It's been quite some time since I've written anything here. Over a month, it appears. It is not that the summer has been uneventful. On the contrary, I have been so busy that I have neglected almost everything that does not involve research, teaching English, or Japanese television. Okay, so the last one isn't necessary, but I have been hooked.
Things that have passed during June and July:
-I moved twice: I'm currently residing in a Mansion. No, not a 40 room, swimming pool, tennis court mansion. In Japan, a "Mansion" is any apartment that is more than one room. I am living in luxury with a tatami room, a full kitchen and bathroom, and a bedroom.
-The Gion Matsuri: Kyoto's biggest and most grandiose festival. The original purpose was to make the deities happy so they wouldn't bring epidemics. Now, it's a great time for everyone to get dressed up in their summer yukata(cotton kimono) and walk around downtown. In addition there is a great parade.
-Tokyo: I finally made it to Tokyo. I visited a friend from high school who was there on a missions trip for a month, and stayed in a friend from Ultimate Frisbee's apartment. Tokyo is big, I wouldn't want to live there. But it's a nice change to visit after being in Kyoto for so long.
-Scholarship search chaos: I'm trying to apply for a scholarship to return to Japan after I graduate. But it was a long complicated process. In Japan you can't introduce yourself. It is horribly rude. So you have to know someone who knows someone who knows someone else. Let's just say I went to lots of meetings with people and got nowhere. But I sent the application in today, so all is raku (relaxed) now.
*Realization that I have 2 weeks left in Japan. Just 2. What do I do? There is so much food to eat, so many places to go, so many things to buy!!

It is the rainy season here. Definitely rainy. It usually pours for at least 2 hours a day, then drizzles. If it's not raining it is insanely humid. I can't get my clothes to dry and the paper that I leave out on the table starts wilting. I played frisbee in the rain for 6 hours on Saturday and my shoes haven't even started to dry. The shoestrings are still dripping! Ridiculous.

The most common kind of toilet in Japan is the Japanese-style squat toilet. However, with the large number of foreign tourists coming to this country, major stores and businesses have installed Western style toilets too. The department stores have almost exclusively converted. While using one of these restrooms the other day, I noticed a button on the wall that I had failed to see before. On reading the sign I couldn't decide whether it's use was ridiculous or thoughtful: If you push the button there emits a noise which sounds like the toilet is flushing, for those moments when you might be embarressed to have other people hear your toilet usage. This is possibly an example of the supposed excess politeness of the Japanese.

A quick summary of the last half of May:
*My mom came to visit me for a week. I took her to most of the famous places in Kyoto. This involved lots of walking and biking, which she wasn't too happy about, but I think I forced enough Japanese culture on her to make at least a decent impression.
*My friend Anna came to stay and we had a lovely little party in my apartment.
*The school took a field trip to Hiroshima, the city where the US dropped an atomic bomb. We went to the Peace Museum and the A-Bomb Dome, one of the only buildings remaining after the blast. Afterwards, we went to Miyajima, an island off of the coast. There is a really beautiful torii (Shinto shrine entrance gate) in the water. We stayed at a really nice ryokan (Japanese style inn) and enjoyed the pleasures of walking around in yukata (light kimono), and eating wonderful fancy Japanese food.
*I went camping in the middle of Shikoku during a typhoon. I walked across a few vine bridges, hiked in the mountains, and camped next to a roaring river. It was nice to get out of the city for awhile.
*Anna and I spent her last night in Japan at a club in Osaka. Shou creams, dancing all night long, curry for breakfast, and sleeping on the train are just a few highlights.
*Last night we went to Takigi Noh (torchlight Noh theatre) which is outdoors at the Heian Shrine. It was 4.5 hours long, the first half being okay, the middle boring, but the last two plays were the best. One was a comedy about demon mushrooms (a comedy), and one about a demon spider. The last one was cool because the spider actually threw out webs from his fingers. By the time the play was over there were "spider webs" covering the whole cast and the entire stage.

Tuesday I took one more step towards becoming a Buddhist. (for those of you who can't tell, I'm joking)
There are certain monks who live on Mt. Hiei who take a vow to walk for 12 years. Every year they walk 100-200 days in a row, each day for anywhere from 8-22 hours. In the 12th year they come down from walking around the mountain and they walk around the city of Kyoto. They start in the morning at 10:30 and walk until 5:30. Then they perform rituals and sleep a little and get up and do it again at night. There is usually one monk per decade who does this vow. Right now the current monk is on his last year, and is consequently walking around Kyoto. I joined him for the day trip on Tuesday. My religion teacher and I went, dressed all in white. It was a long walk, but punctuated by frequent stops at shrines and temples to pray to the gods and recite the Heart Sutra. During the walk I got to talk to many lay people and monks who were accompanying the ajari. It was a good way to learn more about the special characteristics of another aspect of Japanese religion.

