Well, it's that time. I have an hour and 15 minutes until my flight
leaves from Tokyo. Thankfully it's not delayed or anything. By some
miracle, considering Chicago at this time of year.
I have my last box of MeltyKiss chocolates, my last OI~! OCHA green tea, and my last convenience store umeboshi onigiri.
It's hard to believe that this road has come to an end so
quickly. I had a great time in Tokyo, and in Nagoya before that, and I
promise I'll write about all of those things soon. Perhaps on the
flight if my battery can take it. For some reason this thing didn't
charge all the way last night, and none of the outlets here seem to have
the right type of outlet, even with my converter. :/
I'm glad to be through security at least on this end and get it over with.
I
think the state of my fake nails (yes I bought some) are a good
indicator of what I hate about airport security. I've somehow lost 3/10
just going through security. To who-knows-where. Blah. I always feel
like they're putting me through a blender, even in Japan where the
security isn't even that strict. Like, I brought a pair of (short)
scissors with my knitting and they checked them and then just said
"don't take them out during the flight." Totally honor system.
I just hope that America is non-stressful. I hate customs with a
passion -- I never know what to declare and stuff. And I still have
like random 1,000 yen + a bunch of change in my wallet. I changed a
bunch back to dollars but I was like "What if I need something....?
I
probably won't write on this much more here just because I want to
conserve battery to watch movies and stuff on the 12 hour flight.
It's just very surreal to be here right now.
Before long, I will be trading soy sauce for corn syrup, rice for
side salads, earthquakes for tornadoes, and burikko for bros.
It's been a good trip you guys.
お世話になりました！
色々とありがとうございました！
See you on the other side.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Hiroshima
This past week was our week long fall break! Yay!
For the first two days, my host parents took me on a trip to Hiroshima, and the nearby island Miyajima.
We took the shinkansen, or bullet train as they're known in America, which was a really cool experience. It really feels like an airplane, except you don't have to go through the hassle of security, and the taking off and landing jolty bits. The ride is so smooth, and there's all this space and the terminal is really nice... It was great. I'm definitely taking shinkansen to Tokyo when I go for Christmas, I think.
Our shinkansen was about 3 hours, and then our first stop was lunch, to try one of Hiroshima's specialties, farmer's sushi. It's a packed down loaf, I guess you could say, of rice topped with vegetables and egg. It was really yummy. I still like my sushi with raw fish if possible, but the vegetables were good. I also had cold udon as my main course, and it was served in this funky hollowed out piece of bamboo! That's the noodles in there on ice. The container in the middle is the sauce. On the lid are flavorings I could add to the sauce: Green onion, sesame seeds, ginger. Then you pick up the noodles a mouthful at a time, dip them in the sauce, and eat them.
Our next stop was Kintai Bridge, in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. It's this really cool five-arched wooden bridge. (the restaurant we ate lunch at was actually right across the street) It apparently has some historical significance, but I can't remember what. And it was pretty! You could look down and see straight into the water and see the fish swimming around.
On the other side of the bridge was kind of a park and a shrine and some old buildings.
It was so warm it felt like summer. So much so that some very unseasonable cherry trees (sakura) were blooming. Since I won't be here in spring for cherry blossom season, it was kind-of nice to see some.
On the way to one of the shrines we crossed over a bridge and there were a bunch of koi in the water. Of course, my host parents started throwing scraps of our snacks from the train after them. We spent a lot of time talking about how fat the koi were. There were also a bunch of feral cats around the park. One of them was napping right under us, on the ledge of the bridge, looking down at the koi.
There were also a bunch of turtles, so we kept trying to feed them instead of the fish and see if the turtles would get it but the turtles were always too slow. In particular there was one tiny turtle that kept getting buffeted around by the fish. It was kind-of sad, it could barely even stay in one place.
After that we went to see the white snakes of Iwakuni, which apparently only live there. They had a little exhibit at the shrine because apparently the white snakes are considered to be heavenly messengers of some kind. I think they must be albino snakes, since they were totally white with red eyes. Apparently they breed around there.
My host mom is terrified of snakes so she waited outside, haha.
The rest of the evening was getting back to our hotel for the night. We had dinner at the train station, Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is basically like a cabbage pancake, but Hiroshima's okonomiyaki also has soba noodles in it. Honestly I didn't like it that much. What I like about okonomiyaki is the fluffy doughy part and there was almost none of that. It was like soba noodles on a crepe instead, basically. And I made a mistake in ordering so I ended up with a TON of onion on mine and it was just sorta nasty. Too bad.
