Happy Holidays

メリークリスマス！
I hope everyone had a happy holiday season this year!

I try to always spend Christmas with my family, but the cost to come home this year was a little out of my budget. Lucky for me, it is the same for many other foreign students here, so I was still able to celebrate in some way.
Christmas exists in Japan, but it is a bit different from what I am used to. There are plenty of familiar features like Christmas trees, lights, garland, and carols, but that's where the similarities end. Japanese Christmas is a couples' holiday. One person actually told me that they were not going to do anything for Christmas this year because they were not dating anyone. People typically go on a date to eat some KFC (seriously), and then enjoy some "Christmas cake" which is just a sponge cake with some white frosting and strawberries.

This is supposed to be a photo of a huge Christmas tree and the moon...

I celebrated the holidays in the American/European fashion with lots of friends and food. With relatively short notice, I planned a potluck dinner and gift exchange. The Europeans told me that they had never used the term "potluck" before, but they enjoyed the party, and everyone brought great food.

After the potluck, some of us went to Nagoya Port to see some Christmas fireworks! It was a really nice show that had Christmas music and a cute story where a mother explained Santa-san to her child.

Nagoya Port Winter Fireworks. Photo by Sandi Rais 

All of that happened on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day, I had a video-chat with my family before I went to a small party where there was a Swedish mulled wine called glögg and some french fondue and foie gras. It was a great Christmas!

So, now it's almost the new year. The New Year celebration is very important to the Japanese. This is when they usually spend time with their families, visit shrines, and send New Years cards to everyone they know. According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2012 was the year of the dragon, and 2013 will be the year of the snake, so there are lots of snake themed cards and gifts around. The story of the zodiac is really interesting. I found this explanation from Peter Payne on the Jbox.com blog:

 "On the day of the New Year, the Gods (or Buddha, depending on which version you read) declared a race among thirteen animals to come and offer New Year's Greetings. The Ox knew he was the slowest animal, so he started out before the others. The Rat noticed this and hopped on his back, jumping off at the last minute to claim first place. The Ox came in second, followed by the fleet Tiger. The Rabbit was next, with the kind-hearted Dragon behind, who was delayed helping the Rabbit across the river. The Horse ran along then, but the Snake slithered between his legs and startled him, beating him to the finish line. The Sheep, Monkey and Rooster were working as a team to get across the river, and arrived next. Then came the Dog, delayed because he stopped to take a bath along the way, with the Boar coming in last -- he'd gotten confused and climbed the wrong mountain, forcing him to backtrack. The thirteenth animal was the Cat, who had forgotten what day the race was held and asked his friend the cunning Rat, who told him the wrong date. This is why there's no Year of the Cat, and why cats hate rats and mice today."

I still haven't figured out exactly what I will be doing at the moment 2013 arrives, but I know it will be fun. Happy New Year! よいおとしを！

All-you-can-eat

The Japanese are known for having small portions of food with rice for their meals, but there are still various fun and interesting ways for hungry Americans to eat way too much here.  A few weeks back, I visited my very first kaiten sushi restaurant. It's really entertaining. The tables are placed next to a conveyor belt that moves little plates of sushi throughout the restaurant, and you can take whatever you want. At the end, you are charged by how many plates you took. I always have to try one of everything, so I ate way too much on this particular day, but it was totally worth it.

Another amazing feature of Japan is Nomihoudai, or all-you-can-drink. It's quite common, and really fun. For a pretty reasonable price, you get as many alcoholic drinks as you want for 2 hours. At the place I went to most recently, we paid around 3000Yen or $35 for unlimited drinks as well as a set menu of tasty food. I was super full by the end of the 2 hours, but worked off the meal with some hardcore karaoke afterwards.

"Nomihoudai" means all-you-can-drink, and I'm sure you think it sounds wonderful, but it gets even better....
There is also tabehoudai, or all-you-can-eat. For my birthday, I went for tea time at a cafe that specializes in dessert tabehoudai. That's right. All-you-can-eat CAKE! The cafe was in a super ritzy hotel, and the treats were delicious.

Round 1 of sweets

 It's quite popular, so we made a reservation. To begin with, you are served the specialty of the moment. Since it is December, we were given a variety of pretty Christmas-themed treats. After you finish the first plate, you're let loose at an entire buffet of sweets.  As usual, I tried as many things as possible. There was tiramisu, cakes, tarts, fruits, cookies, mousses, and more. So yummy and amazing. It was pretty much the best thing ever.

