Jocy in Japan

JIJ Vol. 014 Summer is Over...

2006-09-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

Hey how is everyone doing? I'm not back in the states yet. I've got about two more weeks to go. Things are beginning to come to a close here in Japan. Summer is pretty much over as fall begins to kick in. In addition to all of that... my stay here is getting shorter. Though in the past few weeks I've done quite a bit of travelling and thought I'd share with everyone.

I spent the last 3 days of July with my Landscape architecture lab. We went on a lab summer trip to Yakushima. Yakushima is a small island off the coast of Kagoshima (southern Kyushu) and is most famous for their special cedar trees. In addition it is the influence for a famous Japanese animation called, "Princess Mononoke" We did a 3 day trip, the first day getting down from Fukuoka to kagoshima, and then the ferry to Yakushima. We spent the first night having a large grand bbq! It was lovely. The weather was perfect, we had a wonderful bbq, a wonderful sunset, and a great view of the stars.

The second day was spent on a 10 hour hike through Mononoke Forest up to Jyoumonsugi. It was quite a hike, but it was a lot of fun. We were in the shade most of the time so it was pretty cool. Though most of the heat and sweat came from us hiking in itself. After spending nearly 10 hours hiking, we ended the night going to a public bath at a near by hotel, and then buying food and having dinner under the stars.

The third day was spent waking up early in the morning, taking the ferry back to Kagoshima, and spending a few hours in the afternoon in kagoshima... eating the local specialities like black pork and 'white bear' shaved ice desserts.

A sign that says Mononoke's Forest

All that moss! XD

Wilson's Stump

Jyoumonsugi, the tallest cedar tree in Yakushima

After Yakushima, I spent the next one and a half weeks on working on a design competition. Everyday was spent at school putting together ideas, concepts, layouts. It was a lot of fun. After the due date, I left for Tokyo right after that. I spent about a week in Tokyo with my intentions to visit some modern architecture in Roppongi and on Omotesando Street. In addition I had planned on climbing Mt. Fuji since it was the last week before they closed the mountain off to the public.

I stayed with a friend of mine in Tokyo and managed to meet up with some of my other friends in Tokyo. It was nice to see people and catch up one last time. I was glad that the weather was nice for most of the time.

The typical Roppongi hill's spider shot

An interesting building while wandering through Roppongi Hills

I haven't done a back shot of myself in a long time...

Being stupid in front of the Prada building on Omotesando

Fuji... I still can't believe that I climbed the mountain. Now I didn't actually climb the whole thing, but did the typical route that everyone does starting at Go-gome (Station 5). I went with a friend of mine who also wanted to go. We met at Shinjuku station and took the first bus out to Fuji. We didn't start climbing the mountain until 10:30am. It took us about 6 hours to climb up to the top. During our climb... the weather was sporatic and random. It was foggy, or sunny, it rained... sprinkled... it was all over the place. I'm glad I brought an assortment of clothing with me. It was about 5pm when we finally reached the top of fuji and the crater. The hike up itself was not too bad... it was the long strech from the last Gold TORI gate up to the top that took the longest. The atmospheric change was a bit of a problem, but we decided to take it slowly, going at our own pace. Breathing wasn't a problem... but rather getting headaches from unbalanced oxygen take in/out. It felt like there was a hammer inside of my head attacking my brain. Though eventually my friend and I made it to the top. We started our descent... and though we came to problems (we should have planned our return situation better...) things worked out. We managed to hike all the way back down (practically in the dark) back to Go-gome and catch the last bus back to the nearest town, Kawaguchiko and stayed over night. In the end i think that turned out better than staying on the mountain itself... because at least we had a nice public bath to run to.

Overall i still can't believe i climbed to the very top, and yet i'm very proud of myself. It was worth the trip... and something that I had planned to do before I even came to Japan. Anyway... photos for those who don't believe me! :)

Life on Fuji...

The weather was all kinds of crazy on fuji. It rained, it fogged... it was hot and cold. Hell i got sunburned. ><;

The golden tori before the last strech of the climb...

Up by the crater.... all that fog @_@;

after returning from Tokyo, i left a few days after that to Goto Retto, a small island off the coast of Nagasaki. It's part of the Nagasaki prefecture and I stayed with a friend (that I met a while back in Fukuoka). It was more or less my "summer vacation" full of me goofing off, sleeping in, reading comic books and listening to all sorts of music. We took a midnight ferry to Goto Retto... and sadly the weather was very gloomy and rainy for about 3 days (spent a good 3 days inside being lazy...). The day I had planned to go home was predicted to be sunny, so I changed my plans and went home the day after that. Goto Retto is a beautiful island! Lucky enough my last full day there was sunny, so my friend drove me (and some of her other friends who came along for the ride) around the island showing us the Islands big tourist spots. The udon is famous at Goto Retto and it definately is! Overall it was a wonderful vacation before heading back to Fukuoka.

Some photos of my vacation:

Us at the 'secret beach'

Beautiful Rock (i forgot its name)

Old cemetary ruins

The sunset

and... us during the sunset

I just got back from Goto Retto yesterday and I've begun packing. I'm more or less spending the rest of this month here in Fukuoka, with probably minor day trips to various places in Kyushu (since its so easy to do day trips by train or bus). But... my days are slowly filling up with packing and going to various goodbye parties for me, and other students. I'm not sure if I'll be updating again before I return, but I will try and keep you informed. I hope everyone is doing well!

JIJ Vol: 013 I almost forgot about this!

2006-07-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

I apologize. I'm a horrible person at keeping people up to date with that's been going around. It's been nearly 5 months since I last wrote. I apologize for not writing! I guess I got so caught up with spring time traveling and school. School is almost over, it more or less ends the end of this month. Then I shall have August and a little bit of September before I return to the states.

I've already decided when I'll be returning to the states. That's Sept. 19. It's still two months away... but we all know how fast time can pass!

For the time being I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive. Has everyone forgotten me already? I feel like my english has worsened since i've been here in Japan. By the time I get back I think many of you will have to deal with my japanese quirks and behavior... I'm only warning everyone ahead of time.

In the mean time, I plan on going to Yakushima this weekend with my class. Yakushima is a tiny island off the coast of Kagoshima-prefecture which is located in Southern Kyushu. We plan to do a two day hike through Yakushima. If anyone has seen the Japanese Animated Movie, "Princess Mononoke" this is the island which inspired the artist. I'm excited about going! It should be very hot.

Actually the weather in Japan has been pretty hot (though I hear in california it's been getting over the 100s). On average it's been about 90 degrees, but its humid and it doesn't get any cooler at night. It's worse downtown with the whole heat island effect. Heat getting trapped between concrete and skyscrapers and lasting till well into the night. Though it's only July, I hear that August is the hottest month of the year in Japan... and from what I remember from last year, that sounds about right.

So, in the past 5 months many things have happened! I managed to do a lot of travelling. Here is a list of places that I went since my last report (in the last report I went to Hokkaido).
1. A two full day (over night) road trip with my friends Sumiyoshi-san and Taniguchi-san. We went to Miyazaki-prefecture. It was a lot of fun! We rented a car and went sight seeing. It was a lot of fun!
http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/jocyinjapan/Miyazaki-ken/

2. later that week, we all went on a class trip to Okinawa. Okinawa was beautiful! It's definately a place completely different to the rest of Japan. The people are slightly different, the food style is slightly different (goya [bittermelon] is a popular vegie that they eat). The weather wasn't too bad. It rained just a little, but we managed to get a lot of sight seeing done. I also got to drink Root beer... which is impossible to find in Japan! I think Okinawa is the only place where you can find A&W.
http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/jocyinjapan/okinawa/

3. In the middle of March my Dad came to visit me. We went on a trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima. I don't have any photos yet, but i'll try and get some together. It was a lot of fun!

4. Starting in April school more or less started. I more or less decided to take double the load compared to the semester before. It was a lot of work, but at least now (it being July) school is practically over.

5. the first week of May was golden week. I decided to do more traveling and headed up to Kyoto and Osaka and spent some time hanging out there, visiting more sights and visiting friends. I also managed to go to Kobe, Himeji, and Nara. I'll post some photos of my golden week trip sometime soon to share.

6. I spent the rest of May and June mostly in Fukuoka, concentrating in school... and diving into the Fukuoka music community. I've become what most people call "Band girl." where basically I go to a ton of concerts. This I have to admit is true... though before I left Japan I started becomming a concert goer... going to all sorts of concerts. But, here in Fukuoka it's a little different. I have come across local indie bands that I like and since then I've been going to their concerts. It's a lot of fun because its music that I like and a bit closer interaction with the artists. I've also started making friends at the concerts that I go to, so I always look foreward to each one so I could see my friends.

Thus... we get to July. July is almost over... but it was a very busy month! I spent the first week of July cramming in final projects, working and making the due dates. My concert band club had a competition so we started having practices up to 3 times a week. Though in the end the competition was a lot of fun. The first week and a half was probably quite a difficult time meeting deadlines and band practice. After that I left for a 5 day trip to Indonesia. I decided to go to Indonesia because my mother was going, and that it was my grandfather's 80th birthday. I thought it was a good reason for me to go, and plus I had missed indonesian food. http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/jocyinjapan/indonesia/

Since I returned from Indonesia... i've spent my weekends going to concerts. I spent one weekend going to T.M. Revolution concerts (i've been a fan of his for over 5 years now) which also led to a small two day trip to Kagoshima. I then spent this past weekend seeing a metal band called "Onmyouza" which is known for their traditional japanese sound fused with hard metal. They're lyrics are about japanese mythology and folklore. They're a very interesting band... I could go on and on about them.

