September 20th 2009

Ok well I feel I need to keep writing in this thing because I don't keep a proper journal but nothing really big has happened. School is still good, I finally found the short story I want to translate. It is called black bird (kokucho). I have only read the first few pages but if I can just get some time I should be able to make some real progress with it.

Yesterday we went up to Phoenix to visit grandpa who has been diagnosed with cancer. I feel weird about grandpa dying because I don't really know him besides the bad things my parents say about him , he divorced my grandma who is the sweetest person in the world. And also he's 70 something so he would only have another 10 years at best. And I have a pretty strong belief in the afterlife so I'm just not worried about him. But anyways its a good 2+ hour drive up to Phoenix and there was a temple trip I wanted to go to but instead I went with the family. We visit with grandma for 20 mins then have lunch with grandpa and then we are done. Mom says we are going to visit her mom in order to get out of spending time with Grandpa's new wife and instead we spend all day walking about a stupid outlet mall. My entire day that I really needed to use for homework and studying was waisted with Angie trying to find cute shoes. Like I really want to see my extended family but my mom cares so much more about shopping then she does seeing relatives.

I am really worried about Angie. I thought if she got a boyfriend she would get out of this rut that she is in but that doesn't seem to be the case. I mean she did get a job she did go back to school but she is still so angry at the whole world. And she hasn't gone to church for at least a year. I invite her but she says no. It's not an issue about the doctrine of the church its the people, or rather how Angie views everyone. She thinks that everyone is this perfect Molly Mormon (stereotypical super churchy girl) and they all think they are better then her. But its all her attitude. She is so mean to people when they try and talk to her they get scarred off and then she thinks that they don't like her. I want to help my sister so much. I really love her but I don't know how to get her to just snap out of it. It breaks my heart sometimes.

I think in fact that the three oldest girls all have had situations where they have been offended or felt shunned by other girls at church and that has caused them to not want to go at all. I dunno I just wish there was something I could do.

On more positive notes. I saw that wolverine movie finally, why was there no concern about continuity with the other films? Sabertooth and Stryker are major characters in the other films and the people in this one are so different you would think they were completely different characters with similar names or something. And why is there so much focus on throwing in cameo mutants? Why was the blob in the movie? Are there really blob fans out there who really want him to be worked into the movie for no reason? Or what about deadpool and how he had all sorts of powers that he wasn't supposed to? That makes deadpool fans angry and deadpool fans are the only reason you should put him in the wolverine movie anyways. I don't get it. It was a fun action movie and definitely not as bad as X3.

I did install windows 7 on my pc with no upgrades and it runs amazingly. I don't know how but Microsoft somehow saved windows from the horrors of vista. It runs faster the xp did, boots atleast as fast as xp did, and does so many little things I don't think I could ever go back.

Well I guess thats it.

School started

Well I guess the big thing is that School finally started. This long boring summer of not doing anything finally came to an end. I am taking Modern east asian history, Advanced practice in Japanese, Japanese civilization and Japanese religion. Besides the advance practice class all of these are 200 level classes so the work load isn't too bad and I have them all on Tuesday Thursday which is good but that means I am at school from 8 am till 7:15 pm. Its a little rough. But I really like my classes. The EAS class is pretty generic and the readings are dull but its mostly review for me. The Japanese language class is exactly what I need because its a tiny focus on spoken practice but a huge focus on translations. The teacher is actually a British guy but he spent years living as a monk in Japan so he knows his stuff. For my other two classes I have the same teacher and he is really cool and just one of those teachers that I click with. I am also taking a church institute class so I get free parking, awesome, and the institute building is a really cool place to just hang out.

Work is kind of sucking because I put 24 hours on my availability and left it pretty open. Normally I would have had no problem getting 20 hours but because they have this stupid scheduling program now I'm getting like 15 hours a week. I need more money I've got a car now. I am really looking forward to graduating and quiting that joke of a company.

So there are three things that I need to get done in my spare time this fall. The first is work on my senior capstone project, which is to translate 25-30 pages of Japanese into English. Since this is my big project I want to translate a short story rather then a chapter out of a book but I am really stumped as to where to start looking for stuff like that. Its really hard to find stuff online in Japanese just because they just don't have the stuff you would expect them to. The second thing I need to do is to put together some resumes and post stuff on like monster.com to start preparing for getting a new job. Because I want to quit before December so I need to get a job lined up. The third thing I need to do is turn in the application stuff for JET. Yeah I've decided I am going to apply for it. It seems like a pretty solid choice. I just need to get letter of recommendations, transcripts for schools, medical papers, etc... Its a lot of work.

Other then that nothing much is going on. Still no girlfriend, no plans to move out, just kind of going with the flow. Because of the cut hours I am starting to realize how little money I really have but I really want to upgrade this desktop computer, its really sucking right now. What I would like to do is install a small solid state hard drive, upgrade the ram a little bit, and throw Windows 7 on it.

Well I have to get back to home work

boring but not terrible

Well this summer is almost over and I am really glad about that. I really want to get this last semester finished up, get my degree, and quit walmart. I'm still not really sure what I am going to do about grad school. I want to go, and I am willing to put out the time, effort, and money needed to get a masters degree but I'm not so sure how to go about it. That MEXT scholarship is still my number one plan but it seems like the acceptance rate is lower then I thought and I have to go first as a research student then take the entrance exam in order to become a graduate student. Then there comes the issue of what exactly do I study. I am interested in Japanese history or society or something like that but if I get a degree in that then I am kind of stuck being just a teacher. Not that I wouldn't enjoy being a teacher but I would like more options. If I do something like international relations or international business that gives me more job opportunities but would be far more boring to study. And then what if I don't get the scholarship? Do I go into U of A's tiny Japanese studies grad program? Study abroad through U of A again? Maybe go to U of Hawaii or something.

Tucon was fun but because I didn't wear a costume I felt so out of place (even though I didn't wear normal clothes either) so I really have to make a costume for saboten con this fall but I can't get started on it until I get some fabric so I need to go shopping soon. I am going to go as leon belmont from the ps2 castlevania game.

Guess thats that

Just waiting for the summer to be over

Well another blog post without anything amazing happening. I didn't go to some 1000 year old temple or watch the cherry blossoms fall like my older posts. Just waisting my time at home until its time to go work at walmart then waist time there till its time to go home. I really dislike the summers, its been pretty much the same thing for 4 years. I really miss school, because when you go to school you can say you did something that moved you forward in life. Even if its just a bit. When I'm just working I'm standing still and I can't stand it.

I've calmed down about the whole missing Japan thing. I mean I still really miss it but I'm getting used to America now. I sent off an email to Waseda daigaku asking about thier graduate program so I'm making my plans to go back. I don't think I'm going to teach English in Japan now. The application process for it is kind of a pain and I need to make sure I am here to be able to do all of it.

So anime tucon is coming up pretty soon and that should be a lot of fun. I have a really good idea for a pannel but I need one other person who knows Japanese to do it with me. What I was thinking is going over all of the books and programs out there that claim to teach japanese and I'll give my opinion if they are worth it or not. I emailed someone on the forms who is supposed to know Japanese but I haven't got a response back and the dead line for pannel applications is the 24th.

No real updates on other fronts, still no girl friend. Still just a few friends in this whole state. Maybe I'll meet some cool people at the con.

Well thats that

Living in America

Well its been over a month since I came back from Japan and quickly it is all feeling like a distant memory. I'm just going through the mundane every day life I had before I left. Wake up, mess around the house for a few hours, go to work, come home, mess around some more go to bed. Its the same thing almost every single day. I don't get out and do anything cool any more. I don't even see my friends that often, I've only seen Cameron a hand full of times since I've been back. I tried to make plans with him but I felt like I was in Japan again in the sense that we both had to take a look at our schedules and plan something a week from now. It was so cool in Japan spending all of that time with everyone. I just had to send out an email saying "anyone want to go see a movie?" and I would have a group to go do something with.

I'm still having a hard time being back in America. I don't like driving, I didn't like it that much before and now I really dislike it. Cars are expensive, dangerous and require all of your attention to drive them. I really miss the trains, you just wait a few minutes, board the train and just read a book or play a game. Its so easy. I also really don't care for the food. I have a really hard time finding stuff to eat for lunch because nothing looks good. Also I never feel good after eating American food. I know I put a few pounds on in Japan but man I really want Japanese cooking.

Another big thing that is bothering me is the fact that no one is impressed with the fact that I know Japanese. Like no body cares that I spent a year in Japan. I mean thats a really cool thing, I know a lot about Japan now, I can read manga and watch anime raw now! Before I went I thought anyone who could do those things was really cool but now no one thinks I'm cool. Its so unfair. I even get some people now and again who still think they know more about Japan then I do. I don't get it what do I have to do for people to think highly of me?

I feel as if being here, working at walmart, and the way no one seems to care about my accomplishments, is all trying to get me to forget all that I did. Like I am supposed to just go back to being just a normal guy. I mean like in Japan I was someone special. No celebrity or anything like that but Japanese people were really impressed with the fact that I knew Japanese. And like there were lots of downsides too but in a crowd of people in Japan I stood out. I dunno I guess I just miss being special.

I guess for now I am just running down the clock until school starts. At least once school starts I can take institute classes to hopefully make more friends, have Friday nights off to do more stuff and have Saturdays free to finally go to TASS meetings. I hope between all of that I can somehow get a girlfriend because I really need one of those right now.

Feeling uneasy back home

So I've been home for around 3 weeks now and I guess you could say I've gotten back into the swing of things. I'm back at work now and I'm glad to have a job that I could start right away and make the money I need this summer, but I feel really uneasy, for lack of a better word, working there. Its the same thing I was doing a year ago with the same people complaining about the same thing they were a year ago. Being there just makes me feel like that big wonderful adventure I had, never happened. I feel like I'm just right back to where I was and that my life hadn't moved forward at all.

