Koyakaido Matsuri

Last Saturday Nagano High School had a short day of three periods in the morning. I don’t really understand why they bother for that short amount of time, but it meant I went to gym, had Japanese B (literature class), and a study period. It was pretty fun and I always enjoy being able to spend more time talking with my classmates. After that short bit of school, I return to Tani Tool and had lunch with Papa Kazuhiro, his brother, and Baba. Yummy! It’s a good thing that I like fried noodles because it’s a very popular dish for both lunch and dinner. I returned to school and met up with a student representation of the intercultural class at Nagano High School and the English Speaking Society. There were seven first years and three third years. The second years were excluded because they had to get ready for their school trip. I suppose it would be helpful to mention why we gathered. That Saturday, junior high school students from Nagano Junior High School were visiting to see if they wanted to attend Nagano High School next year. We spoke to a group that’s interested in joining the Intercultural Course that’s offered. It basically means that there is a stronger focus on learning English and they have a lot of interaction with the international teachers. They also have the opportunity to travel abroad as a class to Australia. It was a really fun time. I was the current exchange student representative because Soo-jin (YFU exchange student from Korea) was busy. The three third years that spoke had all participated in some sort of exchange in the US the year before. One had spent a week or two at a leadership building workshop in San Francisco, California. Another had spent a month in St. Louis, Missouri, doing a homestay. The third had done an eleven month exchange with AFS to Detroit, Michigan. All three of them have absolutely superb English and it made me envious to speak Japanese at the same level. I hope that the three of them can influence some of the first years to consider an exchange. I’m currently working on it!

The first years had a variety of things they presented. One talked about the Australia trip that the first years can go on in which they do a ten day homestay. Three others presented for the English Speaking Society. A pair talked about the Intercultural program and why the junior high kids should join it. The last three presented the presentation they gave at the Kawachinagano English Festival (See October 8 blog). After the presentation, we split all the junior high kids into two groups. I went with Darryl’s (the English teacher from Australia) group and a few of the first years and a third year. Darryl held a model class so the kids could see what English classes for the intercultural class are like. I think they are much better run than the normal English classes at the high school because they actually get kids involved and talking as opposed to just listening to a lecture about the language they are learning to speak. It makes a lot more sense to be thinking about what to say and actually saying it rather than just hypothesizing if it is right or not.

After the junior high kids left, I spent a while talking with my friends about exchanges and Aikidou. I then walked back to Tani Tool with two of my friends. I don’t think I’ve continuously talked in Japanese for that long yet. The two friends are both in my class and have very good English, so they were able to help me where I got stuck. I’m really beginning to get a little bit of a rhythm down. It’s exciting!

I took a break from Aikidou on Saturday night because I was still recovering from my illness last week. When I got home from school, there was a package for me from Michelle Fredrickson! Thanks so much Michelle! It was wonderfully decorated and full of all sorts of Halloween goodies! The peanut butter tastes delicious and so do the skittles!

Sunday was a long day! I spent the entire morning laying around on the electric carpet in my room reading a book and being nice and warm. After lunch, Baba and I drove to Tani Tool and met Mama Akane, Papa Kazuhiro, Mitsuki, Nanako, and Nanako’s Friend. Mama, Papa, Mitsuki, and I then walked to the area around the station to see Koyakaido Matsuri. It is a festival where people walk from Kawachinagano to Koyasan in Wakayama-ken. Kawachinagano has been the gathering point of many pilgrimage routes for centuries. Around Kawachinagano Station, there were street vendors everywhere. They sold everything from hand-crafted mini bento boxes to fresh fish, fruit, and pastries. It was incredible! There were tons of people everywhere. You’d think I’d be used to staring by this point, but there was more staring on Sunday than I’ve ever experienced so far! It was very strange.

Along with all the people at the festival were the three Kawachinagano mascots; Mockle, the happy tree, Kuromaro, the happy history mascot, and Fururu, the happy Kawachinagano botanical garden flower.

