Golden Week!

Ohh the week of gold, running down from Mt. Fuji to warm the hearts and bellies of Japan. Golden curry of course.

Ah, I jest. Although Golden Curry sounds quite delicious. Actually, Golden Week is a set of consecutive national holidays that make up about 5 days of no work or class for the people of Japan. In other words, the whole country is on vacation (more or less).I got to do a lot of wonderful things during Golden Week!! Including: sleeping! and sleeping!!!! and not leaving the house!

I also went to Nagashima Spaland!!

Two of my study abroad chums and I got pretty close to the Judo club at Nanzan and 8 of us went Mie-ken (prefecture) and rode the rides. Twas great fun! We even watched a comedy act performed by a balloon wielding dancer(?). At least that's what his shoes told

me.

My friends, Tana and Vivi, and I learned a great game called "Iseisei". It's a little complicated at

first but once you get into it, it's a fun game. Iseisei is a guessing game where the winner is the first person out. Out of the totally number of thumbs, you have to guess how many will be put up. If you guess correctly you get to take one hand out of game. Once you get that second hand out, you win! And then, as Iam told, you cheer everyone on.

Look very closely at the picture to the right. Do you see it?

We also went into a haunted house where I proved how much of a scaredy-cat I really am. I sought refuge with a variety of T-shirt holding, hiding behind, and involuntary climbing. My friend Tana thought it would be funny to actually push me towards one of the ghouls, which

earned her many a "tomodachi ja nai yo!!" (you're not my friend!!) I must say the craziest part was when I tried to climb the smallest member of our group, who weighs considerably less than me. Needless to say, lulz were had.

Luckily, the guys like me enough to semi-protect me :)

Next on the Gooruden-uiiku train, I went to two historical cities on the Nakasendo with my research class. And my friend Corey!! We went to Tsumago and Magome! These cities were post towns where Daimyou used to stop on their way to and from Tokyou. These towns died out when the Japanese government got rid of the law requiring the Daimyou to travel to Tokyo. The source of these towns' income dried up. The townspeople had to return to living off of the land and the wood business.

Here's a super old table!!!

Sidenote: Back in the day, wood was so important that if you were caught taking bark or branches without permission they would be executed in front of the town and their families!!

O.o! Sadly, the towns fell into disrepair.

But

some people, noting that these towns were part of

the Japanese history and should be saved, started rebuilding and restoring these towns. Tsumago was made into a historical site. Not just one building, but the whole town! Pretty impressive ne! We also saw a never-been-used toilet made for the emperor!!

Now the town runs off of tourism. The town sold many wood products, things I never saw made of wood. Quite interesting. Now that I think back, that town was known for soba, uhh so hungry!

Here is a sign post where the where news from the Emperor was posted!

We then traveled by bus and by foot to Magome! Another town that was keep in it's old-timey ways! Except they sold chuhai in the stores. (Chuhai is a soda/juice like alcoholic beverage)The highlight of this trip was our stay in a Buddhist temple.

We ate dinner at the temple which was quite nice and watched the un-traditional Shaun of the Dead. A classmate walked into a wall behind me at a crucial moment during the movie, scaring me (literally) half under the table. And there was no explanation for the noise for some time after. Sadly,

everyone knows I'm scared easily now. We all slept in the temple and awoke the next morning for group meditation! I need to work on my balance and leg-folding abilities! And concentration...

After that we slowly made our way back to the bus. As we waited for our train back to Nagoya, I felt like I was backpacking my way across Japan, kimochi wa yokatta (it was a good feeling).

Until next time,

~Ama

Next time: (rewind to Ise Jinju)

Matane!

Ama

Yoshino

Next we went to Yoshino. Gotta say, longest wait in traffic ever. Up and down the winding

hills, through sakura(cherry

blossoms) and plum blossom trees! It was at least scenic.

We made it to our ryokan, to which we had to climb to reach.It was a very nice

traditional place. The one thing that was significantly different

from the other ryokan that we have stayed at: there was no room

What??!! No shower you say?!?! showe

r.

Yes, there was only the Women's bath. We had been through so much together in the last 4 months, we might as well get naked together. (^o^;) <-sweating face

So the great majority of us girls

ventured down the the outdoor onsen (hot spring) and set to being comfortable with our bodies.

We ended up singing Disney songs very loudly. We go shushed

after song 3-4. Apparently, people could hear us down the m

ountain.

