Update: Part 1
So, since I was tired and had no access to internet...I didn't get this up yesterday. But it's going up now!
May 13, 2006 (Saturday); Asuka’s room, Fukuyama House, Kyoto, Japan; 9 p.m or so.
I like this bed. I really do, and that’s about the best excuse I can come up with for why I was rushing out the door this morning with an orange and a half to eat on the train for breakfast. I really need to fix that - but all the bad habits are the hardest to break, of course.
Haruyo-san drove me and then rushed to buy me a ticket. She went on ahead so fast that I didn’t have time to tell her that I knew how to buy one and was planning on it. I really should have tried harder to tell her, but she just kept moving on ahead and my brain was too busy trying to keep track of her to think of the words to say. Too late now, I guess.
The ride wasn’t bad and I even managed to keep myself pretty clean despite eating the oranges. They and I have a strange relationship. I’ve been eating a lot more of them recently - Haruyo always has at least two or three in the fruit bowl at the table - and no matter to how she cuts them I always manage to get some of the juice on my hands. Or have the hardest time breaking them open. I wonder if they know what fate is ahead of them and are trying to fight back. Either way, I keep winning.
Travis had said that he would meet me at the train station, since I had been slightly out of hearing range yesterday to find out what the exact plan was. But when I got to the Fushimiinari station (which is a whole lot smaller than the ones I live near) nobody was there. Well, no one I knew at least. But I dinked around for a few minutes and then saw Meghan coming my way. She’d almost taken a wrong train and so was delayed a few minutes. We then waited and soon saw Travis (he was coming from the opposite direction - his host family lives in Uji) and then waited a few minutes for Andy. We decided that we weren’t sure if he was coming or not, since he’d been debating going today or on Tuesday.
But we followed the signs to Fushimiinari and lo and behold - there was Andy. He’d taken a bus there and so he’d gotten there far earlier than the rest of us. We met up at 9:30 or so. It was really wet that day and we all had umbrellas, but since it was so rainy that meant that less people were crowding the place. It’s really a little disturbing to see how many people can fit into these temple sites - especially how many different kinds of school uniforms (seifuku) you can recognize.
My pants were too long, so no matter to how I rolled them up, they kept falling down and then got soaked and bogged down. And by the end of the day, my soaks were entirely soaked, my pants were nasty, and my feet were squishing on occasion. Gross.
But wow. Just wow. It was huge there. For the uninformed, Fushimiinari is the place where they filmed the scene with Saiyuri (pre-Geisha) running through the red Tori gates. I really wish it had been drier, but just wow. They just didn’t stop! And there were fox statues everywhere. We wandered and Travis asked one of the shopkeepers towards the end just what was up with all of them. She said that the fox is God’s messenger, so they put the foxes by the shrines (which I swear there are a thousand, maybe two thousand of) so their prayers can be delivered without fail. Makes perfect sense when you know what they mean. But there weren’t just foxes, there were dogs - the ones that look like the Chinese lion or something - and huge frogs/toads.
The thing you don’t know about the huge line of Tori gates is this - a lot of them are built into a mountain, and thus, there are many stairs and hills. We went up a lot of them, but three of us were semi-impaired. Andy’s not in the best of shape and while he has been losing weight here, he wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of climbing a mountain. Meghan’s right knee had been jolted really hard on a bike ride and was still numb from a cold pack thing (going down stairs was the strangest thing for her) and I’m constantly pushing my body to the limit. I thought I walked a lot in Provo, but I was wrong. I ride my bike all the time here and walk just about everywhere else. Thus, my legs and rear are probably getting stronger, but the process hurts. Plus my wet pant legs were making me start to feel miserable.
But we trudged through a lot of it and there are tons of niches with hundreds of little shrines dotting the hillside. I made a little forty second video just to show how many there were and I don’t think I covered even half of them in that one. Wow, it’s just overwhelming.
On our way back - we started to return at about 11 - we passed little gift shops and I couldn’t help but admire the little stuffed foxes and everything. I admit it, I became a fox addict (once again) with all the fox statues and just all of it. Andy wears this little vest to store everything in and is very loud and blaringly American, but he’s a very sweet guy. And we all try our best - at least I know Meghan and I do - to be nice to him, no matter to how much his presence can grate. But he was thinking of getting his little sister a stuffed fox and then smiled and grabbed two to buy. I wasn’t watching too closely and while I suspected that one of them was for me - he’d asked me when my birthday was - I couldn’t be sure.
