５月３日〜５日 Day 40-42: GOLDEN WEEK IN KYOTO!

Hey everyone, sorry for the horrendously long wait for an update-- I've been busy enjoying the beautiful weather! FINALLY! (The last 2 weeks have been doom and gloom)

So Golden Week was kicked off with some excessive partying (see last post) and finished off with doing lots and lots of touristy things around Kyoto. I swear, I must have seen about a BILLION temples and shrines!

Golden Week is Japan's only national week of holidays. It starts with Showa no Hi on April 29th, and then has Constitution Day on the 3rd, Midori no Hi (Green Day) on the 4th, followed by Kodomo no Hi (Children's Day) on the 5th. Yes, we had to go to school on the 5th and 6th... what kind of retardedly placed holiday is that?! Anyway, my friends and I decided to spend our one and only holiday outside of Tokyo-- to get a glimpse of the other side of Japan: KANSAI!

We took a 7 hour bus ride from Tokyo to Kyoto for about ¥12,600 round trip, which is less than half the price of a shinkansen ticket. Talk about student travel. IT SUCKED. It was so cramped and I barely slept, but at least it was cheap.

We stayed with Yuko-sensei, my mom's kick ass Japanese tutor. She was the absolute sweetest because she literally showed us everything Kyoto has to offer. Unsurprisingly, we saw everything in 3 days! (That's why I'm glad I'm studying abroad in Tokyo... hehehe.)

One thing we saw in Kyoto that we didn't see in Tokyo was STEVEN SPIELBERG. YEAH. We saw him getting off the train in Kyoto Station with Cate Capshaw, totally nonchalant. CRRRRAAAAAZZZZZZY! We were so completely tripped out that we had seen Steven Spielberg that we didn't even ask for a picture. It was also really clear that no one else recognized him, and he was enjoying that.

Anyway, here are the less exciting (jk) highlights of the trip:

Photo © Jordan

The first thing Yuko-sensei did was take us out to lunch at this place called ODEN. I've never been a huge fan of udon, but this place made me change my mind... fast. It also had the greatest gobo I've ever tasted. (Sorry, Grandma)

Kyoto Tower! It's shaped like a Japanese candle! Did you know that? NEITHER DID I!

Yasaka Shrine. What an awesome view of greater Kyoto!

Walking through Gion to get to Yasaka Shrine-- holy balls it was crowded! I think everyone pilgrimages to go to Kyoto during Golden Week to feel more Japanese.

Hence, why touristy girls pay tons of money put on geisha make up and strut around Gion. (Notice how they're being directed) Lots of tourists take pictures with these posers thinking they're real geisha, but REAL geisha don't waste time on petty tourists, as they have real (refined) work to do.

Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion. It was gorgeous! I bought 3 omamori (good luck charms) from here for some very special people who will receive them in the mail in time for their birthdays ;)

The only thing I didn't like about Kinkakuji was the fact that everyone was just there to take pictures of it. The whole experience can be summed up as, *CLICK CLICK CLICK* leave. The guy directing the masses of people around Kinkakuji even said, "Please take your pictures quickly so others can have a chance." Hm, I guess the history of the place isn't as interesting as the fact that you've been to it.

Trying to get coins in the dish for good luck.

I'm sure these buddhas had faces at one point, but the constant misses in that bowl have cost them their identities.

I think this long market street was called Nishiki, but I could be wrong. It was full of every type of Japanese food, spice, ingredient, herb, etc. that you could think of. Somewhere my mom could have easily spent 5 hours in.

Here are my friends, Jordan and Joelle, looking at some nuts. Nuts in Japan are VERY hard to find!

Heian Jingu: The Biggest Torii Gate in Kyoto!

On Wednesday, our last day, we went to Yuko-sensei's parents' house. They told us there was going to be a big parade/festival that came right in front of their house so we made sure to go.

They carried a mikoshi (portable Shinto shrine). There was one carried by all women (for some kind of female kami) and one carried by all men-- which was probably the more important one.