We had a great time cooking away in our hot water.

The next day we climbed the Sakura covered mountain. (The Yoshino mountain Sakura bloom later than those in Nagoya). We are professional mountain walkers/climbers but this mountain

beat us down. We did not find the map telling us the real distance to the top. We only found markers

p of the mountain, dashed our spirits and we quit ~4km from the top of the mountain.to the next big temple on the mountain. Needless to say, mistaking

every marker for the to

But it was still quite a work out!

After our trek up the mountain, we decided to go in the opposite direction and check out the shops of the town. We got some tasty food and ice cream (there's green tea and sakura flavored ice cream in Japan, I got a

mix). We also followed a parade, which was a reenactment of the Diamyo returning from Tokyo after visiting the Emperor.

Yoshino was very nice! Check it out if you're in Japan!

Fancy colors!

Check out the new design, suckas! \(^3^)/



(>.>)


(<.<;)


(._.;;)




I respect each and everyone of you, my readers.
Thank you for your continued support.

Nara

Ok, I know that this is super late, but let's pretend it's still the beginning of May and I am still living it up in Japan.So the cherry blossoms have come again this spring to Japan and the IES gang and I went to Nara and Yoshino (one of the most historically filled towns and one of the nicest Sakura viewing places in Japan).
This is a two day weekend trip so we actually hit up the big spots in Nara before heading over to our Yoshino ryokan (Japanese inn).We met up at Daiichi Fuji Hotel (the place we met up when we first got to Japan and for a lot of our trips) by Nagoya Eki (Station) in the early morning for our nice bus ride!
Our first stop was this nice temples where we had traditional tea and lunch. It was a very nice and we all had the great privilege of eating purple rice! It was all very tasty, I wish I had some now!
We then went to the famous Nara Kouen! (Nara Park)!It is the site of the largest wooden house (anywhere) and the largest indoor Buddha!
Inside the gates is a very nice layout leading up to the house, with ponds, grass, and, once again, deer! (>.<) Let's just say I don't like deer very much. Especially these pushy ones! First we enter through the gates which have their ah and om guardians. The first indicator of grandeur. Gigantic! So We make our way up to the house and It. Is. HUGE! It's crazy big!! I then enter the temple directly in front of The huge Buddha (Daibutsu= Big Buddha)! It's realllllly big and you can walk all the way around him!!!! There are guardians inside surrounding him, which are also huge. I'm surprised that such a famous place also functions as a temple as well. It's really interesting. You can buy amulets on the way out as well as stamp your "I've been all over Japan" stamp book. There was a miniature of the whole building in there which I really liked. It was really intricate and I bet it was handmade! I took a picture of my hand by a butterfly sculpture at the right side of the Daibutsu for reference if you didn't believe me! Which would be pretty to scale w/ the Daibutsu. So there you go doubters! There was a big pillar with a square hole cut out of it, that if you pass through you would get good luck. One of the older gentleman standing around suggested it to me, but knowing my hip measurements, I decided to forgo getting stuck in a wooden hole. My other friends went through though, which I'm glad about: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100286280613244&subj=571501666I accidentally left the house without obtaining my stamps, so I promptly returned (through the exit)and ran into my friend from Pitt, Corey!! He was living in Kobe and had suddenly decided to visit Nara Kooen with his host-parents! It was totally guuzen(coincidence)! His parents really wanted to meet me and had invited me to visit them in Kobe, but I couldn't. I was really happy that it worked out! The deer are highly loved in Japan and at the Kooen, they actually sell crackers to feed the deer. Corey's host-father bought some for us to give to the deer. But as drivers in the Northeast (Drivers in the NE dislike deer) we declined. The deer, however, were not put off by that fact that I held no food. One cheeky one snuck up on me and bit me right in the buttocks! Needless to say, I turned around in outrage ready to hit whoever had pinched my butt, only to be surprised by those huge deer eyes right looking up at me~!! So, I made a weird sound and ran behind Corey's host mom. Next: Yoshino

Update Shimasu

So I gotta get to tellings you guys about stuff.
Liiiiiiissstt time!

Nara and Yoshino
Golden Week, Nagashima Spaland, Nakasendo
Finals
Okinawa
Judo Club
Last Nomikai
Graduation
Return home

I will get on that!!
Sorry for the delay!!!

