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Nara, Osaka, Hiroshima

There’s so much that I have done in the past couple days. First, there was Nara. Nara is a city outside Kyoto that is famous for the deer that are everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE. I think we walked about 10 miles around Nara and there wasn’t one time we didn’t see a deer walking around. It was pretty spectacular. We got to even feed the deer, in which they proceeded to bite me. I guess they really wanted to deer cookies we bought.

We then headed towards the Todaiji Temple. The temple was full of amazing statues and a huge Buddha. It was insane thinking about how it was built back in the 1600s since it’s the world’s largest wooden building.

Moving onto Osaka, we left Kyoto at about 11 a.m. in the morning and headed to Osaka. Once getting there, we found out hostel and dropped off our stuff. After this, we met up with an old friend who studied abroad at WSU for a year and went to the Aquarium. We saw sharks, otters, seals, dolphins, and the usual sea animals. It was a pretty amazing aquarium especially since it was right by the ocean.

After the aquarium we went and had ice cream (melon flavored!) and okonomiyaki. We then said our goodbyes and headed back to the hostel we were staying at. Since we wanted to adventure around the area, we went to the mall close by and ended up getting some Starbucks and looking at the Christmas decorations that were up. After this, we headed back to the hostel and watched some shows and went to bed.

The next day we went to Osaka castle and the downtown area. At Osaka castle we were able to learn about the famous invasion that was done by the shogunate that eventually lead to his control of the country. It was an interesting experience, but I would have preferred if the castle still maintained some of its culture instead of being completely turned into a museum. After touring the castle, two Japanese women came up to us and ask us if they could take a picture of us individually in front of the castle holding this famous bear character called “Rilakkuma”. Apparently they were imitating a famous music video in Japan for their friend’s wedding. It was very…..interesting. I sometimes feel like a celebrity here. I think I have had my picture taken at least 100 times in the past 2 weeks. Apparently some of the Japanese people here think that foreigners are exotic and make for good pictures?

After this encounter, we went to the downtown area in Osaka that is famous for its food, comedy, and of course the Running Man! We tried to look for a restaurant that some friends recommended to us but got lost trying to find it several times. However, we found it in the end and were very satisfied.  Overall, Osaka was a very fun town that had a lot going for it. I really enjoyed being there.

Now, onto Hiroshima. Today we went to the Peace Memorial Museum. However, after we were done looking at the Atomic Bomb Dome, some students who happened to come from a school that was 10 minutes away from my college in Tokyo came up to us. They were on a school excursion with two of their teachers. In order to practice English, they had to come up with questions to ask us about certain subjects about Hiroshima. It was hard finding an answer to some of their questions, like “What do you think of the atomic bomb that was dropped in Hiroshima in World War II?” and etc. How am I suppose to completely communicate my feelings on a touchy subject in simplified English? I know that the new generation of students probably aren’t as impacted by what happened in World War II, but I still feel somewhat guilty that their past ancestors were burdened by my country. But, I guess that goes both ways. There was a woman who was showing the students around that was one of the main English interpreters for the museum. She also was a survivor of the atomic bomb. She explained to us what had happened back then, and even told us that her deceased husband was one of the main directors of the museum and also acted as a translator for Caroline Kennedy. It was a very rewarding experience.

We then went into the museum and saw the many disasters of what the atomic bomb brought. I heard stories about kids dying in the fires, people drinking the black nuclear rain in desperate need of water, and the overall damage the bomb brought to the city. Some of the exhibits were hard to look at. I saw pictures of people burned and some clothes from school children that had died that were preserved. It was a very emotional day for me, but I’m glad I went. I will leave it there for now, but tomorrow I get to go to the famous shrine in the water in Miyajima and then back to Tokyo later that night (Yay for a 12 hour bus ride!). Until then, ja ne.

– Amy

Kyoto

Well, it has been two days since I’ve arrived in Kyoto. We took the overnight bus on the 1st and arrived in Kyoto at 6 a.m. on the 2nd. We went to go find a Starbucks, but got completely lost and ended up running into a temple. We enjoyed the sight, then finally went all the way back to the station and found a Starbucks. After relaxing for awhile, we went on to find our hostel…..but we ended up getting lost again. After searching for our hostel for a good hour or two, we finally made it. We dropped off our stuff and went to go get a tour in the imperial palace. It was so amazing. I was baffled when I thought about how the emperor of Japan used to walk the same grounds I was walking on.

