ridiculously long update!

and, as would be expected after not updating for over a week, a lot has happened! actually, i've tried to update twice since then (and even have notepad files of the entries to prove it!) but the internets wouldn't hold up long enough for me to actually post anything. we'll see how it goes this time, though. (c'mon, crappy interets!)

in any case, have done a whole lot of temple and shrine visiting in the past week. there was Byoudoin on Thursday, Toudaiji on Saturday, Kumano-jinja and Nanni-ji on Sunday, and Yasuikonpira-gu and Imamiya-jinja on Tuesday. and tomorrow--if the group's not meeting--i'm planning on going to the Seimei shrine. (because Abe no Seimei is one of my top five favorite historical figures!) but yes: a lot of temples and shrines. i really wish i had the time to go into each of them in depth, because they were all pretty amazing, but the internets usually die around midnight, which gives me less than an hour, and as you guys surely know by now: i am ridiculously long-winded.

so, i guess i'll start with Byoudoin, as it's probably one of my favorites thus far. in comparison to, say, Toudaiji, it's not immensely big or particularly impressive, but it is one of the oldest existing wooden structures: having only survived so long because there's a pond/moat that surrounds it that protected it from all the fires that destroyed everything else in the surrounding area. (looking back on the history of some of the places we've visited, you can usually find they've burned down at least three times. Nanzenji--the temple we researched last Tuesday--burned down four times, for example.) in any case, Byoudoin was built by this super rich noble family way back in the day (around 1020?) to house this huge Kannon statue (Kannon is the Goddess/Bodhisattva of Mercy in Buddhist canon) that was also made out of wood. there are 20 or so smaller bodhisattva statues hanging on the walls surrounding Kannon--each of them is different and involved in some unique action (most are playing instruments). the room itself is pretty small, but the feeling you get just standing there is just indescribable. it's like you can feel just how old everything is around you--like you're breathing in history. there was no AC in the building, so it was really hot and humid and musty, but you had to take off your shoes to enter, so you're standing there either in socks or barefoot on cool tatami and smelling really, really old wood smell and are surrounded on all sides by dark walls that have just the slightest trace of paint left--every now and then you can make out a tree or a face, and then a landscape'll start to appear...and then of course there's Kannon-sama who (until you've been to Toudaiji) is really big and impressive and kind of humbles you to think that people had been praying to it for at least a thousand years.

so, needless to say, i freakin' loved the place. and that was just the inside: the outside building and gardens of Byoudoin are also some of the most gorgeous i've seen. the building is referred to as the Pheonix Hall because the left and right wing of the building look like the outstretched wings of a phoenix (also there are two phoenix statues on the roof...). and then there's also a museum you can go into to view the pieces of the statue they've had to take down (the golden wooden halo and backdrop) as well as replicas of the smaller boddhisattvas. i just really enjoyed the whole thing. (random trivia: Byoudoin is also the building on the back of the 10 Yen coin. Izuno-san pointed that out to me. XD)

but that was Thursday...Byoudoin was in Uji, so we had to ride a train there and back. (i love riding trains! so much fun!) on Saturday we all met early to ride the train to Nara (the old capital). Williams-sensei had declared the day an okay-to-speak-English day, so we all really enjoyed being able to speak English in his prescence without getting fined. (did i ever tell you guys i got fined? it was...last Monday, i think. i was talking to Adam at the bus stop and happened to look over and see Sara. i couldn't remember if it was still Konnichiwa time or if it had moved to Konbanwa time, so i just waved and said "Hi!" she gave me some weird look, which tipped me off and i turned to find Williams-sensei standing right behind me, grinning his evil I-just-caught-you-speaking-English grin and Adam swears up and down that i jumped, i was so startled. so i totally got charged 500 Yen for saying "hi." definitely not a high point of the trip.) anyway, crazy tangent.

so we went to Nara. i love Nara. there are wild deer that roam Nara that are practically domesticated: they come right up to you wanting to be fed. heck, the stupid things will follow you about, nipping at your clothes and bags if they think you have food. they've even been trained to bow after you give 'em something to eat. i had bought a tiny bunch of deer crackers to feed them, and as soon as i opened the package i was swarmed by three to them that kept following me about, butting me with their heads and biting at me until i was virtually throwing the crackers at them to keep them away. Tessa and Drew (Tessa had my camera and was video taping the whole thing) got the biggest kick out of me running away from the deer. i'd have Tessa yelling, "Becky, they're just deer, they're not going to hurt you!" on one side and Drew yelling "Becky you're backing into a fence! They're gonna corner you!" on the other. but i am here today to tell you that those things are frickin' scary when they mob you, i don't care how cute and harmless they seem.

so. post deer, we stopped for lunch and then headed on to Toudaiji, where there were more deer. also deer poo shaped chocolate candies. (that was a huge WTF Japan moment.) but, ah, Toudaiji. not gonna do the same history lesson thing i did with Byoudoin because Toudaiji didn't interest me as much: it had too much TOURIST ATTRACTION feel to it to be truely awesome. at any rate, Toudaiji is very big. it was like some kind of storehouse or dropoff for the silk road, and so the stone path leading up to it is made of stone from all over the world. (that was pretty cool.) and inside is the biggest Buddha i have seen in my life: it put even Byoudoin's Kannon-sama to shame. the Buddha was so big, in fact, that it's possible for you to climb through its nostril. how do i know this? because there was a pillar inside Toudaiji with a hole carved into it that was roughly the size of Buddha's nostril. people were crawling through it. (it's supposed to make you enlightened or just really smart or something.) even Williams-sensei climbed through it. (that was pretty awesome--all the Japanese bystanders cheered for him. XD) i didn't crawl through it though, as i am, unfortunately, not a tiny Japanese person who could fit into Buddha's nose.