Golf and Kids

I know I still have plenty to write about, but I figure I can tell you about this when it's still fresh in my mind.
3 days ago, my host mom and I went to Wagou Golf to see the annual golf tournament. My host mom really likes to golf and watches it on tv. So we went around the courses, saw famous players and even got within a couple feet of some. I really enjoyed going around with her. She told me their names, history, and her thoughts on them. I think it was a great bonding experience. We even saw Ishikawa Ryou! the 18 year old wonder! He actually won the tournament today! I was really happy when we looked in the newspaper to see a shot that we were actually present for!
A lot of the players have nicknames. For example, Ryou-kun, Jumbo (not related to name at all. he's just bigger than the average-sized Japanese. My host mom's words), and Maru-chan. I was actually really close to Maru-chan walking by and because he's so personable (that's why they call him -chan) this lil girl said "ganbatte, Maru-chan" (Good Luck, Maru-chan) to him as he walked by. I found it adorable.



Today on my way to pick up my friend from the bus stop. I met three boys who live by me. Today was the one day that I should have had my glasses, (but went outside without them or contacts) because there were so many neighbors I had to greet. I said hello to the kids and as I was walking away one asked me, "Gaijin desu ka? (Are you a foreigner) " And we started up a lil convo w/ him and his bros. but I was on the way to get my friend, so I told them I'd come back. Luckily, my friend had my glasses so I put them on on the way back. Then we stopped and talked to the kids some more! They were adorable. The same curious one asked to touch my and Tana's hair. We obliged. I also ended up introducing myself to their parents. Yes, I know, it's weird to just talk to someone's kids. Forgive me.
So the kids asked our names and we told them and I asked theirs' after a while and that made them shy, but the cute and courageous one introduced himself and one of his brothers. I think the oldest one got bored of us after a while. His brother was Sho and his was Yuta. He then told us a joke that together they make "shoyu" (soy sauce) Sho + Yu(ta) = Shoyu. I found that adorable!! So we talked to the kids and finally their mom came out, giving Yuta the confidence to come down the driveway. He walked right up to me and looked up at me (very tall me) for a second and was like. "Oneesan[chan, can't recall](Older sister)" which made my freaking day! It was the cutest thing ever!!!!! I wish I met them back in February or something! They were adorable. I hope I see Yuta again. I've never been called older sister, so I really look forward to it. I must have looked pleased as punch as I walked away towards my house.

Good night!
Ama

So where was I?

*Sorry but you'll have to scroll back and forth to assign pictures to words. I'll do better next time *

Kyoto!

Kyoto was a lot of fun. I went to see the big Jinja (shrine) and Otera (temples) of the town. Kyoto is one of the most historically packed towns in Japan. You can't see all of the temples or shrines here in one or two days. And besides thoses there are a lot of other attractions like local foods and shops that you would like to go to.
On our first night we went to Kiyomizu-dera. It's a really cool because there's a huge temple basically on top of a bunch of, I wouldn't call them stilts， but it's supported by wood only. And at night they light it up! Sadly, I was there before they lit it but I've seen pictures and I was quite nice.
This was a three day trip Ｓｏ we went to many places big to the area, including: Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, the Kyoto palace, and so on. I really enjoyed Kinkakuji because it was as the name suggests, actually golden! It was in the middle of a nice pond filled with giant koi and I enjoyed circling it.
One other place we went to was Fushimi Inara Jinja. Now, this isn't your regular Jinja. It has the most toori (you know those orange/stone/wooden gates that everyone knows is from Japan, that's a toori)in a shrine, and oh, btw (by the way) it's a mountain. I didn't say on top of a mountain. I said it's a mountain! From the moment you start climbing you're going through toori. Small to medium to large. A lot of them were orange with dates/names inscribed on them. (We figure those are who sponsored them.) One thing about this place is that it is a breaker of wills. Just when you think you've climbed quite a mountain and you're at the top. You reach another part of the shrine. But it's nice enough to have shops where you can have ice cream and food shops all over. There was even a little waterfall. I really appreciated seeing other tourists who weren't only foreigners taking a rest on the little flats in between the innumerable steps. Oh so many steps (flashback).

But I was proud of myself after I left. My glutes had be thoroughly worked out (my butt hurt!) and I was ready to get on that bus back to Ginza (lay down and die, jk). But I was so happy when the steps finally kept going down, instead of teasing me with a kaidan (stairs) that went down followed by one going up.
Oh ya, we stayed in Ginza! You know that place with all the Geisha? Nowadays you don't use that word. It's either Maiko (apprentice geisha) or geiko (full-fledged geisha). We did go Geisha siting, but we didn't find one.

