Getting settled in Utsunomiya

We got up Monday morning, took the free shuttle bus back to the airport from the hotel, and used the money they gave us to buy bus tickets from there to Utsunomiya station.  My card didn't work at the ATMs, so we had to use Jamin's for everything big, and I'll have to pay him back when I get my card working.

Here is the first shot of Sky Tree from the bus.  It was pretty cloudy all day.

We arrived at the station a little before 1:00, and since we weren't supposed to meet up with Charlie until 4:30, we decided we'd walk there and take our time looking at things, eating lunch, and so on.  We briefly stopped at a large shrine along the main road.

Stairs up to the main part of the shrine.  It's pretty striking in the middle of a busy city street.

Jamin looking at the large torii in an open space in front of the stairs.

We climbed up some side stairs instead of the main ones, but they worked around to the same point.  There were a few different buildings up there, but this one seemed most interesting to me.

A long line of torii leading to a shrine that had a small table with offerings to a local god, I suppose.  It looked like a few people had left some food, including convenience store bread.

There were I believe four kitsune (fox) statues just outside the front doorway, three of which had red bandanas tied around them.

I didn't take many more pictures today, unfortunately.  It's mostly just been typical Japanese city streets, which I've photographed enough times in the past, I think.  However, Jamin and I spotted this as we were walking.

Somewhat unfortunate Engrish, though definitely not the worst I've seen.

The shrine didn't take too long to see, so we went the opposite way down a side street towards some castle ruins, I think.  The maps said that, but we didn't make it that far.  Instead, we saw a shopping arcade on Orion street and decided to walk through looking for food and interesting stores.  We stopped to eat at a Matsuya, where I got a "hamburg" steak (more like meatloaf) and egg meal, and Jamin got some gyuudon (beef bowl - beef on rice), to which he added a raw egg, stirring it in.  I've tried similar, but didn't care for the nearly raw egg, as you may recall if you read my blog from two years ago.

After the meal, we went to a store in the arcade that was all anime-based goods.  It was actually several stores in one building, each on separate floors.  We looked around for most of the remaining time there, but didn't end up buying anything.  I might go back later for something though.  They had lots of used figures for good deals, music CDs, DVDs, and a bunch of doujinshi and other books.  For manga, though, you can't beat Book Off's prices, so I didn't even look through them here.

As it was getting close to time to meet up, we left and walked the remaining two miles or so to the school where Charlie teaches.  I didn't have an actual map, so we were relying on reading the signs and talking to people to get directions.  We found what I was pretty sure was the school wall, and a teacher standing at a nearby corner, so I asked for directions to the specific area I wanted in order to confirm, and even though I was the one asking, he immediately turned to Jamin to respond.  The same thing happened when we talked to the crossing guard in front of the main gate, and, really, every time we've talked to anyone so far.  It's already getting a little annoying, but the real problem is that because he's here, everyone assumes he speaks Japanese and talks at full speed without enunciating, making it harder on me trying to actually understand.  I generally get it, though.  Just not used to hearing the language like that quite yet.  Well, I shouldn't say that.  Many people spoke to me as if I were fluent during previous visits (probably in hopes I was so they didn't have to worry about it).  But now that I've got an Asian with me, they assume I'm not.

We met Charlie outside the school, after giving up waiting for him inside because we weren't quite sure where inside we would see him.  I was actually surprised they let us in, but it was after class hours, with just the clubs still around, so I guess they weren't too worried.  By this point, it had started raining enough to warrant an umbrella, and that kept up for most of the rest of the day.

He led us down the street to his apartment, where we dropped off most of our things (including my camera) and took a short break before going out to the stores in the area.  We first went to a Hard Off/Book Off (same company, different types of products).  The Hard Off was for old hardware.  We got an ethernet cable to use with Jamin's mini wireless router he brought, and they also had a bunch of old games and game systems, really old CRT TVs, oscilloscope, and other cool stuff.  I ended up buying a cheap PS2 game (Memories Off Duet, a visual novel I know only by name), and a few random manga for practice later (one of which turned out to also be a currently-airing anime, which I didn't even realize until after I bought it because I didn't check the title).

After that, we stopped by the supermarket and got some groceries.  I mostly picked up non-perishables that I could eat for snacks and light breakfasts, and an old karaage bentou (fried chicken with rice and some small side dishes) for dinner.  We spent the rest of the evening talking and making plans for the next few days, and went to bed a little after midnight.

