Two Things

I have class in about 5 minutes, but two short things...

Firstly last night my Okaasan gave me a complement, sort of. We were talking about the differences between the Japanese and Americans in how they act on things like the bus and in general. She said I make a very good Japanese person, but when I'm around my friends she says she sees a lot more American in me. I think it's just that I'm obviously more confident in my native language... But I took it as a complement, I'll take any small amount of Japanese-ness over none!

Two, I'm going to go to the City Hall today to see about getting my visa status changed in a few weeks to Tourist so I can get the shinkansen JR Pass. So I decided to ask my okaasan the word for tourist, and here it is: 観光核　(Kankoukaku)

観光 = Sightseeing

核　= Customer

Now we know how the Japanese REALLY see us!!!

Picture Post: Kobe and Kyoto Imperial Palace

Kyoto Imperial Palace!

Margo and me...

I love taking pictures of the eves:

The main chambers of the Emperor and Embress on Ceremonial Occasions

You can't really tell, but the whole place was raked quite lovely.

Look, I've seen red leaves now!!!

The main garden, really, really lovely:

Me, and Palace... it goes together well...

More Palace

Me in the palace again, seeing a trend?

KOBE

At 60 feet tall, standing out over the city, GIGANTOR!!! The Tetsujin 28, the iron man!! Stands looking out over the city in his victory pose!!!

Chinatown

Kobe Harbour

Fun in the Paper room with Joanna, Jarred, and Margo respectively.

Me in the paper room

.... Nope, this is EXACTLLY what it looks like

This is what the outside of the crates looked like, I enjoyed this shot because of the cows.

This was one of my favorites, the mirror disco ball room

Origami room, very very cool

The cafe, the one angled on the left hand side was a sitting area, very cool.

Imperial Palace and Kobe

**Note: I'm gonna post pictures in the following post**

I'm sitting in Florista writing this, I do think it's one of the cutest cafes ever. It's a nice and serene place in the middle of the city, and being right next to Kansai and offering discounts on already cheap food sure does help too. I thnk it'll be fun to show everyone the places I'm normally going to when you all come here in a month and a half or so.

Okay, so backlog... I'm thinking I need to start bringing my lappy to school again because when I haven't been the blogging has gotten delayed. But take the blogging being delayed as a good thing too! It means I'm outside eating lunch, relaxing with friends, walking around town with my friends over sitting in the computer lab. But I know you all also trust it as a primary link to me, for for the third time(?) I promise to be more dilligant about it.

Life has been pretty normal really. The weather has been all messed up lately, one day it's 76, the next it's 50. But other than that things have been nice, one rainy day once in awhile, but nothing major. Life is "normal" with the extroidnary splattered through. (I just got my orange Juce and donut, mmmm OJ...)

So, Sunday Margo got word about something in Kyoto that wasn't open very often that her friend said we should go to. After multiple train issues, we made it to the palace. And by train issues I mean I was a half hour early, so I went ahead and had the pleasure of being the ginney pig for getting lost so that by the time they got there I knew the way.

The palace was quite amazing. Kyoto really is the cultural center of Japan. It was the second capital city after Nara. Emperor Meiji himself stayed in this palace as a child. I don't know why they don't open it very often, likely to decrease the liability of something happening by only having limited days. The garden was likely my favorite part of everything, it was so beautiful. My house can be any style of the world, I love too many, but I definately want my landscaping to be Japanese. I really challenge to find another culture with better scenery in the yard. Which is ironic, considering most Japanese don't have yards...

After the Palace we walked around awhile, we got off the main roads and went to some smaller temples. Kyoto is like the vennice of Japan, you just wander around, find a Temple and some really important monk is just entombed there, just on this little back road.

Margo had her first taste of Mos Burger for dinner, of course she loved it, because everyone loves mos burger.

As we were leaving Mos Burger these asian people walked up to us asking if we spoke English. Confused, we said yes, and they explained... Apparentally they were Thai, and were comming to meet another forein exchange student in Kyoto, their daughter/sister. For some reason at the station they never met up, and the daughter didn't have a cell phone. So we asked around, found out where the seminar house for her school was and walked them there to be safe. They were very thankful, we were in no hurry, and after all, it's all about the Karma.

