So in the midst of all this heavy rain we've been having here in Oita, I managed to leave my umbrella on a train on Friday. I didn't realize it until after I'd already left Oita station on my way to Saga to visit Mary for the long weekend (That turned into a 6 hour trip because of rain based delays. Normally it takes 3). Today I asked around the station for the lost and found, and inquired about my missing property. Sadly it had not been turned in. And although I shall mourn the loss of my little pink and brown umbrella, I did find it in a gutter in San Francisco, so it's not like I paid any money for it. Hopefully somebody is keeping a little more dry because of my mistake, just as I have been kept dry because of somebody else's.
Finals have also started up. This morning I gave a presentation in Japanese, and took my Level 3 Grammar and Conversation final. Although both could certainly have been better, I'm not disappointed with either (Which is a rare thing when it comes to Japanese tests). Finals (And regular classes) will be going on until August 3rd. After tomorrow I'll be completely done with two of my classes, and preparing for the finals in the other 7.
Amid all that crazy stuff I have been doing some fun stuff too. I've been learning how to dress in traditional Japanese clothing. There's quite a bit of knot work (Which I rather enjoy), enough that when Japanese people want to dress up, they often have to go to a dresser, because young people don't learn how to do it anymore. Fortunately one of Mary's friends is a professional dresser, and teacher of dressing, and I have been able to learn from her.
(This is me in a Yukata and Hakkama. Tied them both myself)
I have also been learning how to do the Women's knots. Well, one of them so far anyway. There are lots. (I learned it first actually.) Sadly I didn't get a picture of the bow in the back, but I did the knot work for the girl in the black and pink Yukata with the red and yellow Obi (Belt)
(Mary's friends getting ready for a fireworks festival)
Anyway, I'm up way past my bed time. Hope everybody is doing well. Until next time, take care.
So it seems that the flooding we've been having here in Oita has been broadcast at an international level. I just wanted to put out a quick update to say that other then some delayed trains (some very very delayed trains), I have not really been affected by it. I'm safe and sound. I actually kinda wish I had some pictures to show people, but I'm reluctant to bring out my camera during heavy rain. So much for the rainy season being over I guess.
The walk to school has become really interesting lately. The rainy season seems to be over, so lots of little critters are coming out of hiding. Yesterday I was up super early (Actually I just didn't get to sleep, but that's a different story) so I decided to take the first train to school and hang out on campus while I waited for class to start. (I forgot I only had second period though, so I wound up waiting for three and a half hours.) But on the way to school I took a lot of time checking out the wildlife, since I wasn't pressed for time like I usually am. The walkway is lined on both sides by a double rail. Between these rails spiders have set up their webs. These webs are interesting to me because they're all somewhat 3 dimensional. Each web has two main layers, with interconnecting strands. Kind of like an Oreo cookie, except the creamy center is replaced by sticky strands of certain insect doom. Also on the walkway I noticed a walking stick. Not the kind we use to aid us in walking, but the little bug things that look like a twig with legs. I didn't know they had them here in Japan, so I was kinda surprised. I'm glad to see them though. I always found them rather fascinating. Also on the walkway I noticed that a couple ant hills had made entrances in the path. Perhaps not the most ideal place for an entrance considering the amount of foot traffic that walkway gets. I wonder if the colonies clear out the entrance every morning, only to have it stepped on by students later on? The critter I saw that I was most pleased with though was a lizard with a long blue tail. Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved reptiles, so I'm really glad I get to see them at school now. I know that there are snakes around, but I have yet to see one. (I should really learn which ones around here have poison though).
Anyway, no pictures today. In an effort to save my back I've not been carrying it at school, so I don't have pictures of any of these guys. Though my camera card is virtually full with other stuff. I just haven't sat down to upload them yet. I'm heading into finals starting next week though, so I don't know if I'll be updating much for a while. (Finals is spread out over the next 3 weeks, so it could be a while) But who knows, I may use updating the blog as a method of taking a study break.
Until whenever next time happens to be, Take care.
