holy adventures

lots to catch up, but that's ok.

after the zen temple, i had a couple days of rest. in this lull, i went with some people to see Spider-man 3, which was really funny in how bad it was. let's just say that Kara and I, being probably the only two americans in the theater felt so patriotic when Spiderman slid across in front of the conveniently placed American flag. Oh Spider-man! You truly are a patriot in the tradition of Paul Revere, George Washington, and all those guys and gals.

but then, one fine early morning i awoke to meet with juli, kara, and daniel at the train station at some ridiculous hour to plod our way through the mountains (with the assistance of a train) and finally make the ascent (with the assistance of a cable car) to the holy mountain of koya.

Oh why is this picture blurry!

It took us 20 tries to keep a straight face.

it was something like a two and a half hour journey which is why we left at an hour which is too early to be named. before we took the cable car to the top, i learned of the depth of daniel's fear of spiders. i had long known that daniel was afraid of spiders, but so am i so i figured it wasn't that big a deal. we both went to the restroom at the station and he goes into a stall and all i hear is "ahhhhhhh," like superloud. for those who don't know, many japanese toilets are no more than holes in the floor. i thought maybe he fell and slipped in. he was panting quite loudly at the point when i asked if he was ok. apparently there was a spider in there. i walked out of the restroom laughing to much to accurately tell the others. we continued to poke fun at him the rest of the day.

the entrance to koyasan if approached by foot from the mountains. we came in backwards because we took the cable car *shame*

hiking, there was some of this. found a shinto shrine. there's a rule of thumb in japan, if there's a trail to walk, there will be a shrine at the end/apex of the journey (and perhaps a few along the way). no better way to mark achievement right? we walk long, we see a shrine and hooting and hollering and high fives ensue. this is how it goes. the japanese generally just look at us funny. we also saw a demon trapped in a tree. it was held there by rope. that was some good rope. i don't think you can buy this kind of rope at lowe's.

what a good looking group

eating lunch in an "international cafe" (there was vegetarian food you see... kara often laments that she had to be friends with two vegetarians -- take that meat eaters! nrah nrah), it was a cool place. we sat in the lofted area above the main dining area on the floor. we each came up with our own mudras. a mudra is a hand position of Buddha in art. the different positions mean different things. there's a teaching mudra, a "do not fear" mudra, a knowledge mudra, a touching the earth mudra and so on. to the canon we added the total rock mudra (someone hand buddha the axe and he will melt some faces and shatter some worlds with his solo, trust me), the puppy mudra, the "that's a good cup of tea!" mudra, the "oh my gosh what have i done" mudra, and there was another but i can't remember it. from this i will use my cleverness to deduce it was the mudra of forgetfulness. but no worries, i have video evidence of all this.

It was also determined during lunch that I would make a bad ninja because I am afraid of heights. Not to mention tall and clumsy. (drawing by Kara)

after this was the main attraction, the gigantic grave yard in an ancient forest. we had already noticed that this was an ancient place by the sheer size of the tree. it took all four of us to hug just one tree.

note: half these people are ghosts!

a strange sign near a bathroom. i think the message is that cigarettes make the world cry and the eyes of the children burn.

people aren't all buried here, now, because they generally do cremation in this country. and in many cases it's not the entirety of someone's ashes interred in this graveyard. sometimes it's just a few. this graveyard has been around since the 800s C.E. now you may ask why do so many people want to be interred (partially) here. well, koyasan is the holy mountain of the shingon sect of buddhism. shingon buddhism is a kind of esoteric (secret!) buddhism. the founder was this dude named kukai and he settled koyasan in something like 819 c.e. At a certain point, Kukai decided that he wasn't going to die, but rather he was just going to meditate until the Maitreya Buddha came (the Maitreya Buddha is the "Future Buddha" that will come at the end of the world to wake everyone up. He's Buddhism's answer to the second coming of Christ... note, this is an exaggeration and a flawed analogy and ideas of the Maitreya Buddha undoubtedly precede the notion of the second coming of Christ please don't take me seriously too much). Then he'd tag team it with that Buddha. Well, people thus think that if some of your remains are near Kukai (who, in his eternal meditative state is called Kyobo Daishi) then you'll get resurrected first. It's actually quite cool because the head monks of Shingon still bring food to the guy every day (they've been doing this for like 1200 years now) and even change his clothes. they only let the super-advanced monks do this though. because, let me tell you, it would take some spiritual strength to see a 1300 year old dude with his clothes off.

despite that i'd been getting tired of temples, the temple in front of kukai's meditation spot was cool and filled with lanterns. we couldn't take pictures (this is esoteric stuff, afterall) but it was cool. before we got there, there was this box with a rock that, if you could lift it onto a platform, meant that your sins were light. all in our party tried it and it seems that Daniel is the only pure one among us. this is undoubtedly because he's scandinavian.

well, in hopes that we'd get good cred with the Future Buddha and Kukai, Daniel, Kara, and I dropped a hair near Kukai's box. so we're set. Juli opted not, but fortunately for her (oh Buddha bless impermanence) we're always dropping skin cells and hairs everyone, so i think when the time comes for the future Buddha to swoop down in eternal glory she to will be picked up by Kukai.

(note: i'm pretty sure this is not actually how it works, and that one probably has to deposit some remains post-death for this to work. but we're gonna hope kukai makes an exception. i mean, how could he say no to these faces)

Juli had a run in with a bear. He got her eye, but she got his teeth.

an unfortunately blurry picture in front of a kind of grave/monument for a rocket company of sorts. different companies had corporate grave/monuments. there was even a monument done by a pest-control company to honor all the termites they'd killed.

tired, we left after eating some tofu with ridiculously spicy mustard. that was a trip. i think if i ate a tablespoon of that stuff, i'd be enlightened. and my sinuses would be clear too. that'd be two birds in one stone (in one stone? i think that mustard affected me more than i thought... ).

we went and saw the giant stupa thing and a bell, and then we returned home.

