4 Days in Kyushu!

We have really entered the final stretch. When you're only in Japan for two months, you really feel like time goes by fast. Perhaps that is what makes the program so intensive. After getting back from Kyushu I have little over a week left to accomplish everything that needs to be done. Once again, poor bloggie blog falls to the wayside.

But never fear, for I will not let a second pass without giving the complete synopsis (oxymoron) of my escapades in good ol' Kyushu!

So, here's the itinerary for the trip, as usual sent a few days in advance of our departure.
Sunday: Leave Kyoto at 9:29AM for Hakata Station on Nozomi 9 (that's a bullet train's name). We arrived around noon for lunch at a local restaurant. This lunch highly resembled all of our Hiroshima dinners at the Aki Grand Hotel, except that this time food did not emerge out of the kitchen unremittingly.

Hakata is actually the old name. The area is now called "Fukuoka." It heralds 1.4 million people, many of which are youths. There is a lot of shopping in the area, and innovative cuisine. That's because young people don't like old things (sorry older folks) and have to mix flavors to make something new and different. I wasn't really sure if I got to try any new and different cuisine in retrospect, but maybe I can let you be the just of that.

We then proceeded onward with the rest of the days events, defined by our hazy itinerary as "explore Fukuoka City, Dazaifu Shrine, etc.). We interpreted this as "free time to wander about Fukuoka" but unfortunately there is not really such a thing as free time. Not when tax payer dollars are burning. This is actually an exaggeration, as we were allowed 20-30 minutes to wander around Dazaifu after our tour guide gave us her most thorough explanation of the elements of the shrine, most of which were unfortunately drown out by cicada noises. It's that time of year, and cicadas are apparently not so partial to our educational objectives. So in terms of important things to know about this shrine (from prior knowledge and what I can recall) it was the secondary home of Sugawara no Michizane after he was previously exiled from the court in Kyoto during the Heian period. This was very unfortunate for him as he was a good man just trying to do his job and was colluded against. He happened to like plum trees, and once exiled his favorite plum trees apparently flew from the court in Kyoto to his new residence in Dazaifu in Kyushu overnight. After he died, his vengeful spirit supposedly cast a number of curses on the capital, so he had to be consoled with a shrine there called "Kitano Tenmangu." He is also considered a scholastic god, so now students pay their respects to him when they want to pass entrance exams for their choice schools.

Sugawara no Michizane had a connection with bulls.

Prior to this we went to a museum, which was supposed to come after the shrine visit but for various timing reasons we ended up there first. The museum is relatively new, featuring ecologically sound heating/cooling mechanisms that bring cool air from the ground in summer and warm air from the earth during the winter. If I understand correctly, it's one of, if not, the first Kyushu museum and took many years to finally bring it to fruition. The museum was actually very interesting, with a main room featuring ancient artifacts from the island and separate, adjoining rooms about Kyushu's history, exhibitions about other Asian cultures, instruments, religions, etc. Actually very interesting but only so much can be said for 20 minutes.


Actually... to be perfectly honest... while most people complained that we couldn't spend enough time at our various destinations it was probably for the best... at least for my attention span.

So the day ended with our hotel (single rooms= yay although tobacco smell was uninvited) and dinner at a traditional local restaurant. "Chicken boiled plain." I can't say the itinerary didn't warn me. Chicken intestines... breasts, ground meat dumplings, livers. What an adventure. My local lunch had already satiated the bulk of my appetite, so I let my comrades take on most of the fray. Still though, we sat for two hours as baskets of vegetables and then rice were "boiled plain" before our very eyes. We were eventually outnumbered and lost, and the remains of chicken boiled plain were scooped into an urn-like jar. Unaffected by the defeat, some of our troops actually celebrated afterward with ice cream.

The next day we awoke to a morning of what seemed to be ambiguous trekking around the city again but turned into yet another shrine visitation and folk craft gallery/museums. This included a demonstration of ancient technology used to weave obi sashes, something I was exposed to on my first trip to Kyoto.



