monkey park!

hello again! i'm sorry it's taken me so long to write, things have been busy lately. i was also sick sunday and monday, so i've been slowly recouperating. i'm feeling much better now, though, so i figured i'd give you guys an update.

last friday we had another friday activity; this time we got to experience the koto and the wadaiko/taiko. the koto is a huuuuge japanese stringed instrument. a very talented japanese woman played a few songs for us and then taught us how to play a "snow song." you use a pick that wraps around the pad of your thumb to pluck it, and you push on various strings to change the pitches. it was fun to try since i used to play the violin, but the koto is so different--even the music is written differently!--that 8 years of violin didn't really do me much good. i forgot my camera, again (sorry!), but i stole some pictures from other people just so you guys could get an idea of what it looked like. i believe the koto we played around with was 180cm and was worth about $300-$500.

this was the song we played. for those of you who know how to read traditional music, the circles and dots are rests, and the various symbols are the string numbers.

anyway, few people have asked me for pictures of the building i'm staying in, so i figured i'd oblige a little!

the stone sign outside out dorm building. :) "japan center for michigan universities."

JCMU! this is our dorm building. it's right next to a chain restaurant called coco's.

we're in this classroom every week day from 8:40am to 11:40 am. i like sitting in a circle, you can see everyone's faces and it's easier to communicate with the teacher. you can't really see out the window, but from where i sit near the door, i have a perfect view of the mountains, lakes and trees surrounding the area. we often see huge hawks flying around looking for food. it's pretty distracting, but cool at the same time.

my room! nothing special, but it's my own little space, which i've really appreciated. i wish i could get a better shot of it, but it's so small there's really no good angle to shoot from. that's my space heater next to the bed; it saved my life the first few weeks we were here. those are my slippers in front of it, too. japanese people have two main sets of shoes: one to use outside the house, one to use inside. they really like to distinguish work from relaxation. usually they also have a pair of slippers for the bathroom, but we don't really use them in the dorms.

my closet!

the kitchen! we have a stove, pots and pans, lots of utensils, plates and bowls, and glasses. it was all here when we got here. a lot of students left dishes, towels and other little things when they left last semester, so we just reap the benefits. we'll undoubtedly do the same thing as they did when we leave, anyway. just spreading the wealth, y'know?

the bathroom--nothing too exciting. luckily the toilets here are americanized; i don't think i'd be too psyched to use a ceramic hole in the floor every single day. some toilets in japan have a bunch of buttons you can mess around with; some even spray perfume and heat the seats!

my wall of pictures! send me more! :) i've already added more since i took this picture, including my little brother's senior picture.

last weekend, jamal, kevin, the two juans and i went to arashiyama, which is a small city outside kyoto famous for a monkey park atop one of the mountains there. i'd heard about the monkey parks before coming to japan, so i really wanted to check it out. we hoped the train around 8--and accidentally got on the wrong one! oops--and made it to the park around noon.

quick shot of the passenger car. most of the public trains don't look like this, they look more like a public bus on the inside, but we didn't mean to get on this train. it went a few cities past arashiyama before we realized we'd made a mistake. luckily the conductor wasn't mad and didn't make us pay the extra fee. whew.

the train tracks in arashiyama just after we got off the right train. the weather that day was gorgeous! we were lucky, it'd been snowing in hikone all morning, but it was pleasant and sunny in arashiyama. the weather here is so inconsistent, a lot like michigan but with less snow. ;)

the oi river intersected the main street in arashiyama; the water was clear and beautiful. i've found that my favorite cities in japan are those with large bodies of water in them. arashiyama is a neat little town full of shops and restaurants. there was a large bamboo forest with a few shrines off the main street, but we were hoping to get to kyoto to do some shopping that day, too, so we didn't stick around for much more than the monkey park.

a sign for the monkey park! too cute.

this is the toori gate leading to the monkey park. there are more elaborate toori gates in kyoto (or maybe it's osaka, i'm not sure), and i really want to see them sometime in the next three months.

