Abunai desu kara...(あぶないですから。。。）

In english, "Abunai" means dangerous. Mothers say it to kids all the time and the train station tells you that because it's dangerous you should stand behind the yellow line (a reasonably safe distance away from the arriving train).

Today I have learned that private tutoring can be dangerous as well. Of course, this is part common sense and part, 'what the frick'!? As it is, I came home to a news report about a british woman who taught enlgish here in Japan and her murder. Turns out a Japanese man had approached her at the station about lessons. I'm not sure if I'm understanding this correctly, but he may have been following her before hand. She was a teacher normally so I guess she didn't think anything of him asking. Now, none of this seems terribly off balance to me (except the possibility that he was following her). The dangerous part was that she agreed to meeting the man in his home. Not smart. Not even I, as naive as I can be, would make that mistake. IN the end he murdered her in his apartment.

Okaasan has now pretty much told me I am never to EVER meet anyone in their home for english lessons (which is a duh). Although....now that I think of it I meet Mrs. Fujisawa in her home. Of course, I met her through a reliable contact and the first time I met her was very public.

Moral: If you're meeting someone you don't know well for a lesson then meet them at starbucks or somewhere equally public and safe.

By the by, this freaks me out a hell of a lot.
but what can you do?

Much love!
PS: I've put some pictures on photobucket. I moved the pics from mom's trip into an album titled "mom and rae" and I uploaded pictures from Andrew's parent's trip into an album as well. I still have pictures from nara to upload and I am still planning to write lots of detailed info on all the places I visited. I'm currrently trying to figure out registration and stuff so It might have to wait till classes start.

Ahhh...relaxation

So I got back from my trip with Andrew and his parents about a week ago. I had intended to update and write about all these great places but I was so exhuasted that I pretty much just wanted to relax instead, so I did.

I'll insert random posts about sights around Japan from now on but suffice to say my trip with Andrew's parents was good and took me all the way to Hiroshima. I did spend quite a bit of money though...I think I'll survive^.^

In the mean time...

Yukari came over yesterday. We rented two movies (Bridget Jone's Diary: the edge of reason and Kinky boots), watched them, ate curry that Manami made, worked a bit on a puzzle, and made shortcake!

The shortcake was interesting to make because I wasn't sure if we had the right ingredients. Specifically I'm talking about cocoa powder. Now, is there some sort of special cooking cocoa powder? I hope not because we just used the stuff my family uses to make hot chocolate. Unless that is special cocoa cooking powder. Anyway, it was fun and the cakes turned out well (though maybe a bit small). The family was impressed.

Pictures!

on another note:

The new host student is here! Her name is Tyisha and she's very nice. Unlike me, she is traveling through the program CIEE. I don't know much about it but it seems pretty organized. Manami and I picked her up today and although she was nervous she talked a lot more than I did on my first day. She doesn't know much Japanese but I can tell she'll probably pick it up fast. It's looking really good and I'm pretty pumped about these next 5 months or so.

Anyway,

Much Love!

Pictures, Hakone, and a bit of article commentary

I have now put up at least half of the pictures from mom and rae's visit. I wasnt able to separate them into their own album so they are right there when you go to the album (link is still on the side bar but in case you cant find it: here).

I'm also very bad about labeling and describing the pictures on photobucket. So here's my promise:

I'm about to go traveling with Andrew's parents to a lot of the same places. This time around I will dedicate one article to pictures and information and history about one major site for each place we go. Hopefully this will help you to figure out what's what in my images from mom and Rae's visit.

also...I went to Hakone with Andrew's parents and him. It was amazing. I wish I had known about it earlier because I definatly would have taken mom and Rae..though they would have had to battle their fears a bit. It's a mountain town with geysers and geyser cooked eggs, a beautiful hotel/resort (Fujiya-which is currently having discounts for foreigners on account of their anniversary), a great museum, and the greatest (and my first) view of Mt. Fuji. The weather was perfect! I'll be putting up hakone images later so you'll have to wait to see the Great Fuji San!