Its not just my job though that is making me feel uneasy, everything about America is just not sitting right. Like don't get me wrong I've come to love and appreciate this country so much more then I did before and I really think that while there is not "best" country, America is certainly the most blessed country. But when I am driving around town I just don't like the fact that everything is so far away. Everything is too spread out, I want the compact-ness of Japan. Food is also bothering me. I can't find anything aside from sweets that I actually want to eat. At lunch at work or going out to eat I look over my options a million times and none of it looks appetizing at all. Eating the food is ok, but I've only eaten a few things that I thought were actually delicious since coming home.

Being at home too I often feel uneasy. I have TONS of movies, games, and tv shows to catch up on but I can't really find myself wanting to do any of them for long period of time. I've only played my 360 for maybe 6 hours total since being home. I really just want to watch tons of anime because I really enjoy hearing Japanese. I started playing this stupid PSP game with Julie called Idolmasters but I found myself hooked just because it was in Japanese and its fun to try and keep up with whats being said. But I dunno I just feel really off being at home in general.

Add in the fact that my social life in Tucson is pretty much just one person, as compared to the amazing friendship we all shared at Konan, and I feel the hands of depression/frustration trying to pull me down already.

So what do I do? That is the question I have been lamenting over for quite some time now. I am going to do everything in my power to get that MEXT scholarship and go to grad school in March 2011, I graduate from U of A December 2009, so I have 13 months that I need to do something. I guess I could search for regular office job and just live in Tucson for 13 months waiting but I might go crazy with that unless something really interesting happened in my life. There might be a chance to work teaching English in Japan from Jan 2010 to Dec 2010 but that might run into a problem with my interview for the MEXT scholarship that takes place at the Japanese embassy in LA. I might find a way around that, maybe I can go to some head office in Japan or something but even if I could do that, would I really want to do 3 years, almost 4 straight living in Japan? Another idea I had was to do a summer english program in China.

So I really don't know what to do, and the one thing that would help me to actually figure it all out, I can't seem to find; a wife. I'm back to the frustration of living in Sahuarita, AZ where I can't meet people my age. I went to institute and singles ward and no one seemed to really care that I was there. I mean a few people at church were like "oh hey your back, how was Japan" but that's about the extent of it. That's another thing, I'm having a hard time recapturing the enthusiasm for church that I had while in Japan. I really miss the small ward where everyone was friends with each other and really cared for each other and the just specialness of it being Japan and all.

In closing I dunno, life just feels off here. I miss Japan a lot right now, I really do.

Back home

Well its been about a week and a half being back home in America. The plane ride was not that bad actually and I was crying coming off the airplane because I was just so happy to see my family again. I had a huge culture shock seeing how big America really is and how beautiful of a place we all live in. I was also really surprised to see how everyone looked so different. I got so used to everyone being Japanese and me being the one guy who was different in a crowd. It was also really weird to see the way clerks and sales people talk to customers, we are all so laid back and friendly. Of course I also had the culture shock of seeing American prices, DVDs, games, transportation, all of that stuff is so cheap. In fact seeing everything so cheap has really made me want to not pirate stuff anymore. Like Japanese people pay crazy amounts for their entertainment stuff but pirate way less then we do. I feel that I ought to be more appreciate what America has and "be honest with my dealings with my fellow man".

So the first weekend back I spent with Cameron, Tyler, Heather and Rob. It was a lot of fun. Other then that I've spent time at home and I'm already feeling really restless. Like I can't stay inside all day just playing video games or watching anime. I love doing those things but I need to get out and do something productive with my time.

I went to institute on Wednesday night and it was a good lesson but no one introduced themselves to me and I just fell into that same rut that I always do of just sitting there being too shy to talk to strangers. I was pretty mad at myself for that because I did so much embarrassing and out of my comfort zone things in Japan that I should be able to just do anything. No excuses next time I guess.

Well other then I'm bored at home I don't have much more to say, kind of makes me miss the blogs from when I was in Japan where I would write for hours.

---Ben

The last post in Japan

Well folks its been fun but my time is up and I'm heading back home to the good old US of A. On one hand I feel like I just got here yesterday and on the other it feels like I've been here so long I don't quite remember what the states are like. I've cleaned my room and got my luggage just barely under the weight limit. There isn't anything particularly fragile but its so backed I hope it makes it home in one piece.

I've said my goodbyes to everyone for so long I dunno I'm ready. Like I do love Japan and being here has been the biggest adventure of my life but I'm feeling ok about leaving.

For my last day I went to Himeji again and in addition to the castle I went to shosha mountain where there were several temples including some used in the last samurai. It was kind of funny because I was not caring about the fact that these temples were built 1000 years ago, I just wanted to see something that was in the movie! there were some steep hills there on top of the mountain and the heat/humidity was really hitting me today.

I thought I would have more to say for my last post but I really don't. Its been a lot of fun, I did some crazy stuff, hung out with some crazy people and now looking forward to seeing all my crazy people back home.

I will not miss my host family.

I had to fight back the urge to vomit while eating breakfast this morning. Inside my salad (which I don't like eating for breakfast) was two bugs! I'm not a germaphobe but I can not stand bugs in my food, like I don't think that is an unreasonable line to draw. And as I tried to tell myself it was just the salad not the rest I see all of these bugs running around the counter. What the heck! why doesn't my host mom freaking do anything to stop the bugs from running around where they make food.

And its not just the kitchen there are bugs all over the bathroom, crawling around the sink, on the toothpaste (which they always leave open!) and probably over their toothbrushes. I always leave mine in a sealed plastic bag but I would be freaking out if I had even the slightest thought that a bug was crawling on something that would go in my mouth.

And the other day a HUGE spider appeared in my room, like much bigger then I've ever seen in Arizona. It ran into my closet and I shut the door on him but I was left not knowing if it was still in there waiting to jump out next time I needed to get in.

There is nothing in this house that separates it from the outside. Windows are left open without a screen all day long, everyday regardless of outside temperature. There are big spaces between doors to the outside and no sealing between the wall and the floor.

I really hate how my host mom asks me a question but doesn't wait for a reply just makes some statement how I love gundams or something stupid like that. I totally sense that you have to respect your elders kind of mindset with the way she talks down to me. And she is really full of herself. She'll say stuff like other Japanese people are racist but okaasan (mom) isn't. I dont think she has ever referred to herself as anything but okaasan. And my dad pretty much only talks in sound effects. Like he will be saying he walked from one place to another and to say it was far he just goes "BAAAAAAAAAAA"

Aside from a few things I don't care for the cooking either. Usually I don't have to worry about bugs in my food (although there have been other cases) but I'm just bored by the food and I just eat it because its there, like I would never order it at a restaurant.

I really hate this room too, its so freaking tiny. Tatami mats are stupid now a days. They really are, they don't do anything for the temperature, they are crazy hard to clean if you spill anything, you can easily drop something down the cracks between them, and they break really easily. I've spent so much time in this little room I just can't stand it anymore.

I hate to be so negative about my last few days in Japan but this aspect of the experience took away from the overall enjoyment rather then added to it. Everything else about being here was great, lots of fun with friends, Japanese language class was very effective in the end, and all of the stuff I've seen has been incredible. I just wish I lived in a dorm instead.

Just a few days left

Well its almost over, a few more days and I'll be back in America. I've had a lot of fun in Japan but ever since the farewell party I've dealt with the fact that this wonderful adventure is over. Because of that I feel ready to get back to my regular life, friends, family, U of A, walmart, Tucson, all of that stuff. I thought I would be really sad and they would need to drag me to the airport but I feel ok. I am going to be separated from the friends that I are remaining here with me come Sunday but I think I got through all of that emotional stuff already.

I don't know there isn't too much to write anymore. I went out with everyone on monday and everyone else was drinking. I had a lot of fun for sure, but under normal situations I wouldn't want to hang out when everyone else is drinking. Like not putting yourself in that kind of situation but since I wont see these people for much longer I feel like my hands were tied.

I got all of my packing done. I have the stuff thats going into my backpack as a carry on and the clothes for the last few days. It was kind of tricky to make the weight and space all work out in the right way but I should be ok. I'm really looking forward to giving everyone their gifts, I got some really good ones for some people. Some people I might have spent a bit more then others but I hope nobody really minds.

Its really cool to start making plans to hang out with people for when I get home, man its really happening. I have such wonderful people in my life and I can't wait to see them all again.

Recieving the priesthood

Its been a long time coming but I finally received the Melchizedek priesthood today. During sacrament meeting they sustained me and as I stood up and saw everyone's smiling faces I was just filled with an overwhelming emotion of gratitude to these people. After the sacrament was passed I was asked to come up to the mic and say a few words because it was my last day there. I said that I was very grateful for the fellowship and inspiration that all of the members of this tiny little branch gave me. As I was saying it I was fighting back the tears.

Being here in Japan has changed my life, not just from experiencing Japan but being apart of this small ward. I could no longer be passive about church, I couldn't try to just blend in to the crowd I was forced to really talk to people and be active. And as I've gotten closer to people I found myself being more and more inspired by everything they say and everything they do. Before coming to Japan I didn't particularly like going to church, it was just something that I did because I was supposed to. Over the time I have spent attending this ward I have grown spiritually and for that I am eternally grateful for.

When I was ordained I was just overwhelmed by the love of God and for my friends surrounding me. I could not stop the tears from flowing down my face. Even now thinking about it I feel moved. I feel that this is a major turning point in my life and what happened today will change the rest of my life.

3 day adventure

So time is really running out here in Japan so I thought I best do as much sightseeing as I can. This week I went on two really big ones and I'll try my best to remember all that I did.

