May 28: Omi Merchant Village

On Friday, the class visited the historic Omi Merchant Village area of Higashiomi. The streets were very narrow -- so narrow, even Okaa-san was a little nervous!


The houses that lined the streets were all quite traditional, and we had the opportunity to tour three of the historic Omi Merchant houses and gardens, all built in the late-1800s. The first house we toured was the Jyungoro Nakae House.

This house, like the next two houses we viewed, had a very open floor plan, with rooms sectioned off by sliding doors with screens. Furniture and ornamentation was minimal, but everything was very elegant nonetheless. The stairs leading to the second floor were extremely steep, but very sturdy. The garden of the Jyungoro Nakae House was green, lush, and beautiful. The path was marked by very worn-looking stepping stones, and moss was abundant.

The second house we toured was the Uhe-e Tonomura House. There was a lovely set of sliding doors that faced the very large garden.

The final house that we toured was the Shigeru Tonomura House. Sadly, we could not tour the garden, but there was a beautiful view of the garden and the surrounding area from the second floor.

After finishing our tour of the homes, our class went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. Steph and I had delicious cold kitsune udon, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere with a table of friends. The restaurant was playing music box versions of the songs from Studio Ghibli movies, and it brought a happy tear to my eye.

After lunch, a walk down the street led us to a Buddhist temple. Outside, along the road, koi were swimming in the channel. They were quite large and beautiful, and of course this excited everyone in the class! Next, we visited a Shinto shrine that was dedicated to the kami of Education.

When we had finished visiting the shrine, the class toured a nearby museum that had an exhibit about Omi Merchants, as well as a show featuring beautiful Japanese landscape paintings. By then, many of us were very worn out, and Steph and I dozed off in the lobby. Oba-sensei recognized that the class was tired from so much sight-seeing and walking around, and we trekked to a bus stop in the middle of the rice fields. The bus finally arrived, and we were delighted to find that it had a creaky, wooden floor!

Upon our arrival at Yokaichi Station, we had a good hour and a half to browse the department store. Steph and I bought many delicious sweets, and enjoyed them thoroughly.

We're Home!

Well, we weren't able to update the blog while we were doing the homestay, but we did journal a lot. So I'll be posting my journal entries while Jorie posts on more specific things.

5/24/10

Yesterday, we met our host family and stayed for the first night. Jorie and I ended up in the same home due to our vegan diets. We have an Okaa-san (mother), Otoo-san (father), and Ai-chan, our 16 year old sister. They have been very kind to us and Okaa-san can speak very good English. They have a traditional Japanese house with sliding doors and tatami. They have a pet cat named Chii-chan and he’s really friendly. They also have a beautiful garden.

We learned a lot even on the first night. We understand why rooms are closed (to keep heat in only certain rooms), we tried some new food, we took Japanese baths in the evening, and we slept on futons.

The weather has been rainy and kind of humid. Today, we were brought to a meeting place for our class, and then we set off for the day’s activities. First, we went to a beautiful Shinto shrine. We actually met the priest and sat down inside to have tea and snacks and learn about Shinto. We then were allowed to participate in a ceremony. It was beautiful and we were very grateful. Everything just looks so lovely - the moss and lichen covered stone, the torii gates, the rain chains, the gardens, the stone lanterns, the flowers. It seems like it smells especially nice in the shrines, too.

After the shrine, we went to a Buddhist temple. We were taken on a tour inside- something we don’t usually get to do. Buddhist temples are much more ornate than Shinto shrines, but include less nature sometimes, with the exception of zen temples. The priest talked at length to our sensei about the building and the art inside, and then we moved on to a confection store while Kakimi Mayumi prepared lunch for us at her home.

Kakimi-san is the artist and teacher who taught us about etegami and nihonga. She had a very lovely house with a cute dog outside. For lunch, we had sukiyaki. Our classmates used a grill right on the table to make their own sukiyaki, made of noodles, sauce, and some vegetables. Kakimi and a Japanese woman, Chihiro, who studied at NMU, made special food for Jorie and I, so we had a vegetarian sukiyaki and vegetable sandwiches. It was really tasty! We do feel bad that people have to make a special effort just for us, but of course it’s important to us. Everyone has been very helpful.

After lunch, we went to the Oodako (giant kite) museum. The kites are beautiful, and some of them really are giant. I think the kite we saw inside was 15 meters, but there are much bigger kites in the world too. We learned how the kites are made, and that they have a special kind of picture on them- a combination of a kanji and animal(s) which make a pun. For example, a tiger is “tora”, so there was a kite with a kanji saying “retsu” (let’s) and it had tora on it, so it sounds like “retsu tora” or “let’s try”. There were other, smaller, kites in the museum too. Jorie and I especially liked the insect kites.