For those of you interested in things like this, my conveniently English museum brochure does a much better of explaining it than I do:

The most famous of Fukuoka's traditional arts and crafts are "Hakata Ori" (woven textiles) and "Hakata Ningyo" (dolls), passed down through the ages by their craftsmen.

Hakata Ori: Approximately 770 years ago, a young Hakata merchant named Mitsudo Yasoemon visited China with a monk (later known as Shoichi Kokushi) and returned having learned techniques in weaving. This technique was passed down through generations to the present. Improvements were made as time continued, and because Kuroda Nagamasa offered this textile to the feudal government of the Edo period, people began to call it "Kenjo (offering) Hakata Ori." Not only obi sashes, but various items such as dresses and bags are made using Hakata Ori textiles there days.

Hakata Ningyo: When Kuroda Nagamasa took over the Chikuzen area in 1600, he gathered together many artisans, and it is said that the unglazed dolls created by these artisans became the base for the current Hakata Ningyo. During the Meiji era, these dolls became world-renowned, receiving high commendations in various international exhibitions, and are now one of Japan's most famous traditional arts. Currently, many traditional Japanese style houses as well as modern western style houses display Hakata Ningyo to create a comfortable space.

And now you know.
Of course, taking photos of the place is prohibited (as is probably copying information out of the brochure verbatim) so we have no choice but to move onto the next topic.

Guess!






Grape picking and wine tasting of course! We are such epicures. But thanks to the energy borrowed from those grapes, I am able to update my blog like this. Thanks sugary sweet grapes. I would dig into my materials and teach you something interesting about this experience, but the things that stood out in my memory will probably suffice.

It was hot. Japanese grapes are very sweet. There was a corgi. Its name was momo. What do grapes have to do with anything?

Okay, so this trip was unrelated to our "farm experience" but was probably the most "farming" we did. We picked three bags of grapes, looking into each bagged bundle through a hole to see if the contents were dark (and ripe) enough for picking.
As always, Japanese take a very gingerly approach when it comes to agriculture (as with most things) but since grapes are actually given and received as gifts, their quality is brought to the forefront. So from a very early stage in their propagation, the number of grapes in a given bunch are reduced to ensure that each individual fruit receives enough sugar, nutrients, etc. And of course, what would happen without these somewhat ridiculous bags? They keep the fruit intact, so you can give beautiful spotless fruit to you farmstay host family the next day....

...by the way, the next morning we left the hotel and ventured on to meet our respectiev anticipating host families in Kumamoto prefecture. I truly missed enjoying farm fresh food... well, actually I don't think I can say with confidence that I ever enjoyed it given seasonal conflict. But the bottom line is... I really like farmstays for obvious reasons.


After lunch we helped prepare some food for what reason I never truly understood, but am 75% sure was a village festival held that afternoon.

They paraded throughout town, beating drums and riding horses, finally arriving at the shrine where they carried the mikoshi (which contains a god) on their shoulders while the preceding ghostly women carried boxes of food on their heads. Once they arrived at main shrine, the circled it around 7 times, which we did not stick around to watch until its conclusion.

Instead we returned home for a barbeque, nagashi somen and awkward conversations with the festivals participants (basically only men) while occasionally declining offers to eat some raw horse meat.

Behold nagashi somen!

Take some noodles
Put them in a half-open bamboo shell
Grab some somen! Or else it will slip away.
I'm not lying. Why go through all this trouble just to eat some noodles? I never figured it out, but..well.. why not?

Anyways, trying to sum up the rest of my stay with words is impossible. I enjoyed an awesome night with our host family, their extended family with three children, whose elementary school-aged daughters' favorite foods are meat and konbu, a type of seaweed.
I think it's only in the countryside where you can relax and just have a nonchalant barbeque. After my young hostess was finished biking around the driveway, she found me in the guest room and informed me that we were free to do as we pleased, instructing me to use the fan if I got hot, etc. And then she proceeded to run amok in the front yard with the other neighborhood kids. As it turns out, we were staying at a minshuku, a private home provided lodging for travelers. I think that our presence was far from unusual, in spite of being foreign.
From here on out pictures do a better job of explaining and words just take up space and time, so aside from captions, I will sign off here! Look forward to the next blog post (if it comes to fruition).
In Japanese, it's perfectly acceptable to say "kuuki ga oishii" or "the air is delicious." With the vegetation in full bloom in the midst of summer, it's safe to say that this was no exaggeration.

