City Lights, Sake, Kobe, and Plum Blossoms

Satellites Engaged. Alright, everyone, after a delay (due to, uhhh, uhhh, solar flares?) I’m beaming y’all another great post from the other side of the globe.

It has been some time, so there is much to catch up.

Well, on the Friday before last (that’d be about February 16), I went down to Osaka with my friend Kara to hit up Shinsaibashi, which is one of the big shopping districts of Osaka. Now, I have mentioned before that I don’t have the taste for such things, but I, too, get a little starry eyed at the sight of neon lights and was looking for a change of pace from the temples, so this seemed like the prime spot for such aimless wandering.

America Mura at dusk

We left after classes and got there about mid-afternoon, in time to roam a bit in daylight. We started off in America Mura, which I suppose is analogous to Chinatown in New York, except this was America Town in Japan. I’m not sure though, it didn’t seem particularly different from other places… just filled with a bunch of shops selling Levi’s Jeans, Abercrombie and Fitch, and the obligatory McDonalds (but those are everywhere here, and I mean everywhere, along with Starbucks). They did have a miniature Statue of Liberty, though. And then atop another building was a flashing neon sign that called on people to “Stop AIDS!” through the use of condoms. This seemed rather peculiar, but what would seem unusual mediums for communication here are fairly typical.

For example, political candidates will have vans with loudspeakers that drive around the city while someone touts the candidate over the PA. Now I have no idea when the next election is in this country, and it may not even be soon, but they’re out there campaigning nonetheless. And why being obnoxious would win candidates votes, especially in a place that seems to appreciate quiet so much, is beyond me.

Also, it is quite common when exiting a subway or train station to walk by a person handing out small packs of tissues. This is convenient not simply because it is the cold-season, but also because many public restrooms here do not have toilet paper. But tucked away in each tissue pack are advertisements. It’s a win-win situation – people get tissues, the companies get advertising that won’t be chucked at the next available public wastebasket (though those, too, are rare here). So I suppose if there’s going to be a neon light sign telling people to use condoms, Japan would be the place for it.

After quickly passing America Mura, we wandered a bit further and found the Apple Store in Osaka. It looks neat from the outside, but it’s really no different than any other Apple store in the world.




And then we came across a giant covered mall in the area. Also close by were restaurants that serve that Japanese delicacy of pufferfish which must be cut and prepared the right way or else you will die. Yes, die. It sounds a bit risky, but no one has died for more than 30 years from it, so perhaps it’s not so bad. Either way, I’m still not lining up to try it.







We wandered a bit and found a street that began with restaurants and ended with love hotels. Now love hotels are a bit of an oddity. They are hotels that are made for couples to well, “spend time together.” People can either rent rooms for the night or for a three hour “rest.” I am honestly not sure what to think of these. On the one hand, it strikes me as being almost sleazy. But then again, Japan is a highly populated area with small houses and apartments spaced close together (and often with thin walls without insulation). This means that people aren’t afforded much in the way of privacy (this is also why it’s rude to be walking the streets at night making much more than a whisper… because people inside can usually hear just about everything going on outside). Also because space is limited, there are many lounges in Japan that simply provide people with a space to play pool, read manga, surf the internet and generally hang out with friends for some amount of money per hour. This would also seem to be in response to the lack of space in homes for say, hanging out with friends in relative privacy from parents, neighbors, siblings, etc. Given all this, it would almost seem that the love hotel concept is born out of a kind of need (and I won’t make any comment on the value of such a need) that seems legit, but that didn’t make it feel any less strange to mine American eyes.

We stopped for some food here and there and continued walking, and this time, we really hit the gutter. We found ourselves on a street of host and hostess bars. These are essentially bars where women (though there are host bars that do the opposite) are dolled up and paid to flirt with men while they drink and whatnot. I don’t know if that sounds as bad as it looked, but it wasn’t good. We snapped a few pictures of the area for laughs and headed out quickly, before all daylight vanished.

And then we were back in the main plaza, where everything was lit up like the fourth of July.




It was a fun stroll through a part of Osaka we hadn’t seen, but we were getting tired so we met up with Daniel (who had unsuccessfully tried to visit Osaka Castle that afternoon) and went to an Izakaya near Makino and just sat around and hung out for the evening.

Saturday was rainy, very, very rainy. And cold. But I had signed up to learn to roll sushi, and I wasn’t about to let the rain stop me. So I went to campus and met the group. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t so much rolling sushi (with a bamboo roller or some such thing), so much as it was stuff as much stuff as you can on seaweed and rice and roll it and eat it like a sandwich. I was a bit disappointed, but, as John Lennon would say, “Ooh ba dee, Ooh ba daa, life goes on.”