On another note:
thenikku recently posted an article relating to comfort women. as some of you know, I wrote a paper about said topic and have some interest in the subject now. My dad sent me a link to another article (which followed the first article the enxt week).

Article

My only issue is that the japanese government has made it's records "available" before but never all of them, and never the ones that mught truly help-if they even still have those. And the records they might share will probably support this idea of the damage to the women being done independently..but it's just outsourcing from what I understand...inevitably the Japanese gov., from what I understand, was responsible. Of course...that's only if you believe the testimonies of the women and some soldiers...which according to an article I read for my women's history class are infalliable simply because the women cant remember what branch they were "serving" or the names of their locations and such things. Tell me...if you were an 80 year old woman who had been traumatized like that when you were young-firstly...would you still remember all the small -and I think unimportant- details? and second, would you have even known them in the first place considering your position?
Honestly I probably don't know enough about the whole thing to have an opinion...and I still love Japan and I completely believe in frogiving for past wrongs (every country has it's history)...I just can't help thinking about it....

in any case...
Much Love!

The final part of the trip...

...was a day with Okaasan.
Because I told her mom liked pottery Okaasan took us to Kappabashi...a street where you can get pretty much anything you need to start a restaurant. Main attraction? Quite easily the plastic food, which, had it not been so expensive, I would have bought a replica parfait. Mom did her major shopping here and much resembled Rae on her shopping spree in Harajuku. Manami and her friend, Sen, were also with us. It was really fun.

After wards we went to an early dinner at the Lipton restaruant. I love this place and it seemed to be a hit with Rae and Mom as well. Otoosan even met us there, which was good since Mom and Rae had yet to meet him. Naoto couldn't make it because he has tests all week which he had to study for.

After Dinner I had planned to take a quick break at home before going back out with Rae to suuiidabashi to meet Andrew and ride thunder dolphin. But, since we asked Manami and Sen if they wanted to go they thought it would be better to go strait from the station. So mom went home with Okaasan and Otoosan (brave of her since I knew she felt a little awkward being alone with them...good thing they're so nice and mom liked them so much!) So manami, Sen, Rae and I headed to suuiidabashi where we met andrew (and his parents who only watched-they are visiting for the next two weeks). Rae gets scared by roller coasters but was a trooper, only crying when we started ascending. Seriously, Thunder Dolphin is the best roller coaster ever!

Aftr riding Manami and Sen went off to meet other friends and Rae and I stayed to chat with Andrew and his parents. andrew also gave Rae her going away gift of the first season of Hana Yori Dango, which I had managed to get her addicted to and Andrew dowloaded for her.

We returned home and I immediatly slept but woke around 2:30 to find rae finishing up Hana Yori...too bad she cant watch the second season yet!

The next morning we ate breakfast with my host family and then met Andrew's family for breakfast as well before heading off to the airport. We had time to kill there so we all ate some ice cream, then mom and Rae helped me pick out a pair of skinny jeans at the Uniqlo, and then Mom gave me some extra money. always fun^.^

I felt a litte bad at first at the airport. You see, like I said it was a bit stressful. And I felt oddly relived that it was time to say goodbye....maybe that sounds cold but you should understand how happy I was and how much fun I had with mom and Rae. I couldnt have asked for a better present (except for maybe my WHOLE immediate family to come-which probably would have been a lot more stressful) and I really am gald I cxould show mom and Rae a good time. And when it came down to it, when Rae and Mom walked through that security gate, I did start crying and I didn't feel so relieved anymore. It was the oddest feeling of sudden loneliness...and probably the deepest homesickness I've felt the whole time I've been here. I even bought two (rather expensive) magazines just to keep me company on the (rather long) train ride home.

And that, was my mother and sister's trip to Japan. I hope they loved it, I know I did.

and now I'm about to be off on another week of fun all over Japan with Andrew's parents. This time though, I don't have to be guide as much...which is nice (not that I minded doing so for mom and Rae).