The first was on Monday and I went to Awaji island with brother and sister Wade. They are the retired missionaries and Monday is their P day so they invited me along. I met them at the church around 9 then we headed off on the highway. I had only been on the highway one other time in Japan and that was the way home from the welcome party. So I took a lot of pictures of just the scenery from there and it was pretty nice weather that day so I think they came out pretty nice. Awaji being an island and all has a big suspension bridge connecting it to honshu. I believe it is the highest suspension bridge in the world. One thing I found really interesting about the highway is that almost everywhere has a toll and it is expensive. To cross the bridge and go about 30 mins south cost 5000 yen. Brother Wade missed his exit and he had to go to a toll booth, pay, then turn around and go back in the other way which ended up costing another 1000 yen.

So we stop at the other end of Awaji where the whirlpools (naruto) are supposed to be. We were there about 11ish and there didn't seem to be much of anything going on. Luckily someone told us that the whirlpools really start going at around 1. So we went back drove around and somewhat by luck found the boat tour place. Brother Wade amazes me because he will just go right up to people and talk to them in English. He got lucky and the lady at the boat counter spoke English and she recommend which time to go. Brother Wade will also sometimes just very bluntly say what little Japanese he knows to people. Like as I will explain later, we were looking for some place and he just pulls up to a gas stand shows the person the paper and says “DOKO”. This is an interesting logic brother Wade has because if he has to talk to them in Japanese how is he going to understand their answers? But even as a foreigner it just seems really really rude to me to say that. Like I when I ask for directions I go あのう、すみません。この所に行きたいんですけど、どう行ったらいいですか。 Like “um excuse me. I would like to go to this area but what might be the best way of going?” I can't say to a stranger “あさ、この所はどこの”　for it to be Japanese it needs to be unnecessarily long.

Ok so anyways we are on the boat and it is a breathtaking view all the way up to the bridge area and then you really get to see some nice stuff. Now I was thinking that it was one giant whirlpool but in reality its tons of small ones. It looks like this one spot of water out of the big ocean is going crazy. It didn't feel like the ship was in danger or anything but it was really cool and I think I might have goten some of my best pictures of this year there.

So afterwards we wanted to find the Japanese puppet theater. We got a map and it had a picture of the puppet on it and said ningyou on it. We were trying to find it and were going all over the place, and we were in some really rural places. For a while we were really confused why something like this would be all the way out here. We stopped for directions a few times and I got thrown in there trying to make sense of what they were saying. We eventually got ones that made since because we were heading towards the factory where they make them not the theater so thats why we got lost.

The theater was on like the top of the mountain and I wonder how it manages to stay in business. Anyways the Japanese puppet theater has a long history and like anime, was not made specifically for children but rather adults. The puppets are controlled by three people wearing a black costume and a black mask. The idea is that you are supposed to forget that they are there. I heard that modern tokusatsu shows are derived from this theater and after seeing it I agree. The idea that something is fake but if you just pretend that it is real then it really comes alive. The monsters in tokusatsu always look like a guy in a suit but like this theater it doesn't get in the way. The play itself is obviously several hundred years old as the script is read by one person off to the side who doesn't change their voice at all for different characters and talks in that crazy samurai style. I can not make any sense out of it. All I hear is NANINANI DE GO ZA RU!

So on the way back we stopped at a giant Buddha. Like this thing is HUGE, at least 7 stories tall. Almost Godzilla size. In fact I think these might be Japan's real defense against Godzilla. On the way back they dropped me off at Shinkaichi, I killed some time there then went home and planned for the next day, a trip to Nagoya.

So for Nagoya I woke up early, ate breakfast then headed off to Shinkobe station. I got a window seat for most of the ride and I spent a lot of time just admiring the scenery of middle of no where Japan. Like it was the kind of area that if JET sent me there I would find some way of quiting, nothing there. Before I knew it I was at Nagoya station. I got my bearings on a map and headed off to this bike rental store I found online. Using my PSP's GPS gizmo I walked and walked a good mile and a half until I got to the spot where the store was supposed to be. But it wasn't there, in fact the whole area was nothing but houses. I was really banking on the idea of having a bike to use but instead I had to make do on foot. So I walked all the way back to the station before heading off to my first actual destination, Nagoya science museum and park.

I didn't go to the museum just enjoyed the park and then headed off to the next park that was about a mile away. On the way I checked my PSP to see how far away it was and I found out that their was a Manadarake store pretty close to where I was, I decided to go there first. The store was located in the Osu shopping area, specifically on Akamon street. This Mandarake was done way differently then the one in Umeda. This one had a lot of old super sentai stuf. Like they had the super final form robot set from the series before zyuranger (mighty morphin PR) and all sorts of ones way older that I knew nothing at all about. I was hoping to find a good price on a figma figure but nothing that warranted buying another toy for myself.

So I headed back to the long park and went up it. This park is a mile plus long but only maybe 100 feet wide. It had traffic lanes on both sides of it. Towards the north was the TV tower that looks exactly like Tokyo tower except it was all gray. Once I got to the top I aimed for Nagoya castle, but first ate some curry for lunch. Nagoya castle is a reconstruction but it still was really nice. The area is huge, well maintained, lots of Japanese style garden stuff. I went inside one of the corner towers which may or may not have been an original but looked real. The castle itself is a museum but a cool one at that. One thing that really impressed me was an old style rifle that was like 6 feet long. I read the Japanese and it said that it was used for defending a castle. I'm surprised I haven't seen an anime character in a samurai era series walking around with a giant gun like that. The view from the top was pretty nice too. Oh also apparently it was a big deal for this town when they put the gold fish things on the very top of the castle so they are the cities mascot.

My next location was the Tokugawa park. At this point I came to a brilliant realization, Nagoya has subways! Rather then killing myself walking all of this way I should freaking use a subway! So I figured out how the lines work there and was off. The station was a little bit away from the park but there were signs as you exit the station so it was ok. The park was really nice, Japanese gardens have a certain something about them that I just cant explain.

After that I wanted to hit a few temples that according to my map looked not that far away and kind of in a row. After going a bit in the wrong direction I decided it was time to call it quits for the day because it was already 6 and I was dead tired. So I played around with my PSP found the nearest station and got to kanayama where my capsule hotel was. I made reservations to check in at 9 so I didn't want to go too early. I walked around the area for a bit but there isn't too much there, I ate dinner at McDonalds and around 8 went to the hotel.

The hotel is actually only two floors of this building which kind of surprised me. I got to the counter and checked in no problem but I don't think they even checked to see if I had a reservation I just filled the paper out. They gave me a wrist band with the key attached to it, I took my shoes off then went to the lockers. Since the hotel was all men I just changed into my Pjs there and checked out the capsule. They are all in rows and stacked two high. Inside is actually not bad. I had enough room to toss and turn just fine as I do in my sleep and it had a TV which I was able to watch some random anime where I think the people are in some sort of computer and a rerun of tsubasa. The only problem with the hotel was the pillow they gave me. Japanese pillows suck, a lot. They are all filled with something that feels like a very thick straw (drinking) cut into tiny bits. It feels like sleeping on a gravel.

So in the morning woke up, ate McDonalds for breakfast, finally found a map of the city at a tourist guide place in the station, and headed off to atsuya jingu. I took the subway so it didn't take too much time. It was a nice park but the main buildings were under construction. There was a national treasures museum there that I got lured into going by a giant katana. On the hiroshima trip I saw a giant sword but I think this is bigger. Like its longer then my body, its massive. Apparently it was used for horse mounted combat and by the looks of it, it would take out the rider and the horse in one swing. The rest of the stuff was cool, there were various swords and old clothes but I wasn't going to bother to try and read the Japanese on all of that stuff.

Afterwards I went back to the station and went to the station closest to nittaji temple. The walk from the station to this one was far and the heat was really getting to me, I drank like 5 bottles of Japan's gatorade like stuff that day. Nittaji was cool, very big, very wide open. I headed towards the next temple but according to the map there were all sorts of smaller temples along the way. So I headed down a path that kind of went through a neighborhood and I stumbled across some interesting temples here and there. There was a little bit of a nice nature trail in there too which was nice. My next goal was a bit off but I walked it. I walked through a much more business kind of area that reminded me a lot of Kobe. When I got to this temple what really stood out was the giant Buddha they had. This one was smaller then the one in Awaji but it was sitting down and still freaking big. I would say it was a bit more bigger then king kong. It had a hand seperate so you could see the size and it could grab you like a toy. Anyways it was cool.

So after that I headed towards a big park on the map. When I got there I found out it was all part of the zoo and I didn't feel like paying the admission and seeing a zoo by myself. I saw there was supposed to be another park up and to the left a bit so I went towards that but after getting a dead end, being tired, and the heat beating down on me I decided enough was enough and I should start heading back. I grabbed the nearest station and took it to a station a bit below where I the shinkansen station was. I figured I would walk up this last bit, hitting the temples along the way and that should put me right on time. I called my host mom but she didn't pick up her phone so I left a message. I checked my phone about an hour later and saw my host mom tried to call me 30 mins ago. So in my brain I automatically assumed my host mom got the message and was just saying “don't worry you can eat at home”, so I didn't call back.

I hit up the temples along the way and they were pretty cool, even though they are all pretty much the same I still like seeing them. At the last one there was an entrance to that Osu shopping center so I thought I would check that out. It wasn't too bad, the area as a whole is pretty big. Its like take shinsaibashi, mix in den den town, shrink it down to a little bit more then kobe's biggest shopping areas and you have Osu.

The way back to the station felt like it was taking forever. I don't know why but it seemed so far. I finally worked my way through the maze and the crowds to the shinkansen station, got on the train and was heading home. When I was at shinkaichi I called my host mom to tell her I would be a little after 7 for dinner and apparently she hadn't checked her voice mail, I don't think she knows how, so I felt really bad that I just out of the blue asked for dinner after saying originally I didn't need it. I don't know if was because of me or what but she was just starting dinner when I got there and host dad wasn't home until I was done eating.

