04.27.05
Posted in Fun at 5:11 am by loretta
Golden Week is a time in Japan where three national holidays fall very close together. Green Day is on April 29. It commemorates the birthday of the former emperor. Constitution Day is on May 3, and is self explanatory. Children’s Day on May 5 celebrates the vigor of youth and counterbalances Respect for the Aged Day in September. Usually May 4 is considered an unofficial holiday known as the rest-day between holidays. Many people get at least those three off, but almost everyone not in a service industry (such as hotels and restaurants) receives the entire time off from April 29 through May 5. It’s become known as Golden Week.
Everyone who gets off during Golden Week travels somewhere, usually to their home town. Tokyo is said to become a ghost town. I have no school on Fridays, so in theory, I get the period from April 29 to May 8 off. Perfect for sightseeing. If only the rest of Japan weren’t traveling too…
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04.26.05
Posted in Fun at 8:26 pm by loretta
Tsukiji Fish Market is the biggest fish market in the world. Fish from all over the world are sent here to be auctioned off and sent elsewhere. The market is bigger than three American football fields and tightly packed with fish vendors. The fish here is very fresh, so it makes sense that the best sushi in town can be found nearby. Angvara, a foreign student from Thailand, and I set out early and had a great but exhausting experience.
Tsukiji opens at 5 a.m. and begins with fish auctions, followed by vegetable auctions starting at 7. Normally, we’re not allowed out of the dorm before 7:15 a.m., but we can leave early for official events if we get special permission at 6:15 a.m. Technically this wasn’t a official event, so a normal student would have been turned down. But because Ang and I are part of this three month program, we were allowed to go. Boy it’s early. The other women of the program didn’t want to go for various reasons, primarily because they value their sleep. But it’s their loss - after all, how many opportunities do you get to visit the biggest fish market in the world?
I had gotten the idea to go from a guide book I bought at Nichi Bei Bussan in San Jose called Little Adventures in Tokyo, by Rick Kennedy. This ten year old book has a variety of proposed activities that are off the beaten path. I had lent it to Ang, because I figured she might be interested in some of them, and she liked this adventure the best. Some of the adventures can be pricey, so this one wasn’t too bad - subway fare plus breakfast. Tsukiji is mentioned by many other guide books, such as Lonely Planet, but Kennedy adds a personal touch that’s very appealing.
The first thing we saw after we exited the subway was the Tsukiji Buddhist Honganji, which has a distinctly Indian appearance. Apparently the original one was in Yokohama, but it was relocated to here after the fire of 1657. Tsukiji means “built land.” Here are some photos.
I was a little nervous as we approached as buyers joined us and they all wore waterproof wellington-style boots. Ang was wearing socks with sandals. When we got there, it seemed a madhouse. Small forklifts, trucks, people on bicycles, people with hand trucks all rushing around like mad. There were motorized tiny trucks I had never seen before with only one front wheel. They could turn on a dime. And they had to, once we got inside the giant warehouse that houses the market. The aisles were narrow, with periodic slightly wider aisles where two of the small trucks could pass each other at intersections. There were fish everywhere. We walked a narrow aisle for the length of the warehouse until we reached the place where vendors waited at a giant bandsaw to cut apart the huge frozen tuna like lumber. Then we walked the depth of it, looking for the auction area.
1-The crazy outside of the warehouse. We tried not to get killed. 2-Ang walks down one of the wider aisles. Look how deep it goes! 3-Aisle upon aisle of densely packed fish and seafood!
1-Ang overlooks the queue waiting for the bandsaw. 2-120 and 118 kilogram fish! 3-A vendor hauls his tuna to his stall.
1-Colorful stacks of fish. 2 & 3-Tentacles that look like neon, or post-modern flowers.
Fish I’ve never seen before. The vendor for #2 insisted I take his fish’s picture after I took one of #1. #3 is supposedly from Guam, so maybe Andrew can name it for me. #4 was alive, I wish I’d remembered to get a movie of it swimming. Strange!