the monkeys in arashiyama monkey park are "macaque monkeys." there are about 170 of them in the park, and they roam around freely grooming each other and digging around for food. they're anywhere from a foot to a foot and a half tall, and though they're accustomed to humans, they're still wild and therefore very territorial. there were a lot of mother monkeys with their babies when we went, so we had to be extra careful around them. the park workers advise people not to make eye contact with the monkeys or to try to touch them, but of course jamal had to try to get a close up shot of one of them and it lunged at him with it's teeth bared. we climbed to the top of the park, where there was a building with open-fenced walls in which you can feed monkeys peanuts and apples through the fences. they climb up and stick their hands through the chain links; it's pretty cool.

babies!!

the view from the summit was gorgeous; i got some more amazing panoramic photos, which i'm planning on getting blown up and framed when i get back to the states. hopefully i'll have a whole series by the time i get home. after the monkey park, we headed back to kyoto where we met up with dylan and headed to teramachidori, which is a gigantic outdoor mall. you think summerset and great lakes is big? you haven't even scratched the surface of big.

back alley in kyoto during the day...

just inside the mall. i'm going back again tomorrow, so i'll be sure to take bigger pictures. it's hard to remember to take pictures all the time when i'm constantly seeing things of interest and want to investigate them. my group of friends here moves quickly and it's easy to be left behind.

a few nights ago, i watched the most beautiful sunsets i've ever seen. since our dorms are right on lake biwa, it definitely creates an opportunity to see some stellar on-water sunsets. i wish i'd remembered to take a panoramic of this, too. i sat out on the stone ledge lining our side of the lake, listening to my ipod and just appreciating the view for about an hour. so amazing.

very exciting news, too--i'm doing a weekend homestay next friday! i got the information about my family yesterday. their last name is maekawa, and they have three kids; two girls named mariko and rio, and a boy named shinsuke. i don't know how old they are, but i'm hoping at least one of them is somewhat my age just because it'd be cool to make a friend i could travel around with. the mother's name is hitomi, and the father's name is fumio. the father has actually participated in the iron man race, which is a world famous long distance triathlon. it should be a pretty interesting visit; i'll make sure to take pictures with them. :)

other than that, though, nothing's really been going on this week aside from homework every day and our weekly test earlier this morning (which i feel very satisfied with). i didn't participate in the friday project today because they were teaching ikebana, and i already tried that a few weeks ago, so i figured i'd find something else to entertain myself with.

oh! before i forget...

LYDIE SENT ME A CARE PACKAGE!!! thank you so much, lydie!! i was so happy to get some more mail. :) i've been eating peanut butter, cap'n crunch and bagels nonstop. it really made my whole week. i've also gotten several cards and letters from my family back in michigan, as well as a card from some family in arizona. thank you, everyone! it always makes me smile when i get mail. i actually went to the post office yesterday and mailed some letters and packages of my own, so there are definitely a few people who should keep an eye on their mailboxes come next week.

♥ sarah

my future

i've thought a lot about my future tonight. where am i going after graduation? what do i want to do?

i still feel so young. graduating college seems like stepping off the edge of a cliff i've been inching my way towards my whole life. in elementary school, i couldn't even imagine what college would be like, aside from a thought of an older version of myself with long blonde hair, bent over a planner trying to coordinate my schedule and doing my homework. now that i'm in college, i've been trying to imagine my future self again, and i haven't been able to see her. i just imagine an apartment in east lansing... and i don't like it. i like msu, i feel at home there: my friends and family are deeply woven into my life now and i like how close i feel to them. i know who i care about, who i want in my life and who matters. however...

all i know is, i feel sheltered. i've felt sheltered ever since coming to japan. i needed to get out of the united states, away from my bubble of security. things here are so different--but not so different that i can't cope. i like that. it's different and i like feeling challenged and forced to adjust. i can do this. i can live in a country, in a city, in a place so entirely different from my hometown than i could have imagined, and be okay. i can do it. i know that now, and i feel stronger.

