Sunglasses At Night (In The City Of Blinding Lights)

Autumn has just blown into Japan on the back on a very windy day, and with it came our first overnight trip since coming to Japan exactly one month ago. Osaka: city of food. After school on Friday we bought our train tickets and set off for Osaka. We arrived at the hostel around 8, dropped our things and headed straight for Dotonbori. Dotonbori, in case you are unaware, is basically the most famous restaurant district in Japan. There is a Japanese proverb that, roughly translated, says, "In Kyoto, one goes broke from shopping. In Osaka, one goes broke from food." (Doesn't it look cool in Japanese: 京の着倒れ、大阪の食い倒れ). Well, that proverb couldn't be more true for Osaka (here's hoping I can control myself in Kyoto). We ate until we dropped. Takoyaki, okonomiyaki, udon, crepes! (Are you hungry yet?) The food was amazing, but more amazing still was Dotonbori itself. All night long, Dotonbori is in the midst of daytime thanks to the enormous neon signs that light the way around you. Like a kind of futuristic Darwinism, it's survival of the biggest and brightest. The streets are so lit up that the night sky above looks completely out if place. It's very strange to be in a restaurant on the 7th floor of a building (in Japan there are 10 story buildings where each level is a different restaurant- it's really quite common) where there are no windows and as you walk out onto a seemingly sunlit street you look up to the sky to find it is stark black. Dotonbori, despite its glaring neon signs, has really a unique kind of beauty- the kind that some might argue is shared with the likes of New York or Las Vegas. The neon signs are well matched with the bustling crowds, street vendors yelling "irasshaimasseeeeeee," giant, robotic crabs, uniformed waiters frantically shoving flyers into your hands and drunken party-goers stumbling around, and yet is contrasted so peculiarly by a serene canal that runs alongside the main stretch from which Dontonbori takes its name. But besides being fascinating, Dontonbori is undoubtedly a very fun place to be.
After a successful first night, we woke up late the next day, ate the best udon I have ever had and headed to the seaside to Osaka Aquarium. I have only been to one other aquarium but it pales in comparison to this one. Said to be one of the best in the world, Osaka Aquarium is arranged around one HUGE tank that houses two whales sharks, manta rays (my particular favourite), hammerhead sharks, black and white tipped sharks, other rays, sawfish, and much, Much, MUCH more! As you wind down through the aquarium around this tank, there are displays of all sort of other sea creatures around you, too. Seals, dolphins, penguins, capybaras, eels, sea lions, otters, giant spider crabs (aliens, I suspect), and millions of species of fish. I loved every second of it. And, as if getting to watch a ray float around gracefully in front of me for the first time wasn't great enough, I was surprised at the end to find there was a tank in which you could touch stingrays! I just about spontaneously combusted with excitement and happiness. If you have ever seen what a ray's face (well, a sort of face anyway on their underside) looks like then you will know why I love them so much. Such silly looking faces, I can't but laugh even now just picturing them. Google it. You won't be sorry.
After the aquarium (after I dragged myself out of it, that is), Sean and I rode on the world's largest Ferris Wheel which offers a spectacular view of Osaka right over to the neighbouring prefecture of Kobe. Then it was back towards the hostel with a quick stop at Osaka Castle. Well, it was intended to be quick, but it was so gorgeous we wandered around for a while. It looks a bit like Nagoya Castle only surrounded by more trees than tourists (and the trees are just starting to change colour- beautiful!).
Later, we met with Sean's friend who took us to another izakaya restaurant which was a lot of fun. We traded some culture over a couple bottles of sake. Drinking warm sake in an izakaya- doesn't get more Japanese than that (although my friends told me yesterday that sake is mainly drunk by older people so we probably looked a bit strange ordering it...Oh well, I don't regret it).
Our final day in Osaka, Sean's friend took us to a great okonomiyaki restaurant followed by a little shopping- a kitchen store so John could buy a very professional Japanese cooking knife, the Hello Kitty store for me (what did you expect?!). Then it was back on the train home.
Oh, Osaka. What a place! It is a major tourist town so most of the waiters and merchants can speak some English (I was both relieved and insulted when we were handed English menus right off the bat though). I think once may have been enough though. The crowds were more than I expected. I'd image living there would be similar to walking back from the fireworks in English Bay in the summer, everyday. Too much for me to handle.
Tuesday we threw a Halloween Party at school complete with costumes (I'll give you three guesses as to what I was dressed as...), pumpkin carving, copious amounts of candy and a scary movie. I can't even begin to describe how much fun it was, just imagine all those things plus a room full of Japanese girls who have never really experienced Halloween before. Endless laughter.
I'll miss Halloween with my friends this year, but I'm sure I'll have fun anyway. I'm glad I got to carve a pumpkin. :-)

So long for now and have a Happy Halloween!!