We visited Nagano Shrine right next to the station. It had an absolutely massive tree stump with a tree growing in it! Yay for symbolism in the right place!

We walked from Kawachinagano Station to Mikkaichi Station along the Koyakaido route. The asphalt along the entire way is a different color so you can easily find your way. There are also engraved stones with ”Koyakaido Matsuri” imbedded into the pavement.

We had some amazing views of the mountains and some old houses. This was my first time doing a little bit of wandering in Kawachinagano. You can get a lot of places in a car, a train, and a bus, but you really don’t see all the cool stuff without doing a little bit of walking. The path follows a tiny road that winds it’s way through the city past small forests, tiny shops, historical markers (English and Japanese), decrepit buildings, and farm fields.

It was (and I’m going to say this without worrying about being cliché or corny) charming. I think I also found my favorite part of the city. The old neighborhoods are so pretty and full of traditional houses. Along the path, we came across the first police station in Osaka Prefecture. It is made of wood and is now a small museum.

When we reached Mikkaichi station, we discovered that these days pilgrims don’t actually walk all the way to Koyasan (some 25 km), but they walk from Kawachinagano Station to Mikkaichi Station, and then ride the train the rest of the way. A little cheap if you ask me. I mean, come on. Kobo Daishi did set up a pretty freaking awesome temple out of the way of bustling Japan and here people are just riding a train straight to it in two hours. So much for seclusion.

When we returned to Kawachinagano Station, Mama, Mitsuki, Nanako, Yoshino and I went to a barber shop so I could get a hair cut. Yay! My first Japanese hair cut!

Baba joined us and we went out for dinner. Afterwards, Baba and I went to Morishita-san’s restaurant for a concert by a friend of her son. It was very good even in the tiny space. The musician played guitar and piano. He had taught himself the piano and is absolutely incredible! Morishita-san even bought me a CD! It was great!

Today I made an incredible discovery. I stopped by a convenience store on the way home from school today and bought these chocolate crunchy/gooey things.

At home I was sitting there eating them and suddenly saw this.

HOLY COW WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF IT EARLIER!!!

It’s just like a Reece’s cup and now I can explain some American candy to my friends! Yay! Success! Now just to make sure the peanut butter lasts long enough to share it……

Tonight I also went out for ramen with Baba and Gigi. It was delicious! I had a bowl of ramen that probably would have flushed a toilet three times! I also had two rice balls and a bunch of dumplings. I love ramen! The kind I got was kimchi ramen. Yummy! Here’s the picture.

ありがとうございます！来週の日曜日、富士山へ行きます。私はたのしみです！たくさんしゃしんをとります。富士山は車で七時間にです。O.o

またね！

Wes

Koyasan

Sunday was an incredible adventure! I went with Gigi and Yamamoto-san (a client of the family business) to Koyasan in Wakayama Prefecture. I think I have just found my favorite place in Japan so far!

We woke up early and picked up Yamamoto-san in Kawachinagano. The drive to Koyasan was about two hours but it was through beautiful countryside. The road up the mountain is two lanes and winds all over the place as it follows the topography. It rained all day and was cold, so we were happy to have the car. I’m not a person that usually gets motion sick, but there was so much back and forth that I unfortunately was a little out of it during our visit to Koyasan.

The entrance to Koyasan is a 25 meter tall gate called Daimon. It is where pilgrims that have walked to Koyasan enter from. On either side of it are two statues that depict protector deities carved out of wood.

It’s extremely beautiful and it was incredible way to enter into this sacred city. As we drove in, we immediately began to pass buildings that are used for different parts of the temple. I suppose I should mention that Koyasan is one big temple and city combined. It was established almost 1200 years ago (the 1200^th anniversary is happening in two to three years) by Kobo Daishi as a place for Buddhism to be practiced away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Koyasan itself is a remote and elevated mountain valley that is about six kilometers long and surrounded by serene forests. It also has it’s own little climate where it usually about ten degrees Celsius cooler than the surround areas.

