Don’t mind me.

Put down that phone.

No need to file a missing persons report.

I’m alive and well. Those ninjas haven’t gotten to me quite yet.

So, two months. I guess that’s how much time it takes to rack up enough guilt and ought-to’s in order for me to post an update. Maybe it’s because I see other people, so diligent with their blogging and updating. Maybe it’s because family members keep calling and checking in on me… Either way, the time has come for a mass message or assurance.

What can I say? Two months have gone by and so much has happened! And at the same time so much is very much the same as college in the US. I’m leading two lives here in Japan: The over zealous sightseer trying to stuff as much travel into a weekend as possible, and the homebody college students drifted wearily from class to class. Honestly, any traveling I get to do makes all the hours of class time completely worth it. I’d like to say the my Japanese classes are furthering my language skills, but at this point it’s really just review–but helpful view nonetheless. My other classes are, of course, interesting but not more so that the idea of traveling to more places in this wonderful country.

So let’s step into the time machine and wind back that clock a few weeks. (This is going to be long. Brace yourself.)

October:

Most of October was taking the time to adjust to speaking and hearing mostly Japanese all day. At the store, on the street, at school, at home–everywhere. Granted, there was also a lot of English. Quite a few of the international students hadn’t taken Japanese language courses before but everyone spoke English so it was (and still is) the main form of communication between us. Still, I fit in some sight seeing and took a long train and bus ride out to Inuyama with two other international students. Our destination, Meiji Mura (明治村), is a large walkthrough museum compiled of buildings from the Meiji Era of Japan. (1868-1912, the Meiji Era contains the beginning of Japan’s move from feudal society to modernity due to Western influences). It was an interesting place but over all it felt more Western than Japanese and the familiarity with the architecture left me somewhat apathetic. Still, it was a good start to all the traveling to follow.

Historic Hotel at Meiji Mura

October also came with delights and (very slight) distress. The solar eclipse on October 8th occurred during our dorm floor’s welcome party and we were all mostly able to catch it on film as our takoyaki (a small fried octopus and cabbage ball) cooked. Japan also experience a typhoon which was rather exciting for all the international students who’d never seen one before. I say exciting but when if finally got to us the only word I can use to describe it would be conventional. There wasn’t much to Nature’s wrath than heavy rain and somewhat strong wind. Of course, that’s not so say I hoped for worse!

Later in October came the Nagoya Festival (名古屋祭り). Finally, I was able to go to my first castle in Japan–and let me tell you–nobody is more excited about Japanese castles than me. I can’t even descibe how much I love that historic Japanese architecture! Ask anyone here and they’ll tell you that all I talk about it Seven Samurai (七人の侍) and old black and white samurai films. 

Nagoya Castle (名古屋城）certainly did not disappoint. It was pretty crowded what with the festival going on but we were able to go inside and take a look around pretty easily so I’m really grateful for that. The rest of the festival consisted of a plethora of delicious street food and performances.

October finished out with a trip to the Kirin Beer Factory, where we were able to have three pints of beer for free!, and a couple Halloween activities. There were two halloween parties put on by difference student groups on campus, both equally fun. I will say though that the Japanese students either didn’t dress up or simply donned cute outfits rather than going full out. There were a lot of Kiki’s from Ghibli’s film Kiki’s Delivery Service and quite a few Alice’s from Alice in Wonderland. Also, I was the only one with a full face of paint. Oh, and Japanese people have no idea what a mime is, let alone what a hipster is, so my costume was lost in translation a bit.

Three of my friends (two from England and one from Sweden) also went out to an Australian bar on Halloween. It was about $25 for all you could drink (from like 5-12pm) and a lot of the Japanese people there really went full out on their costumes. More gruesome. More exciting. Of course there were also some Halloween themed games and a costume contest so it was pretty entertaining even though we didn’t dress up for the bar.

I was also able to go on a day trip to Kyoto for really cheap. It ended up only being $20 which included the bus fare, entrance into two temples, and a pretty decent lunch, all through the international student office. The trip, which lasted from about 8am – 7:30pm was pretty fast. We first arrived at Kiyomizudera (清水寺）around 10:30 and were given free reign to explore, but only for about an hour. Then we ate lunch and went over to Kinkakuji (金閣寺）from about 2:30-4:30. Both temples were really crowded but at the least the weather was spectacular and the temples breathtaking. I was particularly excited about Kiyomizudera since it was shown in a film I had watched in my Japanese Film class last year.