Kampai!

Britt

I miss green apples with peanut butter.

Memoirs of a Geisha (Well, Not Really...)

I may have just missed an annual Canadian/American tradition (Thanksgiving) but I just experienced my first real Japanese tradition: the school festival. Every year in Japan, many schools from nursery schools to universities hold cultural festivals called "bunkasai." At my university, students got together in groups and organized either a shop, or food stand or games, performances, ect. It turned out sort of like the Richmond Night Market, only in the day and more fun. My group did a "free market" (I think they meant Flea Market considering they were selling old clothes and things but I didn't correct them). Sean, John and my job was to basically attract people to our shop (which wasn't a bad idea really seeing as everyone looks at us anyway, we may as well be used for marketing purposes). But just in case we alone weren't enough to attract customers, Sean and I were put into Yukatas (see photo: sort of like a kimono, only cotton and not as heavy). Man, I thought people stared before but this was ridiculous! People stared, girls yelled out "KAWAIIIII" and people asked to take photos with me and Sean. It was hilarious for a while until I got very hot and tired of shuffling around (its very hard to take big steps in those things) not to mention very uncomfortable with everyone looking at me. But, all in all, the festival was fun. Our group didn't do overly well, but at the end of the day the girls wanted to to make me look more Japanese so they kept making me try on the unsold clothes which were very cool, but completely not my style (as if Canadians really have any style to being with). I really do not understand Japanese fashion, but they kept telling me that things were "kawaii" and made me take a heap of clothes. I kept insisting on paying (mainly because the money was going to go towards a night out for all of us at an izakaya) but they wouldn't let me. So by the end of the day, I'd bought a big lunch, a back massage, a tea ceremony and a pile of clothes all for about $15. And that was just Saturday!
Sunday, I met with a wonderful Japanese woman (a friend of my host mother) who will be taking me and my host mother to a place called Koya-san next month. We went over details of the trip and how much it would cost me and then we started talking about Japanese Buddhism and the history of this place. It is fascinating. It is on top of of mountain and the heart and soul of Japanese Buddhism. There are many Buddhist temples (one of which I will be staying in overnight) and a very famous graveyard where any and every major Buddhist in Japan is buried. There are many specific things that you must do at the temples and graveyards though, so it was important that we went over them. I really can't wait to go.
After tea, I returned to the festival to watch some of the live shows followed by a lottery game in which packets of mochi (japanese dessert: sooooo good) with a number on the back are thrown into the audience and then numbers are drawn for prizes. We didn't win anything but it was fun anyway. After that were the fireworks and then an after-party with our friends.
Monday, was a holiday on account of the clean-up that needed to be done after the festival so I took the opportunity to go to Nagoya and finally find the Cat Cafe. A Cat Cafe is (very obviously a Japanese invention) a place where one pays to play with cats. It sounds strange but I loved it. These places are built specifically for people like me who love cats but are without them for any number of reasons. There were about 20-25 cats including 2 kittens! As weird as this may sound, I had the time of my life. If you don't love cats, you can't understand.
I think I have accomplished everything that I wanted to do in Nagoya. Now on to Osaka!

I think by the end of this trip my Japanese will be much better but my English will be much worse...

Britt-chan

I miss bad family channel Halloween movies played on repeat all month. Especially Beetlejuice...which isn't bad at all.

Castles (Oh! You Pretty Things)

Things I noticed about Japan this week:
1. There are no stars. I think Honshu may just be the cause of all the world's light pollution.
2. The streets are impeccably clean but garbage cans are few and far between. Whoever is paid to clean up garbage in this country is doing a fantastic job.
3. Not all Japanese music is bad 90's pop.

