The Homestay Experience and Kamakura

It’s been far too long since I last posted. I’ve seen a lot of cool stuff, but I’ve been so busy that I just haven’t had time. So to catch you up, the last time I posted I was still in Kyoto. Since that post I spent a day exploring Arashiyama Park (which is amazing and will warrant a full post to itself), I checked out the Kyoto Imperial Palace, I traveled to Narita and then Hayama (beautiful place) to begin my work orientation, and then I had a homestay with a Japanese family who took me sightseeing (I’ll talk about that today.) After that I moved into my apartment in Tokyo, where I’ve been working hard and exploring a lot when I have time. Lots to post about Tokyo too, but it’ll have to wait!

So my homestay experience in Japan was pretty amazing. I was hosted by an older Japanese couple (both in their 60s) and their daughter, who is my age. The main host was the mother, Ichiko, who retired a few years ago from her job as a public health nurse. Now she is a volunteer probation officer, and she takes courses on social work; basically, she spends her time trying to help young people who have run into trouble with the law because they have poor home situations; for example, one of Ichiko’s “clients” has no where to live because her father remarried and has a younger child with his new wife (basically a Cinderella story). I had a lot of opportunities to get to know Ichiko pretty well during my weekend there, and I was really amazed by her story. When she was two or three years old, Ichiko was given to a friend of her family’s, because this couple had been unable to have children and Ichiko’s parents already had several. The idea was that this couple would then have someone to take care of them when they were old (and to this day, Ichiko still takes care of her foster mother, who lives with her.) I asked Ichiko if she always knew she was adopted, and she immediately said “They ALWAYS tell me ‘You are NOT true child!’” I gathered that this situation was kind of traumatic for Ichiko, and it’s why she spends so much of her time in her retirement trying to help children that are unwanted by their families.

In addition to the daughter that lives with them, Ichiko and her husband also have two sons that live elsewhere. And this, I think, is one reason Ichiko was so excited to have me around. I think that Ichiko especially misses cooking for her sons, because Ichiko spent all day Friday cooking every different Japanese dish she could think of… it seemed like one of Ichiko’s main goals was to make sure I tried as many different Japanese foods (and drinks!) as possible. I ate soooo much while I was there. The food was simply amazing over all, but the sashimi was exceptionally amazing—by far the best sashimi I’ve ever eaten (sliced raw tuna with fresh onions and garlic.)

Photos: Sashimi with onions and garlic and japanese radish, various dishes, and a savory egg custard with mushrooms and other things. Yum!

On Saturday, Ichiko had work to do, so her daughter (Nadjuna) took me to do some light sightseeing. We walked around a local market, had lunch at the pier, and then got on this cool boat that had windows underneath the hull. After we got out into the water a bit, they boatmen threw fish food into the water and we were able to watch enormous schools of fish swim by. It was pretty cool. Just as the boat was getting back to port, though, it began to rain, so Nadjuna and I went home so she could teach me how to make Japanese curry. When Ichiko got home we all ate, drank, and chatted before Ichiko talked me into trying on traditional Japanese men's attire (kimono.) It was pretty interesting. I'm not going to post photos of that, but here is a video of the fish:


On Sunday Ichiko and I got up early to go to church. The family's religious practices had come up as a topic of conversation at some point over the weekend because I asked about what I assumed was a statue of Buddha in the house (it wasn't), and when Ichiko mentioned that she enjoyed going to church, I asked if she would take me while I was staying with them. I really wanted to see what a protestant service was like in Japan. It was fairly interesting; the people were really welcoming, and they asked me to stand up and introduce myself before almost everyone came by to talk to me. I really enjoyed it :) After church, Ichiko and I struck out to see Kamakura, which is a popular destination among Japanese for many of the temples and shrines there. Among many of the cool things there is a 30-meter tall Buddha statue (called a “Diebutsu”), which I was able to walk inside of! Very cool.

Bunraku Puppet Theater and Kyogen Theater Videos

Sorry these are coming late-- couldn't get them to upload for the previous post for some reason.