Japanese Holidays...
There arn't that many japanese holidays between Feb and July. There is Golden Week during the first week of May. Golden Week consists of many holidays stringed together in one week. these days include boys day (childrens day) and government holidays. Besides that, there have been a few holidays in July. July 7th was Tanabata. Tanabata is an interesting holiday... Taken from wikipedia: it celebrates the meeting of Orihime ( Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). The Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separated these two lovers, and they were allowed to meet only once a year. This special day is the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar .

It is basically tradition to retrieve a strip of paper and write your wish on the paper. Then you tie it to a tree (usually a bamboo tree). On this particular day I happened to go to a concert. During that time the band members handed us all little strips of paper and wanted us to participate in the festivities. Now this isn't exactly typical of what I would have done in Japan... but I guess it kills two birds with one stone:

the strip of paper with my wish... (it's a secret!)
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/jocyinjapan/tanabata/IMG_0760.jpg

the bamboo tree inside the live house. :D
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/jocyinjapan/tanabata/IMG_0762.jpg

The 3rd monday of July was Umi no Hi or Day of the sea. It's a new government holiday (starting from about 1995?) and basically... it's a day off to go to the beach or go on a short holiday trip.

Now that it's summer... Hanabi time has started. Hanabi is basically firework viewing... it's like 4th of July all the time! My friends and I are going to go Hanabi viewing later next week (after we get back from our Yakushima trip) and we will wear our summer Yukata! So I'll share some photos of it!

That's about it for now... i more or less have caught you all up with the major points of what has happened in my life. Later next month I look foreward to climbing fuji. It was on my list of things to accomplish before I leave Japan. I'm going to make it possible.

I look foreward to living the next two months to the fullest. If anyone has any questions, requests, or comments - please do reply!
Hope everyone is well!

JIJ Vol: 012 Already into the New Years

2006-02-24T22:57:00.000-08:00

Minna-sama!!! Hontou hisashiburi desu ne?! Agemashite Omedetto!!!
(Hey Everyone!!! It's been a long time hasn't it? Happy New Years!!!)

Well. First off I'd like to apologize for the lack of activity in the past two months. I've been completely busy with life here in japan. The holidays were here, than my short 10 day trip to Tokyo, and then finals during the month of Janurary. Now I am on spring break and am travelling quite a bit. I wish I could travel more, but you can only do so much when you lack funds.

How was everyones holidays? Thanksgiving? Hanukkah? Kwanza? Christmas? New Years?

In Japan, Christmas is probably one of the most romantic times of the year. It's like valentines day but not. Many couples get together and spend the day out, dinner and everything. Well sadly I'm a single girl out here in Japan. So instead I spent my Christmas with some of my classmates. We went shopping. I finally bought a new coat to deal with the cold weather. Then we went to my friends house where we made gyoza, ate christmas cake, and watched a huge comedy cometition on the TV. After that, we went to Kego park and took a look at all the "light up" stuff they installed.

A strange thing about Japanese culture... when an event finishes they're always in a hurry to tear everything down. By the time I got to the station downtown at around 10:30pm on Christmas Day, workers were already beginning to take down all of the christmas decorations and to put up new advertisements and other decorations... new years decorations!

Following Christmas, I bought myself a bus ticket (round trip) to Tokyo to visit my friend Taka and spend New Years with her. I left on the 30th on an overnight bus, arriving on the 31st. I managed to see some of my good friends during my trip. I participated in more... culture events such as participating in the huge new years shopping craze. Visiting the temples, eating New Years food and being lazy. As my friend put it, "New Year's is all about going to the temple, and then going to eat new years food and watching TV" For new years week they have special TV programs that only come up once a year. Then there is the special new years food including vegetables, and seafood. My New Years dinner (I spent with my japanese friend and her family) included a special new years vegetable dish of preserved vegetables, sashimi, and crab from Hokkaido! The crab was so delicious! I actually spent a lot of time watching TV at my friends house during my trip and was constantly learning more japanese. There were some very interesting shows!

I did manage to do some sight seeing. I went to Yokohama with an american friend of mine. We visited Minato Mirai, and the Chinatown, and a little bit of Motomachi before I had to head back. I also was able to visit Kamakura this time and see the large Daibutsu (a large buddha) and other various shrines, and the sea coast. I had a wonderful time in Tokyo.

After comming back for new years I spent most of Jan. finishing up my architecture project and finals. In addition I performed two songs with my Wind Ensamble: Namaoto Club for a music festival at Fukuoka ACROS Symphony Hall. It was a delightful experience and a lot of fun! I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to play at the Symphony Hall. We played two pieces: "Harvest Waves" and "Banzai for Hollywood" It was short, but still quite a lot of fun.

After all of our finals were over... our break started. But this also included me helping out other students in my laboratory finishing up their final projects. They had presentations to make about a week after I was done. So now that everyone is done we are on our vacation. School doesn't start up until April again. So this opens up the opportunity to do a lot of travelling!

Before I came to Japan I made a list of things that I wanted to accomplish (in my mind) when I am in Japan. Such goals include (but not limited to) participating in culture events, seeing some of my favorite japanese bands, visiting all the major islands in Japan, climbing Mt. Fuji, etc. One goal happened to be "Go to Hokkaido for Yuki Matsuri" So Spencer, Jay and I went to JTB and made preperations to go... and I'm glad we did.

Our tour package was a little bit on the expensive price range (actually this was considered the cheapest package out of them all!) but we managed to assemble a 6 day trip to Hokkaido. Lucky enough we were able to catch the last day of the festival! Actually I think that was probably the best thing to do because we were able to see all the festivities being torn down and everything.

A summary of our trip:
Feb 11: we flew from hakata airport to chitose airport. We took the train to Nobori Betsu which is most famous for their hot springs. We spent the day wandering around "Hells Valley" where the hot spring source is and played in the snow. In the evening we spent most of the time just relaxing, going to the hot springs, eating some good food... and going to the hot springs again.

Feb 12: we woke up in the morning to get over to Sapporo as quickly as possible. We got into Sapporo in the early morning and spent most of the day wandering around Odori koen (odori park where the main snow/ice sculptures were). We took many photos. Spencer and I climbed up the TV Tower to catch a great view of Sapporo during the day. About mid afternoon we took the train to Otaru to check into our hotel. After wards we quickly headed back to Sapporo to check out the sculptures being light up. We also went back to the TV Tower to see a night view of Sapporo. After around 10PM the "Light up" festivities were over... and everything was already being taken appart. We found this a good opportunity to take photos of the disassembling and do other silly night time photos. After wards we quickly took a train back to Otaru and spent quite a lot of time and well into the night taking photos around Otaru.

Feb 13: We woke up in the morning for our long journey to Hakodate. Once we got into Hakodate, we checked in and spent most of the time exploring Hakodate (again for me). We wandered on one side of the coast, and eventually walked all the way up to the ropeway station that goes up to Mt. Hakodate. Afterwards we spent the evening up Mt. Hakodate. It was beautiful!

Feb 14: We spent the early morning in Hakodate, we went to Asa ichi morning market, then went exploring the other side of the coast, taking photos and enjoying the cold weather. Afterwards we took the train and headed back to Sapporo. We spent the evening eating spicy sapporo ramen and wandering around the Susukino district for interesting adventures.

Feb 15: We spent the morning checking out the Sapporo beer factory... hey we couldn't help it. It was a lot of fun - we got to check out a lot of scenery and things like that. After that we headed over to Mourenuma koen (http://www.sapporo-park.or.jp/moere/) and watched the sun go down. Mourenuma koen was a lot of fun! We got their kinda late and it was really cold, but being able to watch the sunset and see all of Sapporo was worth it all! We headed back early and called it an early night because we wanted to make sure to catch train back to the airport on time. We actually spent the rest of the evening for dinner and omiyage shopping.

Feb 16: we woke up in the morning, packed up, did last minute omiyage shopping and headed to the train station to get to the airport. The flight took longer on the way home and was delayed by half an hour, but we didn't have any commitments after flying home so it it was okay.

Since returning from Hokkaido, I've been hanging around Fukuoka and not going anywhere. I have been going to rock concerts, working on an online portfolio, and doing things that poke my intrest.

Today Spencer and I went to Dazaifu in hopes of seeing Ume Blossoms, but I think we were a little bit early - so we're going to try later next week. On monday I'll be going to Nagasaki for a day with my laboratory. Then March is going to be a very busy month! March 8,9,10 I will go with my laboratory to Okinawa! This will complete my "Go to every major island in Japan" We're going on this trip as a 'graduation' trip to relax and have a good time. Following that March 13 ~ 23 my father is comming to visit me! I'm really excited! I think we're going to go tour a bit of western honshu - visiting Hiroshima, Miyajima and maybe Okayama. I'm still in the middle of making preparations. Other than that - i'll be uploading photos over time and send those in the next post.

JIJ Vol. 011: Happy Holidays!

2006-02-24T22:52:00.000-08:00

So just to let everyone know - i had been so busy that I only sent this out as an email and didn't have the chance to post this up on blogger. I apologize for those who were able to see thing. I'll try and post a little more about my trip. Hope everyone is well!

Long time no see everyone! I'm really sorry! It's been quite a long time since I have last updated. Nearly an entire month! I've been quite busy since my friend has visited me. I actually had another friend visit me for a few days. In addition to all of that, I had a school project due and I have been quite busy with the holiday festivities. Today we start our school vacation, but I actually have Project D (my design class) class on Monday Dec 26, the day after christmas. Honto taihen! mendokusai! (it's really difficult and very troublesome). So I'll make a quick table of contents below this minor blurp so you can do a quick find and read whenever you have the time.

---------------------------------------------
Table of Contents in this post
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[A-1] Happy Holidays
[A-2] Christmas in Japan
[A-3] Christmas photos
[B-1] Nagasaki
[B-2] Momoji viewing in Dazaifu
[C-1] New Years
[C-2] What I've been doing lately...
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[A-1] Happy Holidays!