I had made plans with Daniel and Kara to meet them and the Swedes and some others for karaoke Saturday night, but when we got to the karaoke place, it was much more expensive than we had anticipated and we were all a bit drained from the weather, so Kara, Daniel and I headed off to grab dinner (I haven’t done karaoke yet, but don’t worry, maybe this next weekend). We wandered around in a bookstore after dinner to see if the karaoke people wanted to do something when they were finished, but they weren’t interested so the three of headed up to the izakaya across from campus where we had originally gone. Here we found that the guy who waited on us was also a Gaidai student studying English. We invited him to join us at our table and we talked for a while with him. He’s probably the most fluent Japanese student we’ve met in terms of pronunciation and naturalness of speech, which he explained is because he spent his elementary school years in the United States.

Daniel, again unable to just smile

Super Happy Kara and "Blue Steel" Evan

That Sunday, I didn’t do too much. I mostly took the day to relax, shower, and piddle around the dorm. It was good to relax.

Monday, after classes, Daniel and I headed to Kyoto to go to the Joanna Newsom concert. Now, if you are unfamiliar with Joanna Newsom, she is an American artist who plays the harp and sings. She has quite an unusual voice, and many people are put off by it, but it is truly beautiful. The concert took place on the third floor a building in what appeared to be a loft apartment converted into a bar/hipster hangout. It was a very nice venue, but also super chic. I’m talking people wearing thick rimmed glasses on their noses and high brow opinions on their sleeves. But I’m judging too much, but it had that vibe to it (at least among some of the non-Japanese there).

But, after the two openers (one of which was a Japanese couple that played great music on an accordion and upright bass), Joanna Newsom and her two person band came on. After a set that lasted a bit over an hour plus an encore, Daniel and I rode the train back home smiling and resting in the resonance of the divine music we had just heard. It was an amazing concert, and certainly one of the best I have been to. I even have a little video from the concert for you:

"Peach, Plum, Pear"


"This Side of the Blue"

The rest of the week was school as usual. I’m finding my classes here are pretty lax. Japanese is great and fun, but not too much trouble. Sumi-e is mostly an in-class affair, so I don’t have to worry with it outside of our thrice weekly 90 minute meetings. And Death in East Asian thought is generally a disappointment, but it’s easy enough, and that I am glad about because I’d much rather be out enjoying Japan and seeing it first hand than sitting in my dorm reading about it.

This past weekend, I went to eat Chinese food with Kara on Friday night and then just chilled on my own that evening. I’ve begun making plans for Spring Break, and I’m getting pretty excited about. My plan right now is to go to Tokyo for a few days before heading to the Izu Peninsula (a little ways outside of Tokyo south of Fuji) which is known for its beautiful coastline and many onsen (hot spring baths). So I’ll have a taste of the quick and fast-paced Tokyo life along with time for taking things slow and relaxing at Izu. While in the area, I also want to try to make it up to Mt. Fuji to get a few good views of the mountain. It’s too cold to climb (ice and snow and dangerous conditions) until July, so I’ll have to forego that, but it should still be fun.

Kobe

Earthquake Museum

But anyhow, on Saturday Kara and I met up early and headed towards Kobe (yes the “Kobe beef” Kobe), which is west of Osaka by maybe 20 km. Our first stop was at a strange museum. Well, I say strange, but really only one half of it was unusual. The first half was about the Kobe Earthquake which occurred early in the morning on January 17, 1995. It was a 7.0 on the richter scale and after seeing the opening presentation which simulates the images and sounds of the Earthquake, any small desire I may have had for a little tremor while here vanished (we have been fortunate to not experience any noticeable earthquakes or tremors thus far). It seemed to be truly frightening. What was most interesting about the museum was a volunteer who guided us through and told us stories about the earthquake, including a man who had woken a few minutes before the quake and noticed his cat was freaking out. Then, for some reason, he put on his work helmet, which, when the quake struck, saved his life. The volunteer was an old gentleman (77 years old he told us, but he looked younger) who spoke English and helped us through.

The second of half the museum, which is housed in a separate building next to the earthquake museum, was truly wild. It was called the “Human Renovation Institute” and it was all about exploring the human experience (I suppose?) and how we should live in harmony with nature. It was a strangely new-agey concept packed into a well-budgeted museum. I still don’t quite understand. Just to give you some idea of the museum, there was one room where people would stand around a glass orb with various metal sensors which would be pressed rhythmically in hopes of making music together.

Everyone enjoying the world of sounds and making resonance of minds makes this “Square” into a place of interchange, creating a new circle of companions.

Rhythms made by sounds, especially musical rhythms, create emotional rhythms within the listener’s mind, and they resonate in the minds of the surrounding people. All the dances known in the world were born from these resonances of mind.

Sign at the Entrance to the Music Room

Unfortunately the actual experience was not as cool as it could have been, but it was still an interesting place to visit. The museum was filled with many signs that had English as well as Japanese, except the English was always somewhat awkward (like above), but still, strangely poetic… maybe?