my mom says she's always seen me going to grad school. she went--on her own dime--and says it was one of the best decisions she's ever made. education is important; i know this and support it. people tell me i'm smart; people i'm not even friends with, who have only had a few conversations with me, tell me i carry myself well and exhibit intelligence in the way i talk and act. i like hearing that and i want to live up to that impression. parts of me judge people who can't spell, who can't articulate their thoughts well, and even more of me weighs people on their motivation to seek knowledge. that doesn't mean going to college is the only way to do that, but i think it's the best option for me.

grad school is something i want to do, but not in michigan. i want to go out west. california seems like the place for me, ever since i spent a few weeks there this summer. i love the atmosphere, the closeness of the ocean, the mountains, and the warmth. i loved san fransisco. oregon is beautiful, too. somewhere along the pacific ocean is where i belong. i can see myself living in a city like san fransisco in an apartment with a dog and a motorcycle. the last year of my life has really opened my eyes to where i want to go (and i realize now that the entire country, even the entire world is open to me), and the more i explore, the more i know michigan will always be home, but not where i want to live.

i don't feel the motivation to go to grad school right after i graduate, though. i don't feel like i could handle another 4+ years of school so soon. i want to travel. "teach for america" or the "jet" program--programs that would enable me to teach abroad without a teaching certificate--seemed an obvious option after i started toying with the idea of being an english teacher or a college professor, but it just seemed like an answer i could give when asked, "what do you want to do with your degree?" i came up with that answer to divert the stinging feeling i got when people asked me what use an english degree was. i've never wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer (though i have a lot of respect for those who do); i don't have the passion for those careers necessary to pursue them, and the promise of money has never been a reason for me to suffer through something i'm not passionate about (aside from stupid part time jobs). i used to say i'd be happy living in a cardboard box if it meant i got to write for a living, and i meant it, but i've known that's not entirely realistic. journalism isn't my thing, either. i don't want to report, i just want to write poetry and short stories, but i'm no j.k. rowling. i don't see myself sitting in a coffee shop writing a story on 20 different napkins and coming up with a billion dollar plot line.

earlier in the week, jamal, kevin, juan and i were sitting in the lobby doing homework and eating dinner. one of them mentioned the idea of joining the peace corps, and something clicked in my mind. it fit. i've heard people talking about joining, but i'd never seriously considered it for myself until tonight. i suppose before coming to japan, traveling the world seemed like such an impossibility for my immediate future, like it was something i'd do much later in life with my husband, maybe after we retired. now i know there's a world outside of farmington hills and east lansing, and i don't need to have an abundant amount of free time and money or a husband to explore it. this isn't another planet or dimension; being in a different part of the world is plausable, and it doesn't just end with japan.

i visited the peace corps website and started reading about the programs and the possibilities it could offer me. most of the people in the program have undergraduate degrees, like i will after next year. the best part, though? they can help pay for grad school. and since i don't know exactly what i want to do, whether it be teaching or something entirely different, joining the corps will give me time and insight to figure it out. they send people all over the world (something i know i want to do, and through work if possible) and every position in the program is focused on the progression and betterment of people and the environment. i could go abroad for a few years, and then come back to the states for grad school, and then... who knows? people just a few years older than me are traveling the world and helping people while figuring out what they want to do when their experience with the peace corps ends. they're looking at saving thousands of dollars in tuition for grad school and an amazing addition to their resumes. none of them are sitting in an apartment in east lansing 4 months after graduating.

it's an idea; that's all i know.
and it's one i'm seriously beginning to consider.

ikebana

it's been an interesting week so far.

