紅葉, Tacoyaki and your Identity(?!)

Japan seems to go by the 'work hard play hard' philosophy, and goes all out for it's Matsuri's (festivals) - Konan's was a 3 day event which had lots of food and music and people in costumes~

chopper in the background! chocolate covered banana's ~

the overall decoration's were amazing, i only took this one pic though. sorry!

Also, my host mum served Tacoyaki the other night, which was both delicious and filling and seriously, Japanese food has got to be the best in the world next to Auntie Patsy's cooking:

btw the tacoyaki grill costs just £10! I've gotta try and smuggle one home in my suitcase. stupid weight limit.

But this entry I just wanted to drop some quick photos of my day out with the family.

 First we went to Costco in Amagasaki, an American wholesales place and brought myself a winter coat for £50 (which I'm wearing right now in my room because Japanese houses don't have heating and I am FREEZING godamnit!) and a box of juicy mikans (oranges) for £6.

5kg worth! That's a good price right? I think that's good. Is that good?

And then drove to a huge park to see the 紅葉　(pronounced 'kor-yor', means 'leaf colouring'), because in Japan such a thing is a huge event, like the Sakura blossoming in spring. It's all about the beauty and transcience of life, all the more beautiful because it's transcient and ahh, it's also just downright pretty. In Kyoto is where it is best, where the trees are lit up in the night and the red and orange of the Momji become illuminated, and though I haven't had chance to go myself the photos my friend have taken from their visit were stunning.

Me and my host family instead went to the 自然文化園 (lit. Nature Culture Park)

Me and host mum got lost looking for the main leaf viewing spot because Takamitsu and Tokishi had disapeared for a train ride, but then they suddenley appeared around the corner and my host dad pointed at which way we were supposed to go. Good timing ^^

Tokishi LOVES trains



view of the 紅葉　from a balcony



these are momiji leaves, the leaves of autumn

that statue has something to do with the sun but what, exactly, wakaranai!

And so that was my 紅葉 viewing. 

I am contemplating buying one of those kickass pro-looking cameras from the renouned cheap electronics street in Tokyo called Akihabara. My camera doesn't come close to capturing how stunning those colours were at the park.

Speaking of which, I've booked tickets to go to Tokyo for Christmas!  ~ go meee ~
With Willerexpress ('cause night bus is cheaper than Shinkansen and I'm poor), which for those few reading this and thinking of coming to Japan should DEFINATELY check out BEFORE you come to Japan. Lots of incredible discounts for those who buy the tickets from abroad (aka not me)!

And another little note,

Something random happened to me at school this week that really riled up Caroline.



This plate on a statue at the park today reminded me of it so I took a photo.

Me, Caroline and Matt were walking back to class on Tuesday when Koji-sensei, a japanese english teacher me and Caroline sort of knew from our TEFL class, suddenley pulled us into his classroom infront of a room full of Japanese students and asked me to tell them the difference between a boyfriend and a friend, which was easy enough. One's romantic, the other ain't. But then he held the microphone in his hand to my face and said "identify yourself as an british person".

You try and do that, right now. Identify yourself. He asked Caroline the same as an American, and when all he got was blank looks he prompted us with "well Japan identifies themselves as 'peaceful', the German's are all about 'history', Britain is 'multiculturalism' (Charlotte, you're an example of that)" he says to me, "and America is about 'freedom'. Am I correct?'

And I could see that he was talking as a teacher so I just nodded and left his to think that because I knew it wasn't the time and place for a debate but I could totally see why Caroline opened her mouth to object.  He was using us to confirm stupid sterotypes that were absolutely nonsensical - Japan AND America are multicultural! England is free, America is questionably free, England has plenty of history as well as Japan and Germany, we're all for peace - I still have no idea what his class was about, but if he was feeding those japanese students labels about us it couldn't have been anything good.

 Caroline was annoyed, and mostly I thought he was just being downright rude and patronising but I just thought it interesting that he, and so possibly japanese academics in general, saw britain as people with a 'multi-cultural' identity?

I've never asked this before on this blog and I have no idea who reads this (nor do I care because it's aimed at family and close friends), but feel free to comment on this below if you want,  I'm still not sure what to make of this. Caroline was particularily outraged by the 'you're an example of that' at me, but i don't think that was the issue, but rather how he's seeing foriegners, and worse, how he's telling his students to see other countries. I mean, did you know that in this language there is only a word for Koreans and Chinese? Everyone else is 'gaijin' (lit. 'foriegner'). I only really noticed it quite recently...

Food for thought. ^^

Field Trip to Mie Prefecture

I am in Hyogo Prefecture, so for me it was a 4hour journey in total

Another overnight stay on a field trip with the other ryuugakusei, this time to a ninja museum, a shrine for the god and ancestor of the Imperial Family and to ride a cable cart to the top of 1200m for the views.

It was a 3 hour couch ride, so the ryuugakusei mostly slept, read, watched the movie ‘Last Samurai’, and did Karaoke.

Yeah, karaoke on the coach. Only in Japan, neh? : D

Tierney-sensei - songs included: 'Hey Jude', 'My neighbour Totoro' and Sinatra's 'My Way' 

view of some japanese countryside

Amy, a huge fan of tea and meditation zoned out. I love the sea in the background!

the maze had hidden doors in the walls that you had to find

wonky witches house

2 and a half hours later we piled back on the coach to go to the Ise-Jingu Shrine, which I must admit we sort of glazed over in favour of admiring the pretty fish:

We had to cross the Ujibashi (Uji bridge) which is a wooden bridge rebuilt every 20 years following the Shikinen Sengu circle, along with the Shogu shrine where the deity Amaterasu is (the main Shinto goddess). The next renewal  will take place in 2013. The structures in that place smelt strongly of fresh cider wood.  

We then hurried to the little village called Okage Yokocho, famous for the Akafuku treats that I ended up buying for my host family (which they loved). Akafuku is a red mochi, a kind of delicious sweet mashed up rice cake, highly recommended. Also enjoyed some tea and this Ebi negi which tasted so good I will never forget it.

Okage Yokocho village

free delicious grilled fish to try!

The hotel we stayed at was small but very nice, we had our own rooms this time and own separate showers, a nice view and a Japanese breakfast (rice, miso soup, salmon and sweet seaweed – I gave my pickled radish to someone else).

So after about 2 hours of sleep (as we basically had a sleepover in each other’s rooms), we got up early to do some Maru-dai braiding at the Iga-Kumihimo Centre (Iga Braiding Centre).



I chose autumn colours



Lunch was a feast at this place:

 

And then we went to ride the a gondola, a cable cart to the top of Mt. Gozaisho Sanjo Park, from which height you can see the Yunoyama hot springs below, the sea and sometimes Mt. Fuji!

We went in autumn so the colours were beautiful, but in winter Gozaisho is a popular skiing spot.

It was cold, but totally worth it.

So if anyone was interested, that was the field trip to Mie ^^

So we arrived at Ise-Azuchi Momoyama Bunkamura, a theme park for the days before Edo period Japan, with it’s beautiful castle with amazing views,  ninja museum and amusement attractions.