Days 20 and 21: "Culture experiences" and shopping

Thursday we did some calligraphy after school.  It was pretty hard to do it right, as expected.  In the end, we each put one kanji of our choice on a paper/plastic fan.  Mine was 雪 (snow/yuki).  It was either that or 炎 (flame/honoo) for me.  Snow implying cold, because you use the fan to cool off, or flame implying heat because you use the fan when it's hot.  I decided I liked snow better.  Unfortunately, it looks kind of childish, because I'm just not that good at calligraphy, and I got the proportions all messed up.  Oh well.

Friday we got to try on yukata.  They had enough for the girls, but not the boys, so I only put it on for about 5 minutes or so, and didn't get any pictures on my camera.  A few other people got pictures of me, but I don't have them yet.  In the end, all the girls (and two guys) wore their yukata for this group picture, with the rest of the guys who didn't have one standing in the back.

Very colorful and flowery.

That night, I went out grocery shopping with Yukie.  First, we picked Ranmaru up from his school, so I got to see that (I didn't bring my camera) and he came along.

We ended up buying a couple small frozen pizzas, and all the ingredients for tacos and "eggs in the basket" which probably has some other more official name somewhere, but is basically just bread with a hole cut out and an egg put inside, fried together, with cheese put on top.

For dinner, I fixed (with Yukie's help, since I don't know my way around her kitchen) soft-shelled tacos.  They tasted almost exactly like they do back home, which made me very pleased.  Everyone liked them, so I guess Yukie has another recipe to add to her collection now.

And now, more random observations:

• The most common color of umbrella here seems to be transparent.  White and pale flowery colors are also common, as is black.
• I don't know if I said this before, but basically everyone uses cash and coins instead of cards.  Most places don't even accept cards.  Stores, and even vending machines, will often accept 10,000 yen bills (roughly $130), which seem to be pretty common.
• Most store and restaurant prices include tax.  Occasionally, it will list two prices, one before and one after tax.  It makes it a lot easier to see how much you'll have to pay in advance, which is especially useful considering the reliance on cash.
  
• Women in general wear their hair short far more often than they do in the US.  Probably at least 50% have neck-length or shorter hair.
• Longer hair is often tied in some way.  Ponytails are common, and among the middle school girls I've seen on all my trips, twintails seem particularly popular.  Twintails refers to two ponytails, one on either side of the head, like in the picture.  These can be anywhere from an inch and a half or so to about a foot long.  It seems like a good 25% of the girls in that age range wear their hair like that.  I also saw two today (Saturday) who each had one ponytail, but sticking out opposite sides in the back (one to the left, one right).
• Instead of napkins, people use small wet washcloths, or nothing at all.  Occasionally tissues serve the function of napkins if washcloths are unavailable and someone makes a mess.
• Japanese McDonald's is very similar to American McDonald's, with some added menu items such as McPork and Teriyaki Burger.  I had the McPork, which while not bad wasn't anything special.  I also had a plain hamburger so I could compare with the US, and it tasted identical as far as I could tell.  McDonald's was also the only place so far that I've seen a real napkin.  One.  They didn't give multiple with my order.  Not that I would have used more than one, but they always give way more in the US.
• I have confirmed that there is no "correct" side of the path to walk or bike on.  The very concept of there being one is foreign to them.  Instead, people and bikes just sort of weave in and out of each other's ways.
• Lots of people seem to be employed to stand there.  Supposedly they direct traffic, but they spend the vast majority of the time standing there nodding to pedestrians as they go by.  Their actual job seems to be mostly to stop cars from running into people passing by by instead standing in their way themselves until everyone else is out of the way.
• People give out lots of free flyers, free food samples, and tissue packets with ads stuck in them.  Stores also often have someone standing outside to call customers in, shouting "irasshaimase!" (welcome) whenever anyone comes close and yelling about their various goods or special deals.
• I will amend my previous statement about number of people into anime.  While I haven't met very many into anime myself, it must be more popular, as there are whole stores and stands dedicated to it.  Still, it doesn't seem to be a very universal interest (except One Piece, which, again, is absolutely everywhere).
• Gachapon machines are common.  I don't even know what they're called in the US, but they're those things in stores where you put in some coins, turn the handle, and get a random toy out the bottom.  Capsule machines.  The variety of goodies is much wider in Japan than the US, though.  Still haven't actually bought anything from one yet, as they generally cost 200 yen per try.
• Vending machines are all over the place, even along the middle of the street in my suburban neighborhood.  Most sell drinks, such as tea, coffee, fruit juice, sometimes soda, water, and milk.  Some sell cigarettes, and require a special card that proves you're over 20 before you can buy from them.  Others sell ice cream or similar snacks.  I don't think I've seen any for the more typical chips, cookies, crackers, pretzels, or what-have-you that they put in them in the US.
• Pachinko and slots are both apparently very popular.  There are tons of signs for them everywhere, especially when you go downtown to one of the shopping arcades, but even just around the city.  They're usually advertised with famous anime characters on the signs, so it always catches my eye before I realize what it is.

That ended up being a lot longer than I expected.  I think that's enough for now.

Day 19: Nara

Sorry I'm kind of late posting this time.  This post covers our trip to Nara.  Our first stop was Houryuuji, another famous temple.

We were one of the first groups to arrive, so we managed to get a few pictures before the crowds hit.  This is just the main entrance street.

