Home from Japan

Sabae, my home for a year. This is how I left it, wandering the riverside for the last time.

After much frantic packing and goodbyes and anticipation, it was time to fly home.

Yup. Seen that before.
Korean Air was comfortable and they let me ride with my extra and oversized baggage. I love Korean Air.

My whole family picked me up from the airport and it was a time full of hugs. I was treated to a delicious welcome-home dinner, and when I got back to my house there were more hugs.

Family and friends gathered for a welcome-home party, and I looked at all the faces around me, so familiar, yet still a little distant. It's ok, it passed.
Since then, I've gone back to Taekwon-do,

searched for meteors;

launched rockets in the salt flats and swam in the Great Salt Lake;

attended a Taekwon-do camp, where around the campfire (with my sister's help) I performed Sakura;

and hiked our beautiful Utah mountains.

I'm so happy to be home. I love it here. But I'm planning on going back to Japan in a few years, and I better not forget all of my Japanese!

Recent Japanese:
uchiakeru (打ち明ける) = to speak your mind

April 7-13 - (Mon-Sun) - A Few More Gates

Monday: After lugging packages to the post office, then one back because it was too big (stupid Myra), and repacking into smaller boxes, I met up with Kaori and her sister for lunch. Only English! After speaking only Japanese the few days of my trip, it was actually difficult for me. Nice time though!

For dinner I went out with my (former) Murata students. They are so good to me, and I’m happy just watching them be happy with each other. I am so lucky to have had such great students. I hope we can remain in contact and continue to be friends in the future.

The meal was excellent too :)

I tried the mini-squids!!

Tuesday: I woke early and walked to the station for my day trip to Kyoto. On the way I found these interesting bug nests.

It’s a 3 hour journey by normal trains (with the cheap all-you-can-ride ticket), but I was able to nap and arrived at Fushimi Inari Shrine ready for adventure. The various shrines over the mountain are cool, but the main attraction is the hundreds and hundreds and maybe thousands of torii, or Shinto gates, which you walk through as you go up and around the mountain. Behold:

It is like this most of the 30 min. walk to the first overlook. 

I think it costs about $4,000 to donate a gate inscribed with your family or company name. There was a sign with the price ranges but I forgot to take a picture. (One website says it costs between $2,000 and $7,000.)

Inari is the Japanese god of rice, meaning also of agriculture, sake, fertility, industry, merchants, and so forth. Inari is not specifically any one god, or specifically male or female, although when I’ve heard of Inari it’s usually as ‘she’. Inari is also the god of foxes, they are her messengers, and the shrine is covered with statues and pictures of foxes. 

I couldn’t figure out what was in their mouths, because I thought there were only 2 things (like the Chinese lions) — so I thought a ball and a scroll or a key — but it seems they can have different things and that’s why I was confused. Mostly it is a jewel and a key, but sometimes it’s a scroll, a sheaf of rice, or a fox cub.

The shrine itself did not have any English pamphlets that I could find so I read off Japan travel sites and wandered around getting not quite lost. Apparently most people only go to the first overlook unless you want to make a real hike out of it, so I ended up walking too much, although it was a nice place. 

Here is a crow trying to eat a prayer candle.

And here are cute statues.

And a totally disappointing tai-yaki parfait:

Tai-yaki is basically a pancake shaped like a fish, filled with red bean paste. Add parfait to that, and it sounds like the middle would also have ice cream and stuff. Unfortunately not. Just the pancake with a bit of whipped cream, banana, and corn flakes. Not even full. Not even a little bean paste. When I get home I'm gonna make my own, grr!!!

After that I headed out to find Nijo Castle, as I’d read there was like a shopping street nearby. Well, there wasn’t, but I’d wanted to see the castle anyway so I did. The main building is just super fun to walk through, not because of the throng of tourists (ugg) but because the floors are textured wood that give off a squeaking sound when you walk. These are called Nightingale Floors, and were made that way to alert inhabitants of intruders. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed in the building, but here it is from outside.