The one the men carried had no support whereas the female one was on a cart. The men carried their mikoshi all the way to Inari Jinja! We ran into them later! I couldn't believe they had carried it for so far-- it was SO hot! They also had to bounce it up and down on their shoulders which looked REALLY painful!

Anyway, Inari Jinja was our last touristy stop. Inari Jinja is the shrine you see on all the postcards, with the endless path of torii going up the mountain. I CLIMBED IT!

Outside the shrine, we saw lots and lots of foxes. Foxes are some kind of guardian for Shinto Shrines. I would tell you why, but my stupid religion class isn't really teaching me anything.

Hand drawn foxes outside the shrine.

Me and the gates. I always thought they were red, but guess what? They're orange!

After we got back from that hot hike through the Senbon Torii (Thousand Torii), we came back to Yuko-sensei's parents' house and had snacks and lunch. They insisted on getting something delivered!! X_X

Photo © Jordan

Photo © Jordan

MOUTHWATERING KAWASHI MOCHI! It's seasonal! It's wrapped in oak leaves! BE JEALOUS!

Photo © Jordan

BENTO FROM HEAVEN. GAHH I don't even know how I can thank Yuko-sensei's parents! They sent us home with cake and green tea too! (X_X)

The saddest part of the trip was saying good bye to Hal, their dog.

Right before we left, Yuko-sensei took us to a local shrine where they had tons of carnival-type games, FOOD, and horse riding demonstrations.

All the games involved scooping something out of water and winning goldfish.

The horseback riding was interesting because all the guys were trying to do tricks down this long track. Not too many successes though...

RILAKKUMA PRIZES

ZOMG TAKOYAKI *droooooooool*

Then we had to leave for our 7 hour bus ride back. NOT WITHOUT SOME OKONOMIYAKI THOUGH!

Photo © Jordan

*DROOOOOOOOOOL*

Kansai people get really pissed at the way Tokyo people eat okonomiyaki. Yuko-sensei said she didn't mind, but I'm glad she told us the proper way to eat it. Tokyo people eat okonomiyaki like a pizza, cutting triangle slices from the middle. Kansai people cut it into vertical strips, starting from one side, moving to the other. I guess eating it the Kansai way is better considering okonomiyaki was invented there. Eating it the Tokyo way would be the equivalent of eating a taco with a fork or something...

Photo © Jordan

We finally left Yuko-sensei's apartment at about 10pm. I had to admit that I sort of enjoyed sleeping on the floor with my 2 friends. It was like a slumber party! A tatami slumber party! ^_^ Don't worry-- I made sure we cleaned up~!

The trip was so much fun, and it was a great escape from Tokyo. Tokyo can make you feel so claustrophobic with all of its buildings, neon signs and lack of greenery. Going to Kyoto was a nice change of pace and perspective, but it also made me realize that I can never be too far from bright lights and a big city... I'll always have a piece of my heart in Tokyo.

４月３０日 Day 37: In This Club

So my friend had a party last night at a club called New Lex in Roppongi. It was my first time clubbing in Japan and it was NOMI-HOUDAI (all you can drink)! Although in retrospect, I didn't REALLY use it to my advantage... but that's ok because I can actually remember everything! (^0^)

In short, this is what it looked like when we entered the club at 11:45pm:

This is what it looked like when we left the club at 5am:

Highlights of the night:

-Getting introduced to Akanishi Jin (Japanese Justin Timberlake aka: love of my life circa 2007)

-Sitting and dancing VIP with my friends while the other mere mortals were forced to stand and get shoved around all night on the dance floor.

-Sweat.

-Hearing my favorite song, "SHOTS," by LMFAO and dancing my heart out.

-Helping random strangers get to the toilet before they blew chunks all over the club bathroom.

-Watching some random guy knock over all our drinks, shattering all our glasses.

-Getting burned by some douche's cigarette, ruining a good pair of tights.

-Watching all the Japanese girls throw themselves at sleazy gaijin.

