Typhoon, cooler weather and the reason I’m here

So classes were cancelled on Wednesday on account of typhoon 15 sweeping through, so I missed the Noh play which was apparently 2 hours long~  but on the upside I got to witness  some awesome weather. If we get a red weather warning from this site http://www.jma.go.jp/en/warn/332_table.html then classes are off.

 And after that, Autumn came. Just like that. Right on time, like the rest of Japan, its trains and people.

I went for a run that night, and I asked my Japanese friend who’s good at English why I had so many stares, do people not usually run at 6pm? And he said oh don’t worry it’s probably because you’re a foreigner and you have big hair and aha, I guess that’s that. I do indeed.

 I met up with the Art teacher who took me and Pomai (from Hawaii) to the messiest room I’ve ever seen in Japan so far and perfect for drawing, so I may join that club along with the Aerobics class I joined, which is all in Japanese (and the little lady who teaches it is energetic and throws out random words in English to help me out, bless).

And concerning that vein of the Japanese trying to make me feel at home, my host mum tentatively knocked on my door the other day and came in with a mug in her hand that had a pie sheet over it, asking ‘kore wa ee desuka?’ to which I didn’t have the heart to say ‘no that’s not how you make pie’ because she’d put so much effort into it, so I ended up having what was essentially cup-a-soup with a muffin pie top for dinner, with rice. It was delicious. XD I must remember to make her some English food some time ~

Oh yes and concerning English, I managed to get a little teaching English for an hour a week for moneys thing going on but now I need to find out how to set up a Japanese bank account -_- troubles ahead I think. Lucky I’ve made friends so far who could potentially help me out...

Best thing that’s happened this week was obv the field trip with everyone. I’ve always said that it’s not so much the destination but the people you travel with, and this trip had BOTH! And the added bonus of such amazing Buddhist monk food!

So that you can really appreciate the time I had and so that I can relive it, I’m going to post my trip to Koya-san separately on this blog, complete with little explanations of the things I experienced. I don’t really want to forget what I learned, and it was some truly awesome stuff.

I mean, I get asked a lot why I’m learning Japanese, and at Koya-san I think I felt more than ever that I’d made the right decision. I chose Japanese at first honestly just because I wanted to learn a language, one that wasn’t French, and Japanese seemed the natural alternative since it was the only country I had a serious interest with.

Back then it was just from a vague idea of ninjas, the ways of the samurai, the appreciation for nature and transience and technology and the knowledge that this was the land where a lot of my favourite things originated from, like son gohan, murakami, ghibli, sushi and monkey d luffy. I thought, ‘how can something so awesome that it’s as though it was made especially for me come from people on the other side of the world? I want to see for myself.’

There was also the challenge of it too, bigger than Kilimanjaro, or prying gabrielle away from the tv, or keeping up with tash. (It’s really, really hard for me. Learning languages is not what I’m good at, and japanese isn’t as hard as you’d think but it is not easy!!)  

Now, though ~ the more I see the more I love, the good and the bad and I could easily see Japan becoming like a second home, despite being labelled a foreigner there probably for the next 100 years, no matter how I dress or what I say or do.

 But it was the best last minute decision I ever made, taking Japanese with English Literature way back when I was choosing courses, and I don’t believe in fate but it’s a popular concept in Japan and if I hadn’t taken it I think Uni level Lit would have chewed me up and spit me out, and I wouldn’t have gone to leeds, met the awesome people I did, and come here to Japan, to konan, to experience this place in the best way physically possible.

I’m digressing into this because when I was at Koya-san it really hit me, the place I went to was the more spiritual side of Japan, something I can’t possibly get across in a blog, but I highly recommend the experience.

I can, however, do the next best thing and give you some pictures!

There are more on my facebook.