Me in front of the Sir Winston Hotel. I'm smiling because my belly is full of sugar.

京都 Kyoto!

Last weekend, I spent the weekend in Kyoto with a bunch of my fellow foreign students. We took a bus Saturday morning and tried to get right to the fun stuff, but the rain made Saturday a really terrible day.

Kyoto Station

Merry X-mas

After dropping our stuff off at our hostel, we headed to a popular Buddhist temple called Kiyomizudera to see some Autumn leaves. The Japanese love to go out and enjoy the red leaves (called kouyou 紅葉） in the Fall season. I thought it was a little strange how excited they were about some trees... that is, until I actually saw them for myself. It's incredible how red these leaves get! It's really beautiful. I also heard that the leaves only get this bright once every 10 years, so we're very lucky.

Kiyomizudera was nice, but at this point we were already pretty soggy, so we didn't really stick around and see everything.  We decided to head to Gion for some lunch and try to find some geisha. We didn't see any geisha, but we did find a nice noodle restaurant to help us warm up. After lunch, we tried to find some indoor activities, but it was already getting late, so museums were closing for the day. We eventually decided to go to Nishiki market because it was covered. The market was huge, with lots of traditional food vendors as well as modern groceries, clothes, and souvenirs. We stopped in a cafe where our small group met up with some others, and we basically spent the rest of the evening wandering around that area until we went back to the hostel.

We didn't spend much time at the hostel, but it was very nice. The staff was friendly and tried to explain everything to us in English or simple Japanese.  And, the bunk beds were tatami with futons! I am glad I can say that I've slept on traditional Japanese-style bed.

Sunday was infinitely better than Saturday. The rain stopped, and we were able to do and see a lot more. We got up early and went to a place just outside Kyoto called Arashiyama (嵐山）to see some more Autumn leaves.  There, we went to Togetsukyo Bridge, which was really, ridiculously beautiful. The water, the bridge, and the mountains were just amazing to see.

Walking to and from the bridge, we saw many rickshaws being pulled around. It seems like riding a rickshaw around Togetsukyo Bridge is kind of like the Japanese version of riding a horse-drawn carriage in the U.S.; it's not a practical way to get around anymore, but it's nice for tourists or for special occasions. The rickshaw runners were very impressive. I saw one stop and point out some interesting things to his customers. He was running around carrying full-grown people in a cart, but still had enough energy and breath to be a tour guide, too.

Next, we took a scenic train ride through the mountains. It was really lovely. The crew was very silly and fun. The train would stop at spots that were particularly beautiful, and when something especially  perfect would happen (like the breeze gently blowing red leaves as they fall above the river) the conductor would point out that it is a special service they provide. 「特別サービスです」And, at one point, a guy with a demon mask walked through the aisles, taking pictures with people and cracking jokes. Random.

The train dropped us off at a cute farm area where we walked to the real train station to head back into Kyoto.

Next up was Kinkakuji (金閣寺, Temple of the Golden Pavilion). Also amazing.  The temple is actually painted gold, and with the water and red leaves, it was absolutely beautiful.

After wandering around in the gardens of Kinkakuji, we headed back to Gion district. We still didn't see any geisha, but did get some yummy green tea ice cream parfaits before hopping on a bus back home to Nagoya.

Saturday was pretty miserable, but Sunday more than made up for it. I had a wonderful experience. I am already planning to come back once or twice for hanami (花見）which is the viewing of the cherry tree blossoms in the Spring. Seriously, before coming to Japan, I've never been so into trees.

風邪をひいてしまいました。Caught a cold.

I am loving Japan. My body, however, does not seem to get along as well. My face is breaking out with zits, my hair gets greasy faster, and I get sick more often. Back home, I rarely get sick. This week, I got sick for the 2nd time in 8 weeks!  Some people blame it on the climate, but I think it is actually my own fault for trying to do too much. This weekend, I stayed out late dancing on both Friday and Saturday night. I studied most of the day on Sunday. On Monday, I was feeling a little under the weather, but decided I was going to test out Archery Club and stood around shooting arrows in the cold for over 2 hours. On Tuesday I was sick.

I decided to take a "When in Rome" approach to being sick and wore a medical mask. On any given day, you can see several Japanese people wearing these masks around. I think they're mainly worn to try and keep from passing your sick germs on to those around you, but I've also heard that healthy people sometimes wear them in order to avoid getting sick. After using them for a few days, I realized it is a brilliant idea. I look gross when I'm sick. My nose is red and runny and my mouth is always agape because I can't breath out of my nose. Masks hide all of this. The Japanese really know what they're doing.