but you were allowed to take pictures of these Buddhas, so i took plenty. and afterwards we went shopping for a bit and happened to walk by a mochi shop right when they were making mochi (one of the coolest things ever). Williams-sensei had bought everyone some from that very shop earlier that day, so i knew it was good, good mochi, but i didn't have the time or money to buy any. (it was like 10-15 bucks for six of the things!) that was about it for Nara, though. i think we're going back there again later, so maybe i'll have the chance to buy some mochi then. (wee, mochi!)

as for Sunday, a few of us had been planning on meeting to visit five temples in one day and get our shu-in books stamped. (it was Blake's idea originally, but i heartily seconded it.) we were going to meet at 8:30 by Kumano-jinja (a 5-10 minute walk from where i live) but Sara needed to use my computer so i was going to meet her at the university at noon. luckily, Corey (who is in Sara's group) was going with us, so i was just going to return with him. so. got to the bus stop on time but couldn't find Blake anywhere. Corey waved me down, though, and after waiting for Blake for a while, we decided to just go on into Kumano-jinja (Izuno-san had told me about it the night before and i was really curious to go see it!) most jinja (shrines) have orange tori (those gate things i mentioned back at the climbing-the-mountain post) because orange is representative of the fox, which is the most common messenger of the kami ("gods/deities/ancestral spirits"). foxes are everywhere at jinja--they're practically a marker for them. Kumano-jinja, however, had white tori. my host mother told me this was because the messenger of the kami at Kumano-jinja was the crow instead of the fox. and sure enough, when Corey and i were exploring the shrine, we found plenty of crow designs and pictures. i thought this was especially cool, because crows and ravens are all over the place where i live. in fact, crows cawing is what wakes me up every morning. they're supposed to be this really bad sign here, but i feel lucky/comforted every time i see one. it's probably the most bizarre thing Japan has done to me, honestly.

in any case, we eventually found Blake and grabbed a bus to some unknown part of Kyoto, only to then proceed to walk ridiculously far distances and get lost, and walk a whole bunch more, and get even more lost... by some stroke of luck or magic or random teleportation, we ended up near Kinkakuji and Ryoanji--only about a 20 minute walk from where we were trying to get to. so. we walked some more. ended up at Ninna-ji, which was pretty cool in it's own right. it was really big and full of small temples and shrines, but only one or two of them were open for you to go inside. it was about 10:30 then, and Blake was rushing cuz he was still determined to go to 4 other temples, so we ended up missing about half of Ninna-ji, which really pissed me off later when i was looking at the brouchure and realized how much of it we hadn't seen. anyway, Corey and i headed back after that, meeting Sara at the daigaku at noon, like we had planned, and proceeded to do presentation work for the rest of the evening.

that's about it as far as interesting places go, though. the two i visiting on Monday weren't that amazing. they were really pretty, of course, and the lady at Yasuikonpira-gu was really, really sweet and took us on a tour of the place, but they don't really stand up to the others. also i'm getting sleepy and don't feel like talking about them. the only other major thing i've done in the past week happened yesterday, when i got to meet Sara's host family and even spend the night at their house--which is ridiculously huge, by the way; they have five stories and a private indoor elevator. went to school with Sara and Corey this morning (Corey lives in the same area Sara does) and got to ride the train again. however, morning-trains are totally different from afternoon-trains: they are not cool. in fact, as i was getting on this morning the doors started to close on me. Sara and some other lady had to grab them and hold them open for me to get on the bus--freaked Sara out a lot more than it did me, though. (only cuz i kept thinking they'd open the doors eventually...) we both thought it was pretty hilarious later, though. i'm just glad i don't have to take Sara's route to school. i ride a bus for 10-15 minutes or take a 30-45 minute walk and i'm at school. Sara has to (everyday) walk 15 minutes from her house to the station, fight to get on the train and ride 15 minutes to downtown Kyoto, where she then grabs bus #5, which is the most ridiculously crowded bus in the whole city, and rides it for 30 minutes until she gets to school. i think i'd go crazy if i had to ride that bus twice every day; doing it once or twice a week is more than enough for me. in fact, i go out of my way to either walk or find another bus to take so i can avoid 5-bus. (the thing is like Satan on wheels, or something.)

guess that's about it, though. i'm kind of scared to see how long this entry is...err... (also it's magically 12:30 now--i told you i was long-winded!) we've got some cool things coming up though--this Friday is firelight Noh! i'm so excited for it, which is silly, because Noh has to be the most boring thing ever. but still: yay, Noh! also gotta hit the bank tomorrow, because i have no money left--gotta get some traveler's cheques exchanged. that's not really a cool thing that's coming up, but i just remembered it as i was typing so i shared.

will update again soon, hopefully! take care, everyone!