Geisha and Theater in Gion

During my final night in Kyoto, I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner and a trip to Gion Corner in Kyoto’s Gion District. Gion is one of the most well-known “Geisha” districts in Japan (although Geisha in Gion refer to themselves as “Geiku” instead of “Geisha.”) Gion Corner is a theater in Gion that operates to demonstrate the traditional geisha artform for tourists and others who cannot afford the often great expense of a geisha. Basically, for about 35 bucks, you can watch a traditional tea ceremony, kyo-mai dance, a flower arrangement, a koto performance, gagaku court music, kyogen theater, and bunraku puppet theater. The entire experience was really cool. I was one of two lucky individuals who was invited on-stage to participate in the tea ceremony, so I was fed sweet tea cakes and fresh green tea while listening to the koto. Koto is a really cool stringed instrument that makes AMAZING music. I think it is arguably the most versatile instrument I’ve ever seen, because it can produce the sounds typical of a guitar, a piano, and its own unique sounds as well. I really enjoyed it. Bunraku theater is also really impressive. If you look at the photo below, it looks like one man is holding a single life-sized puppet. In fact, there are actually two other people dressed entirely in black standing behind the puppet—the puppet requires three people to completely control, because each joint (shoulder, elbow, wrist, each finger joint, even the mouth) has complete functionality. The puppetry is really amazing.

Here are a few photos from my experience, as well as some low-quality videos of the various dance and theater just so you can have an idea of what they are like.

Kyoto in the Rain

Yesterday I arrived at Kyoto around noon, still exhausted from spending the day before exploring Osaka. Although I really wanted to just rest, I decided I needed to make the best of my afternoon and get started on seeing the sights of Kyoto.

First, I decided to walk over to Nishiki Food Market with the goals of seeing some interesting food items and finding some lunch. The market didn’t disappoint on either of those fronts. I saw vegetables for sale that I didn’t know existed. I saw tiny octopuses on sticks, like lollipops. I saw fish, spices, grains, blue pickles, tofu donuts (which I quickly purchased and ate--- yumm!)… all kinds of amazing foods. Nishiki is definitely a place to check out if you ever find yourself in Kyoto. For lunch I ended up eating Kakiage, which is basically a tempura cake that is fried and served on a stick. Mine had sweet potato, pumpkin, and carrot in it, and it was delish. And as I mentioned before, I also had some amazing tofu donuts.

But on to the real reason that Kyoto is such a high-ranking place on any tourist’s list. Kyoto is a very spread-out city that is very famous for all of its beautiful temples and gardens. So I hopped on a bus and began the trek to Kinkuji temple, one of Kyoto’s more famous temples. Of course, it started raining halfway through my bus ride… well, I reasoned, Kinkuji is supposed to be really stunning… so I decided to suffer through the rain for a chance to check this place out. And let me just say, it was totally worth it. Kinkuji is often called the “golden pavilion,” and you can see why from the photos. The temple is just gorgeous, and even though it looks beautiful in the photos, please believe me when I say that the photos don’t even begin to do it justice. What is really amazing is how the water surrounding the temple reflects the temple’s image, so it looks like a double-whammy of beautiful amazingness. My photos don’t demonstrate that because the rain was messing up the reflection, so CLICK HERE to take a look at someone else's photo to see what I’m talking about.

Because it was raining out, I figured I would at least be able to do my sightseeing without being approached by groups of students constantly wanting to take photos and talk in English. Not so. The rain didn’t deter them one bit; I’m beginning to think that I’m more of a cultural attraction than all of these temples I’ve been going to visit. Maybe I should start charging a fee to pose for photos, perhaps payable in rice dumplings, kakiage, and tofu donuts. Hah!

After doing my speed-walk through Kinkuji, I quickly made the trek to Ryōan-ji
temple on foot. Ryōan-ji is most famous for its stone garden, and people crowded around to sit and stare at the wondrous sight of some big ass rocks sitting in a field of carefully-raked gravel. I personally did not see the big appeal there, but some other parts of Ryōan-ji were really beautiful.
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After the long bus ride back to my hostel in more central Kyoto, I cleaned up, grabbed some dinner, and made my way over to Gion, which is the most famous and highest-ranking Geisha district in Japan. More on that experience in my next post—stay tuned!!

A visit to Fukushima

So I recently spent a couple of nights in Fukushima. No, not THAT Fukushima. Fukushima is apparently a pretty common name throughout Japan, and in this case it refers to a small ward in Osaka, one of the more economically important cities throughout Japan’s history.


