Monday, March 31 - Kyoto

Today Vaso and I started our journey to Kyoto. I woke up bright and early at 7pm to get the rest of my things ready and head down for breakfast. Our train left at 10 which meant I needed to leave the house a little before 9 in order to catch it. At breakfast my host father must have mistaken me at some point, because he thought the train left at 9 and I needed to be out of the house way sooner than that. He kept telling my “you gotta go! You gotta go!” until finally I asked him why I should be in such a hurry. Parents don’t listen too well do they? The weather for today was rain, so I grabbed my umbrella before heading out. I got out the door and met Vaso in Shinjuku at 9 to head to Tokyo and catch the Shinkansen. On the ride there we decided what to do in Kyoto. Before arriving, we ate some snacks that my host family made me take along which included an onigiri, mandarin, and tea.



Upon arriving at Kyoto station, we immediately ran into Ayana (it really surprised me because meeting inside a train station in Tokyo is nearly impossible). Vaso and I had decided that we wanted to see some castles and now we had a guide to show us. We shoved our baggage into a locker in the station and hopped on the subway towards Nijo. We arrived in less than 20 minutes which is amazing compared to the first time I went to Kyoto. The Nijo castle was closed when I last visited, but today it was fully open to the public. We walked around the outside checking out the landscapes before heading inside. It was really cool because everything was left as it was hundreds of years ago. Unlike other castles, Nijo has not been turned into a museum or anything. Everything was made of wood and tatami, the floorboards creaked when you stepped on them, there were scenes of meetings in a couple of the rooms, the air was cold and crisp. Everything was just how a castle should feel. I was really impressed with it. Even to this day Vaso says that Nijo is his favorite place in Kyoto. Back outside we walked around the garden a little more. It rained a little, but I had my trusty umbrella to keep at least two of us out of the rain. We took turns taking pictures of each other in front of various objects in various poses. It was a lot of fun.



Next we went to Heian-Jingu (the imperial palace). On the way there we passed this massive red gate towering over the road in front of us. It arched over the 3 lane street that passed through it. I made the comment that it looked really “heavy” and Vaso burst out laughing. My English has most definitely gotten weirder after speaking Japanese for so long.



Anyway, we did not go into the imperial palace, but we saw the outside of it. There was a huge wide entrance way that looked like a coliseum. During all of this, Ayana had been trying to contact one of her friends to join us. Finally they set up a meeting point, so instead of going into the castle we returned and started walking towards the shopping district Gion.

Mai Mai was waiting for us inside the Takashimaya department store. This made our adventure better as Vase talked to Ayana and I talked to Mai Mai for the rest of the time today. We first went to a coffee shop to better get to know each other (not to mention we were tired from all the walking!) Mai Mai and Ayana are the same age and from the same school (which I recently found out was not Kyoto University.) They also belong to some sort of Nomikai (drinking) club that was going to have a party tonight. Vaso and I decided that it would probably be best to return home at that time because 1: we don’t want to spend the money and 2: it would mean staying out late.

After talking for a good hour we returned to our temple viewing expedition. This time we went to a smaller temple that had tons of street vendors. We also spotted a crowd of people gathered around something that we needed to check out. It was a street performer who was really good at juggling and cube stacking. When he lit up torches to juggle, it almost immediately started raining. Luckily I had my trusty umbrella which at least covered myself and Mai Mai. A quick glance to my right and I saw a beautiful rainbow extending from the mountains. The sun was still shining brightly on my left. It was a very weird experience.



In any case, it started raining harder so we decided to ditch the temples and find someplace warm inside. Where else to get out of the rain than a sweets shop right next door? After ordering we decided plans for tonight. Vaso called up his friend D, and found out that he was not going to be in until 11pm or so. We had to find something to do until then. Ayana and Mai Mai invited us to the nomikai to pass the time. We really didn’t want to pay the $30 for the entrance fee (that is an entire night of good sleep!) but we decided that it was better to go than to sit around waiting. After some ice cream, we went to the train station and met up with about 30 other people. It is so weird how knowing my knowing of one person from Niigata led to meeting up with a huge group of people in Kyoto.



Needless to say they were surprised to see two foreigners show up to their club meeting. They were also amazed that we could communicate in their own language. Vaso and I broke off and didn’t talk to each other the rest of the night. We walked over to the izakaya talking and laughing with the natives of Kyoto. We had a good time eating, drinking, and meeting new people. Let me tell you it was an interesting lot. Everyone seemed to have some quirky aspect that amplified with the passing of a few drinks. Once the party was over I asked what I owed and they said that it was covered already. Apparently the group was so large that the izakaya didn’t charge us for 2 extra people. Cool, free dinner and drinks!