Then I explored the grounds, which were pretty.

Wall-scaling attempt:

After that, it was back to Kyoto station, (natsukashii!)

where I ate ramen 

then caught my trains back to Sabae. I was dead tired but the trains were full so I couldn’t sit. But there was a woman with a toddler and a baby and the toddler kept both the baby and me entertained. So so cute!

But I was miffed that a) nobody offered her their seat and b) one guy was standing right in front of the extra fold-down seat and did not bother to move to let her (and me) sit. Some while later, my feet really were dying, the woman with the babies had gone, and this guy moved, so I reached for the handle, grasped it, started to pull the seat down… and another guy rushed right up and stood in front of it. I couldn’t believe it. I shared an exasperated look with another standing woman and had to wait until this jerk left before I could sit. Some people.

I slept 10 hours that night!

Wednesday: Today is the 1-week mark!! I finished packing!! That night Miki threw me a farewell party, we and a couple of her friends ate Italian then went to karaoke. It was quite fun, although I didn’t know her friends so it was a bit awkward, although they were very friendly. But I didn’t get back until after 1am. Apparently 8pm is rather early to be eating dinner.

Thursday: It rained! Oh no! Stay strong, sakura!

Friday: I walked to the park and said goodbye to the red pandas.

Can you find them all?

I met the new teacher David and attended my very last teacher meeting. No, I didn’t have to, I’m not a teacher anymore. Wa.a.a…

That night Alice and I went to Italian with Sayuri. It was fun having Alice pronounce the dish names and teach us words and tell us that no, potato definitely doesn’t go on pizza. Hehehe.

After dinner we went to Asuwa Yama to see the 340-year-old shidare-sakura.

Lovely!

And I learned (again, I think) of the two lions in front of shrines that one with the mouth open is saying ‘ah’ as the sound one makes when first born, and the other is saying ‘un’ or the last sound one makes at death.

Saturday: Alice, Nathan, Sayuri, and I went to Fukui for a day of fun. First we ate omu-raisu — omelet rice, which was pretty tasty, then we went to see the Echizen Jidai Gyourestu (Parade). The parade started from the site of the Fukui castle, which is now occupied by an ugly yellow government building, but they put up fake wooden doors for them to walk out of so it was pretty nice. 

And the sakura was lovely. 

And there were guys boating around in the moat, ready to retrieve canes dropped by old ladies.

When we got tired of standing in the wind, we headed off to a ‘Sweets Festival’ which was a gathering of local cafes to sell their sweets. It was pretty fun sampling and seeing all the sweets.

After some shopping, we went back to see the shidare-sakura in the daylight,

sat about at a cafe that only had drip-coffee (so we got other stuff), took some more pictures,

then went home. 

Sunday: Yoga was followed by much eating of good food at Yoshida’s (Ralph’s restaurant). They are moving, so they aren’t sure if they’ll be able to open a cafe or restaurant again in their new home or elsewhere. That’s pretty sad, but I’m sure they’ll have enough friends visiting whom they can cook for ^^

The afternoon was relaxed and filed with food. And presents. I’m lucky to have made friends like these.

Recent Japanese:

tai (鯛) = sea bream

buri (鰤) = yellowtail

tokai (都会) = city

furi o shite = to pretend something; shiranu furi wo suru = pretend you don’t know

yomigaeru (甦る) = be ressurected

kuzure (崩れ) = crumbling, collapse

myou (妙) = strange, unusual

sukima (隙間) = crevice, gap

kotsu (コツ / 骨) = knack, skill, trick, e.g. eigo no kotsu arimasu ka? = is there a trick to English?

Recent Italian:
mi chiamo Myra = my name is Myra
sono felice = I'm happy

March 31 - April 6 (Mon-Sun) - Nagoya, Osaka, Sakura and Me

Monday: I went shopping. It was a long day. 