On Tuesday I woke a bit miserable. Congested, tightness in my chest, phlem, aches all the normal cold things. But I wasn't fevered. I went to school, came home and slept five hours, tuesday is one of my light days. Still no fever...

Wednesday, yesterday, was a school Holiday, the founding of Kansai Gaidai. So logically we celebrate the founding of a school by not going to it. A lot of people went to Kobe and stayed the night before, but since I couldn't get a room at the same Hostel and wasn't feeling well I decided just to make it a day trip. Wednesday was rainy, but not too cold, so it wasn't entirely miserable. I woke up still feeling a bit sick, but still no fever. I debated about going outside, I didn't want to get sicker, but I also wasn't feeling THAT sick, and the alternative was sitting alone all day because everyone I know was out doing things. So a bit dizzy I went to the eki and met up with Joanna, one of the Brits. Joanna took good care of me until I was more awake and alive, got me warm yuzu tea and everything. (Yuzu is a Japanese fruit, it's kind of like a cross between a lemon and an orange, really good.)

When we got to Kobe we met up with Margo and company. We went to an Art Museum and walked around. Some of it was really cool, some really beautiful, and of course some modern art just, odd... But it was fun.

It was 800 yen for students, that included admission to the Museum and a ferry ride to the park on the other side of town. The ferry was fun, there were these performance art people, maybe just entertainment, I've got no idea, but they got everyone acting silly. I got another hot tea on the ferry, it was a bit expensive, but drinking warm things was keeping me alive.

When we got to the park we were were all starving so we ate in a cafe installed in three crates of art... (explination -->) The art was SO cool. They took like 63 big metal shipping crates used on ferries and gave each artist one and essencally said that they could do anything they wanted with their interiors. One was a big mirrored room with a ball of light, it looked like the inside of a disco ball. Some were just silly, some very cool. One was a white room with fans, and the artist took like millions of strips of paper to fill it up to about a half foot deep. The point was to throw the paper into the fans, interactive art, of some kind... But we all got in there and had Paper War 2009. I took pictures, and video from the outside. I was laughing until my sides hurt. I've not had that much just silly stupid fun in awhile. Japanese people were outside taking pictures and video of the crazy foreginers.

Following that we went to chinatown nearby. Everyone split dinner, I was cautious about it being under the weather. It was quite delicious and made the belly happy. Chinatown was exactlly what you'd expect from a Chinatown, though it had a bit more of an authentic feel than other Chinatowns I've been to, maybe because of the closer proximity to actual China here.

After that everyone else went off to get their stuff from the hostel, have a drink, and head home. I had one more thing to do... SEE GIGANTOR!! (Or Tetsujin 28 as it's called in Japan)

I found it entirely on my own asking directions in Japanese and listening to the answers in Japanese. And I found it in record time really. It was only about 3 stops down on the train. It was very cool.

Then I headed home, it takes about 1.5 hours to get to Kobe from Hirakata, which isn't bad all things considered. The train fair is about 2000 yen round trip. A bit expensive to make it an all the time trip, but I think I'll go back once more. Heewon wants to go, and we both want to eat kobe beef. We've heard of this restraunt that has a lunch special of kobe beef for 3500 yen, which is expensive for lunch, but cheap for kobe beef, that's like half the normal price. Heewon and I ran into each other on the way home, so we were talking about it.

I was exhausted last night, and essentally collapsed.

Today was okay, normal. I'm becoming a pro in ceramics, I can make some big stuff now. I'll have pictures tomorrow, so please people tell me stuff you want from me!! One guy said a large plate/shallow bowl I made would be perfect for the best nachos ever... I had to agree... and then lamented about Nachos... My body though is feeling the strain from the excess clay for the bigger pieces, as melodramatic as that sounds. My right shoulder hurts from being the primary pushing arm, all the tables are low set, and wedging and then throwing 10kg of clay isn't as easy on the body as it sounds. I'm okay, just a bit surprised I can really feel it in my body.

