Crunch Crunch Cartilage

Presentation buddies :)

Continuing with the series I call "A Belated Account of Japan".... Friday was a full day of school! I'm ashamed to say that I rolled out of bed late (can't I atleast have the decency to get up on time in a foreign country?) Anyway, we had to give science presentations to the Koshi kids, so as soon as we got there, CC and I practiced our presentations for a little.  We had to present about alternative energy and green architecture.... all in Japanese.  Ha, please, as if I knew what I was saying. Thank you internet resources. Anyway, we presented, and then had a speed talk session, where we got grouped with two Japanese students each and had to talk to them about school, differences between America and Japan, and hobbies. My conversations involved toilets and ear-piercing.  Also some of the guys asked me if I had a boyfriend. I've noticed that that particular subject is a popular ice breaker with the Japanese kids.  After meeting at least ten of them and remembering zero of their names, we moved on to a home ec. class.  We learned how to wrap bento boxes, bottles, and watermelons. Our table was a little awkward since the kids we ended up with barely talked to us, but oh well. Finally it was lunch time, and my girl's mom made us cute little triangle bentos! There were carrots, sausages, onigiri, and these ridiculously delicious rolled eggs.  Yumyum, anyway, after lunch we listened to the Japanese kids present science to us, and had another mingling talk session.

Purikura works it's magic.

After that we got to go to a 書道 class! It was awesome, and the sensei was such a pro. I learned how to write my name in Japanese and then we all got to write our favorite kanji on a giant communal paper.  I picked "楽" which means fun/enjoy/happiness. After that, the ESL (English as second language) club took us around so we could see all the after school clubs.  We got to watch kendou which was crazy intense.  They shrieked and yelled while zipping across the floor unceasingly hitting each other with their kendou swords. We also got to watch basketball, badminton, volleyball, soccer, rugby, archery, and a band.  Did I mention that Shizuka is captain of the Juudou club? That's a form of Japanese wrestling.  According to her teacher, she can throw a 100 kilogram man over her shoulder...AKA more than 200 pounds, holy crap. Before dinner we met up with Akari (Shizuka's sister) and went with Nicole and Hikaru to take PURIKURA ! It's like photobooth on steroids.  So basically you walk into their arcade-esque room with pumping music filled with booths and plastered with giant pretty people.  It's kind of overwhelming haha.  Anyway, we picked a booth (apparently they're all different??) and took pictures.  Afterwards you can decorate your pictures with a cool touch screen pen, but there's a time-limit.  Holy crap it completely stressed me out! I'm the slowest decorator there ever was.  Aren't these crazy? We're freaking anime characters.

Concentration of a master.

Deciding...

We met up with okaasan for dinner at a yakitori place! I had the best peach juice known to man, and stuffed my face with deliciousness on a stick. I tried everything that came, including fried cartilage, which actually turned out to be pretty good.  It was funny when she tried to explain to me what I was eating by pointing to her joints.  I was like wtf I'm eating elbow ?? But technology came to the rescue and cleared that all up.  Once we went home I tucked myself away under that wonderful, warm table and ate a gigantic apple.  Seriously, the fruit in Japan is amazing!  Everything is beautiful (and really expensive).  Anyway, okaasan came and asked me to draw her.  She had recently written a little piece in a book, and she needed a picture to go along with her biography.  It was totally out of the blue, but I gladly sketched her a picture, and they thanked me by buying me two black copic multiliners (YEEESSSS). We all sat around the table (stuffed our faces with snacks) and talked until it got really late.  Then I stumbled off to my warm futon and passed out. Sound familiar?

Yakitoriiiii ♥

My host mom was awesome lmao
This was her pose for the bio-pic

Onward to Fukui !

I'm currently sitting on my bed in a Buddhist temple (!!!) as I type this. This morning Mitchell had to go with the two kids to Nagoya to search for the passport and rail passes. Since he wasnt here to take us to the golden pavilion and the other super cool place we were supposed to go, we just bummed around in the emperor's garden nbd. Actually it was pretty boring even though the place was huge and gorgeous. We spent a lot of time walking on gravel, that's probably why.

We quickly got lunch in the basement of one of the giant department stores, and then grabbed some delicious Baskin Robins (love potion ;) ) before hopping on a train bound for FUKUI. Actually before that we had to change at Kyoto station. Luck would have it that none of the goddamn bathrooms on our platform had western style toilets. I had to go really bad though so I took a gamble and overcame my fear. Not really though, those squatters still terrify me. Anyway, on the train ride there I was really nervous. After my hosting experience last month I was scared that my host family was going to hate me. The city landscape gave away to rural Japan. We passed villages and large tracts of flooded farm land. Soon there was even snow on the ground, and not long after that we arrived at the station ! We were greeted by the Japanese teachers and some students who had tagged along. Among them was Arachi! She bounced over to me and hugged me, which really surprised me. Then she promptly walked away and we never talked again lol.