(also: Hi, Grandma! XD)

お寺が大好き！

howdy, everyone! wasn't going to update today, even though i have the time (should technically be downstairs hanging out with Izuno-san and Kyoko-san, but i'm pretty much Japanese-d out for today) and the internets, but then i reconsidered. (i didn't want you guys to get too sick of me! but then i wasn't sure when the next chance i'd have to update would be...)


in any case, today was completely wonderful! Blake, Renee, and i had all agreed yesterday after the horrendousness that was our first presentation that we'd meet early this morning and get all our research for this week's project done today. (did i write that last time? i have no idea what i write and where anymore. i have this blog, a written journal i keep every night, and a third journal for random thoughts that have no place anywhere else--it's all very confusing. also there is repetition. lots of repetition.) so this morning we met at the daigaku at 9AM--my bus got me there early for once, so i had the chance to use the internets a bit! once Renee and Blake arrived, we headed out.


first on our list of things to find was Nanzenji Temple. none of us knew anything about it, though Izuno-san had told me where to find it (it's also pretty close to where i live, also. everything is close to where i live, it seems like.) once we got there, we really didn't know where to start, so we pretty much wandered about and took random pictures. eventually, we stumbled upon this really ancient-looking aqueduct. it was really cool-looking, so even though it wasn't on our list of stuff to research, we walked up to it to explore, anyway. once we got to the top, we realized we could walk along the side of it, so we proceeded to do so, wandering all the way to its source: a water treatment plant. the place was basically deserted, so we explored a bit more, eventually finding a small Buddhist alter next to this disused playground. the area was a little sketch, to tell the truth, and Blake kept making comments like "Let's hurry and leave before we get shot" and so forth, but Renee and i were content to mess about and explore some more. we did leave eventually, though, following the aqueduct back to Nanzenji area. there, i convinced the other two to go into this Kamakura-period garden that i thought looked nifty. so we pay $3 to get in, only to find it's really small and not much more special than any other garden we've seen. (Ginkakuji had that thing beat.) but it was interesting, nonetheless.


afterwards, we headed down to Kouhoujyou (the U's mean each syllable's elongated.) the people there were really nice and i bought my shu-in book! (basically, it's this randomly expensive for no reason blank book that you can get stamped at every temple you visit. each stamp--elegantly painted on the spot for you--costs about $3 more.) really, there's no use for the thing, but i was looking through Blake's (he got his at Ginkakuji) and decided it was just a cool thing to have--especially because each temple's stamp is unique. the both of us are now determined to visit every temple we can to fill our shu-in up before we leave.


in any case, Kohojyo (same place, but the U's are silly. elongate the thing yourselves.) was really awesome--there were beautiful gardens and inside were these wall paintings (we weren't allowed to take pictures) that had been designated National Treasures--they were what we had been sent to research. after being very tourist-y for a while, we headed back out to Sanmon--this huge gate we had passed by upon entering--it was the second thing we needed to research. after speaking with some very rude ticket people for a bit, we headed on up some very scary stairs to the top. however, once we climbed out of the inner part of the gate to the outside, we were immeadiately awed by how gorgeous the view was. it was a little scary, being so high up in something so old. (it was originally built in 1262, burned down, and was rebuilt in the mid-1600s--it's also one of the three largest gates in Japan.) but i took a video walking around the entire thing--it's like 5 minutes long, but if i get the chance i'm going to upload it, because that's something you all have to see!


after a while we climbed back down--stairs were so frickin' scary--and headed back to Kohojyo to interview some people, as we had forgotten to earlier. we started with the nice ticket lady, but after a while, she couldn't answer any more of our questions and so led us into the restricted, staff-only area of the temple, down into the monk's administration office, all so we could interview some of the actual monks that worked there! it was really, well, kind of intimidating, actually. for one, all three of us felt horrible for intruding, and so the entire time we kept apologizing and thanking everyone profusely for their help. but two monks--one who spoke English and the other solely Japanese--took turns helping us. they gave us some papers on the temple and explained everything that wasn't covered there and were really nice and sweet. only in Japan would people go that much out of their way to help you!


by the time we left Nanzenji it was about 1PM, and all of us were pretty hungry. so we took a small break for lunch, walking back to Okazaki-michi (where i live) and searching for a suitable place. there wasn't any, so we eventually--out of sheer hunger--settled on this very seedy-looking ramen restaurant. however, luckily for us, the restaurant turned out to be amazing. the food (i got nikunashi ramen--meatless ramen) was delicious, and though somewhat expensive, was well worth the money paid. the people working there were also extremely nice and complemented us on our Japanese.

afterwards, we walked back to the Ninzenji area to find Eikandou, the second temple we were supposed to research. after paying admission, Blake and i took our shu-in to be stamped while we explored the temple and then the three of us began exploring. [it's getting late so i'm totally chopping off half the story/details.] the Buddha we were supposed to be researching turned out to have been moved due to renovations, so we spent a while looking for the thing. on the way, we found this awesome well: there was a small pool of water to the side with a dipping cup in it. next to that was a sign with instructions in English and Japanese. basically, if you scoop up some water and trickle it gently over the well (the well was closed but had a few areas in the wood where water could go through) the water would make the noise of a koto (Japanese traditional stringed instrument) as it made its way to the bottom. all of us tried it, and it did! it was one of the cooler things i've discovered since i've been here. (i even took a video, and checking it later, you can actually hear the koto-sounds! yay, spiffy camera!) right next to the well was this incredibly awesome staircase that was called the Sleeping Dragon because it, well, pretty much looked like one. we all spent at least five minutes just taking pictures of the staircase because it was so awesome.

around 3PM we were done with Eikandou, grabbed our shu-in and headed back. once we got back to the daigaku, we went across the street to the 99Yen Store (like the Japanese equivalent of the Dollar General. also my favorite store XD) to buy some ice cream. after that, we went to sit on the steps of the daigaku and eat our ice cream. Ross wandered up later, and ended up walking home with me a good ways after all of us split up.

after that, nothing much more interesting happened...oh! i finally got a video of our house! i've been too afraid to, because i thought it'd be very rude, but Izuno-san went to the supermarket today, and Kyoko-san wasn't home yet, so i made like a ninja and secretly videoed the house. i'm totally creeping about and whispering the whole time, but at least you all will be able to see where i'm living!

ah, it's pretty late now, and i have class tomorrow (Renee, Blake, and i were also going to finish up our presentation tomorrow so we'd have the rest of the week to practice it). so i should probably get, i guess. actually, i feel kind of bad i didn't hang out with the host peoples more, but maybe i'll try to stay home all weekend so we can hang out some. (i just hope they feel like doing more than just watching TV...) well, till next time!

also: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMA!