I don't know why I'm making this face.

the next week, after some classes, juli and i went to Ise which is some 3.5 hours east of here. Ise is another super-holy place in Japan. it's the number one shinto shrine in all of japan. all shrines are dedicated to this god or that, but this one is dedicated to the sun goddess, from whom humans (specifically the emperor) descended... or some such thing. most shrines are very colorful. lots of orange and white. but ise is different. it's in a forest and everything is natural. they don't paint the structures. also, each building is rebuilt every 20 years. the wood from the old buildings are then sent all over japan to be used in repairs and construction of new shrines. so pretty much every major shrine in japan is connected with Ise. this rebuilding has a practical purpose too. it keeps the traditional japanese construction techniques (i.e. no nails) alive.

we arrived and found a crowd of people dressed up in white (pilgrim's clothing no doubt). there was a guy playing a taiko (a large japanese drum) and another playing a flute. then some women danced. before this we had spotted this large wheeled wagon with three large logs on this. what was this, we thought. wood for a new building maybe. cool deal.

some kids and some old people doing some chants. enacting a kind of conversation between the elders and youthful generation. unfortunately, i could not understand what they were saying, but the significance of it, i could determine.

well after the dancing, the men all gathered round, pulled out the rope from the wagon and began hooing and hah-ing. i had seen one of the guys drinking a canned chu-hai earlier (an alcoholic beverage usually lemon flavored). after this, they began pulling the thing down the road. it looked like they were going to run into the crowd, but they didn't.

now i had heard the guy on the loudspeaker say something about going slowly. i'm not good with japanese but "yukkuri" i did hear. and they were slow, until they turned down the street at which point they all yelled out and began running like crazy with this thing. i understood now why the guy was drinking. he had to get ready to go crazy.

so that was awesome to see. we followed the wagon to where they were going to load the logs into a pool to then be used for construction. it was a hot day, so we were thankful when a man came around handing juice out to everyone.

we waited around, heard some "bonsai's" and then left to go enter the outer shrine (there are two, the outer and the inner).

it was rather cool, and felt different than other shrines. seeing these things before we entered gave me the feeling for the first time that for some there might be more to shinto than superstition and wishing (which is what it tends to be for most it would seem). we saw the outer shrine, left, got some lunch and then took a bus to the inner shrine.

Just outside the outer shrine

again we saw another wooden cart with logs, but here there were a lot more people. we crossed a bridge over the river and began following thousands of people clad in white pilgrim's clothes heading towards the inner shrine.

In seeing everyone gathered for the beginnings of construction of a new building I couldn't help but think about the Amish raising a barn.

now it should be noted that both with the outer and inner shrine you can't actually enter them unless you're important. this means that pretty much everyone just goes to right outside the inner shrine, does their prayer, makes their offering and leaves. it's super secret. we couldn't take pictures past a certain point, but outside the area i was able to snag a picture or two of the roof of the inner shrine in the distance.

Outside the inner shrine. Past this point, no pictures.

the roof of the inner shrine

we also stopped at the famous wedded rocks as they're called which weren't too far from the shrines. the sun was setting and we sat out by the ocean for a while before making the four hour trip back (after spending time at what felt like an abandoned train station hoping there would indeed be a train back).



then it was finals. yeah, finals, already. who knew. Juli and I both finished up on Tuesday and made one last trip to Fushimi-inari (she really wanted to go again before leaving). That was a nice trip.

wednesday we went to universal studios in osaka because, well, why not. it was a nice cool day and because it was a weekday we didn't have to wait too long for anything. Juli had never really been on a real roller coaster and had been traumatized by Tower of Terror with regard to free falls (well she had fun on that ride too, she told me, despite being scared out of her wits). so i decided naturally that she should go on the one at USJ (as it's known). the coaster was actually quite mild and i didn't hold on to anything the whole way, but she was rattled by it. again, she had fun, but i think she needs time to recover after these thrills. all in all, it was a fun day.

Thursday I went to karaoke with the swedes and kara and a couple japanese friends as our end of the year celebration. four hours of karaoke and my voice was broke. and we always end on bohemian rhapsody which is painful to sing (and probably more painful to hear!). i will miss karaoke back in the states.

Friday, I went with Juli, Kara and others to Osaka to America Mura where they were doing some shopping. It wasn't a very fruitful trip, but fun nonetheless.

And Saturday was my final day with Juli in Japan. She was going to stay overnight at a hotel near the airport so I helped her take her stuff there before going to Osaka to meet and say goodbye to a friend. Then me and her said farewell to Osaka on the Ferris Wheel and had a cup of coffee before she caught the bus back. yeah....

Sunday I went to a concert with a variety of local acts. Some were good. Some, not so much. I sat too close to the speakers. One of the bands Daniel is friends with. They are called Perfect Dancer and they are two Japanese girls who hold guitars, kinda sing and wear yellow hats. By all standards, they are quite awful. But we suspect that there's more to this than we can see. It's almost like a kind of joke, a piece of performance art that leaves people holding their ears, awkward, or laughing (sometimes with the two). At least, we hope and are pretty sure they don't take themselves seriously as musicians.

Went to a flea market yesterday, picked up a couple things but will go to another one on Friday with Daniel and Kara (as she is presently on the beach in Okinawa) and finish up gift shopping.

