Nara Homestay: Temples and the deer

June 26
So today we woke up at a leisurely 11pm and woke to the delicious aroma of our Homestay mother fixing us some adorable sandwiches and fries.  We then prepared to  leave for the ancient temple grounds of Horyuji.  It was raining and humid but even so, it was very easy to see that this place was special.

  The 187,000 square meter grounds contain the oldest surviving wooden structures in the world.  These beautiful structures preserve images of Japan as it existed during the Asuka Period over 1,300 years ago.  The story of Horyuji’s founding was discovered in 747 on an engraving on the back of an immense Yakushi Nyorai Buddha statue located on the eastern side of the room in the temple’s main hall.  The writings tell of the emperor Yomei who suffered from a deadly illness.  He vowed to build a temple to Buddha as a form of prayer for his recovery.  Unfortunately his prayers were unfulfilled as he died shortly afterwards.  Empress Suiko and the Prince Shotoku in respect for the late emperor completed the temple and built the Yakushi Nyorai Buddha statue which literally translates to “the arrival of the healer.”
               In 670 an enormous fire swept through the grounds, destroying the original temple, however it was gradually rebuilt and completed in the early 8^th century.  Several of the structures have survived since the rebuilding making Horyuji the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan.  Horyuji contains over 2,300 important cultural and historical structures and articles, including 190 that have been designated as National treasures.  Moreover, in December 1993 the temple grounds became the first treasure to be selected by UNESCO as part of the World Heritage list. 

That night for dinner we were all able to try our hand at making our own sushi!  this was a lot of fun, as well as very very delicious!  There were seaweed pieces and cut up fish in the center of the table and the family would roll up their own sushi.  There was even an instance where a  small quail egg was cracked over the top of the sushi roll.  That was certainly interesting meal.


The next day we woke up nice and early to help make some onigiri (triangular shaped rice balls with filling and seaweed)...Despite not having any talent for it Laura and I made some and packed it away for later.  We had to get going we had a lot to see and do today!


Our first stop was at an emperor's former castle/ throne.  The land around it was sprawling and vast.  Fields of tall grasses swayed along the sides of the palace, but a huge area of gravel paved the way to the front entrance.  Unlike all the other temples I had visited thus far the emperor's palace was bright and beautifully colored in tones of reds and greens.  It was truly beautiful.


After that we followed our host family to an area of the park where we got to try on clothes from the past haha.  It was quite hilarious if I do say so myself.  There were 5 layers of clothing...it was not an easy thing to put on.  


Finally we were off to Nara Park and Todaigi Temple.  Nara Park is most famous for its tame wild deer.  Literally the paths were littered with them.  Some of the males had imposing antlers but seemed completely unphased by the human crowds around them.  After sufficiently feeding them some Shika Senbei (deer crackers) we moved on to the reason for coming to the park, the great temple Todaigi.  


This was an absolutely massive building that loomed over the entire park.  There is a reason for its size though, it houses the largest indoor statue of Buddha in the world.  And when I say the statue was big...I mean it was BIG.  The beautifully carved statue sat peacefully upon a open lily and overhead intricate and ornate decorations surrounded his great head.  The entire statue was gold plated but showed signs of its age.  Another interesting little attraction inside the temple was a large post off to the side.  In the post a hole was carved and my partner and I watched curiously as kids began to squirm their way through the tiny hole.  My host father explained how the hole is the size of the Buddha's nostril and symbolizes a rebirth if you are able to go through....I watched with growing anxiety as smaller skinnier and younger children wormed their way through the hole.  Finally after a group og High School boys successfully made it through followed by my partner...I knew it d be the most embarrassing thing ever If I too couldn't make it through.  I mustered my strength and put aside my dignity and began my attempt at amking it through.  After much squirming and struggling I was able to just get out....and a round of applause followed...ugh.  Never again. :P
 