Turns out I was right.
I squeed, danced across the train tracks, and actually hugged him. And he keeps calling me Senpai. It’s rather endearing - plus I guess it’s fun to be recognized as a superior. He’s older than me, but I have a hard time thinking of those in the lower class as my age or even older. I guess Japanese has just been in my life for so long that I can’t fathom how other people don’t know certain things. Just wish it meant I was an ace at it, too. Just more reason for me to work harder, I guess.
Andy was planning on heading home after that, but the next bus didn’t come for another hour, so we went to a Pan-ya for lunch and he ate with us before heading back to the bus stop and we got our train tickets. I got a strudel type thing with strawberries and cream on top, melon pan with some apricot/peach(?) filling, and a cream filled one with chocolate and powdered sugar on top. And did I mention that I had strawberry milk, too? Oh, so good!
The train ride was fun, though we had a bit of an adventure during it. Travis knew the way - we were heading to his “home town” and all, but we were too busy talking and happened to miss our stop by one. Of course, this next stop had to be one where you had to go to a completely separate station to go the other way, but he explained (it’s good to have a Japanese speaking RM with you) our situation to the train conductor and he got us a stamp on our ticket that let us not have to buy more of them (a good thing, since they were going towards 400 yen each) and we hiked our way over to the other station. It was a lot further apart than we had assumed, but we got on all right and then transferred trains at the right place and got to Uji. But not before we got on after a bunch of high school girls who tried to speak English to us - or at least call out a random word or two. Travis replied with a very Japanese sounding “Good English” and we all laughed about it. Before they could harass us more - Meghan heard them talking about us amongst themselves - or we could let on that we understood them, another group got on and blocked the way. I still think it was amazingly hilarious.
But onto Uji. It’s a gorgeous city, smaller than Kyoto (I think?) but so pretty. And they even have a bridge that’s the one that Ukifune from Genji Monogatari (Tales of) jumped off of. Apparently it was rebuilt and expanded ten years ago, but they all still consider it the same 1,000 plus year old bridge. We all sort of snigger at that. Got to the Genji Monogatari museum without too much trouble, but it was a lot less impressive than I’d hoped. There was a movie to watch and it had bunraku puppets depict the last part of the book, where Ukifune comes in and romantic drama is everywhere. They had given us headphones so we could hear it in English (British English, at that) but Travis wanted to test his prowess and only Meghan and I used them.
I ended up telling him what had gone on in a rather rambling sort of method - my usual - and he got the basic gist after that. I think I always have the hardest time shortening romantic tales especially, though I was a little more than creeped out at the situations the poor girl was put in. And the whole Ukifune getting the hots for Prince Nioh because of his scent thing? Makes me sorta shudder. But if it works, I guess you should go for it, right?
We went to the Byoodoin after that and I felt smart for once. All three of us have taken Japanese 301, but I’m the only one who still has to retake it - I’m pretty sure both of them passed it - and I was the one to remember why Wisteria are important. *preens* The Fujiwara family got their name from plotting with people in a Wisteria garden and ta-da! Go me listening sometimes.
The landscaping was gorgeous, as was the architecture. Travis and I often have conversations about how we could take up an entire day just observing and documenting Japanese architecture. The actual building was huge and I think it’s either the oldest or one of the oldest wooden buildings in Japan. Or maybe it’s the biggest. Shoot, I think it might be the oldest. Best left for someone better with facts, methinks.
We wandered and enjoyed things and even got a nice Japanese man to take our group picture. I think I chose well, he seemed to be the photographer type by what kind of camera he was using before that and the picture turned out really well. Huzzah!
After that, we went looking for what Travis thought was the oldest jinja in Japan. Or a really old one at least. We didn’t manage to find it, but we did wander some smaller ones and they were both really pretty. And neither one cost anything to enter. Meghan actually commented on it - the jinja never cost an entry fee, and the tera do. Hm. Curious. (Shinto versus Buddhist.) We crossed the Uji river again via some older looking and cooler bridges and laughed over the “zeeri” drink Travis bought. We all tried it and we got some pictures of us with it. The stuff was seriously jello in a can. And we laughed much. And I shuddered as I listened to him slurp it up. But my Peach water? So good. And Meghan said her “Milk Shake” drink was really good, too. Plus the can was amusing.
It’s a little sad that you realize you buy things just because the writing on it makes you laugh. But we’re visiting, we can be dumb tourists on occasion.