At the entrance of the emperor's garden....with four random guys :)

NICOLE !

We walked to their highschool which was giant and had about 4 stories. It was arranged in a giant square with a large garden in the center. Anyway, we turned into the walkway leading to the school and saw a bunch of students waving to us through the windows. We walked in, found our host students, and went to a large room where we sat down at tables with our student and their parent(s). Their teachers gave speeches that went completely over my head, and Mitchell gave one too (which I also couldn't understand). Then we had to stand up one by one and (awkwardly) wave to everyone. My girls mom couldn't make it, so we waited for Kitagawa sensei to drive us. While we were waiting, another teacher came over to me and said "Yui". I was confused at first because I thought he was calling me that, but then I realized he was saying the name of my first exchange student from over 2 years ago! Before I knew what was going on, he had Yui on his cell and handed it to me. It was really nice to hear her voice! But our conversation was really confusing and short since I had to go, and she spent most of the time apologizing because she couldn't come visit, while I spent most of the time assuring her that it was okay.

I loved how the irrigated fields reflect the mountains in the background

In the car to her house, the TV was switched on to the news (yes they have a TV in their console), and there was a story about the car accident that had happened in Kyoto earlier that day.  We were only a few blocks away from the accident when it happened, there were at least five helicopters flying over the city, and sirens were going off everywhere. According to the news, a man driving a minivan ran a red light and hit around 16 pedestrians, most of whom were tourists. Eight were dead, including the driver. It was crazy to think something like that could happen so close by. I feel like everyone has this weird conviction that bad things can't happen to them, you know? Sometimes we take it for granted how fortunate we really are.

Koshi in all its glory :)

Anyway, we arrived at Shizuka's house...which turned out to be a Buddhist temple! It was gigantic and very traditional with sliding paper doors, bamboo floors, and long corridors. I loved it. For dinner her mom made gyuudon.  It's beef and onion over rice.  I learned that when you have a dish where you put some sort of meat or topping on top of rice it's called ~don.  In this case, beef (gyuu) over rice = gyuudon. I dunno, but I found that pretty interesting so I included it haha. There was also a cold broccoli sesame side dish and some miso soup, both of which were also delicious. I was told to say "itadakimasu" before eating and "gochisousamadeshita" after eating. Obaachan (her grandma) kept trying to talk to me, but wouldn't look at my face, so I'd get really confused as to who she was talking to. Shizuka explained that it used to be less socially acceptable to look people in the eye when talking to them, and her grandma never grew out of it. Aha. Anyway, after dinner I spent a good amount of time sitting under their HEATED TABLE. Oh my god I was obsessed with that thing.  It's a low table surrounded by cushions that you sit on, you pull aside the blankets and stick your legs underneath the table into a giant pit with a glowing heater in the middle. It was heavenly.  I would spend all day sitting there if I could. We talked a lot, exchanged presents, and she helped me a bit with my science presentation (that we had to give infront of the Koshi High School students the next morning).  I finally trudged to bed at around 1 am and passed out on my warm futon.

Heated table AKA my lover ♥♥♥♥

Buddhist Temple! 

Shooting the Moon

Oh crap I really need to blog about the past four days but I haven't had the chance to. We've been super busy! I hope i don't leave anything out :/

Sasaki Sadoko monument

On Wednesday we took a Shinkansen to Hiroshima. It was raining, which sucked, but at the same time it almost seemed appropriate. We took a streetcar to the giant government building that was right under the atomic bomb when it exploded. However it still withstood some of the blast and you can see the metal framework and crumbling cement. After a lot of controversy, the city decided to keep it as a monument to honor the memory of those who were killed. Then we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The first part of the museum was mostly factual information, charts, and models. The rest of the museum was what really shook me up. There were letters written from first hand witnesses about what they saw happen to their families, torn clothing, bits of skin and fingernails, locks of hair, and mementos, all donated by people who've lost someone to the atomic bomb. Reading the letters was heartbreaking, and seeing the big pictures of burn victims sent chills throughout my whole body. It seemed to get worse with each new picture, but some kind of morbid curiosity rooted me to the spot. I can't understand how humans can bring themselves to do something so awful to other human beings. Every story was filled with so much pain and suffering, but one story stood out to me the most. A family of four is at their house when the flash of light happens. The mother is injured and the father is severely injured. They go into the backyard to look for their children and find that they are alive but stuck up to their torsos in mud. The fire was starting to close in and the mother couldn't pull her children out. Right before the fire was about the engulf all of them, the mother prayed to her children, apologized for being a coward and helped her husband limp to safety. I don't think there should ever be a time when a mother has to make such a decision. After we walked out of the museum, I was stuck is a weird non-communicative melancholic state. We quickly walked through the circular monument and took a quick spin through the park. We saw the giant mound where the ashes of thousands of people are buried, and the statue of Sasaki Sadoko.