Just wanting to wish everyone a wonderful and joyous holiday. I hope that you spend your time with your loved ones and cherish the wonderful winter moments. I personally wish that my family was here with me to experience such amazing things here in Japan. Actually, I wish all of you were here with me to experience the amazing things that I have just by living here.

The photo here was taking at Tenjin Station displaying their large christmas display. Tenjin station is one of the main stations in Fukuoka, home to the Nishitetsu train line.

[A-2] Christmas in Japan
Christmas in Japan... isn't a spend time with your family sort of thing like it is in America. Actually... since Christmas is a Christian holiday... it makes sense why it isn't that sort of holiday. Instead, taking upon trendy things that happen in America, Christmas in Japan has been completely commercialized. It's most comparable to Valentines Day in America. Christmas in Japan is a "Dating" holiday. Full of romance, and love in the air, Christmas is for lovely couples to spend a night together. Basically, it's another business day for most people. Also... the big things you see during christmas time are children's toys in "Christmas packages" that you can buy at the convience store, or at the supermarket. Another popular thing that comes out are Christmas Cakes. You can order them the local bakery, or even at the convience store!

Some of my classmates who have boyfriends or girlfriends will be spending time with their significant other. I've asked them what they're doing and they said they were going to go to a nice dinner of some sort, or just spending time together. It's interesting to hear what these people have to say about Christmas. Some other ones will probably be spending time at our studio working hard on their projects... everyones projects are all due the end of next month.

My tutor, Nishimura-san will be doing volunteer work with some of his friends at an orphanage on the otherhand. As for me, I've been invited by two other single classmates in my studio (Tonraga-san [international student from Mongolia] and Nao-san). We're planning to do some winter shopping, go watch a movie (probably King Kong, a remake by Peter Jackson), and over to Tonraga-san's place for a "Gyoza" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyoza) dinner and Christmas cake. It shall definately be a "girls night out." I look foreward to spending time with them, they're always so friendly in my class and well I've been meaning to go shopping for winter clothing anyway.

Speaking of which, yesterday (12/22/2005) my class and I went out for a delicious dinner. We had our Kenkyu (Our class studio) Bonenkai Party. A Bonenkai party is basically, "Forget the year" type of party. We went to a lovely resturant and the dinner was sparse, but over the span of 2 hours or so it gets really filling. But, Kanekiyo-sensei lead the end of the year speech saying how this year has been great and everything... and that everyone has done well and that they should work hard next year too. Basically something like that.

We also had a christmas present exchange... and me not knowing that I only had to get one gift - ended up making gifts for my entire lab *laughs* Oh well, Christmas to me means giving and caring to everyone - so I didn't mind at all. Actually, in our Kenkyu we were each given a theme and everyone had to buy a gift. I was given the theme of "Oishii" which translates to "Tasty" (it also has another meaning, but i didn't know till later) and well... i made tons of gifts for everyone. I made everyone a scarf, a bag of chocolate balls, and chocolate rice crispy balls. I really didn't mind making all those gifts... actually seeing everyones surprize and reaction made me really happy. Watching people take a bite into those chocolate balls and then yelling out loud, "Oishi!!" (tasty) and "Umai!!" (unbelievably tasty) and then hearing people brag to other people we ran into about what I did for Christmas was quite flattering. But just seeing the glee on the faces of my other peers was well enough for me. As for everyone else, each had a different "theme" and purchased a gift and we did this round around present passing while we were "singing" Jingle Bells. More like... humming and giggling really. I ended up with a gift from Taniguchi-san whose theme was "Something foul" Actually I didn't anything foul at all... but something rather hysterical. I got this white tiger costume hat type of thing. It's the head of a tiger and you strap it onto your head like a hat. I thought it was kinda funny. I'll take a picture next time and share it with everyone.

[A-3] Christmas Photos
Well Christmas in Japan is quite commercialized as I said before, so I spend a day wandering around downtown Tenjin taking random photos of Christmas decorations. I'm only going to select a few photos to talk about to reduce the length of this email (it's already long... and it will get longer). If you have any questions about the photos I didn't take, please ask me!

Photos in Tenjin can be found here:

http://photobucket.com/albums/a50/jocyinjapan/Christmas_Tenjin/

Tenjin Station

This area right before the ticket gates always has interesting displays and changed quite often. You can see the christmas decorations hanging over the Nishitetsu office and the Apple IPOD advertisement on the right. The are where the IPOD advertisement is actually changes quite often depending on what happens. In the past I've seen advertisements for the new Harry Potter movie, a credit card/bank card, and a few other things. I bet it costs a lot of money to get ads up on there.

Daimaru Building

The Daimaru building is a shopping area with an open space area in the middle (there are sky bridges overhead that connect the two building). The tree is made out of PET bottles. PET is actually a specific type of plastic that is constantly recycled here in Japan. It was really cool to check out and it is illuminated by lights from the inside. It kind of reminds me of the lighting construction project we had to do last year.

[B-1] Nagasaki
I went to Nagasaki back in October with my American friend (who came to visit). I got around to writing up about my travels, but had been so busy lately that I didn't have the chance to share it with all of you. So following after this paragraph will be a LONG report about my one day trip to Nagasaki. I hope you enjoy it.

----- cut and pasted -----
So a friend of mine from the USA decided to come and visit for a week. We were lucky and able to visit Nagasaki for a day thanks to my friend Hiromi and her car!

Accidently, we arrived quite a bit late by train (I didn't realize how far Daizenji from Ijiri really is!). But we met up with Hiromi at Daizenji station, hopped into her car and started the 2 hour drive over to Nagasaki. I kinda fell asleep in the car going over... seeing so much lush green kinda put me to sleep (similar to all the times i've fallen asleep on the shinkansen).

Eventually we arrived in Nagasaki (after paying around 3000Yen toll to use the expressway!) and we parked across Nagasaki seaside park. Following that we were quite hungry and strolled into the downtown "Chinatown" area for some great Chinese food. Following after we spent quite some time wandering around the hills of Nagasaki, we walked up the hill and went to Oura Catholic Church to see beautiful stained glass windows. We wandered the main street that lead up to the church and I bought some delicious Yuzu (a citrus type fruit) honey. We had some honey softcream and ate samples of "Castella" (this type of pound cake Nagasaki is most famous for).

Oura Catholic Church
Oura Monochrome (I don't know why...)

Oura Building

Following that we started walking towards the general area where we parked the car and then explored the Nagasaki Perfectual Art Museum. The architecture of that building is spectacular. We spent quite a lot of time there, exploring the landscape around it as well as the building itself. We had the opportunity to go in and wander around, take photos, visit the shop and just explore the building entirely. It was quite interesting. The only part that I really disliked about the building would have to be... part of the rooftop garden. It wasn't much of a garden. But what bothered me most was the elevator on the rooftop garden that sat in a glass room. Talk about the greenroom effect! Despite it being so cold outside, inside it was so hot due to the amount of heat build up in the room. We waited to use the elevator and was dying of the heat trapped inside.

Nagasaki Perfectual Museum
Reflection

"Hooru"

Bridge

Bridge 2

Glass Sky

"What's Up there?"

The Shadow is Sayaka-san

Wandering Outside

After visiting Nagasaki Perfectual Art Museum, we hopped back into Hiromi's car and then went for a car ride through Nagasaki. I took a bunch of random pictures along the way. Nagasaki feels a lot like Hakodate and San Francisco. The hills are full of buildings - they remind me of home. Following that there were cable cars and of course that always reminds me of home. In addition the numerous amount of buildings that have been infuenced by the European architecture style. Nagasaki is quite an interesting town.

Random shots
car window, Nagasaki port side

London Park! (pachinko parlor)

Buildings nestled into the hillside

Cable car in Nagasaki!

Nagasaki Station

The Sea

Lights

European Influenced Building

Welcome to Nagasaki

We reached our next destination, but we were a little too late. We arrived at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb museum and it was closed. But we made the best of our trip anyway and wandered through the landscape around the museum. We went to see a very interesting memorial dedicated to all of the people who had passed away during the Atomic bombing. However the sky wasn't dark enough yet, so we decided to go to Nagasaki Memorial park and go back to the other memorial after sunset.

Nagasaki memorial park... what can I say? It's where the Atomic bomb landed; the hypocenter. But if you didn't know... then you wouldn't have known. The park itself is very nice, its peaceful and quiet. We wandered down into the park and eventually made our way to the hypocenter itself. It was completely amazing to see it. I wasn't emotionally compelled or anything, but there is that feeling that looms over you. I felt, "How can people do things like this?" and "It's hard to believe how far Nagasaki has come through..." and i'm glad that many Japanese people that I have met in my life have no grudge against me because of my countries historical past. There was a memorial for the exact spot that the Atomic bomb hit. It was a huge pillar with inscriptions on it. Following that there were many bundles of paper cranes. 1000 paper cranes in each bundle. There is a folk tale that goes with it. A long to the side there is a small alcove which also housed for more bundles of thousands of cranes. Following that, we noticed an interesting pillar like figure off to the side. After reading the information boards (thankfully in English) it was apparently an existing piece of a building that survived the bombing and relocated to the park. It is nearly impossible to describe all the intense feelings that I had while I was in that particular area. It is just something that can only be felt by physically going there. I took a bunch of pictures - sadly it was starting to get dark and I currently don't have a tripod so many photos turned out blury. But I think most importantly it was about the feelings that came through; that human society can be cruel, unkind... and act without any considerations and that I as an individual should try my hardest not to be anything of those things.