よくできた！

there are probably kanji for that, but whatever. kanji are silly.

[i hate captioning, but since no one would have any idea what this is unless i do: to the left is the daigaku (university) where i have class. or the front of it at least. i friggin' hate those stairs.]

in any case, i feel so behind. i have so much i want to post about, but i don't want to make this epic length... i did want to talk about karaoke, though, so maybe i'll start there.

Friday, May 18th:

i can't recall off the top of my head what i was doing the first half of this day (aside from classes, at any rate) but what i do remember was all good things. i played DDR in Japan for the first time, for example. Sara and i headed to an arcade after lunch (oh, i think i talked to Jen on gmail this day! another good thing!) it was the first arcade i'd been in here, and it was, well, really noisy. (it was also like two minutes from the daigaku (university). Ross, Drew, and Arkansas-san (i can never remember his real name; he's the only one of us not from Clemson. guess where he is from. XD) were already there at the DDR machine. (because Ross is crazy-good at the game. at one point he even drew over a small crowd of admiring Japanese schoolgirls.) after a while, they let Sara and i play, and i wasn't too horrible at it. afterwards, we took a bunch of dorky pictures around the arcade and caught up with Adam to catch the next bus out to Sanjyo (downtown Kyoto--where the karaoke place was). we all met around 4 and headed in. it was...kind of surreal at first, actually. Williams-sensei let us all speak English and so we started off with a few Beatles songs, then moving on to Billy Joel and Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid--it was pretty hilarious seeing everyone sing that. we were there for...hours, really--till 7, i think, and covered everything from Sexy Back (which was incredibly awkward seeing as how Williams-sensei was there--i can't believe they picked that one) to Bohemian Rhapsody (YES) and Hotel California (that one at my suggestion). someone also picked Pat Benetar (Heartbreaker) and so Williams-sensei and Meridith-san (whose real name is Andrew but whatever) sang a duet--Williams-sensei doing this creepy high-pitched girl voice that i couldn't resist taking a video of. but i really enjoyed it; i will definitely be going back often! (especially cuz students get discounts! woo!)

afterwards, Sara had to head home, so Adam and i went to McDonald's for supper. why McDonald's? mostly because i was curious, but also because the one in question was three stories. also, each of the floors had names--Adam and i ate on Sun Floor, for example. it was painted orange. the food was...pretty identical, actually. oh, oh! but instead of a Dollar Menu, they have a 100 Yen Menu! i can't tell you how amused that made me.

oh! and i've also eaten at a KFC here. they had some...really wonky menu items, actually, and everything was really expensive, so i won't be going back there again. but we all took turns posing with the giant colonel statue outside, and that was fun. Izuno-san and i also had Domino's one time! she had it delivered, because her French class was that night (she's studying French and likes to act like a big kid about it--pretending to cry or complaining about how mean her sensei is before she leaves. she's so cute!) and she didn't have time to make supper. and let me just say: Japanese pizza is completely insane. insane. Izuno-san's favorite, for example, is Potatoes and Mayo pizza. insane. also, each medium sized pizza (practically an American personal pan sized) is like $25, and the wonkier the pizza, the more expensive it is.

but that was a lot of rambling about food. it's beacause i had to skip lunch today to practice for my presentation and am thusly starving now. oh, but speaking of! today was our first Kyoto Adventure presentation. since, well, i don't think i ever explained to anyone what those are, i shall do so now! basically, we were all divided into groups at the beginning of the trip. my group is comprised of me, Renee, and Blake, which is awesome, because the both of them speak excellent Japanese. also, since we've been spending so much time together working on this stupid thing, we've all gotten really close. in fact, the whole group has gotten pretty close in a really short amount of time. it's because of the whole foreigner thing--sometimes it feels like you're such an alien, and outsiders. and sometimes it's like you're speaking you're own secret language--like in code or something. it's really bizarre walking down the street talking and knowing probably no one knows what you're saying. so yeah: seeing another person from our group is such a relief sometimes. BUT ANYWAY. Kyoto Adventure doodads. each group is basically assigned one topic each week. this week, ours was noodles. frickin' noodles. we're supposed to go to the assigned place (this time, it was a supermarket!) and interview people there to find as much information as we can about our topic. then we put all that together and the following Monday give a 15 presentation (each of us has to speak for 5 minutes) is Japanese. it's probably one of the most stressful things i've ever had to do in my life, and we technically even cheated this week! (we just googled info on noodles instead of asking people! because we suck.) i had no idea what i was saying--it felt like i was possessed or something. we weren't the worst group to present, but we weren't the best, either. afterwards, Williams-sensei told me Yokudekita! or, "You did a good job!" and was all nice about it but i was totally the epitome of FAIL. Blake, Renee and i are determined to get our presentation done as early as possible this time, though! hopefully it'll be, well, more interesting, too, since we actually have temples to visit this time instead of frickin' noodles. (secretly, i'm looking forward to investigating said temples~)

at any rate, i should probably head down and hang out with Izuno-san for a bit, especially because i didn't let her know i was going to be up her this long--i was really just plugging in my computer to recharge the battery, as it died today during the presentation (ugh!) when i noticed i had a wireless signal and decided to use the internets while i had the chance. in any case, hope you're all doing well! and to Elizabeth and Angela in particular: thank you so much for all the comments! i need to email you guys some time to actually reply to some of those said comments, but, well, wonky internet situation and all that.