Next trip!

After a days "rest" back at Nagoya, I went on another trip to Hiroshima, Miyajima, and Himeji, but I've already told you about that.
In Hiroshima, we went to the Hiroshima Dome, which was quite an experience.
In Miyajima, we went to the floating toori, which you all know from any tour guide/CM (commercial) for Japan. When the tide gets low you can go out there and stand under it. My friend Ryan threw a coin on top (as per the custom)to get a wish. I didn't know about this and just walked around it :(.
There were deer all over that place. I dislike deer personally, but here the deer are rude and will gang up on you if you have food! But everyone goes over and pets them. But those deer are creepers. They totally came after this ojiisan (old man). I think he learned his lesson about peanuts around those suspicious animals!
My friends and I ended up going yukata (summer kimono) shopping! I bought a blue one! Along with a fan and geta! (which i found out were wrong, but w/e). Watashi ni niau 私に似合う。 I suits me. I'm told. But hopefully, my hips will get a little smaller so it doesn't look like a sexy yukata, which it sometimes ends up doing. We all looked pretty at our traditional Japanese dinner at the ryokan (Japanese Inn). It was a lot of fun!!
We ventured up a mountain in Miyajima, in search of monkeys! Which we did not find! I'm still disappointed about that. There was a great sign warning you about the monks, but aside from the cute depictions, I saw none. Sadness, I heard all the monkeys were relocated, but I have a friend who went there recently and saw some, so I guess not :'(. This mountain, we decided not to climb the whole way and we took the ropeway and then climbed up the rest of the way! It started off as a cloudy day, but it cleared up and the view from the top was great! We were on an Island so we could see in 4 different directions from the top! Simply Breathtaking! (included pictures: view from ropeway and top).

Lastly was Himeji Castle. Very famous Castle in Japan. Very cool. But I think I'm getting used to walking through castles. That must sound bad.
On the way back from Himeji, I did meet a maiko I took a picture with her!
Then back to Nagoya via Shinkansen (bullet train)! woot! Faaaaaaasttt!

Until next time,
Ama

ごめなさい （Sorry)

I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long! things have been uber-busy!!
Let's make a list of what you wanna hear!
Elaboration of Kyoto trip
Judo Nomikai
Nara and Yoshino weekend Trip
Wrapping up Life in Japan
Last month's thoughts and Feelings.

Please look forward to it!

Love,
Ama

Chotto Update Shimasu

Howdy dudes and dudettes!
I haven't updated in soooo long. So here's the rundown!
After last post, I went to Kyoto w/ my buds for 3 days.
Then I came back to Nagoya and got my stiches out. I was taking pictures of my eye everyday, but that got boring. Needless to say, it healed. Only some parts above the bone are a bit swollen, but the scar is hardly noticeable! I'm club-worthy pretty again! yay!!!
I also have a new bike~! I rode it today, wearing a helmet, and slowing at every intersection, even when I had the right-of-way, just to check. I made it home alive!!
After Kyoto, I went to Hiroshima, Miyajima, and Himeji for a 3 day trip w/ IES. That was nice. Hiroshima was very interesting. The museum there had a solemn air to it that hit you from the beginning until you walked out. It was quite an experience.
In Miyajima, I saw the famous floating tori, climbed a mountain in search of monkeys (which I did not find, to my chagrin), and bought a yukata (like a summer kimono)and accesories. In Himeji, I went to the famous Himeji Castle. It was fun.
We went almost everywhere with the IES trip in shinkansen!!! It was so fassst! Think of a 6 hour drive, in 2~~!! That's a shinkansen~!~~

I've also finished my tutoring job in the last month. It was very fun teaching English here. But then again, I love teaching. Maybe I should do that instead of being a doctor. Hmmmmm?

I've made a lot of friends with the other study abroad students in the past two months because all the Japanese students were on break. But now they're back (since Friday) and our once quiet and empty michi (streets) are full of freshman!!!
I've already joined the judo club w/ my friends Tana(naugh) and Vivi(an) and we are having a great time!!!
Except for us and one other girl, everyone is a boy! And except for one boy, everyone is a black belt! But they are sooooo nice!!! One thing I like about Japan is that everyone is allowed to be cute!!!! And because we were raised in America, that makes the boys here adorable!!! Ah, it's fun being a girl.

