Sun Will Set

Indeed, the sun has already set as I write this post. The nights are cold in 京都 now.  It’s not just getting cold, it is cold. I imagine this is just the beginning, too.  Hiro really wasn’t kidding.  It’s freaking cold here. It rained all day today. 

Maybe that’s why I didn’t wake up until 8:30 today. I would have missed class if Jen hadn’t come to get me.  I’m grateful for Jen.  We look out for each other. 

We were “studying” last night for the Midterm (中間テスト) last night and we got to talking.  Earlier we’d been to an EAP Kansai gathering to talk to other UC students and some Japanese students that will be coming to the UCs next year as 留学生 like us.  It was nice.  Got free dinner.  But it made me remember that I’m just an exchange student.  I forget sometimes that I won’t be here forever.

I was thinking about how much I’d miss the friends that I’ve made here and I shared that with Jen.  How much I’d miss Hide, Kohsuke, Maz, Sam, and Nicole.  Then she reminded me that we live on opposite ends of the state as well.  I’m going to miss having her around all the time.  She’s a good friend, even if I do have to remind her of bills (^__^).  I’m going to miss the people here, definitely.  It’s starting to become more of a reality to me.

Up until now I’d been focused on missing the people back home.  Somewhere in there I made some great friends here, too. 

Like I keep saying… doomed.

I’ll have to relish my time here.

…

Relish. They don’t have relish here, but they do like to pickle a lot of things.

Anyway, I’m going home in March for a little over a week.  It’s going to be whirlwind, and the jet lag is going to suck so hard, but I think it’s worth it. Just knowing I have a ticket home makes me feel better about being here right now.  I can focus on my time here, knowing it’s not indefinite…even though I somehow wish it were indefinite.

Jen laughed at me when I was talking about it.  I was explaining, “I leave for Tokyo on a night bus on the 15^th of March, then fly home on the 16^th in the afternoon.  On the return, I fly out of Ontario at 6AM and should hit Narita on Friday.  Then I take another night bus which puts me home on Saturday morning.”

Did you catch that?

I have two homes. Not two houses, two homes. 

Doomed.

I should really learn to detach myself more easily.  I don’t know though.  I kind of like how attached I get.  I feel like it’s a good quality.  Loyalty.

I am changing here.  I just need to make sure I don’t lose the good stuff.  A friend of mine paid me a great compliment a couple of days ago. He says I should be proud of how my parents raised me.  He said that I was considerate and not like the stereotypical American. Coming from him, that means a lot.

I am proud of how my parents raised me. I feel like my mom’s experience living around the world helped me be a little worldlier before coming here.

Love you Mom. Can’t wait to see you.

Oh yeah and you too Dad. (hehe) Just kidding!!! I love you both the same. Everyone has been playing with Mr. Rabbit when they come to my room.  I think that bunny just has a face that makes you want to personify it, but no one can do it as well as you. 

Hippity hop, hippity hop, hippity hippity hop hop hop.

Love until later,

Caitlin D.

P.S.- All you taikonauts… I’ll be expecting my hug…at least one big giant one and about 50 smaller ones. I know how many I’ll need to get me through till August after I come back home.

My Heart

I'M A SLACKER, I know... I'm sorry. I'm catching up now.

So. Let's start with classes because I never write about that stuff.  

Last Friday in Toda Sensei's class I was really bored so I drew something that Anthony prompted me with.  He said draw a personified taiko drum playing a human.  I drew it in the last 15 minute of class or so.  It was quite amusing.

Today I gave a presentation on Kansai-ben (関西弁) in my reading class today.  It was really fun.  My teacher seemed really pleased with the article I chose and the discussion it sparked.  I had a great time talking about different dialects across the world.  We've got 1 Israeli, 2 Germans, 1 Swede, 3 Chinese, 3 Korean, 1 Canadian, 1 Englishman, 2 Taiwanese, and myself (the only American) in that class. It's really entertaining to get cross-cultural discussions going.  

After that, I waited 4 hours for my Manga class, only to find out that it was being held at the Kyoto International Manga Museum today.  So I raced over.  The group had been waiting and they were just about to take off on the tour when I came.  It was really cool.  That museum is freaking HUGE.  There are tons of places to just lay down and read manga for as long as you want, too.  They have an astro-turf lawn that you can go outside and lay on while you read.  It's so awesome.  They've got something like 300,000 volumes there... I think that's right. Sensei said it was 30 man satsu (30万冊).  