This morning my tutor picked me up from the Kaikan and we drove for an hour to get to his Grandparents house so that I could meet some non city Japanese people, and so his Grandparents could have a chance to meet a foreigner. On the way Kengo told me that it was not just his grandparents, but most of his family that would be waiting for me at the house. It turns out Kengo's family has been curious about talking to foreigners, and has really been wanting to meet me. I wish he had told me a bit sooner so I could have brought a larger amount of the Ghirardelli chocolates I've been giving out as gifts. (Gift giving is an pretty big thing in Japanese culture. Sadly I'm running low chocolate squares.)
When I arrived, I was greeted by the family, and a table full of food (with more being prepared). They served a veritable feast of spring rolls, Katsu (battered and fried meat), Karaage (Oita specialty fried chicken), inari, celebratory rice, some other kind of rice, tomato, okra, and cucumber. (I list all this because I neglected to take a picture. I was just too distracted by the people and food) Everything was delicious.
After Lunch we sat down and took a look at the photos Kengo had taken at his brothers recent wedding. It was interesting to see the pictures of a Japanese wedding. This one was pretty close to weddings as we know them in America, but some of the guests (all of them were women actually) were dressed up in traditional Japanese clothing. The bride and groom actually changed between western clothes, and traditional Japanese wedding garb. Aside from the clothing change, the main difference was the presence of three of what I can only imagine were the grooms friends from the swim team, doing synchronized suggestive dancing around the dining hall in nothing but their goggles and speedos with "Congratulations" (Written in Japanese of course) drawn out across their chests. Seemed like a fun time.
After the photos we sat around and talked for a while. I don't actually know how much time passed, but it was at least an hour. Throughout the course of the conversation I was using steadily more and more Japanese, and relying less on Kengo's translations. There were of course times that I had no idea what was being said, but I don't feel bad about that because apparently the grandparents Japanese is so archaic that Kengo sometimes doesn't even understand it. (This conversation was also accompanied by coffee (Tea for me) and some rolled red bean paste cake stuff that was delicious. (They sent me home with half of it.))
After chatting they took me out into their garden. And by garden, I mean vegetable field. There we picked green bean (or snap peas or something they just called them Mame, which is the Japanese word for "Beans"), carrots, potatoes, daikon radish, and green peppers. They sent me home with everything but potatoes.
After veggies, it was picture time with the family, and then time to return home. It was a really fun day, and they invited me to come back again. They even offered to have me stay there for a few days during the summer. I hope I get to take them up on the offer At any rate, here are some pictures. Still having formatting issues, so I just kind of have to leave them where they get uploaded. Sorry about that.
(Bonsai!)
(My tutor Kengo in the vegetable patch outside his grandparents house)
So apparently knowledge of my tendency to take lots of pictures has spread a bit. I was asked to photograph a Koto Concert/Traditional Japanese Dance Performance. Originally they offered to pay me, but these ladies have been so kind to me that I declined actual pay and instead accepted lunch and dinner. (Which was delicious) I felt kind of bad because I actually wound up running out of room on my camera card and had to delete some stuff towards the end of the performance in order to document the rest of the show. (For reference, my camera holds around 1200 pictures.)
The performance was actually different from what I expected. It wasn't something that was put on for the public. Instead this was a gathering of a bunch of different performers who were performing for each other. I guess they only do it once every two years. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera set up quite right for the extra spot light that they added, so a lot of my pictures turned out a bit bright, but they were still happy with the photos I gave them it seems.
Normally I'd put the photo's below this paragraph, but I'm having some formatting issues apparently, so I'm just going to leave them where they are. Instead I guess I'll just have to label them individually, and they'll have to be viewed out of order. Before you get to the pictures, I should probably explain about the non performance pictures I uploaded.
So one of the guys here at the Kaikan rented a car for the weekend so he could take his cousins who were visiting around the area. When he got the car he was really eager to drive, so a group of us went out that night and did some exploring. We looked up a local mountain on google maps, and with the help of the Japanese GPS system in the car found our way to a graveyard that had a good overlook of the city. It was cloudy, so we couldn't see the city too well, but the lights through the fog were pretty nifty.