last sunday was the ikebana (flower arrangement) trip in moriyama! we got up around 8 and biked to the train station, where we met up with our guide and bought our tickets. the ride wasn't long, probably somewhere around a half hour or so. from the train station, we took a large charter bus to a very nice hotel with a beautiful garden and waterfall in the courtyard. once we arrived, everything happened so quickly. a group of japanese women herded all the girls into a large room where several kimonos were folded up on a table along the wall. we were told to each grab one and the women would help us get dressed.

this is the kimono i chose! people told me the yellow flowers matched my hair perfectly. the process of putting on a kimono is extensive and intricate, as are many things in the japanese culture ("japanese culture" is "nihon no bunka"). the kimono is always wrapped around the body from left to right (the only exception being when dressing the dead for burial) and tied with a wide sash called an obi. the original meaning of kimono was "thing to wear." "kiru" means "to wear" and "mono" means "thing." the guys got to wear kimonos, too, but theirs were a lot less flowery and colorful than ours.

this was my obi! too gorgeous. the kimonos were very comfortable and offered a lot of support, thought it was a little hard to breathe at first.

my roommate pam! she's from georgia and she's in the 3rd level class. she studies soo much, i really don't know how she does it. i was glad she decided to come out with us that day, though.

this semester's collection of spartans at JCMU. :) emily, me, kevin, jake, and juan.

most of the girls in their kimonos. :) the women even did our hair for us! i had a cute upsweap in the back. they stuck sprigs of baby's breath in our hair, too. usually people wear kimonos with specific shoes, called zori, which are basically just wooden sandles, and are worn with split-toed socks. we just wore slippers provided by the hotel, though. when wearing a kimono, it's important not to lift your feet when you walk (for women, anyway); you slide your feet along the ground/floor instead.

before we started the ikebana, we were served tea. this is a lot like what the final product of the tea ceremony on friday looked like. the small flower-esque blob is actually one of the many sweets usually served with the tea. it's so delicious, i'm going to miss eating them when i go back to the states. the small wooden stick inside the paper sleeve is the fork used for cutting and eating the dessert. the green tea was awesome, too; i'm really starting to enjoy drinking it.

the ikebana! there are 4 different kinds of flowers used; we were given tulips, willow branches, and two other flowers i can't place the names of (sorry, mom!). each flower is to be cut in specific places and placed in specific ways and arrangements. we each had a tutor who basically did the arrangements for us since we were so in the dark, but it was neat to try. the flowers were so fresh, too; we even got to keep our projects!

my unflattering attempt. it's sitting in my apartment right now. :) that card on the lower righthand side is my name in katakana! "sara rindosei." i usually pronounce it "sara rinjii," but it works both ways.

once we had finished our ikebana, we got to watch someone who actually knew what they were doing. the ikebana ceremony is performed for a number of reasons, such as to welcome a guest into the house. this girl was a student of one of the many ikebana schools in japan; the woman sitting behind her in the purple kimono was her sensei (teacher), and she corrected the girl's mistakes after she had finished. the arrangement turned out beautifully. it's such a delicate art and so relaxing (once you get the hang of it, of course).

these little girls helped with the demonstration of the ikebana. they were so cute! i loved the one girl's blue kimono especially; she had glitter in her hair! :)

after the ceremony, our hosts served us lunch. i wish i'd taken pictures, but i was too busy eating ham and cheese finger sandwiches and fruit. we were served both cold and hot tea, and i happily drank both. we got to watch a fan dance as well as listen to a woman singing and playing the shamisen (which is a japanese-style guitar, almost). several of the girls who performed the ikebana for us got wooden plaques to commemorate their graduation from their school. it was all very interesting to watch, and all of the JCMU students got to stand up and say a few lines to the crowd, who were all very receptive and welcoming. it was a good time.

there was a really friendly man named atarashi (which is almost "new" in japanese), and he was a principal at one of the local elementary schools. he was very animated and translated a lot of the speeches we heard at the luncheon. he'd been to birmingham, michigan, too! i took a lot of pictures with my tongue out that day, haha.

