Himeji Castle

Spent a fabulous day touring a castle with Jesimee and our friend, Will. I recommend this to any of my castle-loving friends, or to any of my camera/photo-loving friends. Well, the upload on photos is being SUPER slow, so I will add more later.

Size perspective of the entry gate door:

Kinkakuji

Kinkakuji, one of Kyoto's very famous temples, is very near my apartment here in Japan. Jesimee and I visited it today.

After that, we met with our friend, Will, and spent some time at a shrine in Arashiyama, as well as doing some various shopping and eating (of such things as mitarashi dango in the picture). Also, today marked the first snowfall of the season in Kyoto...a delightful surprise this morning!

Monkeys!!!

This last Saturday was one of my top two most amazing days in Japan so far! I had a fabulous time biking to Arashiyama and visiting the monkey park there. I loved everything about going there...well, okay, monkey poo smells a little weird and there was plenty of that around, but hey, what do you expect?

Walking around outside, we were right with the monkeys, lots of them! Inside the building we could purchase small bags of apples, peanuts, or chestnuts and feed monkeys through the fence. They would take the items right from my hands and I could feel their soft palms and see the finger-print style lines on their hands. I bought about 7 small bags of food as it was so delightful to feed them. I'll add more photos later, but here are a few favorites for now. (Edited with some more photos now.)

St. Nicholas Day

Someone here celebrates St. Nicholas Day. This day always makes me think of my aunt, who is the one who first told me about this day when I was young.

Anyway, for those unfamiliar with it, it is a day celebrated in various parts of Europe, in particular, but is considered an international celebration. In Germany, where my aunt and uncle and cousins lived for a few years, the tradition is that children leave their shoes by the door and they will awaken to find their shoes filled with candy if they were good.

Apparently, I was good this year :)
My shoes, and those of other students living here, are candy-filled this morning. It is a delightful surprise!

Busy writing-filled week

Mostly I've been in my room writing this week. I've written papers on kaiseki cuisine, Unit 731, Chinese medicine, and what visiting Hiroshima meant to me...etc.

I'm considering posting a few of the papers here on the blog to share with family and friends who might be interested, but at the moment I need to continue writing more papers, as each field trip and seminar I attend requires a written response, something that I would like more if I didn't have to write for every single one, but could choose from them and do a pre-specified amount. I find that having the requirement to write about each one has given many of us less anticipation for the field trips and seminars as an experience and more of an inclination to regard them as just one more paper due, but I still find most of them well worth it.

Thanks for the encouragement for educational goals and for dreams!

Though there have been some tough things about being in school here in Japan, I want to especially thank those who encouraged me to go for it, both as an important addition to my education and in encouraging me to go for my dreams.

Especially important in both of those, all my children...who I encourage in their goals and dreams, also! Especially, however, Bryen and Jesimee both really encouraged me a lot and cheered me on through the process and have been quite excited with me and for me. I also appreciate the encouragement and thoughts of my mom and my dad and my grandpa. My advisers, who encouraged me and wrote letters for me, and believed in my ability to successfully accomplish this goal, and the people at the study abroad office who helped me with the details. I have many other family members and friends who encouraged me and were excited for me to do this, also.

Thanks to all!
Roxanne

HUGE WORM

So walking back from the school today in the rain, I came across an enormous worm, almost small snake-sized. I have never seen a worm that large. About 10 inches long and extremely plump for a worm. I wish I had my camera with me at the time.

another blimp photo

Another blimp picture...just because it was outside the window with more leaf-lookers.

I have numerous pages of writing to do, so haven't spent much time writing blog pages lately, but hopefully I will be catching up with some photos and such in a couple weeks.
I love the fall colors here, but have been spending much time working on homework and such, so mostly what I see out my window is what I get. Thankfully, the leaves in this vicinity are quite beautiful, thus the frequent visitation of the blimp since the color changes started occurring.

Blimp

This is what I saw out my window yesterday and today. I recognized the sound today, so was able to get a couple of closer photos. I haven't seen a blimp in a long time. Apparently some people view the fall leaves here via the blimp, as it made several passes over the obligingly beautiful hillside next to where I live.

in my room doing lots of homework this week

Lots of studying this week. I can't say I've seen much of Japan other than the block between here and the school, which thankfully means a pretty walk, at least. Oh, and on Mondays, I attend Reiki class, which means a lot of relaxing and a long bike ride, and thankfully is required for my independent study class or I probably would have skipped that to do other homework this week, but I needed to go relax even though I had a large amount of stuff to do this week. I can write more later, including explanation of Reiki.