Nara Homestay With the Minamuras: Introductions and Impressions

Hey all,

So this past weekend (6/25-27) I was fortunate enough to be able to stay with a Japanese family in Nara.  We arrived in Nara (a city a little over an hour away) at around 5pm to meet our families.  You could feel the tension and nervousness from our side of the room as the homestay families began to enter the small room.  I can say for myself at least that after hearing some horror stories of bad homestay experiences that I was definitely very worried.  We all were whispering amongst ourselves trying to guess which family we'd end up with when the director of the program, a young short and stubby looking man with wildly curly hair stood up and called all of our attention.  Beside him the corrosponding Japanese director walked up beside him, a fragile looking and thin woman.  It was quite funny to see them standing side by side :P

They welcomed us and then started to introduce us to our families.  I was paired up with another student, Laura and we were introduced to our family, the Minamuras. Mrs. Minamura was short cheery woman with a a very expressive face.  To be frank....she was adorable. xD beside her, her daughter Natsumi stood her features showing definite resemblence to her mother's.  We both made nervous introductions and soon were led out to meet our host father who was just getting off work at a bank.  Mr. Minamura was a man of few words but he was very intelligent and everything he said was with purpose and I found him to be a very likable fellow and I knew I could learn a lot from him.

We all piled into the car and were on our way to the Minamura household.  We drove through beautiful and lush Japanese country-side which made me think of a sort of preserved past.  The buildings had a sort of old rustic charm while the fields had either tall swaying grasses or vast but perfectly aligned rows of young growing rice plants.  Of course the mountains always stood stoically in the background.  It was beautiful.

The home was an unpretentious 2 story building with a traditional japanese feel.  It had a small driveway which seemed to contain just enough space to fit the car and get out.  The doorway was a sliding door which led into an atrium where it was expected to remove your shoes and put on house slippers before entering the rest of the house.  This was the same for other rooms such as the bathroom, however when entering your own room or the tatami room no shoes were to be worn at all.  It seemed all like a big game of "hot lava" from grade school. can't touch the floor until u get to the "safe zones!" haha.  The house had a dark brown hallway to the left and a steeply inclined stair case to the right.  We were led first upstairs to our room for the next 2 days.  

It was a small and adorable room with a clear theme of disney.  This was the older sister, Shiho's room.  Shiho however, was also currently studying abroad in Seattle to learn English :P  After placing our bags in the closet we were given a tour of the rest of the house.  Natsumi's room was next door and across the hall was a small family type room with a large TV and a cage containing a rabbit named Kuli and an open cage for the family cat and my newest best friend..Monaca.  A flat faced orange tabby that seemed to have all the energy of a half asleep child.  He was absolutely adorable.  Made me miss my Tiger so very much!!

Downstairs there was one large room that was a kitchen/ family sitting area with another TV and a dining table.  On the other side of the hall there was a traditional tatami room that was absolutely gorgeous.  There were paintings across all of the doors and intricate wood carvings above the doors.  There was also a small alcove with decorative treasures as well as Mr. Minamura's shodo work. (calligraphy)  There was also a small closed doored shelf where a family Buddah statue was kept.  

Taking baths...was an experience in itself.  One is expected to wash and shower first, using a bucket to dump water to rinse and then once clean to soak in the family bath which was a deep tub (maybe like 3-4 feet deep) which was kept at around 42 degrees C.  The tub was not drained after each person though since it was expected that everyone using it was already clean...kinda weird I know...but the soaking part....was very very very relaxing. :)

When in the home of instant ramen....you make some instant ramen!

Hey all

So today (6/24) we traveled back to Osaka taking several different trains...it was a long ride...all to go to...a museum???  Yeah that's what I thought too until...I found out we were walking up to the official...INSTANT RAMEN MUSEUM. haha it was fantastic!  We walked in and were immediately greeted by cheery attendants all wearing aprons and ushering us into the main hall.  We were struck by the giant timeline of instant ramen... hundreds and hundreds of ramen cups and bowls lined the entire wall and parts of the ceiling.  It was amazing!  In the center of the room a replica of a small farm house stood with a color changing backdrop which simulated the rising and setting of the sun.  Inside the house a small kitchen with all the necessary ramen making utensils laid out.  One corner even had a gigantic pot with a TV screen that made it look like ramen was cooking in it!  (it was def one of those.."only in Japan" moments!) oh and btw if your wondering the big yellow chick was like the mascot of the museum cute huh? haha

We then moved on through a small hallway which turned a corner into another room...there was a cacophony of laughter and voices..but I couldn't tell what was going on.  Then a cheery apron donning man appeared and welcomed us to the "Make your own Ramen Center"  THATS RIGHT.  we got to make our very own ramen flavor!  It was sooo much fun!  First we were allowed to decorate our noodle cups with all the colors and imagination we could muster in 5minutes. haha.  The we moved on to a kitchen type area where we were able to load the noodles into cups and choose a soup base and multiple topping-ingredients.  Things like shrimp, egg, pork, onion, corn, curry powder...etc etc...there was a ton of different options!