But the day was closing and Travis walked us back to the train station and Meghan and I got on without any trouble. At the final train station, Meghan took a smaller train to her house and I was supposed to call home. I had figured out which bus to take and how to get home with Meghan’s help (I’d only taken bike and car from this area, so…yeah), so I called home like I said I would and managed to get across that I would be okay on this route homeward.
The bus didn’t come for a while and I ended up asking for a little help from a lady and she got on the same smaller bus. It was just the two of us and we ended up talking for a while. She complimented my Japanese, even said that me waving my hand in front of my face proved that I was good at it (because only a Japanese person would do it) and I found out she’d been on a car tour from New York to Los Angeles. I managed to have a pretty good conversation and even found my bus stop with a little guidance. (I live two minutes walking time from Kitaoji dori Station, just in case you were curious.) The bus stop turns out to be just a little past my street, so I knew perfectly well how to get home.
After getting off, I saw a flower shop and had been trying to think of something to get Haruyo for Mother’s Day and just had found my solution. I looked around for a bit and asked for advice on which ones were best. The owner suggested red carnations and I got three of them. He wrapped them up all pretty and I imagine that I paid too much, but oh well. (Three carnations for 600 yen?) She did buy my train ticket, right? I got home all right and presented them to her, (she was thrilled) and I promptly changed into other pants. They kept offering to let me take a shower, but I turned them down. It was only my feet and lower legs that were cold, I’d be fine. And I was, though I kept rubbing my feet together in the hopes that they’d feel a little less funny.
Dinner was good - gyoza, cabbage, and terikyaki chicken. I found out why the cabbage here is so amazingly good. There are two types and this one is “Haru Kyabitsu” (Spring Cabbage). I’m going to look for this in America - trust me. We discussed how American gyoza was fatter and more meat filled and then Asuka and finally Katsuichiro got home. Asuka brought home some American food and Haruyo asked me to read the instructions for Jello last night. I had to look up what the conversion rate was for cups and cubic centimeters, but other than I, I was able to do it. With some hand waving. To think I don’t know the word for “stir”. Heh. I dinked around a bit more and finally went to bed at too late of an hour after a shower.
Lots of love and I miss you all,
bel/bobo
May 13, 2006 (Saturday); Asuka’s room, Fukuyama House, Kyoto, Japan; 9 p.m or so.
I like this bed. I really do, and that’s about the best excuse I can come up with for why I was rushing out the door this morning with an orange and a half to eat on the train for breakfast. I really need to fix that - but all the bad habits are the hardest to break, of course.
Haruyo-san drove me and then rushed to buy me a ticket. She went on ahead so fast that I didn’t have time to tell her that I knew how to buy one and was planning on it. I really should have tried harder to tell her, but she just kept moving on ahead and my brain was too busy trying to keep track of her to think of the words to say. Too late now, I guess.
The ride wasn’t bad and I even managed to keep myself pretty clean despite eating the oranges. They and I have a strange relationship. I’ve been eating a lot more of them recently - Haruyo always has at least two or three in the fruit bowl at the table - and no matter to how she cuts them I always manage to get some of the juice on my hands. Or have the hardest time breaking them open. I wonder if they know what fate is ahead of them and are trying to fight back. Either way, I keep winning.
Travis had said that he would meet me at the train station, since I had been slightly out of hearing range yesterday to find out what the exact plan was. But when I got to the Fushimiinari station (which is a whole lot smaller than the ones I live near) nobody was there. Well, no one I knew at least. But I dinked around for a few minutes and then saw Meghan coming my way. She’d almost taken a wrong train and so was delayed a few minutes. We then waited and soon saw Travis (he was coming from the opposite direction - his host family lives in Uji) and then waited a few minutes for Andy. We decided that we weren’t sure if he was coming or not, since he’d been debating going today or on Tuesday.
But we followed the signs to Fushimiinari and lo and behold - there was Andy. He’d taken a bus there and so he’d gotten there far earlier than the rest of us. We met up at 9:30 or so. It was really wet that day and we all had umbrellas, but since it was so rainy that meant that less people were crowding the place. It’s really a little disturbing to see how many people can fit into these temple sites - especially how many different kinds of school uniforms (seifuku) you can recognize.
My pants were too long, so no matter to how I rolled them up, they kept falling down and then got soaked and bogged down. And by the end of the day, my soaks were entirely soaked, my pants were nasty, and my feet were squishing on occasion. Gross.