After the palace, we went back to our hostel and relaxed for a bit before going to Gion, the geisha district. We wondered around, but saw no geishas. However, we did see two temples at night all lit up. One being the famous water temple. It was breathe taking. It almost didn’t look like it was real. The trees were full of red, and the lanterns lit up the place. However, we had to leave to go catch our bus. We went back to Gion (and finally saw a geisha), then got completely lost again. However, we found our way eventually and got back to our hostel.

Today, we went to the two places that I really wanted to go. One, being the fox temple. It was everything I could have imagined. The thousands of tori gates all lined up to make a perfect pattern of orange and black. We sadly didn’t make it to the top since it would have taken too long, but we did manage to go far enough to take some pretty cool pictures of me waving the flag (Go Cougs!)

After the fox temple, we went to the Golden Pavilion. We made it just in time before they were about to close the park. Since we didn’t get to stay for too long, I can’t say much about it except that it looks exactly like the pictures I’ve seen before. It was like a dream come true.

We ended up finishing our night by going to a bar close by our hostel. It was super small and cute, and best of all the name of it was “Bow Country”. Or as my friend Kyle Collins would put it, “Boooooooow Country”. We ended up practicing our Japanese with the owner and his daughter. It was an unique experience that I would have never gotten to do in the states. 

Well, that’s it for now. But, I will be hopefully posting more soon.

 

– Amy

Looking Back

Sorry for the long hiatus, everyone. Between classes, finals, traveling, and moving out I have been extremely busy. I have gone to a lot of places that I wanted to talk about, but for now I just want to look back at my experience here at ICU. Today was the day that we were forced to move out of the dorm. Therefore, a good amount of people have left (or are leaving). I never thought that I would be impacted by so many people in just over three months. Coming to Japan, I expected to make friends, but I never expected that I would become so close with so many people. This week has been one of the hardest weeks of my life. It’s hard saying goodbye to some one when you don’t know when will be the next time you will see them. To put it simply, I am tired of saying goodbyes. I feel as though that’s all I’ve been saying in the past two years of my life. Although I had to say goodbye to some really close friends, the memories I have made with them will always be with me and won’t be forgotten. I know that someday I will see everyone again, even if that day is summer 2020 for the Tokyo Olympics. This has been the best experience of my life, and it wouldn’t be nearly as amazing without all the amazing people that I have met while I was here at ICU. To end on a bright note, I will be leaving for Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima on Monday and will have lots of stories (and pictures of course!) to post about on here. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and I will see all you Washingtonians in just two weeks.

– Amy

Ramen Museum and Ghibli Museum

This past week has been a whirlwind of adventures. This last Sunday, I went to Yokohama with some friends. There, we explored the Ramen Museum, went to the Pokemon Center, and saw the beautiful coastal line. First stop, Ramen Museum.

This place was definitely one I would recommend going to, but only once. We got to explore the museum and see how the first instant ramen was made, as well as learn a lot about the different noodles of the world. My favorite experience though was making my very own instant ramen. First, we got to decorate the cup, then we waited in line and watched them put the noodles in. We then went through the process of picking our broth and toppings. I got the regular broth, sasauge, garlic bits, corn, and cheese. After listing the ingredients out, it kind of sounds gross. I guess I will figure out soon enough!

After the museum, we went to the Pokemon Center. It was filled with various items from the new Pokemon X and Y game. As much as I love Pokemon, I only left with a Pokeball since most of the items were really expensive. After Pokemon Center (and Krispy Kreme!), we split up.

I ended up going with another one of my friends to this tower that will let you see all of Yokohama and the Bay. Apparently the elevator that you take to go up is the fastest in Japan. i could definitely tell it was, when my ears started to pop. Sadly, after this we left Yokohama and headed back to ICU to do homework.

The next day, I went to the Ghibli Museum. For those of you who don’t know, Ghibli is a famous studio in Japan who produces amazing, artistic movies such as: Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc. I have to say, it was probably one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been to. Not only did you get to see some of Miyazaki’s work, but they had a lot of instruments that you could interact with, that showed you how the movies are made in a unique way. We even got to see a short 16 minute film that is exclusive to the museum and won’t be shown anywhere else. Sadly, they don’t allow you to take pictures in the museum, so I don’t have much to show. However, we did end our time there by going to the cafe and getting some oishi(delicious) lattes with the cutest latte art on it. 