So I spent the past few days sleeping and testing out the French cure for colds (drinking entirely too much grapefruit juice), and now I am feeling like myself again, just in time for my weekend trip to Kyoto!

Good Times, Good Fun

I’ve been working hard lately, but I’ve also been (trying) to play hard (for me). On Wednesday, I skipped class to take a trip to Nara. It was an excused absence for foreign students, so it wasn’t terribly rebellious, but I was still excited about it. Nara was beautiful, and I finally got to see some mountains and rice paddies as our tour bus drove through the countryside.

Nara was the capital of Japan from the year 710 to 784, and it has a big park with lots of shrines and temples. The main purpose for the trip was to see Todaiji Temple (東大寺 “Great Eastern Temple”) which houses the Daibutsu ( 大仏　“Great Buddha”). It is a HUGE statue of Buddha.

Nara Park (奈良公園) was lovely, and the weather was perfect. The Japanese even have a word for nice Autumn weather: akibare (秋晴れ), so there’s your language lesson for the day. An interesting thing about Nara Park is that it is home to many tame deer that wander around being friendly and using their cuteness to get food from the human visitors.

In Shinto, deer are believed to be messengers of the gods. These deer are very important to Nara, and they have become an icon of the city. There are many deer-themed souvenirs, and even the city’s mascot sports a fancy set of antlers.

In other news, Halloween was this week. Japan doesn’t really celebrate Halloween…actually, it seems that the U.S. is pretty much the only country that does. It is starting to catch on, though, and we had a few costume parties this week. I made myself a pretty sweet flamingo mask with things I bought at the 100yen shop.

The parties didn’t seem to go quite as I expected them to. The first party was on Monday, and was actually just people wearing costumes, eating cookies, and playing bingo for an hour and a half. The party was only from 7pm to 9pm, and most of us agreed that we should spend more than 2 hours in the costumes everyone went to the trouble to obtain, so we grabbed some drinks from the convenience store and headed to the other dorm where there was hanging out, ping pong, and overall good times.

The second party was on Friday, and was supposed to be more of (what the Western students consider to be) a party. There was music and drinks and another chance for us to wear our costumes. At least, that’s what I heard. I didn’t actually get to see any of this because I went out to an awesome dinner first (which I will describe below), and by the time my friends and I got to the party, there was an ambulance in front of the building and everyone was leaving. Apparently, a young Mongolian had too much to drink and either fell or jumped out of the first floor window. I guess young people making bad life decisions is a universal phenomenon. From what I hear, he is ok, but had to be hospitalized because of his injuries. We were really disappointed, and thought it was an early and abrupt end to an otherwise awesome night, so, once again, we grabbed some drinks from the convenience store and headed to the other dorm where there was hanging out, ping pong, and overall good times.

So, about that awesome dinner. Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) is something everyone should try. It is a life-changing experience. “Okonomi” means “preference” or “as you like it”, and “yaki” is “fried” or “grilled”. You can make it yourself or have the pros do it for you. Here’s how it works:

Receive ingredients.

Mix.

Grill.

Put on the toppings: sauce, dried fish, seaweed, and mayo

Nom!

It’s a great social activity. As much fun to make as it is to eat!

Also, on the way to and from dinner, we got to ride in car! They drive on the left side of the road here, so everything feels backwards and wrong. My friends let me ride shotgun, and I immediately tried to get into the driver’s seat because that would be the passenger’s seat in the U.S. For such a mundane activity, I found it incredibly entertaining.

But wait! There’s more! On Saturday night we went out for dinner and karaoke to celebrate the birthday of our French friend, Delphine. We had a huge group, and Japanese restaurants are small, so we had to split up and go to different restaurants. I went to a place called Sukiya that is a type of Japanese fast-food chain. The food was cheap, but delicious. I went with a dish called gyuudon (牛丼), which is beef on rice. Very yummy.

Then it was karaoke time! Japanese karaoke is far superior to American karaoke. You get your own room, so you’re only singing with your friends. Plus, there’s unlimited soft drinks and ice cream! You can also pay extra for unlimited alcoholic drinks, too. 

Getting into karaoke was a little challenging since we’re very unorganized, but once we got settled into a room we took turns picking songs, and sang most of them together. I’ve learned that songs in English are pretty popular around the world. On the other hand, whenever people got shy, I had to sing all of the songs. “You’re American, so you should know all the words, right?”… it’s a good way to overcome my stagefright, I suppose.