After wandering around Memorial park for quite some time, we wandered back back to the Atomic Bomb Museum. We spent some time admiring and observing the memorial and the bright illumination. It wasn't until later that Hiromi wanted to visit these places based on design (as well as other reasons) and that they were featured in the Japanese Landscape Design magazines the past few issues. The memorial itself is really quite nice, it is beautiful at night, it reminds me of the big buildings in Japan and the little city that surrounds it, almost like a suburban district.

Nagasaki Memorial Park
Shot from the bridge

A piece that survived the bombing

Atomic Hypocenter (blurry)

Strange lights

Hypocenter of Bomb

1000 Cranes, hopes and dreams

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum (outside)
Golden Trees

How many lives?

Illuminated

After visiting Nagasaki memorial park and atomic bomb center, we grew quite hungry and headed towards a local shopping building, had dinner, and drove the 2 hours home. Following that we managed to catch an super express train back and managed to get home within an hour. My short trip to Nagasaki was quite exciting. But hearing from others about all the things there is to do in Nagasaki... I might have to go back sometime.

----- end cut and paste -----

[B-2] Momoji viewing in Dazaifu
I was talking to Spencer one time (one of the other exchange students from Cal Poly) and asked if he wanted to go momiji viewing in Dazaifu. He said he was going the next day (this was a while back by the way, in late november). Actually it was the three of us, Spencer, and Yan (von? i don't know how his name is spelled). We got together at the crack of dawn and managed to catch the first train to Dazaifu. We spent the day roaming around, watching the sun rize, hanging out at Tenmangu Shrine, Myozenji (my favorite garden in Dazaifu), and the little shopping area. There was a huge arts and crafts type of festivity going on - so I managed to do quite a bit of christmas shopping (for my family and friends) here. There isn't really much to say... but we went Momiji viewing - which is basically what japanese people do when they want to see Fall leaves. i wanted to go back to Kyoto for momiji viewing - but I just didn't have the time. At least Dazaifu has done me justice. Here is a link to a bit of photos that I took:

http://photobucket.com/albums/a50/jocyinjapan/dazaifu_momiji/

Actually I think Spencer took the photo of the female archer. Actually all the archers at the shrine are female. :) it's an interesting fact to know. Part of the time I spent watching the beautiful maple leaves falling from the sky and taking them and weaving them into my scarf. Overally it was really quite relaxing - i had such a wonderful time spending my entire day in Dazaifu. Dazaifu is actually really close to Ijiri (where I live).

[C-1] New Years
So... New Years is actually a much bigger holiday in Japan compared to Christmas. It's the Shogatsu holiday. Actually I will be in Tokyo spending time with my friend Taka and hopefully will run into a few of my closer friends while I am there. People will go to the shrines on the New Years and they'll ring a huge bell i think 118 times this year. It's supposedly saying good bye to all the bad spirits. At least thats how my Japanese teacher described it... something like ring the bell, "Sayonara" to bad spirits. She's not exactly sure why its 118 times this year either - so I don't know either. :D

Following that - I plan to spend most of my time in Tokyo catching up on the things I couldn't do last time... and participating in the Shogatsu sales! If you think black day is bad (the friday after Thanksgiving)... I hear Shogatsu Sales (day after New Years) is much more worse. So I hope to go and participate in this rampage and let you all know how that will turn out. I'm leaving to Tokyo Dec 30th by Highway bus. It's an overnight bus and will take 14 hours. It's a long ride... I will arrive in Tokyo on Dec 31st sometime in the early morning. I'll be in Tokyo until Dec 8th and arrive back in Fukuoka Dec 9th. If anyone needs to reach me they can send short emails to my cell phone: dreamy-lilusako@docomo.ne.jp or you can call me if you'd like. But that'd be rather expensive. I hope everyone has a good new years. :)

[C-2] What I've been doing lately...
So You all must be wondering what I do if i'm not updating here. Mainly just running around between school, namaoto club (my wind ensamble), and doing other things. Every once in a while (one or twice a month) I'll get the urge to go karaoke and will usually ask a bunch of friends if they want to go. It's actually really good practice in studying japanese! When we had our Bonenkai party the other day... we also went karaoke and it was quite a lot of fun. Here are few photos of my classmates when we went karaoke-ing (taken with my keitai... er cell phone).

Nishimura-kun singing "Last Holiday" or not... he was just posing for the picture.

Taniguchi-san and Yu-chan laughing to Nishimura-kun singing

actually... I seem to go karaoke a lot more than my wallet can handle. usually its like the thing you do late at night when you've got nothing else better to do. Sit down, have a good drink and sing a bunch of songs... its really hillarious. Some people go all out. Then... when you're tired you pass out and thats where I come in and take photos of everyone!

Spencer who passed early on during karaoke (You could see me reflected in the window)

Then when i'm not going out and singing my butt off... I'm usually eating! I strangely... go out and eat a lot of food here and there. Fast food doesn't feel so fast... and greasy in America. It feels light. It's strange when your classmate says, "Mister Donut" is healthy. Donuts are healthy? I think... Mister Donut has the lightest donuts ever - I could eat so many! they're bad for me. Actually, my favorite fast food joint is MOS burger (mountain ocean sun). I really love their food... so much I took a picture to share with you all.

MOS Cheese Burger set (fries and onion ring)

A typical MOS burger has two buns, a slice of tomato, a whop of this tasty tomato sauce, cheese, the patty and some other stuff. It's really tasty... at least those who love tomatos and what not. It's really delicious. See! We're always eating... for example - our bonenkai party... we went to a nice resturant... and then ate some more at an izakaya with Nakamura-san (who missed the dinner) and then we ate a little more when we went karaoke (you can see all the food on the table). It's weird... i swear Japan is all about eating.

Then... if we're not karaoking... or eating... then I'm probably in Design class (or other classes). Our design class is 6 hours long and even during that time... sometimes it'll go till 9PM or even later. Sometimes its more troublesome.... i wish that the teachers would have a more efficient way of going through critiques and stuff so we don't have to spend an additional 3 hours waiting. But when we're waiting for 3 hours and have nothing to do... we do stupid things like take photos with our cell phones and cameras.

Spencer being a goonie before going back to work

Everyone falling asleep to the lecture about school architecture design

Anyway - that's it for now. I hope everyone is doing well. I'd like to hear how everyone is doing... I'll try and update again sometime soon. But for now I have to go to school and work on my design project. That way I will have some plans and other documents to present to the teacher the day after christmas. Yes... I have school the day after christmas. How sad. :( It's okay - i've already planned for much fun afterwards! Happy Holidays everyone! May it be joyous and fun. ^_^

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

2005-11-28T02:58:00.000-08:00

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!

2005-11-28T02:39:00.000-08:00

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.

JIJ Vol. 008 Kyoto Part 2

2005-10-27T04:33:00.000-07:00

KYOTO PART 2. IN A NUTSHELL: Catherine, Fushimi Inari, Inari-san, Tofukuji, Kiyotaki, Atago-san, Ryoanji

The following day (September 17, 2005) I went to meet with my old friend Catherine. Catherine actually used to live like 5 minutes away from my house - this would have been the first time in over a year that we have seen each other. We met up at Kyoto Station early in the morning and we had made plans to go on a Hike from my hiking book. We took the train and got off at the Fushimi stop. The hike planned was supposed to be starting off at Fushimi Inari shrine, hiking up Inari-san and then down and ending up at Tofukuji Shrine.

So we made our way up to Fushimi Inari... and that place is just red. Bright red. I'd have to say... before there was the temporary installation of "The Gates" by Christo and Jean Claude in New York Central Park, there was Fushimi Inari. Definately not the same feeling... but the same sort of concept that just made me go WOW. We hiked through Fushimi Inari, heading up and then we started taking some side trails and eventually got lost. Afterwards we ended up on a concrete road and just started walking... we then happen to come by an old man and we asked him in Japanese how to get to Tofukuji. He was really nice and just went on talking in Japanese about how to get there. Between Catherine and I we kind of figured out where we had to go - In addition he too started climbing Inari-san. So the three of us started climbing up the huge steps of Inari-san and then he directed us in the direction we were to go to head towards Tofukuji.

After getting lost a few times, asking a few japanese people how to get to Tofukuji... about three hours later we actually made to Tofukuji temple. If I can say anything about Tofukuji... its two things: 1. I want to see this place in the fall, it really is that beautiful. 2. There arn't too many foreigners at this place, the entire place has a different atmosphere then most other temples that I have visited. It's calm, quiet, and very peaceful. After exploring Tofukuji temple we eventually made our way towards Tofukuji train station. Catherine-san mentioned that Sanjo was a place where a lot of younger adults go to hangout so we decided to take the train and head out there. It was a great decision, we ended up spending the rest of the day wandering around Central Kyoto and shopping at Kawaramachi street. Followed by dinner at a nice Izakaya called Chikyuuya. It was recomended in the Roughs Guide and I thought it was a great decision - the dinner was filling, the drinks were tasty (especially the Sparkling White Peach) and it had a very nice relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Afterwards we took the train home and I made my way back to Tofukuji and spent more time hanging out with other fellow Tojian guests.