but take care, everyone! love and miss you guys!

long time no blog post

sorry about the long absence everyone! it's become ridiculously hard to get ahold of (good) internets for longer than 10 minutes at a time! right now, Sara, Adam, and i are sitting in this ridiculously expensive internet cafe (my iced coffee cost 5 frickin' dollars) because we couldn't get internets anywhere else--it's way out of the way and everything. but the mood/ambience here is really nice...and my iced coffee, while note worth $5, is pretty good...

IN ANY CASE. how have you all been? i've really, really enjoyed reading your comments! it's great to hear from everyone. ^^ i don't have time to reply to everyone individually, but just because you don't hear from me doesn't mean i don't love you! i love you lots.

but...how have things been here? uhm, very very busy. classes started: they're extremely easy; like almost insultingly so. my teachers are all cool though, so that's good. there's been all kinds of drama happening with some people and their randomly hating Williams-sensei. not going into that, but suffice it to say i'm tired of hearing about it. i love all of the people in question, but it's really grating hearing them go on about how much they hate Williams-sensei 24/7. soo...that's put something of a damper (lol) on things. all the drama's also turned me into a complete gossip. that's like all i talk about anymore: what other people in our group say and do. i'm going to come back to America a horrible person. *cries*

anyway, boring stuff aside, i've been having loads of fun! also drama, but mostly fun! today, for example, Sara, Adam and i met at the daigaku (university) early, around 9AM to try and get internet access--we couldn't, so instead i helped Sara buy a phone card and we both called home. (i only have like 30 minutes left on my phone card! eep!) then we headed down to downtown Kyoto for shopping and more karaoke. we got a booth just to ourselves this time and ended up karaoke-ing for like 2 hours--it was so much fun! for lunch, we were wanting to go to the internet cafe, but it was all the way on the other side of town (Izuno-san had drawn me up a map the night before), so instead we had rotate-y sushi again. i took a video of the sushi rotating by. XD when i get the chance, i'm going to upload a whole bunch of the videos i have for you all to download! (especially now that i have video tours of both my room at the Izuno residence and my room at the ryokan.) after lunch, we headed down to Teramachi--the big shopping district in Kyoto. we stopped in a figurine store and i bought some nifty, nifty gifts for Rob and Shawn they'll have to wait till later to see. ;) they had FF8 figurines there too, but not any of Zell! it made me sad a little bit... in any case, next was a giant, giant manga store--it was nothing but manga--two whole floors of it! so i caved and bought some manga (the first thing besides food i've bought for myself--i couldn't resist!) then we wandered on trying to find the internet cafe. it was a lot farther than Izuno-san had made it seem, but here we are now.

ahh...i have, uhm, two kind of interesting events to relate, so i hope you guys won't mind how long this is going to be! at the very least, you'll have reading material for a while.

Tuesday May 15th:

this day was supposed to be a break from classes, but Aoi Matsuri--this huge parade/festival--was that day, so Williams-sensei and the gang gathered to go see it. the street it was going to be on was all the way to the north of Kyoto, so we had a long bus ride ahead of us, but it was nice being with everyone (Izuno-san and Kyoko-san are great, but they pretty much like to watch TV and fall asleep, so i always feel a little, well, not so much bored as like i'm wasting time at home.) at any rate, we arrived around 2PM and started lining up along this street. we had about an hour's wait ahead of us, and we got bored quickly. (Adam and i made shadow animals for a time.) around 3PM, Aoi Matsuri began: lines of people dressed in traditional Heian garb began walking down the street--some were retainers and others were priests/priestesses, and some--on horseback!--were nobles. there were ox-drawn carts and soldiers and princesses carried in...those nice box thingies... it was really cool, regardless, and i took videos of about half of it. (will upload those later.) at one point, a boy dressed up as a retainer (and/or shrine person) stopped in front of us and asked if we liked pokemon (XD). then he posed for the camera--striking the eternal peace pose in Heian garb and everything.