Some random photos --- just for fun. These were all taken on the field trip we had a few weeks ago. These particular ones are from Naoshima.

Chiiori

I haven't had much time to write, but as I was asked to write something for the school website, I will post the same thing here in reference to part of the amazing field trip we took. Chiiori is a 300 year old farm house that has been turned into a place where people can come visit and stay there and experience the life there by joining in with the work and life at Chiiori and in Iya Village on Shikoku Island.

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The Chiiori experience touched my heart and mind in a way that I will remember all my life. I love nature and beauty, anyway, so I expected to like it there, but the whole place feels as if many of the people who have lived or visited there through the years have had a deep and abounding connection with the universe via that amazing vista. The building, itself, with its construction in such a fabulous spot and with such natural materials, speaks of those who love the land, love the mountains, love the mist and sky and do not mind making sacrifices to be in that place to experience it. Certain places draw me to them with the feeling I get from the energy of the universe that exists such as ocean beaches with waves crashing against the rocks and waterfalls raining down in playful joy, whether natural or man-made. Chiiori, to me, had this kind of vibrant energy of the universe that pulls at my heart and makes me want to visit again, bringing family and friends to share in the delight and joy with me.

Korean Festival

Today, as requested by one of my teachers, I attended a Korean Festival with some other classmates. I looked forward to tasting the food, and hearing the music, and was not disappointed.

Korean food tastes fabulous! This was what I ate for lunch. No, I do not know what it is, other than delicious! I think the white stuff may be some kind of pasta thing, but none of us ever really decided what it was other than tasty.




I bought gifts to take back to family, watched some simple judo randori that were just for fun to see who could be the first to take down the other person one time, and then listened to great music, including singing, various instruments, and Taiko drumming. Also, at the end, many people joined in the revelry and dancing together. I quite enjoyed it.

Oh...and the crabs...I have to show pictures of the crabs they were selling. Apparently people keep them as pets, though if you get tired of them I am told you can eat them, but they are way too tiny for that in my opinion!

Silly but Fun

Just for fun I wanted to take something to people at school tomorrow for Halloween, even though it's not a Japanese holiday.

I like doing silly fun stuff whenever I have even a hint of a reason, and tomorrow I will be wearing my cat ears to school and dressing in all black for the rest.

Thank you mom and dad for both being fun-loving people that like to do nice stuff for other people. Thanks for passing that on to me. I love doing stuff like this and I know I get it from both of you! Thanks!

Hoping to post soon about Field Trip

I have so much I want to say about the fabulous field trip to Hiroshima, Naoshima, Chiiori at Iya on Shikoku island, and Himeiji Castle.

I have bunches of homeworks right now, so I am being really slow to post...but I will try to get something here soon!

been busy

Been away on a fabulous field trip...trying to settle back in, then post some pics and news.

Shinto matsuri and hugs

Today, the students from our school joined in with a Shinto matsuri that was happening here in Kyoto. I don't have pictures, because while participating carrying a shrine and jumping and dancing with it along the way, I couldn't really have a camera with me. The men carried a large shrine and women carried a medium one and there was a small one for children. When carrying the shrine, there were more than enough people, so we would take turns by walking beside the person we would change with, putting our hand on the shrine poles ahead of them, then tapping them in the middle of the back. Then we would move into place as they moved out. It is hard work to do and lasts for a couple of hours, but trading off and taking breaks makes it do-able and a bond builds between all the people participating. By height we were assigned a particular area of the shrine to carry or walk beside because of the way the poles are held.

The groups kind of of parade through areas of town, but isn't much like a parade in the US. Every 15 minutes or so we would take about a 15 minute break. Snacks or rice with fish and juice or water or beer or sake was offered at the various stops. Today I tried sashimi, which is raw fish. It was one of the things that I hadn't decided if I would eat or not while here in Japan. I had been leaning toward not trying it and certainly hadn't gone out of my way to do so, but I'm glad there was an opportunity like this, as it was actually tasty.

When we were done and brought the portable shrines back to the large shrine, we all had a chance to dance and call out with the men's shrine if we wanted to participate in that. I did, but my shoulder is fairly bruised now, as are probably most everyone's.