-Losing all feeling in my feet from wearing my hooker heels.

-Leaving the club, watching the sunrise.

-Taking off shoes in Hibiya Station, walking barefoot all the way home.

So, first and foremost-- I ran into Akanishi Jin about 4 times last night. I bet he probably thinks I was following him haha. My friend who knows him pulled me up to the velvet ropes, made Akanishi get up and take a look at me. I flashed him a peace sign (his signature one from his days on Gokusen) and a smile and he sat back down, probably unimpressed, but WHATEVS. Then, after I told my friend Kana that I saw him, he wound up standing at one of the tables in the middle of the club. I told her, "GO TOUCH HIM, YOU'LL NEVER GET ANOTHER CHANCE." So she did. Then I ran into him when I went to the bathroom. My friend Keith saw me, opened the men's door and he was standing right there. We made distinct eye-contact and I'm pretty sure his eyes were saying, "Woah, it takes a very desperate disgusting person to follow someone to the bathroom." BUT I DIDN'T FOLLOW HIM!! (+_+);; Anyway, the last time I saw him, he was sitting in our VIP couch section (even though he had a private one all to his own posse). He was just sitting there, looking at the crowd, looking bored. I told my friend Heather (the cutest white girl you'll ever meet) to go say hi to him. She had no idea who he was-- but I told her how famous he was and she had a nice little chat with him where he said, "How do you know who I am? I'm so famous. I want to dance with you later." HAHA.

All Akanishi sightings aside, the night was UBER fun. I felt like such a badass flashing my VIP wristband. My friend basically does PR for this club so he got us all in the private seating section. It was soooo much better than dancing on the main floor, which was probably more like a summer rush hour train towards the end of the night. It's weird how the fact that I got to sit down made me VIP, but there were NO SEATS IN THE CLUB. Yep, that's right. None. Pretty awesome after you lose all feeling in your feet and get sick of everyone's sweaty body rubbing up against you. Towards the end, I wasn't even dancing standing up-- I was loving my luxury VIP couch too much.

Here's a cool drink my friend brought over for us. I have no idea what was in it.

One thing that sort of amazed me was the fact that I somehow wound up holding some random Japanese girl's hair back while she puked, my usual duty whenever girls and alcohol come together. I was in line for the bathroom, pretty much at the front, when all of a sudden this guy shoves this girl in front of me and says, "She needs to go before you." Seeing her pale and sweaty face, I knew this guy wasn't joking. There was one other girl in front of me, but I told her in Japanese that this girl was going to barf all over the bathroom if she didn't go ahead.

There were only 2 stalls in the bathroom, so barfing girl was in one, and the girl in front of me was really nice about letting her move ahead. Once the second stall was free, another girl about to blow ran to the front and I told the girl in front of me, once again, to move out of the way. Now both stalls in the bathroom had puking 70 pound Japanese girls in them. They were taking soo long and so I made small talk with the other non-puking Japanese girls in line. They said, "You are such a good friend." to which I replied, "I don't even know them!" After a little more small talk, my new friends and I noticed these girls were taking too long in the stalls. I let my ugly American out and pounded on both doors yelling, "オ～イ！！早くしなさいよ！" Which means, "HURRY THE EFF UP."

Little did I know how urgent this message was. The girl in front of me who had been kind enough to let two other girls pass her had been waiting patiently for her chance to spew and finally couldn't wait any longer. She ran towards the sink, and in my attempt to make up for the fact that I had basically ushered 2 girls ahead of her, I held her hair back and ran the water. The girls I was talking to in line said, "Wow, you really are a good friend." to which I replied, "I don't know her either." HA.

All in all, it was a good night full of debauchery, dancing and drinks; but I really don't think I need to do that again any time soon. Roppongi is legitimately dangerous, full of mischievous gaijin, belligerent drunks and other shady people looking for something to occupy their night. Clubbing in Roppongi until 5am was definitely something on my list of things to do in Japan, and now I've done it...

