Well, my trip to Japan is almost over. I know I am going to miss it, but I dont know quite what yet. I am sure it will become more apperant once I get home.

I am also going to continue to update this webpage with more information once I get to look at all the pictures I have taken. I have 19 roles to develop so that should job a few more memories of this trip :).

 
I finished with Karate yesterday. I have to say that Aikido was much more interesting. Mostly because you could do more hands on things with Aikido than you could with Karate. Most of Karate felt like I was punching/kicking air in a silly manner. We did watch a video for one class period though, and that was interesting. All sorts of wacky things were in it, like people breaking stuff, and this one guy jumping over a car driving at him.

Oh yeah, My Dad would always tell me that when traveling the local people would always be impressed if you try to use their language first. I think this is easier to see in Europe than Japan(A lot more variety in languages). But through talking to people from a variety of Asian countries they are generally impressed if you know where their country is on the globe, and a little of its history. Not sure if this is just low standards set for Americans though...

 
I finished with caligraphy class today. It was both interesting and annoying at the same time. The teacher showed us where a lot of hirigana and katakana came from. It was also neat to try my hand at doing some caligraphy at the same time. The annoying part came in that Japanese caligraphy just doesnt look right when done with the left hand. I can try to compensate for this by writing everything backwards(Which I tend to do anyway in English when writing characters), and it works for some of the kana characters, but my Kanji just dont really look right. Ahh well...

I did get YC to do some kanji caligraphy for me, which does look really good. I guess it helps to grow up with the stuff...:)

 
Sending out 19 post cards is a royal pain in the butt. Ugh. At least its over now....


Another neat thing about Kyoto:
A geisha who is under 20 years old is called a Miko(Mika, something like that). However, it has become popular with younger ladies in Kyoto to dress up like this and walk around the temple district. So you can see young ladies in traditional kimonos, with the face painted up traditionally, and the hair done traditionally. I thought this was really cool. I had my picture taken with some of them :). Its also really nice to go to the old temples when they are around. It makes it feel so much more traditional.

 
I think Kyoto was by far the most interesting Japanese city that I have gone too. To put things in perspective, 1/3 off all the pictures I have taken in Japan are from Kyoto. Now this may drop to 1/4(I need to go buy some more film), but its still really impressive considering the fact that I only spent 2 days in Kyoto.

Kyoto itself is an interesting mix of old and new. There are some really modern shopping centers, and not 5 mins. away you can go to a temple that has been there forever(Or, well..Forever by American standards).

I really enjoyed going to all the different temples, shrines, and the one castle I managed to go too. I was also really lucky that they had two temples open during the nighttime with lighting to make it look really nice. The temples were all really impressive as well. I think one of the ones we visited is the world's largest wooden structure. They must have all coasted fortunes to make.

I also really enjoyed going to a museum about the Meji Revolution. They had a map of Kyoto with super deformed characters showing people what happened. It was neat to see I walked by a place where the Shinsen Gumi assassinated someone.

Seeing so much Shinsen Gumi things was also not something I was expecting. For people who dont know about the Shinsen Gumi this link has some of its history:
http://members.fortunecity.com/roninanime/ronin_shinsengumi.htm
It is however something I really enjoyed. Even if half of the Shinsen Gumi things I saw were Shinsen Gumi Doriamon, or Shinsen Gumi Hello Kitty.

 
I went and got my hair cut yesterday. Its been something I have been meaning to do for some time now, but I have been getting distracted by other things. For the most part that hair cut was the same as in America. It did demonstrate that while I have built up some Japanese vocabulary in some areas, in others I still dont know enough.

The Major differences were that you also got a strait razor shave, and a shampoo as part of the hair cut. Also the barber did the entire haircut without use of the overgrown beard trimmer. It also costs about $10 more, but if you had all those services in America its not that bad.

Off to Kyoto this weekend. That should be fun :)

 
My Japanese tea ceremony class is now over. It wasnt as boring as some people led us on to believe. It mostly consisted of several rituals where you have to clean the tea implements, make the tea, and then clean everything again. Most things were cleaned with either a cloth napkin that had to be folded in a specific way(And refolded everytime you used it), or with hot water and another cleaning utensil.

If you werent making the tea the most of the ritual involved sitting in seza, eating a piece of dessert(which usually had some form of anko(Japanese sweat bean paste) in it), then drinking the tea. You also had to bow when receiving the dessert and tea. I think the dessert and tea really compliment each other. The tea is a little bitter and the dessert is a little sweet so they mesh together really well.

 
Oh yeah, if anyone from Japan recognises Milwaukee, all they know it for is beer. I find that really interesting.

 
Oh yeah, if you are going to do souvenir shopping in Japan, dont go to any formal souvenir store. Go to the different temples and shrines. Every temple or shrine I have been to so far has had a gift shop. Both Buddhist and Shinto shrines have some really neat different souvenirs. I really like the Momori that I have bought at the different Shinto shrines. Momori are little, for lack of a better word(s), shinto protection dealies. Different Momori are supposed to protect you from different things. A lot of the foreign exchange students at least have one on their backpacks. At the Buddhist shrine I picked up a metal abbacus, a Buddhist bead bracelt, and a little metal keychain fish(Which is really really cool).

This was also my first Buddhist temple I went too. The temple claimed to be the oldest surviving building in Nagasaki. Chinese imagrants were supposed to have brought the entire temple over to Nagasaki. My host mother says it is much more of a Chinese style temple than Japanese, which is to be expected. It was also painted mostly red. It had a lot more detailed statues and more gold than I am used to seeing in a Shinto temple.

I also finished all the film I brought with me. Thats 10 roles so far. I need to go buy some more before I head out to Kyoto.

 
Something really cool I have seen is roadside produce stands. The most common thing they have for sale is Japanese oranges, but I have seen all sorts of fruits and vegatables offered. The interesting bit is that they dont have anybody working at them. They have the produce in bags, and then they have the price listed, and then there is just a little strongbox to put your money in. I doubt this would work in America, for a lot of reasons, but its still really cool to see in Japan...

 
Two smaller observations today:
I find it really funny when I get explained the meaning of katakana words in Japanese. I know I dont know all katakana words(They arent all english words, or the word has been changed in some way), but I still enjoy being told what a barucodo is.

Also on every burnable garbage day I see lots of books being thrown out. Usually whole piles of em. I just feels wrong to waste printed things in that way to me. I would guess most Americans would have very negative connotations with burning books as well. Seb agrees that when you hear "burning books" what springs to mind is Nazi's. Especially the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he goes to Berlin.

Not that I havent burned a book before. I did it once. With a $.99 book. To tease Gilby. It was only Orson Scott Card's Enders Game so it wasnt like I burned anything worthwhile. ;)