But I went to the Takefu Knife Village, and saw this:

It was super cool! …But I’d not thought to bring my camera, and my phone died (at 20% battery). So that’s the only picture I got.

Tuesday: Alice and I cleaned. All. Day. We were rewarded that evening when other teachers came over and we played Settlers of Cataan — Japanese version. 

Wednesday: Very early in the morning I set off for Nagoya to do some sightseeing. Arriving in Nagoya with no problems, I decided it was nice enough to walk to the castle. Google said beware of Pokemon in the tall grass.... ?????

The walk was interesting in that it was really ugly and dirty! Then round the last corner, voila, explosion of sakura and the castle. I have a hard time understanding how people can live in such a beautiful area and let it get so dirty. Here is my first view of the castle:

And this guy has powers from the past:

And sakura,

shidare-sakura, 

sakura and palms.

And roses.

I recommend Nagoya Castle as the best place to go to see sakura. I liked the area a lot. 

I ate lunch at a restaurant right outside the castle, where they showed the man making the kishi-men (Nagoya udon I guess).

The castle was rather interesting yet rather boring, in that it’s like Osaka castle — lots of cool history stuff, very little in English, and the inside is a museum rather than a real castle. But I quite enjoyed myself with the displays

There was a market setting that has background noise and changing lights for the ambiance of a day in the time of the Edo Period.

As with Osaka castle, Nagoya-jo was rebuilt by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and as with Osaka castle, most of it was destroyed over the ages and during the war. 

Two important relics are the golden ‘dolphins’ (shachi) that adorned the castle. They were moved several times and it seems at least one survived the times. More interesting was a display in the castle showing how much gold it would have taken — and did take — to plate the shachi. 

I liked this sword guard.

And this elephant.

These people were obviously very wealthy, and this can be further surmised by the Honmaru Palace; destroyed during the war, they have begun reconstruction it (completion ~2018). Behold, the doors,

ceiling number 3,

ceiling number 2,

and ceiling number 1.

The place smells of new wood, from the construction/woodwork school located right there; you can go inside and see them working on pieces of the palace (if you have good timing). 

After spending a long time at the main keep and the palace, I explored the grounds some more, caught a photo of this pretty little bird,

then went off. I intended to go check out a garden, since I’d bought the ticket together with the castle, though I intended to be quick and leave early for Osaka. Ah plans! Made so they can be burned. About to enter the subway, an old guy asked me where I was going. I told him, and he recommended I take a bus instead. He pulled out the timetable, showed me the bus, then decided since it was dangerous being out alone he would accompany until he had to go home at 6. I tried to tell him I’d be fine on my own, but he insisted. He was very nice, and we went to the garden,

as well as to a Noh theater,

some museum thing,

the TV tower,

and up a tall building with a lovely view of the city.

And a car.

My suspicion is the guy was a retired tour guide or something. He also befriended a Korean family and we tagged along together for a little while. I communicated with the son in Japanese. He complemented my Japanese and my pronunciation, and for the first time, I felt I had actually been complemented. (Because people tell me all the time, but it’s also a very standard thing for Japanese people to say, even if all you know is konnichiwa). This is some monumental moment in my life, I’m sure.

But I was exhausted by the end! And I still had 3 hours to go, to Osaka. I ate these bota-mochi the old guy gave me as a souvenir,

and held out until Osaka. Where, because I was so tired I had incredibly impaired judgement, I spent the next ~2 hours trying to get to my hotel which was really only 15 min. away. In some fairness to my poor tired self, I asked somebody for directions! Many times! My problem was the first time I did this, I said ‘how can I get to Sakai?’ and the station guy said ‘Sakai-shi?’ Now, ‘shi’ means City. Naturally, that makes a lot of sense, so I said ‘yes’. Stupid me. I made 2 mistakes getting to Sakai-shi, and finally pulled in at 10pm, exhausted but hanging on!!