Much Love!
And again...pictures will come soon!

Kyoto (with Mom and Rae)

SO...
the day following the previous post:

Mom and Rae and I hop on a shinkansen to Kyoto! We chose early rides to and from Tokyo to make the most of the days on which we travelled. So we ended up in Kyoto around 9:30 and checked into Ohto Ryokan. If I had had mom's guide book I would have known that this ryokan was not at all like the one I stayed at in Sapporo, which is what I had been shooting for. Instead, it was kind of like a little bed and breakfast with and really kind old lady who had been working there for 20 years. It was inexpensive so that's a plus and it still had futons and tatami which is the sort of experience I had been looking for anyway...so it worked out.

We ate breakfast at a nearbye coffee shop (where rae and mom later ate hamburger sandwhich type things for breakfast while I munched on honey toast with ice cream) and then headed out on a walking tour that would take us all over eastern kyoto and its sights.

We started with Sanjusangendo, where 1001 statues of the thousand handed kanon are housed. It was beautiful but I actually mostly enjoyed the statues of the gaurdians in front of the kanons the most. Mom cried at the sight and afterwards we both bought the books describing the statues and all their religous meaning. Mom also purchased charms for herself, rachel and me...almost every sightseeing location in Kyoto sells charms for good fortune or acheivement or love.

After that we checked out kyoto national museum which I mostly wanted to see for the building which is a baroque frensh style. This building houses the special exhibitions and was closed off....unfortunatly..but we did go through the permanent collection as well.

Next we began our walk through the pottery shops leading the the temple, Kiyo Mizu. On the way we took an unexpected detour at a place that dresses you up like geisha with make up and kimono and all and then takes professinal type photos. It was about 4 hours all together and really kind of fun and awkward at the same time. But japanese people were doing it too so it felt a little less wierd. Finshing up our pictures we continued to Kiyo Mizu which was an amazing complex. Most fun was the love shrine with these two rocks you walk between with your eyes closed. If you make it the whole way your garunteed a succesful love life. Rae needed a little guiding but Mom walked completely strait. We saw one guy almost walk off a stair case trying to do it.

The next street we walked through was charming and we went through some more temples and shrines. one of the ones that was supposed to have great gardens was closed for tea ceremonies which was kind of bummer. Yasaka shrine was cool with all its lanterns and we made it to Gion but didnt manage to see any Geisha (though we may have seen maiko earlier-can't be sure if they were real or not though).

That was pretty much our first day in kyoto. The next day we went to Nara and spent the day in Nara park which houses all the best attractions. We started sort of in the middle and got to see a ton of deer right off the bat. Deer in this park are considered national treasures and were once thought to be messengers of the god that resides in Kasuga shrine. Well, while rae and I were petting one it grabbed the only map I was carrying and proceeded to eat. I tried to get it back but suceeded only in ripping it, the deer getting the most important piece! Rae and mom and I were laughing so hard, I even saw someone film it. Luckily, a volunteer student guide, Takako, stopped and asked us if she could show us around. We went to the shrine where we were lucky to see a traditonal Japanese wedding and lots of mothers carrying babies to their one month old celebration, and then to the large complex that is Todaiji temple. It has two great halls, one of which was hosting a fire festival that night (we couldnt make it)...it also houses the world's largest copper buddha which was fun to see. Also, behind the buddha, one of the pillars has a hole which you can try and squeeze through. If you do, and you make it, your supposed to be enlgihtened. I did it and everyone applauded...probably because no other "adults" (quoted because it will take at least three more years for me to feel like one) were doing it. Next Takako took us to Issen (?) Garden. So beautiful. I could have sat there for hours. It had small bridges and waterfalls and even some plum blossoms.

I think Nara might have been one of my very favorite parts of the trip.