I hope all is well in your world. Things are a bit lonely here. My roommate just moved out so I've got the room to myself but with the year having ended I'm feeling less and less connected with things. But, only a week and a half til the family gets here, which means I need to get serious about getting plans together of all we're going to see. There's plenty to be sure, I just need to organize it all.

good morning sunshines

let's do a quick recap of the past, oh gosh, month or so.

spring break ended. cherry blossoms began peeking out from the buds, hoping that spring was indeed here and not some nasty trick. they were a bit worried, because they were coming out about a week earlier than normal. perhaps you know the reason why. but they did come out, and following them were flocks of people armed with blue tarps and beer. this is called hanami, which literally means looking at flowers, but it's a big deal in sakura season and anyone who's anyone goes out and enjoys the beauty of the short-lived flowers.

i saw them first at himeji, before they were fully open. himeji is a big castle. it is considered to be the best castle in japan because, unlike the others, it has not been reconstructed with concrete.



i had been reading through a book of poems by the haiku dude, basho, and whenever he mentioned "cherry blossoms," he seemed to almost always mention a place called yoshino. i did some looking and it turns out that yoshino is south of nara a bit and only 2 and a half hours away. so i figure with this rare opportunity, i would go to yoshino, which has mountain sides covered with cherry trees. i was planning on going by myself if no one else wanted to go, but i was talking to this girl here named Juli who didn't have any plans so she went with me. i think this turned out to be a good thing.

it was a long trip, and it rained, but it was still fun. we sat out on Juli's jacket (anyone who doubts the death of chivalry should take note) eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and watched the cherry blossoms for a couple of hours.



jaunting down a back road a ways, we found a hillside graveyard, and almost got ran down by a car that looked like it could have been the vehicle of a nemesis of james bond. naturally, being the ever-cool guy that i am and always well aware that danger could strike at any moment, i yelped and jumped to the side of the road.



when it was time to leave, we were well wet and cold, but it was fine. we tried to dry out on the train and stay awake on the train (they release an odorless, colorless gas on trains here that causes every one to fall asleep. if you go to japan, watch the people on the train, they will fall asleep. some of them have caught on and wear masks, but sometimes the gas penetrates these flimsy filters)... talking about this and that and the other. we spent the rest of the evening hanging out, and now we are going out. spring is the time of beginnings, and under the cherry blossoms seems an appropriate place to start.

spent the next day doing the more traditional hanami with the swedes and japanese by a river lined with cherry trees. there was sushi, yakisoba and a hawk that circled low and dove down to pick up mice from the field. i think it's true intent, though, was to catch a small japanese child and raise it as its own. i saw the desire in its eyes. others didn't, and they let their kids run loose, hoping that gravity would keep them chained to the ground. they were lucky this time, but someday those children may very well break that bond with the earth. maybe we will see that day.







once upon a time, april came. spring and green and too few showers (the river nearby is drying up, we wait anxiously for gifts in tiny packages to be dropped from the sky) were the theme, and it passed very quickly. there was a trip to kobe with Juli, going out into the bay on a boat, trying to lasso the whole city in a frame from the tops of mt. rokko and okonomiyaki. i think i am addicted.

in the midst, there was also a concert. it was vooredoms and sonic youth. vooredoms destroyed the japanese shyness and swirled with a thousand drumsticks the crowd in every direction. a japanese guy pulled me into the madness.



i have now just arrived back from a short, three day stay at a zen temple outside of kyoto. run by a russian guy named gemma from siberia and german guy named bjorn under the instruction of a japanese roshi (teacher), this was different than i expected. i arrived late, but fortunately made it in time for the 5 o'clock dinner. they eat in silence and in a ritualistic manner. "watch how he does it and do the same." i began setting out my dishes. "is that how he did it?" [i]ummmm[/i] "like this." i corrected myself. you know i am a slow eater. they eat very quickly. i was still working on my food when i hear. "the others have finished, hurry." woofing down my food, i would find that eating became a race the next few days, not wanting to be caught in the precarious position of making others wait. i would make the same mistake drinking my tea too slowly the next morning during zazen. "don't make the others wait."

gemma, who was giving me all these instructions, at first appeared to me to be a strict person. and, indeed, during zazen, eating, and sutra chanting, he was very serious and sure to make sure we followed the rituals correctly. but outside of this, he was a very funny guy, who joked quite a lot and had a taste for sweets. i also could not fail to notice the irony in the fact that he smoked, despite how important breathing is in zen.

speaking of zen. zazen was excruciating. i don't use this word very often because i live a very comfortable life. and you may think sitting still on the floor for an hour is no big deal. it is. sitting half-lotus, after 10 minutes, my legs begin falling asleep. at 15, the pain begins. at 20 the pain and numbness (here's a paradox, my legs become both numb and painful at the same time) spread to the upper legs. at 25 the muscles in my legs want to spasm. i hold them in place, breathing heavily thinking, why am i here? why i am here? why won't they ring the bell. ring the bell please! at 30 minutes, there is a five minute break, just enough time for me to nurse my legs back to life before we restart this process.

while there, we did two hours of zazen a day. once at 6am and once at 7pm. the one at 6am came after our 5:15am sutra chanting. zen is difficult and certainly not for the faint at heart. i think this was a good experience, and maybe i can muster the will to continue the practice. bjorn told me that after 6 months, the pain goes away. i wonder if the pain really goes away, or if at that point, pain becomes less a bother.

the food while there was quite delicious. rice, a variety of vegetables, soup, fried tofu (i am finding that tofu, in fried form is very good. i still do not fancy it when it is in its gelatin state). i begin to wonder how it was so difficult for me to give up meat in the states. one can eat very tasty, healthy, filling food without animals. i think it is just a matter of learning to cook with a different framework. this kind of cooking, i need to learn.

i am now back, and very tired. three mornings with 4:45 wake up calls can wear one out. there was much more to this experience than i am revealing now.

we only have two days of classes this week, and then i think i am going with Juli to mt. koya, the central point of shingon buddhism, and ise jingu, the most important shinto shrine in japan.

spring break, did that even happen?