At the end of the event, a lady that had been in my area of the pole carrying walked over to me and reached out and we shared a long wonderful hug. We hadn't spoken a word to each other to that point, just shared in the experience together, but we had bonded in a way that language doesn't matter. For a few minutes after that, I talked in my broken Japanese with a little English and she in her even more broken English and a lot of Japanese of just this and that, but I will never forget her. The bond we shared went beyond any words and touched both our hearts.

Also, I have had only one other hug since I've been to Japan, I was realizing yesterday, and that one was rather awkward with someone I don't know really well. I have been needing to hug and be hugged tremendously. A real friendship laden hug, where we had bonded with a special experience meant so much to me. I truly will never forget her, even if we never see each other again, that experience is burned in my heart and means a great deal to me.

school frustration

Nothing amazing to blog about since I've had way too much school work this week, with more ahead to really have much time to do anything other than write papers and study. I have more of this to do. I guess for the moment, I'm feeling like an American having an American experience in Japan since I am so overwhelmed with homework presently that I can hardly step a foot out of my room.

I'm sure it's just that part of the study abroad experience they warn you about --- the part where you wonder why you came...except that I really DO still love the country and want to experience it and meet some of the people.

I do have some fun stuff planned for Saturday, but I just found out that some of those plans might have gone awry, also, so I am feeling really frustrated and bummed at the moment.

I wasn't going to write this post, but decided that this, too, is included in the very real part of my study abroad experience. Blah.

small earthquake

Small earthquake yesterday. Very small, but just noting it.

I rather expected to feel more of them here from what I've heard, but I sure don't want to be in a large one. I grew up in an earthquake prone area of southeast Idaho. We felt tremors all the time, so this was nothing new to me, just interesting.

a bit of rambling about the week and all the tests/papers!!!

So I have big tests/papers due this week, and I wanted to make sure to balance having some relaxation time to keep my brain functional with having some study and work time. Fortunately, some of my studying is quite relaxing and interesting. All of it interests me, in fact, or I wouldn't want to be in this major, but some of it is less stressful to learn at rapid speed than others and some evaluations are simply less stressful than others.

I felt like I balanced this last weekend fairly well between studying and keeping my mind refreshed with comfort stuffs on Friday and Saturday. Sunday I was a bit stressed but tried to keep studying, then Monday we had classes and a rice harvesting event, which while interesting and fun, came at an awkward time with all the tests and papers due. Plus I had more class in the evening and had to leave harvesting early. Monday was a bit more stressful than I wanted. I did get to ride the train, though, and that generally relaxes me. Also, the rice harvesting put my brain in a different mode for a bit, which was nice even though I could well have used that study/work time.

Today, I have all day to study and work, but with a big Japanese test tomorrow, that's pretty much all I will be doing. I need to figure out how to put in some relax time today so my brain doesn't fry and become ineffective, but I need to make use of every moment. Writing this rambling post is sort of my break...so sorry about it's less than stellar content, but I just need to put this all in perspective and let family and friends know I still exist.

Tomorrow will be another overstuffed day, during which I start with a huge test, then attend a lecture on nuclear power and production and storage and waste and so forth in Japan. Interesting...but again, rather inopportune timing with all else that needs to be done. I have a major paper due the next day, plus I was supposed to have a paper done yesterday that I put off because of studying for all the rest of this, plus another paper will then be due on the nuclear class. Additionally, I have a huge book to read, more papers due, and I think I'm supposed to attend my next cooking class tomorrow...Okay...yeah...I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed!!!

However, one thing I know is that this pace won't last forever. I've been through these kind of weeks before, and I know the good feeling I get when the week is done!!!

So, I will keep moving with this and try to keep it all balanced and prioritized in spite of not quite being able to juggle so many balls constantly, or even at the moment without dropping some.

The rain today helps. I opened the window and can hear it loudly on the greenhouse-style roof next to me. The cool fresh air keeps my mind alert and the sound is quite comforting.

Hopefully a better, more interesting post will happen soon. But yeah...I'm still alive.

Food failures

Thankfully, in spite of using a lot of unfamiliar foods and ingredients here, I haven't had too many real phenomenal failures with cooking here. I have tried a couple of things that went less than fabulous, but they were still edible and mostly looked that way.

Yesterday, with friends coming over for both role-playing game stuff and some school work stuff, I thought I would have fun making something we made back in my first cooking class here. Tofu balls were quite tasty and fun looking when we cooked them in the class!