Sadly, even with our early start, we missed all of the fish auctions. By the time we navigated the cavernous warehouses to the vegetable area across the street, they were well into the vegetable auctions. We could see the even bigger auction venue for the fish auction, though. Here’s some footage of vendors bidding on a root vegetable/herb.
Vegetables were brightly colored and varied, but after all the fish, we were hungry for breakfast. We went to a fish vendor to ask for a recommendation. He gave us directions to a place I couldn’t read the name of, but we knew it was the right place because there was a line. There were eight people ahead of us in line, and we waited over half an hour to be seated because it was so small. When we left, there was an even longer line waiting to get in! I ordered the top-of-the-line chef’s special (Tencho Omakase Set), because I figured it’s Tsukiji, so it would be worth the $36.
Waiting in line.
I was right. Hands down it was the best sushi I have EVER eaten, and sadly probably will ever eat. The store owner and master chef (tencho) decided what to give us, and handed us nigiri sushi piece by piece, with instructions like “No soy sauce!” I don’t remember the names of most of them, but I know I ate o-toro (the best part of the tuna), uni (sea urchin roe), which had only a whisper of the earthy flavor that develops as it gets less fresh, tekka maki (surprisingly bitter and my least favorite), and anago (see eel), lightly grilled with sauce. Many of the pieces were already finished with a sauce or marinade, which soy would have masked. We were given no wasabi, unlike the couple next to us, who ordered more esoteric sushi by the piece and went through 3 tall bottles of beer.
I have yet to eat real wasabi. What we’re served in the US is a preparation of horseradish and food coloring that approximates the flavor of the real thing. Each piece was placed on a shelf in front of us, and the counter area held things like the soy, tea, and soup.
At the end, we were allowed to order one piece of whichever one was our favorite. I was tempted to go for the light and sweet anago, but I went for the very expensive o-toro instead. It was fabulous. All together it wasn’t so many pieces of sushi. At home I could probably eaten more, but the timing was perfect, and we were full by the time we were done. Ang didn’t even have room for the last piece.
Sadly, no room for these fish-themed (but not flavored) manju confections.
Afterwards, we went back to the dorm and crashed. We had gotten up early and walked over 4 miles in only a few hours. That was too much for someone as out of shape as me (although I am improving slowly as time goes on). I ached all over, but felt as good as new after a 4 hour nap.
This is definitely something every visitor to Tokyo should do, unless you really hate fish. But definitely get up for the fish auctions, which start at 5 a.m. I’m sure they’re very impressive. Lonely Planet suggests that arrival jet lag will have you up then anyway.
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04.15.05
Posted in School at 8:16 pm by loretta
Well, when everything happens, it happens at once. I began classes, experienced Tokyo’s largest earthquake in several years–6.1M, and caught acute bronchitis. And it rained. This week has been tough.
I probably shouldn’t have walked to Shibuya last week, but the weather was so beautiful, and it seemed like something interesting to do before classes started. Monday it rained, and Hye Young kept claiming that I had a fever, but I had no way to tell. When I stayed in on Saturday, both Jin Young and Ji Yoon brought me Korean cold medicine and vitamin C. It seemed to help, which is why I went out on Sunday.
Another of the colorful tiles you see occasionally in the sidewalk. Art inside a bathroom in Shibuya. A gothic Lolita hands out flyers for alternative television.
Monday, though, someone mentioned my cold to Ms. Somekawa, our liason in the International Center. She’s been a bit like a mom to us, asking after us, and taking Hye Young, Cat, and I out to Chinese food before the others arrived. Ms. Somekawa insisted I go to the student health center to be checked out after class.
Fortunately I had my electronic dictionary. My Japanese is pretty bad comparatively, and the nurse and I traded medical terms through the dictionary. She looked at my throat, which was inflamed, took my temperature under my armpit (at least not anally, like in Germany!), and asked about symptoms. Then she gave me cold medicine, anti-inflammatory (fever and throat) drugs, throat lozenges, and told me to come back on Wednesday when the doctor would visit if I hadn’t improved.