Photos: Shopping districts in Osaka often display these futuristic-looking signs at their entrances.
I spent most of my time in Osaka wandering around by foot, exploring a few of its touristy sights but mainly just taking in the normal activities of the city’s many citizens. Osaka is a pretty happening place, with lots of interesting shops and good restaurants. I made sure to try some of the foods that the city is famous for, including okonomiyaki and takoyaki. Okonomiyaki is sometimes referred to as Osaka Pizza, although the only similarity I found between the two is that they are both usually round. It is technically a “savory pancake” with bits of octopus and other meats cooked into it (I’ve had it with shrimp and with chicken); then it’s topped with mayo, dried fish flakes, seaweed, and some sweeter, dark sauce that is sometimes called “original sauce.” Takoyaki is very similar in terms of ingredients, but it is usually cooked by street vendors and made into these little balls that are then topped with various ingredients. I liked both, but I think I prefer okonomiyaki because the batter always seems to be cooked more thoroughly than that of takoyaki (which can be a bit mushy inside.)
Top left: Folks lining up to receive some sort of anime figurine that is just being released. Top right: Takoyaki being made. Bottom: Okonomiyaki being cooked and then consumed.
But enough about food for now… I’m planning to write up several full-length blog posts exclusively pertaining to Japanese food within the next week, so we’ll wait for that. Other things I did in Osaka… I went to Osaka Castle, which looks pretty impressive on the outside but isn’t terribly interesting inside. The castle is surrounded by not one but TWO moats, along with some very high stone walls. Seems to me it would be pretty difficult to break through those defenses. The castle’s architecture is beautiful, and it is also surrounded by some really beautiful gardens.

I also walked quickly around Tsūtenkaku, one of Osaka’s more famous landmarks. The tower apparently holds one of the biggest clock faces in Japan. Wikipedia tells me that the name means “Tower Reaching Heaven.” It reminded me quite a bit of the architecture you find in East Berlin…
Left: Tsūtenkaku Tower. Right: Random Statue of Liberty replica I saw while walking through Osaka.
What I spent most of my time doing in Osaka is just walking around the markets. Osaka has literally miles and miles of covered arcades with tons and tons of little shops. Two of the more famous market areas, both of which I really enjoyed, are Den-Den Town (AKA Nipponbashi) and Amerikamura. Near Amerikamura, for instance, you can spend twenty minutes walking down an arcade that is almost entirely devoted to selling cookware. As odd as it sounds, it’s really an interesting sight to behold. I especially enjoyed checking out vintage video game stores and video game arcades. Those both seem to be very popular in Japan (along with Pachinko Parlors), and I’m hoping at some point to do a full-scale investigation of them for a future post.

Oh yeah… this is Billiken. You can find him all over Osaka, but especially around Tsūtenkaku. He’s considered a god of good luck and the god of “Things As They Ought to Be.” If you check out his Wikipedia page, you’ll learn that he was invented by an American artist and introduced to Japan in the 20th century. Its so interesting how cultural icons are introduced to and spread throughout the world.

To Osaka, After a Detour and a Japanese Magician

So my original plan was to get up this morning and take the express train to Osaka, where I would hang out for a couple of days. However, Miki and her family convinced me to change my plans. At 8:30 this morning Miki woke me up with a phone call to ask if I would meet her and her family for coffee and then go to Kure city (which is not too far from Hiroshima.) I hadn’t reserved a train ticket yet, so I once again said yes. I really felt so lucky to have been adopted by this random Japanese family… it was really turning out to be such an amazing experience.

So after dropping the kids off at school, Miki, her cousin, his wife, and I all piled into the family car to drive to Kure city. Instead of looking at the scenery as we drove, I pretty much couldn’t resist watching the TV that was in the front dashboard of the car. They had it hooked up to some sort of satellite system, and so we were watching Japanese TV programs. Japanese commercials are often hilarious. I’ll try to find some youtube clips of some of them to post later.

When we got to Kure city, we went to the house of Miki’s great uncle (on her mother’s side.) This was the first time that Miki’s cousin had met this man, because the cousin is on Miki’s father’s side of the family. Anyhow, Miki’s great uncle is 83 years old, which I didn’t know until we met. Every time I see an older Japanese person, I must admit I get a little worried… I can’t help but wonder if they were involved in WWII, or had lost close relatives or friends because of it, etc. But in this case, I needn’t have worried. Great Uncle was a very polite, very charming man who welcomed me into his home. He and his wife served us green tea and sweets, and then I learned what he does in his retirement. It turns out that Great Uncle loves doing magic tricks, so he goes to elementary schools and other places as a volunteer magician! He showed us a couple of his tricks, as well as how to perform some of them. One of the tricks included producing a live dove out of thin air. Really, folks, I know this all sounds so random, but there is no way I could make this up :P Great Uncle let me video a couple of his tricks, I've put some of those at the bottom of this post for you to see.After about an hour, we left Kure city to head back to Hiroshima. We picked up the kids and grabbed a late lunch of “oyakodonburi,” which is basically rice mixed with scrambled eggs, chicken, and pork. Very tasty. Afterwards, we got a few pictures all together, and then Miki dropped me off at the train station before she began her long drive back to Fukuoka. On the train, it took me only about an hour to get from Fukuoka to Hiroshima; Miki said it would take her between 3 and 4 hours to drive it. I really think that if public transport were faster in the states, more people would use it.
Right now I’m on my way to Osaka, where I will be for two nights. Not sure what all I’ll be doing there, but I’ve heard that it is a really beautiful city. Until next time!