Lastly we vacuum sealed our unique ramen and placed it into a nifty little carrying bag.  It really was a great time.


New food of the day:
Shibu Shibu

Basically its a restaurant that gives you raw meat and you need to cook it yourself in a large hot pot.  There was also a salad bar full of veggies tofu and mushrooms. It was a cool concept and ever so tasty!

Yay Japanese food! :P

Little Fans of Shoin Junior High School

Hey all,

Today we went to visit Shoin Junior High...I'm not going to lie...this was definitely the excursion I looked least forward to out of the whole study abroad schedule.  Not sure what to expect our group was split into several smaller groups and sent up into the mountains by bus to the school.  Interestingly enough Japanese buses have a single fare to ride to any stop.  200 yen.  No matter if you ride to one stop or 20.  Plus you pay after you get off instead of before you get on.  Another strange thing...the driver turns of the engine at EVERY prolonged stop...so all red lights and bus stops.  Weird huh??

We were brought to a lovely looking school.  A large gate stood open at the entrance way and the winding stone path took us to the main portion of the school.  We were asked to wait in the cafeteria until the lunch break had ended.  I simply couldn't get over how clean everything was!  It was simply amazing.  Soon we were taken to a classroom of 9th graders.  Let the awkwardness ensue!

The classroom was a cramped little room with a small...about 2 foot wide stage at the front of the room.  The class welcomed us by saying a few lines in english..."Hello thank you for coming, welcome to our class!" in a sort of robotic manner.  It was sweet though.  We were asked to stand up there and give a short introduction to the class.  Afterwards we randomly chose papers to decide which group we would be split up into.  Yeah...so we were separated and asked to sit at a group of 4 students and were asked to hold free conversation off of a pre-made list of questions.  It was....ugh. haha.  The kids were cute enough though I suppose.

After class the students all filled the hallways as school let out for the day.  We were all bombarded with short hellos...it sounded a lot like birds chirping.  Each student continuously said hello to each of us...it was insane.

We then we re asked to talk to a group of students who were going to New Zealand for a 2 week homestay to help them with their english.  It was....um  fun?  haha.  The teacher had the students rotate amoung us rilogakusei..and it felt a lot like a speed dating service..as in we had a few minutes to talk to each group of Shoin girls.  It was a bit hectic...but at the end we all were treated like celebs!  Everyone wanted a picture with us.  haha

Later on a few of us went to buy Shinkansen tickets for tokyo. AHHH we re going to tokyo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SOO EXCITED!!  I get to see Rena too for those of you who don't know of her, we were friends since like...2nd grade.  She moved back to Japan early on in middle school but we have still kept in touch since then writing letters and checking up on fb.  But yes I havnt' seen her in forever!  This will be a reunion to remember...because the day she left I made a promise I'd make it to Japan to see her.  And here I finally i am. :)

Food of the day!
 Chop Chicken with egg and cabbage salad

An odd collection of foods...but still it was def quite good.  Again this is dining hall food!  crazy huh??  The sauce was mild but def had a bit of a kick to it.  Yummm

Glorious Castle and beautiful Traditions..my day at Himeji

Hey all

So im tired as all heck and all I want to do is go to bed...but I will force myself to write this tonight...seeing as today might have been the single best day of my time in Japan to date.

So we went to Himeji.  What's so special about Himeji you ask.  Well first of all we got to take a nice long train ride (little more than an hour) which allowed us to get a taste of more of Japan rather than just Kobe.  Literally there was a section of land that became vast rice patties and small rivers and canals.  It was interesting to see the rice patties in the backyards of a few houses (in suburban areas).  All the while the mountains loomed over all of the small houses and apartments on one side and on the other the ocean's cool breeze wafted in thru the open windows.  It was really pretty.