Then I found out it was… the wrong… place…

Back to the trains for me. I was so mentally and physically exhausted I had a little breakdown, which everyone politely ignored (!!) except one guy asked me if I was all right and gave me a pack of lovely soft tissues. That made me feel miles better. (That and the timing that allowed me to talk to Mia. She is sensible with these things.)

I think one thing that makes it easy for people to make blanket statements about Japanese people is that everywhere in Japan is a city. There are so so so many people, even in small country cities, that you encounter all sorts of people. This makes it easy for people to say ‘Japanese people are so kind’ or ‘clean’ or ‘passive’ etc. but when it comes down to it, people are people. You get all kinds, and while generally things can be different based on the area, it’s a much smaller area than a country (or a state). I’ve met extremely nice people here in Japan, and seen many more, but I’ve also seen people who are rude, loud, cut in line, knock into small children, stand in front of an empty seat on a crowded train so no one can sit there, etc. Like I said: People.

Anyway! I was feeling rather contemplative that day. I made it to my hotel, upgraded my room for a good rate, and slept really really well.

Thursday: View from my room:

I had a relaxing morning taking advantage of the complementary breakfast and tea-time of the hotel, and around noon set off to meet with my friend — the reason I came on this adventure. These are friends from IBU University where I came with my sisters in 2010. 

We went to Kishiwada Castle, which is just another little castle but it was fun and the sakura were pretty and we got to talk a lot.

And there was this mysterious clock that only counted from like 1-7 or 5-7 or something.

And of course there was a matsuri around the castle, so I finally decided to try squid-on-a-stick. It was not great. But better than raw squid.

Nearby was a high-school, and they were having their entrance ceremony.

But by nearby I mean right across the moat. How awesome would that be, to look out your window from the classroom and see a castle? History must be awesome. I explained to Akiko we just don’t have that here in America — not just are there no castles around every corner, they aren’t substitutes. America is large enough, and old manor-houses etc. few enough it’s not something you could see every day.

For dinner we went to a chicken-place and had chicken-sticks and rice and good things. I forgot to take any pictures of the food! But it was good.

Afterwards we went to a sweet shop. Look!!

Friday: I saw part of this strange history show where they sing songs.

I met up with my other friend (their days off didn’t align so I was lucky I could meet up with both of them!) in Osaka, and we ate katsu-don. I love katsu-don. Deep-fried things on sticks. This one was super fun, with things like asparagus, onion meat, and chocolate. There were several sauces, and the plate where the cook set the sticks was divided into 5 portions so you could immediately tell which sauce to use with which stick. 

Afterwards, we went to Kyoto, and explored this awesome market (Nishiki).

Apparently Kyoto has special vegetables, such as huge long bell-peppers and round eggplant and so forth. 

Also you can see things like the fish egg-sacks,

and the pickling jars.

But more than that, there were just so many different kinds of food! We tried everything. I found out I like dango, which I have always wanted to like but never have; this varying it smaller and with a sweet soy sauce. I forget what it’s called!

And we ate green-tea covered jelly-rice things I always forget the name of, we ate soy-donuts, a fried expensive kind of fish, and so forth. It was great fun.

Saturday: I think I packed and cleaned and stuff. And walked by the river.

That night Jonathan and his friend and I went to see Miki play (last time for me). I enjoy their music even though it’s super loud. The band after was not my favorite, but the girl had pink (or light red) hair, so I spent half the time trying to decide if it was real or a wig. I think her roots were black so I guess it was real, but it was really pink. Like Ariel pink.

Afterwards we ate sushi. 

And on the way home we saw the fabled egg vending machines!!

Sunday: We really wanted to do hanami — flower-viewing — but the weather did not cooperate. While the next few days would be warm and sunny, this day was cold and rainy. So we went out for a bit when it wasn’t raining and took some pictures,

then made crepes,

watched anime and played games.

These are the days I enjoy the most.

Recent Japanese:

renga (煉瓦) = brick

hori (堀) = moat
shidare-sakura = drooping sakura