And that's been life up until now really. I'm still under the weather, but no fever, so I figure it's just a crummy run of the mill cold. I'm using my heater though right now, it feels good, normally I'd just put on a sweater, but when I don't feel well, the heater feels really nice. I crack my door just a tiny bit so that if someone needs me when they come down they see it's okay to poke their nose in, but not enough that all the heat escapes. The heater is pretty powerful, I only need to run it a few minutes and the chill is out of the room, it's no sauna, but it's comftorable, and when you feel crummy it's good. Plus, I always feel worse at night, I feel like I could collapse right now. I'm likely going to shower then crawl into bed.

I love you all, I'll try to always be on skype if I'm by the computer!

Hi everyone

Sorry this is late everyone, I don't really have a good reason, but everything is fine. If anyone is ever worried or wants to talk between blogs I'm like, always on skype, so just poke me okay?


So... pictures from Halloween...

Alan and the "Kansai Geishas"

The cutest pajamas ever... I'm gonna buy the brown ones on the right...

These are the people who work in the main office of the CIE... Yeah, I think the yellow ranger is like a dean or something?

.... He had it commin...

This is a Hitler bannana... aka, one BAD bannana... again, a dean... I just want to know how the thought process works where you get from... Halloween Costume = Hitler + Bannana

And these are my two favorite pictures of me!!

So, all in all, Halloween was obviously very fun. I didn't win the contest, I think because the majority of the people who recognized me were Japanese, and they weren't really the ones voting. But, I took like 200 pictures with very excited Japanese people who recognized my costume, so in the end it was all worth it. I made some new friends, and it was just a lot of fun. And no, I didn't ride the bus like that... :D

Tuesday was a Holiday... I was supposed to go out Monday night for an all night birthday party, but it suddenly decided to be Winter. It was like 2C, 22KM winds, and drizzling rain. Needless to say I opted out of the all night party for an hour and a half of Karaoke, that only required a total of 10 minutes outside between busses and buildings.

Everyone at Karaoke was shocked and impressed by my voice and my Japanese songs. My singing in Japanese has even gotten better. I went out with them again the next night. The people I'm going out with now are Margo, Jarred, and Joanna, and more, but those are like the main crew. I still hang out with the sem house girls, but they do a lot of planning and then cancelling so... yeah...

Tuesday Holiday was, overall, good, I didn't do much other than Karaoke, go out for a bit, watch a movie at the Sem house, and try to go buy the pajamas... but the store was closed. I brought Mac and Cheese over to the sem house and Margo and I and Joanna ate it and watched 1971 Godzilla Vs Hedora, classic corny.

I got my midterm standing grade back for my ceramics course. The instructor gave everyone a B- to B+, on account of he said that he hadn't seen major improvement from anyone. I was in the B+ range but it's so frustrating, I think I've improved. I'm hoping maybe he does it so students don't get complacent and slack off. Either way I'm going to go back to working (and failing) at making bigger pieces. I think if I manage that and a few other techniques he'll have to give me the A, becuase that's a BIG improvement over where I was at the beginning.

I tried to reserve a temple at Koyasan to stay with the monks, but the only one I could find that books online is full up. They gave me a number for tourist info, but I think it's in Japanese, and mine is definately not good enough for a phone conversation. If nothing else I'll make a long day trip out of it.

Yesterday I went with Margo to the movie theatres. My Okaasan and Otosan go to the movies once a month on one of my Otosan's days off. We got there and found out that they didn't actually want to see anything, I felt bad for making them drive, but they didn't mind. The movie theatres in Japan are SO much nicer than America, but they're also SO much more expensive. Firstly you walk in and you reserve your seats, your ticket has your seat number on it and everything. Then concessions are the normal things, to crepes and french fries. Margo and I decided to split the fry and drink combo for 500 yen, it was the perfect amount. Then when you get into the theatre you take your seat and there are little hooks on the seat backs in front of you for your bag, every seat is nice and plushy like a recliner. During the movie what I heard was true, everyone is dead silent, no one talks or rustles popcorn bags or has cell phones going off, everyone is quiet.... And what did we go to see? The Nightmare before Christmas, In Japanese, and in 3D, how sick is that!!? The Movie was 1300 yen, but it's the first movie I've been to in two months so it was good. I understood a lot of the movie, but I can't tell if it's because I know the movie so well, or because my Japanese is improving... maybe both? In all it was a fun little girl date. Margo is so much fun, she's from Massachusets, I wish she was closer so we could hang out more.