Oh my, what a week. After school last week, our friends took us to our (my?) first kaiten sushi restaurant. It. was. awesome. I don't know if I can ever eat sushi again unless it comes on a conveyor belt. But, not only does it come by on a conveyor belt, you can also order anything you want off a small touch screen TV at your table at which point it drives itself to you on a small train straight from the kitchen. I don't know if you can picture that but, trust me, it is cool. After the restaurant, we went bowling. Always fun. The next day we went to kaiten sushi again (with our other group of friends who we had originally planned on going with before the previous day's events had presented themselves) and then shopping. I won't go into too much detail with the shopping save to say it's cheap and everything is unique. We finished off the day at Cold Stone Creamery where they sing to you while they make your ice cream. True story.
Saturday it poured with rain. This wasn't the kind of rain that we Vancouverites pretend we can brave (all the time secretly miserable)-- this was "if I take my umbrella out in that, it will crush under the weight of this tropical storm" rain. So, I spent the day inside reading and taking it easy.
Sunday and Monday were dedicated to sightseeing. I finally went back to Nagoya and went to Nagoya Castle which I was happy to have missed before because now there is a whole new exhibition going on with live shows and VERY famous old Japanese artwork. Nagoya Castle is very interesting. It is one of the most beautiful castles in Japan from the outside but actually, the original castle burned down in WW11 so it was rebuilt for the modern tourist complete with elevator and air conditioning. Everything about the castle was fascinating (owing very much to the English speaking tour guide I found who offered her services absolutely free- really, she wouldn't accept a dime!).
Monday, Sean's host parents took us to Inuyama Castle- the oldest castle in Japan and a national treasure. It was gorgeous and a lot more of a real, old castle feel than Nagoya Castle. After the castle we went to Monkey Park. It is exactly how it sounds. Well, kind of. It is a kind of monkey zoo. Tons and tons of different species of monkeys. You couldn't hold them but you can get very close to the lemmings and spider monkeys. Very cute. Awful smell. Following Monkey Park was a bit more sightseeing in Nagoya and dinner in Kariya and shopping for supplies at the 100yen store (Japanese dollar store) for the Halloween party we are throwing at school.
Went back to Nagoya briefly today on a failed mission to find the illusive Japanese Cat Cafe then went to school to paint our banner for the school festival this weekend. After that, we and our friends went to a traditional Japanese Izakaya restaurant. I won't get into the details here, but I will say it was fun. ;)

Oh dear, last night was my first decent sleep so far and now my host host mother tells me there is a cockroach somewhere in the house. So much for sleeping...

Short update this time. I'm happy to tell longer stories if you want to chat on Skype!

じゃあまた！

Britt ♥

I miss Edgemont Village in autumn.

Where The Streets Have No Name (Because All The Signs Are In Japanese)