Shortly after the visit, I started phlegm production, by coughing and nasally. Green, disgusting. Ick. The next day at class, Anna and Lenka wisely wanted nothing to do with me, but Cat and Hye Young didn’t seem to care. It had stopped raining, so I went to find the post office to mail some post cards. During lunch, it started up again. I had left the umbrella at the dorm, so I pulled up my hood and plodded through the rain.
Soaked, I arrived in time for my first Japanese subject class, which I’m calling Children’s Literature. I was a little nervous, because the professor hadn’t returned Ms. Somekawa’s requests for information on the class or granted permission for me to attend. The class was crowded, but there was a seat up front. She seemed genial to the class, and spoke clearly into the microphone, but I understood almost nothing of what she said. While my throat wasn’t actually sore, I used the lozenges as cough drops, so I wouldn’t cough during the lecture. I introduced myself after the class, but she seemed unimpressed to have a semi-literate foreigner in the class. I don’t think I’ll keep this class.
I was on toilet duty Monday and Tuesday, so I had to hurry through the cleaning, so I could go to bed early. Toilet duty and Kitchen duty rotate through the dorm floor. Each period of servitude is for two days. Next week I have Kitchen duty, so I’ll have to figure out what that entails, because there’s additional kanji there I don’t understand.
Wednesday is my long day, and the others were happy to hear I was going to see the doctor at lunch, because my cough had gotten worse. I had the dorm “mom” on duty check my temperature, and at least I had no fever. The doctor listened to my chest and back, checked my throat and glands, and listened to my symptoms. He declared I did not, thank goodness, have pneumonia (!!!), but acute bronchitis. Not good news, but not pneumonia. He prescribed more of the anti-inflammatory drugs, gargling 4 times a day with what I think is iodine - 6 drops in water, drink plenty of water, and get plenty of rest. Sadly, I had three more classes that day.
Before lunch was Japanese Culture. After lunch was Japanese Society, and two sessions of Japanese language. I managed to make it through the classes, although the latter half of the last language class is kind of blurry, but that could be because I am the worst student in the class. All of my teachers that day were new, so I felt compelled to go to them. I have seven sessions of Japanese language per week, five teachers for Japanese, and three textbooks. Whew. I ate dinner, left a note that I was going to bed early, and went to bed.
Thursday, I decided I should stay in bed. There was one new teacher to meet, but I felt it would probably be OK. I left a note for Anna, the classmate who lives closest to me, and left a message for Ms. Somekawa, my International Center liason. She called back and offered to bring me some Vitamin C fruit. I called Keith, and then went to bed and essentially slept all day. I only got up for small meals to take my medicine with. Of course the weather cleared up and it looked nice outside. That evening, I took a bath, a rare treat for me. The baths are only open from 5-9 p.m. I suppose it’s because of the high volume of water used to sustain them. Also, there’s additional water use because in Japan, you wash and rinse your body clean before you get in the bath. I managed to go at a time when no one else was using it. This had happened once before, and I had resolved to bring a camera with me to take pictures if it was empty. (No, this is NOT Japanese Girls Gone Wild). The baths are gorgeous and luxurious, and hot. I soaked until I was jello, and got out.
The room was steamy, so I’ve tried to clean them up a bit.Friday, I resolved to get something done, although still rest a lot. I was feeling a little better. Friday is new sheets day, so I had stripped the bed, and prepared for my morning shower by laying out my clothes on it. I was about to go to the shower, when a house “mother” stopped by with the oranges Ms. Somekawa had sent over for me. She seemed appalled that my bed had no sheets, and asked whether I used them to sleep on. I tried to explain that I was in the process of trading old sheets for new, but it didn’t seem like she believed me. She kept repeating (in Japanese) how sheets protected the mattress they had loaned me from perspiration. *sigh* So now I’m a barbarian who sleeps on a naked mattress. Little does she know that I nicked a second sheet to use as a top sheet. Oh, the irony.