We're now waiting for our luggage to arrive.  Charlie left for work a few minutes ago.  As soon as we get our luggage, get cleaned up and repacked, then we're heading out to Tokyo for a few days to tour around Akihabara and Asakusa, possibly among other places.  I won't be bringing my laptop, so no more blog posts at least until we come back Friday night.

The longest trip yet

I left home around 6:15 this morning, picked up my friend Jamin, and headed to the airport.  We arrived a little after 7:00 for a 9:50 flight to New York, made it through security very quickly, and sat around the airport for a couple hours before leaving.  That first flight was short and pretty uneventful.  However, they only gave us two of our three boarding passes when we checked in, and told us we'd have to get the third later.  We also had no gate number for our second flight.

When we arrived at JFK in New York, I asked someone where the next flight was, and she directed us to the terminal on the exact opposite side of the airport, so we walked and rode our way there, arriving just a few minutes before they started boarding.  We had to get out and go through security again in between, since we were changing terminals, and I had a bunch of water left in my water bottle, so I had to quickly down the rest of it to get on, then refilled it before we left.  We also got called over to the Air China desk, where they had our boarding passes ready for the rest of the trip.  I had been worried about having to pick them up in Beijing.

That second flight was way too long.  13 1/2 hours to get to Beijing, and just about everyone on the plane was Chinese, so I couldn't really understand much.  I did at least get to watch the new Muppets movie, but it was really hard to hear.  As for the food, they served two meals, which were actually pretty good.  Chinese food, which I prefer over Japanese in general.

Chicken and rice with cabbage, I think.  Plus some basic fruits, rolls (I got an extra one when they offered), yogurt, and some strange but actually pretty good corn-and-something mix for desert.

My second meal, pork and fried rice.

Jamin got the beef noodles instead, but he thinks the rice would have been better.

The plane went through the arctic circle, pretty close to the north pole.  I've only gone through Alaska before, never that far north.

Here you can see our flight path around the halfway point.  Our time of arrival is n/a, so... we won't ever arrive?

We did finally land, and had to get out and walk through security again, before which I once again drank almost my whole water bottle, since I didn't need much of it during the flight.

Lines were pretty long.  Longer for those staying in China than those of us passing through.

Here comes the fun part.  We actually didn't have any real trouble getting around, since enough of the signs were in English, and the security people spoke well enough too.  We got to the gate, though, and when I looked outside, instead of a plane, there was a bus.  Kind of amusing.  We got to rest a little bit (maybe 15-20 minutes) before boarding started, then lined up and squeezed into the bus with everyone else.  We'll call it practice for Tokyo's rush hour trains.  The bus drove us out onto the tarmac, past a bunch of planes, luggage cars, etc., into the middle of a big open space with our plane, where we climbed up the stairs and got on.  I haven't done that before; it's always been through the tubes that go directly from the airport to the plane.

Moving up to board the plane.

We noticed a few drops of rain on the windows shortly after boarding, and then they said that the flight would be delayed due to bad weather.  Fast forward two hours, after all the rain passes and night has fallen (and the kid in front of us had finished throwing his tantrum about not wanting to stay on the plane and his nose hurting - it was in Japanese so I didn't quite catch everything), and we finally start going to take off.  They'd already fed us our in-flight meal and shown a movie (that I didn't watch).

Last flight food picture for now.

This meal was Japanese style, which means some sort of seafood (octopus?) with packed rice, bitter beans and carrots with cold pork, and an pan, sweet red bean bread.  I managed to eat everything except the bitter one.  I don't know why Japanese people like their bitter, sour, and slimy foods so much.  The an pan was actually really good, though.

I kind of want to go to sleep, so I'll hurry this up.  We got to Japan, filled out the necessary paperwork, and made our way through the first security check up to the luggage carousel, and after only a couple minutes there, someone approached us with our names written on a large sheet of paper, and told us that our luggage didn't make the flight.  It got left behind in Beijing.  Hey, better than being left in New York.

Long story short, we talked to them at the counter for a while, gave them the information of where we'd be staying in Utsunomiya, and arranged for them to ship the luggage up to us.  It'll arrive the morning of the day after tomorrow.  They also gave us each 5000 yen to buy clothes and necessities to use in the meantime, and arranged a night at a hotel.  We had said we didn't have any hotel reservations, but planned to stay at the 9 Hours capsule hotel right at the airport.  Instead, they got us two rooms at Hotel Nikko Narita.  They said we each got a "single" room, which seemed pretty fancy already, but when we got here... wow.  This place is nice.  Way too big for one person's hotel room.  I mean, I've got two beds and four pillows.  And a couch and bench.

