hand corner is a small cabinet for my soaps. but where is the toilet?!?! I don't see it.

*drum rolls*


THERE IT IS! And there you have it... the sink slides from side to side and the toilet hides under the sink. Strange isn't it? I'm so amazed they're able to fit a kitchen and a small restroom into a tiny dorm room. When I do shower... the floor does get wet... so the best thing to do is shower at night or early in the morning that gives the room time to dry while i'm sleeping or out at school. Amazing isn't it?

I'll share the rest of my room next time... it's a little messy - so when it's cleaned up I shall share.

CULTURE SHOCK: TISSUES!
So this is what I would call a strange part of modern day culture in Japan. Tissues. It isn't the tissues that you buy in boxes at the store. No... they're little packets of tissues:



There is my current collection of tissue packets. Ideally people hang around train exits (and some times on the busy street corners in Tenjin) and pass these little packets ot tissues. They're great to have. Actually these packets of tissue is basically an advertisement stratagey developed here in Japan. But who needs tissues anyway? That's a good question. Tissues are great to have in general, they're free and you don't have to pay for them. It gets advertisement out (the ones I have are for a gym, eyeglasses, an internet cafe... and well i can't read the rest so it doesn't bother me that much) and well... the main reason why: public restrooms don't have toilet paper. Public restrooms in Japan do not have toilet paper. Public restrooms include: restrooms in the park, restrooms in the train station (big one here), some shopping malls, etc. I've had many times where I was saved by a packet of free tissues in the train station restrooms... and there have been times where I was in a public restroom with no tissue at hand! I remember being in Kyoto station and telling my friend that there was no toilet paper in the station and handed them a small packet. So now I generally keep a packet in all of my bags... that way I won't forget having to put a packet in one and it will be there when I most need it. Strange... I don't think tissue packet advertisement in the big cities in the USA would do very good... since all public restrooms have toilet paper...

Well that's it for this issue. Next issue I'll talk about my one day trip to Nagasaki, a little more about my room, and about my classes. I hope everyone is doing well! Take care! Ja mata!

JIJ Vol. 009: Kyoto, Osaka, Takamatsu - It's really long!

KYOTO PART 3. IN A NUTSHELL. More Tojian, Friends, Toji Flea Market, Going to Osaka

If anything I really do not regret staying at Tojian - despite it being a bit rundown... my last evening at Tojian was a lot of fun. I had spent the night having a drink and actually found myself in the corner of the living room cramped in with a few other japanese girls. My japanese isn't that great... and well their english wasn't great either but we actually started talking and what not. We talked about all sorts of things, from where we have been, where we have traveled and then after discovering from them that there was a huge Flea Market at Toji temple, we decided to go together. We spent the rest of the night just chatting away until people started getting tired and each dissapearing one by one. Afterwards it was just me, trying to get my way through a novel "Howl's Moving Castle" and then Mitani-san showed up rather late. I was rather happy to see him and he sat down at the table and we managed to talk non stop until about 2AM again. I talked to him about how great Ryoanji really is... and about all of my analysis and I think I really touched the guy. I started telling him about how things in landscape design are so natural and that it is our (Landscape Architecture majors) responsibility to study and respond to natural human behavior. I told Mitani-san that I can't look at the world in only one direction... it wouldn't be fair. I told him that you have to look at the world and be open and receptive to new points of view... and that is how we can better ourselves. It is important to do it when designing landscape or else you would never have clients! Mitani-san seemed to be enlighted and was rather happy to talk to me. I mentioned I was going with the girls to the flea market the next day and he said he would find me before hand (during breakfast).