This is the second part about my spring break in Tokyo and the Izu Peninsula. If you haven’t read the first part, go ahead and read that first. the internet is slow today. no pictures now. sorry. maybe layyyyter.

I woke up Monday for a rendezvous with a friend of mine from my spoken Japanese class, Sabina. She was traveling to Tokyo with two others and conveniently staying at a hostel just across the river from my hostel. So I walked over to meet them. Along with Sabina, there was Hana from Egypt and Michael from Louisiana. The plan was to do a little sightseeing around Asakusa, which is famous for a temple. But first, they wanted to eat breakfast. So, where do four foreigners go to eat breakfast in Tokyo? Denny’s. Yes, Denny’s. I didn’t make the decision, I was just along for the ride. After 3 nights by myself in Tokyo, I was glad for any company I could get and these three made for a good group to hang out with.

Denny’s in Tokyo is very little like Denny’s in the US. The cup of coffee is not bottomless, there are practically no pancakes and no eggs, and yeah, well, really I don’t know what Denny’s is like in the US. I think I may have eaten there once. So we ate a quick bite there and then went to explore the area.

Asakusa is famous for a Buddhist temple that was built around a tiny (7cm) statue of Kannon (the bodhisattva of infinite compassion, who has staved off enlightenment until all sentient beings are enlightened; for my more savvy reader, this bodhisattva is also known as Avalokitesvara) that was miraculously fished out of the Sumida River by chance. But naturally, they keep this statue hidden from public view… perhaps to keep a teenage girl from stealing it and attaching it to her cell phone as a little trinket, which probably doesn’t make any sense to you, but here they attach little dolls and knick knacks to cell phones. Because, really, what’s the fun of having something you can’t accessorize the heck out of?

So we approached the temple, passing by about 100m of gift shops before reaching the temple. We went up and looked around. It was a fairly crowded temple, as it is Tokyo’s temple par excellence, but to me, being a guy from Kyoto, this was little more than a fairly common temple with little real life to it (it was a tourist attraction moreso than a religious site it seemed). Of course, also at the temple you could get your fortune (which is not Buddhist, but they just mix everything together here). Some of my companions got theirs, which ranged from good to very bad. They convinced me to get mine as well, which turned out to be very good. I guess that’s nice.

We exhausted Asakusa fairly quickly, and before long were on our way to… IKEA? Yeah, ok, so again, I wasn’t making decisions, but just going along for the ride. But Sabina is from Sweden and apparently IKEA has Swedish food and goodies which Sabina wanted, so we went to the Tokyo IKEA which is a bit outside the main city, but it wasn’t too bad. I’d never been to an IKEA before, so, really, this wasn’t bad. The food was surprisingly good and we left well fed (albeit after maybe hanging around the store too long).

We were then off to Tokyo Dome City, where there was supposed to be a really good roller coaster. Sabina was nervous about the whole thing, not being really comfortable with thrill rides… and considering this one had a huge drop and got up to 130km/hr, I don’t blame her. But we were able to convince her to go. And boy was it fun. The sun was setting and as we zipped up and upside down, we got some quick views of the city that were really cool.

After this we went to Shibuya to meet up with a friend of Hana’s who’s a student in the Tokyo area (Yokahama to be precise). We met up with him and he took us to a British style pub, where I had some fish and chips which was quite good. We then left and went down the street to a nearby izakaya and finished off the night hanging out and talking.



The next day they were off to Disney Land, and though I was tempted to go with them, I decided it would be better to spend my last day in Tokyo doing something particularly Tokyo, so I set off for a few things.

After a brief stop strolling around a garden, I went to Yasakuni Jinja, which is an infamous shrine in Tokyo. This is the shrine where the Japanese war dead are enshrined. Every year, when the prime minister makes his visit to the shrine, Korea and China get (understandably) upset. This is because in addition to all the soldiers enshrined here, there are six certifiable war criminals enshrined here. Also, next to the shrine is a museum, which purportedly offers a revisionist view of history that says that the Japanese were forced into attacking Pearl Harbor among other highly dubious claims. I must admit I did not go into the museum because I did not have an interest in supporting this kind of misinformation.

After this, I went back to the Harajuku area. There was a “macro-biotic” restaurant I wanted to go to and so after the obligatory period of being lost, I found it and had a wonderful meal for only about 1000 yen.

I then strolled back around Harajuku a bit and ran across this really funky and cool design space that provided a place for new artists to show off their work. It was really cool. In one of the areas, there were some Japanese girls who were showing off their photography. They asked me to write down my impressions of their photography, which I tried to do as best I could using words. I hope they were able to understand my comments.



I finished off the evening walking back around Shibuya and grabbing a bite to eat in a coffee shop. Sitting in the shop, finishing off dinner, I felt some dizziness. I had been moving all over without stop for the past five days, and, at this moment of quiet stillness, I felt the effects. My time in Tokyo was coming to an end just at the right moment.

I woke up fairly early the next morning, for I knew I had a few hours on the train ahead of me to reach the southern part of the Izu peninsula. The trip ended up taking longer than expected, in part due to an hour long delay at one station. This came as a surprise, as in all my time in Japan, one thing I have noticed is that trains and buses are always on time. So I was a bit surprised, but I suppose an hour ain’t so bad.