Photos of Fushimi Inari:

Photos from Tofukuji:

I thought a 3 hour hike from Fushimi Inari to Tofukuji was not too bad but the hike that Brian and I were about to attempt was NOTHING like it. We met up (September 18, 2005) at Kyoto station and then took the bus to Kiyotaki. The bus ride itself took a little under an hour and we ended up far away from Kyoto. It was rather nice. So the hike commenced, beginning with a walk through Kiyotaki. The hike that we decided to do... was to climb Atago-san. The hike was quite ambitious, but it was tremendously fun - climbing with Brian. At least I had someone to talk to while we climbed nearly 800 meters up. We came across a natural spring and took some water from it. It was very tasty and well I'm not dead so I'm pretty sure it was okay to drink... plus every other Japanese person hanging around it was also drinking from it. We continued to climb and we took our time. It took us about 3 hours to get all the way to the top of Atago san and we spent a lot of time along the way taking a ton of pictures, sitting down to rest, and the sort. The experience was just amazing - climbing all the way up the mountain... a lot of people were cheering us on as they where passing us on their way down. There were times where we stopped to catch a sight of Kyoto in the distance and it was beautiful. Unfortunately my camera was running out of space to take pictures - so I didn't get to much - but that just means I should go back and climb Mt. Atago san another time. Once we finally reached the top, we hung around for a while catching the amazing view of Kyoto and then started on our decent. It took us another 3 hours to get all the way down and then another half hour or so to find our way back to the bus stop. There were a ton of amazing things we came through and it felt like I was really experiencing Japan - there weren't any foreigners and I felt lucky enough that there were signs in english... sort of. But we managed to find our way and catch a bus back to Kyoto.

Photos from Atago-san:

The hike up to Atago-san made me feel like i've acomplished quite a bit - something that most usual tourists in Japan don't do. But the next day (September 19, 2005) Brian, Catherine and I met up. I had a few places left on my 'places to visit' list and we first went to Ginkakuji. We actually spent a lot of time... and I was doing my usual over analysis of EVERYTHING, sketching things down, writing notes... but we took our time which was enjoyable to be in the company of other friends. Following that we wandered down the little street that leads up to Ginkakuji and bought some softcream (it's like ice cream but not) and before we had planned to go to Ryoanji... but before hand I discovered that I was not going to be able to go Saihoji (a temple that requires a reservation) so I told them we could go there, or elsewhere... since I would have an extra day anyway. So instead the three of us decided to go to Kawaramachi street (again) and look for a MOS burger. I swear - if i'm going to miss anything in Japan - MOS burger is definately one of them. I had my usual Mos Cheese burger with OniPota (Onion Rings and Fries), and Melon soda. It was very tasty... following that we went back and went shopping downtown and just wandered around the area and we finished the night off with another return to Chikyuuya. The people at Chiyuuya were surprized to see Cat and I again and then told us that they had an English menu! The previous time we were there... we were reading the kanji/kana and trying to figure out what things there were... *laughs* so we were able to order more assorted types of food and drinks - it was quite delicious. After our night together, we parted again and made plans to meet up sometime in Osaka. I headed back to Tofukuji and passed out quite early into the night.

Photos from Ginkakuji:

Spetember 20, 2005. Originaly I had planned to go to Saihoji - but when my plans fell through (a complicated process of making reservations to go) I decided to go to Ryoanji. I took my time - since I have been fairly exhausted with the amount of hiking, and travelling around. I eventually made my way to Ryoanji. This place... was definately a place that moved me. It just made me feel so at peace and complete... I managed to stay at Ryoanji for over 3 hours just relaxing, meditating, analyzing Ryoanji and just contemplating about life. It noted in the Rough's Guide that the longer you were at Ryoanji staring at rock zen garden - the more you start to think. The tour book was right... the longer I stayed the longer I started looking at things and thinking about the strange relationships. The collection of rocks and their position, the rake lines... everything beyond the contained rock garden and the relationship to it... it was endless. There are 15 rocks at Ryoanji and no matter where you sit... you'd never be able to count all of them. One will always remain hidden... and afterwards I began comparing proportions of rocks to each other and then comparing those to the shape of the trees beyond the walls... and then I finally gave up and just cleared my mind enjoying the calm atmosphere. At one point I started writing all the words that came to mind just sitting and staring at the rocks. My trip at Ryoanji was quite enjoyable. Though the only thing that disturbed me the most would have to be a foreigner who stepped into area which I WOULD NEVER DO... with the way that temples are set up - you can usually tell where you are allowed to stand and where you are allowed not to stand) and this man climbed down the steps and onto the curb and took a side snapshot of the rock arrangements. Even I was completely horrified and disgusted at his actions due to the disrespect he had just caused. In addition he seemed like he was off balance at one point trying to take the picture and if he were to have lost his balance and fall into the rake lines... I think I would be furious. Even having another person tresspass into an area that already has a pesudo barrier set up ruined those few moments for me. What can I say? It reminds me how unreceptive people can be... something that I hope I would never turn into. That was pretty harsh of me to say, but i'm rather sick and tired of foreigners not respecting Japanese culture... you see it everywhere you go. Returning from Ryoanji, I had curry for dinner and returned to Tojian a bit earlier. I wanted to take a bath at the ofuro and pack everything up since I would be leaving to Osaka the next day. I also thought this would be a great opportunity to catch free drinks and enjoy the wonderful time that I've had at my stay at Tojian.

Some photos from Ryoanji:

JIJ Vol. 007: Kyoto

2005-10-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I finally got a cell phone... if you want my number I will gladly pass it onto you if you ask. If you would like to reach me asap by mail let me know (by email, AIM, etc) and i'll give you my mobile email address and I'll get the email instantly (in which I can reply instantly as well). In other news, I also just got the internet so you'll be hearing from me a lot more often. In the next few days I will be posting about my trip through Kyoto, Osaka, and Takamatsu. I will also be writing about some interesting cultural things and other things of the sort. If you have any questions about anything please send an email to ask.

Jocy in Japan Vol. 007: KYOTO PART 1 IN A NUTSHELL: Tojian, Kinkakuji, Sanjusangendo, Okonomiyaki

I already went to Kyoto for two days earlier in August... but there is so much to do in Kyoto I ended up going back again for another 6 days. I left Nou (Niigata perfecture) for Kyoto taking a local train to Toyama and then the Shinkansen to Kyoto.

I arrived Sept 15 and went to go check in at "Tojian" which is a backpackers kind of place. Lucky enough I discovered this place through my Roughs Guide book. This place is apparently not listed in the Lonely Planet guide. If I could say anything about this... it is definately not regretting this chosen place. I first checked into Tojian and it looks like a really run downed ryokan that could use some maintenance - but I thought that the price I was paying for should be alright. The first night I ended up spending in the girls dormitory for 2000 Yen ($20.00) that night. I ended up spending part of the afternoon around kyoto station and then went to the public bath.

The only downside to staying at Tojian is that... there is no bath/showers. You have to go to a public bath or what they call an 'ofuro.' After having my first onsen (natural hot spring) experience with my friends Taka and Sue (during our trip in Nikko) I really didn't have too much of a problem doing it again. After my trip to the ofuro, I headed over to Kyoto station to meet another foreigner by the name of Brian. We had actually been talking on the internet and he was just looking for another english speaker to hang out with. We met at Kyoto station, had donburi for dinner (rice bowls with some sort of topping - depending on what you ordered), and then just spend the rest of the night wandering about the Kyoto Station area which included a trip to Starbucks (which is insanely expensive!), a trip to the arcade and eventually another trip to a different cafe.

Brian is actually a university student from Texas - he's on an internship program working for a japanese company called Hiyoshi. His studies focuses mainly on Biology (it currently has slipped my mind) and actually we discussed his research work which I found pretty interesting. After hanging out that evening - which had been actually quite a lot of fun he had agreed to my invitation to climb Mt. Atago (san). He then made me agree to dinner the next night and a trip out to where he lives called Oumihachiman.

The following day (Sept 16) I went to Kinkakuji (Golden Palace) and spent my morning there. Kinkaku-ji is all about the palace and basically nothing else. The palace is decoupaged in some sort of gold foil... hence why they call it the golden palace. since the actual building was basically the eye catching focus... people seemed to not really notice anything else. I ended up spending much of the morning analyzing the placement of trees in relation to the palace and documenting anything else that I thought was interesting. What I have noticed about japanese maple trees is that they tend to plant them close to pathways and no where else. It definately has an interesting reaction... I wish I could go back to Kyoto and visit these places again as fall is soon approaching. Following Kinkakuji, I ended up going to Sanjusangendo.

Some Photos of Kinkakuji:

The kanji "Dai" (great) burned into the hillside:

Sanjusangendo is most famous for the 1001 Kannon statues (Buddhist Religion based). All the statues are lined up in a hallway on tiers of 5 or 6. Taken from the Roughs Guide Japan description:

"At first the impassive, haloed figures appear as identical imges of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, portrayed with eleven heads and a thousand arms. But they all have subtle differences in their faces, clothes, jewellery or the symbols held in their tiny, outstreched hands. Rather than a thousand arms, the statues have been given only forty apice (excluding the two hands in prayer), but each of these can save 25 worlds. In addition, every figure represents 33 incarnations, giving a total of 33,033 Kannon to help save mankind"

The hall way is about 118 metre long and during the samurai era they would hold archery tournaments. There is also a HUGE Kannon figure about halfway along the hallway and it is just amazingly huge. It was quite breath taking. Unfortunately there were no pictures allowed for obvious reasons of losing its originality and popularity.

After the trip to Sanjusangendo - I eventually hopped on the JR Biwako line heading west of Kyoto and off to meet up with Brian again. I got off at Oumihachiman and met with Brian and we went wandering around the HUGE Mall attached to the station in which he then he took me to dinner. We had Okonomiyaki. He insisted that we have Okonomiyaki since I had mentioned that I had not tried it yet.

Okonomiyaki... the best way to describe it is... "Japanese Pizza" It is definately an original japanese dish. The basic contents of Okonomiyaki is flower, egg, cabbage, and usually the special ingredients you want in it (like pieces of meat, cheese, etc). You mix up the batter and then pour the batter onto the cooking table and make it into a pancake. You let it sit until it full cooks, flip it over... and once its done you serve it with Okonmiyaki sauce and kewpie (japanese mayonase). It's rather tasty (well I like it). We spent the rest of the evening wandering around the huge shopping mall in Oumihachiman, shopping, going to the arcade and just hanging out. I caught the last train back from Oumihachiman to Kyoto - and at one point the train was leaving one of the station stops and suddenly stopped - I was momentarily frightened but it started up again and everything was fine.