The first building we went to was Kongobuji, the head temple of Koyasan Shingon Buddhism. The Buddhism practiced there is a mix of Shintoism (Japan’s national religion) and Buddhism (Kobo Daishi studied Buddhism in China and brought teachings back). This is a popular form of Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan. It is believed that the Shinto deities are early forms of Buddhist deities, so the two work out well together and create a well molded religion.

Anyway, Kongobuji was very pretty and there were many tour groups filing in, so we didn’t stay long.

Our next stop was my favorite place in all of Koyasan. Okunoin is a cemetery with over 200,000 gravestones and memorials and more are still being added.

Okunoin is two kilometers long and has some of the most massive trees I have ever seen in my life! They were incredible and most were at least a couple centuries old. It was a beautiful place. We walked all over between large stone graves and massive trees. The most famous grave that we saw (as far as I know because everything was in Japanese!) was that of the emperor Toyotomi Hideoshi who built Osaka Castle. Hideoshi had an interesting history with Koyasan.

He originally went there to conquer it, but a monk there convinced him otherwise. Eventually, Hideoshi became a patron of Koyasan and was buried there when he died. It was surprising to the see the small size for such a great leader.

At the end of Okunoin is the Torodo and the Mausoleum of Kobo Daishi. When Kobo Daishi passed away, it was believed that instead of dying, he entered into eternal meditation and is forever meditating in Koyasan. The mausoleum is where Kobo Daishi meditates and is off limits to outsiders. In front of the mausoleum is the Torodo or Lantern Hall which is a prayer chapel. The ceiling of the Torodo is covered in paper lamps that have been donated since the beginning of the temple. Visitors are allowed to enter the first part of the Torodo, but the back section is used for prayer. At all times of the day there is a fire burning and a monk reciting a prayer in ancient Japanese. Twice a day, a meal and tea is offered to Kobo Daishi as he sits in eternal meditation. The building is incredible and you could feel how special of a place it is. Unfortunately, you can’t take pictures, so I’ll leave it up to you to do the web searches. There were also more massive trees surrounding the Torodo. It was an absolutely fantastic space.

As we walked back through Okunoin, we passed the area where corporate executives were buried as well as memorials to various events in Japan’s history. This memorial is for all those that we lost in one of the more recent devastating earthquakes.

This one was for Nissan, the car company.

This one was for a Japanese coffee company. I kid you not. There were giant stone coffee cups.

It was a little weird to have the business memorials, but I guess anyone’s allowed to have a memorial if they want it.

Just outside Okunoin we had a quick snack and then drove to a lookout tower about 30 minutes south of Koyasan. It was very cool even though we couldn’t see very far because of the rain and mist. The wind was fairly strong and it was absolutely pouring rain. I was able to pick up some pamphlets about Koyasan from their small gift shop.

We then returned to Koyasan where we had a lunch of tempura udon and stopped at a gift shop. I picked out a couple things and Yamamoto-san very generously insisted in purchasing them for me after quite a bit of protesting on my part. It was extremely nice of him.

We stopped next at Nyonido, the only female temple left in Koyasan. Originally, women were not allowed to enter Koyasan, so seven temples for women were built just outside of Koyasan. Next to it was this giant Buddha.

Our final stop in Koyasan was the Danjo Garan Complex, which is right next to Okunoin at the top of the list of the most important places in Koyasan. It is the place where Buddhist monks train. The center piece of the complex is the Kondo, where ever important ceremony is Koyasan is held. It is the main hall for Koyasan.

The tallest building on the premises is the Konpon Daito. It is a fifty meter tall pagoda that is a bright orange. In the center of the pagoda is a giant, gold-plated Buddha (Dainichi Nyorai of the Matrix Realm) that is surrounded by four smaller Buddhas (The four Buddhas of the Diamond Realm). On the massive pillars around them are painted the Sixteen Great Bodhisattvas. It is a very impressive room that did not allow cameras to share it’s glory.