It cost me about $120 for the round trip ticket and $2800 for the capsule hotel. It was really interesting to see that part of Japan and I am glad that there is now another part of Japan that I know of as a real place. But because I went by myself it wasn't that much fun, even though if I went with someone else I wouldn't have been able to do half the things I did. Nagoya is a decent city. It has all that you need without being so overbearing like Osaka and Tokyo can be. I think if I do JET I'll say that I wouldn't mind going to Nagoya, not my first choice but I'd be happy with it.

A review of the Konan University Year in Japan program

I hope that this blog will come up in some google search for someone who is thinking about choosing this program. Obviously they can read any of the other 50+ posts I made during the year but I wanted to write a review of the program as a whole for them.

This program has some strong points and some weak points but it all really depends on what you want out of a study abroad experience that will determine if this is the right one for you.

The amount you pay and receive will vary from year to year but I paid $20,000 for 9 months and 2 semesters worth of credits in Japan. That included my host family, breakfast and dinner every day, 3 big field trips, several smaller field trips, and transportation. I also recieved that Jasso scholarship which gave me a reimbursement of my plane ticket's cost and $800 a month.

Now $20,000 may sound like a lot but think how much tuition and living on a drom would cost at your university. For me when I thought about it that way it didn't seem too expensive for what I was getting. So for the price of the program itself, I think its pretty good (the cost of living abroad is another thing all together)

Konan University is located in Kobe. I really enjoyed Kobe. Most of the people who live here are pretty well off and it is Japan's 8th biggest city so it has a sort of nice clean feeling to most of the areas. Kobe itself doesn't have too many attractions or sightseeing spots but it is under an hour away from Osaka and some where under 90 mins to Kyoto so I feel like you avoid the congestion of those areas but still can go to them any time you want. The weather doesn't get too hot or too cold (Japan in general is worse then you would expect but compared to other parts of Japan I can't complain). Most foreign exchange students want to go to Tokyo, and Tokyo is cool, but living in Tokyo can be kind of hard. As far as location I recommend it.

Now Konan University is a private university so its pretty small. Something like 10,000 students at max. There are only about 6 buildings that are part of the main campus. The school itself is fine but for me it was too small. There weren't any clubs that interested me and just too few students would come into the international room. But the school itself is fine if you are ok with a smaller school.

One of the big things about Konan is the fact that you have to have a host family (unless they get too many people and you get placed in a dorm). With a host family you are living with a complete stranger for 9 months. Some people LOVED their host family experience and really bonded with their host family and they were thought of as a member of their family, and of course their Japanese skyrocketed. Some people got into fights with their host family and got kicked out or had to try and sneak out. We had several cases my year about people changing host families. And then you have people like me who spend 9 months living with someone and never actually completely feel comfortable living there. I really wanted a great host family and instead I got one that is just nice and they give me good food and do my laundry but there is no bond there. I try but I never get a conversation going with them and little things like the way they talk about me really gets on my nerves sometimes. I honestly feel like I got ripped off or cheated by being placed with the family I got. All I can think is how great it would have been if I got a really good match. I guess living a dorm has its own list of complaints so maybe Im blowing the problems of a home stay out of proportions but I really feel that it can be the best thing in the world, the worst thing, or anything in between. And its all by chance too. So as far as home stay is concerned I don't know what exactly to say.

The classes. Here is something that I was not told about during my own orientation for this program, the classes by and large are not good. You have Japanese class mon-fri 2-3 hours then elective classes such as japanese history, japanese cinema, japanese art history, japanese literature, etc... For the Japanese language classes all of the students are divided into 5 levels (A-E) and you have classes with those same people for a year. This is a very flawed system from the start because every college teaches Japanese a completely different way. I have talked to people who studied everything in romanji but had a really strong speaking ability, I met people who knew tons of kanji but couldn't speak very well so most people were placed in a class where one aspect was too hard and one was too easy. An alternative would probably be impractical but I think their system needs some serious attention. Each class then rotated teachers throughout the week. For me that meant I had one day of a really strict teacher, two days of a really really laid back teacher and only two days of a regular teacher. While I would hate having 5 days of the strict or laid back teacher this lead to the class feeling very unbalanced. I've said all of this but the Japanese classes aren't too bad, since I wasn't talking to my host family at home much this was my main Japanese practice. The real issue came in the electives. The teachers are nice people, smart people too but a good amount of them don't know how to run a classroom. I had a history class where we went over pretty much all of Japanese history without a textbook! To add to the confusion the teachers notes weren't really in any order and as I looked over them they didn't make any sense. We had to rely on wikipedia to study for the midterm! There is no clear expectations, for the most part the work load was so lite I felt like I wasn't in college anymore but rather some magical make believe school system. As a whole I did have fun in some classes, I did learn some stuff but I don't think any of these classes would happen at my home university. I think the dean would shut them all down for not being up to standard. So in a nutshell don't expect too much from the classes.

Field trips. When I was going through one of my up and down bits about being homesick what always cheered me up and made me excited about being in Japan was the field trips. I saw some really awesome stuff. Castles, temples, shrines, landmarks, famous scenery, I've seen more then I can count. To experience this much of Japan in a safe and reliable context you can only do it through being a foreign exchange student. Simply put the field trips make it all worth while.

My Japanese still sucks a lot. I thought that I would become fluent by being in Japan for 9 months, that was not the case at all. I didn't talk to my host family much, aside from japanese class everything at school for me was english, and I wasn't really able to make a Japanese social life. I felt that I was in this English bubble and through my Japanese class I did get better for a while but then I kind of hit a plateau. If becoming fluent is the number one goal of yours, I can't recommend this program. Like you'll get better for sure but their is so much english in this program and you are so isolated from the other Japanese students there is no way you can say that this is immersion. If you really have to become fluent, search for a program that places you in Japanese classrooms, if you can be ok with coming back and still having to study a lot before you hold up a normal conversation without feeling dumb, then this program is ok.

Being a foreign exchange student is something I recommend to everyone. You can read about a place, you can visit it on a vacation, but neither of those are like really living there. Everything aspect of living in a foreign culture comes together to be this incredible experience that you will cherish forever. I also think it helps you grow as a person in a way you never could have imagined. Being separated from everything and everyone you know, you find out that you have the power to do anything you want. Because you are thrown out of your comfort zone in the most literal sense and it becomes sink or swim kind of thing. Regardless where you go I recommend to study abroad.

Like I said this program has some ups and downs but in the end it was worth it. As long as you are ok with the randomness of being assigned a host family, silly classes, and not being fluent then go for it!

the program is over

Well today is the 15th day I have left in Japan and the program officially ended yesterday with the farewell party. It was really sad to say goodbye to all of those people and finally accept that this little path in my life was going to an end. I couldn't hold back the tears when I realized it was the last day that I would see the people from Hawaii, especially Jay, Nohea and Courtney as they are leaving today for the airport. I had so much fun with them and I really enjoyed being otakus in japan together. But not just them I might see a few people here and there before the last two weeks are up and we might see each other at the airport but now its time for us to go our separate ways all over the world. I would really like to visit Les in Canada, Darlo in the UK and Martin in Germany but will I ever be able to?

I know its part of life to make relationships and then go your separate ways, make new ones and repeat but their is a part of me that just wants to stay a ryugakusei with these people forever. But at the same time I know that there is a new and exciting road ahead of me as well.

You know for it being such an emotional farewell party for me, I don't have too much to say for once. I really enjoyed spending times with everyone here and maybe I didn't accomplish what I wanted (never did find that Japanese girlfriend) I still had an incredible experience that I will treasure forever.

The last 20 days in Japan

Well here I am, almost done with this grand adventure of mine. Soon I'll be back home into the 100+ degree Arizona heat and far away from Japan. I'm not really dreading it or anything like that. I've done what I was supposed to here, made lots of memories, learned more then I could ever write down and now its time to move onto the next stage of my life. If anything I am going to miss all of the other foreign exchange students the most. I think of almost all of them as my best friends and I am really going to be sad when I can't see them everyday anymore, but that's life. I am really looking forward to being home though. I really want to see my family and friends.

So last week was golden week and obviously monday I had a big adventure but on tuesday I was so sore I could barely move. I went out for lunch because my host mom's mom died (she was almost 100) but beside that I stayed in my room a lot that day.

Wednesday there was a barbecue with the students from the Konan Cube campus. It was a nice get together and was kind of funny to see how much these kids did not know what they were doing. They just dumped whole bags of meat on the grill for crying out loud. Christy, Emily and Juliene wanted to go to Den Den town and I never turn down a chance to go to Den Den town so I went along. Emily and Juliene were on a quest to find non pornographic doujinshin (fan comics of popular characters) and that is a really hard thing to do. Christy got a terabyte hard drive for $110 and was so happy and thought it was the cheapest thing in the world I was trying not to bust her bubble that $110 isn't that much cheaper then the ones in America. After the girls headed home I decided to try and find the madarake in shinsaibashi and eat out since my host mom had to go to Tokyo for the funeral. I didn't find it but I walked all the way back to Umeda and got some neat night shots. Osaka is a really nice city. I ended up going to the mandarake in umeda and got this saber figure for $5! I don't know how they make it so cheap. I think some of them might be opened but they all look new and have all of the packaging so I don't care. They also have the cheapest prices I have seen for perfect grade gundam models. Like $65 for the MK2. I was tempted to buy it and ship it home but shipping unbuilt like that would have negated the cheapness of it.

Thursday there was school again so I went a little early and studied for my religion test. I thought I did pretty good. It seemed easy but you never know. I just headed home after that.