I returned to Tojian and was able to catch the last bit of the "Everynight there is free beer" night and sat down, had something to drink and talked with the others who were staying at Tojian. I had the chance to talk to a bunch of people from Europe (mainly people from France, and one guy from Germany), and other Japanese people. I ended up meeting a young Japanese boy named Mitani and we actually talked until 2AM talking about all sorts of things. He is an English and International Business major so his English was very good and I was able to talk to him about deeper things in regards to the difference in our culture, and about our own majors. It was actually a lot of fun.

I'll update more tomorrow. Ja mata ashita!

JIJ Vol 006 - Small update - Arrival in Fukuoka.

2005-10-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

Just a small post to let everyone know that I am okay - nothing too special. I arrived at Hakata Station in Fukuoka last monday afternoon. I immediately moved into the dormitory and met faculty and students in my studio.

This past week has been basically settling into the dormitory and getting things up and going. I have had to run around town to get paper work done and currently have no internet at my dormitory. So I am postponing my write up about Kyoto, Osaka, and Takamatsu until then. Hopefully I will get the internet some time next week. I have also spent a great deal of this past week helping the two architecture students from Cal Poly move in and make their settlement in Japan a bit easier. Not to be arrogant or anything - but if I had not been around for them... I think things would have been a lot different. But I am so glad to help those guys around. I think by now they have got the hang of how things work in Japan.

This week school started - actually I had school today. Unfortunately classes are in Japanese - but today I was able to understand like the basic concept of what was going on. The thing that is killing me most... is not knowing enough vocabulary and reading Kanji. Thus, I have started teaching myself kanji - learning a few at a time. Hopefully doing about 5 every night will help me study.

Classes that I am taking at school:
- Landscape Architecture with Kanekiyo sensei
- Urban Planning
- Project D (4th year Landscape Architecture + Architecture studio). this class is not till thursday but the premisis of this class sounds interesting. there is a site that has been selected in Fukuoka that has been greatly damaged by a recent earthquake (i think earlier this year - i vaugely remember reading it in the news... right around the same time the huge tsunami in south east asia hit). This site has now become a case study and a wonderful opportunity for Kyushu University students to do their studies and work. It sounds really interesting and I am most intrigued - I cant wait till thursday.
- No credit japanese language class at Chikushi campus.

In addition to classes... I have joined the Namaoto club - which is a wind ensamble here on campus. Practice is on tuesday evenings. I am glad to have found a wind ensamble to practice with. things have been most interesting since I have reached Fukuoka.

So many people have never heard of Fukuoka... let alone Kyushu. Fukuoka is most famous for two things: Potato Sochu (japanese vodka made with potato) and Hakata Ramen. Apparently this Potato Sochu is only available in Kyushu and is only 25% proof. Amazing ne? Hakata ramen is basically ramen with chinese pork slices. In japanese they call this Chyasu pork. In addition to these tasty things - downtown Fukuoka (Tenjin) is most famous for their little food stalls all lined up out on the streets. People have little wood wagons that serve ramen, donburi, oden, and/or yakitori out on the streets - its fairly interesting and they only come out at night.

Fukuoka city is definately a sight of its own - quite different to all the other cities I have been to. It has a more friendly atmosphere and things feel "at home" to me. Other than that - things are slowly settling down. I think things will be okay in a few weeks (like next month). When I recieve internet - I shall post photos and share more about my trip in Japan. Until then please wait until then. Sore ja mata ne!

Also, for those who want this information:

My address is:
Fukuoka-shi, Minami-ku Ijiri 2 chome 36-40-315, 811-1302 Japan

My telephone number is: (no cell phone... not for a few weeks)
092-586-4111-9315
(Dial the first 3 set of numbers, wait till the lady is finished talking, dial the 9315 extention after)

JIJ Vol 005. Adventures in Nou (Niigata perfecture)

2005-09-25T06:37:00.000-07:00

Hisashiburi Minna-san! (Long time no see my friends)

Right now I am in Takamatsu, on Shikoku Island. Amazingly enough the hotel that I am staying at actually has internet in my room. So I am quite delighted to have had internet for the past two days. Tomorrow I will be leaving for Fukuoka and on Wed I will be able to move into the International Dormitory. If I don't happen to update soon again I apologize - but once I'm settled in I will be able to upload some more pictures from my trip and share them with you all.

It has been a long time and well... I will be writing a few extensive entries - one for my trip to Nou in the Niigata perfecture, one (or possibly two) for my 6 day stay in Kyoto, one for my stay in Osaka, and one for my stay in Takamatsu. This entry will be about my 4 day stay in a little country town called Nou.

Nou is located in the Niigata perfecture very close to the city of Itoigawa. It is actually located on west coast of Japan. So lucky enough I have been able to touch both sides of the ocean during my stay in Japan. I arrived on Sunday Sept 11th in the late evening.

The whole reason why I went to Nou was actually to visit my friend Fiona. Fiona is from the United States (Reno, Nevada) and is participating in the JET program (Japanese Exchange Teachers). For dinner we had ramen. I had Kani (Crab) ramen in a thick soup. Totemo oishikata! (Very tasty!) It was definately delicious. Afterwards I accompanied Fiona to a trip to the market which resulted in buying green tea ice cream and then I finally settled down at her place.

The next day (Monday Sept 12) I went with Fiona to one of the Jr. High Schools she was teaching at and had the opportunity to witness and participate with the students in what they called "Sports Field Day" (I forgot the japanese word for it). The Jr. Highschool that I was at was divided into 3 different teams and I watched these kids participate in different sport events including relay races, obstacle courses, original japanese games, and a dance cheer. Each event resulted in certain number of points and they kept track of it all day long.

Actually certain sport events seemed very dangerous... and my cried out loud, "LAWSUIT LAWSUIT!" One event which translated to "Horse Carriage" was each coloured team (broken into girls vs girls/boys vs boys) would gather into groups of 4. In a group of four 3 people would create a formation and then hoist another person on top of them making it look like... a horse carriage. The point of the game was to collect the other teams hachimaki (headbands) and the more they collected the more you won. It looked like a dangerous game. Another game they played was a type of 'capture the flag' where they had coloured flags on wooden postts and people would jump onto other people and climb up the wooden post to collect the flags.

I watched the kids participate in the sports day event - i also had the opportunity to participate in two events. One event was a strange obsticle course event which in the end the students would collect these cards and have to find someone or something and make them run to the finish line. I was collected to run with a student because I wore 'sandles'. I also participated in the PTA Tug of War (Japanese people have a strange concept of what the idea position is for tug of war).

After the whole fun filled day of participating in the Sports Day, Fiona and I were invited by the education staff out to dinner. We were picked up Yuko Okada-san one of the teachers at the school and went to a local Izakaya (japanese style pub) and met with some other teachers and the vice principle. We had assorted japanese snack dishes and many drinks. Afterwards we went to a Karaoke bar and sang a few songs and following that Fiona and I caught the last train home back to Nou.

The next day (Tue Sept 13) Fiona went to go teach at the school and I spent the day out at Benton Rock. Benton Rock is about a 25 minute walk from where Fiona resides and I spent the whole day there climbing along, taking many pictures under the hot hot sun. I had the opportunity to touch the ocean from the west side of Japan. This was definately quite an experience. Following that Fiona returned from a hard day of teaching children English and we went to Itoigawa and ate at Naojiro's Izakaya. Following that we went and sang at a Karaoke place close to the Train Station.

The last full day (Wed Sept 14) I accompanied Fiona and helped her teach and one of the middle school and elementary school located close to Nou. We had the students practice their english and had them introduce themselves to me. It was a fun experience because I was able to witness what happens at the school in Japan. It was definately an interesting experience and was glad to help Fiona out by being a guest and having students practice their english. Following a full day of teaching children english, Fiona and I had dinner at a local resturant called Saiyuki. Following dinner one of Fiona's friends picked us up from the resturant and I had the opportunity to particpate, watch, listen and experience what goes on during Fiona's Taiko practice.

Fiona is in the Benton Taiko group (with Miss Yuko Okada san) with a handful of other people. I was able to experience first hand how to play the taiko (Fiona showed me the correct way to play the Taiko... which is actually fairly difficult!). I was able to experience first hand on playing the taiko, participating in their practice and in one of their taiko drumming games. Following that I had the opportunity to watch and listen to their group practice and perform a taiko song which they called, "Wave." It was definately an amazing experience! Not only did I have the opportunity to play the taiko, learn about it, ask questions about how it all works... I also had a song played for me. Taiko is definately something that I have added to my lists of intrests and perhaps I might look further into Taiko and see if my college has a taiko club. After the practice I had the opportunity to sit with the other Taiko members and practice my japanese and converse with them - having this opportunity has helped my japanese quite a bit.

My last day in Nou I furiously packed early in the morning (Thur Sept 15) in order to catch the train to Toyama. From there I took the Shinkansen from Toyama to Kyoto. I am really glad to have spent time with my friend Fiona out in the countryside of Nou. This allowed me to experience the country side beyond the city. It was rather nice to be in the midst of other japanese people and not seeing any other foreginers besides Fiona and Myself (and again many people/students thought I was Japanese). But having this opportunity to experience a bit of school life, country life, a bit of japanese culture and time on my own I felt like my trip had been completely enriched.

Some photos I took while in Nou:

Benton Rock (with Feet!)