After that we checked into our hotel. I felt super spoiled. I had a room all to myself. And I could see the ocean out the window!
The next morning we took a ferry from our hotel out to Miyajima, an island famous for it's temple and bright orange torii gate, as well as for its deer.
Even though I knew to be expecting deer, I still didn't expect them to be everywhere! and totally tame, too. I mean, they're wild animals, but they're so used to people they just stand there. I guess the deal, Shaun explained to me, is that they're a kami, a Shinto spirit, so they need to be left alone to do their own thing, instead of removed from areas with people. Correct me if I'm wrong there.
My host dad kept feeding them paper.
Here's the famous torii. It's out in the middle of the water, but during low tide you can walk all the way out to it.
We went inside the shrine, and it was interesting because there was actually a wedding going on there!
The most interesting thing about the wedding was that it was a wedding between a Japanese man and a foreign woman, with everyone wearing traditional Japanese clothing. So the bride was in a slightly modernized version of the traditional white wedding kimono, and her mother, two sisters, and brother (I'm guessing at the identities of her wedding party) were also in kimono.
I can't imagine that, getting married in another country and marrying into that culture like that, not even getting married in your native tradition. That's quite the commitment for someone.
At Miyajima for lunch we had oysters. Fried oysters, grilled oysters, raw oysters. THEY WERE AWESOME.
We also saw some really weird souvenirs. Particularly these stuffed cats. My host dad found them.
You rubbed there stomachs like you were tickling them and they rolled around laughing.
It also worked if you clapped.
The dancing ones are dancing to a Shania Twain song. Bizarre.
When we got back to Hiroshima, our last stop on our trip was the Atomic Bomb museum and memorial.
If you go to Hiroshima you can't very well not go to the museum and the memorial, but my host parents bought me the audio guide to go through the museum with and it was painful to take it all in. I can't even wrap my mind around destruction and pain on the scale that we're talking about here. I was thankful when my host mom told me I needed to hurry up because we needed to move on in order to be in time for our shinkansen home, and hurrying me through the end of the museum because trying to take it all in was starting to make me sick to my stomach.
The memorial is a very beautiful memorial, though. I don't have any pictures unfortunately. When my host mom was telling me why there was so much water included in the memorial I got a bit emotional. (Most of the people as they were dying, the only thing they wanted was water, and no one could give it to them. So the memorial is finally giving them there water.)
(Well that means the only times my host mom has seen me cry are a) when I was running a 100 + degree fever and was freaked out by Japanese clinics, and b) at the Atomic Bomb Memorial. Okay I can live with that.)
And of course there's the Sadako statue.
and the Atomic Dome, the burned out remains of one of the buildings that survived the brunt of the bombing.
It was kind-of a painful and emotional end to the trip, but I think it's something that everyone needs to see at some point. I know I was upset when I saw the graph of how many nuclear weapons the US still has, even though I'm not particularly surprised. Just something to think about.
Despite the heavy end, all in all it was a really good trip, and it was nice to spend time with my host parents. Seriously I owe them big time. We made some fun memories!
For the first two days, my host parents took me on a trip to Hiroshima, and the nearby island Miyajima.
We took the shinkansen, or bullet train as they're known in America, which was a really cool experience. It really feels like an airplane, except you don't have to go through the hassle of security, and the taking off and landing jolty bits. The ride is so smooth, and there's all this space and the terminal is really nice... It was great. I'm definitely taking shinkansen to Tokyo when I go for Christmas, I think.
Our shinkansen was about 3 hours, and then our first stop was lunch, to try one of Hiroshima's specialties, farmer's sushi. It's a packed down loaf, I guess you could say, of rice topped with vegetables and egg. It was really yummy. I still like my sushi with raw fish if possible, but the vegetables were good. I also had cold udon as my main course, and it was served in this funky hollowed out piece of bamboo! That's the noodles in there on ice. The container in the middle is the sauce. On the lid are flavorings I could add to the sauce: Green onion, sesame seeds, ginger. Then you pick up the noodles a mouthful at a time, dip them in the sauce, and eat them.
 |
 | |
| That's my host dad, off ahead of us like always. |
 | |
| Me and my host mom |
On the other side of the bridge was kind of a park and a shrine and some old buildings.