Yesterday, my penpal Yoshiko came to visit me for Easter!I got to meet her friend Akiko who lives in Nagoya too. We went to His Call Church for Easter Service. Sadly, it was my first time going to church since I got here, but I reallllly enjoyed it! I miss going to church! :'(!!! I plan on going a lot more! Especially since it's only a few subway stations over from me. We hung out with my friend Maria who met us at church and we had a very good day.

I'm also recovering from a cold. It started Wednesday night, I think it will round out this Wednesday, since it seems to like me so much.

Hmmmm, what else? I've conducted 3 interviews in Japanese! The first one was hard and I was very nervous, but as I did them more. I've gotten a lot better at my fluency. I've also been talking a lot more in Japanese. What will I do when I get back to the States!?!?!? I'll miss Japanese, my friends, and Japan so much!! There's less than 2 months left!!! DOU SHIYOU KANAAA!! (WHAT SHOULD I DO?!!?)

But I do look forward to meeting with you guys again!! I'll write soon!

This Week in News

So, I'll just come out and say it. I hit a car while riding my bike on Wednesday morning. No, I wasn't wearing a helmet, like Everyone should (but no one does in Japan). I will find one posthaste. I'm not dead, as it would be very hard for a ghost to type, even though Ghostwriter seemed to pull it off rather well. And I wasn't my fault (in the eyes of the law!~ and mine).
So, I'm riding my bike to to the train station like I do almost everyday. I'm on my favorite straightaway, where I hardly have to pedal because I still have a lot of speed from going downhill. As I approach this blind-corner, I check the safety (lol) mirror for cars. I see none, I hear none, I proceed w/o braking. According to the driver, he looked in the mirror also and did not see me either.
He stopped right in front of me and here are my thoughts (after much reiteration so they make sense).
Mirror.
Clear.
Cool.
Car.--Crap.
*Boomf* (that's a sound, not thoughts)
Air. (hmm, this reminds me of judo)
Ground--Face meets ground--Bike meets head.
Lie on ground.
So the guy gets out of his car immediately to check if I'm ok. I reply, saying that I think so, as I get up and look around. I find my backpack behind me (it used to be in front of me). Guy goes and picks up my bike, stands it up. He's very hurried and went back to his car, ripped off a piece of paper from somewhere, wrote his phone number on it and put it into my hands.
Here is our first sign of trouble.
In Japan, there are these things called Meishi. They may be just business cards to you, but here they are very important. When you meet someone you give them a meishi! Almost everyone, but some students and housewives have them. You even give them to the person in a special way, two handed and facing the person.
And I got a piece of paper :'(.
Next, went back to his car, telling me "Sorry, but I have to go to work". I had gathered my things and gotten to the side of the road by then and was just staring at him. Then as he got into his car, he told me "Go to the hospital fast ok?"
Then he drove off.
Yes, he left.
So, then we had some realizations.
First, I just hit a car, flew through the air, and hit the ground.
Second, I'm not dead!!!!! YAYYYY! Went and prayed for a second, thanking God for protecting me from worse injuries.
Next, I'm bleeding from my left eyelid and my head is bruised and my wrist hurts.
Then, No ones stopping to help. They must be going to work too.
Finally, I should make a few calls.
Host mom, didn't get her. Program director. Friend, to say I think I might be late for school.
During some point in time, I considered riding my bike to the station and sitting on the train to get myself to the hospital. This was foiled by my broken bicycle.
Needless to say, when my host mom got there, she was furious at this driver. In America, we call that a hit-and-run. I'm pretty sure you can tell, I'm kinda pissed off now. At the moment, I thought, this guy's job must be pretty tough on him! He's really gotta go to work. No, I didn't have a concussion.
I missed school and spent the day in the hospital, taking tests. My eyes are fine, as well as my skull and other appendages. I did get 4 stitches!
Now, I have the complete injury care list:
Cast
Brace
Crutches
Stitches
I guess I should amend that to injury care that you can walk around with.

So, luckily, my host mom's got some internet skills and she found the dude online! He's a dentist! That got her really mad. That filling/cleaning, just couldn't wait.

Gotta give a bit shout out to the CJS ladies from School who came to the hospital!!! to them coming to the hospital and helping me all day.