Friday was cinema and Emily finally brought back my suitcase I lent her on the Tokyo trip. When I got home I tried to do a mock pack and it seems I have just too much. I have too many clothes so I have two options. I can mail some of the stuff back and pay $40-50+ or just throw some of the clothes out. I do have some jeans that are worn past their limit and such so maybe I'll do it. I just hate the idea of paying that kind of money for clothes I might not even want. Anyways I'll check on that.

Saturday was the ryugakusei barbecue and I wasn't quite sure what kind of meat to buy. I've never actually bought meat before so I ended up with some decent pork and some really weird and not too great beef. It was a really hot day but we had this really cool park that was pretty close to campus. There were a lot of bugs that day. Like you were always walking through a swarm of tiny bugs. It was a lot of fun to talk to everyone and I had a good time. After words some of us got dinner at this Italian restaurant in Okamoto then headed off to Karaoke. I couldn't remember a lot of the songs I like to sing so I felt frustrated trying to remember them. Jordan was really drunk at that time and was acting really silly. We had three separate rooms because our group was so big and everyone kept changing rooms so we were probably bothering everyone.

Sunday after I came home and cleaned up a little mess I made outside trying to empty out the spray cans I went out with my new PSP GPS toy. I kind of wish I didn't spend $60 on it because its just so freaking weak. When it works its cool, I was able to connect while on the train and it told me how fast the train was going but sometimes it will take 1 or 2 mins to connect if at all. In a car that might not be a problem but while walking its really annoying. I read online that if you get a metal case for the PSP it helps block some electrical noise that interferes with the device but I can't find one for my 1000 series PSP. It's so hard to find accessories for these game systems because as soon as a new model comes out the old stuff disappears. Well at any rate because of the GPS and the fan made program I am using I was able to find this cool Chinese style temple in Kobe.

Best Day EVER

So at the speech contest all of us were invited to participate in fukae matsuri. Only a few of us did it and I feel bad for all of those who passed up this chance because this was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my entire life.

So we met bright and early at fukae hanshin station and of course Pak was late. We are guided to the changing rooms in the building on the temple's grounds. We each have a bag with our names on it and inside is the traditional costume for this festival. After getting some help from some people we all got dressed.

Here is what me and Pak looked like



For the legs it actually was a skirt kind of thing but was pretty comfortable. I was at first nervous about showing off my chest like that but I then decided just to have some fun with it and a few people just came up and touched it and some people took pictures of me because of it. It was fun though.

We started by pushing the danjiri from its storage shed to the temple which was like a block away. For those that don't know, which is probably everyone, a danjiri is kind of a traditional Japanese float. However float makes one think that it is light, that is not the case at all. They actually weigh around 4 tons! It has stone wheels that leave a trail on the street where ever it goes. To turn this thing the people in the back have to sit down on it while the people in the front lift so that it is only on two wheels then they can push it in the direction they want.
Here is a picture of the one I pushed and a picture of one that looks exactly like ours did (even the clothes were the same so I have to wonder if I found the right one by chance).



There was also a smaller one that was pushed by only women. As it turns out I was really lucky to do this year because they do the men's one every 2 years and the women's one every 3 years so the year they do both is only once in 6 years. In side of both types is someone playing the taiko drums and they NEVER stop. As these things go through town there are also tons of other people keeping track of traffic and which direction it is going and stopping it from going off track.

So we bring the danjiri to the temple, line up then walk in a parade up to another temple. We keep a four row formation and keep up a chant, I'm not sure what we were saying but I just tried to mimic the sounds. When we got to the temple a bunch of people went into a shed and dragged out the mikoshi. A mikoshi is a portable shrine covered in bells and gold everything. It weighs over 1 ton and costs over a million dollars. Here is what mine looked like.


They placed it down and we all sat around it while some of the older guys in yukatas and wearing a special hat sang a shinto prayer song while holding a folding fan over their mouth. We then all stood up, said a chant while we clapped then lifted it up and ran around the area for a bit, brought it back to the center, put it down and then they sang again. We did this three times and then we took the shrine down the stairs and out of the temple. There is probably 20 people lifting the mikoshi at one time so you think its not that bad right? No way it was crazy heavy. We had to constantly trade out people because it was just so much work to move this thing. Here is a picture I found on the web of people carrying a similar one so it was a lot like what I was doing.



As you can see there are beams that are lower and some that are higher. Because I am just a little taller then the average Japanese person I had a really hard time using the lower beam so I would usually be in the center. Even still it was really hard to use your shoulders because for me there isn't too much muscle on the top of my shoulder so it hurt pretty badly. I tried to push it up with my hands, which hurt a lot right now. In a nut shell it was very awkward to move this thing. We were carrying this thing all through the neighborhoods and sometimes we would stop infront of some place and lift it above our heads twice then throw it in the air a little. That was really scarry. Sometimes we would shake it a lot so the bells would go all crazy. A lot of times we stopped, put it down then did the shinto prayer song again. I would carry it as much as I could but I made sure to take breaks too. We went all over the neighborhood then came back to the first temple for lunch.

lunch was pretty good there were those platters with all sorts of stuff on them and some yakisoba and what not. I had to ask the ladies helping with the food for some water because the only thing to drink was tea and beer. After lunch we continued carrying the mikoshi all around the neighborhood and sometimes meeting up with the girl's danjiri. Every hour or so, didn't have a watch so don't know, we stopped for a break. They had a car with lots of drinks and cups and also signs that said smoking area. Like they just made it a smoking area by putting up their own sign. During the breaks I had a lot of fun talking to all of the people there. I have often talked about the soto/uchi thing in Japan and today I felt part of the uchi. People would just come up to us and start talking and they were all so energetic and fun. It was a real nice feeling. Sometimes we got to use this sort of supporting cart for the danjiri and it became much easier because you just had to pull it now. I'm not quite sure why we would use it some times but not others.

The day continued with going around the neighborhood (which there were surprisingly few people out and about) and such until it was time to put the mikoshi away. We made our way back up to the temple where we got it from and there were a bunch of people cheering us on. We placed the mikoshi down in front of the shrine, they said a special song, everyone else said a different chant, we picked it up again and then the real challenge started. We ran a marathon around the shrine. I don't know how many times we did it but it was at least ten times. As we ran around the back people would tag out so people could get rests but I was in the middle and didn't think I could get out while everyone was marching like that. I just ran and ran and went into robot mode, just turned off thinking and did it. Martin somehow got in and tagged me so I ran out. I took a little break but then had to jump back in but this time I was on the edge again. I eventually got back into the inner parts and we made it to the end. We shook it like we had never done before then finally put it away.

We got in rows and marched down to a park where the danjiri was. I guess some people must have broken off from our group and moved it. After another break we got ready to push again. They had us be in the front and it was really fun. We switched at the train crossing and then stopped on the other side. Looking down the street were crowds of people cheering us on from the sidewalk. The taiko drum's beat got faster and faster until we heard the whistle and we all took off running. This 4 ton danjiri was flying down the street at a crazy speed. The lanterns attached flew off and some of us not pushing it picked them up as we ran. They did this a total of 5 times and twice I got to push it. It was really scarry pushing it because I couldn't normally keep up with that running speed, I had to put some weight on the danjiri and my feet barely touched the ground. It was a really cool feeling to be a part of it and to see the crowds of people cheering you on. It was really something else.

We then started the long process of putting the danjiri away. We put all of our weight on the back and turned it around probably 10 times then pushed it towards the storage shed. The crowd followed us and kept up the cheering and clapping. We pulled it into the garage and then ran back out and pulled it back it and then ran it back out several times. Then we all got inside and they shut the garage door. Behind the garage door they had a paper curtain cover it so when they opened the garage door they could show the lights from color flash lights. But what really surprised me was that some of the older guys came and stood on the front of the danjiri dressed as anpan man and other characters. With the garage door open they burst threw the paper one and everyone was dancing and clapping and streamers and confetti flew everywhere. I could not believe the amount of energy these people had after such a long day. The costume guys got down and then some of the leaders got on the little stage and jumped into the crowd and we threw them up in the air.

I was blown away by it all and had never seen anything like it in my life. After this we walked back to the temple, bowed before the shrine, ate some sushi for dinner, changed clothes and then went home. This was an experience that I will never forget and I can't believe that I was lucky enough to be able to experience it.

The end is coming

So today is May 2nd 2009. I have under 30 days left in Japan and I'll soon be coming home. Its a weird feeling to think about leaving this place that I have grown to love so much but I'll be able to return home to my friends and family.

But hey I'm almost done with all of the stuff for school here. My Japanese final is over, for education I just need to do a small presentation, for cinema I just need to show up, for religion I have a final but I dont think any of those are really anything tough. The japnaese final was tough, we really rushed at the end to get as many grammar points as possible in.

I decided to take a fall semester instead of a summer so I guess I'll probably live at home a while longer but you never really know whats going to happen. I managed to get all of my classes on tuesday and thursday and because I am getting grants school will be free. Very nice. As long as something major doesnt happen I should be able to pay off my student loans before I even graduate.

We had a fare well party on friday night. It was done by one of the clubs and they put a lot of effort into considering it was just a club. It was a lot of fun but I really wish this club would have come and talked to us more during the year. I tried to get information about how I could be apart of it one time but was unable to get any information. Oh well I guess. Some of the staff was dressed up in yukatas or ninja costumes and one guy had that freaky horse head mask on. They played bingo and everyone talked a lot. Some of the guys I had met before kept trying to get me to talk to a bunch of girls. I would do it because it was no big deal but they were so shy and acting weird about it. It was fun and all and I appreciate all they did but being isolated as a foreigner is something I don't think I'll ever like about Japan.