We stopped at the café downstairs for a quick lunch (which was surprisingly inexpensive). There we saw our guide eating lunch too. He gave us his name card and we thanked him and left.

Our next stop was a sake brewery museum. Kobe’s Nada district is known for its many sake breweries, so we decided we’d go tour one of them. We ended up at the Hakutsuru Sake Brewing Museum, which we chose because we heard there was English information there. We toured the museum (which was free), which had a number of videos (narrated in English by a woman who sounded far too proper) explaining the process. Apparently sake is the most difficult thing in the world to make, involving so many steps I couldn’t keep it straight. I seriously wonder how anyone stumbled across it (it involves preparing rice in a particular fashion, adding mold, preparing other rice to ferment, mixing stuff, squeezing things, and saying magical incantations… did I mention that it can only be done every third Sunday of every other even numbered year?). Seriously, it was ridiculous. But it was interesting to be sure. We rounded off the tour by sampling some sake they had out for free. If you’ve never had sake, it’s tastes a bit like medicine.

Me at the Sake Brewery Museum. They do say the camera adds 10cm.

But the best part of the museum was not the museum itself, but a brochure they gave us that was produced by an association of Nada no Sake breweries (Sake breweries in the Nada District). This brochure, of which we received the English version, makes all sorts of absolutely ridiculous claims about sake. On the opening page, these 10 “virtues” of sake are listed (this is verbatim):

1. Sake can be better for health than any medicine
2. Sake will enable you to live longer.
3. Sake will recover you from fatigue and weariness
4. Sake will drive gloom away and cheer you up
5. You can make friends with anyone once you drink Sake with the person
6. Sake will create the atmosphere where everyone can express their opinions frankly even to their bosses or seniors.
7. Sake will be a good friend for people who live alone
8. Sake will make you feel warm to endure cold weathers
9. Sake can turn as a handy but nourishing meal during a trip.
10. Sake will be a good present when you visit any person

Now, maybe we can forgive this a bit because it’s actually a quote from a play written in about the 14th and 15th century, but the pamphlet goes on its FAQ…

Q: I am afraid that drinking Sake may invite ailments on such organs as liver, heart and arteries.

A: You never have to worry about that. On contrary, Sake is good for health as long as you keep the appropriate amount of drinking. From the old times the Japanese have called Sake one of the best medicines, and advanced studies in medical and other sciences today explain how Sake contributes to the health.

The brochure then goes on to say that Sake can help decrease the chances of getting liver cancer. I can only hope that no one takes this seriously. But the brochure was hilarious (and that’s not the half of it).

It was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to go up Rokko-san, a mountain overlooking Osaka Bay, Kobe, and Osaka. I had heard it was one of the top three night views in all of Japan. So took a couple of trains and a bus to the cable car station that took us to the summit (~990meters up I think). We arrived as the sun was setting, and the view was beautiful. Kara was anxious to get down because it was cold (it started snowing a little bit) and because she wanted to get to Chinatown in time for the dragon dance (in celebration of the Chinese New Year). But I was insistent that we stay ‘til it got dark and the cities light up. So we got some hot canned coffee out of a vending machine (which was surprisingly tasty) and tried to stay warm. We were rewarded with a stunning view (which a picture couldn’t do justice, we’re talking a total 180 degrees).






We took the cable car back down and tried to warm up. We scrambled to China town (leaving the area at about 6:50, ten minutes to the start time of the dragon dance). We arrived in Chinatown (Nankimachi) at 7:12, just as the dragon dance was starting.





When the dance finished we left to head to the Harbor for dinner. At the Harbor (called Harbor Land, or in Japanese pronounciation, “Haabo Rando”), we began to feel like we were in Florida, or in some coastal resort town in the states. There was a small amusement park, palm trees, and a general resort town vibe.



We were pleasantly surprised to find that all the restaurants were all quite affordable, and we decided on a Korean place. I had some Kim-Chi, Rice, as well as Ika Chijima (ika = squid; chijima = pancake shape combo of fish, vegetables, and whatnot… but nothing like okonomiyaki; this was more “bread” based that cabbage-based). It was quite good and only ran us about 1300 yen a piece (~$10.50), which is a steal in Japan for dinner (plus tipping is never done here).

Our waitress, we found out, was also a Kansai Gaidai student studying English. We thought this was quite the coincidence, seeing as we were over an hour away from Hirakata in a city of over a million people and we would happen to walk into a restaurant with a Gaidai student (there are about 14,000 Gaidai students total).

We returned home on a train with some slightly drunken Japanese salarymen (a not uncommon sight after about 10pm on the trains) and went our separate ways.