after the parade, we were all going to walk up to this nearby shrine to view some supposedly gorgeous irises, but Ross--who is incredibly allergic, to flowers/grass--got sick (his allergy medicine having been confiscated on the plane for reasons unknown) and had to sit down at one point because he just couldn't breathe. Williams-sensei stopped for a moment, but then continued on after the other people. a few of us stopped with Ross to make sure he was okay, getting him some water and stuff. eventually Williams-sensei came back to check on Ross again, pretty much giving the rest of us the ultimatim that we either go with him or stay behind. all but one of us chose to stay with Ross, and eventually we just left. we stopped by a drugstore so Ross could get some medicine and then grabbed a bus. most of the group was heading to Teramachi to shop, but i needed to be home cuz i hadn't let Izuno-san know i'd be back late. however, i also needed to stop by Sanjyo to buy a bus pass. on the way back, Liz spotted a Sanjo, and we thought it was the right one so i got off the bus alone, making my way to what i thought was the right place. i quickly found out i was completely frickin lost. i walked down some huge shopping street, couldn't find anything, and then started looking for bus stops--thinking that if i could find the right bus (#5) i could make my way back home okay. however, none of the stops had any buses i recognized. i started freaking out a bit, thinking i was completely in some random part of Kyoto that was wonky and completely devoid of 5 buses, which go everywhere, but then i found this nice-looking old woman at a bus stop and asked her where the bus ticket buying place was (cuz i thought i could find my way back from there, and it'd be closer). after some misunderstanding, she pretty much took me by the hand and walked me down to this bus headquarters area--having taken it upon herself to make sure i bought my bus pass. we spoke to this guy there for a while, and eventually she called up a friend who was fluent in English and put me on the phone with him. he helped us out a bit, and the bus people wrote us a map to a place i thought looked close, so i let the woman continue to lead me on. turns out we had to take a frickin' subway to wherever we were going. she even used her own subway pass to pay for me! at this point, i was about to cry because of how sweet she was and how much trouble i was putting her through and how i couldn't tell her to just nevermind about me because this was going way out of her way because my Japanese is so horrible...i tried, though, and she was just like "it's okay, it's okay--we'll buy your ticket!"

so we rode the subway--to God-knows-where--and she led me up to the ticket counter, made sure i knew the right questions to ask and could get myself home okay, told me to take care, and left. i had to do the full bow domo arigato gozaimasu! full bow again thing, but it still didn't express how grateful i was to her! i really wish i had gotten her name at least! but i bought my ticket and exited the subway, only to discover i had no idea where i was. i did find a #5 bus though, after some wandering, and rode it back to Kyoto Station--which was the complete opposite direction of where i needed to go. it was about 7PM then, and i was freaking out about how to get home from there--i figured it out though, and hopped on another #5 bus going back to the Ginkakuji area--near where i live. got there around 8 and walked the rest of the way home. it was really scary and i was freaking out 90% of the time, but like Izuno-san said later after i related the story to her--the experience made me strong. now i don't fear getting lost as much, though i do hate being out late at night now.

ah! but the guys are wanted to leave, and i think we've been here over our allotted internet-use time, so i better get! i'll save the other story for later! take care guys!

[also, last post now has pictures!]

not writing a title in Japanese because i'm lazy

also, hope you guys don't mind if i give up capital letters--they are silly.

but hello, everyone! am currently stealing wireless from some hapless Japanese person. i was kind of worried earlier, because neither my host family or the university has wireless. i can use public computers at the uni, but i wouldn't be able to upload any pictures there. and what's the point of having a photoblog if you can't upload pictures?

in any case, i'm currently hiding from Izuno-san, my host mother, because i dread having to talk with her for prolonged periods in Japanese. this is a sad thing, but i think i'll get over it eventually--is probably just because we spent all day together--i needed a rest from the Japanese-speakins.

ah, i was going to upload this video tour of my room in the ryokan i made yesterday, but the file's too big. i don't know how to shrink it, so if anyone's interested, i'll zip and upload it instead, so you can download and watch it at your leisure. but now: summary of the past two days plus excess pictures. because Angela demanded it.


Friday, May 11th:

got packed, called some taxis, and rode over to the university all before 10AM. our taxi driver was really awesome and kept asking us all these questions in both English and Japanese--he was hilarious. he also apparently loves Eminem and 2Pac (however you spell his name; i never listened to him). that in itself was hilarious because, well, Eminem and 2Pac, but also because our driver was pretty old--he just didn't seem gangsta enough.

in any case, we didn't spend long at the university before we headed out with Williams-sensei to Ginkakuji--this utterly beautiful shrine and garden complex. i was actually able to enjoy the sight-seeing this time because my feet had pretty much stopped hurting. i really can't even begin to describe how beautiful Ginkakuji was, and the pictures i took certainly don't do it justice. there was even more climbing--but not enough to hurt--i was pretty much in a great mood the entire day.

near the end of our visit to Ginkakuji, we all stopped to pose for some group pictures. we had this on-going katakana joke involving the pronunciation of "Cheese" from earlier group photo-taking (Japanese pronunciation is something like "chee-zuu") and so when we went to take the picture, someone shouted out "Takoyaki!" (fried octopus) instead, which drew the attention of a sensei and small group of middle-schoolers. after that, a mini-group-photo battle commenced. we'd say "Cheese!" and the group of middle-schoolers would say "Takoyaki!" our "Ai rabu yuu! (I love you!)" was answered with "Ai shiteru!" and so on. it was extremely entertaining.

also, i got a shot of sensei in a T-shirt and mimicing the eternal Japanese "peace" hand sign. it is very awesome.

but after Ginkakuji, we wandered down to visit a few small shops and ate lunch at an equally small restaurant. afterwards, there was more wandering and sensei bought everyone ice cream. (yay!) a few people had to run to the bank, so after ice cream, we split into two groups. i had bank-visited the day before, so i sat outside and waited with the others. we quickly made a game of speaking random katakana-english to Japanese elementary school children as they wandered by--it was extremely cute.