A lot of late nights and great experiences made this an exciting week.

祭り Festivals

I've been to a bunch of festivals lately and learned about some interesting Japanese traditions. The festival for the city of Nagoya is very large, with several parades and musicians and lots of food. They even re-enacted some historical battles!

Other events were smaller for the local neighborhoods. At a Shinto shrine near Nagoya University, I participated in mochi-nage, or mochi throwing.

People gather around and some participants toss mochi into the crowd. It was pretty scary. The old Japanese ladies are really competitive and they push and shove their way to the front so they can get the most mochi. Also, even though most of the throwers tried to gently toss the mochi, they are pretty dense, so if they hit you in the head, it hurts. I went with the "hold the bag open above my head and hope for the best" approach, and I caught one mochi! The people who actually tried caught around 5 mochi.

The spoils!

Although many festival events are now secular, they are based on religious celebrations. An important part of any festival is when a large group of people carry a portable shrine called mikoshi through the neighborhood. I *almost* got to help carry a heavy mikoshi at the Katayama Shrine Festival. Unfortunately, the event was rained out... BUT! we still got to try on the traditional hanten jacket and some really complicated wrap-around pants called momohiki. And since there were supposed to be a lot of people working hard to carry a heavy mikoshi, there was a lot of food provided, so we got a nice lunch and they let us take home the extras. As a poor international student, I really appreciated their generosity.

Not Lazy: Class Round-up, Castles, and Engrish

Well, I don't have to worry about feeling lazy and aimless anymore, because now I'm super busy. The intensive Japanese course I enrolled in is, in fact, intense.  I have Japanese grammar, conversation, reading, and listening for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Plus, the instructors speak almost entirely in Japanese. I can usually follow along okay, but my brain hurts when the class is over. I'm also in a kanji class and a business Japanese class, which are also taught in Japanese. Guh. My non-language classes are economics, pre-war Japanese cinema, and Japanese culture & communication (taught in English, thank the Baby Jesus). I have homework nearly every night. The homework isn't very difficult or time consuming; it's studying 18 new and really difficult kanji every week that seems to require the most study-time. When I'm not studying my little heart out, I've gone shopping on the weekends, played some ping-pong, tried some new tasty Japanese food, and saw a castle!

Here are some pictures of Nagoya Castle.  The castle itself is actually a reproduction because the original one was bombed in WWII, but the towers around the castle have survived since the 17th century. The inside of the castle is full of cool old stuff from the castle that made it through the destruction of the war.

 One of the towers from old timey times with the palace in the back.

Nagoya Castle front gate

 

Another view of Nagoya Castle

 A helmet from the Hōjō clan, who were apparently pretty powerful.

 It's probably because they had the Triforce.

 This weird fish-type animal is a "shachi" and they live on top of Nagoya Castle. 

You can kinda-sorta see them in the photos above.

The Japanese love foreign languages and are always trying to use foreign words to add flair to products, but they don't always make sense. When they don't quite use English correctly, I like to call this "Engrish". According to the French-speaking students here, they tend to misuse French a lot as well.  Lately, I find that my purchases are based largely on how awesome the Engrish is. Here are some of my choices:

 I really enjoy milk tea. This particular drink is "The Pungency". 

I did not find it to be very pungent.

 

The writing is tiny on this little memo pad I bought.

It says "If I were an angel, could I send my favor to everyone all the world?"

 My mug has a few inspirational phrases all around it such as

"Have a nice day! Gentle time is on my side"

 "under that sky..."

"Today's feeling is what color."

 "Dental Floss: Hippopotamus and small bird"

There isn't anything incorrect here, but I'm not sure what 

hippos and birds have to do with my dental hygiene...

*Edit!* Just learned some animal fun-facts from Megan:
"In the wild there are specific birds that actually clean the hippo's teeth for them"

The business is a tattoo shop named "Boobies"

I giggled about this much longer than a girl in her 20's should...

FOOD PHOTOS!!! I'm getting better at this whole being a tourist and taking pictures thing. Check out the yums:

 Grilled meat on a stick!

 

Takoyaki!

 

This is a new discovery for me. It's called "tsukemen" and it's awesome. Instead of noodles in soup, the noodles are separate and you dip them in the broth as you eat it. So good.

 

 To finish up, here's a cute little candy I received. The kanji are 名大 or "Mei Dai" which is the shortened version of 名古屋大学 or "Nagoya University".

School pride! Sweet! (see what I did there?)