The weather was nice again, which was good for laundry, but is making me a little stir crazy. I’ve resolved to stay in all day Saturday, though, no matter how nice the weather is. I want to get better.
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04.09.05
Posted in School at 6:03 pm by loretta
I’ve never gone to an all women’s school before, I’ve never lived in a dorm before, and I’ve certainly never been to Japan before. So this trip is an adventure on many levels. Plus, I’m not a teenager anymore, so my mentality will be a little different from the women in the school and the dorm.
For instance, there’s a curfew of 9:50 p.m. Severe in my late teens and early twenties, but now, it’s not so bad. I’m no longer a party monster, so I’m usually at home anyway. I may go out drinking with my Japanese girl friends occasionally, but I won’t want to stay out all night dancing like they do. We’re allowed, as long as we submit a request in writing 24 hrs in advance.
But the cherries and plums are coming into bloom, and before classes start, it seems like some sort of anime shojo fantasy come to life. If only I weren’t coming down with a cold…
My dorm room is small. It’s too messy right now to take a picture, but when I’ve gotten a few folders to store my disaster pile of papers in, I’ll take one. My room is perhaps 5′ x 9′, but I have a couple of deep storage areas. A closet, a deep pantry, and cupboards above each. The one above the pantry is deep enough to store my big suitcase, and I’ve put long-term storage items in there. The closet only had four hangers, so I had to buy more.
The bed has only a 3″ thick mattress on top of wooden slats. It’s a lot harder than my bed at home, which has a thick pillow-topped mattress and box spring. At first, I woke up (when I could sleep) feeling like I was beaten black and blue, but now I’ve been getting used to it. I somehow managed to receive three blankets, and Ms. Somekawa told me that no one would notice if I took another sheet to use as a top sheet (no fitted sheets). I helped myself to another pillowcase, too, and stuffed one of the blankets inside to act as the pillow I usually sleep with under my knees (for my back).
The desk is built into the room under the window, and I have a small secretarial rolling chair. My view consists of the tiny courtyard and glass enclosed hallway to the E and F block upper levels. There’s a door there for some room I haven’t figured out the name to yet.
I also have some bookshelves, which I’ve got both books and toiletries on, including my shower bowl. And I have a phone, but I can’t call out internationally from it, although I can receive international calls. There’s a curfew on that, too. I should only receive calls between 8:30 and 22:30 JST, so for California, that’s from 4:30p.m. PDT to 6:30 a.m. PDT. I’m usually in my room from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. PDT and from 1:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. PDT. Keith figured out a way for him to call me fairly cheaply, because the cheapest phone card I’ve found is about 50 cents per minute from Japan to the U.S.
The letter I received said the dorm would supply some things that the year-long students would have to bring or buy: a mattress(!), sheets, blankets, pillow, shower bowl, towel, flashlight, disaster cap(!), plate, bowl, cup, cutlery, trash basket, and laundry hanger. I figured I would have to buy anything else, so I found a nearby shop called “Outlet” which sells housewares, and assorted novelties (from Disney stationary to the “traditional” boobie mug). I bought, over time, two washcloths, one dish cloth, one hand towel, one deep fry/sauce pan, hangers, skirt hangers, a portable laundry hamper, fabric softener, Japanese chopsticks, a soap dispenser, an alarm clock, and a rubber scraper/spatula. I have to go back for another skirt hanger because one broke already. The prices are very cheap. I wish I had seen the laundry detergent here (Tide) before buying some from a local drugstore (Beads).
However, the third night I was there, Ms. Nishizaki, our dorm mom for E&F blocks, drew myself and the other two 3 month foreign students aside to a closet, where she supplied us with other kitchen utensils. So now I have a cutting board and knife, a small sauce pan, a pasta strainer, and a rice cooker and rice paddle. She’s been very caring towards me, even though I don’t understand much of what she says. I’m sure if I need anything else, I could go back and ask her. I don’t intend to cook too much, though. The dorm has a cafeteria which serves dinner for ¥500 (about $5) a night during the week, and the school cafeteria serves lunch for a maximum of ¥400 (about $4). Apparently they’re both closed on weekends, so I’ll have to figure out something.