Koyasan is an incredible place. If anyone finds themselves in Japan for any reason at all, they should make a super huge gigantic effort to make there way to Koyasan. It’s pretty much right in the middle of Japan, so you can’t argue that you went to the wrong end of Japan. Also, the public transportation there is great, so saying that your mom wouldn’t drive you isn’t an excuse either. Seriously. It’s worth every minute of getting there.

When we left, the rain had almost stopped. The clouds were still there, so Koyasan was a misty wonderland. The road down the mountain was also misty. And this just made it all the more difficult to transverse the snake of asphalt. We were behind a bus the whole the time which almost jackknifed into the mountain on every curve. Finally, we stopped and had a snack of fried mochi (Japanese rice cakes). They were quite delicious.

The next part of the day was spent driving north through Nara prefecture and then west to Kobe to drop of Yamamoto-san off. He had been picked up by Papa Kazuhiro the day before and had no easy and fast way to get back. The cool part of the drive was that we went past the Diamond trail and Mount Kongo where Gigi and I had hiked a couple weeks before. It was fun to see the other side of the mountain range. It was beautiful in all the clouds and mist that hung around them.

In Kobe, we had dinner at a sushi restaurant. The food was incredible and I ate more than my stomach was ready for, but every bite was worth it. Wasabi, rice, and fish taste so good together! We said goodbye to Yamamoto-san and drove back to Kawachinagano.

This week in school I discovered that the teachers don’t mind if I read during class! It’s a great way to spend my time and it’s very difficult to stay focused on studying Japanese for so long everyday. I love it! I also found out that I will be giving a speech to junior high school students might come to Nagano High School about the difference between Japanese school and American school. I’m excited to give it!

I’ve been feeling a cold coming on these last few days and today it really hit. I stayed home from school and mostly slept all day, but I’m feeling better. I hope my host mom will let me go to Japanese class tonight. Then I can actually do something today!

ありがとうございました！またね！

Wes

Danjiri Matsuri and the Chicken Dance

Last Friday, I went and explored the dam that is above my house. It was a beautiful day to go!

I walked up the road to it and walked out on it. From there, I could see my house, the entire lake, and this giant slug that was drying out.

It was gorgeous! The road across the dam is only for pedestrians as well as most of the road that the dam leads to. It was a beautiful stroll through the woods and it actually felt like I was in a city park. Most parks in Japan are extremely small and don’t have grass. This one had grass on both sides of the path as well as in the little alcoves that had benches and tables. There were even sculptures! There were also very few people when I went. I would guess this is because it was a weekday and also because Takihata is a 20 minute drive from Kawachinagano (a long distance in Japan).

Later that day, Mama Akane and I went to a little museum about the history of the Kawachinagano area. They had a lot of cool artifacts on display. The museum has a cool activity where you can carve shapes from stone. Mama Akane decided to make a stone knife that was traditionally used for cutting rice from the stalk. I made a small stone necklace.

It was really fun creating something out of a solid block of stone with nothing but files to work with. After we carved our stone, we looked around a little. There were tons of artifacts that had been found in the Kawachinagano area including a pair of swords and some VERY large ceramic pots! It was fun to see how people lived way long ago in Japan.

After that, we returned to Takihata and went to a traditional Japanese house that’s in the center of Takihata.

It was super cool to see it! Houses were usually home to more than one family, so there were many rooms and sliding doors to give privacy when it was needed. I think that the roof is the coolest part of these traditional houses. It is made entirely from Susuki grass and weighs many tons.

The grass comes from Mount Iwawaki just a couple kilometers away. You can actually see the top of it from the house, so it’s a great place to have the house.

The house’s floor is all tatami mats and the doors are both wooden and traditional paper. The cooking area was super interesting. There was a large concrete area with holes in the top of it for pots to fit in. There were also holes in the side to insert wood into for the fire. There was a rice cooker, a steamer, and a soup pot.

Next to the house there was a little museum about the building of traditional houses. It explained the cutting of the Susuki grass, the drying, and the installation. I wish I had paid a little more attention because I don’t remember the specifics! It also showed another kind of traditional roof that used tree bark. Both methods are still used for temples, shrines, and traditional houses.