September 21, 2005. I packed my bags, placed it in the storage closet at Tojian, and went to have breakfast. I was greeted by Mayumi-san and Aya-san (the two Japanese girls that I had met before) and after we were done with breakfast we took off to Toji temple (which was around the corner from Tojian!) The whole flea market was around the corner and was HUGE... it eventually led to Toji temple. At the flea market you could get all sorts of stuff - used kimonos, used tea ceremony stuff... and it also attracted many crafts folk to come and sell their stuff. People sold hand made glass beads that you use on the ropes you wear around your obi, we came across home made clothing, bags, jewlery, wood crafts... you could have found almost anything at Toji flea market. There were also many vendors that sold sweets, pickles, yaki soba, oden, ramen, and takoyaki. Mayumi-san, Aya-san and I wandered around the flea market for quite some time... and I realized that I had not seen Mitani-san in the morning. Strangely enough while wandering Mitani-san came running towards me! He said he wanted to talk to me, and I told Mayumi-san and Aya-san that i'd catch up with them. Mitani-san told me that he woke up at Tojian to find that I wasn't there. He asked the people at Tojian where I had gone and they had told him I went to the flea market. He expressed that he was glad to have found me at such a large flea market. I was rather glad that he did find me... the moment felt so surreal - like from a movie of some sort. He then expressed how enlightened he had been from our conversation the night before and that he was really glad to have talked to me, I expressed to him that I had felt the same. He then asked for my email, which I kindly gave and following after he said, "I'll see you soon again" and he actually gave me a hug. It was strange... because in Japan... people don't hug each other. Let alone touch each other... so I was actually startled by it. Though just the moment made me smile - I was really glad that I was able to converse with him and enlight him. We parted ways and I went to catch up with Mayumi-san and Aya-san. We eventually got tired of wandering around the flea market and then headed back to Tojian. After a while, Mayumi-san went to go do something else and it was just Aya-san and I. Eventually we started getting really hungry and we decided to go get MOS burger. We then met another Japanese person named Emiko and together we went to MOS burger. I had my usual (Mos Cheese burger, OniPota, Melon soda), and the other two ordered their stuff. I thought... that a burger set was filling for me (and I can eat a lot) but apparently for Aya-san and Emiko-san it wasn't enough! Aya-san ended up ordering a large piece of friend chicken and Emiko-san ordered another burger (she ate two). Who would have known! Following that I grabbed my stuff from Tojian and the three of us went to go wander around Kyoto station (and the shopping malls attached to it). We placed my stuff in a locker for a few hours and went wandering around, we went to the book stores, wandered through some shops and then found ourselves at a coffee sweet shop having desert and talking. The whole day I was Aya-san's "English" teacher and she was my Japanese teacher. Emiko then found herself having to translate in between the both of us (Emiko-san's english was actually pretty good). Afterwards Aya-san and Emiko-san accompanied me to the train gate... we actually got a picture together (I should ask them for a copy or something) and then they waved goodbye as I made my way to the platform to make my way towards Shin-Osaka. Felt like part of a movie - part 2. It was really touching... having two girls who I had just met... waving goodbye like I was their best friend.

OSAKA

I left during the mid afternoon on September 21, 2005 and I caught the train and got off at Shin-osaka, picked up some information about Osaka-jo (castle) and directions to the hotel I was staying at and eventually managed to find my way and check in. It was still early in the afternoon - so I decided to take the train to Osaka and wandered around close to the station. I wandered around close to the station, including checking out the HEP 5 building (with a huge Ferris Wheel) and the Hankyu building (expensive shopping!). Afterwards, I had donburi for dinner and returned back to my hotel, passing out early.

September 22, 2005. I decided to go to Osaka-jo since it seemed like the only other thing to do, I ended up spending a lot of time getting there, a lot of time wandering around the castle (it had been re-done and it has a GREAT view of Osaka). I arrived at one JR Station and then wandered around the castle and walked back to a different JR Station. The walk back was just as much fun and wandering around Osaka-jo was a lot of fun. It was a light travel day and I turned in for the day early. Since I was meeting Brian and Catherine and going to the Osaka Aquarium.

Photos from Osaka Castle:



September 23, 2005. Met up with Brian and made our way to Osaka station. We would have met Catherine on time but we accidently caught the wrong train on the LOOP Line track and ended passing Universal Studio Osaka. The Ironic thing was that we were so close and yet so far, I kept telling Brian, "Look Look I can see the Aquarium!!! It's so close and yet so far" We ended up backtracking a bit and then getting onto a loop train and getting off at the right spot and then taking the subway line to get to the Aquarium. We were quite a bit late, but we met up with Catherine and then made our way to the Aquarium. The aquarium is the largest in all of Japan and for a good reason too. The interior floor plan of the building is actually shapped like a butterfly and its about (HOW MANY FLOORS?) high. You make your way to the top and manage your way down. Even though most of the tanks look really cramped, the actually are really deep. The main tank... (i'd compare it to the deep sea tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium) is like 5 floors deep and actually very large. Osaka Aquarium's most famous prized sea creature is a large "Whale Shark." The Whale Shark is HUGE. In addition there were some amazing collection of sea creatures there, including coastal zoning tanks including a Monterey tank (showing off harbor seals), and a few others. There were small dolphins on display, a large sunfish, penguins, and other strange creatures. I also was able to see a live Arapaima (Animal Crossing obsession here) and it was HUGE. There is also a large manta ray in the main tank that kept doing flips in the bubles released from the scuba diver at the bottom of the tank cleaning the tank up. It was rather amusing because it kept doing flips over and over again. After spending quite a long time at the Aquarium, we left and got rather hungry, so we wandered around into a shopping area close by and had Okonomiyaki. Osaka is most famous for their Kansai style okonomiyaki. Following that we went shopping in the aquarium shop and then took the subway down to south Osaka and wandered around looking for a hip place to go shopping. We eventually made way and found ourselves in a huge shopping area (just like Kyoto) and had dinner at a chain Izakaya called "Doma Doma" afterwards (we actually spent a long time there) we hopped back on the train and eventually parted ways again. It was actually a lot of fun being able to see Catherine again since it had been nearly 3 years since I had last saw her... and who would have thought we'd meet in Japan. After parting ways - Catherine and I aggreed that we would meet sometime soon again - most likely winter holiday in Tokyo. This was my last night in Osaka, as for the next day I had tickets to travel down to Takamatsu (Shikoku Island).

