Happy New Years II

So, here I am on Jan 2nd, writing my second post of the year. So far, so good. I wonder how many blogs are starting with something like that today... Anyways, we are home now in Shima, it was a nice week in Gifu with the in-laws but, as always nice to be home. While there we bought a few things much needed here at home. Up until now we haven't had an oven. In Japan, ovens like those we are accustomed to in the states are pretty expensive. Hard to find and even harder to find the space in your place to put one. We bought a microwave/oven unit about 1 1/2 times bigger than a standard microwave. We are excited to be able to bake cookies, cakes and other delicacies we have done without for the past few months.

Both a little tired so, I will do only this for today but, will write tomorrow!

-Thanks to all who read this!

Happy New Year

Another year has come and gone (I wonder how many blogs are going to start with something like that today) and it is hard to believe that I spent the latter part of this year over here in Japan. Time is flying but, we are enjoying every minute of it. We are at Ayumi's parents place for the holiday with plans of returning tomorrow afternoon. It has been nice to be able to step away from our life in Shima and be with family and able to relax with them. Although I don't have to be at work until next Monday we will be home for a few days where we can get a bit of New Years cleaning done and relax there before having to start the school rush again.

At the end of next month we will be heading up to Hokkaido for a few days for a wedding of Ayumi's cousin. I am excited to go up there and see my little sister-in-law whom I haven't seen in and to go and sight see up there. I really like Hokkaido mostly because it is where I served for two years as a missionary from 2000-2002. It has been over five years since I have been up there and leaving I honestly didn't think I would ever go back but, luck have it I married into this culture and am actually going back. Ayumi's little sister is in med-school in a city named Asahikawa which is relatively close to two cities I lived in combined for over a year (Takikawa and Iwamizawa). They are close enough that I think I will go and stick my heads in them and take a look around. Only been five years but, when I'm only twenty-six, it is like 1/5 of my life ago :). Hopefully I will be writing in my blog a little bit more earnestly then and will include pictures and updates when I get back... don't plan on taking my computer up there.

So New Years in Japan; its not like what I am used to back in the states, or at least what I saw on TV last night wasn't. They start a variety show on television from about six-thirty where they have music acts lined up back-to-back with a little bit of commentary until about eleven-thirty. Mostly Japanese pop (which mostly I don't care for) and Japanese traditional singing style named Enka. I would maybe compare it with something like Frank Sinatra or Country music. For an example click this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTa2QIMKq64
Beleive it or not, I actually have sung this song at karaoke. Well, at eleven-thirty they then do this Buddhist/Shinto (don't know which) where they ring these bells at temples 108 times. Apparently what it is is, for each ring you hear you are suppose to forget a bad thing you've done or ask for forgiveness or something like that. Well, from eleven-thirty to midnight, it just had all these live shots of all these old temples around Japan and the monks ringing the bells. People wait in line from who knows when until midnight waiting to be allowed to go ring a bell and pray to the gods. Interesting to note though, where in the States if it showed a bunch of people on New Years waiting for the countdown as soon as the camera was on them they would start to scream and yell yet, in Japan everyone was quiet and reserved waiting for the time to turn midnight. As soon as it did, people would go and pray at the shrine. Surprisingly the only people who did make silly faces and yell on the camera were foreigners who happened to be crowds they were filming.

I will write more tomorrow...

Happy New Year

A little late...

So, I know it is a little late to be posting this but, I took a few photos of our apartment. The downside is they're all taken with my cell phone so the quality of the shots are a little crummy.

I also have a few pictures of some school lunches I eat and a pizza we ordered the other day.

Kyoto 3

Now if there are any learned people on Buddhism reading this blog and know better than I do, I appologize if the information I am giving is wrong. Now, as I have been told there are certain things that people need to go to do in thier lifetime at these Buddhist temples/shrines maybe to make it to the other side or something like that. As with any culture, back in the day it wasn't too uncommon in Japan for small children to die before they got very old. As a precaution to this, I guess the Japanese take thier young girls to these shrines around the ages of 7-10(?) where they dress them up in pretty kimonos and have them recite some type of prayer or something or get something like a blessing from a Buddhist priest. Well, unfortunatley I don't have any pictures of these little girls that we saw at the shrine but, there were a handfull of little girls all dressed up. I do have a picture of Ayumi when she was little doing this though and it is dang cute! Anyways, this was one of the things we witnessed at this temple.