I now have three jobs. One of them is teaching English to small groups of kids. I thought that I knew Japanese pretty well until I tried to talk to little kids. The grammer and vocabulary is all different, and in my role as a teacher, I have to learn how to say, "Sit down. Repeat after me. I'll ask the questions, and you answer." This sounds like it should be simple, yet I can't seem to get it right. Good thing I am supposed to be talking all the time in English. However, they can't understand English, so nothing would get done if I did that. It's a bit frustrating, but for $40 an hour, I'm not complaining too much.

It is Golden Week in Japan right now. This is a period of 5 or so days out of which 3 are holidays. So, in order to keep salarymen from overworking and schoolchildren from going crazy, the other two days become unofficial holidays. Schools and companies have the whole week off, and everyone goes on vacation. If you wanted to go somewhere, you should have gotten your tickets months earlier. Today is actually Kodomo no Hi. Kid's Day. It used to be Boys Days. Celebrate today by wearing traditional armor, eating special candy and singing songs about carp.

Onigiri - my new favorite lunch. Onigiri is rice, sometimes sprinkled with wakame (a type of seaweed) or salmon, formed into triangles and covered with nori (another kind of seaweed). You can buy them at any convenience store, for they make the best lunches. However, the most delicious kind are those made at home. If you are a Japanese, you can form these little shapes in seconds. I have gotten into the habit of making some everyday to take for lunch, and my triangles are not yet perfect. My host mother could do it in three turns. There is a special way of holding your hands that molds the corners just right. I am getting there - it probably only takes me twice as long as it should now instead of 6 times..

Yesterday was Easter. Happy Easter! In Japan, the only people who celebrate Easter are the less than 1% of the population who are Christian. Unlike Christmas, which has become a highly secularized and popular holiday, no one knows about Easter. There is no Easter bunny, no Easter candy, no Easter eggs, nothing. Even my church was not very enthusiastic about it (which is surprising, but it is the number one most important holiday in the Christian faith). There were only a few Easter lilies, no special music, and no one was dressed up. Just a regular Sunday.
I guess I made up for it a bit by getting up at sunrise and climbing a nearby mountain. Too bad it was raining. Oh well.

The sun is shining, the sakura petals are falling like snow, and I have no place to be. I officially graduated from KCJS last Friday. The ceremony was simple, and nice, despite the fact that I was made to play the koto.
From now on, I am working part time, studying part time, researching part time, and watching lots of Japanese television (to improve my listening skills, of course). And so, I think that I will be updating this website less often. I think I will only post pictures and really exciting things. Yes, that's all. Enjoy the spring!

Finals are over. Packing is done. Last night I ate my last dinner with my host family. Okasan made sukiyaki, which just happens to be one of my favorite Japanese dishes. It is so sad to be leaving them after 8 months of living with the Kishida family. I shall miss Okasan's cooking, Otosan's subtle humor and constant golf watching, Shinnosuke's morning alarm barking, and all the other random things that made it a wonderful experience of Japanese life.
Tonight is the graduation ceremony, in which I will be playing the koto. Probably wearing a kimono too. After that, it's off to Osaka! Tomorrow I am moving into my apartment for the summer term. It's at a wonderful location-just down the street from Ginkakuji, on the Philosopher's Path, and a 10 minute bike ride to school. I'm looking forward to a lovely summer in Kyoto!

The last party of the semester is winding down, people are slowly leaving the school, buzzed, but not drunk from the minimal amount of alchohol provided. There are no kegs in Japan. Next week is the last week of school. Two finals, a bunraku play, a luau cookout (real pig provided by visiting professor), graduation ceremony, and Latin dancing in Osaka. Good times with friends will be ending soon, and it is horrible that we have to take time to study instead of spending it with them.

The Japanese version of eeny-meeny-miny-mo:
dore ni (which one)
dochira ni shiyou kana (which one shall i do?)
tennokamisama no iu toori (let the god from the sky tell me!)
butto koi butto koide (come fart come fart)
bu bu bu ((fart noise))
mou hitotsu omakeni (one more time, throw it out)
kakinota ne ((i don't know what this word means..))

It makes about as much sense as "catch a tiger by a toe" doesn't it?

It is officially spring - the cherry blossoms are blooming. Well, at least they are starting to bloom. Everyone is waiting expectantly for the moment when, as my host mother says, they all "pop" and there are trees everywhere with lovely pinkish white blossoms. I wouldn't be surprised if someone somewhere has a pool on when they will open..I was riding along the river yesterday and there were already people out having picnics under the half blooming trees. I think that part of the expectation of the sakura is the fact that you can go have picnics and drink lots of sake.
My host family has a sakura tree in our garden. My host mother lights it up at night, and it looks very pretty, even without all the blossoms yet. I have a wonderful view of it from my veranda on the second floor. It makes a nice diversion in the studying when I look out the window.