That night most of the people went bowling. Vaso and I had the chance to go and sleep, but D said that he wanted to join us for bowling instead. We ended up staying out until well past 2 in the morning. We got 3 lanes for bowling with groups of 4 people. A lot of the attendees just sat around watching. I managed to bowl my highest score ever of 153 which was second highest of the night. Needless to say I was pleased about that. Overall, my team lost every time, but it was still a lot of fun.



After departing from there, Vaso and I walked about 30 minutes back to Kyoto station to grab our stuff. It was so creepy being the only 2 people walking around the enormous station at night seeing no other souls. We grabbed our stuff and decided to split a taxi to D’s apartment. We had no idea where it was anyways. Once there our sleeping arrangement was 3 people lying horizontally on a futon, with the lower half of our bodies on the floor. There were only 2 blankets so I used my jacket as one. The arrangements sucked, but it was free.

Sleeeeeep

Really tired today. Went to class, came home, and took a nap until dinner. Not too exciting. I did have a nice conversation with the person sitting beside me in my religion class though.

Pretty Tired

First of all I was up waaaaaay too late last night. It was past 1am before I finally got to bed. I really need to stop doing that. Anyway, today was my first test run of my new Ipod. I was a little sceptical at first, bit it is starting to grow on me. Apple really didn't skip any of the details on the little guy. First of all, putting music on it was a breeze. I absolutely loath iTunes, so Vaso recommended this program called MediaMonkey instead. It is a really nice package. My favorite feature is the automatic correction of file tags available by comparing your songs with those on Amazon.com. It is really cool because if I can finally get the native Japanese song names (they are usually romanized) quickly and effectively. Another cool feature is that when I transfer songs to my shuffle, I can have MediaMonkey automatically scale down the bitrate from 320 to 128 (or any number of other preferences). This allows me to fit another extra 150+ songs on the little guy. Oh and speaking of little, this guy is tiny! The bundled headphones are really short at about 3 feet long and the entire package fits into the front pocket of my shirt, with no extra bulge. It also has a really handy "clip" that means I can clip it to my jacket, or the strap on my bag, or my earlobe, or my hair. The list goes on and on. So what about the music you ask? Well it gets the job done. The quality is only as good as what you set it to when transferring. Also I swear the thing can read minds. Someone else tried it out and hit the next button. The next thing I hear them say is "this song is sweet!" So that is my little rant of the day. I highly recommend the iPod shuffle. It may have no screen, but it is really cheap at $40 and $70 respectively.

So today I went to class dead tired. I got there about 15 minutes early and proceeded to make small talk with the other students. When Adam arrived I moved seats to the back and sat next to him. Finally when the professor came in, I switched seats again in order to better see and hear him. I pretty much slept through lecture. We introduced ourselves and had break time between the two periods. At this time Shoko finally came in and I caught up with her a bit. We decided that we need to hit up a coffee place soon and catch up. I also got involved in conversation with the kid in front of me and the girl next to me. Once the professor came back we proceeded with movie time! We watched this documentary on Japan made in 1990 that dealt with how different Japan is from America. Among the more interesting points, they visited a love hotel that was themed like the USA. One room had red, white, and blue all over, another had neon lights and casino games in it, yet another was the picture of a boxing ring. Weird weird weird! It was a really bad documentary, which is why the professor showed it to us. He then asked us what could be done better... Everything!

As everyone was busy for lunch, I asked the girl sitting next to me to go grab some food. Her name is Ayumi like the singer and she is going to graduate this year. Her English is amazing, but she is shy about using it so we spoke in Japanese most of the time. We walked all the way over to Yasube and had some amazing Tsukemen. They recently added an option to get double spicy soup which sounds amazing. I would have jumped on it had I not bit my lip a couple days ago. We talked about all things ranging from life, school, interests. All those questions that I have answered a million times before. I guess everyone has a story to tell. After lunch we walked all the way back to Waseda. I ended up at the lounge to study and to see if anyone that I knew would show up.

Once that failed, I decided to check out the Igo room. There were probably 10 people there when I walked in playing Go or Smash Bros. I of course hopped in on the latter. I was told that I was welcome to use the room whenever I felt like it. Supposedly someone is always there once lunch ends. Cool. I wanted to go play Go with them, but figured I should call it a day. I am going to get some sleep tonight!

