The Last Post

Hello.

Yes, it's September and no, I'm not still in Japan. I left August 2 but haven't tried to write in here until now (really, this is an excuse to not do homework and prolong my work-inflicted insomnia).

I still remember my last week in Japan b/c honestly, it was during the last week that I started to feel like I didn't want to go home. It's a strange mix of feelings, partly you want to go back to your own world but the other part of you thinks you haven't finished here.

A friend of mine, Rahad, took me up to a lake in the mountains on his motorbike (more like a scooter I think) during one of my last days there.

2 of the freshmen I ate okonomiyaki with took me out to a final night of izakaya drinking and karaoke.

The international student Japanese class went out to an izakaya as well and paid my fee since I was leaving (they also paid for Hong, the Korean guy also heading back home (he graduated)).

There was also a dinner party at Yoshino-san's house, which was really awkward but incredibly delicious food (imagine going to a dinner party where all those who attended are your superiors (student affairs staff) and then only 2 of which could actually speak to you b/c one knows English and the other knows Chinese).

There was also a lot of presents. Everyone likes giving farewell gifts and I feel slightly guilty for not preparing any myself. But perhaps it is not tradition for the departing person to do so. It's not in American culture. The gifts were sweet, but I had such difficulty finding place in my suitcase for them. I had one suitcase overweight but the check in desk clerk let it go b/c the computer was freezing on him.

And finally, there was the trip to the Studio Ghibli Museum. It was absolutely wonderful, but they don't let you take photos. However, it was less awesome than the hype about it was. The place itself was really amazing and sculpted down to the littlest detail to be a Ghibli haven but for the amount of effort it took to get the tickets, I sort of wished it was bigger. And not full of running kids (I also managed to pull my shoulder muscle that morning but still forced myself onto the packed train to meet Midori. I wasn't going to miss it).

Thinking about the trip at the very end, I have to say it was all well worth it. The initial frustrations with the isolation and the culture shock fade away and without even noticing it, it becomes a part of you. Coming home was jarring. The first things I noticed was the intense amount of white people. And overweight people. At least they all seemed overweight with their thicker thighs and very casual dress. But it's just different culture.

There was also the blaring "we are now at code orange" in the airports. You don't hear a thing about this in Japan.

The next thing I noticed was that the flight attendants were ruder. If they are annoyed, they let you know. It's less about the job and more about the individual doing the job.

The last thing I noticed was how badly my English vocabulary and ability to speak quickly dropped. A great thing since going back home meant starting to prepare for the GRE.

But I can definitely say my self-confidence level had a major boost while I was there. Being able to just say "screw it" to the feeling of not fitting b/c hey, in Japan you never will, was a good way for me to just be more comfortable with myself in general. It was a good thing.

I'd go back. Maybe not to Tokyo, but I'd love to see the rest of the country. There is a richness to their culture and history which, although I don't ever want to live there, is fascinating to study from a distance.

And finally, the last 2 pictures.

The robot from Laputa, the only thing we were allowed to photograph.

My last night in Japan.

Thank you for reading this blog. For those of you planning to go in the future, may my trip serve as a guide to yours. Or just a simple comfort if you run along any problems that I did.

Or a good laugh and fun read. I hope I'm a fun read. I can definitely say I enjoyed writing this.

Onwards to new adventures. Starting with my senior year of college.

Goodbye!

Catch-up #6: Hiroshima and Miyajima

Monday was Enoshima. Wednesday was Kawagoe, Thursday night was a party at the izakaya with my Japanese class (a sort of farewell party for me and this guy named Hong who was going back to Korea).

Friday and Saturday was a 2-day trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima with my homestay parents.

These people are incredible. They paid for everything, from the expensive Shinkansen tickets to the hotel to the little things like drinks out of the vending machine. They wouldn't let me take my wallet out for anything (which of course, just made me feel guilty. I'm not used to that). Hiroshima is twice the distance away from Tokyo than Kyoto is. And I was gawking at the price to get to Kyoto.

Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic-bombing, has been turned into a tourist location. A very beautiful tourist location. But a very sad place to tour. Preserved ruins, statues dedicated to the deceased, and a museum explaning the situations that led to the bombing and the effects a nuclear bomb had on the people.

200,000 people died. This included soldiers, forced laborers, prisoners of war, and local civilians. 200,000....

We people in America balk at the hit 5,000 was during the 9/11 attack. Enough to go to war against another country. But we made the decision to kill off 200,000 people with a single bombed strategically dropped for political reasons. Yes, it ended a very devastating war, but it seems a bit excessive to throw something that big at another country.