Photos taken at Osaka Aquarium:





TAKAMATSU, Shikoku and Ritsurin Koen

September 24, 2005. I eventually checked out and took the Hikari Railstar from Osaka to Okayama. From there I transfered to the Marine liner that took me from Okayama to Takamatsu. I have to say that ride was actually a lot of fun - since there is a HUGE OVER bridge that connects from Honshu to Shikoku. The train rides on this bridge and below you can see the islands and the ocean below. It was actually quite a beautiful sight, experience, and transition. I arrived in Takamatsu at an early time, found my way to the hotel, and actually spent the rest of the time wandering down this huge shopping area. If I could say anything about Takamatsu... It's a biking town. EVERYONE has a bike. Actually... you could rent a bike from the JR station for only 100 Yen a day (which is REALLY cheap). In Kyoto it was 500 Yen a day for bike rentals. I spent the time doing a bit of shopping, going to the arcade, and just enjoying the peaceful life there. Takamatsu is the biggest city in Shikoku but it feels like it lacks the people there. In anycase the city felt a lot more relaxed then compared to Tokyo and it made me feel at ease. I found a cheap place to eat for dinner (Yakisoba), went to the arcade, and then turned in early for the evening. In addition - the hotel actually came with complementary internet, so I took advantage of that.

September 25, 2005. I woke up early in the morning and headed down to the JR station and caught a train to Ritsurin-koen. On my way to the garden... (I had no idea where it was) I was stopped by another lady and asked me where I was going. I told her Ritsurin-koen and then I told her I was a foreigner. She told me that she kind of figured but said my japanese was pretty good (at least it sounds like japanese). She was actually korean, who is studying Japanese and her mom was with her visiting. So the three of us wandered about till we came across an entrance to the park. The lady was very kind and also gave me a little cupoun that she said would give me a discount to the little place where you can have tea. I was really glad because I had planned on having some real tea there anyway.

I managed to spend a really long time at Ritsurin koen, took many pictures, a few sketches, and just had a wonderful time relaxing. This was basically the last thing I was going to do before catching my train down to Fukuoka - so I took my time with everything. Ritsurin Koen is actually the largest garden in all of Japan. It took 3 feudal lords over a long period of time to complete. It was well worth the trip though! There are so many different focal points and wonderful sights to see. There were 13 different "Mounds" through out the park where you could climb up and get different views of the park. It was a lot of fun seeing the park from different spots. I actually did quite a bit of sketching... more then I have had been during my entire trip through Japan. Following that I went to the little tea house and had real Match and a tea sweet. It was delicious. Following that you could explore the tea house (which was really amazing!) and just sat outside staring at the lake it was by absorbing the atmosphere and just relaxing. Following that I did more exploring through out the park (it took me nearly 3 to 4 hours to get through most of it) and then eventually when I was ready I turned in and headed back to Takamatsu. I spent the rest of the time shopping around Takamatsu. I ended up going to the same resturant the night before and this time ordering okonomiyaki and following that was a few games of Pop'n Music at the arcade. Afterwards I turned in for the night, took advantage of the internet and repacked since I was finally ending my Japan trip here and heading towards my final destination: Fukuoka.

Photos from Ritsurin-koen








September 26, 2005. I checked out early in the morning and went to Takamatsu JR Station and caught the Marineliner back to Okayama. Again I couldn't peel my eyes away as we crossed the bridge from Shikoku to Honshu. The experience was amazing and just seeing the fishing boats and the smaller islands around made me feel like I was finally growing up. It was an experience that I had never felt before and I cherished every moment. I transfered in Okayama and took the Hikari RailStar shinkansen down to Fukuoka. I arrived at Hakata station where I was full of excitement. I would finally meet Kanekiyo sensei.