I was able to make a whole room of ppl laugh, when I was getting my concussion test (in Japanese!~) I gotta say, at least 2+ points have been added to my joke meter.

At the end of the day, I just wanted to get everything related to it out of the way, so I went to make my police statement. I showed me on my lil toy bike (the coolest toy bike you've ever seen! With clear spinning wheels and pedals!) and a toy car.I also drew a picture of the incident, with the best arrows, I've ever drawn. But I digress.

I finished up my police statement. Fingerprinted my documents and all, (even the picture I drew. The policeman particularly enjoyed that one). Then I went on my merry way home. Luckily, I had none of the subcranial hematoma symptoms and went to bed and woke up!

The aite (aite = opponent/other person; My opponent was a car and the ground lol) So he's been calling my house and school trying to apologize. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time accepting forced apologies. My host mom has said no to his seeing me and after 2 more days at school I completely agree to never seeing him. The next day at school, I was told that he was sorry again and he panicked. I started feeling like I'm being stalked ~.^ warui kimoti [weird feeling] after he got hold of all these numbers. The Friday, I was told he didn't just say sorry, but asked that I don't file a complaint with the police...
3 strikes!
No MEISHI!
LEAVES THE SCENE OF A ACCIDENT!!!!???
THEN ASKES ME NOT TO REPORT IT FOR FEAR OF LOSING HIS LICENSE?!!?
The nice, oh-it-was-an-accident Ama has left the building.
I hope he loses his license. He didn't stop at his stop sign, he pulled out in the way of a biker, stopping abruptly as he saw her. And he apparently has enough points on his card that this pushes it over the top! Gotta say, I think he deserves to lose his license. Make the streets of Nagoya a lot safer. I just hope he doesn't ride the bus with me <(0.0;)>

But enough with the ranting, I'm getting my stitches out in 8 hours! and I needs my rest!

I also went on a trip this weekend that was good. So we'll talk about that instead next time. I don't think you want a picture of my face right now, but I'll give you some smiling ones later!

Goodnight!

~Ama

Hadaka Masturi and Arubaito!

So, I haven't posted anything up-to-date recently, but I just wanted to share that I got an arubaito! (part-time job) I teach English about three times a week for the month of March as a private tutor. PT jobs are a lot better here in Japan, especially as an English-tutor, because native are so mezurashii (rare). I'll be busy for March, so sorry in advance.

So before I leave, I have to tell you about the Konomiya Hadakamatsuri I went to on Friday. This is a Festival, otherwise known as the Naked Man Festival. At this fest, men of all ages get to run around drunk out of their minds and basically naked. In actuality only one man is naked, but I'll get to that in a second. The men wear loincloths and head bands (which I think represented which town/village they came from.I was surprised by the amount of loincloth they had surrounding their waist, but I'm glad they had a bit of extra covering, because not much was left to the imagination. Some men had tattoos! If you didn't know, in Japan, tattoos are extremely rare and are associated with the Yakuza (Japanese mob). I saw two guys w/ full body tats. Who knows?!?!!?
The rowdy men went through the (rainy, this year) streets of town toward the shrine carrying large bundles of bamboo. My friends and I who were getting soaked in spite of our umbrellas, were narrowly missed by a swinging bundle as we had wriggled our way to the front of the crowd at the shrine. These guys were carrying around boxes of sake (rice wine), soooo yea, they were drunk. I'm pretty sure a few of them had fallen down on the way there as they had unexplained grass all over or, as one man was, bleeding from the legs. It was also raining really hard and was kinda cold so I felt bad for them, though, most of them seemed very happy and boisterous. The men all came in groups very happy to arrive at the shrine. With every group, the bamboo pack got bigger. The men who had already arrived cheered each other on, with a phrase that I think is "Washo". I'm still not sure. But it meant, "cheer up" "fight on" etc.
They sure were genki (energetic).
So they get to the shrine and are waiting for the one naked guy, who has been consecrated for the ceremony. This guy hasn't eaten in 2-3 days and has been specially picked this year. I'm sure the prep is longer than that, but I do know 2-3 days is enough for me to want to tear my way through a bunch of naked men to get a sandwich....well maybe not. So, in Japanese culture, there are unlucky ages. A lot of the participants in this festival are at these points in their lives. The consecrated man has been chosen and consecrated in order to bring luck to these folks. In order to get some of that luck, you have to touch the lucky man.... This is what I like to call CHAOS! Poor dude is completely naked, starving, protected by a small group of dudes, and being chased, pushed, jammed and beaten, but a bunch of drunk, semi-naked, unlucky men. Under normal circumstances, probably not his cup o' tea. But luckily, it's a great honor to be this festival's holy man, so I think he'll get over it after some sleepless nights.
Of course the body guards offer some protection and the men are being constantly splashed with cold water in order to deter them from their goal, but I think the alcohol helps their resolve. So this guy makes it through what would be a 3-4 minute walk in a couple of hours and is pulled into the shrine, hopefully, alive. This year's guy was still genki and standing when he recovered a bit afterwards. Yatta! (yay!)
So I got some omiyage (souvenirs) from this trip. The men have many brightly colored headbands and they rip off strips to give to the onlookers. It's considered good luck. I got like 5 strips. Reasons I got these strips: A) I'm a foreigner, that looks reallllly foreign. B) I asked ppl and surprised by my Japanese, they gave it to me.
For the A reasons, I got 2 strips w/o even asking. That was nice.