Anyways...so Himeji.  When we arrived we could immediately see the castle that towered above the entire city.  The Himeji castle is known as an impregnable fortress seeing as through out history the castle had never fallen into enemy hands.  Thus much of the original structure is still intact, with multiple reconstruction and preservation projects, Himeji castle was an extremely beautiful sight to see. The design of the castle was amazing which included a wide and heavy door at the main gate and steep stone walls surroundig the castle.  the walls forced enemy troops into a series of winding allyways and narrow passageways allowing defending archers and gunmen to easily stop the intruders.  The walls all had small holes so that bows and firearms could take down advancing forces.

We were also able to walk through one of the main sleeping quarters of the soldiers.  It was a long and winding building that had small rooms along the right side.  The other wall had many latched doors along the windows called "Stone throwing windows" which also explains their prupose :)

Unfortunately due to a current reconstruction project we were unable to see the inside of the actual castle...but nevertheless Himeji Castle was absoultely beautiful and the pictures don't do what the real castle can convey.

Afterwards we all headed toward Himeji's annual Yukata Festival!  This was amaaazing!  Hundreds of food vendors, game tents, and shopping tents were lined up all over the city!  It was crazy!  I tried some skewers and pastry things...and a DELICIOUS chocolate and custard banana crepe.

I also tried my hand at the traditional Japanese goldfish game. haha.  I had always seen it in animes so i just HAD to try it!  The premise for those of you who are unfamiliar, is to catch as many goldfish as you can using a small paper net.  ITS DIFFICULT!  Chris tried....immediately broke the paper part of the net.  Later chris and I watched a grandmother teach her grand daughter the technique....she was amazing!  Caught several large goldfish with all the skill and ease of a professional!  When I tried it...I caught 1. hahaha....yeaaaaaa it was a lot of fun though!!

Ok...I must sleep.  But i'll just let the pictures show you how wonderful this festival is.  All the yukatas and traditional Japanese culture one could ever hope for.  Yukatas were beauutiful!!!!!!!!!!







Food of the day....

Japanese Crepe!

These giant sweet and goodie filled dough wraps are fruity and creamy and wonderful.  The combination of fruit and custard is to die for!!!

And that's all!! good night!

Sumo!

haha yeaa the title is a little misleading today.  We didnt actually get to see a sumo match but just a video and some highlights from the last tournament.  It was.......very very.....interesting.  I know what you are all thinking right now Sumo.. nothing more than a bunch of massively overweight men unfortunately wearing nothing more than a singular scrap of clothing which oddly resembles a giant diaper.  I know this is what you're thinking because that was what my perception of the sport was as well.  

I learned that interestingly enough Sumo has a TON of inherently Japanese traditional practices.  This is because Sumo is something that originated from Japan.  It didn't have any basis on Chinese traditions like much of the Japanese culture.  There are many ceremonial type practices before and after each match.  Much of these ceremonies are done in respect to the Shinto religion.  Things such as thanking the gods of East, South, West, and North before accepting prize money.  

The cultural aspects were the only things really keeping me watching the video...as many of you know I have some odd issues with shirtless-ness and nudity...yeaaaa and these weren't exactly men who had been voted "most sexy of the year" if you catch my drift. haha

So Sumo...I'll explain a little...or at least whatever I retained about it. So the main goal is to knock your opponent out of the designated ring.  This can be from a single finger touching the outside area of the ring to a full blown fall of the stage into the crowd knockout.  You are not permitted to kick, punch, or grab hair.  Other than that I think its anything goes.  Its interesting to see all the different techniques used.  Some wrestlers liked using a rapid pushing/ slapping technique, others preferred to do fancy judo-like moves and throw the opponent.  Each match is EXTREMELY short...as in maybe 5-10 seconds long.  not to say there aren't longer or shorter matches.  We saw one were one wrestler immediately charged (somewhat like a bull) into his opponent...but the other wrestler realized and took a small step to the side and the charging wrestler went straight out of the ring and continued to fall right off the stage.  that lasted like 1 second. haha.  