In 5" heels, for most of the night. Funny story: Today, I ate it while walking in flat sandals-- I might have re-torn my ligament! I'm going to Kyoto tomorrow! YAY!

４月２５日 Day 32: Tokyo Ta-WAAAAAAH!

Today my friends Ayako and Yuko took me to Kichijoji and then to Tokyo Tower! Today was the nicest day it's been in weeks; it wasn't raining and I was actually able to wear a spring dress without 10,000 layers over/under it. The sun was out, there were barely any clouds in the sky; it was really the perfect day to be outside enjoying everything Tokyo has to offer.

After eating some DELICIOUS baked goods and coffee, we went to a sock store. Yes, I spent $23 on socks and am not ashamed! If there's one thing Japan does really well-- it's socks. In America, visible socks are a definite no-no, especially frilly/colorful ones. But in Japan, not wearing socks is straight up disgusting. Visible or not, socks are a must. In fact, the style that most Japanese girls wear their socks with is with any shoe, (high-heeled, boots, flats, etc) completely visible under their stirrup leggings. GOOD TO KNOW! Now when you come to Japan you'll sleep better knowing that your shoes don't have to smell like rotting flesh! ; )

Anyway, enough about that. After my sock spree we went to Inokashira Koen in Kichijoji, and it was adorable. The first thing that struck me about the place was its huge lake that was full of little pedal boats (AND SWANS) for young couples and parents with infants. On the side of the lake, there were tons of street performers, artists, and flea market style goods vendors. Aya bought a super cute coin purse and I bought some wing-shaped earrings! :D

This guy would take your picture about 4-5 times and combine the pictures to make a new face.

Some Swedish post cards haha.

I was surprised people were still drinking under the trees despite the absence of cherry blossoms. Then I remembered that there's no "open-container" law in Japan and continued enjoying the park in all of its afternoon drunken glory.

Inokashira Koen really made me miss San Francisco and Golden Gate Park. Despite all the crackheads and hippie drum circles, that place has its own certain charm. And at the risk of sounding like a total hippie, I must say that I really enjoyed being near the trees and greenery today... it was a nice escape from the urban jungle and endless suffocating skyscrapers of Tokyo.

After we left the park, we headed off to Tokyo Tower. What an awesome place. I'd never been before and was completely blown away by the view. From the main observatory of Tokyo Tower, you can see Mt. Fuji and Yokohama on a clear day. Today we couldn't really see either of those 2 things, but we saw Odaeba, another awesome place I still haven't been to.

View from the street, thing is HUUUUUUUUUGE. Apparently they're building a bigger one to catch more signals.

I think this is the view facing Shinjuku.

Some temple and a park facing... east?

Odaeba~! That big circular thing is Fuji TV!

A window that lets you see just how high you are... it was SCARY!

We had originally wanted to see the special observatory, but the wait was about 45 minutes and the view isn't THAT different, it's only 100 meters higher. Good thing I'm from America, where we refuse to use the metric system, and have no idea what that actually means. The sad thing is that I'm only half kidding, folks (T_T)

After descending from the heavens of Tokyo Tower, we went to the 2nd floor gift shops. I bought Aya and Yuko some cell phone charms of Rilakkuma climbing Tokyo Tower as a token of my appreciation and for the awesome memories we made today. Aya didn't have anything hanging from her phone, so I felt as though I did her a solid :] I bought myself a similar one and now my cell phone has 3 charms! YAY FOR CONFORMITY!

Can you see the little bear climbing Tokyo Tower in the back? :3 What about my sakura Totoro? TEE HEE HEE.

Then we went to dinner. Aya and Yuko took me to this Korean place called Copain Copine near Hibiya (I think). GOOD NEWS FOLKS: PICTURES OF FOOD HAVE RETURNED!! We had a salad, standard Korean pickled stuff, bibimbap, awesomely spicy japchae, and this thing I've never eaten before called chige. Chige is sort of like an omelette-- but I don't think it's made out of eggs... or maybe it was? I don't know, you be the judge.