So on Wednesday I decided to head off to Takarazuka. My original goal was to go to the area where the horse race was and see that area again but the place I went seemed completely different. It was a really cheap train ride there and the area was gorgeous. I was really blown away by the area around the station. Takarazuka is famous for a type of play done only by women actors of the same name. So the area was full of flowers and pleasant architecture. It was kind of like shojo city. So after a little bit of being blown away by how pretty it all was I stumbled across Ozuka Tezuma museum. Now honestly I have a hard time remembering the name but this guy is the father of japanese anime. He created not only Astro boy but that white lion thing and black jack and apparently something like 30 anime series, several movies and TONS of manga. I don't know if there is anyone who has done as much in the way of entertainment as this guy has in his life. It had a very nice atmosphere about it and everything looked like it was from a 50s scifi show. There was a lot of information about the guy too but I didn't bother to stop and read all of the Japanese.

After I saw most of the museum I continued to walk away from the station and enjoyed the really nice area that I was in. I soon got to a river bank and it was simply goregous, the city scape off in the distance was amazing and you see nothing but packed buildings all the way until the mountain. I walked along the river bank for a while and really just took it all in. After a while I got back up to the street then got to a more business area and headed back towards the station.

So while walking I found my next destination kiyoushikonji-seichoji temple. this was around 2 km away and I just followed the arrows as I went up a steep hill and through a very residential type of area. As I went up and up the view became really nice. The arrows I was following though were for cars so I was walking on the side of the road for a little bit and was really starting to question if I was going the right direction or not. I finally got there and climbed a bunch of stairs just to find a regular modern Buddhist dormitory and a cemetery. A little disappointed I was heading back but decided to go a different way down the hill. I am glad I did because that was where the real temple was.

The temple had a really cool atmosphere and while not too different from other temples I really liked it. Took lots of pictures of course. I sort of followed the crowd on my way back and it lead to this really neat little shopping alley. You don't really see ones like this in the states I think where its really cramped and people's houses are right next to stores selling souvenirs and such. I was getting a little worried as to where I actually was because I was going a very different way then I had come. It seemed to go on for a long time but ultimately it did end infront of kiyousoji station.

Before I got to the station however I saw a sign that said "nakayama temple 2000 meters this way". I stopped and thought about it but felt it was better to get to the station because I didn't know where exactly I was and I didn't have much money on me. I had under 1000 yen and I needed to make sure I had enough to ride the train back home because I could not find a SMBC bank or ATM anywhere. So when I got to kiyosoji station I debated whether or not to try and walk to nakayama. I even started to head back to the sign but turned back. I ended up deciding to take the train to the next stop and just check out that temple. This train line is really cheap so I was ok money wise.

So I exit the station and I see a sign one to the left and one to the right. The one to the left said there was a temple only a few hundred meters to the left and the other one said nakayama temple was 900 meters to the right. So I figure I can do both. As I head to the one on the left I see this big open gate and a sign that said something about takarazuka. I go in and there is a statue of Jesus. I was really surprised to see a statue of Jesus in Japan but was really happy. I go up the trail a road a little bit and I see a bunch of buildings. It turns out that this wasn't a park but the takarazuka catholic school or something like that, and I was just trespassing. Luckily no one but someone working on the yard saw me so I just hurried out. I found the other temple and it was a so so one with stairs going really high up.

I then headed off to Nakayama temple. There isn't just a path just a few signs every so often saying which direction to go. I ended up walking through some neighborhoods and I always feel a little odd walking around people's houses with a camera as a gaijin. Because I think people automatically assume that I don't live there and if I'm taking pictures of something normal like a neighborhood it might be looked at as kind of creepy. Of course no one would ever say anything so I probably shouldn't worry.

I ultimately get to nakayama temple and it was very big and also very modern. There were parts with escalators even. There were also a lot of young families with newborns there, I guess they bless the baby or something. There was a great view, lots of cool shots, and an all around cool environment that you never see in America. After that I headed towards the station and made my way home.

While on the train however I got an email from Courtney asking if I wanted to hang out with her and Martin. I was tired but I said yes. We were planning on studying for our kanji test the next day but ended up just doing some shopping and eating.

So this Saturday I was free and wanted to check that area out some more because after all if there were two awesome temples there I would imagine that there should be more. Exiting nakayama station I saw a very different kind of atmosphere, everything was really spread out. It felt more like Tucson almost. there were a few temples here and there but I ended up walking through a lot of residential areas.

I saw the same signs as before and one of them pointed to a waterfall. I really wanted to see this so I followed the arrow, and I followed it for a while, even until the next station and I saw nothing. I then road back to the station where I saw the sign and tried to figure where on earth it was supposed to be because it points in one way but the road turns drastically right away. Frustrated I gave up trying to find it and just checked out a few more temples I learned about from a map I stumbled across. After that I went home.

I stopped at sannomiya because I wanted a guide book for Kansai. I wanted to know where all of the cool spots were, I don't think I have enough time to just wander around endlessly like that anymore. There were plenty of guide books at Junkudo but they all were just about one city. I wanted one that was about all of Kansai so I could compare where to go. I left empty handed but thought I would check out Seiden/Tsutaya to see if maybe there was some super cheap GPS thingy or something I could use. I saw the PSP GPS add on and thought it was worth checking online reviews. When I got home I found out that using a homebrew game you can make your own maps of anywhere in the world. So that was kind of the deal maker, I went back the next day and bought the GPS add on for the PSP. After a LOT of work I got it to work just the way I want it to and now I can know exactly where I am and where the nearest, temple, shrine, or convenient store is to my location.

Tomorrow I get to do a real once in a life time thing, I get to pull a danjiri (traditional Japanese float)! Its going to be tiring for sure but wow how cool is that, I mean really. Okay I wrote a whole lot so I going to stop now

---Ben

Just over a month left

Wow where did all of the time go? Like really not that long ago I was counting down the days until I went to Japan and now here I am with just over a month until I return from it. Its a weird feeling because I feel like I have been here so long I don't remember exactly what home is like but at the same time it feels like just yesterday we were having out orientation. I am excited to go home to see my family, hang out with my friends, be able to enjoy everything being cheap, and all of the cool movies and games that came out while I wasn't paying attention to them. I'm not looking forward to going back to work. I'm not looking forward to loosing what little Japanese practice I get in my normal day, but I'm really not looking forward to leaving this country. I don't know why I like Japan. If I wanted to say some complaints I could come up with a good size list but there is just something about this place that has a real charming atmosphere about it. I ask myself why I want to come back and its not just the anime goods shopping, which is a huge perk, its something that I can't quite explain.

Classes are wrapping up and fair well parties are happening left and right. In about 2 weeks all of the kids from Hawaii are going home and in all reality I'll probably never see them again. I've made really good friends with Jay and Courtney but I just don't see myself getting out to Hawaii too much. I guess there might be a chance with Jay if I ended up in California for work and he goes back home or something like that. But life is just full of those sort of short term friendships and you just have to learn to enjoy them while you have them and move on when they are gone I guess.

So I am once again changing my plans for school. I emailed a few teachers trying to figure everything out and it turns out there simply isn't ANY Chinese studies class this summer so that forces me to not have a free schedule in the fall so I might as well just take all of my classes then rather then some in the summer. The more I think about it the smarter decision it really is. I am getting grant money for the fall and spring semesters so school is not only going to be free but should make some money actually even after buying books and what not. The little problem is that the priority registration already passed while I was set on taking a summer semester so some of the classes I wanted are full. I signed up for Chinese writers and society 341, Japanese 421 (I don't really know if this will be a more difficult class or not) and I am going to try and get into Japanese civilization 272 to fulfil my history requirement and modern east asian history 270. These classes have a lot of students in them so there should be lots of people who drop so as long as I just keep checking up on it I should be able to get in no problem. I actually dont need Hist 270 but I need to be at 12 credits to get the money so its just about being full time with that class. I wanted to take an easier class then Chinese 341 because I have already taken all of the hard ones I need and I have had professor li for three other classes. I know he is good but he is going to work you.

So one of my more interesting teachers is Koji Nakamura. He teaches the Japanese education class and he is the one who has had the class be all over the place in terms of what we cover in class. He also teaches regular konan students classes and he invited all of us to come to his class. I was free today and saw him during a break in class so I decided to go later in the day. He said the class was taught in all Japanese which I thought all the more reason for it to be interesting. So I go to the class room and he tells everyone that their will be a ryugakusei so think of a question to ask and he had me go in front of everyone and do a self introduction and I was doing ok in my Japanese but he kept asking me more and more questions and then everyone took turns asking me questions. It was so weird being on the spot lot like that saying everything in Japanese and making mistakes left and right in front of a group of native speakers. I only go to sit down after an HOUR. I held a Q and A in Japanese, in front of Japanese people, for a solid hour! I can't believe I got through it. Now that its over I feel glad because I certainly could not have done anything like that before I came here. And this is another example of how I am constantly forced out of my comfort zone. Like if I can do this then like really their is nothing I can't do.

There is a lot of free time coming up, tomorrow is some sort of holiday and I'm thinking of going to Takarazuka. Next week is golden week (a week where a bunch of holidays fall one right after the other) then an odd week of having only my elective classes and finally the two weeks of no school at all before I go. I really need to get working on exploring. I want to stay mostly in Kansai but thats still plenty to see and do.

---Ben

coming close to the end

There is a mall that opened up in this area a few months back called nishinomiya gardens. Nishinomiya is a little past the stop I get off on for school (and it takes forever to walk there as I once found out). I had plans to see the conan movie on saturday but friday zoe and jay wanted to walk around nishinomiya gardens so since I needed to get dinner because my host mom was in Tokyo I went along. We walked around but I have to tell you the only interesting store in the whole mall is Joshin (electronics store) and maybe book 1st. So it was a little boring but had fun with friends so it was ok.