Last Saturday, Pap Kazuhiro and I drove to Wakayama to go surfing. It was a beautiful day, but unfortunately there were not many waves.

There were tons of other people there surfing though! I was able to surf on my stomach a little bit. It was my first time, so standing up would have been very improbable, especially considering the state of the waves. It was a ton of fun though! I was surprised by the amount of debris on the beach. There was trash absolutely everywhere. It was pretty gross! There was also a large number of dead animals on the beach which included a bird, a stingray, tons of squid, and a sea turtle. It was sad to see them. I wonder if all beaches in Japan are like this?

Last Saturday was the first day of Kawachinagano’s Danjiri Matsuri festival.

The festival goes for two days and each day starts at 6 AM and goes until 10 PM with only a short break for lunch. I found out a little more information about the festival since I last wrote about the Kishiwada Danjiri Festival that I went to. Danjiri are wooden shrines that are pulled around on large, wooden wheels. The idea is to spread luck around the neighborhood that they are in. The Danjiri weigh about 2-4 tons and are pulled solely by man-power. I went to the night part with Mama Akane, Mitsuki, and Nanako.

We met up with Nanako’s friend, Kana, and her mother and walked around. Each neighborhood in the city had their own festival. We were in the Takou neighborhood of Kawachinagano which has three Danjiri. All three of them wound through the streets making a huge ruckus! On board were two drummers and a bell ringer as well as dancers and some people egging on those pulling and pushing the cart. The drummers and bell ringer sit there and drum/ring the entire time the Danjiri is moving. I don’t think they switch people either, even between the two days. At night, the Danjiri become lit up with lanterns that advertise what part of the neighborhood they are from. At various times of the evening, the Danjiri all meet at intersections and go through a routine of spinning the Danjiri in the center of the intersection. It’s a wild scene! The Danjiri are first rolled to the middle of the intersection, then everyone on board helps to lever the Danjiri up onto two wheels. Finally, they all start pushing and pulling the Danjiri so that it spins in a circle at a very high speed. It’s incredible that they can do it since it weighs to much! It was a very impressive showing!

The Danjiri go absolutely everywhere in the city. They have set courses, but there are more than just a couple routes that they take. The streets vary from tiny crevices between houses to large, two lane roads. It doesn’t matter where they are, though, because all traffic has to stop for them. I think the general rule is that if you are driving anywhere during the festival, you are responsible for avoiding any Danjiri. There are no signs or detours, just a giant crowd of people that mark where you can’t drive for the next 10-30 minutes.

Everywhere the carts go, they leave marks on the street from their wooden wheels. It’s really fun to be walking down an extremely skinny street and realize that a Danjiri managed to squeeze through there!

Last Sunday I went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) with Rotary students and Rotex. I met up with Jaimee (Australia) at Kawachinagano Station and from there we went to Tennoji where we met up with all the other students. In total, there were fourteen people; seven Rotary students and seven Rotex. We all rode to USJ together and I’m sure we look absolutely crazy since we were just a huge clump of foreigners speaking a mixture of English, Japanese, and, occacionally, Spanish or German. It was a really fun day! I don’t really know what to say about it other than that USJ is a huge theme park that attracts more people than the Minnesota State Fair. There were so many people that we only had time for two rides in a little over six hours. We waited in line for the Jurassic Park ride for two and a half hours and the Back to the Future ride for an hour and a half. The lines were worth it, though. The rides were incredible and we all had a lot of fun. The one downside of the day (although it was completely worth it) was that during the next couple days I had a sore throat from talking so much. For those that are curious, there was both English and Japanese spoken, so the day was a complete drain on my Japanese.

That night, I went to the closing ceremony for the Danjiri festival. It was just as crazy with more spinning and streamers and throwing people in the air. It was very entertaining. I made a short video about the Kawachinagano Danjiri festival for those that would like to actually see what it was like. I added a little bit of during it so it’s not just a complete waste of time. Oh, and sorry for the “vertical video”, dad.