[note: the katakana-english joke was started by Williams-sensei, who decided to "premptve strike" some middle schoolers by shouting "Ai rabu yuu!" at them as they wandered by. why premptive strike? because Japanese middle schoolers have a dendency to shout badly pronounced English phrases at you as you walk by. such as "Harro! (Hello!)" or "Whas yuu name? (What's your name?)"]

eventually, we all headed back to the unversity for a short orientation and then were ushered to a building where we were to meet our host families and give our jikoshokai (self-introduction). i was extremely nervous, even though i knew my jikoshokai by heart. luckily, as soon as we were all lined up in front of the host families, Izuno-san (my host mother) waved to me and shouted "Bekki-san!", immeadiately putting me at ease. from the moment i saw her, i could tell she was an extremely nice old lady. so i said my jikoshokai okay and went to sit down next to Izuno-san. shortly thereafter, we grabbed a taxi and headed to her home--which is only like 15-20 minutes away from the university by bus, depending on traffic. (i'm probably the closest to the university, actually--Sara's an hour and a half away, for example.) i don't have any pictures of Izuno-san's house or my room yet, because i figure it'd be pretty rude to wander about shooting photos of everything, but i'll get to it eventually. but really, her house is gorgeous. it's kind of messy--cluttered--actually, but that put me more at ease, to be honest. Izuno-san is a very easy-going person; i have yet to see her wash a dish--all our used dishes have ended up in the sink or on the table. reminds me of home. XD

but her house is very big by Japanese standards--two storys (my rooms on the second floor) with a dance studio attached. i asked her about the dance studio, and it turns out it was her husband's. (who i think i gathered was American--foreign, at least--and now dead. i tried not to ask her too much about him because she'd start to tear-up if she talked about him at length.) but my room is equally big by Japanese standars. i have an American-style bed, a desk, a wardrobe, a shelf, and a huge closet mostly filled up with blankets. i've been leaving my window open most of the time because i can't figure out the AC, but also because the view is really pretty. there's a western-style toilet downstairs (with automatic seat-warmer--wonky) and a Japanese style bathtub and shower. overall, i think i lucked out majorly with my host family. Kyoko-san, Izuno's daughter, leaves for work around 8:30 in the morning and doesn't get home till really late. she's in her late 30s and is really nice. (she helped me figure out the shower XD) also, both of them seem to know a smattering of English, so they can help me understand things better, though every now and then my wonky Japanese kicks in and everyone gets confused.

holy crap this is a long entry and i haven't even gotten to today yet! oh well. i'll continue rambling and you guys can take your time reading; come back to this later if you need to. XD

so last night both Izunos opened their gifts and seemed to like them alright. after supper i showed them my photoalbum, which they got a kick out of. Izuno-san especially liked all the animal pictures--apparently she loves animals, but after her dog died, hasn't been able to keep one for fear of becomming too attached again. she does feed a neighborhood cat, though. (i've yet to see said cat, but i hear it meow every now and then.) but after that i pretty much took a bath and went to bed.


Saturday, May 12th:

got up at 7AM today (though i had woken up earlier--the sun rises at 4AM because Japan doesn't believe in daylight savings time) and hung about until Kyoko-san went to work. Izuno-san went to a pan-ya (bakery) to buy breakfast and afterwards we ate and talked some, figuring out the day's plan. we left at 9, grabbing a bus and heading to the university because Williams-sensei had wanted us to practice getting to school before we actually had to. once we got to the uni, Izuno-san tried to find out if they had wireless for me, and it turns out they do, but only for registerred students. (i could use the public computers, though.) so after that, we hopped on another bus that took us back to Okazaki Street, where Izuno-san lives. from there we walked to this gorgeous Heian shrine and garden. i took many more pictures there, because Japan is hella pretty. after a while, we stopped for ice cream and Izuno-san bought me a green tea flavored one, which, despite sounding gross, was really pretty good. she had a vanilla, and we both sat and ate and talked for a bit. afterwards, we continued walking till we got to this old Heian bridge, where we got to feed more fish (we fed a few earlier, too) as well as some turtles and ducks. despite not being able to say or understand much myself, i had a really great time.

after that, we walked a bit, got a little lost, and eventually took a bus to downtown Kyoto, where we ate at this amazing sushi place. after you walk in, you're seated at this bar-like area. however, above the bar-area (which serves as your eating-area) there's a conveyor belt filled with individual plates of sushi--so cool! they rotate around with little sign telling what they are, and there's ocha (green tea) right there so you can grab your food as it rotates by and serve yourself! needless to say, it's all you can eat. and if you wait long enough, fruit slices and puddings and cakes rotate by as well. it was really awesome and i loved the whole experience. i'm glad Izuno-san went with me though, because without her, i would have had no clue what was going on.

after lunch, we went into a huge clothing store (which was very expensive but filled with awesomely stylish (in a good way) Japanese clothes. after that, we went into a depaato (department store, which is really more like a small mall, or like Belk's or something.) everything there was extremely expensive, so i didn't buy anything, but it was a cool experience nonetheless. we grabbed a taxi home, ate some sweets Izuno-san had bought, and then i ran upstairs to hide from my horrible inability to speak Japanese. also to write Jen a letter and steal internets.

been up here for about three and a half hours now though, without a word more to Izuno-san, so i figure i should hurry and picture-insert and then head back downstairs to try and be sociable for a bit. dunno if this wireless i'm stealing will be here forever or not, but i'll update as much as possible! take care, guys! *hugs and kisses*