Classes overall have simply been going, same old same old...

However, a travisty happened today. So, I have a favorite stall/bathroom at Kansai, it's one that's kind of tucked out of the way that's always clean and no one ever goes to. Now, half the toilets in Japan are heated, it's awesome, it's like sitting on the toilet after a big fat man was there for an hour... minus the fat man... Anyways, so I go to the bathroom, like normal, and my toilet warmer was turned down!!! How offensive is that? It's normally cranked all the way up, sitting steamy and ready for a tushie, and it was cold as ice. I was so off-put. I turned the toilet back on and checked back later... this is the second time it's happened... I need to find out who the toilet warmth theif is, because I never see anyone else in that bathroom....

Heewon is going to come over to my homestay tomorrow. She wanted to meet my family. I'm excited for her to. Heewon is a really good friend, if I ever go to Korea I'll definately hit her up. I think Okaasan is cooking something special, which likely translates out to fatty meat.

Speaking of which, curry was dinner tonight, mmmm... But I'm also learning how to politely say "I don't really like this because it's fatty." My Okaasan seems to understand, she's never offended and makes sure I'm full. She normally puts so much on the table I can find another source of protein and be full easily.

Anyways, I should be going to bed, I'm sorry again for slacking on the posts, I'll try to be better. Love you all!

Halloween Party

Firstly, Housekeeping. I got my paperwork for my intent to graduate and Senior Audits filled out and e-mailed as a PDF in yesterday (on time). Since I'm abroad they're being leniant about the signatures, I've been in contact with the people at the records office. I sent them to the Department heads for what I need and asked them to sign it and put it in the campus mail, so I should be good.

I filled out a form that did have information about caps and gowns, but I don't know if it was "the" form in the bookstore, I'll try to check.

Now onto the fun stuff...

The Halloween Party at Kansai has thus far been the most fun I've had in a long time on Halloween. I've taken literally like a hundred pictures and a lot of people (espically the Japanese) recognize my character. I'll post pictures later, right now I'm doing this from a computer in the CIE so I can't hook up my camera. But it's a lot of fun!

Keep your fingers crossed for me everyone, voting for the contest is going on right now!!

And life goes on

This week has been a bit boring to be honest, well boring comparatively to the exciting things that have been happening in previous weeks. I wouldn't say being in Japan is ever really "boring."

I've been in contact with Dr. Tillmann back home, trying to get my corses orginized. I feel bad sending so many e-mails, like I'm hastleing her, but we have no other way of communication. I feel a bit out of the loop with everything, Rollins isn't really good about informing Seniors who are abroad about paperwork either before they go or while they're gone. I'm just finding out about forms I need to fill out and am like "I would've loved to get that done early, if I'd known. It's not like I've graduated college before." But I know it'll work out. No one likes the extra paperwork but everyone I've dealt with, including Dr. Tillmann, thankfully seems to understand.

I got my midterms back, I got A-'s on both my reading and writing. My speaking teacher was a tough grader on the oral part, but I obviously did okay overall. I'm thinking I'll end up with all A's this Semester. The only one still "up in the air" is my Popular Media and Culture class... and that's becase we've literally had no grades yet. The midterm is next week though, so I'm going to really study for it.

I need to be going now, more later.

The Squid

Okay, nothing really happened today, so I'm gonna skip right to the heart of the matter.

I learned how to butcher a squid today.

I pulled the head and guts from the tubular tail body. Then stuck my fingers in and pulled out the stomach and cartlege. And then I peeled it's skin. Oh yeah, Claire the Squid butcher.

Edit:

1) The squid was already dead.
You know those little white styrofoam trays you get in the supermarket? With the meat on them that are wrapped in cellophane? They have whole (dead) squid here pre-packaged like that, just a squid, sitting on a tray in the market, like a steak.

2) Squid, it's what's for dinner.
As to the why of butchering the squid, it was for dinner. Yum.

Photo Contest - Help!