And as I viewed the early morning landscape laying before Aso-san, which had dramatically changed from what was cold and barren a little over a year ago, the scent of the air somehow made me nostalgic.

I'm back! But not for long...

What an adventurous two weeks!

I type this with a vague sense of chagrin mixed with amusement, as I actually began writing this entry last week with the intention of having it up by last weekend, but I got caught up in other projects and such and sadly it was left to the wayside.

And now I am on the verge of my second trip! (This time to Kyushu!) This morning the bullet train leaves around 9:30, so I am taking advantage of this fortuitous bout of awakeness to fit this entry in (and then I will proceed to sleep the whole way to Kyushu).

So I spent last Wednesday afternoon at an earthquake/disaster center which was surprisingly close to where I live (about only one station away). It was for our project class, in which we discuss and look into a range of topics about Japan each day.

So the disaster center is basically a place to get informed about preparatory measures to take amidst disasters. This involves experiencing the conditions and running through safety drill in said conditions. The center’s introductory video sort of gave away the activities, although I guess those who are faint of heart knew what to expect.

It was sort of like a theme park actually.

First we entered a small room and were blown on at typhoon force winds (30m/s although I in a separate diagram it seems that in the past typhoon winds have gotten up to 70m/s)

Quiz question: What is the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon?

Hurricanes develop in the Atlantic. Typhoons develop in the Pacific.

I guess I can’t fool you.

So I hesitate to say that I’ve never been blown on so hard before except that I’ve ridden some fast roller coasters. But it was a lot of wind—enough to blow a bicycle away! Afterwards, I felt really energized for some reason. Like it was actually a blast of energy… a very tingly sensation.

Other events included an earthquake chamber, in which we were subjected to a rigorous earthquake that shook us for awhile on the strongest level on Japan’s earthquake scale.

Basically, four of us at a time were told to enter the room and crouch underneath a kitchen table until the shaking subsided for a bit, during which we got up to turn off the gas, stove and open the door, and then ducked back underneath the table to be shaken up again.

It felt like being in a washing machine.

In retrospect, I wonder if there was anyone who really didn’t want to be put in a washing machine.

I guess you kind of have to take some risks when coming to Japan.

Quiz question 2: Why would you open up a door for an earthquake?

A. To ventilate the room.

B. To keep the roof from blowing off.

C. To allow you to escape in case the door frame is bent out of shape.

D. To let your neighbors in.. they might need to take cover too!

And the answer is C! Of course, the answer is always C! Or whichever is longest.

(Earthquake information)

After that, we enjoyed some fire drills. This involved watching a humorous video of people trying to escape from a burning hotel and then running through a series of smokey rooms following an exit sign in order to escape. The smoke was not harmless, and in fact, smelled of maple syrup. However we were instructed to not stick around and wait for pancakes, but to find the exit.

The very last exhibition wasn’t really disaster related (although some people might disagree). The last drill was… becoming an old person! Apparently as you get older, your joints stop working and you can’t really swivel your neck and ankles as much. In order to simulate this, we had to wear what I would call “elder-gear,” but it was really just there to inconvenience us. We put it on like obedient slaves and proceeded to walk up some stairs, get in a bathtub, bump into a stove (I didn’t really get the stove part) etc. This was followed up by a truly fear-invoking preview as to how you hear (or not) sounds as you get older. The conclusion I have arrived at is that out of all the natural disasters I experienced, getting old is probably the most terrifying.

Afterwards we traveled back to our apartments. It was really a joke how close we were to them. As in “Hey, this place was in our backyard the whole time.” Basically the pachinko parlors were our first indication back that we were headed in the right direction.