Really?

So I got opened my closet door to grab my yukata for my shower. The next thing I know, the wood surrounding the white part of my door comes off and has some nice pointy nails showing. I proceeded to do the next logical step and push it back on. One of the nails was still sticking out a bit (I didn't align the holes properly) so I slammed the door shut and that fixed the problem. Now yukata in hand I open my main door to see Miki standing there in her pajamas. She says to me that she is trying to sleep and I need to be more quiet.... I explained to her what happened and she helped me fix it.

Still, this just begs the question: "Even though Japanese people are generally really shy, why do they have no problems complaining?"

Looking back to my days in the dormroom, I remember countless nights when other people were being loud past midnight and I have class at 8 in the morning. I just sucked it up and delt with it, which is my normal response to most anything that does not please me. Maybe I just have some sort of predjuduce against my host family, who knows.

Update

I just finished getting all my pictures from my trip uploaded. For your viewing pleasure there are around 1600 pictures total for me 9 day trip. There will be more once I get my memory stick back.

Well I Lied

Hehe, I got home later today than I thought I would. This means that I had no time to get around to my trip blog... I will finish it later!

I went to class this morning tired and.... Ok well mostly tired. Michael was auditing the class so it was a bit better than normal. He said that he probably wasn't going to switch to level 4. I don't blame him, it sounds like level 3 is much more fun.

After class I went out for curry with Steve, Vaso, and Kyle. There is a place really close to campus and about the same price as the other places. It was really good and filling. After that I headed to the library with Kyle, still debating whether or not to go home. I picked up a 2-kyu book to study and went to the lounge. Of course, other people soon showed up and I didn't get much studying done. It's alright I guess. We talked until about 4 when the others had class. I decided to check out what the Igo club was up to when... The person that I was with (David) spotted two girls that he knew. Instead of going to Igo club, I went and had coffee with them instead. Near Takadanobaba station we ran into yet another friend named Clay who joined us for coffee and conversation.

Once everyone decided to return home, I hit up the Igo club and played a game with a new face. I would have won if I had moved one stone into a different place! One bad choice screwed me over, but now I know how to play that tetsuji! I returned home a little late once again at about 8:30, had dinner, and now I am here.

On another note, my brand new 2GB Ipod Shuffle just arrived in the mail today. I was not planning on getting one, but using my DS and/or PSP for playing mp3's is a pain. Plus I do not want to carry either with me all the time. It takes up space and tempts me to play it. I now spend my time on trains reading through grammar and kanji books. Yay me!

And life is good.

About the trip...

It is so hard to get all that writing down on paper (or computer paper for that matter). Instead I spent this morning naming all of my pictures and they are currently being sent to the net as I type. It will be quite some time before you can view all of them. I will get my blog done eventually. If all goes well it should be up by tonight or tomorrow.

So let's see.... On Saturday I stuck around the house for a while and got some homework finished. Around noon-ish, I made myself a snack of jelly-bread and headed off to school. I attended the Calligraphy club orientation meeting and got to talk to a bunch of the people there. They only meet 2 times per week, Wednesday and Saturday between 1 and 8pm. I have absolutely no classes during those times which means I may be spending a lot of time drawing myself some kanji! The club members seemed really enthused to have a foreigner interested in their club. Apparently there was one last year who attended all year. In any case, I am still deciding whether to join or not. I will be going to the first practice session to see.

The calligraphy club held a dinner afterwards, but I needed to get off to Michael's party. We were supposed to meet at 3 in Ikebukuro, but I was about an hour late. He directed me to his house by phone, and I met him halfway from the station. His host family held a party for all the study abroad students. We ate some tasty food and spent most of the time thereafter playing smash bros, the new wii sports, and some devil may cry 4. Before everyone went home, Michael's host parents took us all to karaoke for an hour. That was a blast! I managed to catch the last train home for the 3rd time ever.

Sunday I stayed home all day. I got the blog of my trip about half finished. I also studied Japanese for about 3 hours for the first time in a long time. It is good to get back into the groove of things. I also picked up this interesting new game for my DS called Professor Layton and the Curious Village. You walk around and solve puzzles for people while collecting pieces to solve bigger puzzles.

Today, like I said, I spent the morning naming all my pictures. Can you believe I took over 1500 of them? As soon as Vaso gives me my memory stick back, I will have another 100-200 or so of pictures with me in them. I'll throw those up too when I get the chance. I'm gonna head off to the Igo club here in a bit.

Jon out.