Typhoon/Tsunami Breakers in the Ocean

Red Tori Gate looking out towards the sea

Stairs on the Island leading towards another Red Tori

On Benton Rock looking out to the sea

Next Post: My long week in Kyoto

Some Photos Finally! From trip to Hokkaido

2005-09-13T08:37:00.002-07:00

A Night view of Sapporo Station

Me and Lake Akan in Akan Kohan

MARIMO! at the Marimo observatory center

A night view of Hakodate city + bay from Mount Hakodate.

To See some more pictures from my Hokkaido trip please click here:
http://photobucket.com/albums/a50/jocyinjapan/Hokkaido/

JIJ Vol 004 - Leaving Hakodate back to Tokyo

2005-09-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

It's a wonderful day today! I am at a webcafe close to Hakodate Station. Hakodate is the first largest city when entering Hokkaido by rail. It is beautiful here! My stay in Hokkaido has had its ups and downs - but like I say - try to make the best of things.

I arrived in Sapporo rather late on Monday night, and I stayed at the Sapporo House hostel very close to the station. I spent most of the night updating my previous email. Then treated myself to Sapporo's famous "Ba-ta Kon" (Butter Corn) Ramen. It was delicious and goes well with Sapporo beer. I spent the rest of the night walking around close to the station because there was a 10pm curfew at the hostel. But when I came back to the hostel I was sharing a room with two girls from Portugal (but live in Austria). So we talked for a while and where they had been and what not and what places to go, what foods to eat.

I left Sapporo early morning and made my way to the industrial port Kushiro which is east of Sapporo. From there I took a bus north to Lake Akan Kohan. The bus ride took 3 hours and on the way I ended up seeing parts of Kushiro (which is definately an industrial town), and then the farms of Hokkaido. It was interesting driving through the farm lands - it was a change of pace for once compared to the urban upbeat in all the major cities.

Arriving at Akan Kohan I spent the late evening visiting the Lake, and then going to Bokke. Bokke is a designated area close to the lake where there was hot volcanic action happening (small scale water boiling). The mud was boiling and you could see steam and the stench of sulfer. You couldn't miss it for miles. It was definately quite a site!

The next day I was supposed to go hiking - but sadly it started raining. It rained all day. Actually the rain came from the travelling Typhoon that had hit Okinawa and Kyushu earlier in the week. Now... when it comes to News I am WELL aware about the Hurricane in New Orleans. But I dont think anyone out in the US knows about how many typhoons japan gets. Actually this one that JUST past was as devistating as the hurricane katrina. a good portion of Kyushu was hit and many houses were lost, roads fell through because of all the rain water and soiling getting washed away. there were 80 - 100 people who were also killed. and this typhoon hit Okinawa, Kyushu, bits of Shikoku and was making its way up to Hokkaido. I had a really hard time sleeping when i was at Akan Kohan in fear of the typhoon. If it would have hit right through Hokkaido - all transportation would stop and I wouldnt be able to get back for quite a while... and the first point it was going to hit was Hakodate which i was heading to the next day.

Trying not to worry - instead of Hiking up Mt. Mekan Dake I ended up taking a boat out to the Marimo Observation Center. Akan Kohan is most famous for their Marimo balls and can only be found at Akan Kohan and no where else in the world. Marimo is actually an interesting alge plant build up that becomes little tiny balls and take about 200 years to grow to the size of a baseball. So After seeing the Observation center, and returning to shore, I took some time to go shopping and bought little Marimos for myself (you can buy little ones in all the gift shops). I spent the rest of the night worrying about the Typhoon.

Lucky enough the day I was to travel to Hakodate the skies had cleared up. When checking out of the hotel - i watched the news on TV and found out that the typhoon nearly missed all of Hokkaido and went further north then projected. It only ended up hitting the very tip of Hokkaido. Though when at Kushiro - the train was actually 20 minutes late... and I realized that if i were to be travelling it would have been a lot slower since most of the rail i were to be travelling on is close to shore. actually the winds were still very high and the waves were VERY rough. you could definately tell the difference in water levels. In one day we got about 200mm of water or so.

I arrived at Hakodate last night and it was a lovely evening. So I checked into the hotel and headed my way to the bus station. I took the bus up to Mount Hakodate and you could see the entire Hakodate bay from the mountain. It was BEAUTIFUL. I highly recomend anyone who visits Hakodate to take the bus up at night.

I spent earlier this morning having seafood at the morning market close to the train station. there is sea food EVERYWHERE and it is definately FRESH and DELICIOUS. Actually - this is the first time since I have arrived in Japan that I have come across "don". I was wondering when i would come across this. Actually it is called Donburi. Donburi is basically a HUGE bowl with rice on the bottom and something on top - it can range from anything like chicken and egg, or tonkatsu, or like this morning i had a seafood donburi which had raw shrimp, raw scallop and cooked crab on top. the great thing is that it came with miso soup and that had crab in it too! the morning market is definately a sight to see - they even have squid that they caught swimming in tanks!

Hakodate has been described to be much like San Francisco and I think it is. There are definate parts of the city where it just felt like San Francisco. There is a lot of history behind this city, and the trading port to other countries - so its definately something important to think about when in Hakodate. There are also cable cars here too! Which i find most amusing. I guess I find it most amusing since I live so close to San Francisco. But I really like Hakodate a lot, if i could i would say a few more days and visit the other strange amusements here. There are many foreign churchs alongside temples and a lot more seafood to taste. But alas, time is short and I will be leaving momentarily to catch the train(s) back to Tokyo. Until another time... I am thankful that Typhoon has passed and that its a bright sunny day today.

Also:
Thank you Burento Sensei (Brent Sensei) for recomending a stop in Hakodate. I love it here.
Thank you Lawrence for your Nihongo - Eigo dictionary it has helped me out so much so far!

JIJ Vol 003 - in Sapporo (Hokkaido)

2005-09-05T03:40:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

I just spend the entire day taking different trains out to Sapporo (on the island of Hokkaido). The weather is definately a lot less humid and I have managed to avoid the Typhoon that is occuring in Kyushu and Okinawa (and heading towards Tokyo!). Tomorrow I will be heading towards Kushiro, and then to Akan Ko (north east of Sapporo).

So... I actually have some internet time right now over at Doutor Coffee (a coffee chain just like starbucks. So I will catch everyone up with the past week or so of travelling.

August 27th me and my friends went up to Nikko. Nikko is somewhat close to Tokyo, better to do in an overnight trip rather than in a day. It is about 2 and a half hours away from Tokyo. We took one of the JR lines out there early in the morning and it is definately a lot cooler than Tokyo. Taking the train to Nikko you could definately see the change in landscape - the mountains, and the huge trees. Once we got to Nikko station we bought a bus pass that took us up to Nikko National Park.

The bus goes up this huge mountain side going from side to side. The name of the mountain road (which i forgot - i will find out later) is based on the ancient japanese syllable sounds marking each turn on the roadside. We arrived around civilization again and we walked to Kegon falls - it is a HUGE waterfall. We paid 500 yen and took the elevator down 100m or so to get closer to the base of the waterfall. It was really misty out there! It was beautiful.

Afterwards we headed back up and started walking to Lake Chuzenji. This lake is actually what comes before the waterfall. It is a huge lake, nice, placid, and full of fish and dragonflies! After resting our feet a bit at Lake Chuzenji - we walked down a few blocks and headed towards a hotel with an onsen. An onsen is basically a hot spring caused by natural volcanic occurances causing hot water and sulfer to come up to the earths surface. we spent quite sometime at the onsen, relaxing and having a good time. Afterwards we got softcream (ice cream? frozen yougurt? its softcream!) and then took the bus back down to Nikko Station. From there we also visited Nikkozan Rinnoji temple - which is also very beautiful and large, and then walked by this huge red bridge (which i cannot remember the name at the moment). Afterwards we took the train and spent the night over at Taka's (my japanese friend) parents house.

The next few days we spent in Tokyo again, doing a lot of shopping. There are tons of great places to go shopping and its definately nothing compared to shopping in the US. There are HUGE buildings and many multifloored stores and sometimes you can't even find the entrance to the elevator to get to those other floors. We spend a few days shopping in Harajuku, Ebisu, Shinjuku, etc.

August 30th we went to Yokohama - the Chinatown of Japan. Its huge and glitzy but definately not cheap compared to San Francisco's Chinatown. It is more like... a tourist trap really. All the Chinese food was so expensive (we didn't eat there). After that we went to see Zozoji Temple, it is very nice and very close to Tokyo Tower. We went to Tokyo Tower and it was definately expensive there too. it was about 840 yen up to the first platform and then another 600 yen to the 250m platform. We didnt go up to the other platform because the sky was a bit too hazy to see much.

August 31st First we went to a huge park in Shinjukku, afterwards we went to the Ghibli museum - the museum of the creators of the classic anime movies Princess Mononoke, My Neighboor Totoro, Spirited Away and a bunch of others. It was definately a place worth going to in terms of the place being amazing and also - it was hard getting tickets. Afterwards we went to Asakusa to visit the temple at night (which uses lighting to an awsome effect) and sushi.

Sept 2nd I spent most of the day in Ueno - famous for Ueno park and the Tokyo National Museum. Definately something to go visit if you want an all around glimpse of Japanese Culture. I also managed to go see the Tang Dynasty Exhibit (Chinese artifcats and such) and an exhibit on Copying, Pasting, and creating artwork and using original paintings and japanese calligraphy to focus on techniques and learning what techniques the original masters had.

Since then I took a break from running around Tokyo and now I am in Hokkaido - ready to embark on another journey. It will probably be a while till i get around to the internet again. I hope everyone is doing great! I shall post again perhaps after I return from Hokkaido.

2005-08-30T03:04:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

it's been quite a long time since i have last written an email. i have to say it is so easy to get so caught up with the busy japanese life. there are so many people out here at all times of the day that i really wonder if everyone is really working. oh well.