I arrived at the place I was staying in the afternoon, at about 4pm. It was a very nice pension, and I had a Japanese style room to myself. I put my stuff away and then walked down the beach, for which the town was famous. White sand, crystal blue waters. It was lovely. There were a bunch of people out surfing, even though it was a cool March day. I can’t resist an ocean, no matter the time of the year, so I had to jump in. Of course, I jumped right back out because it was really cold.

My room at the pension in Izu

I took a bus to Shimoda, the larger town nearby, hoping to get some food to eat. The town was unfortunately quiet, and I ended up at a conveyer belt sushi place.

I came back to the pension and the man who ran the place with his wife asked me when I wanted to take a bath. “A bath?” I said a bit surprised. “Um, about 9, I guess.” I hadn’t expected this, and within half an hour I was downstairs scrubbing down for a bath which the guy had drawn for me. It was wonderful. I felt like I was living a life of luxury, even though the room was only costing me about $45 a night. I went to bed, refreshed and ready for my next couple of days traveling around the peninsula.

I woke up fairly early the next morning and, after stopping at the convenience store down the hill for a bit of food for breakfast, stood at the bus stop waiting for a bus. Because I was a bit off the beaten path, buses ran less frequently than I’m used to here, but it was a sunny morning and I didn’t mind. Well, a few minutes before the bus arrived, I started to think how nice it’d be if someone would stop to give me a ride. And what do you know, but a car pulled up and a woman, probably in her 50s, jumped out and started gesturing to me to get in the car. “Is this a taxi?” I asked (it should be noted that when I quote my conversations with Japanese people, the conversations are all conducted in Japanese insofar as I am able, so I’m, naturally just providing a translation of what I said). “No money she replied?” So, I though, what the heck, and jumped in. It was a very friendly couple and they took me to the train station in Shimoda, from which I was to catch another bus. They told me they had a daughter in New York and that they lived in Ito (a city more to the north on the Izu Peninsula). We arrived, and I thanked them and they left.

Perhaps you may be thinking that this is a bit dangerous to take a ride from a stranger. Maybe so, but Japan is really safe. Or at least, I feel really safe here. I probably take it for granted, but I don’t take any extra precautions against theft or pick-pockets or anything here because that kind of thing just doesn’t seem to happen here. When I go grocery shopping at multiple stores, I often just leave my food out with my bike while entering another store. I’ll leave my stuff sitting in a train station to go get something to drink at a vending machine or convenience store (I don’t let it out of sight, though, so I’m not totally irresponsible).

Let me give you an illustration of how safe this place tends to be. My Latvian friend Lena lost her wallet while out and about one time. She didn’t remember where she left or lost but it just ended up gone. She called the police station and someone had returned it, all cash intact. Or there are the many instances where we’ll be walking out of a restaurant only to have a worker there come running after us with something we left inside.

So, it wasn’t too much of a jump for me to take a ride from a stranger. I’d do it again, if anyone offered.

I caught a bus from Shimoda down to the southern most tip of the peninsula and walked out to the point, where there was a lighthouse and a little shrine. I should note that at every point, on every mountain… pretty much any place one has to walk to or whatever, there is a shrine. It’s like the obligatory gift shop at the end of every ride at an amusement park. A shrine is always there (usually near to a gift shop). It was a beautiful place, with beautiful rock formations. Out in the distance we could make out some islands. It was great.



I spent some time there and then returned to catch a bus. It seemed I had just missed one, so I had to wait about 45 minutes for the next one. So I pulled out a sandwich I had made and bought a drink from an old woman who owned a little store there and sat inside and ate.

I caught the bus, which winded its way around roads along the coast, which was just phenomenal. I took a lot of pictures. About an hour later, I was at Dogashima, a town on the western part of the peninsula. I was here to go to an onsen, which is a natural hot spring bath. Dogashima’s onsen is famed because it is on a cliffside. It took me a little bit to find it, but when I did it wasn’t long before I was naked with 6 Japanese guys in a bath. Pretty exciting, eh? I lost my fear of nakedness rather quickly, and enjoyed looking out over the ocean while bathing in hot hot water. The others ranged in age from 18 to 80, and even though I was the sole foreigner (and a rather lanky and odd-looking one at that), I was treated just like everyone else. They let me go sit right next to the edge and look out at the ocean, which was rather lively that day.

After about 20 minutes, I felt relaxed and ready to continue my trip. I got out, dried off, put my clothes on and walked a bit along the cliff. I had been hoping to find a little ferry I could take out into the water, but I think the water was a bit too rough for that. The winds were at a consistent 30km/hr I’d reckon anyway.

this is the onsen (actually rotenburo) i was in. cool huh.

So I went back to the bus stop, only to see the bus pull away just before I arrived. So I waited around for about an hour for the next one. I arrived back in Shirahama, stopped at the sole food shop open, had a seafood pizza with clam, squid, and shrimp (not actually that good, but I had to do it), and then went back to the place I was staying. I had yet another bath and went to bed.

I woke up fairly early the next morning, this time looking to hit parts of the central peninsula, which was famed for its waterfalls. After a couple hours in trains and buses, I got to an area with seven waterfalls, each of them beautiful. I spend some time here, and even made my way to an onsen place with about 20 baths… two really cool ones in caves and a few looking up at a waterfall. This was cool, but it wasn’t as authentic an experience as the onsen the previous day, for here everyone wore bathing suits. While waiting back at the bus stop I sampled some wasabi ice cream. Apparently central Izu is a place where wasabi is grown, because the radishes grow well in the waters at the base of waterfalls or some such thing. I will say, there is a reason wasabi ice cream isn’t catching on. It’s cold, and at first sweet, but then it burns the throat, which seems contrary to the whole ice-cream project, which is sweet, soothing deliciousness.