After the kite museum, we went to a department store to shop and relax before going back to our host family. Jorie and I found some sweets and we ate fresh taiyaki. I tried shiiro taiyaki for the first time and discovered it is actually made from mochi! I also finally found a children’s book to bring home. I’m excited that I found a good one. Sensei and the others helped me find cough medicine- it even had English on the side! It’s interesting- it’s in a nice glass bottle with a sturdy plastic cup included. It tastes better than American cough syrup!

Okaa-san picked us up from the department store at 5. We drove home and dropped off our things, then went for a walk through the area. It really is a beautiful place. It’s kind of rural, so a lot of it is rice fields and large houses. We visited a very nice little Shinto shrine, as well as a small Buddhist shrine. Okaa-san explained how the people in the area all donated to help build and maintain the temple, and that older men from the area pray at (inside) the shrine as a rule. We dropped our coins in the container as we have at many other shrines and temples, and rang a bell, clapped, and bowed. Okaa-san also showed us one of the lanterns inscriptions that had her family members names (her father and sisters, I believe). On our walk, we also saw a very important tree that ‘s hundreds of years old. It was quite a beautiful tree, and it had supports and signs beneath it.

From my room, I can see nearby mountains. On one of them is a Shinto shrine.

Hikone Castle

Due to the huge snafu with our flight at the start of the trip, the walk to Hikone Castle, scheduled for the first full day spent in Japan, was canceled. As the days passed by and no plans to visit the castle as a class were announced, I was afraid that we wouldn't get the chance to see it (well, other than seeing the castle from the classroom window). Yesterday (Friday), Steph, myself, and five other classmates decided to go to Hikone Castle after class was adjourned for the day.

We took the 3:15 shuttle bus (free for JCMU students) downtown to the train station and we were pleased to find that the castle was a rather short walk from there. On the way, we stopped to pay our respects and take photographs at a small Shinto shrine.

The admission fee to the castle grounds was 600 yen per person -- definitely worth it. I think it's stationed at the highest point in the city, which, well, makes complete sense. Hikonyan, the official mascot of Hikone Castle and Hikone as a whole, was there to greet us.

We climbed many stairs during the course of the visit... the least-scary were the stone ones outside, and the most terrifying were the very steep steps inside the castle (it was a lot like climbing a ladder, really).

The castle was most impressive, and nothing at all like European castles. The outside had minimal ornamentation -- except for on the roof, of course -- and the inside was mostly wood and very simple. I liked it quite a bit.

The view from the castle was amazing: the city of Hikone, surrounded by very-green mountains, and of course, Lake Biwa. The birds of prey (hawks? Eagles?) that we've seen circling around town were soaring by, screeching.

We regrouped and made it back to the bus stop for the last shuttle of the night. In all, it was a good afternoon trip, and I'm glad we finally managed to visit Hikone Castle!

Shrines and Sushi

Today, we were given a crash course in early Japanese art history. Stephanie had already taken Oba-Sensei's Japanese Art History course a few years ago, but I hadn't, so a lot of the information was very new and interesting to me. Class got out at three, and soon after, Steph, myself, and several of our classmates took a walk down the road to find a local Shinto shrine. It had gotten very sunny and considerably warmer, and the walk was short and pleasant.

As we were told during class today, every Japanese town and village has at least one Shinto shrine, just like how every American town and village has at least one church. The shrine we visited today was pretty small, though we didn't walk past the torii, as there was no purification water with which to wash our hands and mouths. Still, the shrine, at least what we could see of it, was very beautiful.

The shrine led into a beautiful forest, made both of evergreens and bamboo. It had a very pleasant, fragrant smell.

After taking far too many photographs -- both artistic and tacky tourist shots -- we crossed the very busy road, to Lake Biwa. There was a large rock protruding from the water, circled in a rope with shide, designating the rock sacred to Shinto. As we learned in class today, the gods and goddesses of the Shinto religion inhabit specific objects in nature, such as certain rocks and trees.

We soon found that the beach was full of all sorts of wondrous objects: amidst the flotsam washed up near the water was beach glass of many different shapes and colors.

After poking around on the beach for far too long, we headed back to JCMU. At 5:00, the class was driven into Hikone, where we were treated to dinner at a sushi restaurant! Not just any sushi restaurant -- this was a place where the sushi spins by on a conveyor belt! I didn't even know places like this existed in real life. Anyway, it was extremely tasty and very fun, and there were plenty of vegan options for Steph and me.

The first sushi pictured is made of picked plums (umeboshi) and cucumber, and the second sushi is the especially-tasty bamboo shoot sushi!

And what would be a complete day without the purchase of a choice few cute charms?

The figure with antlers is the new mascot for Nara -- which is where we are headed to tomorrow, by the way. The dinosaur is "Tea-Rex" (he holds a cup of tea and his spikes are tea leaves) and the omamori both depict Hikonyan, the samurai-cat mascot of Hikone Castle.