There’s an international food market at the nearby Hiro-o Plaza which sells American food, but it’s expensive. I love ethnic food, so I figure I’ll use the American food as comfort food, when I’m sad, or sick. I mention sick, because I have a funny feeling in my throat, like I’m about to come down with something. I stayed in all day Saturday, but Sunday I went out because I promised the other foreign students I’d go to Shibuya to go shopping. Here’s a movie of the cherry blossoms scattering in the wind like they do in most girl’s anime.
I went to Shibuya once with my Japanese partner/mentor, and it’s very crowded. I bought an electronic dictionary and a cell phone, called a keitai (kaytai) denwa in Japanese. I had to get a pre-paid keitai because I’m only here for three months. It’s a little disappointing because I wanted to get one of the phones that you can use to pay for things with. Oh well.
Gradually, the other foreign women in the three month program arrived. There are six of us all together. Hye Young Lee is from Korea. Narintip “Cat” Panipat is from Thailand. Anna and Lenka are from the Czech Republic, and Angvara “Ang” is also from Thailand. There are also two one-year-program students from Korea, Jin Young Park and Ji Yoon Kim, and a variety of foreign full-time students, like Laura from Taiwan. The three month program is very condensed, so we have many events together. Next week classes start, and the week after, we will register for the classes we want, which is backwards from SCU.
Cat and Ang; Anna and Lenka; Hye Young
Things seem to be going swimmingly, except I have a little tickle in my throat that seems like I might be coming down with something. Drat.Bonus photos of University of the Sacred Heart:
Photos from around campus. The blooming foliage is too irresistable. Check out the bi-color plum blossoms!
From the steps near the South Gate.
The Main Gate and the “Sakura Tunnel” leading from the Main Gate to the campus. Gorgeous.
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04.03.05
Posted in Fun at 3:30 am by loretta
My visit to Osaka was much too short. A lot of time was eaten by travel and mundane details, like eating and sleeping. I postponed my quest for Japanese elongated coins with a visit to Osaka Castle, which was beautiful and impressive.
Sadly, this delayed me, and I arrived at the Sanrio store after it had closed. I couldn’t find an okonomiyaki shop in the neighborhood, so I ended up in a bar, where I ate tasty but tiny skewers of roasted chicken, and chatted with two locals in English. They were probably the highlight of the trip.
In the morning, I postponed my departure to visit the Sanrio store again, but the staff told me there wasn’t a machine there anymore. Either it had been moved to their Universal Studios shop, or there were some at Universal Studios. The manager spoke pretty fast and with big words in Japanese, so I didn’t entirely understand him. Oh well, next time. Because I definitely want to come back.
On the way out from Hiroshima, I saw the most beautiful manju (Japanese confectionary) I had ever seen. I bought several, and took pictures. Unlike the manju that I know, the exterior was not made of rice flour dough, but I think from beans. The interiors were traditional sweetened bean jam.
These photos are especially for Katherine and George.
I bought an unreserved seat on the Shinkansen because I thought, like Southwest Airlines, they wouldn’t oversell. I was dead wrong. The train was very full, and I ended up standing the whole hour and a half to Osaka. Ugh. No more unreserved seats for me.
I was exhausted by the time I got to the Green Hill Hotel on the other side of town from the station, but I made an effort to get out, because the afternoon was all I had for sightseeing. I was famished, and had a mixed sandwich set at the hotel. Mixed sandwiches apparently means one egg omelet sandwich, and one other sandwich, sometimes ham, but in this case cucumber and tomato. I enjoy the omelet sandwiches, although they’re a new experience. And for all you picky sandwich eaters, the both times I’ve ordered sandwich sets, they’ve been on white bread with the crusts cut off.