The museum itself did nothing to victimize Japan or villianize America. It didn't proclaim America the hero and Japan the country of shame. It just presented the facts. That all sides had been wrong in this war and that such chaos should be avoided at all costs in the future.

The thing I didn't know about Hiroshima was America's strategy in dropping the bomb there. At the time, America had 3 options. To invade, to call on the Soviets for help, or to drop an atomic bomb. The bomb was decided b/c it would raise America up as a country of power and dominance, especially against the Soviets. Hiroshima in particular was chosen b/c it supposedly had no American prisoners of war. It was a military city (taken over by the military for its ports) and was strategically chosen for the impact an atomic bomb would geographically make if dropped there.

It's very disgusting when you think about it, how disconnectedly people can decide to end 200,000 lives. But I guess in war, when you're representing people by numbers bunched in shapes of triangles and dots, empathy is taken out of it. And pure cold-cut strategy is put in place. Like a game.

But yeah, there's my history lesson.

Miyajima on the other hand is a island with a shrine built directly on the water. The TV said it was because in the past, the people believed the island itself to be a god. But it was a beautiful experience there visiting the dock/shrine and going up the mountain on skylines. We stayed in a Japanese hotel on the island too which was cool. Although it did mean I had to experience a Japanese public bath.

The World Heritage Site. I.e. the a-bomb dome. The only building the survive the nuclear bomb attack, I think. It's been preserved and maintained, so it still stands as a site.

A statue dedicated to the children who lost their lives during the atomic bomb attack.

One particular girl who died b/c of the radiation poisoning caused by the bomb created massive awareness among the youths for the victims of Hiroshima. This statue is in memory of her. In the class cases are thousands upon thousands of paper cranes.

Hiroshima castle.

A temple... I forge the name.

The inside of our hotel room. Tatami floors n all.

The Miyajima Temple.

The infamous gate of the Miyajima temple.

Another shot. It was lowtide when we went, but usually all that land is underwater.

Okaa-san and me standing at the top of the mountain.

The rope bridge.

A creek/river in the park on the way down from the mountain. We stopped to play around.

Deer! There were so many here and they're not afraid of people at all. Kind of like goats in a petting zoo. Except it's not a fenced off area. They walk along the streets with you. You can feed them and touch them.

After visiting Hiroshima and from the very brief interaction with the various people on the streets, I have to say, I think western Japan just might be friendlier than eastern. Also, the various cities are much closer to each other and easier to get to. Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, etc etc. They're all over there.

When coming from CMU's art exchange program, I would refer to the Japan exchange as this: Do you want to go to Japan? Or do you want to go to Tokyo?

Catch-up #5: Kawagoe (Little Tokyo)

Kawagoe is called Koedo (Little Tokyo). It's where the castle of the Tokugawa family and is the reason I wanted to visit. Plus it's supposed to be a city that preserved the architecture of old Japan. History fact: b/c Kawagoe was so prosperous in its time, the merchants were able to built the homes and warehouses out of fireproof material instead of the commonly used dry wood. So it didn't burn down like a lot of the structures of Japan.

Kawagoe's trademark food? The sweet potato. They put sweet potato in everything. Of the things I tried, there were sweet potato ice cream, sweet potato popsicle, sweet potato chips, and sweet potato cake. I have to say I really liked the ice cream.

Throughout my personal exploration, I kept wondering where all the tourists were. This was a tourist location, after all. The thing was, the tourists were the smart ones. They were taking busses to all the sites. I was walking. It's quite a bit of a walk. But I did prefer it. You see so much more when you're on your feet. I took a lot of shots of streets and local architecture, but I'm just going to share these few (there's too many for me to want to upload it all).

One of the many temples I saw (I forget which one this is).


A sidestreet I thought looked really cool.

The Kawagoe Castle called the Honmaru Goten. It didn't look like much, but you could wander around inside of it for the very cheap price of 50 yen.

A shrine at the Kitain Temple.

The Gohyaku-Rakan Statues of the Kitain Temple. Technically, there are 538 ("gohyaku" means "500"). These guys are really small, but each one has a different expression. Unfortunately I couldn't get any closer. I arrived at the location right when they closed the gate (this picture was achieved by me holding the camera over the fence and blindly taking the shot).

The cool thing was a lot of the temples and things were connected to occupied areas. For example, one was part of an elementary school. Wouldn't that be cool going to school at an ancient temple?

