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
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