This week was relatively normal. On Tuesday I had a Japanese test in school to make sure I’m actually learning stuff. The unfortunate part was that there was quite a bit that I had never seen before and wasn’t in the study packet I had been given. I’m not exactly sure why this is. I wonder if most tests given in school have a bit of new material to see if the kids can infer using what they learned for the test.

On Thursday after Japanese class, I went to Morishita-san’s restaurant for dinner. Morishita-san is the exchange student organizer for the Kawachinagano Rotary Club. Dinner was delicious and the conversation was incredible! Her son works at the restaurant and he went to school in New York state. It’s really fun talking to them. I think that dinner there will become a regular thing for me after Japanese class. I’m greatly looking forward to it. It’s great to use the Japanese that I’ve just been studying in the real world.

Everyday I come home completely exhausted. I’m totally fine with it because it means that I’ve actually been doing something during the day. Attempting to listen and understand everything that anyone says is so difficult and tiring that sometimes I zone out. It’s so hard not to sometimes because the conversation has new vocabulary, but if I really try, I can get the generally idea of what is being talked about.

School is great. I’ve started talking to classmates more and they are extremely willing to help me understand something if I don’t get it. They ask me all sorts of questions, too, about life in the US and what I did the last weekend. It’s great and I love my class.

Thursday marked the two month mark for me. It’s incredible to think that it’s been two months already! Time absolutely flies! It’s so crazy. Thursday also marked the one month that I left with the Tani family. It’s sad that I will be leaving, but I am excited to experience a different lifestyle! It will be a little bit of a shock and almost like starting over. My host grandfather did inform me that my room here will be kept available if I ever need it. He also mentioned that I should come back on some weekends to see them. It was a fantastic invitation!

Here's what the view looks like when it's beautiful and rainy!

I love my family so much! I just spent a good 20 minutes with them teaching them the chicken dance. It was so much fun! I think my little brother might have a new favorite song now.

Thanks for reading! I’m hoping to not let my blog sit this long again. Although it didn’t feel like it, 10 days is a long time!

ありがとうございます！またね！

Wes

Botanical Japan

Since I wrote just two days ago, this post will have more information about my regular life here in Japan as well as what I think or am noticing.

On Tuesday I went to the library with Mama Akane to get a library card for me. Yay! It worked! I can now get whatever I want out of the library and stay literate in English! I’m hoping to get out some Japanese children’s books so I can improve my reading. I got out Airframe, by Michael Crichton, and I’m already finished it because it was so good! Hopefully I don’t exhaust the English section of the library in a year…

Yesterday, Mama Akane and I picked up Nanako, Mitsuki, Yuki (Mitsuki’s friend), and Kana (Nanako’s friend). Yuki and Kana are siblings, so it works out quite nicely. We all went to the Kawachinagano botanical garden. 

It was really fun! Earlier in the day, there was heavy rain and wind because of a typhoon that was blowing through and we were not sure if we would be able to go. When we picked them all up, they sun was shining and there was a slight breeze. The botanical garden was very pretty and had tons of plant varieties. In the entrance, there was a huge marigold garden. It felt like being in Minnesota in the fall! We walked around for a while and eventually came to the main greenhouse. It is a huge pyramid structure that is all glass. You can see from a couple kilometers away.

The inside was even hotter than outside! But it was worth it to see all the plants. The greenhouse’s focus is on rare plants, so it was exciting to see everything. My favorite plant that were displaying was Welwitschia, which is a desert plant native to southern Africa. It only has two leaves and it can life for 2,000 years. When I visited my aunt and uncle in Namibia ten years ago, we saw a few Welwitschia in the wild.

The centerpiece of the pyramid is a large indoor waterfall that you can walk behind. There were different orchids around it was well.

There was also a large variety of carnivorous plants that included Honeydew, which are native to Minnesota. Yay! A little piece of home! We had a lot of fun wandering around the botanical gardens. I’m sorry for the bad photos, but I forgot my camera at home and was stuck with my ipod camera. My favorite part of the day was when we were sitting on some benches taking a break. On the trees around us were tons of snails! There had to be at least fifty of them! The trees were covered in a spider-web of slime tracks!