Afterwards I invited my peer tutor over and we made Napolitan, Japan’s special spaghetti. Special is probably the only way to describe a spaghetti made with ketchup. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ia2kEaq1d0

Now, I can’t say that I am a good chef. I can say that I like cooking, but everyone has their own methods. I do like to measure portions out and use as many ingredients as I can, but living in a apartment for a month, I am content just to “eyeball” everything that needs eyeballing. I seem to have forgotten what country I am living in. Needless to say I bought the wrong kind of mushroom (shiitake is not acceptable?) I also seem to have bought the completely wrong kind of pasta (what kind of ketchup-spaghetti is this? If you’re going to make ketchup-spaghetti, you’d better make it the right way by not improvising ingredients. You’d better not think about trying to exchange ketchup for actual tomato sauce either.)

All things considered, it actually turned out to be a pretty tasty dish. Definitely something to consider making if you’re a poor college student.

Thursday was .... class was… well…

Melody on Wednesday night: I bet that presentation was tomorrow…

Melody on Thurday morning: I wonder if that presentation is today…

Melody first period: According to the syllabus, that presentation is next week!

Melody second period: Then what are we doing in class today?!

Melody at lunch: I should really finish writing out my presentation at least.

Melody at presentation class: Oh….too late.

Meanwhile..

Melody’s classmate: I had my Japanese friend teach me all this formal language just for this presentation!

Other classmates: We are great a winging presentations! Here is some fantastic vocabulary that we had sitting around.

Melody: Oh shoot….

As if my luck wasn’t finished running out, I got on the wrong train and didn’t have enough time to return home to prepare for GION MATSURI.

Gion maturi is one of Japan’s three largest festivals, centered in Kyoto around Yasaka Shrine.

It began during the beginning of Japan’s Heian period (869 AD), when an epidemic swiped through the capital (which at the time was Kyoto of course!) and 66 hoko (current meaning is festival floats… maybe they were actually lances back then) were erected in prayer to the deity Gion, to dispel the malaise. Later on in the Ounin era (Late 1460s) the festival was suspended and wasn’t resurrected until 1500, by local business leaders. Since then, tapestries have been imported from countries like China, Persia, Belgium to decorate the floats. The floats themselves are quite extravagant, and have been called “moving art museums.” And yes, they are moved around the city, in spite of being extremely heavy and weighing several tons. Apparently, people actually volunteer to move these things, and not just Japanese… study abroad students volunteer to help move them too… Nowadays in addition to hook there are yama (mountains) and collectively they are called “yamaboko.”In total, there are about 23 of these floats, and I was assigned to go research one called “the chicken boko.”

It does sound pretty ridiculous, but it actually has an interesting story behind it. Basically, in the Yao Period of China, there was an emperor who asked his people to bang a drum and write down their complaints if they had any. As it turns out, either there were no complaints and everyone was happy, or the emperor did a lousy job of advertising this, since the drum was never touched. In fact, moss started to grow on it, and chickens made it their home. Therefore, the chicken (not the drum) has come to symbolize peace and contentment.

Maybe that is saying something about a system of government that is so representative that citizens can avoid bureaucracy and get their point across by hitting a drum.

But in order to be Japanese, you don’t really need to know this. You just need to know that every year around this time, there’s a festival and it gets very crowded around Shijo, so you should probably make plans to go somewhere else that night or just stay inside.

So back to the festival-- It lasts through June but the main days are the 15-17^th.

The 15^th is called yoi yoi yama. The 16^th is just yoi yama. The 17^th is just yama. Or so you would think, but it’s actually the day when the floats are carried around the city.

Since I bought a ¥350 yukata, I was planning to wear it at least once. Initially I was going to go on Thursday when it was least crowded, but I didn’t have enough time to prepare and just decided to stay home. And then a friend invited me to go for a walk and we ended up at the matsuri! Hooray!

As expected, it was crowded, but not intolerable.

Also as expected, there was a ton of food stalls and places selling beer and meat!

As tempting as beer and meat are, however, I settled for candied strawberries and pineapple at this charming booth.

Who lives in a candied pineapple under the sea?