Catch-up #4: Enoshima

Prior to this, Jyun and I had a final "let's hang out" day by doing an all-nighter in a karaoke house. It was really fun. She passed out around 3:00AM. Me around 4:30AM. We had the room from 12:00AM to 5:00AM.

We also made tacos and spaghetti and Americanized food that I made for dinner. It was fun having a house guest again.

No photos though. Sorta forgot the camera the entire day.

The week afterwards (Monday), I got to see my homestay parents again. Mr. and Mrs. Yokota. They took me to Enoshima, which I learned, was where they had their first date (how cute!).

The walking "bridge" of the ocean. (Not really a bridge, although elevated. Maybe it was a dam?)



Some shots of the ocean and the area we walked around.

Enoshima Road. Lots of touristy shops and snacks.



A couple of temples at the end of the Enoshima Road up the mountain.


The view from the top in an observation tower.

The entrance to the walk up the mountain.

The famous Enoshima ramen. All that stuff we saw on the rocks? We're eating it.

I have a ton of aquarium photos. It's just really beautiful. But I'm just gonna post one to give the idea.

Jellyfish. Eerily beautiful. But I'm glad they are behind glass.

And of course, dolphins! I'm a kid again!

Catch-up #3: Harajuku w/ Esther

This day wasy special. I met up with Esther in Shinjuku and took her and her sister to Harajuku. ^_^

For those who don't know, Esther is a friend I met in Taiwan during the Formosa Study Tour (a.k.a. the Loveboat) in 2005. Loveboat was a memorable month of touring and friend-making, but sadly, since I live in the backwater state of Ohio (not really backwater, but hey, all Asians are from California), I never got to see any of the people I made friends with afterwards. So it's been 2 years since I last saw or heard from her. Randomnly, I got a Facebook message saying "hey, I'm coming to Japan" so we took advantage of the chance and met up.

Unfortunately for her, she came during the typhoon (also the reason why I didn't go anywhere that weekend myself), so there wasn't much for her to do. So her family mistakeningly went to Akihabara and Ikebukuro. I say mistakenly b/c while these places are tourist attractions, you already know what I found in Akihabara. And they had a 5-yr-old son with them.

So, given the time limit (I met up with her at 9:00AM and she had to leave at 12:00PM to get to her plane to leave), I did the best thing I could and took her and her sister to Harajuku to shop and to admire the youth life and interesting fashions.

It was really fun getting to hang out with her and kinda strange how normal it felt. It's been 2 years, but we talked like we had known each other the entire time. Like it wasn't weird meeting each other in another country.

Esther and I standing in front of the Harajuku Station. (Her sister is very fast with a camera....)
Oh that old lady is just in there b/c... yeah, I don't know.

Esther's sister getting water to wash her hands at a small local temple we found in the backstreets of Harajuku. Hey! At least they can say they saw a temple. ^^"

Catch-up #2: Okonomiyaki w/ Friends

I thought people might like to see just what going out for okonomiyaki is like. It really is an event in itself. We reserved the tables for 2 hours of all-you-can-eat. And I was quite terrified by the amount these little asian girls can consume. 1 okonomiyaki is enough to make me full. My particular table of 4 ordered (and finished off) a total of: 4 okonomiyaki, 3 monjyayaki, and 2 yakisoba. Afterwards, one still wanted to run in to another restaurant and get cake for dessert. Of course it was the littlest.

Anyways, it was a fun party, even though I'm incredibly sick of eating this stuff. It tastes awesome though, just had it one too many times.

Two okonomiyakis still cooking.

Monjyayaki. You use the little spatulas to pick it up and eat it.

Catch-up #1: Photos from Tokyo Tower, Zojoji Temple, and Roppongi

Wow... has it really been that long since I last posted? The list of photos in my camera seems to think so.

Well, here goes a long string of posts: First are the photos I promised from last time, then we'll go chronologically.

Tokyo Tower as seen from the ground.

This is how high we were. It's only halfway (Hashimoto-san has a thing against heights), but it was fairly cloudy anyways.

View from the mid-point of Tokyo Tower.

View of Zojoji Temple from Tokyo Tower. Zoomed in (It was smaller....).


Zojoji Temple.

These statues lined one entire side of the Zojoji Temple grounds.

Hashimoto-san in front of Roppongi Hills.

This is how high up we were inside Roppongi Hills.

Tokyo Tower as seen from the top of Roppongi Hills (zoomed in again.... smaller in real life).

And finally, skyview from Roppongi Hills. It became much clearer towards the end of the day.