Sunday, I was set to meet my speaking partner, Yukie to visit Nanzen-ji temple in Kyoto. But before that, I wanted to buy my Shinkansen (Bullet Train) ticket for Tokyo. This I managed to do all in Japanese, without any difficulty. The trip will only take 2 hours and 20 minutes from Kyoto, which means we’ll be going very fast. The tickets are expensive, but the alternatives are a night bus or local trains which would take about 8 hours to do, and I’d like to ride the bullet train once and also not start spring break tired from traveling. On the way back, I’m going on the cheap, taking local trains to the Izu Peninsula and then through Nagoya and back to Kyoto (this I can do for very cheap… ~3200 yen because I bought a special discount pass).

I met Yukie and we went to Nanzen-ji. She had just recently gone to Universal Studies in Osaka (yes, there’s one in Osaka) and brought me a gift of Spiderman socks (about which I later wondered if she was making a joke considering my last name…). This may seem unusual to you, but I’m quickly learning that gift giving is a very, very common practice here. If I go to say, Kobe, I should think about buying a gift for friends or family on my return. But, I didn’t think about this, so yeah.



After arriving by bus, we walked around the temple area in mostly silence, stopping to see some gardens. I’m afraid I may have suggested a bad place for Yukie and me to visit because I was not sure that she was really interested in temples and with our language skills lacking we didn’t have much to say. When we had seen our fill, we continued to Heian Shrine which we visited rather quickly. It was about 4 at this point and we stood near a map while Yukie looked for something else to do. This I think was more a gesture of politeness, because I was feeling like it was time to call it a day, but I wasn’t quite sure how to word it in Japanese or English such that it could be understood (how do you translate “call it a day” to Japanese… I certainly don’t know). After finally figuring it out, Yukie agreed, looking like she was glad that I had said this. I fear that she would have continued wandering around with me out of some feeling of obligation even if she wanted to leave. This is another area where communication is difficult not only for a lack of language skills, but also cultural understanding of what is appropriate, polite, etc. I especially felt bad about this, and I think I may have kept her busy for too long and made her walk more than she wanted to, especially because she was wearing heels.

Which brings us to this topic: heels. In Japan, almost all the women (or at least all the females at Gaidai) wear heels (many of them high) almost every day. This is bad enough, as I’m sure it’s not comfortable, but what makes it even more absurd is that many of them cannot seem to properly walk in them, meaning that they struggle, toes pointed inward, to awkwardly waddle around on them. It’s not as bad as it may sound, but it certainly is an unfortunate social expectation that viewed from the outside is almost laughable as the practicality of high heels as footwear is clearly revealed as being nonexistent.

Then last night I met up with Daniel, Kara, and Kentaro (the waiter at the izakaya from a week before) near Hirakata station to play pool. We ate some dinner and then went to the pool hall, which is actually one of those hangout/lounges I mentioned earlier, where you pay some 100yen per 15 minutes to play pool, ping pong, read manga, do karaoke, surf the internet, and yes, even, take a shower (they had shower rooms, which I didn’t quite understand). They give you free soft drinks while there, making it a pretty nice place to hang out.

But that’s about all for now. I’m not sure what my plans are for this upcoming weekend. If the weather’s nice, there’s been a little talk of doing a picnic down by the Kamogawa (Kamo River) in Kyoto and then maybe Karaoke on Saturday.

Also, the plum blossoms are out.

I did not expect
To be intoxicated
Sweet pink plum blossoms

stairs above the city

Friday, I had signed up to go to Osaka to see a 1950s black & white Japanese movie that had been subtitled. This was an activity for free offered by the CIE (Center for International Education) at Kansai Gaidai University. But my friends (Daniel, Kara, Niklas, Arum, and Tommy) were going to Osaka to see a current movie so I dropped the free and understandable movie for a much more expensive (1500 yen with a student discount; ~ 12.35) and unintelligible movie (due to my lack of Japanese ability). The movie was Letters from Iwa Jima (or いわじまからてがみ – Iwa Jima kara tegami), and unlike the U.S. release of this movie, there were no subtitles (because the people here, strangely enough, know Japanese).

And what better prologue is there to talking about a movie about than a tale of a failure of communication.

The other day I went grocery shopping with my friend from South Korea, Arum. She and I bought a large (5 kilo) bag of rice. But other than that, I was hoping to buy sugar with which I planned on sweetening some tea. I bought sugar (or what I thought was sugar), and returned back to the dormitory to try it out. Now, I have, for one reason or another (perhaps illiteracy, perhaps sheer lack) I have been unable to find black tea with which to make sweet tea (which was my goal all along). So I bought some organic barley tea the other day, which was pictured on ice in a tropical locale. I am quite certain that I bought this simply because of the colorful packaging and picture resembling what I know and love as tea, not because I believed there would be any resemblance. So I was brewing up this barley tea (strange, eh) and began adding some sugar. I added a few spoonfuls, stirred it and brought out a spoonful to taste its sweetness. I gulped it down, and thought to myself, “My, this barley tea sure is salty.” Only after a few moments did it dawn on me that what I thought to be sugar was actually salt and I was salting my tea and not adding sugar to it. It should be noted that this mishap was not for lack of Japanese knowledge (I know the words for sugar and salt and can read both… at least I think I can), but was out of mere carelessness.