November:

Finally, November came around but I was more excited to visit my awesome friend (and former roommate/Japanese class compadre/Moomin expert) Zoe where she was staying in Shizuoka  (静岡）doing the JET Program (an English teaching program run by the Japanese government). We saw Shizuoka Castle and the World Cup for Street Performances, Daidogei (大道芸ワールドカップ）which were both pretty fantastic. It was a bit overcast and threatening to rain but the performers were very cool and there was also a giant Kirin beer stand (seriously, Kirin is everywhere…)

  

We also went up to see another Japanese temple and took the Rope Way in the mountains to see it. Despite being rainy and overcast, it really was a spectacular view from the rope way, if not a bit scary with the jostling winds. Also, it should be mentioned that not even half of the trees had turned color yet and my internal clock of the seasons is seriously skewed.

The last day in Shizuoka I was so grateful for some sunshine. Finally. The most significant icon of Japan was visible and just magnificent. Mt. Fuji.

We went to a near by shopping mall/play place (the name escapes me) and did some looking around. The best view of Mt. Fuji was from the Ferris wheel that we took at the play area. While the slight fear of the incredibly slow moving yet somewhat rickety seeming Ferris wheel was palpable upon ascent, the view was breathtaking. I will say that for some reason Mt. Fuji seemed much much bigger than I had originally thought.

Not much else happened in November. I taught some of the girls how to make pumpkin pie and American apple cider. Of course, Japanese pumpkins, called kabocha (かぼちゃ), are slightly different than the traditional American pie pumpkin, but it tasted great all the same. After all, it’s mostly about the spices in the end.

Apple cider in the process

Just two weeks ago I went back out to Inuyama with some of my friends. This time, we went to see Inuyama Castle (犬山城）and the Monkey Park (モンキーパーク). At this point, the leaves in Japan have really started to turn and they are absolutely gorgeous. The Japanese maple trees are so vibrantly red that they don’t seem real. And the gold of the ginko trees are really beginning to become my favorite not only for their color but also their fan-like shape. Surprisingly, there were a few trees budding with Japanese cherry blossoms (桜). I’m told it could have been due to the raise in temperature since the past few weeks had hovered around 55 degrees and that Sunday was a surprising 70 degrees.

Inuyama Castle was just as interesting as the other but it was so tiny. We climbed to the top (in a long line of people, mind you, since the weather made for great sightseeing) by a series of very steep ladder-like stairs. Safe to say, we foreigners had a hard time walking somewhat sideways up the ladder rungs to prevent banging out shins into the next step. From the top, we were able to walk all the way around and have a complete 360 degree view of the area–terrifyingly terrific.

Lastly was the Monkey Park. They had a really surprising assortment of monkeys, most of which you could get pretty close too. Although, I wouldn’t really recommend that due to the smell of some of them, especially the baboons. Since I took a lot of photos, I’ve elected to put them in the pictures section to save some space. Overall, the park was really a cool site and we ended out Inuyama fulfilled and with exhausted feet.

Just last week was Thanksgiving in America so the few Americans there had to of course set up a dinner. The thing is, nobody really knows what Thanksgiving is about. And I’m not just saying the Eastern world, but even the Europeans and Aussies were in the dark about Thanksgiving. I can’t tell you how many times I had to explain it, but there were some pretty interesting guesses about why we celebrate it, including but not limited to “American independence” and “It’s another name for Christmas, right?”. I think we did a good job, even without being able to find turkey. So we treated everyone to homemade stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and a little fried rice.

 Now.

The finale.

Where it all gets really exciting.

Friday night at 11:10 we departed on a night bus to Osaka with a very important mission that would keep us there until Saturday night around midnight.

We had finally received our letters to ….

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

But more on that in a different post!

I’ve got to leave you tempted, right? That’s how you hook your audience, keep ’em coming back for more.

Ciao for now!