Pardon the pixellation and missing parts of the image.  I can't do iPhone panoramas perfectly yet.

As you can see, they also provided clothes for sleeping, and they had all the toiletries I was missing in the bathroom, including toothbrush and razor, so I don't think I'll really need to buy anything on my own with the money they gave us.  Probably use it for the bus/train fare tomorrow.

Here's another view that includes the bench as well.

After a shower and soak in the tub, I came out to write this up, and now will try to get some sleep.  I "slept" a lot on the last flight in particular, so I'm not all that tired, but I need to start adjusting, and check-out is no later than 11:00.

Tomorrow, we set off for Utsunomiya by whatever means are cheapest (we'll inquire at the bus/train ticket counters at the airport).  We're scheduled to meet Charlie outside his elementary school (he's an English teacher) at 4:30.

Days 27 and 28: Family restaurant, finals and the farewell party

First to finish up yesterday's events.  For dinner, the family wanted to take me out to a restaurant as a sort of farewell gift.  I didn't have any particular preferences, and I don't know much about the restaurants around here anyway, so I let them suggest some, and we decided on a family restaurant.  I don't know the name, though.

When we got there, I looked through the menu and felt right at home.  A lot of the stuff would have been pretty normal to see on an American menu.  I ended up ordering a mixed plate with kind of a meatloaf, fried chicken similar to what I had at the izakaya, mixed vegetables, hashbrowns, corn soup, and french bread (sort of).  And I got the juice bar, which is just unlimited drinks of whatever was there.  The food was really good, and I ended up drinking three cups of Calpis water when I saw it was on the drink list.  That stuff is really good.  I've heard it's some sort of yogurt thing, but I don't think that's quite right.  According to their website, it's a "lactic-acid" drink, so it's milk based in some way, but I don't know.  Yukie thought it was really funny that I liked it so much.

Now on to today.

Despite the weather report saying 100% chance of rain through about 4pm today, it had already stopped before I woke up and it didn't rain at all today.  That was a nice, unexpected boon.

I was a little late to school again, but it didn't really matter.  They tell us to get there at 9, but class doesn't start until 9:20 or 9:30, and they usually don't give announcements until 5 or 10 minutes before that, so I didn't miss much.  Anyway, we all had to fill out surveys about our host families, the school experience, the trip in general, and so on.  We also returned the cell phones and ID cards the school gave us in the beginning, so I am now trapped in Japan without a cell phone.  To be precise, I have one, but it only works in America.

In class, we each did a practice run-through of our survey result presentations and got a little feedback from the teacher, then did the real things in front of both classes, both teachers plus the program head, Kanzaki-sensei, and a couple of our Japanese buddies.  I don't think there were any particular issues with the presentation.  It seemed to run pretty smoothly.

After that, we paid our phone bills (mine was 300-some yen, by far the lowest.  They charged 100 yen per minute), then went to lunch, which was the usual cheap kitsune udon for me.  Kitsune means fox, but it's actually just tofu stuff.  After lunch, I had my final kanji test.  I'm not too confident in this one.  I might have gotten 10/10, but I'm only really confident in 7 of them.  This was one of the harder tests, and I didn't study much at all for it with everything else that's been going on.  Oh well.  Even if it's just 7/10, it's not as bad as I did on some of the early tests.

I came home and played piano for what will probably be the last time in Japan, then started packing my suitcases.  At this point, everything's basically packed, minus what I'll be using tonight and tomorrow.  I did manage to fit those figures in, but there's not really any room for more, so the rest will have to be shipped home.  Well, maybe a couple small ones, but I don't know...

As I was packing, Yukie came in and told me that she had bought Taiyaki, which I vaguely remember telling her was one of the foods I wanted to try while I was in Japan.  Taiyaki are fish-shaped pastries, usually filled with an, a red bean paste, but really they come with all sorts of sweet things inside.  I of course had one, but I chose the custard-filled one instead of an, since I've had an before and didn't care much for it.  It tasted really good.

Yukie also bought two bottles of concentrated Calpis formula for me to take home.  Each bottle is supposed to be enough for 15 cups of the drink, so I'll be able to share it with everyone when I get back.  She got two different flavors, though, one original and one grape, I think, which I've never tried.  We'll have to see what it's like.