Government building dome

A little boy's tricycle and helmet donated in his memory

Thousands upon thousands of origami cranes

Meatmeatmeatmeatmeat.

Then we took the Shinkansen and Lightning Mike taught us how to play Hearts and kicked our asses at it. He shot the moon twice in a row. When we arrived in Kyoto, one of the guys realized he left his passport, rail pass, and another girl's rail pass on the Shinkansen, so Mitchell spent a good hour trying to figure it all out. For dinner all of the seniors went out for yakiniku! There were a billion different kinds of meat, and although I'm usually really picky about what kind of meat I eat, I ate everything that was thrown at me, even cow tongue!! Ahh it was so weird having a tongue that wasn't mine in my mouth. But if you don't think about it, it was actually pretty goddamn good. I also somehow managed to polish off two bowls of rice and ice cream. That night we took a scenic walk back home, and I ended up staying outside of Mitchell's room until 1:30am to mooch off his wi-fi. Accompanied with a trusty can of peach water, I tried to blog, but I think I spent most of the time talking to Nicole or playing scramble. Also some tipsy sake drinkers came giggling out of a room at one point.

Playing hearts on the shinkansen !

Seniors at yakiniku with lightning mike!

Sayonara Tokyo, Konnichiwa Kyoto

April 10 10:35am

Guess where I am right now? I'm on a Shinkansen! That's a Japanese bullet train! They go at approximately a million miles per hour and are really nice on the inside. Nothing really happened this morning. I woke up at 5 to take my morning shower before we set off for KYOTO at 7! Getting to Tokyo station was a struggle during rush hour with all of our luggage, but somehow we managed to not get swallowed up in the sea of people. Lugging suitcases up and down stairs was a pain in the ass and I legitimately worked up a sweat haha. Okay I really want to eat my obento (super cute boxed lunch) now. I'll blog about our adventures in Kyoto later!

April 11 9:54am

Guess where I am now? A bullet train! Again! This time to Hiroshima. But I should probably take this time to finish up Kyoto day one. So after getting off the Shinkansen yesterday, we hopped on a bus that took us to our hotel. Turned out they didn't have any rooms ready, so we ditched our luggage in the lobby and took a trek around Kyoto. We saw loads of people wearing traditional yukatas so I sniped a bunch of pictures. We also saw two women who were completely made up with white faces and red lips so we asked them if we could take pictures with them. After walking around on the streets, lightning Mike led us to this awesome hill with streets completely jam packed with people and lined with tourist traps. I bought my parents these two really cute stone Jizos (protector of children). And a necklace that we got engraved with "日本 2012". A lot of shopping, two ice creams, and one cucumber on a stick later, we arrived at the top which was another temple. The cherry blossoms were beautiful, and we walked around just taking in the view of the city beneath us. Right before we left, we went to this place that had three streams of water coming from the mountain. It's supposed to be the purest water and you wash your hands and then drink it. In order to gather the water we get these long sticks with cups at the end. It was pretty awesome. I followed lightning mike's lead and drank directly from the communal cup. The water was cool and refreshing, and it did not "taste like chicken" like mitchell had said.

Then we headed back to the hotel and at this point I had a really intense stomach ache. Actually I'm not sure if it was my stomach, it was more like a pain in my abdominal region, but moving on. We finally made it back and I laid on my stomach for a good 45 minutes and felt a little better. Then we went back to the Kyoto station and climbed the giant staircase to the 8th floor for some ramen. I shoved my 肉入り down like my life depended on it and effectively brought back my stomach ache. Did I mention that I have an obnoxious cough too? Needless to say, I was beyond relieved when we opted for karaoke instead of a 3 hour hike. Karaoke was fantastic, but I didn't sing. I sort of regret that now, but I had a lot of fun singing along and obnoxiously shaking one of the tambourines they provided us with. We took a scenic night route back to the hotel and I literally crashed. I woke up at 2:30 still in my clothes and contacts haha. So I took a (disturbing) look in the mirror, took my contacts out, and re-crashed.

We're almost at Hiroshima now! Ahhh!

A traditional wedding ♥

Totoro !

Mt. Fuji from the shinkansen window :)

Just Peachy

Japan Day 3 !