My friends and I couldn't stay too long, so we didn't see the holy dude, but we did make a friend and eat at an outside shop w/ him. That was fun.

I'll post some pics later. It's 12:39am here! and I have 2 kanji (Chinese characters) tests tomorrow, so I'm going to hit the futon (futon = where I sleep)(aka. the hay).

Night!

~Ama

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNJJJJJJJJJJJJAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Happy Valentine's Day, NINJA~!


So on Valentine's Day, the IES students took a bus trip to Mie prefecture about a 1hr drive from Nagoya.
We went strawberry picking at Mokumoku Farms. We got to pick strawberries straight off the plants and eat them. Then we got to pick some for an omiyage (souvenior). The strawberries were really tasty and sweet and I really enjoyed picking out my own. There were all sorts of paths to wander off on and there was a Pig show there. The pigs were not very good at doing tricks, not very good at all, but they did have heart... So after the strawberry picking, we ate at Mokumoku farm's BBQ, pork BBQ. I guess those pigs didn't put enough hear into their performance, but they did put it into their flavor! Yum yum! We got to cook the food ourselves on a gas grill in the middle of the tables. Twas a very good bonding experience for us :). Oh Buta-san... so tasty

So after we left the strawberry farm, we went to the Ninja House. Where we met Tomo-chan. That's what he told us to call him. The most adorable ninja/(real ninja descendant) that I've ever met and took a picture with. Apparently, he also had a crazy pack (crazy pack = 10+ pack) But his face is so adorable! He spoke English for us and gave us a little bit of a tour. When we were walking towards the house, there was a kid dressed in a red ninja suit. Apparently, you can rent them for the day and wear them around the place. This kid just saw us ready to take pictures and his inner ninja/model came out. Every pose in the book. This kid knew it. Thank you, Juurangaa (Power Rangers)! Back to Tomo-chan, adorable.
So there was a ninja show with ninja fights and confetti guts! It was great. Tomo even showed us how to roll 500yen on a parasol. Adorable! He also showed us how to slice open our opponents! I took a video of the whole thing. It's in Japanese, so it will be hard to understand. But I'll try to explain it later. *Eji, pay attention to this video* We go demonstrations of different weapons like throwing stars, sickles, and samurai swords. I got a piece of bamboo that was cut bu the sword I'm holding in that picture. I kinda was geeking out the whole time. I played the throwing star game. I kinda sucked at it, sadly, but Adam did well! darn him! and he got another prize! We then had a tour of a Ninja house, showing us all the secret passages and hidey-holes. I got to go into a secret room! We then went through 2 more ninja museums and I bought some omiyage there. My new coin purse is a lil red ninja. Wonderful. Actually, I had to ask Tomo-chan for my piece of Bamboo, cause lucky Adam, got the first piece, but he was so happy to oblige. I'll link our pictures!

I took pictures and recorded everything I could of the Ninja Show and museum. I hope you like them.

Oh, and I know you were wondering. I did indeed have a Valentine. Her name was Tana and we're tight! We were dubbed "best valentines ever" thanks to our synchronized dance moves. We exchanged chocolates as girls in Japan do on Valentine's Day (boys give chocolate and presents on White day 3/14) and had a great time being cool together.

Tis all for now,

Love,

~Ama