Around 6:00, I went to the farewell party at the school.  I was biking over by myself, because Ranmaru had tennis at 6, so they'd be late.  On the way over, I was going a little (a lot) too fast down the big hill right before the school, and came very close to being hit by a car when I went across a street on the hill.  Like, within a few inches.  Granted, he was already stopping anyway, so the car would have barely tapped me, but even still.  I'd say it was about 80% my fault, although he was also pulling a little too far forward before stopping.  Not like I'm likely to ever have the opportunity to again, but I don't plan to ride quite that fast when there are streets like that in the future.  I roughly stopped my bike about 5 feet past the car, turned back and signaled that I was alright, saying "daijoubu" (which I'm sure he didn't hear), and continued on.  I did get a slight scrape on the side of my knee from hitting the bike as I was trying to stop it, but it's nothing to worry about.

Ok, so anyway, the farewell ceremony closely resembled the opening ceremony, taking place in the chapel with much the same service.  The difference was that this time, they presented us with certificates saying that we participated in the course and so on and so forth.  I can only read about half of it.

Then we moved on to the party portion, and everyone toasted everyone (which I could actually participate in this time, since they had juice and not just tea) before moving on to dinner, which was all sorts of small foods.  I stuck to dishes where people didn't have to use their own chopsticks to serve themselves, at least after the first trip, since I don't trust people to not use the end they eat off of.  It was good, and enough to fill me up.  They had a slideshow running most of the time on a giant projector screen, showing a lot of pictures that they had taken throughout the trip.  It was fun to look at all those again.  They also gave all the students a farewell package which included a CD, presumably with those pictures on it; a towel with the school's name and logo; and a bottle of... glue.  I'm still scratching my head over that one, but whatever.

They also gave out prizes for the best presentations in the classes, one for the beginner class and one for the advanced class.  My team won the prize for the beginner class.  We each received an envelope containing... a cow keychain.  But not just any cow keychain, oh no.  This one has a button on its head, and when you press it, it moos and shoots blue lasers out of its nostrils.  Seriously.  Okay, maybe not lasers, but a really bright light.  I really don't understand these gifts.

Most of the other students went to an izakaya after the farewell party, but I decided to come straight home instead.  After all, I wasn't going to drink, and I was already pretty full from everything else, so I really didn't see the point in going to a buffet.  I said my goodbyes and headed out.  I rode my bike nice and slow on the way home.

So that's it for this house.  I think I'll quickly take a few pictures of the rest of the house, since I never did actually do all that like I said I would, and then I'll get ready for bed and go to sleep.  I have to get up pretty early tomorrow, so I should get as much sleep as I can.  Goodnight.

Day 27: Drawing to a close

I just realized my day numbering has been off since the first week, so I went back and corrected all the titles since then.

Today was raining all day again.  I got soaked from the waist down on my way home, despite my umbrella.  I walked this time instead of biking.

A classic shot.  I had to get this at some point during my stay.  These mirrors are designed to help you see around corners so you can tell if cars are coming before you pull out.  I've gotten used to using them somewhat when I ride my bike, and it's actually pretty helpful on the narrow streets.

All the drainage systems were full of rushing water.

We were going to do the archery today if it hadn't rained.  It got rained out last week, and they moved it to today, then it got rained out today, so it's just not happening at all.  That's one I was really looking forward to, too.

I can't believe how quickly time has passed/is passing.  For some reason, all day I've been thinking it was Wednesday instead of Thursday, so when I just noticed what day it actually is, that made me feel as though it was passing even faster than it already felt like.

I leave here Saturday morning, but I don't have any of the actual details worked out.  I think I'll take a train from here to Osaka, then a bus to Nagoya, then a train down to Yokkaichi.  It's a longer trip than trains the whole way, but fewer transfers and cheaper.  Once I arrive there, I'll meet up with my friend who will take me to his apartment where I can deposit all my stuff.  Then I think we're planning to go out and get lunch somewhere, then we'll take a bus to Tokyo.  I still don't really know what I'll be doing there yet, or how long I'm going to stay, but my friend can only stay one night, and he'll come back on Sunday night.  I may or may not go with him.  That depends on if there's anything else I really want to do there, and on how confident I am that I could find my way back by myself.

I should probably start packing everything up tonight, and make more solid plans about how I'm getting to Yokkaichi.  My host family should be able to help me with that, I hope.  I also still have homework to do, and a final test and presentation tomorrow.