After a couple quick phone calls, I headed out. Osaka has a Japan Rail loop line, like Tokyo, and Green Hill Hotel was convenient to one of the stops. So is Osaka Castle Park. The park is quite large, encompassing most of the grounds of the castle. They have incorporated modern elements, such as an auditorium, tennis courts, gift shops, cafe, and parking for tour busses. The castle has two moats, an outer rampart, and an inner rampart. It’s built on a fortified hill. There a lot of steps to get to the top. It’s ironic that I scoffed at steps to the pagoda yesterday because I found myself climbing them all for the castle.
It was near closing time when I got to the castle, so my tour was pretty quick, but I got a few pictures from the top, and a saw a few displays. Of course everything is in Kanji, which I can’t read yet. The displays were interesting because they were essentially dioramas with video projected actors for each scene. It looked more realistic than it does in the photos. I was able to buy a few souvenirs in the gift shop inside and outside the castle, but I felt it was time to head to Sanrio. Plus I was very hungry. To make life interesting, it started to sprinkle.
I was very tired by this time, and had to take several rests on the way outside the park. I found my way to a direct subway line from the park area to the Sanrio area. The instructions to go to the store said to walk 1 minute towards Namba from the Shinsaibashi station. Well, that’s easier read than understood. I wandered around for a while and asked a few people before I found it. Unfortunately it had closed 20 minutes prior. I hunted around for an okonomiyaki shop, but Shinsaibashi is a fairly hip place, so there were a lot of foreign (to Japan) restaurants with somewhat hefty prices, and little boutiques, but no okonomiyaki.
Tired and hungry, I stumbled upon a bar that sold substantial snacks, called an izakaya. Essentially izakayas sell Japanese pub food with your drinks. This one specialized in roasted chicken like yakitori. One of the bar men spoke passable English, so I ordered two skewers of chicken, one of breast, and one of hearts (yes, hearts. My family knows I like chicken giblets). He offered to sell me a wing, but I wanted something bigger. I should have listened. The skewers were tiny, with only three tiny bites each. Later, I saw a woman with a chicken wing, and it was HUGE! It looked like it came from a turkey, it was so big.
It was a very small izakaya, with only a bar, and a walkway to the bar. I sat next to two men, who seemed to want to try speaking English, but not in a pushy way, so I struck up a conversation. They were very nice. The very drunk (but friendly) one was Hajime, and the man I spoke the most to was Takaki, who was also tipsy, but not really drunk.
We had lively conversation about a number of things, including birth order. I guessed correctly that Hajime is first born in his family since hajimeru means “to begin.” Also it’s spelled “一“, which is the Japanese Kanji for one. Takaki was the baby, and his name’s Kanji was very difficult. I don’t recall what Takaki does, but Hajime is a sushi chef at his family’s restaurant. We discussed sushi, and he was shocked by the New York roll in America. They both were. Both men felt that rice and cream cheese don’t go together. All together it was a very pleasant conversation, and the highlight of the day for me. I had sufficient food and rest for the subway ride to the hotel, which Takaki very nicely walked me part way towards. I stopped outside the station to take a picture of Tsutenkaku Tower, and he had to go catch the last train to his house at the next station. Tsutenkaku Tower is a slightly smaller replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It’s also lit up with neon, and advertising. The pictures I have aren’t very good because I was tired and the light was bad. Takaki warned me not to go there at night because there were a lot of homeless people in the park, so it was a bit dangerous.
The next day I went back to the Sanrio store on my way to the Shinkansen station. The JR loop line went around the city, but there was also a subway line that ran right from Tennoji station near my hotel through Shinsaibashi to the Shin-Osaka Shinkansen station. Unfortunately, I arrived too early, but I waited around until it opened. Initially the staff didn’t know about the elongated coins, but they fetched the manager, who called around. He spoke fairly fast, but seemed to indicate that the Sanrio shop at the Universal Studios City Walk had them. I didn’t have time for that, or the inclination to go to Universal Studios, so I’ll have to try to visit Osaka again sometime. Maybe during Golden Week.
Bonus photo for my Mom. It’s a manhole cover. Pretty, eh?