Today we went to Kamakura to see old temples. The first place we went to had a ginormous green cast iron Buddha. We swarmed the place snapping pics like crazy, and we even got to go inside the giant Buddha! Afterwards we got ice cream (green tea, macha!) and walked to hase-dera temple which was on a giant hill filled with different kinds of flowers. The flowers weren't in bloom yet, but it was nevertheless breathtakingly beautiful. There was water flowing from bamboo shoots and koi swimming in the pond. We spent a few minutes following this particularly fat one, trying to get a good picture. Before we ascended the steps leading to the temple, we went into a cave filled with little statues that you can buy. I put my 300 yen in the box, wrote the names of my family and extended family, and jotted down wishes for their health and happiness. Then I found a nice nook in the wall for it, and we exited the tunnel. We walked up the steps (making sure to keep to the left!) and ended up on a landing filled with rows upon rows of little stone Jizo statues. Jizo is the protector of children and each statue represents one unborn baby. Mothers who miscarry or loose their baby early in life can come to the temple and place a stone Jizo among the thousands that already exist. It was both depressing and awe inspiring looking at those statues.

Eventually we got to the main landing with the beautiful temples that housed two gigantic gold Buddhas. Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures, but take my word for it, they were awesome. After climbing yet higher and getting an amazing view of the town and shore, we descending a billion steps and headed back for Tokyo station. I bought peach water from a touch screen vending machine (!!!!!) and it was so delicious that I drank the whole thing in a matter of minutes and screwed myself over for the hour long ride back. Halfway into it, I had to pee really bad and spent the last half hour concentrating on not exploding. Finally we made it to the station, and I made a beeline for the nearest bathroom. Lucky for me, there was only one western style toilet (the others were the Asian squat kinds) so I held it for a few more minutes before taking the longest pee of my life. It was great. Anyway, we finally made it back to Asakusa. We grabbed dinner (after walking in and running out of a smoke filled restaurant) at a cute noodle and gyouza place. I got a big bowl of tantanmen which is the Japanese equivalent of dandanmien. It was different, but oh so delicious! I ate the whole damn thing and drank all of the spicy soup too :) my stomach was not too happy with me. Anyway, then we headed back, snagged some wi-fi, and called it a night. Somehow in my sleep I managed to do a 180 even though I was on the top bunk and it was minuscule. I'm just glad I didn't fall off. A successful day 3 I'd say. Ja mata!

Lightning Mike !

Catching Sakura

Octopus on a stick!

Ahh I completely fell asleep last night on my phone right before I was about to blog! We're on a train bound for Kamakura so I thought I'd take advantage of the hour-long ride and catch up. So yesterday was the first full day of Japan! It was absolutely amazing! I started the day off right by making a trip to the local konbini (convenience store) and got myself a cute cake sandwich with red bean paste and cream. It was deliciousss. I also bought my first onigiri and ate it on the train ! It was filled with spicy veggies and meat. Since then I've had two more (salmon with mayo and dried salmon) both of which were also amazing. The first place we went to was Ueno for a famous cherry blossom park. It was so beautiful and packed with picnic-goers and tourists. We got to do this water thing where we took a little cup with a long handle, filled it with water from a fountain, and then poured it onto our left hand, right hand, and then back into your left to drink it. The lady in front of us spit it out, and that seemed pretty legit, so we followed suit. We also got to pour water on a little Buddha's head and pray. Afterwards we wandered around and got to take pictures with these Japanese hippies. They were lounging around with booze, and this one guy had dreadlocks, so I went over and snapped a pic of them. They posed for me and then beckoned us over to take a pic with them haha. We also got pictures with some other random people. We ventured across a street to a long walkway lined with food stalls. The air smelled sooo good! We took a leap of faith and tried a stick of grilled octopi. It was so scary to look at since you could see every little suction cup on their tentacles. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it, but at least now I can say I ate a whole octopus off a stick.

Can I be him? Please?

The hippies! (and their booze)

Then we hopped onto a train for Akihabara, the electronics district! After yet another delicious meal (this time curry rice) we explored some stores and looked for an arcade. We thought we found one and walked straight into a casino. It took at least a minute in that smoke filled confusion before I realized that it wasn't even close to an arcade and we hurried out. We also ventured into some underground place filled with people who were duking it out with cards (yugioh-esque cards, not regular playing cards). After that we finally found an arcade and managed to waste some money on a crane machine. Next we went to Harajuku! It was jam packed with (a lot of really attractive) people. I was looking forward to seeing the crazy cosplayers that I've heard so much about but I only saw one or two that were out of the ordinary (and I managed to snag a pic of one!) , for dinner we had 回転寿司 (kaitenzushi). It's sushi on a big conveyor belt! We just sat there and grabbed a plate whenever we saw something we wanted, it was fantastic. Then we met up at Condomania (the condom super store) so we could catch a train back to Asakusa. We explored a bit before we had to get back to the hostel. We saw some big Buddha statues and went to a playground that was apparently chained off. Whoops. We also found another arcade ad played a couple rounds of taiko drums! That was mostly it for yesterday....l'll write about today, tomorrow. Good night ! Oyasuminasai!

Conveyor belt sushi!

On the streets of Akihabara!

Our stack of sushi plates

Found one :)