FEEEEEEAST!

This is Chige. TELL ME IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE AN OMELETTE!

Japchae!

Bibimbap!

The food wasn't even the best part of the day-- and it wasn't even my sentimental "OMG I LOVE YOU GUYS" type farewell either. The best part was the fact that I spoke Japanese ALL DAY. It was probably horrible of course, but the fact that I have friends I can speak to (who won't judge me) really makes me hopeful that I might someday be... bilingual...

However, for the time being, I'm pretty sure my Japanese translates like this:

Thank you so much for you coming to pick me up after my arrival at the train station. I was afraid, very scare that I lost and I would not be of being able to telling you of where to goes to where I is. Thank you so much, please have this gift for of your kindness and your family's kindness of me. Please look upon me kindly~!

...now if only I could get this passage mass-produced and printed on a shirt... I'd make a killing here.

The one thing that I can't believe was the fact that Aya and Yuko had sneakily bought me shiyoko aka: bready peeps filled with white bean paste? DELICIOUS!

Don't worry, I had sneakily bought their keychain charms and Tokyo Tower shaped cookies for their parents too! Two can play it that game!

What it looks like after I bit its head off! BWAHAHA X]

Final picture of the day-- my favorite ad on the Metro!

４月２３日 Day 30: TGIF

Well, I'm a weakling. I've gone completely without American food-- but on Day 30, I cracked... and went to TGIFriday's.

I've NEVER been to a TGIFriday's. EVER. But damn it was so good. It felt amazing to have some quality deep fried American food in my system. I ate buffalo wings, potato skins, calamari, chicken fingers, french fries, onion rings, and some other fried chicken appetizery thing.

*Please note that this deep fried death trap was shared among 4 people, not just me.

I know I'm always criticizing the ugly Americans here-- but Goddammit, tonight, I was one of them: loud, obnoxious, and obese. Haha. There were actually 12 of us in our party who all fit this description. And well... that's about I all I have to say about that.

Today was an odd sort of day, one that definitely warranted our fat feast. This morning, someone threw themselves in front of a train on our line, backing up the subsequent trains for the whole of the morning. Even MY train (the post-rush hour train) was packed full of people. My arm was pretty much jammed into this poor girl's hat as I held on to the handle for dear life. I could feel people breathing, smell their bodies, feel their uncomfortable tension pressing against all sides of me on that train. Luckily it only lasted for about 5 stops when about 90% of the people transferred to a different line.

It really bothers me that this is a common occurrence that isn't really being combatted in Tokyo. If you remember the anti-suicide gates I showed in an earlier post, please know that they're not at every station, only bigger ones. My thoughts on that situation is that they should have them at EVERY station. People who are going to jump in front of the train will find a station that enables them to do so.

Another thing about it that bothers me is everyone's complete nonchalance towards the subject of people REGULARLY throwing themselves in front of the train. The mentality is, "Well, it happens." Sure, that's true if it happens every so often-- but it happens almost every week... is that some kind of indication of something? I mean, suicide in itself is always a selfish act, but in Japan, suicide via the Metro is just downright inconvenient. It makes people late for the jobs that eventually lead them to suicide.

It's days like these that make me feel justified for letting it all hang loose at TGIFriday's with a plate of potato skins. I just wish that more Japanese people would too.

４月２２日 Day 29: Kate Gets Lost

Today was full of lessons in epic, epic failure.

Today in Modern Japanese fiction, I learned this new phrase, 生きよ堕ちよ (ikiyo ochiyo) which means, "To live is to fall," and that is exactly what I did.

I went to school and endured Japanese class with my Thursday/Friday sensei who I really don't like. The class' lesson today was a HUGE step backwards, we learned short/informal form (食べる、食べた etc.) because apparently people still don't know how to use it in Japanese M2... Naturally, I dozed off because I had actually retained that information. I even saw a Korean guy smacking his head against our textbook in frustration, muttering to himself, "OMG SERIOUSLY?!"