Okay! So, Rollins is having an international Photo Contest. I've painstakingly narrowed it down to a few, but I'm having trouble getting it down to two. So, I was wondering if everyone would help me and write a comment of which two you think I should submit.

Thanks all! The deadline is in a few days, so doing it before the 29th would be appreciated!

(P.S. There's another new blog post below all these pictures!)

1) The "Floating" Torii (Close-up)




2) The "Floating" Torii and Itsukushima Temple

3) Itsukushima Temple

4) The "Floating" Torii (far)

5) The Atomic Bomb Dome

Even just which two numbers you think I should submit is fine, thanks all!

New friends and free tickets

So this weekend was so much fun!

On Thrusday I began hanging out with this girl from my speaking class, Margo, and her friends. They're all a lot of fun, and really nice. They told me on Friday they were going to go to Osaka and Karaoke it up. I was like, heck yeah!

I met up with them on Friday and we left around 6 for Osaka. We got off at an abnormal stop, they said they were going to pick up a friend at a Hostel first. Apparentally Jarred met Tony in Tokyo, and since then they've been hanging out with him as he travels Japan, in Kyoto, Hiroshima, and now Osaka. I took "the more the merrier" mentality. Tony was really cool and a lot of fun. He mentioned at the beginning of the night about his friend who's Elphaba right now in the Universal performance of Wicked which of course I was a bit of a fangirl about.

We headed to downtown Osaka:


The downtown area of Osaka is so cool at night. It's all light up and right on a river, it's a lot of fun and enjoyable to just walk through and look at all the lights. We went to this 280 yen place, where everything was 280 yen, the food, and more importantly, the booze (well more importantly to them, I didn't drink.)

It was a chicken place, where you could prettymuch get any part of the chicken from normal things, to ground up chicken patties (which is what I got a lot of, they were yummy) to chicken hearts and cartlege on sticks.


I'm really glad I ran into these people and made friends with them at school, they're all very nice. From the left side of the picture around the table it's: Joanna, Margo, Me, Tony, Jerrad, and Caroline (she was just someone Tony met at the hostel from Hong Kong, nice, but I never saw her after this.)

So at the end of the night Tony mentioned again his friend at Universal, and he offered everyone free tickets that his friend had offered him. I asked if he was sure it was okay, since we'd just met and I didn't want to take someone else's ticket. But, everyone was busy with a gay pride day in Osaka, so I ended up with one of the free tickets.

In the morning Tony e-mailed my phone from the hostel and I rushed out the door. Unfortunately, due to my bus being late due to traffic and a mix up of meeting location I missed the chance to meet Elphaba. But, I still had a free ticket!

Jerrad also e-mailed me and said he was comming, initally he said he wasn't going to and was going to go to the event. But then he said he had a revelation of "when would be the next time I'll get free tickets to Universal" and decided to go. He said he wasn't feeling very gay and proud anyways :P

So we headed to Universal! There's a special train off the loop line in Osaka that runs there. It's astounding how similar Japan's universal is to ours, minus a few differences, for example, citywalk:

And of course, it wouldn't be Universal without a giant steaming globe:

The park was all set up for Halloween, but of course this is Japan, so everything was cute over scary.

After getting into the park we decided to get fast passes. There was a fast pass book that would get us on all the big long wait rides for 30.00US. Since none of us paid for tickets we decided it was worth it. Because of that we got to ride every single ride in the park.

One of our favorite areas was the Jurassic Park area. We were three of the five total westeners I saw in the Park that day. Something about being strange just by existing prompts you to be even stranger. So we thought it'd be fun to do a series of pictures where we all pretended to be dinosaurs. I make a cute velascoraptor don't I?

We also went on the Jurassic Park ride, and got super wet. All the Japanese people had been laughing at (well I like to think with) us all day and taking pictures. We posed by this sign, and then this woman walked up and asked if we could take a picture with her kid, it was very amusing, we were like um... why do these people want random photos of us?


Then at the end of the day something Wicked this way came.