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04.02.05
Posted in Fun at 12:07 am by loretta
OK, I was obviously jet lagged (and still am, a bit), but I think only being in cities contributed. Today I went to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima. City buildings can look alike, but in the countryside, the flavor of the country pushes through.
By tram and ferry, I arrived at Miyajima, which is known for its beautiful views and “floating” Torii, or temple gate. Tame (but still wild) deer roam around, looking for handouts like pigeons, or goats at a petting zoo. The landscape was beautiful, and there was an interesting mix of culture and tourist trap.
“Miya” 宮 is shrine and “jima” 島 is island. So Miyajima is “Shrine Island” (which is why I haven’t called it Miyajima Island, which is redundant). The ferry was quick, but the day was hazy, which is why my long shots aren’t the greatest. The deer approached tourists on the steps of the ferry station. I avoided them, lest they decide to munch on my clothing or fish for food in my pockets.
I took the lunchtime opportunity to try Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. It’s often called Japanese pizza, but that’s not really true. It’s more like an open-faced crepe with vegetables, noodles, meat and egg cooked in it with a dusting of seaweed. There’s an okonomiyaki restaurant named “Hiroshima” in San Jose, but I didn’t really enjoy it there, and I hoped the real thing would be better. And it was! I look forward to tomorrow in Osaka, so I can try Osaka-style okonomiyaki, which is the main style of okonomiyaki in Japan. It’s made without noodles, and there are some other differences.
I wandered through the shopping avenue that they funnel tourists toward (there’s a “secret” way to avoid this, but I used it on the way back). In there I discovered that Miyajima is supposedly the birth place of the rice paddle. It was developed by a monk there. In its honor, they host the largest rice paddle/spoon in the world. It’s really big! A lot of the stores sold normal sized paddles with aspects of Miyashima on them for souvenirs. Also a lot of deer statues.
I visited the History and Folklore Museum, and the State Treasure Museum. Neither allowed photographs, and both required removing my shoes to don slippers that were too small for my wide feet. I also visited the aquarium, which had a display of tiny creatures locally known as “water fairies” and they had a nice display of jellyfish. The Monterey Aquarium is nicer, but this aquarium had many varieties of fish I’ve never seen before.
1. Eels half buried in the sand. 2. Finless dolphins from Asian waters. 3. Horseshoe crab pacing the ledge. 4. Beautiful seahorses. 5. Tiny water fairies (the pink speck on the right).
I was definitely getting tired, too tired to backtrack to the entrance of the big Itsukushima shrine, back near where I started. I had thought there were two entrances, and I could travel through it on the way back. I did stop at the smaller (but still impressive) Daiganji temple, where I bought a good luck charm for studying. There was also a five-storied pagoda, but it was being refurbished, and thus not worth the walk up all those steps.
I did see a wedding party come out of the temple. Very traditional. The bride and groom were conveyed to their hotel by rickshaw. A nice woman on the “secret” way back offered to take my picture when I stopped for a rest. It turns out she went to the University of the Sacred Heart in Hiroshima, so we had something in common. My Japanese is too bad to converse very much with her, but she was very nice.
I had hoped to be back in the city before dark to take another tour of Peace Park, but it was not to be. I washed laundry, packed, and went to bed. Tomorrow, Osaka!
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04.01.05
Posted in Fun at 4:59 am by loretta
…this doesn’t feel like a foreign country. Daryn in my Japanese class at SCU said I would adapt to the Japanese day pretty easily. And true, so far it hasn’t been too hard. I did want to take a nap today at about 3 p.m. JST, about 10 p.m. PST, but I fought it off by sightseeing. But this doesn’t feel like a foreign place, just a big city I haven’t been to yet. Somehow that has to be wrong.
For sightseeing, I visited Hiroshima Peace Park. The sun was setting, but I got some great pictures of the Atomic Dome with the sunset making it glow like like the wrath of the heavens. It was cool. When it got too dark, I went to a nearby street mall and found a restaurant to eat at. There were some very interesting shops.