The last time I wrote we were in Shibuya - it's very busy out there... a bit too crowded. a huge urban area (well tokyo is a very urban area hehe) and a bit too packed. afterwards we managed to head out to Asakusa and experience a more old traditional japanese style shopping area and then we went to the temple close by. Since that day we had a wild trip.

The past week or so we went to Kyoto to do some sight seeing. Kyoto is really beautiful. the people there are fairly nice and can be quite talkative. in addition people in Kyoto have the "Kansai" accent which is supposedly harder to understand compared to most other people in japan. supposed i have been told that people who live in the southern parts of japan have this accent. however i havent been able to figure out the difference and havent noticed it at all. In kyoto we went to see Nijo castle which is fairly huge. nijo castle is most famous for their "nightengale" floors which creak when you walk over it. theres a special way that the floors have been constructed that when you walk accross you can hear it. the whole castle has these floors to prevent any intruders from entering.

we only had about a day and half in kyoto and we managed to also visit Kyoto tower - which is fairly beautiful and the sight from up on top is amazing. kyoto is really huge! the next day we then headed to TOEI Movieland and got to check out the movie sets that they used for old samurai movies and dramas. they are continuously filming so you can see lights and other movie sets through out the small amusement park. after TOEI movie land we managed to quickly get to Kiyomizu temple - which is HUGE. it is up on top of one of the hills in kyoto and you have to trek up there. the sight is beautiful you can see a great deal of kyoto from there. however, we didnt get to spend much time there because we had to quickly get back to kyoto station to catch the shinkansen back.

we took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya since the next day we planned to go to the Aichi festival. we spent the remaining night in Nagoya and we managed to visit Pokemon Park (Pokepark). Pokepark is actually only set up only for the Aichi festival and will be removed after the aichi expo is over in late september. for those who dont know what Pokemon is - it is a famous japanese cartoon about catching strange moster creatures and using them for battle competitions. it is a cartoon that has influenced the children of japan into a whole lot of cute merchandise and well... an amusement park. we actually had a lot of fun - we did ride a few rides but this was definately expensive. those kids who managed to get to pokepark are really lucky considering the cost of rides averaged about 700 yen a piece.

the next day we packed our bags and stored them in the coin lockers at nagoya station and then managed to navigate our way through the station. we ended up at the nagoya bus station and there we purchased our ticket to the aichi world expo and a round trip bus ride over there. i have to say.... the aichi world expo was impressive... if you actually had a few days there. it was so crowded that we couldnt even see the main attractions. all the huge attractions required getting tickets (that you had to wait in line for) and waiting in line before hand. definately not worth our time. however we did manage to see part of the Mammoth lab and the huge mammoth head they have on display and we also had a chance to see the largest kalidoscope in the entire world. it was beautiful. the theme of the expo was some sort of enviromental natrual living theme and we checked out the "biolung" walk way which were these huge walls full of plant material and misters - it was nice and cool. perhaps i will elaborate more w hen i actually have time. in addition we walked through a bunch of exhibits of a ton of countries and well by the end we actually got sick and tired of how crowded the place got. so we headed back to nagoya station early, purchased a bento box and took the shinkansen home.

Since then we went to Nikko which is close to Tokyo and headed up to the mountains - i think i will talk more about this in my next email. I have written a lot already. I hope everyone has been doing well.

OH! for my parents who requested wondering how much money on average i:ve been spending....

rail tickets around tokyo on average on a full day will cost nearly $10 per a day.

food will cost anywhere from 480 yen up to 1500 yen. the exchange for this is about 100 yen to $1.00 depending on where you go depends on the cost of food. if we go to an izakaya (a place with small appatizer type of food and alcoholic drinks) this will average about $30 a person. Ramen and other noodles on average about 480 - 600 yen. the few times i have had curry cost around 680 - 700 yen. and well lately we have been living off of rice balls and crepes. japanese crepes cost on average 450 yen and rice balls are about 110 a piece. drinks in the vending machines cost about 120 yen up to 150 yen depending on what you are getting. \r\n\r\n \r\nthe great thing about the food out here is that there is no tipping - it is already included which makes calculating things a lot easier. though this also makes food a bit expensive at times.\r\n \r\nokay thats all for now - i will update further on my past trip up to Nikko, and around tokyo in my next post.
rail tickets around tokyo on average on a full day will cost nearly $10 per a day.
food will cost anywhere from 480 yen up to 1500 yen. the exchange for this is about 100 yen to $1.00 depending on where you go depends on the cost of food. if we go to an izakaya (a place with small appatizer type of food and alcoholic drinks) this will average about $30 a person. Ramen and other noodles on average about 480 - 600 yen. the few times i have had curry cost around 680 - 700 yen. and well lately we have been living off of rice balls and crepes. japanese crepes cost on average 450 yen and rice balls are about 110 a piece. drinks in the vending machines cost about 120 yen up to 150 yen depending on what you are getting.

the great thing about the food out here is that there is no tipping - it is already included which makes calculating things a lot easier. though this also makes food a bit expensive at times.

okay thats all for now - i will update further on my past trip up to Nikko, and around tokyo in my next post.

JIJ Vol 001 - First post from japan

2005-08-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

I have arrived safely in Japan a few days ago. Right now I am sittingin an internet type of cafe at HMV CD store out in Shibuya (Tokyoarea). After this my friend Sue and I are planning to go to Ginza,Asakusa and Ueno.The past three days have been really busy and very hot! the air outhere is hot and humid. Yesterday, we went to Odaiba to see Fuji TV,Palette Town, and a few shopping malls.We also went to the beach and touched the pacific ocean from this sideof the world. it was fantastic. what was really fun at the beach waswatching all the fish close to shore make these amazing leaps into theair and then back into the water.the landscape here in japan has been amazing - i kinda wished I hadbrought a botanical book of all the plants in japan but unfortunatelymy luggage has been too heavy.Some of you might know that we (my travelling buddy Sue, and I) areHUGE fans of T.M. Revolution (a japanese pop singer -http://www.tm-revolution.com ) and on Sunday we went to AjinomotoStadium and went to the A-vex nation 2005 summer concert. We listenedto T.M. Revolution sing six songs, and afterwards we went with ourjapanese friends to an Izakaya.an Izakaya is a japanese style resturant where they serve snack typeof foods and alcoholic/non alcoholic drinks. its generally for peopleto gather, eat and drink, and talk a lot. we did this with ourjapanese friends on Saturday night and Sunday night. Then on Mondaywe went to Odaiba as mentioned before, after that we went into Tokyoand hung out at one of the smaller Fuji TV stations to watch T.M.Revolution arrive for his night time radio show "All Night Nippon".So we have been running around like crazy.
i have to say the transportaion is amazing out here... though we tendto get a little lost, we have been managing very well getting out toplaces. so after this we will embark on the rest of todays trip. ihope everyone is doing well and i hope to email soon again. takecare

JIJ VOL 000: Pre-Japan Notification

2005-08-19T02:35:00.000-07:00

So. I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to write again - so this is a pre-journey message for all of those who are reading.

In just a few hours I'll be heading down to San Jose Airport. My flight from San Jose leaves at 7:45AM and will arrive at 8:55AM at Los Angeles Airport. Some may wonder why i'm flying to Los Angeles Airport - but actually I will be saving $100 flying out of LAX. In addition - i have a free one way ticket with southwest - so I don't have to pay any additional fee. Once at LAX, I will be meeting with my friend from New York (we are going to Japan together), we will check in with United International Airlines - my flight will leave at 12:35PM (I also have to get my butt from Terminal 1 to Terminal 7!) and I will arrive at Narita airport at 4:00PM.

I will meet up with my Japanese friend Taka and she will take care of us. She has two weeks planned out for us, and after that I will be solo for 3 weeks. Though I have already planned a general schedule of where I will be going - a cross country trip through Japan and eventually settling down in Fukuoka (where I will be going to school).

My estimated schedule is as follows:
20 Auguest - 23 Auguest Sightseeing in Tokyo
24 Auguest Morning Go to Nagoya Sightseeing Aichi Expo
25 Auguest P/M Go to Kyoto
26 Auguest Sightseeing in Kyoto
Back to Tokyo
27 Auguest Go to Nikko Sightseeing Nikko
28 Auguest Back to Tokyo
29 Auguest Sightseeing in Tokyo
30 Auguest Go to Kamakura Sightseeing in Kamakura
31 August - 4 September - Stay in Tokyo
5 September - Go to Hotadake and Sapporo
6 September - go to Akan kohan
7 September - Hiking at Mekan (close to Akan kohan)
8 September - Return to Sapporo
9 September - Return to Tokyo
10 September - 14 September - Go to Nou, Sightseeing in Niigata perfecture
15 September - 21 September - Go to Kyoto, sightseeing
22 September - 25 September - go to Osaka, more sight seeing
26 September - Go to Kyushu, move into dormitory

While in Nou I will be visiting with my friend Fiona who is currently teaching english there. Also - somewhere between Kyoto and Osaka I will visit my friend Catherine who will also be studying abroad at the same time. I hope to visit as many gardens, take as many photos and be comepletely engrossed in the whole Urban atmosphere. As for now - I bid adieu. I've got to turn this laptop off and pack it away.

Introductionary Post

2005-06-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I've started another Journal. This will be for friends, family, and well others who happen to stumble onto this page. This Journal will include my documentation on preparation for the Trip to Japan, the actual trip, and other things that come along. Hopefully people will enjoy this journal. I'll be leaving August 19th 2005 with my friend Sue and we'll be flying to Narita Airport (leaving LAX at 12:30) and arriving in Tokyo around 4:00PM. See you soon!