Tony's friend was all in all very very good. She'd just gotten over being really sick, so I think her vocal stamina was weak, but she was very impressive. She said the Japanese aren't very emoative so she asked Tony if we could cheer a bit to let her know we were there. We cheered after every song and at the end we gave her a standing ovation (mind you the only three people who stood up). She saw us, since we were almost front row, and laughed. Since then I sent her a message on Facebook thanking her for the tickets and telling her how good she was. We've talked a little, and she said if I ever need discount USJ tickets to let her know, which is quite exciting.

After that we ate dinner, everyone else went out to the clubs but I went home, I was quite exhausted from two full days of fun.

On Sunday I finished my Halloween costume, and not to brag, but it's pretty cool. I'm very excited and nervous to debut it on Friday. Other than that I did nothing, I was pretty tired still from Friday and Saturday, so I just wanted to rest.

Today has also been good, but not much to be said. It's been a rainy cold day, I'm beginning to learn why people really have slippers and what a drafty house means.

I need to get a pumpkin soon to carve...

My super cute "Japanese" Outfit

So this was the outfit that I wore to school the other day, very Japanese, and very cute I think also. Even my Okaasan said my "costume" that day was cute... I know she meant outfit so I said thank you. Times like that you gotta remind yourself not to be offended!

Thursday

So, I took my Oral exam about an hour ago. It went well, I botched up one or two things but they were very minor. I was very pleased, when I left the room there were some other girls who I'm somewhere between friends and aquaintences with. They were really really nervous. I told them not to be, that the test was exactlly what she told us to study, but not the same quantity of course. That she picked thnigs at random from what she told us to study and that the only thing I was surprised about was that she recorded us (which most of them knew apparentally it's common for oral tests). Then sensei popped her head out of the door and asked us not to speak about the test.



I don't know if she was doing it to be safe or if she thought I was relaying information. I hope it's not the later. I'm not doing anything until I see if she comments to me about cheating or helping others cheat. Which I was of course NOT doing. She picks things at random, and I didn't tell them anything about what she chose for me. What I was saying was things they already knew, studying the study guides she gave us was what they needed to do to succeed, I just know hearing it can sometimes make it easier.



Either way, I don't think I'm really in trouble, I know how teachers can be extra cautious about those kinds of things so she was likely just being careful.



Today I'm not nearly as cute as yesterday, back in my American clothing of jeans and T-Shirts.



This weekend I decided I'm not going to go out to the mountian. Staying with the monks is something you have to apply to do and it can take awhile, so I'm going to do that and do it likely in November.



My Okaasan, Otosan and Toko are going out to Tokyo from the 30th through the 1st. But get this, they're locking the upstairs!!! They said to shower or use the kitchen I'll have to ask Kai, who I never see and gets home SO late and leaves really early. I don't know why they can't just leave me a key. I've used their kitchen enough for them to know I clean up after myself and won't burn the place down. I'm really frustrated about that, I'm not sure if I should say something to the CIE or not. It's only like 2/3 nights, but still, eating out is expensive, and of course I don't have any means to store or prepaire food downstairs. There's no hot plate, no kettle, nothing, I can't even make instant Ramen. And I'm not allowed to stay at the Seminar Houses... I'll likely crash there until the second I have to leave though through that weekend. Not to mention I feel like I shouldn't be cut off from the only shower. And my only means to get to all those things is a person who gets in between 8-9pm, which isn't too late to shower but it's too late to cook really. Plus, my Okaasan said that if Kai opens up the door I can cook, so if she's worried about me burnin down the place then why'd she not care? If we were in a real House I'd have access to everything anyways so why can't they just leave me a key? I'm sure they at least have two. 2-3 days on a weekend, espicaly Halloween weekend where I'll be at the Schools Halloween party one night anyways I'm just being chill as I can about it, if it was longer I'd definately say something, but I stil think it's kind of messed up not to just leave a key downstairs on the table by the door or something so I can just go upstairs, make dinner, eat it, shower, then lock the door behind me, head down stairs and put the key back on the table...... Oh well, maybe I'm being unreasnable?



I still haven't heard anything from Crummer, not even a "we've recieved your application!" I'm thinking of poking them, I understand if it takes awhile to process but you think I would've heard they've recieved it, because when I submitted the application it said I'd get an e-mail when it's been processed by asmissions.