Miyajima, AKA Itsukushima, AKA “Shrine Island”

Yesterday was quite an exciting day. I got up in the morning and made my way to a ferry on the southern side of Hiroshima city, which I took to Miyajima. Miyajima means “Shrine Island,” and it is only about a ten minute ferry ride from land. The place is gorgeous… just absolutely stunning. Apparently the island is a very important place for Shinto Buddhism, and there are a number of shrines all over the island (as the name implies). Two of the coolest sites to see on the island are the Itsukushima Shrine and its gate, called the Torii Gate. Itsukuhima is a huge shrine that was built over the water. Like the shrine itself, the Torrii gate was also built over the water, so when the tide comes it looks like the shrine and the gate are floating. It’s such an amazing thing to see… really, the pictures barely do it justice. In addition to this huge floating shrine, there are also tons of other shrines all over the island, as well as a couple of huge red pagodas (the pagodas were especially beautiful!). The craftsmanship that went into building all of these things was just breathtaking.
As soon as I got to Miyajima and stepped off of the ferry, I was essentially mobbed by groups of deer and groups of students. Small deer wander the island, including the streets of the town, hoping to get food from visitors, and apparently teachers like to send students out to converse with English-speaking foreigners. Groups of students would come up to me, ask to speak to me, ask to shake my hand, ask to take a photo, and ask me to write something in English for them. It was a very fun and exciting experience the first couple of times, but after my hand started cramping I decided to run into one of shrines to escape. I can’t help but wonder what the teacher is going to say when she sees that all of the groups of students spoke to the same person. Hah!
After checking out a few things on the base of the island, I decided to hike up Mount Misen, the highest mountain on the island. The hike up took me well over an hour, and it was pretty steep in parts. But on top of the island there were several more huge temples, and it kind of blew my mind to realize how much work it must have been to carry all of those building materials to the top of the mountain to construct the shrines. Troops of monkeys were supposedly to be found wandering around the mountaintop, but I didn’t see any.After I made it to the top of the mountain, I realized that I had made this excursion the hard way: I found out that there is a ropeway, gondola-like thing that stretches from the bottom to the to of the mountain. I should have taken the ropeway up and hiked back down, but I ended up doing the reverse. The good thing about this was that on the ride down, I got to meet Miki. Miki and I were randomly paired in a gondola cart, and I just happened to say out loud (more to myself than to her, because I wasn’t sure if she spoke English) that I was terrified of heights. Well, that was all it took, and Miki and I didn’t stop talking throughout the entire ride. In fact, after we made it to the bottom of the mountain, Miki and I wandered around the island together. We went back to the shrine to see it at high tide, ate “momiji manju” (a local speciality, basically a cake shaped like a maple leaf filled with sweet bean paste), and went souvenir shopping. Miki is a nurse in Fukuoka, and this was the first time she had been to Miyajima since she came with her parents when she was 3 years old. She was planning to visit her cousin and his family in Hiroshima that night, so she invited me to join them all for dinner. I was a little hesitant to accept her offer, because I didn’t know to what extent she was just being kind and to what extent she really wanted me to come along. However, I remembered during my orientation several students said, “If you are ever invited to go out, GO! You never know if you’ll get a second opportunity.” So, I accepted, and Miki seemed very excited.Around 4:30pm Miki and I made our way back to the mainland, where we picked up her car near the ferry. She drove us back to Hiroshima, where I got to meet her cousin and his family. They were very lovely people. Maya, the daughter, is 7 years old and was pretty much obsessed with the tall gaijin. Ryokyu, the son, is 3, and he is only obsessed with expending as much energy as possible. He reminded me a lot of my 4-year-old nephew.

After hanging out for a bit, Miki, her cousin, and I met one of her cousin’s co-workers at a Yakitori restaurant for dinner. We ate tons of delicious things, most of which I had never had before, and of course drank quite a bit of beer, awamori, and sake. Everyone seemed sincerely amazed by how much I could drink. They asked me “How should we say you are very good drinker?”, and I explained that we say someone who is a good drinker “can hold his liquor.” I did manage to hold my liquor well that night, but Miki and her cousin were pretty drunk by the time we left. The entire experience was so entertaining. I really had a lot of fun. By the time I got back to my hostel, it was nearly midnight and I fell asleep almost instantly.