The next day we wanted to do the 2pm showing of conan but it was sold out (this was the only time Ive seen the theater actaully busy) so we went for a 5pm one instead. That meant that we had lots of time to kill in the mall so we just kind of sat around for a while. The next day Courtney invited me to go to the horse race tracks with her and her family and it was a lot of fun. We didn't actually see the real race because we were trying to get out of the sun but it was lots of fun to hang out and Courtney's brother is so cute. After the race though we went again to nishinomiya for dinner.

On monday me and courtney were planning to skip afternoon classes and go to Umeda to buy more anime figures. I've started collecting the figma series and also ones that are about the same size, shes been collecting the really chibi funny ones that I forget what they are called. But it turned out it was layla's birthday so we went to nishinomiya to have lunch with her and then somehow talked Pak and Layla to go to Umeda with us. I like going shopping with courtney because I never feel bad about the amount of money I spend because she spends TONS of money the figures she gets are like $25 each and she bought like 5 of them! Her dad just gives her so much money I wonder what she is going to do when she has to make it on her own. So that was 4 days in a row of going to Nishinomiya gardens.

Tuesday we had off but Wednesday we had a field trip to the CUBE campus which was right across the street from Nishinomiya gardens. The cube was really nice because the students there seemed honestly interested in talking to foreigners not just practice thier English or something. It was a lot of fun and its really good to see some people trying to change Japan's education system.

Also on Wednesday I got to do my presentation on Tokusatsu. It was a lot of fun and I showed some trailers and opening videos, I put a LOT of time into making the presentation.

But it is really close to the end of the program at this point. Next week is finals for Japanese class. Then we have a week off I think, then the last week for elective classes. A few days after that half the people go home and I have the last two weeks to do everything I possibly can.

Its a weird feeling because on one hand its like, "what did I actually do here?" or "where did all of the time go" but at the same time I've been here so long its hard to remeber what its like back home. But I do have close to 10,000 photos (Im like 300 short so the next time I can just walk around I'll hit it) and around 50 blog posts while being here so you could say I've documented it as well as I could have.

This has been an incredible experience and I've done so many things that most people back home would never even dream about doing but I really don't think this programs goals are what they ought to be. This program is designed pretty much for "have fun in Japan with other foreigners" which is good in its own right but you really can't say that it is "to vastly improve Japanese language skill". But I dunno I'll get fluent someday.

Honestly I am dying right now. The allergies have come out and they are showing no mercy to me. Right now I can barely keep my eyes open and my nose is all messed up. I'm wearing a breathing mask but when I exhale it goes right into my eyes and makes it worse but without it I can't stand it. It all really sucks!

Well see everyone pretty soon

---Ben

conan movie #13!

So the past few days I kind of flipped out. I thought that I failed big time because my Japanese was still so terrible and everyone else who had a host family they liked was close to being fluent. I felt like this was my one chance to improve my Japanese to the level I needed it to be and that I had my dream kind of taken away from me. So I prayed about it and I got my answer the next day when I was talking to my friend Jay who just mentioned "I mean I wasn't naive enough to think I'd be fluent but my Japanese improved a lot". That was exactly what I needed to hear so I started to feel better from that point.

So last night me, Jay, Martin, and Courtney went to go see the 13th Detective Conan movie, The Raven Chasers. We were all pretty impressed with ourselves afterwords because we understood enough of the movie for it to be really enjoyable and get the major plot points. It was a pretty good conan movie and I was just really happy to be able to see one of them in a theater. Like downloaded anime is pretty good, HD anime gives a really solid picture but man 35mm just blows me away how good it looks. It was a lot of fun. Also it was packed and we had to get a later showing too because it was sold out.

Schools really coming close to the end right now and it's mixed feelings. I am kind of fed up with school and I need that little break but also going back to the real world with job and that summer class and all of that jazz, not looking forward to that.

Well that's that
---Ben

shitsubou

I've tried not to be too negative about certain things here. I've tried really hard to ignore the bad and savor the good but I'm going to vent a bit. All of my problems are connected to the fact that my Japanese still sucks a lot. I came here with expectations to become fluent in a few months and have to dig really deep to find challenging Japanese like newspapers or something. That is not even close to what happened. My Japanese did increase for a bit but then it just sort of stagnated around the end of the year. So here I am almost ready to go home and while I have read manga cover to cover with out a dictionary (although didn't get all of it) and I can run earns like getting my camera fixed or shipping internationally, I still have the hardest time in the world understanding my host family. Its not just at home either, I've realized that I am the worst student in the class. I can usually see peoples grades when our teacher hands them out and Im always in the bottom. I took the Jtest with Patrick and he passed but I failed. This monday we had a speech test and I know I got the lowest grade. Im going to complain a little to the nice teacher about the speech contest because me and one other person actually gave a speech, everyone else just read it off a paper. So yeah mine was didn't have as complex grammar in it because I just wrote my main points in English on a scrap paper and sort of made it up on the spot. I didn't really "make it up on the spot" I mean I practiced it a lot and each time I would practice it it would come out a little different. But one of my friends literally copied a line from Haruhi (anime) and read it off in front of everyone.

So yeah all of this work and I see everyone doing better then me and I just feel so freaking stupid sometimes. Like Japanese is my tokui, or pride, like its what makes me special and being here in a program where not only is it everyone's tokui as well but they are all improving way beyond me. Its frustrating. I think I really have hit a wall here, I need to go home, take a break from studying Japanese then come back at it with a new resolve because despite all of the stuff I want to do with better Japanese I still find myself just doing the bare minimum in the classes here. Like I have a really hard time saying that any of the classes in this program are "good". Some teachers, wont say names because they read our blogs apparently, have no focus or direction in the class and it just goes off into all sorts of tangents. While Im sure the teacher thinks this is great and exploring people's minds it just leaves students confused on what they are supposed to do in the class and how they are even supposed to get a grade. Some classes are way too relaxed and nothing gets done, some are completely useless, some just aren't good classes. The thing they all have in common is that they all encourage students to not try, do the bare minimum, and not care about the subject at all.

You know I still dont like my host family. I really don't get it. You would think that I would have goten used to them by now but I haven't. I still don't feel comfortable in this house. The other day at dinner she said that there was a school to teach the kansai dialect to ryugakusei (foreign exchange) and I was trying to get at that I think its stupid to study kansai dialect because Japanese people expect you to not know Japanese to begin with so why waist the effort to learn something that you dont have to use. Plus the idea of learning kansai ben is to make you seem like a native Osaka person, but no matter what you ever do you will ALWAYS be just a gaijin, foreigner.

To go off on a little tangent, Japan is actually really racist. Everyone has this nice clean idea of Japan but its all just lies. Japanese people are really racists to particularly Koreans. Its a lot like blacks in America. People were brought into the country against their will, forced to work here, became free but generation after generation finds it self stuck in a lower economic class, and they are blamed for crime. There are also the aborigine people of Japan called the Ainu and for hundreds of years the Japanese government has forcefully tried to destroy their culture. They are also often discriminated against. Also on the south most part of Japan is an island called Okinawa, this is a lot like Hawaii in the sense that it was its own nation but was conquered because of its strategical position. The okinawins and the ainu are fighting desperately to preserve their language and culture but only recently have they been recognized by the government as a minority group.

I didn't know it but there are around a million Japanese descendants living in Brazil. Around 1900 in the Meji restoration the economy wasn't doing so well so Japan made a deal with Brazil that Japanese workers could immigrate to Brazil to work. Like immigration stories in the US (especially Chinese who built the rail road tracks in the west), the situation was not what they were told it was, they couldn't afford to go back home and ended up living their for generations. In the early 90s or late 80s Japan was enjoying economic success so their was a need for low level labors. A lot of the labors who came in illegally were from Iran. The Japanese people didn't seem to like the Iranians but needed the workers so they extended citizenship to all people who are Japanese up to the 3rd generation. This way they could have the workers from Brazil come and work while maintaining their xenophobic idea of a harmonious society.

What gets me personally is the stereotypes of Westerns. Our teacher showed us a TV show episode, as language practice, called Cool Japan. What this show is is foreigners going around being silly, experiencing Japanese things for the first time, and talking about how great Japan is. Japan's view of Westerners is movie stars and the silly ones they see on TV. I don't know I just felt really upset by seeing that show for some reason. I hate that I'll never fit in this society. I hate it when a store clerk uses English with me. I really hate the thought that people might be glancing looks at me just because I'm white. I think I understand in a tiny, tiny bit now what it might be like to be a minority in America.

Well there you go todays post is just some complaining I guess but I wanted to get it off my chest.

dai-dai-bouken

So the first noteworthy thing I did this week was go see watchmen at nishinomiya gardens. Now this movie came out almost a month ago in America but it was only a few days after the japanese release that I saw it. In a nut shell I think it was 4 out of 5 stars. It pretty much did everything a film adaptation of the graphic novel needed, the different ending still worked, but the music selection was terrible. The music made for the movie was really good but every popular song that was put in didn't fit the scene at all an I think really hurt the movie. It was also really bloody. Like the comic is supposed to be dark and serious and people do get murdered but I felt uncomfortable how much gore there was. But the biggest thing about the movie is the fact that Dr. Manhattan is naked for almost the whole thing. They could have made him have a loin cloth that he wears in the Vietnam scene but they chose not to for some reason.

So nothing big really happened in school this week. Well the Japanese students started coming back to school so its more crowded now. Thursday night we made bean dip and soft tacos at church and that was pretty fun. I really like mexican food so even so so stuff tastes really good.