Many of my classmates decided to wash their hands in the temple's water this time.

This is the outside of the Golden Hall.  Pictures inside were not allowed.  Inside were a few Buddhist statues of fairly impressive scale, but not much else.

A view from the steps of the Golden Hall looking out into the courtyard.  The pagoda on the right is the oldest wooden structure in the world that is still standing, believed to have been built in 594 AD.  It also enshrines a fragment of what is believed to be one of Buddha's bones (source: Wikipedia).

My friend decided to go ahead and do the whole donation, gong ringing, and prayer thing.  This was at another small temple away from the main one, but in the same facility.

We couldn't spend too long there, but we saw the important stuff.  There was also a museum nearby, but again no pictures allowed.  It had a lot of old statues, scrolls, and carvings in it, some dating back to the 8th or 9th centuries.

Then we moved on to Toudaiji.  We had a very long walk on the way there, during which we saw a lot of the famous and not-so-famous wildlife.  I took too many pictures, so I'll just post the most interesting ones.

Pigeons, resting on turtles, resting on logs, in the middle of a large pond.  That's a lot of turtles, but there were a lot more in the water.

Turtles come in many shapes and sizes.

Fish only come in large.  But there are white and yellow.  This fish is going after a bit of bread someone threw in, and it ate it a split second later.  I was trying to catch it in the act, but got right before and right after instead.

A swarm of turtles and fish, devouring the bread people were throwing in.

The first deer we spotted.  The area is famous for its deer, which were all very friendly and accustomed to people.  They were also all over the place.  This particular one ate some bread that someone fed it, then grabbed the map out of someone's hands and ate that too as it ran away.

It's like a list of Pokemon moves.  And why are the example characters an old woman and a little girl?  That's just mean.

One of the smaller shrines leading up to the big temple.

A wide shot to show the roof.

Another pagoda off in the distance.  We got a lot closer to it, but I liked this picture better than the closeups.

My arm petting a deer.  I took the picture myself, in case you couldn't tell already from the camera angle.

Feeding the deer is a dangerous proposition.  She bought deer cookies, and was soon swarmed.  One of them also ate part of her paper bag there, but fortunately she kept the contents.

Very friendly.

This is the Toudaiji, the largest (non-modern) wooden structure in the world, with construction started in 828.

More funny Engrish signs.

Crowds of (mostly) middle schoolers advance towards the temple.

The largest bronze cast Buddha statue in the world, almost 50 feet tall.  This picture doesn't really give a sense of the scale at all.  It was really dark inside, though, and hard to get any good pictures.

The main statue and another secondary one next to and behind it.  Also impressively large.

Another huge statue.  There were two essentially like this, set by the walls of the temple.

A bunch of old artifacts, but I don't really know what they are.  I can't read the information.

The giant statue on the other side of the main one.

There was a big line of students all waiting for their turn to slide through a hole in a column and get their picture taken sticking partway out.  The hole was just above ground level, roughly a foot in diameter, and three feet or so long.  It's supposed to be the same size as one of the Buddha's nostrils.  It looks like I didn't actually get any pictures of it, though.  Mostly because there was such a huge crowd, and I didn't want to look like I was taking pictures of a specific person as they came out.

And thus ends the trip to Nara.  It was pretty interesting, and the animals were fun, but we did so much walking.  It was really exhausting.

Days 17 and 18: Getting tired of the food

These past couple days haven't been very exciting.  The cultural activities were "Japanese manners" yesterday, which was a bunch of stuff that we pretty much all already knew (otherwise we'd be in trouble by now), and the tea ceremony today (I went through the motions, but didn't actually drink anything).  The ceremony was kind of complicated, but I now at least understand a bit of the reasoning behind turning the cups and all that.  And apparently one of the cups they served tea in, the fanciest one, was worth over $1,000.  That's too much for any non-ancient cup, in my opinion, and it didn't even look all that special...  As for turning the cups, it's so that the design faces you when it's served to you, and away from you when you drink so everyone else can see it.

Kneeling in the tea room at school after the ceremony.

I'm getting kind of tired of Japanese food.  It's different every day, but a lot of the dishes are pretty similar.  It's lacking the level of variety in my usual American foods.  Yesterday's lunch was actually pretty nasty.  I didn't realize exactly what I was ordering when I got it, but it ended up being rice with those little fish/eel things in it, covered in an omelet-style egg, with some sort of slime sauce on top.  The sauce was particularly disgusting.  I don't know what it is with Japanese people and slimy foods, but they seem to love them.  I ate most of the food, except the sauce, but I couldn't finish it.  I even ate most of the fish.  It helped that it was warm this time.

To make up for yesterday's lunch, today's lunch was decidedly American-esque.  Breaded chicken (chicken cutlet, so not quite normal) in marinara sauce with lettuce, a tomato slice, some other greens, and a side soup and rice.  That was pretty good.  Dinner today was actually pretty similar to lunch, but better.  The menus change daily without any input from me, so I guess I just got lucky today.

Yukie invited me out shopping with her, so I'll probably go at some point when we're both free to help pick out groceries and maybe make some of the American food I know how to cook for everyone.  Assuming I can find good ingredients at reasonable prices.

Tomorrow the school is taking us all on a trip to Nara.  I don't know much about what's there, so we'll see how it goes when I report back.