Another round of quick observations:

• Keyboards on Japanese computers are all different from the standard US ones.  They have the hiragana printed on them, of course, but they also have a few extra keys here and there.  One of the worst changes is that all the little symbols (!@#$%^&*()[];:'" etc) are in different places, so when I've had to use the computers to write things, it always takes a while to search for those.  Also, the spacebar is tiny, and there's a button where the right side of it should be that changes it from English to hiragana/kanji, so it's really annoying when I keep accidentally hitting that.  And apostrophe is something like shift+7.  I never did figure out how to get an underscore.
• You don't hand cashiers money directly.  Instead, you put it all into a tray next to the register.  Once you've stopped putting money in, they'll count the coins one by one, pushing them with their fingertips as they go, and total up the bills, then pick it all up and put it away.  When you get change, they'll take any bills first, count them for you while holding them up in front of you so you can see you're getting the right amount, then hand them to you.  Coins are handed to you in a single pile, and generally not counted separately.
• Dryers seem to be rare.  Looking at any apartment complex or on any residential street in the middle of the day, you'll see clothes hanging out on a line to dry.
• Meats are often served with all the fat, skin, cartilage etc. still on them.  This is generally just eaten as is.  I've only had bones in the meat twice: once at the barbeque, and once a couple nights ago in some fish.  They apparently ate the fish bones, too, which I can't understand.  Those things hurt when they jab you in the gums.  I didn't eat those (well, I tried not to), and I took off most of the cartilage from the meats I had, but otherwise I ate it basically the same way they did.

Right as I was about to publish this, I heard the doorbell.  I'm the only one home, so I went down to take a look, and apparently there was a package that I had to sign for.  I wrote my name out in katakana.  Hopefully that's alright.  Alright.  Off to do my homework.

Days 25 and 26: Typhoon and flower arrangement

This post was written yesterday (Wednesday), but I didn't post it because I didn't have the pictures on my computer yet.

I spent yesterday after school holed up in my room.  In the afternoon, maybe around 5:00, Hiroto came in and pulled metal shutters over the outside of the window, so I couldn't really see anything that was happening outside.  All the windows in the house were blocked off, and I didn't really want to open the front door in case I'd get pelted with rain or something.  And at the time he closed everything, nothing was going on.  During dinner, though, around 8:00, we could hear the shutters rattling pretty hard.  Either that or something hitting them hard.  I'm not entirely clear on what it was, but I know there was at least a lot of rain, and I could hear the wind sometimes, too.  It really wasn't that exciting.  It seems like the people here are all used to it.  Aside from blocking off the windows, all that really happened was that I got a bit wet on my way home, and Ranmaru got sent home from school early.  In the morning, everything was a little damp still, but it wasn't raining, and it didn't seem particularly windy.  So that's about it for that.

Class today was spent working on our final project, including interviewing students and making a poster.  Tomorrow looks like it'll be largely finishing up the poster.

Today's cultural activity was flower arrangement.  We were given two roses with very long stems, two branches, and a basin of water with a thing with needles in it to hold the flowers up (by stabbing them on the needles).  There was a specific way we were supposed to arrange them all, selecting a larger branch, trimming the flowers to different heights, and adding in a few small branches (twigs) to help blend it.  The placement was also pretty specific.  Anyway, the teacher liked my arrangement.  After the activity was over (it only lasted about half an hour) they let us take the flowers and branches home, but not the water basins to hold them in.  So all the arranging was undone and they stuck them in newspaper bouquet wrappers to carry back.  I gave it to my family.

Everyone's flower arrangements.

A closer look at the one behind me.

My arrangement, from the front.

And from the side.

Days 23, 24, and 25: The final week of school

This week marks my last at Momoyama Gakuin Daigaku.  It's been fun.  Not as hard as I was fearing, but generally busier than I had expected.  This week, though, we don't have many of the cultural activities planned, so I've got more free time at home in the afternoons.

Sunday was church again.  I got rather lost during the second hour, but so did the native Japanese, so it wasn't entirely my fault.  I bid farewell to everyone at church and thanked them for their help.  There weren't any special activities in the afternoon, so I pretty much just stayed home.  Lunch was a few pieces of bread, including one of the ones I bought in Kyoto but didn't manage to eat there.  Japanese breads are really something.  Most of them are more pastries than bread, but they sometimes have things like hot dogs inside, or chocolate, or spices, or whatever.  It's pretty interesting.

On Monday, we worked on our final projects for class.  We have to make a survey and ask a bunch of Japanese people questions, then present the answers to everyone on Friday.  Our topic is home and school life, targeted towards the college students.  School ended at lunchtime, so I ate at the cafeteria and came home.  It was too hot to go back outside, so I stayed inside all day.  It was also too hot to stay inside, but at least that way I didn't have to move.

