Rainy Season

The rainy season is upon us in Tsu, dear friends, which means that each new morning brings with it the anticipation of what I will find when I open my curtains for the first time. In the past week, we've actually been quite lucky: it has hardly rained at all. But today was a "dogs and cats" day (my students often mix up the word order of that English idiom), and for some reason, that got me in the mood to get caught up on my blog. My blog has unfortunately fallen to the wayside in the madness of the past couple of months, though I suppose it's a good thing that life is busy here. I mean, you'd hate for it to be the opposite. The preparation that comes with the rainy season alone is enough to keep me busy: Do I need an umbrella? Should I put on my rain pants? Should I bring an extra bag for the rain gear? How wet will my bike seat be - do I need a different pair of pants? It's on days like today that I miss having a vehicle.

A couple of weeks ago, I started my Japan Bucket List, and after a few days of Freaking Out over how much I still wanted to see and do, I decided to throw it away and just keep living the way I normally do. Will I make it to Tokyo again before flying out of the airport there on my trip home? No. How about spending a day viewing Mt. Fuji? Maybe not. But I've already been pleasantly surprised by the things I've found to fill my dwindling days here in Tsu. I realized that, while traveling is great, I want to spend as much time as I can soaking up the daily life here in my "hometown" that I"v come to love so much. Plus, I've traveled a LOT, to which this blog can attest.

Here are a few of the things that have been keeping me happy during the month of June in Tsu:

Shopping in the rainy season = plastic cover over shopping bags. Japan is awesome.

I went back to Yakushiji to see my favorite pagodas.

Japan.

The competing mascots of Nara. I think you know which one I favor...

A beautiful Japanese garden was a must on my Amen trip to Nara.

That sign says "Free for Foreign Tourists." Even better.

Nara is my favorite place.

A year later...

Even swarming with school children, I'll never tire of this place.

At a Three Arrows game, we found NINE American flags sewn together. Oh, Japan.

But the Three Arrows WON! Can you believe it?

Shopping at Nagashima outlet mall with my students. So. Much. Fun.

Yep, those are three dogs in that stroller.

We got Cold Stone! Oh, and in Japan, the workers don't sing when they're tipped. They sing ALL THE TIME.

My student came over to our place to cook us his famous fried rice.

It was absolutely delicious. Followed by an afternoon of Wii? Yes, please.

Also, I've got to give a shout out to Sarah's parents, Jerry and Joanne Haugen, who visited last week. I had so much fun getting to know them, hanging out with them, and joining in on valuable family time with the two of them and Sarah. It was great to have, as I said to Sarah, "our kind of people," around for a while. They were a wonderful little reminder of home. Thanks for everything!

I hope the end of June finds all of you well, and that you're living it up this summer. I'll be home in just over a month!

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May Days

Hello!

WOW, it has been a long time since I've updated this blog! I'm sure you're all feeling the same way I am: May was BUSYBUSY, and I can't believe it's already over. My youngest sister is now a high school graduate, my cousins' baseball team made it to the College World Series, and I've officially purchased my plane ticket home in August. It's all happening so fast!

One of the highlights of May, of course, was Andy's return to Japan. He finished his finals on Friday and was on a plane on Saturday morning to arrive in Japan on Sunday evening. It was so much fun to have him around for another week and a half. This time, I had no days off, other than the weekend, so our travel time was limited. Instead, we spent a lot of time playing games, cooking our own meals, and hanging out with my students. It was a pretty relaxed vacation, but we both had a great time! And my students loved having him in class!

Trip to the art museum!

Authentic sushi counter

Japanese tea ceremony at my student's house

We did manage to make it to Kyoto on the Saturday that he was here, and if any of you remember my trip to Kyoto with my mom, it is not my favorite place. It's a beautiful and historic city, but the public transportation is confusing and difficult, and the layout of the city, at least to me, makes very little sense. (I know it's because it's so old, but that doesn't ease my frustrations any.) But we braced ourselves for the worst and trekked on anyway. We were, I must say, pleasantly surprised. We found the bus terminal with route maps (how is there only one place to find these in all of Kyoto Station?) and managed to make it to Sanjusangendo and Kiomizudera with no trouble. I've also got to thank my boss for giving us excellent travel tips in Kyoto beforehand.

At Sanjusangendo, home of the 1,001 Buddhas

Beautiful garden

Orange!

Kiomizudera pagoda

Now I know why this is one of the most famous temples in Japan. GORGEOUS!

Our next stop was Kinkakuji, the famous Golden Pavillion, and while we got a little lost on our way, we managed to get there in time to have our picture taken and get interviewed by some Japanese high school students. It was so funny to watch them read through their list of questions for us, in English, completely terrified, hoping they'd understand what we were saying.

Our final destination was Kawaramachi Catholic cathedral, and this time, we got hopelessly lost. We wandered around the same 3 blocks for a solid half hour or 45 minutes looking for a cathedral. In Europe, you just don't have these kinds of problems.We finally found it, but it was tucked away on a little sidestreet (naturally), almost connected to the huge hotel next to it. It's like they had a third of a city block leftover after the hotel and thought, 'Hey, let's fill this with a cathedral.' Of course, none of my students had heard of it before, but it was fun to see real stained glass and a western-style church.