Anyways, I think I may go to the Library, check out a book and then go to Florista (the cute cafe across the street from the school) and sit for awhile until my afternoon classes kick in. Today's my long studio day, woohoo!

Good Morning

Good morning eeryone. I decided to dress like a Japanese person today. I wore my jean tights, a cute ruffly tunic and heels. Yep, I wore heels to school, gasp, I know. I feel very awkard in it all, but it looks good on me. Japan is one of those countries where you don't need a reason to dress up. The girls often wear skirts and heels to school, guys nice jeans and collared shirts. It's like everyone always looks like they're ready to go out on a Friday night all the time.

My host family ate my cake last night. Once they dug in they all had like three pieces whch made me happy. If they were just being polite they wouldn't have gone back for seconds. They told me again I should open a cake shop. I'm not serious really, but owning a cute cake shop and bakery in Japan would be a lot of fun.

I have a Kanji quiz now, so I need to run to class, I'm not worried. Though I did get the lowest grade of the Semester on my last speaking test, a 92.8 so I'm going to study a bit extra.

Hiroshima & Miyajima

So here's things that got left out from last time about Hiroshima...

We walked around the peace park for a bit, most iconic of everything is the atomic bomb dome, one of the few still standing structures after the bombing. The building is literally one block from the Hypocenter, it survived the blast with some standing walls because it was literally underneath the giant ball of flame.

Walking around the peace park was a bit hard for me when I hit the Children's memorial. Everything just hits you all at once, one after the other, in a relentless emotional assult. I didn't cry, but I kind of felt that emotion in me. It's a really powerful place, I've been learning a lot that I didn't know before, good and bad, about all sides.... But I don't feel like getting into all that now, it's a discussion better to be left for in person.

The speaker was talking in the basement of the museum, so I walked around inside the museum for awhile, and before I get into that I just want to say, Japan is the best place when it comes to museums and things. If it's something imporant and cultural they charge very little to get in. Temples are normally the most expensive (at a whopping 3.50 US entry), and you know it goes to matience so you don't even feel that bad about it.

The Museum was just as hard as the grounds...

I stopped and stood and stared at this one thing behind glass in a case for a long while...

There was something about this statue, knowing it's history, that I just felt held so much emotion and symbolic representation at once, it took me a long time to take it in, like a catalyst for digesting everything that I'd felt so far.

Then I heard the talk, you all know how that was. This is a picture of the survivor who spoke (the man in white is the professor who arranged the trip).

Following that we found the other girl's hostel and then decided to do something significantly less depressing. We went to Hiroshima castle. (though honestly, even that's a bit depressing, because the original castle was of course destroyed in the blast...)

But we got some amazing pictures from the observation deck:

Inside the temple they had all this Samurai clothing and Kimonos you could try on. So the five of us decided to have a jolly time doing so. After about 10 minutes I glanced over and there was like this small cround of Japanese people looking very confused and amused watching us. I'm so used to people staring at me for just existing at this point that it just rolls right off. But normally in tourist areas it's a bit better. I think they thought it was funny how excited we were and how silly we looked when posing and everything. (That and maybe also becuase I'm in boy's clothing... I wanted to be the Samurai over the Kimono Lady....)

==== Miyajima ====

First, permit me to start by saying that this is in my top 4 most amazing/scenic places I've ever been, in the world, in my entire life. Screw the carribean, my dream home is on Miyajima island.

So the girls said be up by 9 and ready to go. I'm halfway there and they tell me that they're running an hour late. Well by that time the tide was going to be on it's way out. If you're going to Miyajima, check the tides! All the best shots are when the tide is in and I didn't want to miss that, so I told them I was going to go on ahead rather than just walking in circles for an hour, and meet up with them on the island.

From the center of Hiroshima it's an hour trolly ride and then a five minute ferry out to Miyajima island.

So at Miyajima there are deer, you meet them right when you get off the ferry. And the deer in Japan apparentally didn't get the same memo that the deer in America did. Japanese deer love people. They're not afraid or skiddish, they just walk around, walk right up to you, sniff you to see if you have any food. Little screaming kids can run up to them and they're just like "whatever." I made the mistake of sitting down and trying to read my map and like three deer walk over and begin slobering and poking their noses all over me. One deer head in my lap, one over my shoulder, and one begins to try to eat my map. The moral of the story? Don't sit and try to read a map, best done on the move!