and now onto the strange part of the week. yesterday my history teacher (who is also the director of the program) surprised us at the start of class by telling us we were going on a field trip to nagahamajo, which is a castle in a city called nagahama (and is also the building in the picture above). we took the train out to the city and walked to the castle, but while our class was standing in the lobby listening to our teacher explain a little bit about what we were about to see on our tour through the museum inside the castle, three american women came up to us and asked us if any of us spoke japanese. since our teacher is pretty fluent, he offered to help them; we thought they needed help with directions, but in fact they had discovered what they thought to be a dead body in the lake outside (lake biwa, which is the lake my dorm building is on). my teacher, whose name is dr. reagan, went with the women to make sure (the rest of the class tagged along out of sheer curiosity), and lo and behold, it was a 35-40 year old man, face down in the shoreline. it was incredibly eeire and also the first time i've ever seen a dead body. we called the police and dr. reagan made sure we weren't involved, but we heard enough to know it had been a murder; the dead man had been driving his motorcycle when someone hit him with their car, and to avoid any legal trouble, whoever it was had dumped him in the lake. while our teacher was talking to the police, we were able to tour the museum a little, though our guide spoke very little english and we really didn't know what we were looking at most of the time, nor were we allowed to take pictures. the view from the top of the castle was beautiful, though, especially since it's right on the shore of lake biwa. we met up with dr. reagan in the lobby after our tour and decided it was time to head home. our class split up into two groups: one would take the train home and the other would go with dr. reagan in his car. i decided on the train, but when we headed back to the station where we were expecting to catch the 4oclock, it never came. we ended up waiting an extra half hour for the next train, which doesn't happen often here because the japanese are so incredibly time conscious. when we finally got back to the dorms, our student services coordinator told us trains in japan are only ever late if someone jumps in front of one to commit suicide. overall, it was a pretty overwhelming day and it felt good to come home and do mundane things like take a shower, eat dinner and do some homework.

obama's inauguration is in less than two hours, now! it's about 12:30am here, and i'm exhausted, but i can't pass up the chance to witness something so historical. tomorrow a bunch of us are going to kyoto to celebrate; we wanted to go to obama city because it'd be so literal, but the train ride is over 2 1/2 hours and $60 round trip, whereas kyoto is 40 minutes and $20 round trip. hopefully we'll find another cool restaurant and i'll have pictures to post.

tomorrow is one of my teacher's birthdays, so i bought her some flowers and a little card which i had everyone sign. it should be fun to see her reaction.

hope you're all well in the states. and hey, where's my mail, guys?! ;)

sarah

tea ceremony

hey guys! sorry it's been so long since my last post; this week's been a little boring since we've had class almost every day. but, courtesy of my awesome mom, i have my connector cable and can finally post pictures! i'm not going to post all of them here since i've got almost 100, but here are a few of my favorites.

they gave us bikes the very first full day we were here! unfortunately, we have to wear helmets at all times, which is kinda dorky, but whatever. some of the japanese students have vespas, but i'd rather get the exercise!

my first meal in japan! katsudon (which means cutlet atop rice). along with salad and green tea, it was delicious!

a view of hikone, where i'm staying. this was taken from the top of the hill jamal and i found that cool hidden shrine! you can see almost the entire city from up there.


i've gotta find out the name of the mountain range that surrounds the city. it's breathtaking. something so simple as riding my bike to the convenience store becomes a sight-seeing trip with these mountains.

the cemeteries here are a lot different from the ones in america. instead of burying the deceased, the bodies are cremated and a special headstone is put up in their honor so the family can come to pay their respects. the headstones are much thinner and taller than the traditional american design. it's the family's job to keep the site clean with fresh flower offerings and many headstones have candles placed on them. this is a headstone at the base of the shrine near my dorm.

this is one of the tallest shrines in japan, located in the city of nara, the city i described my adventure in during my last post. the tallest shrine is located in kyoto. i can't tell you just how impressive these buildings are in person.

the deer at the nara-kouen!! they're so cool. they're not shy at all. i told you they swarm!