It was so warm it felt like summer. So much so that some very unseasonable cherry trees (sakura) were blooming. Since I won't be here in spring for cherry blossom season, it was kind-of nice to see some.
 | |
| The only sakura I'll probably get to see...! |
There were also a bunch of turtles, so we kept trying to feed them instead of the fish and see if the turtles would get it but the turtles were always too slow. In particular there was one tiny turtle that kept getting buffeted around by the fish. It was kind-of sad, it could barely even stay in one place.
 | |
| がんばって little guy! hang in there! |
After that we went to see the white snakes of Iwakuni, which apparently only live there. They had a little exhibit at the shrine because apparently the white snakes are considered to be heavenly messengers of some kind. I think they must be albino snakes, since they were totally white with red eyes. Apparently they breed around there.
My host mom is terrified of snakes so she waited outside, haha.
The rest of the evening was getting back to our hotel for the night. We had dinner at the train station, Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is basically like a cabbage pancake, but Hiroshima's okonomiyaki also has soba noodles in it. Honestly I didn't like it that much. What I like about okonomiyaki is the fluffy doughy part and there was almost none of that. It was like soba noodles on a crepe instead, basically. And I made a mistake in ordering so I ended up with a TON of onion on mine and it was just sorta nasty. Too bad.
After that we checked into our hotel. I felt super spoiled. I had a room all to myself. And I could see the ocean out the window!
The next morning we took a ferry from our hotel out to Miyajima, an island famous for it's temple and bright orange torii gate, as well as for its deer.
Even though I knew to be expecting deer, I still didn't expect them to be everywhere! and totally tame, too. I mean, they're wild animals, but they're so used to people they just stand there. I guess the deal, Shaun explained to me, is that they're a kami, a Shinto spirit, so they need to be left alone to do their own thing, instead of removed from areas with people. Correct me if I'm wrong there.
 | |
| Quintessential Miyajima picture, right? |
Here's the famous torii. It's out in the middle of the water, but during low tide you can walk all the way out to it.
 |
| Me and my host mom |
 | |||
| The only extant picture of me and my host dad. He was like "what why do you want a picture of me?" |
 |
| Itsukushima Shrine. During high tide, the water goes all the way up to the bottom of the wooden structure. |
 | |
| A dance that was part of the wedding ceremonies |
I can't imagine that, getting married in another country and marrying into that culture like that, not even getting married in your native tradition. That's quite the commitment for someone.
 |
| View of the torii from the temple |
 |
| Apparently Miyajima is also known for its rice paddles. This one is the world's biggest. Yeah. |
 |
| Last view of Miyajima. |
We also saw some really weird souvenirs. Particularly these stuffed cats. My host dad found them.
You rubbed there stomachs like you were tickling them and they rolled around laughing.
The dancing ones are dancing to a Shania Twain song. Bizarre.
When we got back to Hiroshima, our last stop on our trip was the Atomic Bomb museum and memorial.
If you go to Hiroshima you can't very well not go to the museum and the memorial, but my host parents bought me the audio guide to go through the museum with and it was painful to take it all in. I can't even wrap my mind around destruction and pain on the scale that we're talking about here. I was thankful when my host mom told me I needed to hurry up because we needed to move on in order to be in time for our shinkansen home, and hurrying me through the end of the museum because trying to take it all in was starting to make me sick to my stomach.
The memorial is a very beautiful memorial, though. I don't have any pictures unfortunately. When my host mom was telling me why there was so much water included in the memorial I got a bit emotional. (Most of the people as they were dying, the only thing they wanted was water, and no one could give it to them. So the memorial is finally giving them there water.)
(Well that means the only times my host mom has seen me cry are a) when I was running a 100 + degree fever and was freaked out by Japanese clinics, and b) at the Atomic Bomb Memorial. Okay I can live with that.)
And of course there's the Sadako statue.
and the Atomic Dome, the burned out remains of one of the buildings that survived the brunt of the bombing.
It was kind-of a painful and emotional end to the trip, but I think it's something that everyone needs to see at some point. I know I was upset when I saw the graph of how many nuclear weapons the US still has, even though I'm not particularly surprised. Just something to think about.
Despite the heavy end, all in all it was a really good trip, and it was nice to spend time with my host parents. Seriously I owe them big time. We made some fun memories!
Takayama
The next morning our first stop as a group was Takayama Jinya, Takayama’s old city-hall like building, I guess.
The courts and prison and stuff were all located there, as well as city officials going about their business, keeping an eye on other parts of Japan in case war were to break out, etc. I can’t remember what era the Jinya dates back from, or really what jinya means. We got a tour but it was hard to understand, and I only took pictures of the stuff that was interesting.
For example, this tea kettle, hanging over a fire pit.