I caught a bus to another waterfall, which I had to run down and see quickly because the last bus back was at like 4:45 and I really didn’t want to be stranded in the middle of the peninsula.



I arrived back, and made a sandwich in my room, read some and went to bed. I had been getting fairly lonely, speaking with no one except a few strangers in a little Japanese… and my abilities are far from being able to hold anything resembling conversation, so yeah, I felt somewhat isolated. It had been relaxing, but I was also ready to get back.

It took me some 12 hours to get back the next day, as I was taking local trains back. I do not recommend this to anyone. Really, do not do this. I did it because I had a pass that allowed me to ride the whole way back for something close to 2000 yen, which is super cheap.

After arriving back late (it was raining), I went to bed later than I shoulda and then got up super early to go to a flea market in Kyoto. This was fun, and I’m going to try to get back to another before leaving. It’s a good place to get gifts, I think.

Apparently that morning there was an earthquake (you may have heard of it, it was a 6.9 earthquake off the coast of Japan in the sea of Japan), but as near as I can tell, I was on a bus when it happened so I didn’t feel it as anything more than the normal lurching of the bus. I didn’t even know it had occurred until someone told me of it later that afternoon.

Alright folks, that was my spring break. It was fun. I’ll try to get another post out this week catching y’all up on everything since then… Himeji Castle, cherry blossoms, and this girl I met…

what is wrong with me

i think it may be a sign that i've been in this country too long when i, walking by a post office from which i desperately need stamps to send postcards, declined to enter because there was no stamp vending machine and i would have to engage in human interaction. is something wrong with me? i think maybe so.

well, you've probably noticed i'm terrible at this thing (unlike my friends Lisa and Todd who, whilst being in Italy and Egypt, respectively, have still found the time to regularly post stuff). I'll get to posting my adventures later (let's hope), but now, I will just write about japan. i've lived here now 3 months, and thus am qualified to make lots of broad generalizations with far-reaching implications about this country. (yes, this is sarcasm)

first off. japanese people love mayonaise. isn't this strange? i mean, actually, it's probably not so true. i'm not really sure. but it feels like it. can i get my piece of salmon sushi smothered with mayonaise. why yes, yes i can.

also, japanese people like alcohol. ride any train in japan at night (after say 10pm) and you will see drunk japanese men (and sometimes women). they're not usually beligerent like americans when drunk, they just nod off to sleep or sing quietly to themselves. there are also no open-container laws in japan, so to see a guy pop open a can of beer on the subway or out in a public park is no big deal. did i also mention they have beer vending machines (and cigarette vending machines for that matter?)... this must inevitably lead to the following conversation:

you: "but Evan, don't they have age restrictions on who can drink and smoke?"
me: "why yes they do billy"
you: "but if they have vending machines for these things..."
me: "it's the honor system billy, the tried and true honor system."

in fact in no situation have i ever heard any of my friends being checked for id upon entering a bar or whatever here. but i think that's probably more because i think most people are afraid to ask simply because we're foreigners and, for the most part, are pitifully unable to understand the language. even though it would seem that alcohol is readily accessible by youngins here, i'm not sure if underage drinking is a big problem here. i just don't have any sense of that. drinking is a big part of the culture here (if i'm to judge by the redfaced salarymen crowding the trains late at night), but i don't know how problematic it is.

but food. yes, food. let me tell you about food. well, i should start by saying that since coming to japan, i have essentially moved to a semi-vegetarian diet. this is to say that i have pretty much stopped eating any land-based animal. i continue to eat fish, but i am not eating chicken, pork, turkey, beef or any other such thing. i'm not trying to be dogmatic about eating, and at first i did consume a little meat when it happened upon my plate due to... generally, my illiteracy, but i don't think i've consumed any more than maybe 1/8 kg of land-based meat since arriving.

it can be difficult to be a vegetarian in this country because almost everything seems to have some bit of meat in it. even the curry (not like indian style), contains tiny tiny tiny bits of beef in it, which, naturally ruins it for me. it hasn't been too bad though, and i've found out how to survive fairly well. if i was a strict vegetarian or vegan, i think it'd almost be impossible to eat out here. let''s just say that in the cafeteria at school, i'm limited in my choices to about 3 things... kakiage donburi, which is fried vegetables and partially cooked egg over rice; udon with fried tofu; soba with fried tofu. the latter two are just noodles, and i don't find myself to keen on either in their soup form.... but soba, when grilled is quite good. this is called yakisoba and it is quite tasty.

speaking of japanese foods i like, let me tell you about my new and ever growing love for a thing called okonomiyaki. now, let me also say to all of you who have eaten in a japanese restaurant in the US, and, when people ask you, "do you like any foreign foods?" and you say, "oh yeah, i like Japanese food," that you are wrong. because "japanese" restaurants in the US generally serve nothing closely resembling actual food in japan. all that stuff about hibachi and chefs who cook in front of you while making jokes... this is all a clever ruse, trying to keep you away from the experience of actual japanese cuisine. well, let me tell you about one of the pinnacles of japanese food -- okonomiyaki. okonomiyaki is often likened to a pancake or pizza, but really it's a thing unto itself. i think the name literally means something like "whatever you wanted grilled." usually though, it's cabbage, egg, a kind of dough and something (meat, shrimp, or whatever) mixed up and grilled and then smothered in mayonaise (see there it is again) and this magical brown sauce. what is this sauce. i do not know, but we are all convinced it's magic. well, yeah, i've been on a bit of an okonomiyaki streak this past week and have gone out for it some 3 times. what can i say, it's delicious. now i just need to figure out how to make it.