The following day I went on a class trip to a museum of Japanese sweets. I somehow felt like I had something to do with this trip being planned, since I suggested it as a topic to do a project on. However, I didn’t actually eat any sweets! Shame on me.

Later that night, though, I went back to Shijo with some friends to go shopping and we ended up back at the perimeter of the festival! It was so refreshing to see Japanese people wearing yukata inside of electronics stores, and anywhere for that matter. I almost wished I was wearing mine…except…

So time got away from us and we stuck around the side of the river where all kinds of youth and people who do demonstrations with fire hang out until the wee hours of the morning. Except that the last train comes at midnight. Or just before midnight. And it is 11:30. どうしよう？

We picked up the pace as we ran nearly half a mile to get on the last train and avoid a hefty taxi fee! The only casualty in the scramble was a pen that fell out of my bag as I wrestled to get my wallet out… a dearly missed tool of mine. I feel like I should hold a ceremony for its loss. But the feeling of arriving on the train after running that much was out of this world!

The following Sunday I visited my host family after a week of separation anxiety. They took me out for lunch for my favorite chanpon noodles!

Then we proceeded to Hikone and Hikone castle!

The castle itself had a nice view, but being a Sunday it was quite crowded, in spite of the heat...

Hikone has this famous little character called "Hikonyan" (Hiko-meow.. roughly)

He wears a kabuto helmet!

Then we headed for the city's main streets. There are stores selling hand-crafted glass beads, ware, etc. Very lovely. In addition to Hikonyan, right now these three sisters from a historical drama were all the rage throughout town, with their own plushies being sold everywhere.

And so the week resumes onward. Monday business as usual...Tuesday was a little unusual.

I've never known of a "duty" of having to pay for owning a T.V. Apparently I have not experienced enough of Japan. So when someone comes round to my door telling me,　受信, or reception, I am very excited with the prospects of receiving more channels, especially when there are so many annoying ones that I can't receive. And then, when someone says, there's an "obligation" to pay or something... well, that is understandable. It's not really rational to expect free channels out of nowhere. And when they tell me they have a receipt for me (this is really as far as my Japanese is taking me at this point, since the indirect language of businesspeople is like a whole 'nother language in itself), I just think "Oops, I guess I pressed a wrong button and ordered some channels by mistake and now have to pay." So I paid.

Well, this is Japan after all, so of course you can't go around expecting there not to be rules for comparatively irrational things.

Apparently, Japan has a system in which people with a T.V. have to pay a fee to receive channels, regardless of whether or not they want them...

http://pid.nhk.or.jp/jushinryo/multilingual/english/index.html#link03

That's right..anyone with a television set is required to pay. Even people living in dorms. I wonder how they keep track of who T.V. s though.

And as if that weren't abrasive and harrowing enough, I also had to put up with a typhoon! (Come on, give me a break). It wasn't very serious, but serious enough to get me out of morning classes for a day! And thanks to my training at the earthquake center, I was so prepared to deal with whatever bicycles and whatnot that might come flying my way.

Much to my disappointment, there were no high speed winds that left me clinging to railings, but there was a light misty rain that made things nice and chilled off.

There were still afternoon classes, however not for us! Instead, we had our weekly cultural excursion. And to where else, but the international manga museum!
Hmm, well I can't say that everyone was entirely excited about it, but it was interesting to see the place, and since it is conveniently in Kyoto, it wouldn't make sense not to go, right?
According to my host family, the building was actually once an elementary school at which the grandmother of the family had worked. Very nice architecture and location. It kind of almost didn't feel like a museum, but a really old library.

And since then... there is really nothing much to speak of. My electronic dictionary died, so I was considering getting a new one. But I'm not so keen to put forth upwards of $400 to buy something I may never use again. I'm afraid I may have to go without for the rest of this stay, which as inconvenient and handicapping as it is, might just spare me some effort of always having to jostle it out again.

Or I could just get an IPOD touch and download all those dictionary apps... promising much?
In all honesty, I could really use one consolidated device. I could use a new computer and phone and IPOD anyway... could it be time for me cave in and purchase an iphone, since everyone who's anyone in Japan has one anyway? Or should I just wait until a really useful phone-computer-mp3 playing dictionary comes out... or is that, by definition, an iphone?

