Andrea in Nippon

This past Saturday was the first day of Autumn here in Japan. This means partying, honoring the dead, and visiting lots and lots of shrines and temples (depending on whether or nor you are Shinto or Buddhist).

On Friday night, my friends and I decided to go to an izakaya. It's sort of like a bar, but the drinks are really expensive (which is part of the reason I decided not to buy any) and they serve lots of fun. It's also made out of a house. We had loads of fun, but I had to leave early to make curfew.

Saturday, I went with my host family to a Buddhist Temple in Osaka. The name of the temple is Shintenno-ji. There were tons and tons of people there to honor their dead relatives and to pray to the Buddha. There were also lots of shops selling things, but we didn't really get to stop and look.

On Sunday, I went with my Japanese Buddhist Art class to visit a temple called Horyu-ji. It was absolutely beautiful. Many of the buildings are 1,300 years old, making them the world's oldest wooden buildings. I tried to take lots of pictures, but there were many places where pictures taking was not allowed. Also, there were tons of high schools visiting the temple, so it was hard to get pictures without some random people standing in the way.

Next weekend, some friends and I are going to try and go to Hirakata Park- a large amusement park that the city of Hirakata is well-known for. The pictures should be interesting!

Here is a link to the pictures from the izakaya and the two temples.

So this weekend was a long weekend due to the fact that Monday was a national Holiday (Respect for the Aged Day). So, I took this weekend as an oppurtunity to explore a little bit of Japan.

On Saturday, some friends and I went to Umeda in downtown Osaka. We went iceskating (or, in my case, ice-falling) and met some elementary school girls that were absolutely excited by the fact that there were Americans iceskating. We had loads of fun until one of my friends tripped on a dent in the ice and got the wind knocked out of her. We decided that this was the time to call it quits and go have lunch.

For lunch, we decided to go to this really cool food theme park. It was in this seven-story building and the inside was designed like Osaka in the 1950's (only smaller). If you have ever seen the movie Spirited Away, it looks alot like the town infront of the bath-house. The food there was great and we got to see this really interesting musical performance by the park's theatre group.

After we got done with the park, we decided to head over to the Mexican Fiesta being held by the Mexican Consolate in Osaka to celebrate their 10-year anniverery. They had lots of Mexican food, weird tequila that I nor any of the Mexican students had heard of (and that we decided to stay far away from), and lots of dancing. It was really funny to watch the Japanese try line-dancing.

On Sunday, my host family took a friend and me to Nagahama in the Shiga prefecture. We saw Nagahama Castle (I unfortuntely could only take pictures of the outside, photography was forbidden inside), saw lots of glass (which the town is famous for), ate lots of soba noodles, made stained glass, and ate really neat green-tea snacks. It was loads of fun.

Monday I just chilled out. My host father took Saori (my oldest host sister) and I to a restaurant that I think might have been american style... but the foods were really weird. Oh wells.

Here are some pictures! I'm going to try out using photobucket, livejournal's photo severs are too slow and uploading is such a pain.

So! Two days ago (Sunday evening my time) my host family took me to a wonderful restaurant that serves this really wonderful dish: okinomiyaki. Basically, it is a vegetable and shrimp pancake. I have heard some people describe it as a pizza.... but it seems more like a pancake to me. Either way, it is very delicious.

First, you decide on what kind of okinomiyaki you would like (shrimp, beef, seafood, pork, etc.) and tell your server. Then, they will give you bowls filled with the ingredients for you to mix yourself. Then, pour the strange batter onto the grill and wait about three minutes, then turn over again. You can order an appetizer of yakisoba (fried noodles) if you like. After both sides are properly cooked and you place the toppings you want on your okinomiyaki, enjoy! It is a very fun process.

Nothing else is really going on. I am planning on trying to do something exciting this weekend because it is a three-day weekend (Respect for the Aged Day is on Monday).

Here are some pictures of the okinomiyaki place.