After the graveyard we continued up the mountain to a temple near the top. When we got there we found a bunch of Japanese Teenagers running a scare game. (Basically some people hide in the bushes, and scare groups of people walking down the path.) We decided to join in, but we were moving too fast and caught up to the group in front of us, and so we could tell where the people hiding were, and didn't give them enough time to reset. It was still fun walking up the mountain in the dark. I actually unintentionally scared a bunch of people by standing perfectly still in the middle of the pathway while people walked by on the way back down. After everybody had made it to the top, we all walked back down and a bunch of folks prayed at the temple. (I took pictures of the temple instead).
The next day we had a double birthday party in the lobby. We did potluck style again (Good way to party for a bunch of college students on a budget) I made rice again, and I didn't ruin it this time. (Though I wound up waking may too much, and it started molding before I could finish it all.) So we just hung out in the lobby and ate and talked and behaved in a silly manner. (And I took pictures)
(Oita from the graveyard overlook. It's really hard to focus my camera lens when it's so dark out. The picture is actually much brighter then what we were able to see, but it's more blurry)
(Picture time at the mountain temple)
(Jumping time at the mountain temple)
(Party poppers for party people)
(Emiko (Mary's Koto Teacher) playing an Okinawan version of the Shamisen (Japanese 3 string banjo)
(All the Koto performers playing together)
(Mary's Japanese old lady friends playing Koto and dancing. They are the ones that asked me to photograph the event.)
(A trio of umbrella dancers. I'm sure there's a lot of history behind this stuff, but the program was all in Kanji)
(Potluck on the ping pong table. See all that rice in the cooker, we didn't finish it....)
(Balloons: International sign for "Party over here!")
(Party people)
(Yannik with his party popper wig)
(Me with my party popper beard, and rabbit ear thing nose attachment)
(Traditional men's fan dance, performed by a woman. (I love the kimono she's wearing, and would love to find a similar one for myself))
(All the performers gathered after the show)
(A duet fan dance. This one was clearly telling a story, though I was a bit too busy taking pictures to piece together about what.)
So I've been doing a fair amount of hanging out with the other folks here at the Kaikan. And although it's not always Ideal from a language learning perspective to be hanging out with a bunch of non-Japanese, Pretty much everybody in the building has better Japanese then myself, so I can at least hear Japanese most of the time, even if it's not 100% grammatically correct.
At any rate, recently I took a night trip to P.E.I. (It's a bar for foreigners apparently) for a rooftop party/picnic/hang out with some of the other people living here. We never actually went into the bar itself, we just took the back stairs to the roof and hung out for a while and ate snacks and talked.
(Party on the rooftops)
(The view from our rooftop picnic spot.)
(We also found that there was a perfect stage for shadow puppets. That kept us amused for quite a while.)
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to get dressed up in a Kimono. It was a really neat experience, but sadly, the standard bolt of cloth that Kimono are made out of just physically isn't big enough to fit somebody my height properly. The sleeves were about 4 inches too short. and the length down at my ankles wasn't quite right either. If I wanted to find one that fit, I'd have to find somewhere that specializes in Kimono's for Sumo Wrestlers.
(See those wrists? You're not supposed to....)
On Monday all of the IPOU (International Program Oita University, is what that stands for I think.) students went on a field trip out towards Yufuin. I wasn't able to enjoy this trip as much as I might have because I slept funny a couple nights before and messed up my back pretty good. As a result I had very little idea what was going on, or where exactly we were, but I did still get some good pictures.
The first place we went was a winery. Having grown up in Sonoma County, winery tours aren't exactly interesting experiences for me. And because I'm allergic to alcohol, the wine tasting wasn't anything I could look forward to. (I don't like alcohol in the first place, but having an allergy to it makes it a lot easier to explain in a society where drinking is expected at most social functions, and to not do so could be considered rude.) However, I was surprised to find that this particular winery has the rights and contract to produce Welch's grape juice in Japan. So I was able to at least drink some tasty juice. If it wasn't $5 a bottle I might have actually purchased some. Since I couldn't drink, one of my teachers offered to buy me ice cream, but it turned out to be brandy ice cream, so I couldn't eat it. On the plus side, They were playing episodes of Tom & Jerry on the TV screen in the tasting room. So I at least got to be entertained.