Now somewhere in the pictures I have a shot of a few little trees covered with paper. I think these are maybe prayers that people are petitioning the Buddah with and somehow tieing them to a tree works in this cause. Pretty neat looking none-the-less. This place is also known for housing one of the biggest (if not the biggest tori (Buddhist gate) in Japan. I do have a shot of that, you'll see strattling the road. ***This just in! I have been told by some students that people go to these temples and write thier sins and weakpoints on these little papers and by fastening them to the tree, receive forgiveness or are able to forget them. Anyways, enjoy the pictures. Onto the next place.

A few years ago in college I read a book named entitled The Tale of Genji about a young aristocratic playboy written a thousand + years ago. I think it is credited with being one of the worlds oldest novels. Well, our journey in Kyoto took us that a temple named Rozonji where the author Murasaki Shikibu is said to have probably written part of it. While at the temple, on display are old authentic copies of the novel. I don't think any originals exist but, pretty old copies. This place is where the photos of the Japanese garden were taken.

The final place we visited this trip was a place called the Abe shrine. This is the picture of the star fountain and the one with Ayumi standing by a gate. Japan is a pretty superstitious country. A thousand years ago a guy name Abe no Seimei was famed for being a demon slayer of sorts. Apparently he was able to remove possessing demons from people and did all sorts of healings. Well, this shrine was build shortly after his death and then, redone a few years ago after a successful release of a movie based on his life. Too bad because the shrine now feels like a cheap advertisement for the franchise and not the cool, creepy superstitious atmosphere that you think the place would have. It was fun to go and see it though. There you can pay to have priests assess your person and maybe remove spirits.

Well, that was all we had time for this last trip. It was fun but, as you can imagine walking from place to place was a bit tiring. Kyoto is beautiful but, too big to hit in one day walking. I'll try and update this blog a little more often!

Kyoto Part II

So, here we are at the temple. As you can see in the pictures it is very beautiful but, a little crowded. Aside from the views, the thing that drives the crowds to this temple is its water. I think the name Kiyomizu comes from the words kiyomeru which means cleanse, purify and mizu which means water. At a particular part of this temple there are three streams of falling water which each grant an attribute to the drinker upon consumption. I think one stream is wisdom, one is health and the other for physical beauty or happiness... something along those lines. There was a long line to get to it plus, I wasn't to interested in pressing my lips against a cup which has probally seen more milage than Paris Hilton. Well, enjoy the pictures of that.

After having our fill of that place, we decided to start back down the streets and back on our self guided tour of Kyoto. At the base of the temple I was suprised to see three monks standing there chanting while begging for money. Thier way of chanting is probally the coolest thing I have ever heard. I had heard recordings of it but, this was the first time I had seen it live. They have these sutras which are written in old Japanese which they speak from memorization all in a low voice at the exact time. It is hard to explain but, I will see if I can find an audio copy of it and post it on the blog somewhere. As soon as I had left the temple, I was a little upset with myself that I hadn't used the camcorder function on our camera. Well, away from the monks and down the tourist streets.

We next headed for an area in Kyoto named Gion which is famous for its Geishas. I imagine that had we been there closer to dusk it would have been a bit more lively but, apparently come night this place is full of Geishas with thier clients going in and out of bars, taxis etc. The only photo I have is of somones backside which has been included in the slideshow.

Next we started to walk to another famous place in Kyoto, the Heian shrine. Heian is the name of a time period in Japanese history. I find this period most fascinating but, not too many people know of it because it was a few hundred years before the Samurai/Ninja time periods Japan is famous for. Here is what I have dug up on the place from the net:

The Heian Jingū (平安神宮) is a Shinto shrine located in Kyoto, Japan. The torii before the main gate is one of the largest in Japan, and the main building, or shaden (社殿), is designed to imitate the Kyoto Imperial Palace.

The Heian Jingū was built in 1895 for the 1,100th anniversary of the establishment of Heiankyō (the old name of Kyoto). The shrine is dedicated to Emperor Kanmu and Emperor Kōmei. The former moved the capital to Heiankyō, and the latter was the last before Emperor Meiji, who moved the capital to Tokyo.

The Heian Jingū hosts the Jidai Matsuri, one of the three most important festivals of Kyoto. The procession of this festival begins at the old Imperial palace, and includes carrying the mikoshi (portable shrines) of Emperors Kanmu and Kōmei to the Heian Jingū.