This is going to sound ridiculous, but perhaps the highlight of Kyoto for me was the dinner we had a T.G.I.Friday's. Those of you who know me know how much I love this restaurant, but it was especially exciting this time because in the past couple of months, I've just grown tired of Japanese food. Don't get me wrong: I still love it. But sometimes, you just need those American flavors. And did T.G.I.Friday's have them or what! It tasted exactly the same as an American restaurant, and I ate more than I'd ever eat on a trip there in the States. But it was so fantastic. And it provided me with a great lesson for the next week of classes!

Andy made his way back to Montana with no problems, and life has not slowed down one bit since he left. I've somehow managed to fill almost every hour of my days in the past couple of weeks, and since I've only got about two more months here, I don't imagine that that will change any time soon. Before you know it, my time in Japan will be over!

I hope June brings with it for you sunshine and summer relaxation. Take care!

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Golden Week for Peace

WARNING: This is going to be a long entry.

Let's just talk about how awesome Golden Week is.

I've heard a few different explanations for its origins (like most things I've experienced in Japan), so I'll recount a bit. April 29 and May 3-5 are all national holidays, which means that this awesome concentration of holidays allows for the perfect week-long, government-mandated vacation. It also falls at the end of the first month of the fiscal year, and as you may remember from a previous post, March and April are crazy busy for Japanese people, so Golden Week is a well-deserved break for all the hard work everyone has done in the past few months. It ususally turns into a week-long chance to travel, sightsee, and relax with family and friends. It really is just the chance to kick back a little while the weather is still nice and when there is a lull in the work that needs to get done.

So what did I do? TRAVEL.

I booked my shinkansen tickets (the bullet train!) to Hiroshima for April 30-May 4, reserved a hostel, researched the area, packed my backpack, and took off for Hiroshima. It was one of the places I wanted to visit most while in Japan, but to be honest, I've always had an interest in visiting this historic city. Sarah and Peter were both busy with other things during the week, so I took off on a solo adventure south.

First, the shinkansen: It's. So. Fast. Seriously. I left from Nagoya, and a trip to Kyoto that normally takes 2 hours by regular train took 20 minutes. Kyoto to Osaka? 5 minutes. Seriously. It took me 2 hours to get down to Hiroshima, which is kind of mind-boggling. The tickets are definitely spendy, but the experience of riding these famously fast trains was definitely worth it.

On my first day in Hiroshima, I wasn't able to check into my hostel until 3pm, and I arrived at 11:30am, so I did some sightseeing right away. I'm glad I did, because I got a feel for the city immediately, but traipsing through a big Japanese city with a huge packpack and heavy purse was less than stellar. I had forgotten that wonderful joy of traveling (something I haven't done since Europe). Thanks to some helpful tips from one of the previous teachers, I was able to purchase a tram pass right away and take advantage of the street car system. However, I think I bumped just about everyone on the tram with my backpack and I'm sure garnered more than a few "Oh, Americans..." eyerolls. Whoops. Americans take up more space!

Tram car

My first stop was Shukkei-en garden, which is of course a recreation of the traditional Japanese garden that was there before the 1945 bombing. It was absolutely stunning - one of the prettiest gardens I've visited in Japan.

A little city oasis

After that, I walked to Hiroshima castle, which is again a replica of the castle that stood in Hiroshima when it was first established as a castle town hundreds of years ago. It, too, went down with the bomb. It was during my walk through the castle grounds that I saw my first piece of A-bomb history: a tree that had withstood the blast. It was a big, solid tree, but it was being held up with metal stakes and had a huge rope looped around its trunk. You could see that its branches were growing strangely, like it had been hurt in some way. There was a little plaque marking that it was a special tree, and when I read that, the magnitude of what the trip would be hit me. It's hard to make this not sound melodramatic - I mean, it's a tree - but it was really powerful to see something that survived in a place where virtually nothing else did. The entire city has been built since 1945, and the entire history of the city and its people that existed before that time is gone. It's hard to stomache, and when you think about the vast scale of the human devastation that the bomb caused, and then find yourself staring at something so innocent - a tree - the perspective is jarring, and teary eyes are inevitable.

The tree

After the castle, I took off for my hostel, which was fantastic. It was by far the nicest hostel I've ever stayed in - clean, safe, and affordable. I opted for a Japanese-style room, but I will not be converting to sleeping on futon on the floor any time soon. Still, it was a good experience to have, and it was great to know that I always had a safe place to return to each night. (And a 5-minute walk from Mazda Stadium, home of the Hiroshima Carp!)

I capped off my night with a trip to the Catholic church in Hiroshima, which was officially dedicated as the Hiroshima Memorial Cathedral for World Peace and was the site of JPII's 1981 Appeal for Peace. I got a tour from a nice man working there and enjoyed mass.