Possibly stemming from the history of severe etiquette rules and seperation of the sexes, public displays of affection in Japan today are almost never seen. This includes public space, television, and even the home. I have been here almost 10 months and have only seen 3 kisses on Japanese television - 1 was in a commercial being acted by foreigners. The happy endings of TV shows involve dramatic hugging, and even that is a rare occurance. Young people are more liberal in their views on PDA's, I see couples holding hands often, but I have only ever seen one pair kiss in public. The most physically affectionate thing I have ever seen my host parents do is give each other backrubs.

I ride my bike everywhere. It is the most convenient way to get anywhere. In the course of my travels, however, I am often hindered by obstacles, such as people, cars, dogs, and birds. Pigeons, to be exact. In my years of experience as a child trying to catch these annoying birds, it always happened that I would get just so close, and they would run away. This is my background information on pigeons. Yesterday, as I was hurrying back from the store to get to class, I learned somewhat otherwise. A flock of pigeons was pecking at the sidewalk as I pedaled toward them. Thinking they would move at the sound of my whooshing tires and my constantly ringing defective bike bell, I slowed only slightly. Many stepped aside; one did not. It was a game of chicken (or pigeon) and at the last moment I swerved right. So did the pigeon. And I ran over the poor little bugger with my bike tire. I looked back expecting to see a casualty on the sidewalk, but luckily it was clear. These Japanese birds really should learn the art of fleeing from their North American cousins.

All I have time to say is this:
Japanese Ultimate Frisbee at Mount Fuji - Tipets..Fight!!

If possible, I think that the Japanese people would solve all problems with janken, that is paper-rock-scissors. If sumo is the national sport, janken is the national game. It's used to solve disputes, make frisbee teams, win prizes, and for purely entertainment purposes. They practice this game from a young age, and by the time they are in high school can compete in groups of 10 or more at the same time, quickly analyzing winners, ties, and losers and moving on the next set instantly. I get lost after the first one trying to figure out if I should keep going or not. As serious as the American version of this game is in ultimate frisbee, enthusiasts beware of coming to Japan- you are greatly outgunned.

This weekend I did two things which Japanese people always say they want to do, but never do. On Saturday I attended the performance of three Noh plays. This started at 11am and did not end until 4pm. Noh is a traditional Japanese theatre/music performance. There are usually only 2 or 3 actors, and the action is slow, the movements are deliberate, and excitement is basically non-existant. The basic form for a play goes like this: Act 1: A traveling person (usually a monk), comes on and explains why he is wandering. He meets someone else, and they talk. Act 2: The second person (who was usually a dead person in disguise) comes back to talk to the monk while he is drowsing. He explains his death and asks for prayers. Sometimes he dances. That's it. I like the music and the costumes, but the lack of action grates on you after awhile. At least 70% of the audience falls asleep at least once during the performance. Someone snored while I was there.

Sunday I went to day 8 of the Haru Bashoo, the Spring Sumo Tournament, in Osaka. A bashoo lasts for 15 days, starting everyday at 9am and going until 6pm. The lower rikishi (sumo wrestlers) compete in the morning, and as the day progresses higher ranks compete, until at 5pm the ozeki (second highest) and yokozuna (highest, there are only 2 right now) have the final matches. Each day each rikishi has one match. I bought the cheap tickets and sat in the high seats, but my friends got a "box" which was just a space for 4 people to sit Japanese style on cushions. Either way, it was a day-long affair. Most Japanese people only come towards the end when the good people are competing - the place was full at around 4:30pm. Until then, you could wander around and sit up close to watch. However, there were definitely some times when sitting close was definitely too close : watch out for falling rikishi! And you must remember that these are really heavy men in a minimum of clothing - some things you just don't want to see..

Happy White Day! - the day exactly one month after Valentine's Day when all the guys give white chocolate and gifts to the girls who gave them stuff on Valentine's Day. I didn't give anything to anyone, so I didn't receive anything special, but one of my guy friends baked cookies for all his girl friends, so I got to at least eat wonderful chocolate cookies!

Today my Japanese class went to the Ritsumeikan University Peace Museum. It was a museum dedicated to showing the bad things of war (specifically WWII and Japan's actions in it) and the promoting peace. It was small, but well done, thorough in explanations and clear in making its point. A few of the things that struck me most were:
-The average height for a Japanese high school boy was 10 centimeters shorter at the end of the war that high schoolers at the beginning of the war due to rationing.
-There was a picture of a man "picking up the pieces" of a soldier killed by a excessive machine gun rounds. It looked like someone had deflated the upper half of a blow up toy except for the head, and hung it over their arm.
-Kyoto was originally a target for the atomic bomb. It is sad to think that America would destroy (and has most likely destroyed) so much beauty and representations of culture.