Now before I talk about Osaka, I should do a bit to clear up some confusion. I think some have the impression that I am studying in Osaka. This is both true and false. Kansai Gaidai University is in Osaka Prefecture (akin to the US’ counties or states), but it is not in Osaka city (which was I am referring to whenever I say “Osaka”). Rather, KG and my Seminar House (the dorm where I live) are located in a city in between Osaka and Kyoto named Hirakata.

So we arrived in Osaka and found the theater (on the 8th and 9th floors of a very tall building) and bought our tickets. We had about an hour and a half before the movie, so we went out to buy some dinner. And what did we find but a Subway (yes, the sandwich shop). So we indulged our (mostly) western tastes in something familiar (I had a vegetable sandwich that was delightful) and inexpensive. Could it be that a western chain is cheaper in the 2nd most expensive city in the world, I think so.

After lingering for a few minutes after dinner for some of our kids to get their ice cream fix, we returned to the theater.

The movie, which was almost all in Japanese, was largely incomprehensible (in terms of dialogue), but this didn’t keep me from understanding the story or what was going on with the characters (thanks in part to some great acting)… I could even deduce some of the dialogue even if I couldn’t catch many words.

Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of the movie going experience was how quiet it was. In the silences before the opening preview, I didn’t hear anyone shift in their seat, munch on popcorn (they had it, but must have been eating with, pardon my terrible stereotype, ninja-like stealth), whisper to their neighbor. This seemed to be the atmosphere throughout the movie though, because of the tragic nature of the film, my friends reported that some were crying (I was tearing up quite a bit too).

After this experience, we didn’t know what to do. The night was young (~9:30) and we were in a major metropolitan city at the peak of our youth. But we had no idea what to do, so we returned to Hirakata and found an izakaya near campus.

As I think I’ve mentioned before, an izakaya is the equivalent of a Japanese tavern. You sit on the floor around a low table and can order all sorts of food (from sashimi to French fries) and drinks. I also commented before that Japan seems to close down early. This is not actually the case. There are many of these izakayas throughout all neighborhoods I have traveled through, but they are not the “bumping” clubs and bars of the west, but quiet hangouts open late.

My friends, Daniel (who can't take a good picture it seems), Arum (who is afraid of having her picture taken), and Tommy (a very funny guy) at the izakaya on Friday night.

We had the second floor to ourselves, and we ordered some food and drinks and spent a couple of great hours talking and laughing and having a good time.

On Saturday, I took the Sabbath to rest and catch up on some homework. This was nice.

On Sunday, I went with my friend Kara to Nara. Connecting to another train line in Kyoto, we arrived in Nara in about an hour. Going to Nara, I expected two things – some deer and a giant Buddha. We found these things came in larger proportions than we realized.

Not ten minutes out the station and we spotted the first of what would be many many free-roaming deer. Some children were feeding two deer alongside a path. Nara is famous for its deer which roam freely throughout the very large park district of the city. The reason for this is that there is a local legend that the god of the famous Shinto shrine in the area, Kasuga Taisha, rode in on a white deer. From then on, deer have been revered here, leading to a tribe of literally thousands of deer that just hang out here.







After walking a bit further, we began to realize how many deer there were – lots! And they are all very tame and people-friendly (as people feed them). We could go up to deer and pet them without them flinching or even seeming to care. It was very cool to see this kind of interspecies community. I wonder what other interspecies communities are possible. Or, perhaps, I wonder how interspecies communities can be brought back to prevalence. Our ancestors of old had to live in harmony with the forces of the wild, while now we strive to keep all things wild outside the city gates, cordoning ourselves off from “nature.” This gate, of course, is illusory.

a deer stands to pose with a group for photo

We arrived at Todaiji, which features the two guardian gods I mentioned in my previous post, only in larger form, and the largest wooden structure in the world. This massive temple is the largest wooden structure in the world.



The temple, being so big, houses the largest Buddha in Japan (Daibutsu – literally, Big Buddha), which simply has to be seen to be believed. Kara and I stopped at the massive figure, made a prayer for the awakening of the Compassionate One within all beings, and continued around the Buddha and his many attendant Bodhisattvas (this a term assigned to those who, at the gates of Nirvana, step back to show others the way).



We returned to the station to find an ATM and grab a quick lunch (Donburi) before going to the National Museum, which houses a great collection of ancient Buddhist statues and art. It’s very hard to look at a figure in front of one and know (in that truly knowing way) something to be 1,200 years old. It is hard to even imagine my own twenty years, let alone the years of many beings great and small that have come and gone in the lifetime of a wooden carving of Buddha, or how many statues will come and go in the lifetime of the earth, or how many earths will come and go in the course of time.