So of course they also say "don't feed the deer" for fear of what tourists may give them. I don't think it's fear of taming them, that's WAAAY past. But this one woman thought "oh what a cute little deer!" And fed it.... Then another cute little deer came up.... then another.

Soon she's squealing, waliking very fast, walking backwards, and all you see is this:

I was highly amused....

But onto what you all really care about! The "floating" Torii:

The Torii is amazing, high tide it's astounding, and low tide you can walk right up to it and touch it. (hence why I said, check the tides)

Located near the Torii is of course a variety of Shinto temples...

But one was also built in the water, and at high tide looks like it's just sitting on top of the ocean:

These pictures really don't do this place justice, I walked around for hours just, taking it all in. It's a senic, serene, peaceful, happy, amazing, little island.

I also came across a very very beautiful Buddhist temple. Going to these Buddhist temples and living with a family who identifies as "Buddhist" has really given me some perspective and thoughts on the religion, I really like it.

I like this picture a lot, I think of "Buddah's Army" because if Buddah did have an army it'd be peaceful and serene and contemplative like statues. And it was a literal walkway with hundereds of tiny Buddahs.

At the temple I picked up some real Buddhist insense, it smelled so good walking into every temple I really wanted some. I'm not quite sure how to go about asking my Okaasan if it's okay or not to burn it in my room.

And then... my camera died! YAY! But thankfully I know I'm definately going back when everyone gets here, you all HAVE To see this place. So I'll get more pictures then.

When I was walking through Miyajima I also saw a traditional bride and groom in Kimonos riding through town, everyone began cheering when they passed. I also found a used/antique (fancy way of saying old) kimono shop with kimonos for 1050 yen! I could've got a Kimono, Obi, and Shoes for about 35.00 US! But the trip was already expensive enough so I refrained myself. I also didn't LOVE any of them, and it was in a touristy area, so I'm thinking that maybe in Kyoto they'll have some really beautiful used shops.

I came back fairly early but it's a long trip, so I got home around 7, starving. Thankfully my Okaasan kind of plans for me to be hungry when I get back from a trip (assuming I get back at a reasonable hour) so she always has some kind of food ready for me. I tell you, salmon and rice is the best ever. I appreciate fish so much since I've been here and all the meat really stinks. I'm on pretty much a fish/tofu/vegtable only diet right now. But I don't feel or look bad, so I don't think it's hurting me at all.

==== Monday ====

And all of that brings me to today, yay!

Not much to say, so I'll skip to the highlights...

Firstly, this Thursday and Friday are my speaking midterms and we signed up for time slots. If we take it on Thursday we don't have class on Friday and vice versa. Well, the only class I have on Friday is ceramics, which I can make up if need be. I'm not sure why I'd skip, but it's nice to think of a 3-day weekend as an option.

I was thinking of going to Koyasan, it'd be about 35.00 US round trip in transit. It's a mountian town to the south of Osaka where the Shingon sect of Buddhism was literally founded. The hotels there are all temples, you literally stay with the monks. They serve you dinner and breakfast (in monk food) and invite you to participate in morning prayers. The only thing is staying there is about 90.00 for the night, which after Hiroshima is a bit too rich for my blood. But, 35.00 US cost for round trip on the express train may be worth it for a long day trip.

When I got home I stopped by Top World (Japanese Publix) and got some things to make Carrot Cake.

I made the cake, and then no one tried it... I felt like apologizing, but I didn't know what for. I made the cake, I bought the ingrediants, and I put in the time, so I shouldn't be sorry for anything... I don't know, maybe I've baked too much?

If they haven't touched it by tomorrow night I'm taking it into school and sharing it with my friends.

And that's been my day. I really miss everyone, perhaps we should all set up skype times? (speaking of which, mom and dad sorry about skype today, the internet Gods did not like us at aaaallll)

But it's time for bed now, I love all the comments, thanks everyone!