Overall, it’s been a good week. Tomorrow is Halloween, and I can’t wait to go out and celebrate it Japan style. I will have to update you all on how it goes. Til then, Ja matta.

 

Aokigahara (Suicide Forest)

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to go to Aokigahara, which is at the base of Mt. Fuji. This particular forest is famous, not for its caves, or for its sea of trees, but for the numerous amount of suicides that happen here each year (around 100). Most gaijin would stick to the temples and towering buildings of Tokyo, however we’re a bit different. Saturday morning we set out on our long journey at 7:10 a.m. We then took about a 2 in a half hour train ride (so many transfers!!) out to the base of Mt. Fuji. Even though it was a long commute, we were still able to see the beautiful scenery of Japan outside of the big city.

Once we arrived, we took another bus that took us all the way out to the forest. After taking the bus, we decided to check out the bat cave. It ended up being really dissapointing since we had to pay 500¥ and didn’t see any bats. Before doing anything too dangerous, we decided to hike to the “kaze hora”, or “wind cave”. However, since the hike lasted a long time we decided to get something to eat at the only place we could. After eating lunch, we entered the cave. Again, we weren’t too impressed. It was still fun to venture around a deep cavern with friends though!

Now, is where the curiosity struck us. We ended up venturing off of the path into an area marked as forbidden. They claim it’s because it’s easy to get lost if you go down that way, however we all know it’s probably because they don’t want you to stumble across a dead body. As we ventured further and further down this path, we sadly found nothing. We decided to give it a break and go to the ice cave instead. The ice cave ended up being the most fun out of all the caves. You went down deep into the cave and have to crawl through spaces that you’re nearly on your stomach for. Once getting to the bottom, you find ice. There’s also a sign that explained how they got ice from the cave back in the Edo Period (I’m assuming).

After the cave, we decided to muster up the courage (and energy!) to go back into a forbidden area. We walked around for 5 minutes, and turned the corner to find a noose hanging on a tree with an umbrella next to it. The body wasn’t there, but it was still eery. What I was looking at was someone’s grave. Apparently there was a note close by it too, but I sadly did not see it. Before we could venture even more in, we had to hike back to catch our bus. It was nice to end the day on a scary, yet exciting note.

After catching our bus to the station, we ended up buying tickets for a bus to take us to Tokyo Station. Less transfers, cheaper, and I get to sleep! It was a lot better than on the way over. We got back to our university around 9:45 p.m. Needless to say, I had a long, eventful day. Even though it was long, it was still nice to get out of the city and go on an adventure that usually tourists wouldn’t have taken.

Cat Cafe

In case some of you don’t know, Japan is known for having various animal cafes such as: dog cafes, cat cafes, and even owl cafes. Since I have been having withdrawals from petting cats, my friend and I decided to go to a cat cafe at the next town over. It was a very interesting experience. Even though we went in the morning when the cats are suppose to be more “genki” (energetic), most of them just wanted to sleep. I guess that’s what being a cat is all about. Also, I’m sure they are tired of having to deal with various humans everyday. Even though the cats didn’t want to be playful, they still all swarmed us when we bought some cat food to feed to them. Everyone in the cafe stared at us and were laughing since we had literally all the cats surrounding us. It was so amusing watching them try and get food from us. There was one who kept eating all of the food we were trying to give to the other cats, so the worker there came up to us and told us to try and not feed it anymore since it had too much. But, we couldn’t help it! It was a selfish cat. Anyways, it was an interesting experience. I probably wouldn’t do it again, but I think if you’re in Japan you should try going to one sometime. Next stop, owl cafe!