aside from that, i've been eating fairly well here. i cook most nights here, and, though at first i couldn't find a lot of essentials (like cheese. actual non-processed cheese does not exist in most parts of japan), i have since found an online import store which has delivered lots of food to my door (including the difficult to find peanut butter, the non-existent tortilla chips, and the essential -- cheese). so most nights it's usually something easy, like pasta or salad or a quesadilla or some kind of mix of beans and vegetables. i've experimented a bit here and successfully made a pesto pizza (can i stop to say that i've been salivating and envious reading my friend Lisa's posts about her adventures in Italy and all the pizza she's eating... pizza here is crazy expensive and strange. a large dominos pizza... which may be like a little over 36cm will run you 3500 yen. that's 30 bucks my friend. and that's highway robbery). i also tried making yakisoba this past week which wasn't as successful, but i think it's just because i overspiced it.

also, in case any of you are weirded out by my move away from meat, i haven't found it that difficult. granted the temptations i have in america... like chili dogs or pulled pork barbecue, are not to be found here, but still i think i've been doing ok, though i definitely notice that i still need to work on my food choices -- i generally don't think i'm getting enough protein, so i often have peanut butter cravings. i actually went to a vegetarian/vegan restaurant last week called cafe peace and had a veggie burger there and must say that it was better than any cow burger i've ever had. i was surprised, and i think if i can teach myself to cook well, i'll be eating better tasting, healthier (for the planet and me) overall. maybe that veggie burger woulda made a convert out of you. it was delicious. my meat eating friend kara agreed that the food was delicious, so this was not some kind of meat-deprived induced delirium i was experiencing.

well, that's all i feel like rattling off for now. i'm sorry i've been doing such a horrible job keeping this thing up, but i'll try to put in another post tomorrow, hopefully finishing off spring break and hopefully i'll have another one before week's end catching y'all up on all my other trips since then. it'll include things like a castle i visited, cherry blossoms, romance, you know, all very good things all very spring things. a new flower comes out of hiding every week.

peace and love,
Evan

neon future

Hello dear readers,

Just in case you were afraid I might have fallen off the earth (being so close to the edge as I am), I have not. I have returned from spring break and already been back to school a week. The sakura (cherry trees) are blossoming, but I wanted to give y’all an update on my spring break. But, because of time constraints and the potential length of the post, I have decided to break up my trip into more manageable bits. This first part will be about my first two days in Tokyo.

I began spring break as soon as possible. After a 9am midterm (which I have since learned I aced), I returned to my dorm, packed, ate a quick lunch, and left for Kyoto to catch the Shinkansen (or “Bullet Train”) to Tokyo. I arrived at Kyoto Station an hour before my train left, unsure what the procedures were for getting on the train, only to find that it is no different than any other train (no security, nothing). So after wandering about inside the terminal, I hopped on my train, which was conveniently located near a window, and was off.

My train.

Me looking a tad too serious on said train.

The bullet train was fast, and my head began to spin as I watched the scenery pass by at an almost unintelligible rate. The businessman beside me was sleeping, and though this was tempting, given the 8am wake up, the large amounts of leg room and incredibly smooth ride, I stayed up the whole trip, looking out at the Japanese city- and country-scapes. After only 4 stops and 2 hours and 20 minutes (an average of 220km/hour!), I arrived. It took me only another 20 minutes by train and foot to find my hostel and I was set to explore the city.

The bridge over the Sumida River on the way to the hostel. This building is either for Asahi or Kirin, two big beverage companies in Japan.

I first set out for Shibuya, which is for Tokyo what Times Square is to New York. Shibuya was at the complete other side of the subway from my hostel, so I took a 40 minute subway ride (fortunately without any transfers) and was there.



After being dazzled by the neon glory, I walked down some side streets looking for a Nepalese restaurant my guide book had pointed me towards. After some difficulty, I found it and sat down. The food was delicious (which will be a recurring theme in my post about Tokyo). I had a great vegetable curry (a bit different than Indian curries that I’ve had – it was creamier) as well as samosas and a big plate of naan – all for 1,420 yen ($12US).

I was on my own so after dinner and looking around a bit more, I boarded a train back to my hostel, where I went to bed early (~10:15), hoping to get up early and go to the Fish Market in the morning.

I awoke the next morning at 6:20, and quickly (and as quietly as possible) got ready and left for the Tsukiji Fish Market. Lonely Planet had told me that this was a place I should visit, so I did. It was interesting for sure – lots of dead fish – but I’m not sure it was worth the early wakeup. Either way, I did stop for breakfast sushi (which was super expensive, 3 pieces cost me 1200 yen!), which I ate after a 40 minute wait.

Lots of dead fish. Many of them huuuuge.

In spite of all the dead fish, it didn't throw my appetite for fish. I waited in line for 40 minutes at this famous sushi place, watching some snow flurries and finding it only slightly strange to be the only foreigner amongst the queued, for three pieces of sushi that ran me close to 1200 yen (~$10). This was enough.

I stopped at Akihabara on the way to Ueno next, not because of any particular interest so much as because it was on the way. Akihabara is the famous Electronics District of Tokyo, and I’m sure if I had the desire to construct a webcam that could milk a cow while providing me with stock reports and warming my feet, I could probably find what I needed in this area. Needless to say, I have neither the desire nor the ingenuity to construct such a monster, so I did not find this area particularly interesting and really wouldn’t recommend it to anyone visiting the city.

I arrived at Ueno, which is known for its large park and museums. I was heading to the Tokyo National Museum, again at the recommendation of LonelyPlanet. This was quite a large museum, with much to see and many great works. But after an hour and a half I had my fill of art, while my stomach was reminding me that it had needs as well.