Well, first I put some potato, carrot, onion, and seasonings mix in the rice cooker, as I often do, which at least turned out edible, though not as tasty as usual since I added too much water.

The tofu balls did not turn out to be balls at all, but rather a mush of tofu, spices, and bits of green onion. I did taste the stuff and the flavor was decent, but the mess rather looked suspiciously like something that had already been eaten at least once by someone or something...I'm not kidding. Obviously didn't serve that stuff!! I should have made cookies!

I know better than to try new foods on friends...but having cooked this stuff before, I thought it would turn out fine and tasty. Should have made the lotus root instead! I KNOW that works.

At some point, I will try making these again until I can get them right. Quite tasty, really. I have some suspicions of what went wrong this time, and will likely ask the cooking teacher the next time I see her.

I love a lot of foods here. I know there will be some I particularly miss when I go back to the US. Cheese, however, will be my welcome friend. Very little of it here...and expensive when it can be found. I miss sharp cheddar cheese!

Japanese money

I know you can find pictures of this on the internet already, but this happens to be mine, so I wanted my own pictures of Japanese money. I don't happen to have any 1000 yen bills right now, but I will post another photo later when I have some again.

I won't get into the technical details of money exchange, but a fairly close but definitely inaccurate way to think of this money in current US dollar amounts is that 1000 yen approximately equals $10.00. I checked and for today the difference is that 1000 yen + $10.0270 --- well, that was on one site. I checked four different currency conversion sites and got slightly different conversions on each.

You can check here: http://finance.yahoo.com/currency?u

Or here: http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html

Or look up currency converters on your favorite browser and check out the differences.

Taiko Drum Concert: Kodo...Wow!!!

So this last weekend, as a school, we attended a Taiko concert.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiko

Not just any concert...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodo_(taiko_group)

http://www.kodo.or.jp/news/index_en.html


Kodo gives an amazing show! The drums, themselves, stand out with their beauty and craftsmanship. The performers' costumes look great, from the fully clothed to the barely covered. The players exude power as they play drums and instruments ranging from finger-sized symbols to an enormous drum brought onto stage on a parade float-size cart. The aural-visual feast manifests in everything they do from lighting affects, to an extreme range of dynamics, to a variety of sounds and pitches on various drums with various sticks, to the amazing fitness and strength of the players, themselves. The stage not only vibrates from the sound, but from the brilliance of the performers and the enthusiasm and vitality and love they show for what they do. I could feel the joy and excitement they have for their work and play.

I really wanted to take photos, but of course not during the concert (I mean...I still WANTED to do it!) I was hoping to get some afterwards, but it didn't end up being possible. I do plan to buy their DVD when I get back to the US, though nothing can beat actually being there watching them perform. I highly recommend it!

of showers

After being here a month, I have taken only cold showers until about 3 days ago, when I finally used one of my shower coins and basked in the warm water a bit. I had kind of a tough day that day, and it has been getting cooler, anyway, so it was a needful, comfortable, and good thing.

The weather warmed up again, so I am back to cold showers for now, which also feel good to me. For one thing, they remind me of camping at the ocean, which I really like. For another, they make me use a lot less water as I just use it as needed and shut it off in between. I also like the invigorated feeling I get from showering in the cool water. I wouldn't like it if the cold water just showered down all over me everywhere, but the shower head is a hand held one, so that makes this do-able for me.

I'm not crazy enough to do this into the winter, though I know some people advocate it for good health, but it has become part of my unique experience here. I think I tried it at first to see if I could deal with it enough to save from having to buy shower coins until winter, but actually it has proven to be something that has changed my way of thinking about things having to be a certain way.

Hiking in Japan

I quite enjoyed hiking with some people from school and Oniishisan, the man who owns the other apartments...or manages them, or something. He is an older man, who apparently loves hiking and loves the mountains. He took us to some beautiful areas.

I took 543 pictures that day. I'm not posting them all...imagine that.

However, I want to try linking this to a photo gallery page and see if I can manage it, though my computer skills are kind of lame. We'll see how it goes.

***Awhile later....well, I fail at web albums so far.

Ok, here are a few pictures to give an idea. I still plan on putting some more into an album and linking it here at some point. I could get the ALL in the album, or slowly put in some of the others and I hadn't even tried the linking thing yet, but I figured ALL of them was a bit much, especially since there are some that are lots of random cool twisty tree branches and such...