But wow. Just wow. It was huge there. For the uninformed, Fushimiinari is the place where they filmed the scene with Saiyuri (pre-Geisha) running through the red Tori gates. I really wish it had been drier, but just wow. They just didn’t stop! And there were fox statues everywhere. We wandered and Travis asked one of the shopkeepers towards the end just what was up with all of them. She said that the fox is God’s messenger, so they put the foxes by the shrines (which I swear there are a thousand, maybe two thousand of) so their prayers can be delivered without fail. Makes perfect sense when you know what they mean. But there weren’t just foxes, there were dogs - the ones that look like the Chinese lion or something - and huge frogs/toads.
The thing you don’t know about the huge line of Tori gates is this - a lot of them are built into a mountain, and thus, there are many stairs and hills. We went up a lot of them, but three of us were semi-impaired. Andy’s not in the best of shape and while he has been losing weight here, he wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of climbing a mountain. Meghan’s right knee had been jolted really hard on a bike ride and was still numb from a cold pack thing (going down stairs was the strangest thing for her) and I’m constantly pushing my body to the limit. I thought I walked a lot in Provo, but I was wrong. I ride my bike all the time here and walk just about everywhere else. Thus, my legs and rear are probably getting stronger, but the process hurts. Plus my wet pant legs were making me start to feel miserable.
But we trudged through a lot of it and there are tons of niches with hundreds of little shrines dotting the hillside. I made a little forty second video just to show how many there were and I don’t think I covered even half of them in that one. Wow, it’s just overwhelming.
On our way back - we started to return at about 11 - we passed little gift shops and I couldn’t help but admire the little stuffed foxes and everything. I admit it, I became a fox addict (once again) with all the fox statues and just all of it. Andy wears this little vest to store everything in and is very loud and blaringly American, but he’s a very sweet guy. And we all try our best - at least I know Meghan and I do - to be nice to him, no matter to how much his presence can grate. But he was thinking of getting his little sister a stuffed fox and then smiled and grabbed two to buy. I wasn’t watching too closely and while I suspected that one of them was for me - he’d asked me when my birthday was - I couldn’t be sure.
Turns out I was right.
I squeed, danced across the train tracks, and actually hugged him. And he keeps calling me Senpai. It’s rather endearing - plus I guess it’s fun to be recognized as a superior. He’s older than me, but I have a hard time thinking of those in the lower class as my age or even older. I guess Japanese has just been in my life for so long that I can’t fathom how other people don’t know certain things. Just wish it meant I was an ace at it, too. Just more reason for me to work harder, I guess.
Andy was planning on heading home after that, but the next bus didn’t come for another hour, so we went to a Pan-ya for lunch and he ate with us before heading back to the bus stop and we got our train tickets. I got a strudel type thing with strawberries and cream on top, melon pan with some apricot/peach(?) filling, and a cream filled one with chocolate and powdered sugar on top. And did I mention that I had strawberry milk, too? Oh, so good!
The train ride was fun, though we had a bit of an adventure during it. Travis knew the way - we were heading to his “home town” and all, but we were too busy talking and happened to miss our stop by one. Of course, this next stop had to be one where you had to go to a completely separate station to go the other way, but he explained (it’s good to have a Japanese speaking RM with you) our situation to the train conductor and he got us a stamp on our ticket that let us not have to buy more of them (a good thing, since they were going towards 400 yen each) and we hiked our way over to the other station. It was a lot further apart than we had assumed, but we got on all right and then transferred trains at the right place and got to Uji. But not before we got on after a bunch of high school girls who tried to speak English to us - or at least call out a random word or two. Travis replied with a very Japanese sounding “Good English” and we all laughed about it. Before they could harass us more - Meghan heard them talking about us amongst themselves - or we could let on that we understood them, another group got on and blocked the way. I still think it was amazingly hilarious.
But onto Uji. It’s a gorgeous city, smaller than Kyoto (I think?) but so pretty. And they even have a bridge that’s the one that Ukifune from Genji Monogatari (Tales of) jumped off of. Apparently it was rebuilt and expanded ten years ago, but they all still consider it the same 1,000 plus year old bridge. We all sort of snigger at that. Got to the Genji Monogatari museum without too much trouble, but it was a lot less impressive than I’d hoped. There was a movie to watch and it had bunraku puppets depict the last part of the book, where Ukifune comes in and romantic drama is everywhere. They had given us headphones so we could hear it in English (British English, at that) but Travis wanted to test his prowess and only Meghan and I used them.