I suppose I haven’t really given a great description of what an average day is like. The truth is, everyday is different and I don’t have a very fixed schedule, but I’ll try my best to organize it.

Monday through Friday I usually attend school from 8:30 to around 3:15. On Tuesdays school ends at 4:15. There are six classes throughout the day with Tuesdays having seven. The classes that I can actually get something out of are PE, Japanese Salon (1-to-1 teaching), and the occasional lesson in biology, chemistry, and math. In all my other classes, I study Japanese. It’s hard to try and learn a bunch of stuff all day and keep focused. There are some classes where I do completely zone out and daydream, but what do you expect when you can’t understand Japanese history and your brain is still processing the Japanese lesson you just read. In PE, we do a weekly rotation. PE occurs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Mondays are Judo, Wednesdays are soccer, and Fridays are some sort of activity in the gym. In Judo, we really haven’t done a lot yet. It’s mostly just been rolling around and the teacher showing us what we should be able to do by the end of the year. Nonetheless, it’s fun to tumble around and get dizzy! In soccer, we have three different teams. My team is all the boys from my class because there are so few of us and we like to stick together. The other two teams are one class that has been split up. They have a LOT of guys in their class! Each team is nine or ten members. Every week, we have to come up with our own practice plan for the hour. If we don’t have a plan, we have to spend the hour running around the track. It’s great motivation! The field that we play on is all dirt, so after soccer, your school uniform is almost certainly going to need washing just from the dirt transferring from your skin to it.

Japanese Salon basically just an hour of talking in Japanese with my Japanese teacher. We use a textbook to somewhat focus the studies, but when we have practiced one thing for a while, we branch off with it and use it in a conversation. It’s great practice and I feel like I improve greatly after it! That is, until some classmates or a teacher start to talk to me in English. Oh well! It will get there! I think my favorite class of the week is Calligraphy. It’s on Thursdays and is two hours long. Japanese (or Chinese, I guess, since the Japanese got their writing system from them) calligraphy is very difficult. Unlike English calligraphy, it is done with a brush and requires and extremely steady hand. Most of my classmates have no problem making very accurate copies of the template, but I have yet to make something that even resembles the correct characters! I really enjoy the process of creating the characters. To begin, you have to make the ink. To do this, you pour some water onto your ink pallet and, with your ink “block”, you begin to add ink into the water. This turns it black. You rub the ink block on the pallet for about ten minutes to get the right mixture. Once you have the ink prepared, you fold your paper into eight parts that guide you and act as partitions for drawing the characters. You smooth the creases out a little by running a heavy metal rod over it. Then you can begin! It takes patience and a lot of drafts. In an average class, I probably produced around 15 completed masterpieces that aren’t in the slightest readable. It’s still a lot of fun though! At the beginning of each class, the teacher hangs up three or four of the best works from the last class period. My goal for the year is to have one up there.

After school, I usually go to either band or soft tennis club. I think those are pretty self-explanatory. Tennis finishes at 5 and band finishes at 5:30. After that, I walk the two kilometers to the store my host family runs. On Mondays and Tuesdays I get a ride home from my host mom, grandpa or grandma. On Wednesdays and Fridays, My host father drives me to Aikidou class which starts at 6:30 and goes until 7:45. On Thursdays, I walk to a building near the train station for a two hour Japanese class that is held for foreigners. It’s a lot of fun and I’m learning a lot as well as meeting many people. After that it’s homeward bound! Saturdays are usually relatively quiet because it’s still a work day, but Mama Akane, Mitsuki, Nanako, Yoshino, and I usually do something. Sundays are the most fun because we usually do something with the family like go see something. It sometimes involves driving a long ways to see something. I love spending all that time with my family! It makes me feel so welcomed.

