Nara is Amazing

So yesterday (May 15) we went to Nara. We left at 7:30am and took a walk past homes, rice fields, and businesses, several miles to the train station.


We've been in a lot of train stations. They always have kiosks and some places to grab a bite to eat. We've had many tickets (kippu) pass through our hands.

Our first stop in Nara was Horyu-ji. Before entering temples or shrines, you purify yourself by washing your hands and mouth. We just washed our hands, and it seemed like that's what most people were doing. Here's Hannah and Allison doing this.

Horyu-ji is made up of several structures, including (to name a few) the kondo, pagoda, main hall, and yumedono. Beautiful place. It was very crowded and there were many groups of students being led through. Amusingly, many of the students were excited to see our group- especially the tall blondes in the group. Sometimes, they tried out their English on us too.
Here's a little bit of Horyu-ji

Next, we ate lunch at a noodle place, and then we took a bus to Todai-ji. In a word, Todai-ji is amazing. It's the largest wooden structure in the world, possibly only rivaled by the Superior Dome. However, the Dome has NOTHING on this beautiful place. Certainly there is no 49' Buddha inside the Dome. The structure is just overwhelmingly gigantic as you walk up to it. Inside, the statues loom above you. Unfortunately, my pictures from inside were rather poor because it's quite dim inside. But you can understand some scale by looking at the people.

People lit incense before going inside. We did too. Our classmate Matthew (or part of him anyway) is in this photo as he lights incense. It smelled lovely.

There were other sculptures inside, too. It was really amazing to see all of this after having taken Japanese art history at NMU. Some of these art pieces are from a very, very long time ago and have survived in respectable condition. The craftsmanship is remarkable, and the survival of the works (including architecture) is a testament to that. Also inside the building, a gift shop with many, many Buddha and deer souvenirs. Jorie was excited, to say the least. I picked up a bunch of small gifts for friends at home, and some beautiful handkerchiefs.

The day was kind of a blur because we were moving around so much, but I forgot to mention the deer of Nara. As soon as we arrived at Todaiji, we saw the deer. They're everywhere. They're considered sacred, so they're allowed to do whatever they want! Again, Jorie was veeery excited, which is why she's making a separate post just about this deer business. So I'll just say that we all enjoyed feeding the deer Shika Senbei, or deer crackers. Here's one waiting smartly by the senbei kiosk.

It was a very amazing day indeed. We walked a LOT though, and, after taking several (EXTREMELY crowded) trains home, we had to walk the several miles back to JCMU. In the dark. At some point, one of our classmates fell ill and we had to get her a ride back. We were all very concerned but she was okay, thankfully. Most of us opted to walk back after that (rather than get a ride in the car)- Jorie and I wanted to hear the kaeru (frogs) and mushi (insects) at night. We did. The rice paddies are everywhere, so the frogs are also everywhere. They sounded a lot like peepers, with other kinds of frogs joining in too. Instead of ribbit, frogs in Japan say kerokero or gerogero. We also saw stars (hoshi) in the sky, and lovely reflections on the rice paddies. We loved it, but we were also walking on very sore feet. We stopped at the Lawson's convenience store, and then went back to the apartment. Jorie bought a beer, drank it, and then quickly fell asleep.

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.

Byoki

Byoki- sick. That's how I've felt ever since traveling. Today, I spent most of the day in bed, but later I was taken to a local clinic. On the drive there, I got my first real glimpse of the area (we arrived in the dark- side note: it gets dark here around 7pm and gets light around 5am!). It's beautiful. I was feeling really awful but I was overwhelmed to the point of tearing up.
The clinic seemed very nice. The doctor was kind and he gave me two medicines to take. I took one of them shortly after arriving back at our apartment at JCMU, and I felt better quickly. I'm very grateful!I'm really hoping to recover soon, as this has set me back majorly. I can't go out and explore much, and we haven't even gone to the grocery store yet. I can't get better living on convenience center food, right?Since I felt better, when Jorie came back from class, we went outside for a walk. I'd seen a shrine on our way back from the clinic that I wanted to show to Jorie, but we never did find it. I'm thinking maybe it was in the opposite direction, now. However, we had a wonderful walk and it felt good to get outside. We were both in awe the entire time- the lake, the houses, the plants and birds... everything is amazing and new. The way the houses and the trees are together seems very harmonious. It's difficult to explain, but I'll try.
There's agriculture even in areas with houses and businesses. It makes sense and it's beautiful. The yards were small but contained gardens and trees. The grass is allowed to grow tall and blows gracefully in the wind. We came across a small patch of take (bamboo) forest, amongst many other plants, and it smelled so amazing. We gasped when we heard the wind blowing the bamboo around. We saw buzzards and crows and tiny birds, as well as unfamiliar insects and spiders. Being in Japan is kind of like being a kid again. Can't read sometimes, don't know the name of anything, and always in wonder.

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.

Planes and Trains

Hello! It's currently 7:30 PM here in Hikone, Japan, and the sky is quite dark. The past few days have been incredible... both in good ways and in bad ways. Our adventure started at 9 AM in Marquette on Sunday, May 9. Our friends Rachel and A.J., who are watching our pets for the next two weeks, dropped us off at Sawyer Airport outside of Marquette. Most of our classmates -- at least those who were taking this flight -- were already there, waiting. The plane was set to leave at 11:30 AM, that is, until we were notified of a one-hour delay. That one-hour delay soon turned into a two-hour delay, which ultimately became a three-hour delay. The reason? Something was wrong with the plane, and a different plane had to be sent up from Detroit.

Meanwhile, we were told that our 3:30 PM flight from Detroit to Narita would be held until we arrived.

We finally left Marquette around 2:30 PM, riding a rather-small plane, the Saab 340B. It was Steph's first time on a plane, and for a first plane ride, it was quite rough, especially on the take-off and, an hour later, the landing. Still, we weren't at a very high altitude, and it was pretty neat to see Michigan from above. We flew over Escanaba, Traverse City, and Saginaw, and before we landed at the Detroit Airport, we could see the skyscrapers of the city.

Safe Returns

We're leaving in about 42 hours! This week has flown by. We've spent a good amount of time studying Nihongo, particularly hiragana and sentence structure, as well as packing and finding last-minute items. My carry-on bag has my IC seat cushion, my mp3 player and headphones, a moleskine sketchbook and small lined notebook, pens, pencils, a bag of medications (by the way, the pyridium? FAIL!), camera, extra batteries, emergency numbers, passport, Japanese phrase book, hand sanitizer, and earplugs. LET'S DO THIS!
...oh, I'm also slipping in this little guy: a safe returns kaeru (frog). My friend Molly sent this to me awhile back. He usually rides in my car, but now he will be going with us to Japan for good luck. Well, here's hoping we can keep blogging once we're there!

Packing

We depart in less than four days... which is extremely exciting and just a bit scary at the same time! Needless to say, Steph and I have been packing like crazy, and making sure we've got everything that we need for the trip. Among some of the things we're bringing are -

- our Ciroflex twin-lens reflex cameras
- vitamins!
- thin towels (as we've learned that most laundry is air-dried)
- gifts for our host families (yummy things made in Michigan)
- definitely not our kitties Catkin and Hazelnut, though they look very interested:


Until we do leave, Steph and I will be doing some intense studying of Japanese. At this point, I've learned most of the katakana characters, but I'm still very much learning hiragana. Also important is to memorize certain key phrases! The 13-hour flight will also be useful for learning some last-minute Japanese...