We walked around Nara for a while, admiring the deer, stopped in a Kasuga Taisha shrine for a moment, and, with tired legs, returned to the train station to get back to Hirakata by 6:30.

Unfortunately I spent Sunday night much like Saturday night, by myself and bored. I spent a good while trying to figure out what to do Monday (Monday was a national holiday for Foundation Day which commemorates… I don’t know what). Having done temple after temple after temple in my sightseeing and spending so much time in the city, I wanted none of that.

I began to long for trees and fresh air, having taken for granted growing up in a house in the woods where the trees greeted me every morning in every season right outside the living. So in the morning, I put a book of poetry in my pack and took off, determined to hike up Daimonji, a hill above Kyoto with the kanji (Chinese character) for “big” carved into its face.

I arrived at Ginkakuji, behind of which the trail began, and, with little difficulty, was able to find the trailhead, despite the lack of signs to it. I found myself amongst others, almost all Japanese (which is usually the case, though occasionally at touristy places there will be another foreigner in the crowd) of all ages (8-80) hiking up and down the mountain (it’s not technically a mountain). As I hiked up, every person I passed greeted me with
a smile and a “Konnichiwa” (Good afternoon). This had been the first time I had been greeted by strangers while out and about.

The climb was tough, but it wasn't long, as I made it to the top in 45 minutes. I sat down and drank some cool tea and ate some snacks and enjoyed the breathtaking view. It was so broad, it was impossible to take a good picture.



I spent about an hour or so just hanging around, sitting, watching, and leisurely reading through a book of poems my friend Mike Neely had given me before my departure.

If you could turn your heart
into a cowstall,
Christ would be born again on earth!

-Angelius Silesius

I continued up the open side of the mountain to a path that continued on into the woods above. I did not know where this led, as there was no map, so I began following it out of curiosity. I made my way along the path which seemed to follow the ridgeline until I came to a clearing with benches where a couple of people were sitting down and talking. They made room for me and I sat to rest and look out again, this time being able to see another city on the other side of some hills from Kyoto. After a while, the man to my right pulled out some chocolate covered peanuts from his pack and passed them around for all of us to enjoy. This was a great snack, and I was impressed with the atmosphere of kinship among hikers.

After a while, I decided that while the trail continued I ought to head back, as I did not want to be lost in the forest after sunset. I returned and got back to Hirakata in time to make some spaghetti for dinner.

So far this week has been pretty easy and fun (it's already Friday tomorrow!). My classes are fairly easy, though Japanese keeps me challenged. My class, "Death in East Asian Thought," has largely been a disappointment, as the professor is rather spacy and jumps around so much there that is no seeming coherence. The class is more a gathering of people who read an article and then superficially "discuss" it (while being interuppted by the professor every other word) without any clear question or framework. I'm still hoping I can drive the class in certain directions and ask good questions to the class to compensate for the lack of such things on the part of the professor.

And last night I went to a small cafe where a couple of people from KG were playing guitars and singing (including the Italian guy who lives next door to me). It was a fun outing, but the highlight was probably when one of the guys (who is Scottish with a strong Scottish accent) played an acoustic version of "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. Yes, that was quite hilarious.

And tomorrow is the beginning of the weekend. During the day Saturday I'm learning to roll sushi, so that will be quite awesome (I'll bring back that skill to the states... I also ought to figure out Donburi and Okonomiyaki, both of which should be easy enough). I've also already made plans on Saturday night so I won't be left doing nothing (though so far the plans have not progressed beyond "getting together with friends and doing something"). And I was going to a pizza party that my speaking partner invited me to tomorrow night, but that, unfortunately has been cancelled. Alas, I will find someting.

That's about all for now and from here. I might do another quick update on Saturday with something. Until then, さようなら (sayoonara).

the land of a thousand temples

This was quite an eventful weekend. After the first week of classes, I dropped my schoolwork and went off to explore the area.

On Friday I went to Kyoto with some people who invited me to go along with them to see Kyomizu-dera, a famous temple. After leaving campus at one, we didn’t get to Kyoto until around two (we walked to the rail station from campus – about a mile). The others had not eaten lunch and wanted to eat okonomiyaki, so we stopped at a place near the rail station in Kyoto. We had been fortunate to run into a couple of Japanese students on campus who were going to Kyomizu as well. It is always helpful to have native speakers when going to, say, a restaurant, to translate for waiters or interpret the menu and whatnot. The okonomiyaki place was pretty reasonably priced (700-800 yen for a large serving) and had a lot of options. Two of us had already eaten lunch, so we decided we’d split one as a mid-afternoon snack. Whereas at the other places I’ve gone for okonomiyaki, they cooked it for you, here we were given a bowl with all the ingredients and let loose to cook it ourselves. We were pretty hesitant through the whole process, and Joanna (the girl with whom I split the dish) and I failed completely in flipping it. In spite of this, everything was edible and it was quite good. But after all this okonomiyaki, I’m ready to give it up for a few weeks.