this is the fountain you purify yourself at before entering the shrine.

one of the main ceremonial areas. i love the orange!

there are over 2,000 of these lanterns in the shrine. they light them two nights out of the year. :) another view of the shrine...

the toilets here are so strange...! i don't even know which way is the front or the back...!

the gorgeous todaiji temple. this place was HUGE, and rightfully so: it's the largest wooden building in the world.

the great buddha. it's at least 10 stories tall!

a view of the city of nara from the highest point in the park. so beautiful.

our chef at the restaurant we ate at in kyoto! he was a little bashful. :)

chicken and onions! delicious!! sake glasses everywhere...



MOCHI!! these are filled with red bean paste and are kinda strange on the tongue, but they're cute!

my lunch from today: rice, fruit, curry-filled potato cakes, and orange juice. :)

a very cool statue outside of the abadoned museum we found last night. hello from hikone!

i'll post pictures with every entry from now on! like i said, this week was a little boring because we just had class almost every day. i had my one elective class on wednesday--history and culture of modern japan--and the readings we have to do are actually pretty interesting, but the class itself and the teacher aren't, haha. the director of the program, dr. reagan, teaches the class, and he's a little... twitchy, but he's very knowledgeabe. i have that class twice a week--once on monday and once on wednesday. my other class, my japanese class, is going very well. we had our first test yesterday (we have tests every friday) and it couldn't have gone better. i felt so confident leaving that room.

every friday after our test, there are optional "friday projects" we can choose to participate in. yesterday's project was the traditional chanoyu (tea ceremony)! i've seen it performed on television a few times, so i was excited to see it in person. unfortunately, i forgot my camera, so i don't have any pictures, but the whole ordeal was awesome; the women performing wore actual kimonos, and we all had to take off our shoes when entering the ceremoney room. the floor was made of tatami mats (woven straw, basically) and we all sat with our legs tucked under ourselves. the tea ceremony is performed for guests (especially guests of honor) and is an ancient ceremony with 4 different schools of teaching, all with different styles of performing the art. it's a very intricate, delicate ceremony and involves lots of bowing and saying thanks. during the winter, the tea is boiled in a special kettle on a special bed of charcoal imbedded in the floor. there are several instruments (called chadougu) used, including a long-handled ladle, a chakin (a cloth used to clean the chadougu during and afterwards), many lacquer-lidded pots, tea bowls, a kettle and a whisk used to stir and mix the tea. each guest is given a folded piece of cloth-like paper and a short wooden stick (which are used as plates and forks). sweets made of bean paste and green tea powder (SO delicious) are served before the tea because the desserts are so rich and thick that the tea is a welcomed bitterness. the two flavors really do mix well. watching our host make and serve the tea took a long time--every little detail matters, even the way the doors are opened and closed--but after watching her once, we got to participate and eat/drink. it was definitely different from anything i've seen in america.

last night i went with a few of the guys to an abaondoned museum across town. the place has been boarded up for a while and has a huge cemetery nextdoor. it's up on a hill overlooking the city, and there are tons of creepy statues all over the property. the last picture is me sitting on one of the buddhas out front. behind the museum there's an even bigger, bamboo covered hill. kevin, juan, jamal and i climbed to the very, very top. it wasn't easy; the whole climb was wet and slippery, not to mention it was like a jungle, the trees were so close together. we had to grab onto branches and vines to pull ourselves up because it was so steep. once we got to the top, though, we realized it was all worth it. we could see all of hikone and the surrounding area even better than we could at the top of the mountain next to our dorms. i got some fantastic panoramic pictures, and i wish i could post them here but they won't fit in the window. i'll be sure to print copies when i get back to america, though. :)

things here today are a little slow. it's just gonna be a lazy day, i guess. tomorrow, a big group of us are going to participate in ikebana (flower arranging). should be a good time and i'll be sure to take pictures!

miss you guys!

sarah