Sensei definitely noticed my lack of interest and made me read aloud, which is probably my biggest weakness. She was so passive aggressive about it too, "Who's listening, who's listening...? AH-- KEEEITO-SAN! Nemui desu ka? (Are you sleepy?)" DAMN RIGHT, I'M SLEEPY... GAAAAHHH! I wanted to punch her in the face!

Anyway, I went to Modern Japanese Fiction, which was lovely and not a complete waste of my time. My professor is this sophisticated Chinese woman who married a Japanese man. When telling us about formal Japanese speech that no one uses anymore, she said, "My mother-in-law used to speak like that. She's dead now. Haha." EVERYONE burst out laughing. PRICELESS.

Then I went home, went to the grocery store and then to the post office to withdraw money. I thought I'd be real slick and take a shortcut. I had been taken down that road before and saw all the familiar landmarks, but I got SO lost...

On top of that, it was raining cats and dogs and windy as all hell. So rainy and windy in fact, that my umbrella broke (X_X). Great. Lost and wet with a busted umbrella. Here's the path I took: (green represents the eventual path I took to get home.)

1. Started at the grocery store outside the train station, picked up some essentials and school supplies.
2. Walked to the post office. Withdrew money. Got cocky.
3. Tried to take shortcut home from post office. Walked for about an hour, saw familiar buildings and landmarks from previous excursions, with no idea why I was lost. Got about 3/4 of the way home gave up, and turned around, drenched.
4. Serious backtracking. Ended up back at the train station, walked home in a complete circle. Bought a new umbrella, completely humiliated.

My hair and jeans were basically soaked through. My legs had denim stains on them because they were so wet. I had arranged for my friends and me to eat in Harajuku (at a restaurant I had never been to before), so I hopped in the shower, washed the shame off, and e-mailed a map to my phone so I wouldn't get lost going to this restaurant.

We went to Sakura-tei, where my new friend Kana works. We had okonomiyaki, yakisoba and every dessert on the menu (for 10% off, thanks to Kana). It was delicious. Guess it kinda made up for the fact that I got uber lost.

Hey, it wouldn't be an international experience if I didn't get completely lost every once in a while, right? BLEH, hope it doesn't happen again any time soon... Golden Week is coming up!

Ugh, I have Fundamentals of Religion tomorrow. Not excited. The professor basically just yaks about his opinion on religion, pisses people off, and then gets too whimpy and Japanese to calm down the arguments, side comments and personal anecdotes that people subsequently feel compelled to share. UGH.

At least I have Contemporary Japanese Society afterwards, which is by far my favorite class. THEN IT'S THE WEEKEND AND I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEE~!

４月１８日 Day 25: Hayao's Moving Castle

Today I went to the Studio Ghibli Museum and it was... wonderful.

I can't even really describe it. I don't want to because I'm afraid it won't do the place much justice. The only thing I would have changed about the experience was my age... I wish I was a little kid so I could have experienced the wonder in its purest form.

The Museum is located inside of this forrest-y park in Mitaka, which is right by ICU. HOLLER! It was a very oddly constructed building. It had staircases all over the place that took you to different levels of the museum. It was sort of like walking into a live version MC Escher painting. The best part of it-- there was no set path, you could just walk around to whatever area you want... because that's the way Miyazaki wanted it! *sigh*

It had rooms that showcased all different types of Miyazaki's movies, his animation techniques, and his many, many, inspirations. Some rooms were dedicated to motion, others to nature, others showed replicas of Miyazaki's work station/studio. His bookshelf was full of books on flight, aviation, boats, engineering and all sorts of random odds and ends. I saw a few of his original sketches of characters like Kiki~ and basically giggled my face off with excitement.

I would have taken more pictures, but it wasn't allowed (inside, anyway). I'm sure Miyazaki made it that way because... well, the Ghibli Museum is a place you HAVE to see for yourself. The feeling you get isn't something you can get looking at a bunch of pictures.