By the time we were finished, it was really late… almost four o’clock. We rushed towards Kyomizu, hoping to catch it before the sunset and the gates closed. The temple is famous for two reasons. The first is that it was built on the side of the mountain on a wooden platform on stilts, which is pretty impressive. The second is that from the mountain there is a spring that feeds three bamboo chutes that pour down into a pool. It is said that if you drink from all three of them, you will have health, wealth, and love. They have long-handled ladels with which visitors can drink from the springs.

The group split up on the trek through the streets up the hill to the temple, but I arrived as the sun was setting. I was able to get in and see the temple and Kyoto as in the last light of the day.








At the bottom of the temple is the spring, and I wasn’t about to refuse the water after all that effort. So I drank from the middle one. It was only later that I was informed that one must drink from all three to get the blessings of all… turns out I drank from the one for health, which is fine by me.




On Saturday I met Daniel and Daniel (yes, there are two… and both from Sweden; in fact every other guy here is named Daniel. It’s a strange and perplexing phenomena, but Japan is apparently a haven for gaijin named Daniel) at Hirakata-shi Station (after a fairly long and awkard two-mile walk from the Seminar House) to head to Osaka. This weekend was setsubun, which I believe marks the beginning of spring in the traditional Japanese calendar. On this day, people throw beans (which represent bad fortune and spirits) in a kind of purging ritual, and then they eat them. Actually, the plan was to go to a temple that was holding an event of this kind. But apparently we were given some misinformation and things weren’t happening as thought. So we were left to go shopping.

Don't let yourself be confused. They are floors and not circles. And they don’t descend through the earth, but ascend towards the heavens in a vain attempt to touch them.

The first floor of hell is the computing department. Here, poor souls are bombarded with a constant stream of terribly similar pop-music and choruses of “Irrashaimase!” (“Welcome to the store,”) thrown from every direction. They wander over tile floors underneath thick clouds of tacky red, yellow and blue signs advertising eternal sales on things no one will be able to use.

After seeing this, I ascended to the second floor, and the third, and the fourth and on up to the seventh, only to find the same, wretched state with one minor difference, this was where they sold electric shavers and batteries, this is where they sell televisions, this is where they sell cell phones. Perhaps this is the most depressing part of hell, it is not imaginatively constructed like in Dante, with a variety of themes in each new realm, but, rather, it is all the same drab and lifeless abode in which the phrase “shop ‘til you drop” sounds like salvation, for at least in dropping off, one can get out.

This was a difficult few hours for me, but I was able to maintain some level of exterior calm amidst the inner turmoil. This was a clear indicator that there is still much work to be done there, however.


a pillar of peace in an ocean of madness

After this, Daniel, Daniel, and I decided to go back home, even though it was maybe only three. We were tired and hungry and wanted to get out. So we went back to Hirakata and ate some okonomiyaki and then returned to campus. One Daniel (the one not in any of the pictures in my posts thus far) went off to study while the other Daniel came back to the Seminar House with me to hang out and eat candy. We sat and talked through dusk. While one would think that spending an afternoon cooped up in the dorm while Japan is just beyond the gates (well, it’s actually in the room to, albeit hidden under all the English spoken), this was quite nice. Daniel is becoming quite a good friend. It was 9:30 or so when we were hungry again and ready to get food. Generally speaking, it’s been my experience that Japan closes down fairly early in the night. But perhaps it’s just because it is such a quiet place. Walk through a neighborhood at any hour of the day and aside from a crow hollering (did I mention that their crows speak a different language?) or a cat meowing (cats, on the other hand, still speak cat), there is nary a sound to be heard.

We knew there was an izakaya (the Japanese version of a tavern) nearby, so we decided we’d go there and get some food. Of course, izakayas are meant for drinking and snacking more than eating a full meal. But we got some food (I got some kind of vegetable pizza, which was nice because that’s a rarity in this country), and left and headed back. Even though the day seemed a bust, it ended on a good note.

I have become convinced that if I want to do sightseeing, I am best off doing so on my own. I tend to travel from place to place faster than most and move slower once there. This unusual rhythm tends to not work in group settings (that and groups take a while to make decisions and get moving).

So on Sunday I woke up early (7:45am!) to go to Kyoto and see some temples. I made a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich and put it in my pack and was on the train by 8:45. I bought a bus pass that would allow me to move about freely (usually they are 220 yen/ride, which can add up, the bus pass is 500 yen). Of course, I had to wrestle with a vending machine to get it. But I prevailed.



I started at Myoshin-ji, which is a large, active temple complex (housing some 24 subtemples) in the Rinzai lineage of Zen Buddhism. Walking along the main path through the complex, I heard some chanting from a nearby temple and stepped through the threshold and listened for a few moments.