Moon Viewing Party

Sorry it took me so long to post this! I’ve been preparing for midterms all week and haven’t had the chance to catch you all up. Last Saturday I went to a Moon Viewing Party hosted by the Musashino Lion Club. We had to sign up for it through the student affairs office here. I feel sorry for the people who missed out on this opportunity. One rule of advice for studying abroad, if your host institution is helping put on a cultural event and wants you to sign up, do it! It’s one of the best ways to experience the culture of the country you are at. For this party, they gave us yukatas (a lighter kimono) to wear. To my astonishment, they let us keep them after the party had ended. It was pretty amusing watching the おばさん(older woman) put my yukata on for me. She kept looking up at me and saying “背が高い！” (you’re tall)！ There was also lots of food (noodles, squid, sausage, takoyaki) and even free beer. After we got done eating, everyone participated in 3 Japanese traditional dances. Even though I’m not the best dancer, I was able to pick it up after awhile. Before coming to Japan, I didn’t think I would get the chance to take part in a traditional dance with other natives. However, I got over my fear of failing and even had some friends brave it with me. We ended the night by lighting off fireworks and doing sparklers. Japanese sparklers are a lot more advanced than ours (at least in my opinion). I even got one that would change colors every 6 seconds or so. However, since I am sort of a clutz, I wasn’t as careful as I should have been. Thankfully I didn’t get hurt, nor did anyone else. But, I was an idiot and put one of my sparlers over my head to get around some one. Once I did this, one of the Lion Club members shouted “ああ！頭！” (Ahh! Your head!). I then quickly put it down, and we both laughed after that. This is why people shouldn’t give me fire. After the party ended, I biked back with two friends and got ready for the rest of the night. Apparently one of the number one clubs in Tokyo was having a deal that students could get in free. One of my friends told me that the club was also the one featured in the movie “Lost in Translation”, but I’m not sure if that’s true or not. We went to the club, and ended up leaving since the music wasn’t very good and because none of us were big on drinking. Since the trains had stopped running and wouldn’t be starting up until 5 a.m., we decided to go to karaoke and then to McDonalds. I ended up getting back to my dorm room around 6 a.m. and passed out until 1 p.m. I don’t regret going though, it was a fun experience. Sorry for the long post. I will try and keep them shorter. Miss you all!

– Amy

Tokyo Game Show and Hosts

Today, I got to fulfill another dream of mine. I got to go to a video game convention! Not only was it a video game convention, but it was in Japan where all video games are originated from. I must say, it was one of the best experiences of my life. Although it was super crowded, it was still a lot of fun. I was even more excited for all the free stuff I got. Hello, Sonic the Hedgehog fan! I got to play some games that haven’t been released yet in Japan or America. Not only did I get to satisfy my nerdy side, but I also got the opportunity to see what a host club would be like (click here if you don’t know what a host club is: Host Club) A company was advertising their new dating sim game by having guys come and sit down with you and talk. When I got up to the line, I was extremely nervous, but my friend convinced me into doing it. They ended up actually having a guy who could speak English since he was an American too. So, I ended up sitting with him and we started speaking Japanese to each other at first, but then switched to English. He got out of character when we spoke English and started having a normal conversation with me. It was kind of awkward because everyone was watching us. He told me that he is going to Sophia college in Tokyo, and that he knows about ICU. I could tell he was happy that he could finally speak English to some one. He then quickly snapped back into character and was saying cheesy lines like: “Did you come all the way to Japan just so you could see me?”. It was pretty funny. We then had to ring a bell to signify love or something really cheesy like that. But, I ended up breaking the bell when we did it (which you will then see me apologizing to the staff in the video) It’s super embarrassing, but watch the video below to see me interact with him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OF1Co21iCE

Back to the convention! I saw the trailer and some gameplay for the new Final Fantasy game and I got chills. It’s hard to believe that the Japanese have found a way to make graphics so stunning in video games. I also ended up playing some other games like Sonic Lost World, Gungdam, Maple Story, etc. Once you play a game, the staff gives you free stuff from that game. For Sonic, I got a fan. Gungdam, a sweet bag! The nerd in me loved everything about today. The only thing I regret is not taking a picture with Sonic the Hedgehog.

– Amy

Video clips of the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfBsZtpRku8

Update

I’m sorry for the lack of posts lately. Classes started this last week, and everything has been pretty hectic. I hope I will be able to update you all on what I’ve been doing soon. For now, I will just say that classes look pretty easy so far. Other than Japanese. I placed into a higher level Japanese, but since I’m taking more classes here than the average student, I went down to the level below mine. I will say this Japanese class is too easy for me, but it’s good to have a review and be reminded of all the vocabulary I’ve forgotten. It also gives me a lot more free time during the week to go out and expierence Japan and join clubs here at the university. Also, my advisor said she would still count this Japanese class as a 300 level course back at WSU. So, everything worked out in the end. Miss you all! And feel free to look at the new pictures I just posted.

– Amy