One week gone, 17 left. Adaptation is easy, it's what comes next that's hard. I'm already used to the daily routine (get up at 6, breakfast at 6:30, shower if I didn't the night before, get ready while talking to people on Facebook and Skype, walk to the train, transfer to the bus, class, lunch, class, bus, train, home, dinner, homework, shower, sleep) but now it's all about making time to do things and meet people. We've met a ton of people at school (well actually only girls because at this university girls outnumber guys about 50:1) who are more than happy to take us around. We've already got plans for the next 3 weekends. Making conversation is hard but so far everyone is equally struggling with each others' language so it's working out slowly but surely. Our classes at school are great. We take grammar, conversation, writing, history, and popular culture (the last two are taught in English) and have each joined separate clubs and classes. I joined an aerobics class (zuiikin english anyone?) and the running and guitar club. We also help teach three English language classes and it is hilarious. The classes are full of girls save for maybe 6 boys in total across all three classes so needless to say, Sean and John are celebrities. Don't worry, I am famous too (something about how I am kawaii...?). Anyway, school is great so far.
Last Friday night, my host mother took me to a club she attends. She called it 'Hippo Club' and said the kids were coming so I thought it was some kind of kids thing but was not even close. Basically, it is a place where parents (mostly mothers) go and bring their kids who mainly go play with each other while the parents stand around and learn languages. The learn about 15 languages at once, not kidding. They play these tapes which repeat the same conversation in about 12 languages and they stand in a circle and repeat what the tape says. They learn English, Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Russian, Spanish, French, German, and Italian. So, because I was the special guest, I had to introduce myself in Japanese (which I am getting very good at) and English, then they introduced themselves in English and whatever other language they wanted to practice. It was crazy. Apparently this group also organizes homestays for their kids so many of the kids had been to Russia or America or China, Korea, whatever. And the oldest kid was only 14!! Some of the kids that went to Russia were 9! That is so young for a homestay! I would never have been brave enough to do that when I was 9. They want me to go back every week. Who knows, maybe I'll pick up a word or two in a couple other languages...
On Saturday, Sean, John and I went to Nagoya. I went to Atsuta Shrine which is 1900 years old (but you wouldn't know it- it looks brand new) and saw like four weddings happening at once. We got Ramen for lunch (yup, real Japanese ramen- Aaron if you are reading this, I'd send it back home to you if I could, you need to eat it) and walked through what looked like a shady market place which turned out to be really cool and had a bunch of hidden shrines in it (shrines are absolutely everywhere and so pretty!). Then we walked to Nagoya Castle which unfortunately was closing when we got there but was cool anyway (and I'll definitely go back). Here's a crazy story: Just past Nagoya Castle, we saw this really cool looking gateway so we walked through it but all that was on the other side was a parking lot. Then I saw a little kitty. I followed the kitty to a secret hidden cat town! I swear this is true! There were all these little kitty homes made of boxes in the bushes and tons of kitties!! It was all around a shrine-type thing and there was food and water so someone obviously takes care of these cats. They were very scared though and wouldn't let me pet them and some only had half of their tails. My theory, after a lot of unsuccessful research, is that these are stray cats that people take care of so that they won't die and become ghost cats and haunt them (for more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakeneko). It sounds crazy but I think that's what it is. Turns out, actually, there are a ton of stray cats here! (but none are very friendly ;_;) On Friday night, the Nagoya baseball team won the championship so we expected there to be a lot of partying going on. We never found it. In fact, for a town with a population greater than Vancouver, we didn't see a whole lot of people at all. Turns out everyone hangs out underground. Seriously. Japanese cities have tons of underground malls that have shops, restaurants, bars, everything! We found one earlier, actually, but it didn't have any bars so we didn't think to look in one later when we were looking for a good bar.So our evening was relatively chill (besides riding on a huge Ferris Wheel in the middle of downtown and visiting a bus station that you go up on the roof and there is water and it's all lit up (it's cooler than it sounds!). It's very hard to know where things are and when things close when you can't read any signs....
Sunday we went to a barbecue for international students where we met tons of people who have been here for a while and who agreed to show us around Nagoya and take us to kaiten sushi (conveyor belt sushi) nomihodai (all you can drink!) and some other cool places. I also plan on hitting up a cat cafe next time I'm in Nagoya ;). The barbecue was fun besides having to play really dorky games in the middle of a park to get to know each other (Head and Shoulders, Rock Paper Scissors, the like...). It was a little embarrassing... Also at the barbecue, my host brother caught the biggest praying mantis I have ever seen in my life. It was terrifying. He brought it home with us in the car. It died this morning. (Thank god- it was soooooo gross.)
After the barbecue, my host family and I went to my host father's father's grave. It's really cool, the stuff they do at graves. They collect water from the cemetery well and re-fill the vases with water and fresh flowers, light incense and each do a little prayer with special beads around their hands. They asked me to pray. I wasn't really sure what I was doing but I thought it was nice that they included me. :)
Today, we stopped by Okazaki Castle on the way home from school. It was smaller than Nagoya Castle but still cool. And there were more stray cats although none were friendly. :( There was a museum inside with real Samurai armor and weapons. In Japan, there is at least one really cool thing on every block.

Japan is a crazy place. It is exactly how you picture it. Stereotypes and all. Japanese people are so quiet and reserved until they come out of their shell, then they are crazy! Japanese-game-show crazy! I have seen so many things already that I thought were just stereotypes. Today, I saw koi in a pond. I've seen choreographed dancing in a public area. I've seen what seems like thousands of people crowded into train stations, girls dressed in full geisha outfits, girls in schoolgirl outfits with Playboy bunnies on their socks, super fast trains, cute cartoon animals advertising everything, smoking inside restaurants, religious ceremonies in Shinto temples, and some of the craziest fashion you can imagine.
Toilets are probably one of the strangest things in this country. You'll be walking down the sidewalk on a busy street and there will be a public washroom. No door, just urinal, staring you in the face (the ladies room has a door). Ladies public toilets are literally a hole in the ground. And never any paper towel or hand dryers in washrooms. Always sinks but nothing to dry your hands with. The toilets in private washrooms require a degree in rocket science to know how to use all the functions. There is no middle-ground in this country. Just polar opposites. Medieval toilets or toilets from the distant future.
Bugs here are shockingly enormous and I have 37+ mosquito bites (currently- there is a mosquito in my room now that I can't catch who'll get me tonight, guaranteed) that itch like mad. Hornets here are the size of my thumb and spiders are big, skinny and green. Needless to say, I don't sleep well.

That's all for this week. I'll do Nagoya right this weekend.

Gotta work on my small-talk for my friends at school (luckily one speaks very good English and helps translate for me).
Gambatte as the Japanese say!

So long from the other side of the Pacific!

Britt


I miss cereal.