I walked further and came across a temple, Taizo-in, that is famous for its gardens and sumi-e painting of a man catching a catfish. I paid the admission fee and walked in. Again I heard a bell sounding and people chanting. I lingered near the sound of chanting and admired the catfish painting for a few minutes before heading down to the gardens.

At the entrance to the garden are two rock gardens. These were quite nice. After a few minutes of enjoying them, I heard a small bell ringing in the bushes. I turned to look in that direction and saw a white cat with a pink collar jumping out from the bushes. I watched it as it looked at the rock garden on the left, and then on the right. It looked like it wanted to jump in the rock garden, and, after clawing at the rope nearby, it hopped on it, walked around, and dig around. For those unfamiliar with the rock garden, they are usually very pristine, very well-kept arrangements in which the gravel is raked in a particular way and all leaves and other objects are removed or deliberately placed. The little trickster cat came by just to make sure no one was getting too attached to it.

The garden itself was beautiful and quiet. There was a couple there trying to take a picture with a timer, but they were unable to make the run quick enough so I pulled out a little Japanese (shashin o torimashoo ka?) and took their picture. They were nice enough to return the favor.





I then went to another temple in the complex, this one famous for its painted walls and doors.




two of many, many beautiful paintings. i have not included my favorite, because it could not be photographed. i have some video that may make it's way online someday (like all my video)

After that I hopped a bus for Nanneji, another large complex. I arrived at the very large gate and noticed something that I've noticed at other places.

Good and evil have no self nature; Holy and unholy are empty names; In front of the door is the land of stillness and quiet; Spring comes, grass grows by itself. Master Seung Sahn

Do you see in the picture those two guards at either side of the gate? They are very frightening, no? (kowai desu ne!). Well I've read about this in a book and it's like the only symbolic understanding I have of the statues and architecture here (I'm in desperate need of a book), so I will pass on what I've learned to you, since such frightful characters may seem confusing, especially if found at the entrance of a Buddhist temple, which is generally thought to be peaceful and calm. The one of the left has his mouth closed, while the one on the right has his open. This represents the opposites -- closed/open; life/death; sacred/profane; good/evil. They are frightening figures because at the threshold to enlightenment is fear. These are the demons that keep us from walking in the center. Fear of death, fear of pain, fear of living an uncomfortable life, fear of being alone. Thus, when walking through the gates, one stands at the center of the opposites, touching both and knowing them to not be but two sides of the same coin (a la the yin-yang). And, in walking through, one sees the fearful apparitions as they really are. These monsters are just wood, just statues; these fears are just illusions.

After wandering a bit, I continued down the road to Ryoan-ji, which is famous for its rock garden (of which you've undoubtedly seen pictures, but I'll post one anyway). A picture is nothing, this is a garden that needs to be experienced. I was overwhelmed by it. I am unable to say anything more about it.




After spending a good while at Ryoan-ji, I continued down the road to Kinkakuji or the Gold Temple, which, unlike Ginkakuji (the silver temple) is appropriately named.




And then, exhausted, I returned home.

My experience in Japan thus far has been great. It is a bit strange to walk around at first. Despite the refined aesthetic sensibilities of the Japanese art forms (from gardens to paintings to architecture), the cities are quite dreary and modern and lifeless feeling... full of concrete and shopping malls and fast food restaurants. I think American cities (Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, New York -- Manhattan at least), each have different personalities but ultimately are well planned and good looking. A trip to downtown Kyoto, however, will reveal a city that is not nearly as beautiful as American cities. But, in spite of this, there always seems to be some magic lurking around the corner. And that is how Japan is seducing me.

Classes began last week and are all looking good. My Sumi-e course is going to be a challenge (as I have no painting experience with such things, brushes and paint and the like; I've got more than a few gold stars from fingerpainting though), but I think it will be rewarding. My Japanese classes seem like they'll be great. My spoken Japanese professor is energetic and and the class looks like it'll be challenging, but not unbearably so.

My reading and writing class in Japanese is also fun. I'm finding it to be almost like a philosophy course. It's because kanji are full of depth of meaning. For example, today we learned the kanji for weather (天気 -- pronounced tenki). This may seem rather benign at first, until we recognize that the first character (天:ten) means "heaven" and the second character (気:ki) means "spirit" (in the sense of the general mood or feeling of something). So weather is the spirit or feeling of heaven. I think this is quite lovely. We also learned the kanji for げんき (元気 -- genki, meaning healthy or energetic -- essentially in good spirits), which again features 気（き) but this time with the kanji for "origin" (元:gen). Thus, the word genki means something like original spirit. Our original spirit is healthy, energetic and good.

With this and hearing Japanese all the time, I am finding myself more and more drawn to language (both Japanese and in general). Communication is such a wonderful thing, and I always hate it when I am unable to do so. My inability mixed with my desire in the cauldron of possibility will hopefully yield a nice potion of understanding (are you enjoying this, Brady? :wink:)

Until next time, さようなら (sayoonara)。