Also being the biggest and heaviest doesnt always mean that you will always win.  The Yokozuna, or most highly ranked sumo wrestler happens to be a pretty average sized wrestler...but he wins all of his matches.  Sumo is based on a ranking system..basically a ratio of wins to losses.  The tournament lasts for 15 days and all the top ranked wrestlers wrestle each of the 15 days to determine a promotion or demotion in rank.  All except the yokozuna...he is never demoted..however after he starts to lose matches it is expected to respectfully resign the position.

Yep and thats all I know about Sumo :)

Afterwards the Shoin language partners had a takoyaki party for us Delawarians.  You remember what takoyaki is right?  Octopus balls? haha yeaaa they also made ones with small hotdogs and even some vegatarian ones.  It was pretty good...except many of us decided to go to a nomihodai bar instead :P

..and yes I was one of them xD  

Yukata shopping with Moto

Hello all


So yes today I spent the day shopping with my language partner Moto.  She took me to an outlet mall near Suma and the Ocean!  I had forgotten Kobe is known as the port city for a reason!  It was pretty cloudy out today but the ocean is always a sight to see.  The water was a steel grey color matching the overcast sunless sky.  Moto told me she we were actually lucky that it didn't rain seeing as it is the rainy season.  We soon reached the outlet mall...I forget the name...but this place was HUUGE!  It was a complex of four malls basically...all selling high fashion clothes.  It was extremely expensive. haha...it was mostly window shopping until we turned the corner and found..yukatas!!!  


I tried on a few....i couldn't resist.  They were all so beautiful.  My woman was kind enough to help me put on and tie the obi (the belt)  it was an amazingly complex process...ahhh!!  It was a lot of fun though.  I so want one of my own!!


Afterwards we took a break for food.  And I was able to talk to Moto some more.  She seems like a very quiet girl...although I want to try to crack open her shell because I'm sure she s a girl who likes to have a good time...I don't know I can just tell.  Also as we left there was a woman and a performing monkey named Haku-kun. haha he was extremely talented little guy.  Jumping crazy distances and then landing in a hand stand!! 


I got back to Rokkomichi a little before 7pm and met up with chris and a few friends....we had some 花火 (hanabi) literally flower-fire.  Can you figure out what it means?  If you guessed fireworks then you are correct!!! First of all...yes they are legal seeing as there is a fireworks shop literally right across the street from our dorms and second of all yes we asked the store manager where it was allowed to set them off.  


As many of you know...I have a huuge issue with flames...and setting off these were no different...I just sat and watched for the most part.  I'm not going to lie it was kinda fun.  We had all different kinds...a bunch of sparklers and color changing flares... we also got some crazier stuff like a "roman candle" basically a long tube that shot out fireworks of different colors.  They also got one called the firebird...and another...called the vulcan.  the firebird was basically a high shooting sparkler that spread out as it went into the sky.  The vulcan....just shot a bunch of extremely bright sparklers into the sky really quickly...it was intense.


It was pretty cool...it was really funny though because as we were setting off our fireworks we saw a few neighborhood kids shooting off some fireworks too...except there was one difference.  We were shooting our fireworks into the water..they...were shooting at eachother.  yes...u read it correctly.  They were each armed with roman candles and started just shooting! it was like how people play with paintball guns...except much quicker..darker...and on friken fire!!! ahh it was so dangerous. But really funny to watch.  Like they were really into it...hiding behind boulders and this one kid literally did like a james bond roll across the ground but still aiming and shooting the gun at his attacker.  it was....just wow. haha


New food of the day:
Green Tea Parfait 

This is like the first dessert i think right?  Well this was DELICIOUS.  It was green tea ice cream with mochi balls some other mochi like balls and red bean paste.  It was amaaaazing and Moto got it for me.  Arigato gozaimasss!!!!


Also since I didn't put up a food for yesterday...

SUSHI!!! haha specifically the sweet tofu on top of the Udon as well as the  octopus tentacle if youd like to count that too. haha.  The tofu was actually quite good with the Udon.  I highly recommend it! :)

yep thats this time guys.  Again thank you so much for reading! ^^