After the winery we went to lunch at a restaurant across the street. Due to a communication error the previous week, I didn't have a meal ordered for me (Which was fine, I brought lunch instead and saved some money), but the portions were so huge that I got a pretty decent sized helping of Katsudon (tonkatsu on a bowl of rice) from somebody who just couldn't eat that much.
After lunch we went to a waterfall. I don't know what the name was, or where it was located (I slept on the way there) but this place was beautiful. I think I almost liked the walkway to the waterfall more then I did the waterfall itself.
(The walkway to the waterfall)
(Beautiful women, and beautiful scenery. I consider this outing a success)
(For a sense of scale, look at the bottom right corner. You can see a person wearing a yellow backpack halfway in the shot.)
After the waterfall we all went to the town of Yufuin. I don't know much about the town, but apparently it's quite the tourist attraction. Most of the other people went and did shopping and went to a nearby lake. Since my back was hurting me, I opted to go to an Onsen instead. Soaking for an hour helped me tremendously. The Onesen was pretty nice. It was my first time going in two years, so I was a bit rusty on the etiquette, but I figured it out with the help of a poorly translated instruction guide that the attendants handed me when I paid. It had an outdoor bath which I like, and it was raining lightly which I love. (If you haven't tried hot tubbing in the rain, I highly recommend it.) Since I spent most of my time at the Onsen, I didn't get to see much of the town. But I took kind of a back road to get to the Onsen, and got to see some interesting stuff.
(Elderly folks playing croquet in front of an ancient steam train? Sure, why not!)
(Based on my walk to the Onsen, I'm pretty sure I'd really like Yufuin if I were to spend more time there)
On Thursday we had a small birthday party for Cho (A Chinese exchange student who is also my next door neighbor here at the Kaikan)who just turned 24. They played an interesting card game that involved whoever drawing the king getting to order the people who held whichever two numbers he decided to do something strange. Dancing, massages, and Kissing happened. It was amusing (I didn't participate, I was taking pictures and went to bed before they ended).
(This is the largest apartments in the complex. Still pretty small for a party this size.)
Last night I tried my hand at some new cooking. Mary has been teaching me how to make some Japanese dishes, and since I have been eating pretty plain this last week, I decided to test one of them. (I actually wanted to try two different dishes, but I forgot I didn't have any vinegar, so I couldn't make the second one.) I made Nabe, which is a Japanese soup. Actually it's really simple (which is a bonus for me) and it turned out fairly good I think. It's one of those, "Throw in whatever vegetables and meat you have, and then eat it" kind of things. The only real difference is that there is some soy sauce in the broth, and once it's cooked you eat it with Ponzu. (which is some kind of vinegar subsidiary or something. It can be made from a variety of things. Mine is made from some kind of citrus, and it's delicious with pork.) Along with my Nabe I had white rice (essential to any proper Japanese meal), and some juice (not sure how Japanese that is). Since I was going full out Japanese for dinner, I decided to eat dinner while watching a Samurai anime to complete my experience.
(Japanese dinner done right.... As far as I'm concerned anyway.)
Also, if you're interested I took a video a few weeks back of myself cooking stirfry. If you have 9 more minutes to kill and are interested in watching me do stuff for that length of time, feel free to check it out.
Anyway, it's the weekend for me now, and I've got a bunch of studying to do for midterms and presentations that are coming up next week. Knowing this, I expect that for the next 7 days I will go back and forth between studying intently, and doing a variety of things that are expressly not studying, yet productive (It's the best reason to not be studying).
I saw a penny on the ground yesterday and picked it up. As I was looking at it I realized that I was in fact in Japan, and that finding a penny was a rather out of place event considering my location....
I also realized that the little building in the bike parking area near Oita station is not full of cleaning tools and bike rack related equipment like I suspected. It is instead full of seismographs. I somehow managed to walk right by them for weeks and not notice. Guess I was always in a bit of a rush to get into the station. (Not because I was late, but because I'm still getting the hang of the train schedule.)