Now don't that just sound interistin'?

I'll have more pictures and explantions tomorrow.

Kyoto I

When I was a little boy, I can remember seeing on TV the blockbuster hit that had all the kids in school talking, Big Bird Goes to Japan. You know the one where he out bows the old lady? Anyways, in that movie he ends up in Kyoto where he meets some little girl who ends up being some princess from the moon (not to be confused with the life size, creepy, dancing monkey... that was Big Bird Goes to China. Well ever since watching that movie, I had always wanted to go to Kyoto; which is probably one of the biggest national/international tourist spots in this country. This past Saturday, we made the trek.

I don't want to explain all the history of the city, nor do I think anyone would care but, will include for starters this little snippet from the Internet on the city.

Kyoto was the capital of Japan and the residence of the Emperor from 794 until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when the capital was moved to Tokyo. During its millennium at the center of Japanese power, culture, tradition, and religion, it accumulated an unparalleled collection of palaces, temples and shrines, built for emperors, shoguns, and monks.

Whenever you are looking at a book on Japan and it shows those old stereotypical Japanese pagodas and wooden buildings more likely than not, those pictures were taken in Kyoto. Anyways, as the article says, this place was the center of Japan until America forced Japan to open its doors to western trade and the capital was changed to where it is now. With that being said, you can imagine that there is a lot of culture and architecture to be had there. Because we are so far from anything, we had to wake up pretty early in time to get there in time to have any time to see anything. Try saying that three times fast. We got up Saturday morning around four, so we could leave the house and be at the train station by five-fifteen. As you can see in the pictures, the station looked pretty busy. Well, three transfers and three hours later we found ourself pulling into Kyoto around nine in the morning.

After a few minutes of getting settled and finding our bearings we took off to a place called the Sanjusangen-do which is famous for having over a thousand of the same statue in this building all surrounding an even bigger, exact same statue... only bigger. All made of wood and all (once) covered with gold leaf. Very cool and very interesting. Taking pictures inside is forbidden but, here are some snaps I stole from the net.




As can be said with any photo taken, these don't do the site any justice. I am not quite sure the tie but, somehow Buddhism has a relation with Hinduism and some of the statues in this building are Hindu gods adopted into the Buddhist teachings. Maybe like how when the Romans took over the Greeks they merged their religion with the Greeks, or something along those lines. A place I would have loved to had taken pictures but, I guess in my memory will have to suffice for now.

Next we took a little walk to a famous place called the Kiyomizu temple. For lack of being able to write anything creative about it I will copy and paste an entry of the place from wikitravel and then write my comments underneath.

Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺). This temple complex, with a spectacular location overlooking the city, is a deservedly popular attraction, approached by either of two tourist-filled souvenir-shop-lined streets. Highlights of the temple complex include;

* The main hall's wooden veranda, supported by hundreds of pillars and offering incredible views over the city.

* Jishu-jinja, the love-themed shrine selling countless charms to help you snag the one you love, and featuring two "love stones" positioned around 18m apart which the lovelorn must walk between with eyes closed to confirm their loved one's affection.

* Otowa-no-taki the temple's waterfall, which gives it its name (Kiyomizu literally means 'pure water'). Visitors stand beneath the waterfall, and collect water to drink by holding out little tin cups.

Anyways, I have a few pictures of this place in the slide show at the top but, still have a lot of pictures to be added so, don't think that those are it, because they aren't. Anyways, got to run to class. Will write more later.

Tennis

I think I have mentioned it a time or two in this blog but, monthly I teach an adult English class at the local community center with Shelley, the other JET here in Isobe. These members get together every Wednesday at a city run sports park and play tennis, and from what I hear have been doing it for a few years. Well, I was invited to attend with them a few weeks ago and being constantly sick was always unable to make it. Although I still have a bit of a scratchy throat, cough and a stuffy nose, last night I went along, which I regret to say is probably the first decent bit of exercise I have gotten since coming here.

The event went from seven-thirty through nine-thirty and in spite of being a bit chilly went quite well. I didn't have any cold weather exercise clothes so I wore some sporty pajamas and I don't think anyone knew. Tennis was rather fun and having only played a hand full of times in my life did pretty good. I warned everyone before starting that I was really inexperienced but, was able to catch on quickly. I think a lot of it had to do with all the Wii tennis matches against dad and my brothers. It was a fun time and I think I will go again.