Anyways, this has little relevance to Japan, so carrying onward...

I am going to MY SUPER FAVORITE KYUSHU in T minus 2 hours! I am super excited, which is why I woke up at 5:30 AM even though I went to bed at 2 AM... The travel bug is insidious.


So I get my fill of local things! Local restaurant. Local cuisine. Local family. FARM STAY.
Definitely the most anticipated point in my journey. So I will take lots of LOCAL pictures and eat lots of LOCAL food and bring back some good LOCAL stories to share with y'all.

Until next time!

Everything in the world condensed into one post!

*Deep breath*

It's been a long day of getting settled in and running around Kyoto.

Nevermind that I just ran to Hiroshima, to my NEW APARTMENT, back to Shiga and back to MY NEW APARTMENT.
Apparently I also have an audience and expectations of humor to live up to.

So I will see what I can furnish with today's post, as I sit here with the lights dimmed in MY NEW APARTMENT, watching the gliding kintetsu intersect the glittering cityscape and feeling oh so posh in MY NEW APARTMENT.

Oh, if only you could see it.

Oh well! So here's a rundown of any interesting aspects of my life (essentially, whatever is left on my camera that I haven't uploaded yet) since my last post!

I left my host family last week on Wednesday. The last day to fulfill promises--

Update from MY NEW APARTMENT: There is an incredibly obnoxious screeching sound that makes me think that my old bus driver in high school somehow managed to conduct a train and decided to employ one of her insidious "brake checks."

(back to regularly scheduled programming)
--made throughout the course of one month. I had to visit the neighbor and meet her son, standing underneath an umbrella only halfway wearing my shoes since I packed everything else already. I had to paint the character 堂, as my host mother used to teach calligraphy. Such things had been put off, but I was mainly looking forward to the calligraphy. I had meant to join the calligraphy club at Doshisha, but I think their meeting time evades me and my crazy schedule.
(For the record, 堂 means "hall" as in "mess hall" or places where food is served, but it also means "magnificent")

So I went to school that morning feeling excited to come home early since I didn't make any plans for the afternoon. And then I looked at the schedule and saw that I had written that today was the day our project class was going to go to the super-cool-earthquake-experience-center-where-you-can-actually-experience-an-earthquake-for-real. bummer. Not because I don't like super cool earthquake experiences, but because it was supposed to last until 4. I texted my host mom and sulked until 2nd period, when my teacher announced that afternoon classes were canceled (I didn't realize that the earthquake experience had been postponed, so look forward to that soon~)

So I got some birthday presents and went home. Today was the birthday of my twin host sisters! I painted 堂 after many failed attempts and prodding to correct my posture and adjust the intensity of my brushstroke. My host mom nevertheless contended that all of those would be my "early works."

And I got socks!



The next morning the rain set the mood as I left my host family for Hiroshima. After disembarking from the Shinkansen, our tour guide greeted us with info about Hiroshima.
You might think it is just a place where you just learn about peace and atomic bombs, but that is not only the case. It's main industry is not peace, but automobiles! It is the base of Mazda (actually, the founder's name was "Matsuda"). "Hiroshima" itself means "wide island" and with 6 rivers running through it, it is also known as "水の都” or "the water capital." There are upwards of 1000 bridges.
It's mascot is also a carp! (Only now did I realize the connection).
I also just realized that this might also have something to do with the facade of one of the main department stores in Hiroshima, which is textured to resemble carp scales.

But this is not entirely as exciting as okonomiyaki!

Hiroshima-yaki is different from Tokyo's style because the ingredients are layered instead of mixed together and then cooked. Hiroshimans (?) don't actually call it Hiroshima-yaki though. Would you call New York pizza "New York pizza" if you were from New York? (Okay okay, enough with food analogies and more mouth-watering representations, if you decide to call it that).