We returned to Kyoto that night and the next morning took it easy until about 11:30 when we set off to Koya San, a mountain where you can stay overnight in temples and participate in the services. Now, my guidebooks lead me to believe it would only take two hours to get there. Try four. For that reason, although the train ride up the mountain was gorgeous and full of tons of nice scenery, we weren't able to actually see much in Koya San except the temple we stayed in. (if I had known it would take so long we would have left earlier-and yes, we could have hiked around in the night...but I think it would have lost some of its effect...plus most temples and shrines seem to close around 5 or 6). In any case, we got to the temple, Eiko-in, about an hour before dinner (an all vegetarian meal served very prettily). Mom and Rae seemed to immediatly fall in love with the place which is no surprise for me, since it was a lot more like the Sapporo Ryokan I stayed in. We explored the temple in out yukata and then ate our extra nice vegetarian meals. Afterwards Rae and I did some Japanese style bathing and even mom tried it later on (though she was shy and had to make sure no one else was around-not a problem since we were the only females staying over). I did some star gazing that night in the front garden and was delighted I could still identifying some constellations I learned in Astronomy lab.

The next morning we woke up early for morning service. Mom and Rae both felt a little awkward, as if they were intruding, but I didn't really see why. This is part of the experience at Koya san and I bet the monks are delighted to share their practices, provided people are respectful. We then got to see the Fire service which was really cool. Admittedly I don't know much about buddhism so I'm probably going to do some reading to figure out what some of it was all about but it was very neat and refreshing to see...

After services we were going to walk around but it was raining. We decided to head back to kyoto early and try and get in more sights there as opposed to in the mountain. We saw Nijo castle (I loved the sqeuky floors built in to signal intruders...I bought a book of the castle-very cool), the golden pavillion and another temple whose name illudes me at the moment....it has a very nice zen garden though...still...I prefer other Japanese gardens.

That pretty much concluded our trip to Kyoto.
The final portion of the trip will be described in the next post.

The first half of the trip-seeing Tokyo

Now, I pretty much planned Mom and Rae's trip and I am not the most organized person so I realize I probably could have done better and then have them see more but I did my best.

At the airport while waiting for mom and Rae I managed to strike up a conversation with a lady waiting for her daughter. She was impressed with my japanese and I was equally impressed with her english. It was nice talking to someone while waiting.

The night mom and Rae got in they were both exhausted so we pretty much hit the hotel and stayed in. I tried to get them to stay up as late as possible but my family had always been one of the early to bed early to rise mentality so it was early to bed and VERY early to rise. We did play around with yukata's before hitting the sack.

The following morning we went to Tsukiji Fish Market. I'd been waiting to go to this place for a long time...it was always my top priority, must see attraction in Tokyo. We got there extremely early (around 5:30) and yet people were already bustling around. Tsukiji is very much a danger zone; if you're not on your toes your going to get hurt. But it was cool. We saw the Tuna auctions which weren't quite as exciting as guide books make them out to be. We saw sea creatures of all shapes and sizes, some still alive, some frozen, and some just so odd looking I'm wondering if I already ate some and kind of hoping I havn't. We jumped over puddles of blood and water and dodged the crazy fast little trucks that all the guys drive around..as well as dodging some not-so-wholesome looks from some of the fisherman (this is the ONLY place in tokyo where I have witnessed Japanese men so openly stare and hit on myself or anyone else...for me it was really entertaining).

After tsukiji we found our way back to the hotel and ate breakfast there. Then we all took a quick break before heading out for Asakusa. Andrew met us for this part of the trek though trying to find the red gate, Kaminarimon, we got a little lost, which I still can't beleive. We spent time in the shops lining the street, Nakamise Dori, which leads to Sensoji temple. We managed to find souveniers for almost everyone, which is great. Near the pagoda there's a gorgeous garden which we could only look at throught the gate since it was closed. Mom passed up rubbing herself with smoke since she feels a bit odd participating in relgious things that she doesn't believe in. Andrew spotted a wonderful bread shop right near the temple which had fresh Melon Pan. So mom and Rae got to taste my favorite treat. It was so good all warm and soft and fresh!