Sunday was my Peace Memorial Park day. I got up early and headed to the park. The tram stop is literally right next to one of the most iconic places in the world: the A-bomb, or Genbaku, Dome. It was once the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, but since August 6, 1945, it has been a stark reminder of WWII and a symbol for world peace. Walking around the dome was eerie and humbling, but a strange as it sounds, it was also a really cool experience. Peace Park is one of the most respectful, honest, and beautiful memorials I've ever seen, and the whole place is almost perfectly executed. It's a memorial to those whose lives were lost, without demanding pity or guilt. Unnecessary blame is not placed on anyone, the facts are straightforward, and more than anything, it has become an area devoted to achieving world peace (in the least cliche way possible). To be a part of that in some small way was really, really awesome.

Memorial for the Mobilized Children
Japanese children were forced to help in the war effort, and many of them died in the bombing.

I walked around the whole park and then entered the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It's only 50 yen to enter (about 75 cents), and this is the museum about Hiroshima, WWII, the A-bomb, and world peace. This was one of the top destinations for me on this trip, so I took my time getting through there. I walked around for a good two and a half hours, reading the information, seeing the artifacts that survived the blast, and listening to the stories of the survivors (sprung for the audio tour). Not to sound redundant, but the museum was so well-done. For those of you who know a lot about WWII (which I don't claim to), Japan wasn't exactly a shining example of awesome humanitarianism. But the museum, like the entire city, makes no effort to cover that up. But it also doesn't dwell on it. Again, it's all about the facts, the devastation caused, and the reminder that nuclear war really is a terrible option. One of the most moving parts of the museum for me was seeing copies of the protest letters that the mayor of Hiroshima sends to the leaders of different countries when they authorize the detonation of a nuclear weapon (for training, research, etc.). It's hard not to get wrapped up in the peace effort while in Hiroshima.

Peace Park

Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph, where the names of the A-bomb victims are memorialized. Notice that when you look directly through the cenotaph, you can see the dome.

Peace Flame, which has been lit since 1964 and will remain lit until the last nuclear weapon on Earth is destroyed.

One of the coolest parts of the whole experience was seeing the Children's Peace Monument, inspired by Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Who didn't read that story as a child in elementary school and think that they, too, could fold a thousand paper cranes and make a wish come true? Well, I saw the monument and the cranes, both the ones she really folded and the thousands that have been sent to Hiroshima from around the world. Again: such a surreal experience.

After a great day in Peace Park, I headed to a mom-and-pop type okonomiyaki shop for the famous Hiroshima okonomiyaki (special because it includes soba noodles). They were happy to have me there, and I even made a few friends!

The next day, I headed to Miyajima. It's an island off the coast of Hiroshima. It takes about 10 minutes to reach it by ferry, and it is one of the most iconic places in all of Japan. You might recognize the floating Torii gate, which is actually part of Itsukushima Shrine. The whole island is considered sacred, but it's also now a huge tourist place with an unreal number of shops. It's like Nara and Ise combined in terms of tourism, but it was still fun. I went early so I could see the gate at high tide, but it surprised me that it was actually way cooler to experience it at low tide. When the tide is out, you can walk out and stand under it, touch it, and leave a coin and make a wish. It was an awesome reminder of just how lucky I am to have this experience. We've all seen that gate, and now I've stood under it! It's unbelievable!

The entire shrine "floats."

Miyajima is full of cool little temples, and it's also home to Mt. Misen, a very sacred mountain. I did take the ropeway up to the top, and from there it's only a 1 km hike to the summit, but after about 3 minutes of intense uphill hiking, I quit. I just have to admit to myself that I'm not a hiker, and I never will be. And you know what? That's okay with me! I had a great time touring the temples and doing a little shopping instead!

The Ropeway...not my thing

Five-story pagoda
Pagodas are my favorite things in Japan.

Daisho-In Temple 500 Raken Statues

Daisho-In Temple 1000 Fudo Images

Spinning the Mani Wheel is, according to the Daisho-In brochure, believed to invite blessings equivalent to reading one volume of the Heart Sutra.

The famous Shikoku pilgrimage takes walkers to 88 temples. In this cave are located the Buddhist icons of all 88 temples, and worshippers here are believed to be given the same blessings as those who make the pilgrimage.

Tuesday was the first day of the famous Hiroshima Flower Festival. I went back down to Peace Park for the parade and festivities, which was cool for a while, but after about 20 minutes of the parade (like the Rose Bowl or something....so big!) and the crowd, I left for a quiet bistro and lunch. There were just too many people, and by that point, I had already done a lot of touring on my vacation. I wanted a little relaxation time!

Tons of cranes for the Flower Festival

The rest of my vacation was spent reading in coffee shops, walking around the shopping areas, and having a pint or two at the authentic Irish pub I stumbled upon. It was a fantastic vacation, and I don't think I'd do any of it differently. I'm so glad and grateful that I was able to experience that part of Japan, and I know it has given me an even better understanding of the Japanese history and people. If you ever get the chance to go to Hiroshima, take it.


Take care, dear friends, and please: pray for peace.

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