Afterwards the day sobered up a bit as we went to the atomic bomb dome, memorial museum and listened to a "hibakusha," someone who experienced the bomb tell us her story. It was a very devastating blast, as you might imagine. Afterwards, a reporter remarked that greenery wouldn't emerge in Hiroshima for 17 years. As a result, countries began to send plants of every kind to Hiroshima, and it came to be known for its greenery. (This is not really a the place to insert a joke, but it must really help to be the capital of water when you have that kind of demand).



Afterwards we retired to the hotel, which reminded me a bit of the one we enjoyed in D.C. beforehand, save the Japanese-style rooms and public baths. Yes, even Americans can be shameless enough to strip down nudey-nude in front of each other and strangers if it means we get to sit around in boiling hot water.

Pretty hotel scenery!

The next day we went on a fishing trip on Oojima island! What in the world does that entail? Have you ever heard of soran bushi, the Japanese fishing dance? In the dance you kind of pull on a rope and lift up a net full of fish. It is a very strenuous, 3 minute-long dance. Surprisingly, it is a bit more strenuous when you're actually dancing with a fishing net. First, we were cautioned not to touch the red fish since they could be full of poison that could send you to the hospital. And then we split into two teams and the ultimate tug-of-war ensued. Teams? Well, two teams gripped at opposite ends of the net as we pulled it on shore. At first it seemed we would be eating a lot of seaweed for lunch (in retrospect, I wish we had). Then, small flopping fish emerged. Then, many many more tiny fish emerged (I want to say they were miniature mackerel). Sometimes more substantial fish made appearance. A few desperate octopi were crawling out of the water, then decided it was a really bad idea and tried to slither in the opposite direction, only to get fondled by us crazy Americans. there were also squids inking up the place.

Don't pescetarians have rough moments like these too?

Of course, pescetarians might actually enjoy fishing and don't mind dragging a dull knife through a fish gut and scooping out its organs. I certainly don't, but somehow felt obliged to since I witnessed the demonstration. Meanwhile other people made sashimi, cooked squid and boiled octopus, and fried tiny tiny fish whole. One student remarked that he would have enjoyed it more if the fish chose a little more savory last supper.

By the way, in Japanese the words for fish, fishing and fisherman sound nothing alike.

On the bus ride back to the hotel, we made a brief pit stop to the island's "michi no eki" which are pit stops clearly geared towards getting tourists to purchase souvenirs of orange jam from the island. Apparently oranges used to be pretty rare but were a staple commodity for the island. There were also some rhinoceros beetles in jars sucking on fruit jelly snacks that appeared to be on sale. I didn't bother to ask.

After getting back to the hotel, we were presented with our amazing dinner. It was traditional Japanese style, which means that plate after plate of food comes out and just when you think you're done, another plate emerges. And of course, aside from the ubiquitous fish there were textures and flavors and colors that most of us have never experienced before. It was as adventurous and palate pleasing as it was painful. In case you were wondering, I took pictures of everything that came out the second time around. I have about 12 of them.

After dinner we had a short moonlight cruise on a scary dragon boat and got our first glimpse of Miyajima island, and "checked in" to the shrine, as we would visit it the next day but there is no way to officially greet the kami-sama there.


We also saw Buddha's sleeping figure. Can you see it?

The next day we went to Miyajima island for real and had an entire hour or so to wander around. Considering the amount of things there were to see, it was really insufficient. (It kind of reminds me of an island in the Chesapeake Bay in MD/VA whose occupants are paltry and consist mainly of older fishermen and tourists who want to try delicious seafood and 12-layer cake minus the 12-layer cake. And plus the ravenous paper-eating deer.)








You should look into Miyajima more for your own education though, since this post is already too long. And then you can teach me about it!
I wanted to see the Daishoin shrine, but there was not enough time. I was lucky enough to run into this fellow though. Look familiar? (See previous post)

And that just about sums up the experience de Hiroshima, etc. Our next class trip will be to a farm in Kyushu that I am looking forward to!

I am just about ready to test the softness of my bed to see if it changed any since yesterday, so since you were loyal and read through this whole post, you get some pictures of MY NEW APARTMENT!!



...and the long-awaited excuse to use my camera's night-cityscape mode!!