Today (Tuesday), we've got a typhoon on the way!  This morning was cloudy (as were yesterday and the day before), and it started raining shortly after I got to school.  It let up when I went to the cafeteria, but was raining again when I biked home, so my hands and legs got pretty wet.  I had a rain jacket that helped with my upper body, and my helmet mostly kept my head dry, so it wasn't too bad.  My shorts, socks, helmet, and jacket are all hanging up to dry now.

Japanese people have this amazing talent of riding bycicles in the rain with umbrellas held over their heads.  I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like it would be really hard to do.  Instead, I just opt to get a little wet and dry off when I get home.  Granted, I also bike about twice as fast as they do, so maybe it would be easier to do if I slowed down.

So yeah, typhoon (taifuu/台風).  It's supposed to really hit tonight, sometime between 6 and 9 pm.  I heard it's a super typhoon, roughly equivalent to a class 4 hurricane.  I haven't confirmed that myself.  No one really seems all that worried about it, but they did close the schools early today.  It's sort of like getting a snow day, except it's a typhoon day.  This seems to happen somewhat often.  It's a little odd, because it's out of season, but it's not a huge deal.

I don't have any new pictures today, but I've got some old ones from the first week that we've received from the school.  These have everyone who was there at the time, so not including the people from England.

Our arrival at the airport.  The really big Japanese guy on the left is the only Japanese person I've seen so far who was taller than me.  There have been a few who were pretty close, though.

One of the classes during the first week.  The teacher for this day was Kanzaki-sensei, who is in charge of the whole program.  He's a really cool, nice guy.  Everyone loves him.

Standing outside in the sun, blocking all the foot traffic next to St. Johns Hall.

I've gotten to know everyone pretty well by now, since we see each other every day.  There are a few people who I don't really talk to still, but overall we all get along.

Day 22: Back to Kyoto

Saturday I took another trip to Kyoto with the school.  This wasn't officially part of the program I'm in, but it was part of the foreign exchange student program for those people who are staying for full semesters, and we were invited to join in.  Only two other people from my group came along.

We visited another temple, Byoudouin, and saw the Phoenix Hall from the outside.  We would have had to buy separate tickets to go inside, and the group sizes are limited, so it would have been hard to get in anyway.  Also, I've kind of seen enough temples and shrines by now, they're starting to all get mixed up in my head.  This particular one is famous as being the image on the back of the 10-yen coins.

It was raining on and off all day, but nothing too bad until late at night, when I was already home.  I did get some use out of my umbrella, though.

A shot of the Phoenix Hall as a group is starting to enter for the tour.

Probably my favorite angle of the building.

A more frontal view.

I don't actually know these people, except the one on the far left, but they were in the exchange student group that we joined in on.

I like the look with the lillypads, too.

This was on the temple grounds.  Some sort of trellis with trees growing up underneath and all the branches collected on top.  It looked pretty interesting.

After that, we walked through the museum section, which had a lot of the typical style of ancient statues and scrolls and things.  Since I can't read the details about most of them, they all end up looking basically the same to me, no matter which temple or shrine I visit.  Still, kind of interesting.

When we finished there, we left the temple area and went out in search of lunch, but found none.  Instead, I got some pictures of the surrounding scenery.

A flock of birds perched on a tree near the river.

The calm river.  It was hardly moving at all.  This was taken from atop the bridge.  I'm pretty sure they designed this river specifically for the reflection.

The clouds/fog in the mountains looked pretty impressive.  I had to get a shot of it.  It was probably like that because of the rain.

A shot of the second river, which was basically rapids.  The water was moving way too fast to be safe, and they had big signs saying (in Japanese only) not to enter the water, because it moves too fast and is dangerous.  I could actually understand the whole sign, kanji and all, which was nice.

When we toured as much of the area as we cared to, we headed back to the bus and waited to go to the next stop, which was the center of Kyoto city itself.  We did a lot of walking here, roughly 25 minutes from the bus drop off point to the first stop, then another 20 minutes backtracking to the shops.  Along the way back, my friend and I grabbed some bread from a Family Mart for lunch.  I bought three things, but ended up getting full after one and a half.  I saved the rest for later.  Bread is always good because it's so cheap and filling.

Our first stop.  Another temple.  This one was packed with visitors as well, but seemed to cover a pretty large area.  We looked around inside the grounds for a while, but didn't see anything particularly impressive, so we headed back.  If you want more pictures anyway, I do have them.