Sorry there aren't any photos of it.  Cameras are prohibited on the grounds. 

It was a good day.

This last weekend was pretty fun too.  Friday night Noah, Kevin, Sam, Maki, Henry, Jen and I went out in search of this Pub Sam had heard of.  He was dying for some Guinness, only to find out that it was ¥800 per glass.  He decided he would die before pay that much so we just floated around that night.  It was fun. 

Saturday we all went to Arashiyama for the bamboo forest and a house party.  Let me preface with this, Japanese do not have house parties.  It's really rare.  I think it might have something to do with the cultural norm of kids living with their families through college and the fact that you can drink pretty much anywhere you want here.  If people want to have a party, they go to an Izakaya or the river.  

That said, I got to go to a house party! When we arrived, our hosts, Hori and his younger brother, took us to the bamboo forest.  It was quite beautiful.  We hiked around for a while and took some great photos.  It was a decent sized group- not too big, not too small.  

Hori told me as a kid he used to run around that forest at night when all the couples were out, and he would chuck rocks into the trees and they would clank around and scare the crap out of the lovers. He was a mischievous child. 

I want to go back in another couple of weeks to see the Momiji (fall leaves color change).  Apparently it's quite beautiful at that time. 

There was also a shrine at the entrance to the forest.  It was dedicated to luck in finding a partner and meeting kind people.  This is the longest line I've seen for praying at a shrine. Noah was chicken to go up with a dude (something about jinxing his love life to gay-dom... which is silly because he has his girl in Tokyo), so I went up with him.  We'll see if I get blessed in my love life. 

After the forest, we made our way back to Hori's house.  When we got there, we were greeted by his mom.  She was absolutely wonderful.  I just wanted to give her a giant hug she was so sweet! 

We sat down in the living room and all of us made single-serving okonomiyaki.  Then his mom brought out some soup.  It was good.  It was almost like chicken noodle, without the noodles.  As the night went on, his mom kept bringing out this food.  By the end of the night I'd had 2 bowls of soup (the second batch had noodles), some kind of Italian cabbage dish, okonomiyaki, rice, and some kind of rice flour ball things that were yaki-ed and sweet.  It was so unbelievably good.  I miss home-made meals that I don't have to make myself.

After we were all done eating, we kanpai-ed and broke out some chu-hi.  The German, English, and Polish kids taught me some cool games.  They're not really drinking games, but they could easily become batsu-games.  We just played them for fun.  

In one of them, everyone puts their hands in a circle, but your hands can't be right next to each other (i.e. someone else's hand has to be between your right and left hands).  Then you go in a circle, slapping the ground once.  If a person (and anyone can do it at anytime) slaps their hand twice, the direction changes.  If you mess up, you lose a hand.  It's incredibly confusing and really amusing. 

It was a great night, all in all.  

Sunday was homework and rest day.  

Good weekend.  This coming weekend is Jen's birthday.  I'm not sure what we're doing just yet. She hasn't really decided, but it's looking like tabehoudai nomihoudai (食べ放題ー飲み放題）at Shakey's in Teramachi.  

I'll try to be better about posting and I apologize for this huuuge gap in time.

I'll also try and put up some photos on facebook ASAP. 

Love until later,

Caitlin D.

that confounded bell over at Nishi-Honganji (西本願寺)

So as I write this, the bell is tolling over at Nishi-Honganji for 4pm.  It's great to see a beautiful temple right out my window, but that bell also tolls at 6am every day. It's quite irritating when it wakes me up. 

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I was doing good there for a while. I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately. Not sure if it's psychosomatic or what, but I'm feeling better now. 

Unfortunately my grand week of taiko took a hit when I was feeling poopy.  I'm hopping back on track though.

The group at Kyoto Geijutsu Daigaku was AMAZING. I think they were preparing for a performance so we got a full show. I was extraordinary.  I actually cried one of the songs was so amazing.  I was freaking out.  I took all these photos and videos. I was recording the whole thing.... then in my haste to delete so I could get it all and not miss anything.... I deleted it all. That also made me cry a little. I can't join them, but they invited us to come back and watch whenever we like. I promise to get video and photo in the future.

Had my first Halloween away from home as well.  Jen went to the COSMO event, but it was a little too pricey for me (¥3400).  I decided to stay home, do some KenpoX, and then go out later with them at the river. It was fun.  Definitely not on par with America, but they do a lot more than I was expecting here. 

That's all I've got for now, but there's some good stuff coming up. 

Love until later,

Caitlin D.