>In front of the sakura (cherry trees) in Ueno. St. Francis once asked an almond tree for a sign in the bare winter, and saw the trees bloom into their beautiful flowers. Look closely.

I headed to Asakusa, which is the district where I was staying, grabbed a quick bite of lunch at a coffee shop, which I found to be an economic option for a light eater like myself. In the area, I stopped at the Taiko-kan, or Drum Museum. I had heard this place had hundreds of drums and percussion instruments on display that all could be played. The idea of an interactive drum museum intrigued me, so I went. And indeed, there were many drums, but I was the only visitor to the museum and thus it was strangely awkward to walk around hitting drums to fill an otherwise empty room.

After some time, I left for a museum about Basho Matsuo, the famous haiku poet. He had lived in what is now Tokyo back in his time and so I wanted to pay a visit to the museum which was located in the city. It was a small museum and had practically no English (which, naturally, meant I could understand mostly nothing), but I did gain new respect for the man, as they had on display Basho’s traveling clothes. For those who are not familiar, Basho traveled hundreds of miles on foot and horseback throughout Japan. These travels served for material for his famous travelogues, including The Narrow Road to the Interior. This is what he wore, pay particular attention to his footwear.




At the museum, one woman began talking to me and asked me if I was interested in Basho. I said I did, but that I had only read his poems in English. She asked me if I thought I could, in spite of the translation, feel Basho’s “heart?” I think I can. Can you?

The horse turns his head--
from across the wide plain,
a cuckoo's cry
Matsuo Basho
Trans. Sam Hamill

She and her friend then took me and guided me along the Sumida River to where a statue of Basho sat.



It was getting a little bit late in the afternoon at this point, so I headed back to my hostel to check my e-mail and rest for a while before going out for dinner.

For dinner I went to an organic restaurant located below a children’s bookstore. I had salmon, and the food was good, but nothing spectacular.

I then returned to my hostel and went to bed.

I awoke the next morning as I was meeting Kara to explore different parts of the city. We met near Meiji Jingue Shrine, which is located in a large forest in Tokyo. Entering the shrine, it was nothing out of the ordinary (I noticed on the trip, that shrines and temples in Tokyo were generally very normal, as compared to many places in Kyoto which are quite spectacular). It was a sunny day and we were standing in the courtyard of the shrine past the main gate when we saw some other Kansai Gaidai students who were also doing spring break in Tokyo. As we talked with them, a traditional Japanese wedding procession came from one side of the shrine. We were bedazzled and quickly jumped out to take pictures. It was really cool. And, then, after a few more minutes we saw another procession in another courtyard… talk about great timing!





After departing from the shrine and other KG students, Kara and I made our way to Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street) in Harajuku, which was conveniently located next door to the shrine. This street is (in)famous for its many teenagers who dress quite strangely. Of course, we had to go. As we crossed the bridge from the shrine to Takeshita Dori over the railroad tracks, we already began seeing kids dressed up. We both glanced at one girl, and, without just the glance were able to discern that that she was a he. As we walked the street, I was a bit too shy to take strangers’ pictures, but another friend of mine took pics, so I will steal them and put them below.

This is good.

This is not.

The girl on the far right is my friend Sabina from Sweden. These are her pictures. I hope she doesn't mind me stealing them...

As you can see, this is quite quite odd, and I am fascinated by it… wondering exactly what the thought-process is behind these sometimes cool, moreoften tacky costumes.

In addition to walking the streets, we also peaked in some stores. I had hoped to maybe find some cool t-shirts with terrible english on them as gifts, but alas, it seems the fashion these days is authentic used american clothing. you know, the boring Champion sweater or University of Michigan t-shirt you have in your closet but never wear because it's just so boring.

Let's say I'm a Japanese girl and want to decorate my room. What ever shall I use? A poster. Nah, too cliche. Paint, too time consuming. Wait, I have it, a North Carolina License Plate!


If I were a Japanese teenage guy and wanted to show off to all how worldwise and hip I was, what ever could I wear. Why, maybe some threads from the Apex Volunteer Fire Department?


After Harajuku, we walked around a bit and stopped off at an organic café for lunch. This was a cool place, perched atop a small building, and they served good food for reasonable prices. But it was also a bit odd. I saw one woman who brought her little dog in the place. She even had a bag for the dog that she would use to carry it around. Ok, that’s more just a weird person that having anything to do with the café, but in one corner of the place, there was an mannequin sitting at a table and holding a cup of coffee and with a tv screen for a face (that would blink and look around and what not. And the people who, by some chance of fate, had to sit at that table had to sit with this artificial person.



After that we were off to Odaiba, which is an island located in the bay of the city. Odaiba is home to museums and cool buildings. We were going to the Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation to see robots and other cool things. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to see the ASIMO demonstration, but we were able to wave to him behind his glass enclosure as he looked up at us, as if pondering these strangers.



After this, we went towards Toyota MegaWeb, which is essentially a Toyota showroom but with cool things like a simulator ride and the opportunity to ride in a car that drove itself around a track. Kara had to go soon, so we only passed through on our way to something like the world’s second largest ferris wheel. Because really, how could we pass up such a thing… the world’s largest ferris wheel overlooking Tokyo at sunset. Pretty cool, right? Yeah it was.





After this Kara had to leave to return to the family she was staying with for dinner, leaving me alone (again) in Tokyo. I wondered about for a while before heading to Roppongi for dinner at an Italian restaurant. After eating, I went to Shinjuku to go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building’s free 45th floor observatory.



I will try to post parts two and three of my spring break in the coming days, but given time constraints and the blossoming cherry trees (which will reach their peak this coming weekend), those posts may be delayed. Don’t fear, I’ll get them up eventually. Until then…