After that we took the ferry ride to Hama Rikyu Garden. It was super beautiful with plum blossoms bloooming and everything (apparently they bloom earlier than Cherry blossoms...maybe this is why cherry blossoms are now the symbol of spring as opposed to Heian times when plum blossoms were the major image of spring). While there an old lady came up to talk with us in english. She was very enthusiastic about my mom and rae's visit to Japan and had a list of suggestions for us. She was really sweet.

After the garden we sad goodbye to Andrew and went to the hotel to get ready to visit my host family. For gifts, Mom had brought bagels and syrup (specific requests by Okaasan) and also a popcorn maker (since okaasan likes makers) and a cookbook with lots of pictures. Rae and I wrapped them up and then we were on our way. Otoosan wasn't there but the dinner was fun and it was classic when my family first saw Rachel. Apparently we look just alike. We ate tacos and afterwards tried out the popcorn machine. We didn't stay too late since mom and rae were pretty tired but it was a great night.

As a side note, Okaasan had set up the dolls for the Hina Matsuri on march 3rd. You can read about it on her blog, so please do!

The following day we laid fairly low. I had planned to go to kamakura but being tired we decided to take it easy for the day. We hit a Yakinikku restaurant for all you can eat lunch which turned out to be a great hit! After that Rae and I visited my neighborhood again to pick up some forgotten items as well as walk around a bit.

That night we all met Andrew and went out to Shibuya. First we hit a little bar called Flair...I think. It was really nice and they had really gorgeous drinks, a part of some craze where bartenders work to create art out of their drinks. Apparently this place had won lots of prizes. Afterwards we decided to karaoke which was interesting. Andrew sang better than all of us but we all had fun. Mom and Rae tried Calpis Sour, one of my favorite drinks, and we all even sang some Japanese songs. After that we went to an arcade to do Puri Kura. I still hardly understand those machines but it was a funny detour. We also ran into someone from Sophia.

That pretty much concluded our night.

The next day We went to harajuku after hitting Shinjuku for Shakey's pizza and our Rail passes...Rae had money so it was basically a massive shopping spree for her. She bought tons of clothes, all cute! We spent almost the whole day there, managed to check out kiddy land and the oriental bazaar but missed out on yoyogi koen and tghe Meiji shrine, which I feel a bit bad about. Mom really enjoyed people watching there, which is good.

The next day was for Ueno, the imperial garden, and checking out my school. We saw the permanent exhibit at the Tokyo National museum and I figured out that I really need to do there just to sketch and relax. The imperial garden was great...I love the east garden, particularly the Japanese section, and so did mom and Rae. They both liked Sophia which I guess still has classes during the break? Mom bought some school paraphenlia, a sweater and shirt.

Ummm..I think that the next day we left for kyoto...

So I'll leave Kyoto and all it's fun for the next post!

Pictures will be up in my photobucket soon.

Family come to visit!

Okay...so my mother and sister just went back home yesterday. After about 11 days of sightseeing and traveling with them I am exhausted but really happy that I got to see them. I will say this...having family visit you in another country is incredibly wonderful, stressful, rewarding and tiring all at the same time.

I loved seeing my sister and mom. 6 months till I go home...hopefully there visit will keep me from getting homesick during that time^.^

Since I didn't update at all I'll do it all now in several different posts. Mostly It will be general info with more specific details on my favorite parts of each trip. One thing that really seems funny is that I feel a lot more confident in my japanese now...interesting, ne?

Also, tomorrow I leave to go on more trips with andrew's parents who got into town the day before my mom and sister left. No rest! But it's okay, I know it's all going to be great.

On the 23rd, my host family gets another student. I'm excited about this...and mostly I hope we get along well.

anyway...on to the good stuff!