The handle you use to lift it up off the flame is shaped like a fish, to protect against fires! In the servant’s quarters the handle was shaped like some kind of baton, shaking which is supposed to be a charm to attract more money.
There was a kitchen inside, which I thought was interesting.
Store room
Lined up against the wall there are all tiles to be used to retile the roof
In another room some koto players were entertaining tourists. I’d never seen a koto played before, so I thought it was really interesting! I recorded some of it if you’re curious.
After that the next room we saw that was interesting enough to warrant a photo was the prison, and some lovely demonstrations of all of the various torture device contained therein.
Stringing people up, beating people with bamboo canes, and by far the most creative: Being forced to sit seiza (kneeling with one’s feet tucked underneath -- not comfortable for people not used to it under the best circumstances) on a jagged platform, with heavy stone bricks placed on top of your knees!
Nothing is scary than an old Japanese volunteer guide picking up a bamboo cane and saying “Does anyone want to give it a try?
After that we had free time to wander around the old part of the city. Along the river there was a farmer’s market going on, so I wanted to stop by. But in the end we spent too much time there, and all the shops along the river were overly touristy, so we missed all the good stuff.
I had just enough time to go to a sake store and try a sample and get laughed at by old Japanese men. But it was really quite tasty!
There were ducks on the river though! They were cute. They were swimming against the current to stay in place, so every so often they’d just get tired or decide to take a break, stop paddling, and go drifting back down the river again for a couple feet.
As we were driving towards our next stop on our bus, I saw this really pretty town in the mountains and snapped a couple pictures. Turns out, it was where we were stopping next!
Our destination there was a food sample factory. In Japanese restaurants there are almost always plastic samples of the meals for sale on display in the windows, so you can have an idea of what you’re ordering before you sit down to eat. It’s especially handy for we foreigners who often have no idea what we’re ordering.
At this place, we had the opportunity to make some. We made tempura! It was actually much simpler than I thought it would be. We started out with little plastic vegetables and shrimp and fish and stuff. Then we had yellow wax which we drizzled into a vat of cooler water. Then we wrapped the plastic food in the wax dribbles.
We also made lettuce out of wax but it turned out really bad. It was a lot more difficult.
The whole process was pretty cool though.
The courts and prison and stuff were all located there, as well as city officials going about their business, keeping an eye on other parts of Japan in case war were to break out, etc. I can’t remember what era the Jinya dates back from, or really what jinya means. We got a tour but it was hard to understand, and I only took pictures of the stuff that was interesting.
For example, this tea kettle, hanging over a fire pit.
There was a kitchen inside, which I thought was interesting.
Store room
Lined up against the wall there are all tiles to be used to retile the roof
In another room some koto players were entertaining tourists. I’d never seen a koto played before, so I thought it was really interesting! I recorded some of it if you’re curious.
After that the next room we saw that was interesting enough to warrant a photo was the prison, and some lovely demonstrations of all of the various torture device contained therein.
Stringing people up, beating people with bamboo canes, and by far the most creative: Being forced to sit seiza (kneeling with one’s feet tucked underneath -- not comfortable for people not used to it under the best circumstances) on a jagged platform, with heavy stone bricks placed on top of your knees!
Nothing is scary than an old Japanese volunteer guide picking up a bamboo cane and saying “Does anyone want to give it a try?
After that we had free time to wander around the old part of the city. Along the river there was a farmer’s market going on, so I wanted to stop by. But in the end we spent too much time there, and all the shops along the river were overly touristy, so we missed all the good stuff.
I had just enough time to go to a sake store and try a sample and get laughed at by old Japanese men. But it was really quite tasty!
There were ducks on the river though! They were cute. They were swimming against the current to stay in place, so every so often they’d just get tired or decide to take a break, stop paddling, and go drifting back down the river again for a couple feet.
As we were driving towards our next stop on our bus, I saw this really pretty town in the mountains and snapped a couple pictures. Turns out, it was where we were stopping next!
Our destination there was a food sample factory. In Japanese restaurants there are almost always plastic samples of the meals for sale on display in the windows, so you can have an idea of what you’re ordering before you sit down to eat. It’s especially handy for we foreigners who often have no idea what we’re ordering.
At this place, we had the opportunity to make some. We made tempura! It was actually much simpler than I thought it would be. We started out with little plastic vegetables and shrimp and fish and stuff. Then we had yellow wax which we drizzled into a vat of cooler water. Then we wrapped the plastic food in the wax dribbles.
We also made lettuce out of wax but it turned out really bad. It was a lot more difficult.
The whole process was pretty cool though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)