That pretty much is how my weeks works with a little bit of change all over the place. Some Fridays I miss part of school to attend Rotary meetings and occasionally school has something prepared for me.

Something else I’ve noticed in Japan is all of the bugs. There are tons and so many of them I have never seen before. I think the one that is most intriguing to me is one that is the size of a small humming-bird (yes, I do realized that they are already small!). It has a large body and a proboscis like a butterfly that it uses to get inside flowers with deep openings. It has a loud thrumming noise as it moves around. I’d love to hear if anyone knows what it is!

Driving through the country is like being in a room with a million crickets. There are so many! At night when it’s quiet, you can hear them with the car windows shut and it sounds like it’s open! It’s absolutely incredible! Unfortunately, I don’t think a lot of Japanese have much appreciation for insects. The most common reaction I’ve seen is to scream and get as far away as possible. Even if it is a harmless butterfly, they are taking no chances. It’s very interesting and I don’t quite understand it. Although, there are certainly times when I do understand it, because there are many species of wasps here. Some of them are at least 3 inches long and have a massive stinger! They are very beautiful I hope I can get a good picture of one to post at some point.

Something I am constantly amazed at is the road system in Japan. There is absolutely nowhere that they will not build a road. I’m curious as to where all the money comes from, because I think that about 25% of the roads are bridges. Another 40% has probably involved the removal or addition of either dirt or concrete so that a flat surface can be achieved. They also don’t seem to care about how big the roads are, either. The smallest road I’ve see had about a foot on either side of a car going down it, and there isn’t just one of those, either. The biggest road is the highway, and that doesn’t even have a shoulder! Sidewalks are only in places where there room between the street and the buildings, otherwise pedestrians have to share the road. I’d say that’s the case 80% percent of the time. Also, there is no grid system. I’m guessing this is because there are so many hills and valleys that it just wouldn’t work. I would also place money on the fact that they are streets that may have been established for several centuries (also before cars), so houses were built where people wanted them. It’s amazing how willing the Japanese are to make car inaccessible places accessible. Most mountains in my area have at least one road going to the top.

I’m going to let that segway into talking about the driving habits of the Japanese. I think I talked about them already early on as I was getting over the shock of it all. Now that I’ve had sometime, I’m realizing that the key to successful driving in Japan is patience. If you are impatient, it will only lead to a possible traffic accident, which only makes the day worse for everyone because you can’t pull over anywhere to access the damage and have to do so in the middle of the road. If someone is trying to pull out into traffic, everyone lets them quickly. If you are traveling down a one-lane road, you have to be ready to pull over at any moment to let others pass. If you are impatient, you might cause someone’s house damage. It’s an incredible system where everyone works together to achieve the highest possible efficiency as well as satisfaction for everyone.

I’ll take this moment to a little self check-up. So far, my year has been fantastic. It’s a lot of fun being able to meet new people and see new places. I’m really connecting with my first host family and I’m so glad that I’m able to stay with them. Right now, my moving date is actually being discussed. It will either be on November 10 or 17; both Sundays. It will be sad to change houses, but it will also be a new chapter of this adventure! In school, I’ve been talking with more and more people in my class. Everyone is very nice and excited to talk to me in Japanese. I am a little worried about connecting as fully as I can. I’ve been fitting in ok, but I haven’t made strong relationships yet. It seems that no one really knows what to do with an exchange student or exactly why I am here. I think some of my problems come from talking so much English with my friend Ron from Australia. It has been great that he is there to help me translate, but I need to start speaking with other students more in Japanese. I have been feeling some twangs of homesickness, but I don’t expect a full on landslide of emotions. I felt some of that while I was on my canoe trip this summer as I thought about the upcoming year and I’m hoping that was all I will deal with. Having the other exchange students here will help since we all know exactly the way each other is feeling. I’m so happy that I am able to have this experience! It is amazing and it is opening my eyes to new cultures and ways that things are done. I’m trying to keep an open mind so I can experience everything without having a bias against it.

Here's a silly picture to break the monotony or reading.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions!

またね！

Wes