This was the main shopping arcade where we spent most of the time.  It was really long, taking probably a good 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other, and there were two full streets of it, next to each other.

One shop was nothing but crane games, where nearly all the prizes were anime figures, pillows, pictures, clocks, or other goods.  Most of them looked completely unwinnable, without even accounting for the pre-programmed failure rate of these things.  And if you did manage to pick up a figure and drop it down the chute, it would probably break.  Needless to say, I didn't try any.

I also found another shop that had a ton of anime figures, posters, wall scrolls, etc., which was where I spent most of my time.  There were a few 3D pictures there from different series, but the most impressive thing about them was that...

...not only were the images 3D, but there were 3 images on each poster.

I ended up buying this one.  It's just too cool.

I also bought a couple of small, cheap stick posters (vertical-hanging wall scrolls, about 8 inches wide by maybe 20 inches long).  Those had a couple Touhou characters on them.

After shopping, we went to one of the shops, where we learned how to make a type of candy called yatsuhashi.  This was part of the group's planned activities.  Everyone got to try their hand at it, and make 16 pieces of candy.  In the end, they gave us each 33 pieces of candy (32 in a bag, and 1 freshly made) and a can to carry them home in.  The candy itself is sort of cinnamony, and very stiff and crunchy.  It wasn't spectacular, but it was pretty good.

We had to wear the aprons, gloves, and hair nets while we worked there.  I'm pretty sure they ended up selling all the candy we made to random other people.

At any given time, there are 8 pieces under each board, and one or two extra sets at the end, for a total of 48 or 56 pieces.  You put on a new set, then rotate the board on the far right (left in the image) to the second uncovered set, remove the pieces that were under it before you moved it, and press them into the curved shapes with the metal dowels.  Each of the other boards has a specific action you have to do to the pieces under it as you go, sliding them all one space to the right each time.

Receiving my gift of candy after having finished my two rounds.

After all that was done, we headed back to the bus and came home.  It was raining again by then, so I had to use my umbrella.  I'd walked to school instead of biking that day so I wouldn't have to worry about biking in the rain.

Another thing: despite the rain all day, it was still really warm.  Not as hot as it has been, but uncomfortably warm all day anyway.  It's not as hot as it is back home, though, and probably roughly as humid.  The real problem is the lack of AC.  Except in rare cases, the temperature inside and outside are basically the same.  There's no comfortable place to cool off, so I just sweat all day long.  That's not very fun.

Only one more week of school left, and then I'm off to Yokkaichi and Tokyo with my friend for another week.  Then back home.  Time has passed really quickly.

Days 4 and 5: Interesting foods

So I said yesterday that I wasn't really going to talk much about food, but... that was before dinner.  Dinner last night was fairly straightforward, with rice, mackerel, and some other basic stuff, except there was one dish that I had no idea what it was.  It was a bunch of long off-white strands in a little bit of clear liquid, with occasional black specks and darker lines.  I could tell it was a mix of a few different things of similar color, but I didn't know anything else. I asked what it was, but started eating before she could really answer.  It was too vinegary for my tastes, but I planned to go ahead and eat it anyway.  I really am trying.

Anyway, the answer was that it was Japanese radish, which I'd had before and was fine with, and some type of "small fish."  I was reasonably satisfied with that answer until I took a closer look at the food and realized that all those little black dots... were the "small fish's" eyes.  They were more like albino eels or something, each maybe 1/8 inch across and 1 1/2 inches long.  Yukie looked up the word on her phone, but there wasn't an English translation.  I managed to swallow what was already in my mouth, but I couldn't bring myself to eat any more of it.  It didn't help that it was also cold, and I wasn't sure if it had ever been cooked or not.  I'm okay with a lot of strange foods I've had in the past, but if it's looking back at me... that's usually where I draw the line.  Or if it obviously poses a health risk.

Breakfast today was part of a pancake/hotcake, a couple small slices of watermelon, some yogurt with raisin-like fruits and some gelatin cubes, and a glass of milk.  All fairly standard.  Here at school, I went to the cafeteria and tried the A Lunch.  It had some chicken, rice, a little bit of soup, and salad.  And I could have gotten tea, too, but I just had water.  That was pretty good, but not as filling as I was hoping after my rather small dinner and breakfast.

I think I've had more beef and chicken here than I've had fish, which seems a bit odd.  Although all the chicken I've gotten has been at school, and they do have fish available as well of course.  I'm just not a big fan of it.