私は日本にいます！

So. I had typed half a post before this, tried to insert a picture, and had the whole thing deleted. (It's all the random kanji--confuse me.) In any case, I arrived okay. Enjoyed the plane rides, too--it was like some kind of theme park ride. The first plane was really small--it could only fit like 50 people--and very loud, but the flight (from Greenville to Detroit) was only about two or so hours. After arriving in Detroit, we hung about for three hours--Williams-sensei had outlawed the English-speaking at the Greenville airport, but we managed to get around that by either conversing in the girl's bathroom in English (he couldn't follow us there!) or, well, just avoiding him. Sara, Adam, Ross, and I ate lunch at McDonald's and pretty much complained the entire time. After lunch, we met back up with the group and Williams-sensei informed us we had homework that was to be completed by the time we reached Japan. So we worked on that a bit until we were allowed to board. This second plane was huge, and less noisy than the first. Williams-sensei had advised not sleeping at all, as it would help reduce jet lag, but I had only had one hour of sleep the night before, and was pretty much dead. At first I tried working on homework and playing the DS, but that just made me more sleepy. Eventually I passed out for a bit--only 30 minutes or so--and woke up for supper and the end of the first in-flight movie (Ms. Potter?). After that, kept myself awake long enough for the second in-flight movie, Charolette's web, which luckily kept me interested and awake long enough that I was able to shake off most of the drowsy and complete my homework afterwards. But after that, I pretty much gave up on staying awake and passed out for two hours, waking up just in time for breakfast and the landing. Of course, right as I was getting ready to disembark, I realized I had lost Jimmy's DS stylus. I got Idan to try and help me find it (she was sitting right behind me) but neither of us could. At that point, I was so tired and upset that I almost started crying. (I'll buy you a new one, James, I promise!) But I finally gave up looking and got off the plane. We hung about the airport for a while, waiting to exchange money. After that, we caught a train to Kyoto--about a hour to hour and a half ride. Spent most of the ride playing multiplayer DS with Cory-san.

Finally, we arrived in Kyoto (around 10PM--9AM EST) and walked to the ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). After checking in, we pretty much had time for showers before going to bed. (The showers here are public--meaning shared bathing--but if you find one empty, you can lock the door and have it to yourself, which is what I've been doing, because bathing with other people is scary. Oh! And I'm sharing a room here with two other girls--Idan-san and Tessa-san. The ryokan is very old and small, and the rooms kind of smell like fish. Also, there's like random barbed wire running along the wall around the garden outside. (Wonky. Also, will be posting pictures later.) The ryokan also doesn't supply meals, so we've been having to walk down to the local Seven Eleven (there's one on every corner!) to buy breakfast and lunch.

At any rate, woke up the following morning at 6:30 and walked with the rest of the girls (there are six of us total: me, Sara, Tessa, Idan, Liz, and Renee) to the Seven Eleven to buy our meals for the day. Met back with the rest of the group (ten boys and Williams-sensei) at the ryokan at eight and headed out to do tourist-y stuff from there. After temple and shrine and temple and shrine, I was pretty much worn out--my feet were killing me, and it was freakishly humid out, and so there was all kinds of sweating going on. Eventually, we got to this tori-ridden (tori are traditional Japanese gates, see picture below) shrine. We spent like 30 minutes all taking group pictures in front of the tori, and then Williams-sensei jokingly--or so I thought--said we'd be hiking a mountain. Unfortuantely, it was no joke. We climbed a freakin' mountaint. Of course, we were only climbing with the group for 30 minutes or so, and then fell behind (by we I mean, me, Sara, Adam, and Drew) and didn't catch back up to them until they were coming back down the mountain. We continued on up (us, minus Drew, who had given up some stairs back) because we had come so far already and wanted to see the top. My feet felt as if the bones were coming out through the skin, but I kept on going until at one point, after sitting down for a short rest, I tried to get up and found I couldn't breathe--like, kept on inhaling, but wasn't getting any air. I managed to choke out a "Sara!" and stumble towards her and Adam before completely freaking out and bursting into tears. Sara advised me to walk around in little circles (?) but eventually I could breathe again. The whole thing majorly freaked me out, though--nothing like that had ever happened to me before. In any case, kept on climbing, got to the top--it was totally lame--and headed back. My feet had then reached a state beyond pain and all I wanted was to return to the ryokan and check to see if they were still attached to mah legs or not. We rode the train back to Kyoto Station, though--my feet thanked Williams-sensei for that one. Unfortunately, the group wanted to go out crazy far distances for supper, so I had to walk again. Supper was really good though, so I forgive the group. Came home, counted mah blisters, emailed poppy, took a shower, and went to bed.

Today--Thursday--we woke up at the same time, went to the Seven Eleven, and headed out by 7:30. We took the bus this time--that was a miserable experience. There were like 5 billion people on that one bus, and it was crazy-humid. My feet were still killing me, and so the standing in one place for 45 minutes sucked. A whole bunch. But eventually we got out and walked down to Ryoanji (this zen shrine/temple thingy). It was really beautiful--I got bunches of pictures. But Shirley would have loved it--I kept trying to take nice tree pictures for her. It started to rain as we were leaving, though, and we had to walk all the way to our next stop, which was also was full of the pretty. It was raining the entire time, though, and eventually got really, really cold--you could see your breath! (Oh, and all my postcards, which were in my backpack, got soaked and completely ruined--I was so pissed off!) We went from there to another shrine to have lunch. It was also pretty cool, and had a neat story behind it that I might recount later. For now, I think I'm gonna get off the internets and maybe go get something to eat. Dunno. In any case, tomorrow I meet my host family and move in with them! I'm really excited. ^^ Don't know when the next time I'll be able to update this will be, but I'll try to keep you all posted. Miss you guys!