Friday night at oji koen (park) they had a night hanami (flower viewing). As you probably know Japan is full of these beautiful cherry blossom trees. These cherry blossom (sakura) have these wonderful white/pink flowers on them but the flowers only bloom for about 1 week or so. Poets and such say that the flowers represent the frailty of life. The night viewing (hanami/flower viewing) was really nice because they would have these paths with branches going over the top making this tunnel of white flowers. They added lights to the flowers so they really stood out. It was almost like a light show. I did take a lot of pictures of that but because of the odd lighting situation they all came out atleast a little blurry. We went with a big group but ended up splitting some how. The group I was with sat down on some benches and talked for a bit. The parked closed at 8:30 so we went through the rest of it then found a little park where we could hang out some more. Its really nice being in Japan because even though it was night time and there wasn't much light at the park I felt completely safe.

Once we found a good bench we started to play this really fun drinking game, I of course drank apple juice. You sit in a circle and you all take turns counting off 1 to 21. When you get to 21 you say "cheers to the general", everyone takes a drink and the person who gets to 21 makes up a rule to replaces one of the numbers with a phrase, simple action, or word. So for example it could be "3 is butterscotch" so when you take turns counting it goes 1,2, butterscotch, 4,5,6,etc. If someone messes up on counting they have to take a drink then start the counting over again. Also there are two numbers that are replaced from the start 7 is 14 and 14 is 7, these prove to be hard to remember no matter how many times you do it.

I had a lot of fun that night, lots of laughs and had a hard time with the game even though I was sober. This was also one of the rare times I hung out with Martin and Fabin, the two German students in our program. They are really cool guys and make me want to learn German someday.

Saturday I planned to do hanami with the people at church rather then go with the other ryugakusei. It was raining however so we went to the nearby park, took some pictures then went back inside and ate some food. I was under the impression that everyone bring their own lunch but it was more of a pot luck so I felt kind of bad. There are two Japanese people there who we kind of joke around with their names. One is Nagabashi and we call him Tom Longbridge and the other is Macchin and I call her machine. It was a fun afternoon, we played some badmitten and jenga but I went home around 4 or so. When I got home I was just kind of out of it so I crashed on my bed and watched gundam 00 on my computer. I don't quite know how I feel about 00 actually. In some senses its really different from Seed and Seed Destiny but in other I feel its too similar. Almost like super sentai where you can tell whats going to happen by looking at the timer in the corner of the screen and what episode number it is.

Sunday I went to church, got appointed as young men's advisor (over all 3 of the young men), went home and messed around on the computer. I'm doing my report for Japanese class on tokusatsu so I was learning about the history of Godzilla movies. I actually got pretty addicted to this video series that explained them all.

Monday we had a JLPT practice test. I didn't think the test was insanely hard or anything but when I took the test I got a really bad score, 48%. I realized that, or rather assumed, that I got the lowest score in class and was feeling really bad about my Japanese ability. Like Japanese is my special thing and I was feeling really bad because I'm with nothing but people who that also is their special thing or its their natural thing. I didn't want to go but I ended up going to family home evening but I'm glad that I did because my bad mood quickly disappeared. FHE was pretty nice we had some good cake and longbridge and machine came. Longbridge is actually an investigator so they showed a video but the cable was going in and out. Randomly I remebered that I had a video cable in my bag from when we were watching movies at school and I just pulled it out and gave it to them. Everyone was surprised I had it with me and machine said "sasuga otaku san ne" or something like "thats an otaku for you".

Tuesday is when the real fun starts. Ok so like I said there is only a small opportunity to see the sakura and the best place to see them arguably is Kyoto. So right after japanese class I printed some maps off and headed to Kyoto. I wasn't sure how much time I would have because if I could I wanted to eat dinner at home because my host mom said she would make okonomiyaki for me. So I got to Kyoto in about an hour or so and decided to take the bus to Kinkaku temple (the golden pavilion). Their were two buses I could have taken, one had more stops, was coming a few minutes sooner and went directly to kinkukujinja. The other had fewer stops but stoped just a tiny bit before. I thought I should take the later but when the former came I just jumped on. The bus ride took a really long amount of time and I was wishing I would have just looked up the subway info instead.

I got there in about 30 mins and the first thing I noticed was the amount of foreigners there were. This might sound in some bizzaro self hating racist way but I feel really weird when I see other foreigners in Japan. Its like maybe I've adopted a little of the Japanese soto/uchi thing but its like the foreigners in my program I know and are my friends and we all kind of stick together. With japanese people there is this separation feeling. So when I see a foreigner I dont know where to put them. They are like me they aren't the sort of distant Japanese people but I don't know them they aren't my friends. I try not to make eye contact because its like we shouldn't have to make eye contact just because our skin is the same color. I don't know if that made any sense but its a really unique feeling.

Ok ok so Kinkaku jinja, not that awesome. First of all it cots 400 yen to enter which isn't a lot but there are so many places that are free. The pavilion itself is pretty small and it sits across this nice scenery but the water is pretty dirty looking and you can only see it from a few angles. There is a path and a nice garden-esq area to walk through but I've seen nicer ones other places. Also like most things in Japan its become so touristized its hard to really feel any sort of calmness or tranquility. I got some nice pictures and can say I've been there so I guess thats worth the effort to go I suppose.

Since there were actually no sakura at kinkau I decided to head to my next destination. I was thinking of doing ginkakujinaja (the silver pavilion) but regardless of what I did I needed to get back to the other side of town. Since the bus took as long as it did I wanted to use the subway. I looked at the map and it looked like there was a station just a few blocks from there. I thought I would just head for that instead. As I was going down that way I found a little video game store. I of course went straight to the sega saturn section because for collectors sake I am buying a lot of those here. I found two of the games I had been searching all over for; shinning force 3 part 2 and part 3. Part 3 was reasonable price at 1100 yen but part 2 was 2900 yen. I debated what to do for a long time. I really want the trilogy but can I justify 2900 yen for an old video game I might play once but other then that just sit on my shelf so I can say that I have it. I ended up just getting part 3 but I'm still not sure if it was the right decision to pass up part 2.

Anyways I bumped into this pretty big temple what I think was called heiya temple. It was jam backed with sakura trees. Oh man it was like the clouds were only a few feet above my head. I spent a lot of time there taking a lot of pictures, it was really cool. I think the pictures kind of speak for themselves so I won't say too much more on this place.

A little bit from there I saw another bus stop. The station should have been just a little further down but I didn't know where exactly, the bus was right here. I ended up taking the bus just to be safe and waited another 30 mins. I actually rode the bus to kyoto JR station. I decided from there it would be good to go to inari jinja so I got on the train line and rode for two stops.

A torii gate is the tale red gates that you see all over Japan. Inari Jinja has thousands of them. They have pathways that are just tunnels of torii gates. Take a look at the crazy pictures I took there it was incredible. So I get there and its a lot like a regular temple but you go off to the side and you find the torii path. Inari jinja is part of tofuku jinja I believe and both are located in this huge park on the south eastern part of Kyoto. Its also mountainous so going through the gates is a lot like a hiking trail except you have stone walk way and the tunnels of gates. This area seems to really like the fox spirit because there were lots of fox statues and lots of mini shrines with for statues on them. Along the trail there were parts where you could break off for a bit and have just a regular hiking trail. I would go on these for just a little bit to get some pictures and go back but it was really stunning being there. Coming from Arizona forests in general are something very rare but Japanese forests are full of skinny tall trees packed together, there was also a lot of bamboo trees so it gave this very surreal feeling.

As you get toward the top there are resting spots, because you do get tired, over looking the kyoto city scape. It was a very beautiful sight even if there was a lot of haze. Surprisingly there seemed to be either stores or houses up this high on the mountain. I don't know how anyone could live there. At the very top was a shrine area that was packed with a bunch of mini ones. One of them had a big stone in the center with holy looking rope around it. I walked around that area a bit and decided to take a back exit out of that place.

Going up there were a few little side detours you could take or alternative pathways and going down was the same way. I got two this three way fork and decided to go down to the left. It was a somewhat steep stair climb down and there were much less torii gates this way. When I got down to the bottom I really took in the beauty of it all. It was so calm and quiet and peaceful. I continued on the stone path for a bit more and I ended up infront of this house and a bunch more fox type shrines. This house was pretty far away from anything but the door was open and there were shoes in the entrance way so people did live there somehow. I kept going but the path then became just a dirt path. I again took it all in and also thought of how amazing it was that I was here on this trail. Like I really didn't know where I was. I knew I could go back all that way and find the original path but I had no idea where my current location was. I wasn't worried about it but rather thought how I am one of few people who actually explore Japan like this. Tourists don't have time to explore nooks and crannies like I do and natives don't usually care too much about exploring their own area. Its only foreigners living here like me who really can explore.

So I continue on the trail and the forest breaks up a little and I see houses. I go a bit more and the trail is over but now I am in some really fancy looking neighborhood. Like a gated community. I was really baffled how I got there. I knew that towards the sunset was the main part of Kyoto so I headed that way but I really did not know where I was at all. I amaze myself sometimes with these adventures I go on. Like I genuinely get lost sometimes, I should be more worried about that then I actually am. Just walking around in a city I don't know very well without even a compass, its a big adventure for sure.

So as I exit the gated community what do I see? A sign with three kanji 任天堂　which I learned recently means NINTENDO. I totally accidentally stumbled across the Nintendo headquarters. There isn't much to see in all actuality but just to get a picture of the building where so many awesome games is made was a pretty exciting thing for me. After I got my fanboy pictures over with I tried to find the station. I did find the train tracks and hoped they were JR and followed them. I was in a part of Kyoto I didn't know at all but somehow I found the station and headed back to Kyoto station. I actually arrived on the hankyu line karasawa so I had to go north a few blocks. I marked on my map where it was but that was actually a mistake, it was a block ahead of that. Again somehow I got to the station and headed home.

Today, Wednesday I went to Sannomiya with Courtney and we both bought more anime goods. Courtney bought a lot and I have no idea where she gets all of her money from.

Well I think I might have written enough now so bye