I ended up telling him what had gone on in a rather rambling sort of method - my usual - and he got the basic gist after that. I think I always have the hardest time shortening romantic tales especially, though I was a little more than creeped out at the situations the poor girl was put in. And the whole Ukifune getting the hots for Prince Nioh because of his scent thing? Makes me sorta shudder. But if it works, I guess you should go for it, right?
We went to the Byoodoin after that and I felt smart for once. All three of us have taken Japanese 301, but I’m the only one who still has to retake it - I’m pretty sure both of them passed it - and I was the one to remember why Wisteria are important. *preens* The Fujiwara family got their name from plotting with people in a Wisteria garden and ta-da! Go me listening sometimes.
The landscaping was gorgeous, as was the architecture. Travis and I often have conversations about how we could take up an entire day just observing and documenting Japanese architecture. The actual building was huge and I think it’s either the oldest or one of the oldest wooden buildings in Japan. Or maybe it’s the biggest. Shoot, I think it might be the oldest. Best left for someone better with facts, methinks.
We wandered and enjoyed things and even got a nice Japanese man to take our group picture. I think I chose well, he seemed to be the photographer type by what kind of camera he was using before that and the picture turned out really well. Huzzah!
After that, we went looking for what Travis thought was the oldest jinja in Japan. Or a really old one at least. We didn’t manage to find it, but we did wander some smaller ones and they were both really pretty. And neither one cost anything to enter. Meghan actually commented on it - the jinja never cost an entry fee, and the tera do. Hm. Curious. (Shinto versus Buddhist.) We crossed the Uji river again via some older looking and cooler bridges and laughed over the “zeeri” drink Travis bought. We all tried it and we got some pictures of us with it. The stuff was seriously jello in a can. And we laughed much. And I shuddered as I listened to him slurp it up. But my Peach water? So good. And Meghan said her “Milk Shake” drink was really good, too. Plus the can was amusing.
It’s a little sad that you realize you buy things just because the writing on it makes you laugh. But we’re visiting, we can be dumb tourists on occasion.
But the day was closing and Travis walked us back to the train station and Meghan and I got on without any trouble. At the final train station, Meghan took a smaller train to her house and I was supposed to call home. I had figured out which bus to take and how to get home with Meghan’s help (I’d only taken bike and car from this area, so…yeah), so I called home like I said I would and managed to get across that I would be okay on this route homeward.
The bus didn’t come for a while and I ended up asking for a little help from a lady and she got on the same smaller bus. It was just the two of us and we ended up talking for a while. She complimented my Japanese, even said that me waving my hand in front of my face proved that I was good at it (because only a Japanese person would do it) and I found out she’d been on a car tour from New York to Los Angeles. I managed to have a pretty good conversation and even found my bus stop with a little guidance. (I live two minutes walking time from Kitaoji dori Station, just in case you were curious.) The bus stop turns out to be just a little past my street, so I knew perfectly well how to get home.
After getting off, I saw a flower shop and had been trying to think of something to get Haruyo for Mother’s Day and just had found my solution. I looked around for a bit and asked for advice on which ones were best. The owner suggested red carnations and I got three of them. He wrapped them up all pretty and I imagine that I paid too much, but oh well. (Three carnations for 600 yen?) She did buy my train ticket, right? I got home all right and presented them to her, (she was thrilled) and I promptly changed into other pants. They kept offering to let me take a shower, but I turned them down. It was only my feet and lower legs that were cold, I’d be fine. And I was, though I kept rubbing my feet together in the hopes that they’d feel a little less funny.
Dinner was good - gyoza, cabbage, and terikyaki chicken. I found out why the cabbage here is so amazingly good. There are two types and this one is “Haru Kyabitsu” (Spring Cabbage). I’m going to look for this in America - trust me. We discussed how American gyoza was fatter and more meat filled and then Asuka and finally Katsuichiro got home. Asuka brought home some American food and Haruyo asked me to read the instructions for Jello last night. I had to look up what the conversion rate was for cups and cubic centimeters, but other than I, I was able to do it. With some hand waving. To think I don’t know the word for “stir”. Heh. I dinked around a bit more and finally went to bed at too late of an hour after a shower.
Lots of love and I miss you all,
bel/bobo