Today's lessons were by far the easiest so far.  I actually already knew most of what they were going over, or had at least heard it at some point, so I only had a couple of new points to remember.  I can manage that much.  And for the rest, the review was helpful.  Still, I need to review/learn another 20 chapters worth of grammar before classes next week.  We've only got a few left that they'll cover tomorrow, but I also need to really get the ones that they've already gone over drilled into my mind.  I think I'll focus on studying the grammar for tomorrow tonight, and then learn the stuff they've already covered over the weekend.  That way I'll actually be able to fully participate in the class tomorrow, rather than just remaining a couple classes behind by studying the grammar in order.

The sky has been gray all day.  But not cloudy, just gray.  I think it's probably smog?  Yesterday was pretty gray, too, but I think it was blue over the weekend, so I'm not really sure.  At least it's not raining, though.

If anyone has any particular questions about anything in Japan, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer.  I can always ask my family here if I don't know something.  Or if you have any ideas of things I should do, I could hear those, too.

It hardly feels like I'm in a foreign country.  Everything just seems like one really long day of school so far.  Maybe it'll feel different when I hit the weekend.

Days 3 and 4: 雨のち曇り (Cloudy after the rain)

Every day's classes start out easy, and stay fairly easy until the last hour before lunch.  After lunch we have kanji, which isn't too bad overall, especially after switching to my easier book, and listening practice, which is practially impossible.  It's not that I can't hear what they're saying in the recordings, but every conversation has at least five, often more, completely new words that I'll probably never see, hear, or use again.  That also applies to the last hour before lunch.  Additionally, as I've said before, the grammar they're teaching as a review is beyond what I ever learned.  If I actually manage to get it all down, I'll have learned a year's worth of grammar in a week.  Seriously.

Unfortunately, the majority of it is for super polite conversations.  Things like "I'm so sorry, but I'm going to miss the appointed time for today's meeting.  I got on the wrong train and will be about 30 minutes late." "Oh, I'll be busy then." "Can you please change the time (for poor little me [super humble form])?"  Anyway, it's hard to explain without going into detail on Japanese.  The important point is that this sort of speech is much harder than plain or polite, and I never learned it.  However, one of my classmates who did take the higher classes just spent fifteen minutes going over a lot of the important stuff and explained it in a very simple and efficient manner, so I think it'll be at least a little easier from here on.

Regarding the weather yesterday, it started out sunny, and started getting cloudy and gray by late morning.  Just after I bought my lunch it started drizzling and we all hurried back to the main building.  There was a break as we went to the computer lab to do homework, then it started pouring while we were in the lab.  Between the time of my first and second blog comment yesterday, it slowed to a drizzle, and by the time I got to my bike outside it had stopped.  Very fortunate timing.

I came home to an empty house and a note on a towel by the front door.  The note read (in Japanese hiragana) "Thayne - Did you get wet in the rain?  Use this to dry off."  I wasn't wet, but it was so considerate of my host family it made me feel both happy that they thought of it and sad that I didn't use it.  I left a note on the reverse of the paper and put the towel away, then thanked them again when they got back.

For dinner last night, I had the first real exotic-seeming food of the trip.  Every day has had new stuff, but it's mostly been at least within reasonable bounds from what I'm used to.  So, dinner yesterday included tako (octopus), and natto (soybeans) with raw egg.  The octopus was actually just fine.  Better than the times I remember trying it in the US.  I tried a bit of the natto, too, and while it wasn't all that bad, I didn't particularly care for the raw egg on top.  It was very gooey and not exactly the best flavor.  Ranmaru was all too pleased to finish my portion.

My family also pushed several Japanese snacks onto me last night, and I've decided to bring them to school to supplement my lunches.  It's kind of hard to talk about the different foods when I don't even know what to call them, but so far the snacks have been pretty hit and miss.  For my actual lunch today, I had croquette bread and some sort of spicy chicken on a stick.  The chicken was pretty good, but the bread was so-so.

Sorry I don't have anything fantastic to report about the food; I know a lot of people are interested in that sort of stuff, but food has never really been my thing.  It's generally either good enough to eat, or it isn't.  So I've been sticking to buying whatever is cheap and looks relatively filling.  I'm aiming to make it through the school portion of the trip spending less than 7,500 yen.  Most of the real lunches are in the 450-600 yen range, so that means averaging well below that for the 20 days I'm here.  So far, my lunches have been 110, 398, and 240 yen.

Anyway, I should get back to my host family.  I'm still in the computer lab after working on homework, and I still have studying to do for tomorrow.  Sorry about the lack of pictures.  I'll try to get some more off my camera soon.