Why do I feel like Japan should be more alien? Have I just not gotten to know it well enough? Probably. Is it an emotional detachment due to jet lag (and possibly anticipation)? Probably. Is it the Starbucks and American fast food (and 7-11) at regular intervals? Maybe a little.
Hiroshima and Tokyo just seemed like big cities I didn’t know, not foreign. I’ve gotten lost in Washington D.C., too. Yeah, OK, everyone speaks a foreign language, and everything is written in a foreign language. And I understand some of it, but certainly not all (or even that much- I’m getting by in pidgin Japanese). That’s why I think it must be jet lag. It’s just not sensible.
Also, in a weird way, I’m having anime and video game flashbacks. Just now I’m hearing a siren, which takes me into any number of anime. While sightseeing, I ran into a shop/arcade that strongly reminded me of the Gold Saucer Wonder Square play area in Final Fantasy VII. The tram plays the same rattling sounds as the little spirits in Princess Mononoke when a person enters.
As I said, I felt tired after my long train ride and hauling my suitcase to the Hotel Flex. At least I stopped wearing my coat. Once again this morning, I arrived at the train with both the coat and myself drenched because it trapped the heat of my efforts. I resisted the urge to lie down, and instead prepared to go out, even though there was only about an hour or so of daylight left. I had hoped to lock the computer to the bed frame, but all the furniture is solid and cube-themed. There is a small handle bolted to the back of the chair, so I attached the lock to that! I just hope if someone were to attempt the theft, that people would also notice them carrying a small chair. Hmmm.
After studying the maps and brochures the hotel staff gave me, I headed to the tram (lightrail?) station. There’s a stop very near the Atom Dome. In Hiroshima, you pay your fare when you disembark the tram. I arrived at the Atom Dome at sunset. The lights of the golden glow lit up the skeleton building, in a scene both beautiful and terrible.
This interesting memorial was to students who gave up their studies for the war. There were many similar monuments to the various sacrifices people made.
I wandered around looking for other park sights, especially the memorial to Sadako. Sadako was a little girl with cancer who heard that if she folded 1000 paper origami peace cranes, she would get her wish for a cure granted. Sadly she died after folding only 663 cranes. The other children in her class folded the remainder. The whole thing was so touching, they erected a statue in her honor and the hope for peace. People from all over the world, mostly schoolchildren, have folded sets of 1000 cranes, and they are on display around the statue.
(These photos are especially for Stacie)
I also saw the cenotaph and not-entirely eternal flame, which looked great at dusk. The flame is not an eternal flame because when all nuclear weapons are removed from the Earth, it will be extinguished. Sadly, it will probably by reasonably eternal. It got too dark for any more picures, so it was time to hunt for dinner.
I had seen a shopping arcade (fancy open-air mall term) off to the side in my journey, so I headed there for dinner. Now that it was fully dark, it was lit up like Vegas, especially the pachinko parlors. There were all sorts of shops and restaurants, and I happened upon the Gold Saucer Wonder Square-like arcade.
The first floor was all “catch” games. Crane game variants that take your money without necessarily giving you anything. I was drawn to the second floor which promised a print shop. I like those little photo stickers, so I went up to look. Wow. Although none of the booths made stickers, it was filled with photo booths of different types. You could take pictures with your friends and then draw on them. They even rented costumes so you could be a ninja girl or your favorite anime character. Sans-costume, I had to try it out. It was tricky figuring out the buttons, so some of my pictures are less than ideal, but I think it was great fun.
Dinner was at a Japanese version of TGI Fridays (but not an actual TGI Fridays). It had a variety of food from around the country at reasonable prices, and an extensive fancy drinks menu. I could tell I was jet lagged, because although I ordered a drink, I couldn’t drink it. Instead, I’ve been sucking down the Japanese equivalents of Gatorade: Pocari Sweat (sounds bad, but tastes like citrus Gatorade), Kirin 903 (who knew they made a lot of stuff besides beer?), and Kirin Amino Supli. I haven’t wanted caffeine yet either, but I have drunk some green tea. I’ll probably feel even better tomorrow.
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