In an effort to distract myself from growing homesickness, I have made it my goal to keep myself perpetually busy and it seems I have more than succeeded. In fact, I have plans for every weekend until January. Last Saturday, while John and Sean were both doing some solo traveling, I made it my goal not to spend the day suffering through my homesickness at my host-home. Instead I went to a movie with my host mother and brothers. I knew I would not be able to understand the movie but I did not have any other plans and my host mother told me that this was an award winning movie. (It was called Genpin, if you are interested. I won't tell you about it so look it up if you want to know what it's all about. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.) Japanese movie theatres are kind of cool. They are seated and you choose your seats when you buy your tickets. They also sell churros which I loved- it was like being at the fair. Earlier in the week, one of my teachers gave me tickets to see the Century Chamber Orchestra in Toyota because I expressed my love for classical music. I had two tickets and, seeing as both Sean and John were out of town (and I get lost easily), I offered one to my host mother which she gratefully accepted. Unfortunately, my host father was working in the evening on Saturday so the children had to come as well. So, after the movie we grabbed lunch and suffered through traffic all the way from Okazaki to Toyota. It would not have been a problem if the children had not slept through the drive but, when we arrived at the concert, the kids were wide awake and in no mood to sit through a 40 minute symphony. I don't blame them, I would not have wanted to either at that age, however, the people around us were a bit annoyed at the children talking and bouncing in their seats. It was a bit awkward especially when they asked my host mother to take the baby outside after the first piece and I was left with my two other host brothers (ages 5 and 7) to take care of. (It's very hard to explain to children why they need to be quiet when you don't speak their language). But, for the most part, I enjoyed the orchestra.
On Sunday, Sean and I (John was still traveling) went to Tajimi in Gifu Prefecture to meet with Yamaguchi-sensei who wanted to take us around Tajimi and Seki to see some interesting things. (By the way, the train ride from Aichi Prefecture to Gifu Prefecture was gorgeous. You pass through mountains and numerous tunnels to get there.) Our first stop was the sword and knife museum in Seki where the traditional sword-making ceremony would be performed. Seki is renowned for being the greatest producer of cutlery in the world as well as for it's sword-making. You can see the traditional sword-making ceremony on only 6 days each year so we were very fortunate to be able to see it. It really amazes me how many traditions Japan has kept. Katana have been made in this exact same way for 1200 years so I was very thankful to have been able to witness the ceremony. Afterward, we browsed some cutlery stores before heading to the Enku Museum. In order to get to the Enku Museum, you must walk through a bamboo forest. It was so beautiful it felt like I was dreaming. On the other side of the forest where the museum was, it was so peaceful, too. There is no better location for a museum like this. Enku, was a Buddhist priest who, throughout his life, carved over 100,000 images of Buddha. He traveled all around Japan doing this but the majority of the statues are in Gifu Prefecture, hence the museum. The carvings were amazing but, unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures. I will tell you that my favourite was a large Buddha that was found floating down a river after a flood that looked oddly similar to a statue of the Virgin Mary. I thought that one was the most interesting. Next was a quick stop at a pottery museum and then a looooooong wait for Sushi Ro (a famous kaiten-sushi restaurant). There were more people than I have ever seen waiting to get a table at this restaurant! There must have been 30 parties ahead of us (and this was the second Sushi Ro we stopped at- the other was too full too!). Luckily, kaiten-sushi is pretty quick as meals go so we waited about 40 minutes (it was worth it).
Wednesday, Sean and I skipped school to go to Nara. We were given permission to do so on account of the fact that the famous Shoso-in treasures were being shown only for 2 more days, so if we didn't go then we would have missed them. We got the bus early in the morning and arrived in Nara at about 10:30. My Japan guide book has a great walking tour mapped out of Nara Park (henceforth referred to as Nara-koen) which we had decided to follow. Nara was absolutely incredible and definitely my favourite place in Japan so far! It is a large city but has a much calmer atmosphere than that of Osaka (it reminded me a Vancouver a bit). Many people had told me that Nara-koen is full of deer but I did not expect this. Right away as we neared the park there was a deer standing in the middle of the sidewalk with people just casually walking by. As I got closer I saw another deer, and then another, and then another just casually standing around a little old Japanese woman selling 'deer crackers' at a cart. In Canada, a deer will run away the second you get anywhere close to it so I did not expect these deer to not even flinch as I slowly stepped closer and closer. Finally, I reached out (half expecting the deer to suddenly raise it's head and bite me) and touched the deer on the head. It looked at me and didn't move. I was thrilled!! I went and bought some crackers from the Japanese woman and fed my new friend when suddenly I was surrounded by about five deer all nudging me and biting my coat! I gave each deer a cracker moved away quickly. There are literally tens of thousands of deer in this park and, cracker or no cracker, you can just walk up to them and pet them (usually they give you this look that says, "alright now where's my cracker?") They are so cute! It's like a gigantic petting zoo! I could talk all day about these deer but instead I'll move on. First stop on our walking tour was Kofuku-ji and my first Japanese pagoda. There was another museum here showing a limited time display so we decided to check it out and boy am I glad we did! It was amazing. Tons of wooden statues of Buddhas, priests, Buddhist deities including a gigantic 1000-armed statue of Buddha, a national treasure. (definitely not 1000 arms, I counted.) It was amazing. Everything in this museum was stunning. Next was the Nara National Museum for the Shoso-in exhibit. It paled in comparison to what we had just seen. Yes, everything was from the 6th century from when Nara was the capital of Japan, but it all just looked like old, rotting, broken stuff. The only thing of any interest was a beautiful biwa (lute) inlaid with mother-of-pearl and amber. Although, after a 30 minute line-up to get into the museum and a 15 minute line-up to see the biwa, I was not so impressed with this museum. Besides deer, Nara-koen is absolutely littered with temples and shrines. We must have stopped at at least 20 before we decided that it would take too long to stop at every one. We did make a long stop at Todai-ji Temple, home to the famous Daibutsu statue (gigantic wooden Buddha), which was amazing. I could go on and on about Nara, I really loved it, but I won't bore you (this is getting a bit long as it is). I am going back to Nara at the end of December so I can visit with the deer and Buddhas again. :-)
As you can see, it's day trips galore. And I have so many coming up I really feel like I do need eight days in a week. It's a good thing though. The busier I am, the less time I have to think about home. It's strange to miss home and not miss it at the same time...
I should mention the other great news from this week. I was given a bike by the school. It's not necessary, but I love it all the same. It is pink and has a basket and a bell (I'd be jealous too). It takes me about the same time to get to school when I park it at a station close to school but I love riding it so much that I plan to ride it to school often. Finally the vision I had of myself riding my bike through the streets of Japan is coming to life. (All I need now is my school girl uniform).
That might be all for now...I'm not sure anymore, I am lost in thoughts of my bike...and now of Vancouver....and now of everyone I'll miss at Christmas....oh dear, I need go find something to do.
Until next time,
Brittany
I miss walking dogs.
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