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.

Journal from 5/25

5/25/2010

Today, we had a delicious breakfast of rice, shiitake soup, tofu-vegetable salad, and cooked spinach. We were dropped off at the Higashiomi city hall to meet the Mayor. We all sat in his office and talked (Mits translated as needed). The mayor mentioned he was surprised that Jorie and I were vegetarian, and that it’s not very common. We took group photos and we were given a pack of beautiful postcards featuring images of Higashiomi and a pin with the city logo on it.

After that, we walked to the ceramics studio, Nunobiiki. It was full of beautiful dishes, cups, mugs, wall plaques, chopstick holders, and sculptures. Mostly, the ceramics feature trees or owls. There’s a shrine near the shop where it’s said owls visit, and owls bring good luck. Jorie & I purchased a wall ornament with two owls, as well as a gift. We were there for a workshop, but the head artist, Taro Kojima-san, was not in for some reason, so his son taught the workshop. We were given pre-made clay cups and instructed how to cut animal shapes out of clay to attach to the cup. I chose an owl and Jorie chose a maneki neko. We cut them out, carved them, and attached them. The cups will be fired in a kiln, glazed, and fired again, which will take around a month. We may get them back when a group comes to Marquette from Higashiomi with the sister cities program.

Next, we had a long walk to the Shiga Gakuen middle/high school. We were served lunch in the cafeteria- Jorie and I had kitsune udon and rice. Then we went to Mayumi Kakimi-sensei’s art classroom for the rest of the day. We split up to different tables with Japanese students and we talked about trees and kanji that include the “ki” or tree kanji. Then, a group of visiting Taiwanese students came in! They spoke Chinese, English, and some Japanese. So we were joined by one Taiwanese student. We made paper “ema” or prayer plaques. I drew a tiger on mine for year of the tiger and Jorie drew a deer. We wrote wish messages on them and exchanged them with the other students. Mine said “good luck in school”. The one I received had the kanji for “dream”. When the students left for the day, a few students came in for after-school art club. We were served snacks and we chatted with the art club students before being picked up by our host families.

Okaa-san then took us to a store selling books, CDs, videos, and stationary & other cute things. She was shopping for cute items for her newly remodeled bathroom & found some cute sweets-shaped candles as well as a "Relakkuma" rug. Jorie & I found really cute bug stickers and magnets, and I found another children’s book to take home.

Okaa-san's blog is here.

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.

Nagahama

So on Saturday, our class took a trip to Nagahama, only 10 minutes away by train. We specifically went to see the figure museum.

The figure museum was just like it sounds- the Kaiyodo companies figures on display. I was a little surprised to find 3 figures I have at home being displayed at the museum! I have a tiny tanuki figure, as well as 2 revoltech transformers. I don't have a whole lot of toys so it's interesting to note that the ones I do have are from Japan.
After the figure museum, we accidentally happened upon a music box store. Filled. With. Ghibli. Merchandise.

I sort of stopped in my tracks for a moment and gibbered and pointed. I didn't really expect to come across a place with so much Ghibli merch. So much cute all in one tiny space! Needless to say, we spent some time there and left with a few things. I bought some handkerchiefs (useful for tying up lunches/bento) an eye pillow (can heat or freeze) shaped like o-totoro, and a gift for a friend.

We then explored the streets of Nagahama, particularly the Otemon St. shopping district. The street is packed with shops and restaurants. The shops were selling glass items, a specialty of the area, kimono and other traditional clothing supplies, and of course tons of souvenirs and pretty things. We blew through some money. A little. Maybe. We got lost trying to use the map (TWICE) trying to find other destinations, particularly a temple and shrine. But we eventually found one of them.

Of course at some point we were incredibly hungry. We had a very difficult time finding someplace with vegan food. We were ready to give up and eat snack crackers a vendor was selling, when our professor appeared and pointed us to a restaurant with zaru soba. We were very grateful.

Zaru soba is definitely our fall-back food. There is likely bonito (fish) in the tsuyu dipping sauce, but compared to the meat and eggs in all the other dishes.. it's enough. And the restaurant was really nice; the soba was delicious.
It was an adventure, for sure. Lots of exploring, trying to communicate, shopping, and dashing to the train station to go home. We had a good time in Nagahama.

Now, we're off to our host families. If we don't have internet access there, we won't be updating until we get home, but I think we have enough content to keep making blog posts for quite some time, so keep checking back!

A Day Off

On the way back home from Nara, it was decided that Sunday would be a free day -- a day for study, but mostly, a day to let our feet recover from all that walking around. We were very thankful for this change of plans, as our syllabus originally had us going to Kyoto on Sunday.

Steph and I slept in until 8:30! It felt very good to get lots of extra sleep. We attempted to do laundry and had a heck of a time trying to decipher the washing machines. Eventually, I think we succeeded, and afterward we both air-dried and machine-dried our clothes. Since machine-drying isn't very common here and is energy-using, you must pay for it at JCMU. The center also has a clothes-drying room, which was really interesting to use. Basically, there are bars across the windows, allowing the outside air to come freely into the space, and dry the hanging clothes faster.

At around one-ish, we left with a group of classmates, walking to the strip mall and supermarket. It was a beautiful day outside and very warm... upon finally reaching the supermarket, we found it was very much like the Japanese version of a Walmart... only busier and filled with things we couldn't read! With some difficulty, we found most of the food we needed.

It's interesting to note that rice -- which we bought -- comes in 5-lb bags at the smallest and is also very expensive. It was the most pricey thing we bought! On the other hand, certain Japanese foods and ingredients, which we are accustomed to paying a good deal for in the U.S., are often relatively inexpensive. Fruits, too, such as apples, are also quite pricey.

Loaded with groceries and hungry, we spotted a taiyaki dealer outside the supermarket!

At one-hundred yen apiece, we grabbed four, and gobbled them down on a bench outside.

Steph and I know almost no conversational Japanese, but between asking the cashier if the store took Visa and telling the taiyaki vendor we wanted four azuki bean taiyaki cakes, we managed alright. There was a whole lot of broken Japanese, broken English, and hand gestures going on, that's for sure.

We took a relaxing walk home along Lake Biwa, and got to JCMU at last! Here's a picture of our haul from the supermarket:

That night, the class got together and made kitsune udon for everyone to eat. Steph and I made onigiri with the rice, nori, and furikake that we purchased. It was a tasty dinner! As the class ate and laughed, Oba-Sensei detailed how he was in a few episodes of Power Rangers... or something. It was quite the night.

Day 1

So Jorie detailed the travel adventure from which I am still recovering. We’ve done a bunch of other things on our first day here at JCMU, so I’m going to talk about that. Before I do, I have to mention that it’s beautiful around here! I feel so disoriented- I usually know all the plants and animals around me in Michigan, but here, I don’t know any of them.