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