So the past week in Japan has been great! The closest thing I have had to American food I have eaten since before I got on the plane (aside from the pasta I had for 2nd dinner, they served all Japanese food!) was this wonderful Teriyaki Burger I had at Mos Burger. IT was served with onipotato (onion rings and french fries in the same box... brillaint!). Japanese food is so great!

My host family is very wonderful, I bearly understand what they are saying to me half of the time... but they are still very nice. They seem to be avid fans of the television, have two cars that they put into this weird elevator thing, cook really nice food, and laugh at the fact that I often wear pink.

Riding the train is great fun too. However, people are always staring at me! I know I stick out like a sore thumb due to my height, eyes, and hair.. but jeez! Yesterday, a middle-aged man switched compartments mid-ride just so he could have a better look at me. I was half tempted to say "じろじろ見ない！" (don't stare!), but his stop came just before I became that annoyed.

Has anyone heard about the new prince. Everyone is pretty excited, but I was kind of hoping that Ai-ko would have some sort of chance if becoming empress...

Oh well, off to study!

Today was my last day of living in Hirakata. Tomorrow, I am moving in with my host family in another city.

To make the most of my day, I decided that I would try and take the LL orientation at the center of international education and figure out my scheduel (the scheduels here are much different from the ones in the US... I will explain this in a different post).

After I got everything sorted out, I found that that the LL lab was unexpectedly closed today due to unknown reasons. So then I decided to take part in the Experience Japan Program's "Let's Make Japanese Sweets" afternoon. It was alot of fun.

After that, I met up with my speaking partner in downtown Hirakata. She is very sweet! We went to Starbucks (they are EVERYWHERE here!) and then to the dept store to have a look around. Japanese dept stores are very strange and filled with all sorts of things!

To finish up my evening, I was going to meet some friends to go to Mexican. Unfortunetly I lost track of them when I went to visit my speaking partner and we didn't really set a place to meet up, so I didn't get to eat with them. Insted, I went to this fabulous Japanese restaurant located in Makino (a town right next to Hirakata) with some other friends. It was a little expensive, but well worth it... to some degree. Japanese portions are very small and at a total bill of 1,050 yen, it was the most expensive meal I have had here so far.

The only pictures I took today are ones my speaking partner and I took at the purikura (photobooth) so unfortunetly there are no pictures for this post...

Next time!

Yesterday, the international students took a trip to Kyoto under the guidance of some very helpful Japanese students. We had to take a 20 min train ride from the Hirakata station to the Sajo station located in the middle of Kyoto. Then, we walked another 20 minutes to the Heian Shrine, a Shinto shrine made in honor of the impearial family. Kyoto is a very beautilful city and the long walk was well worth it.

When we got to the shrine, we had to stop and wash our hands before entering due to Shinto customs. We paid 600 円 (about $5.80) to get into the shrine's garden and had a look around. The garden was absoultely beautiful! There were lots of ponds that were filled with koi, lotus, turtles, and cranes. We also saw the oldest train in Japan. I took lots of pictures, but there were some places that picture taking was not aloud. You really need to visit the shrine yourself to take in the full beauty of the shrine.

We left the shrine when it closed (about 5pm) so we decided to stop and buy some food from a 7-Eleven (much better quality in the US, plus they have Onigiri- rice balls) and eat next to the river. Nightlife in Kyoto is wonderful and very relaxing!

Around 8, we decided we needed to head back to Hirakata. We decided to get off at a different station (one closer to the dorms) and take some picture stickers! It was lots of fun and a great way to remember this wonderful day.

The photos of this trip are located at http://pics.livejournal.com/ann_in_nippon/gallery/000010dz. It's sorted out kind of weird because lj kept messing up when I tried to upload the photos. I hope you can deceipher it!

Well everyone, after 14 long hours of sitting in a cramped seat and watching the same movie over and over again, I have made it to Japan! So far, I have gone to lots of meetings, karaoke, ridden the bus, gone to the train station, and had little children point and me and go "gaikokujin!!!" (foreigner). It's been a total blast.

Right now, I am staying in some dorms with an Austrailian girl and a French girl. They are both very, very nice.

I will post some more later, right now I have to go register for classes.