JIJ Vol. 014 Summer is Over...

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!

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

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!

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.

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[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. ^_^