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.

Himitsu

Hey all! I've got such exciting news.

I went to taiko tonight and I've got a ton of awesome cultural stuff lined up for the next week or so.  Here's how it looks:

Thursday (tomorrow): Go see Kyoto Geijutsu Daigaku Taiko club

Friday: Go see Taiko Center of Kyoto

Sunday: Go on the walk of Genji Mono Gatari (aka Tale of Genji) with some people from taiko

Tuesday: A day of taiko on a mountain from 9am to 5pm

Wednesday: Taiko practice as usual

Saturday: A separate taiko event to teach you how to play for Matusri held at an Elementary School

the following Sunday: Matsuri where the taiko group I've been playing with will be performing! (and Jen's birthday)

WOO! That's a lot of taiko, but I'm ridiculously excited. The people are all really sweet. I was a little nervous going to practice today because I felt so lost last practice, but everything was fine.  I think they're warming up to us all more.  I've got one song down about 80%.  It's a betta song and so much fun. The miyake song still eludes me, but the teacher commented on my kata today and said that I had wonderful posture! 

I can't wait to bring all these back and teach Senryu! I'm getting some ideas about what we should incorporate into new songs, too. There are some really cool vocal things they use in songs here, like call and response and rhythmic kakegoe.  Their movements are great too! There's this one part in one of the songs where they're repeating a pattern, but where there would be a hit, they replace it with ma and do this kind of hop-stomp.  It looks really good.  I also like the multiple people on one betta idea.  It makes for a much more festive and together feeling.  

I'm really glad Nellie introduced me to the AKP kids. I probably still wouldn't have taiko if not for them.  Besides that, they're a great group of people.

In other news, I tried Azuki Pepsi.  Azuki is the red bean that gets used in a lot of Japanese cuisine.  It's kind of sweet, so it went well with the pepsi.  It tasted a little like pomegranate and cranberry mixed together with some Pepsi flavor.  Not bad.  It's probably the first soda I've had in two months.  

I need to do laundry. There's just too much fun stuff, so my clothes keep piling up! I forfeit doing clothes last weekend for washing sheets and blankets.  They're nice and clean now... to MY standards.  I feel more comfortable snuggling in them now.  

I'm not doing anything for Halloween.  There's a cosmo event, but it's kind of pricey.  I'd much rather save my money for traveling over spring break... or a shakuhachi.  

Lots of good things lately. I hope this streak continues! 

I miss you all! I can't wait to share these new things with you when I get back. 

Love until later,

Caitlin D.

p.s. P90X... it hurts so goooood.

Duermete feel my soul Again

I've been slacking!

So Thursday we were let out of classes early so we could all go watch the Jidai Matsuri (時代祭).  They hold it at the old Imperial Palace which is right across the street from school.  They put on a big fashion show, basically.  They dress people up in garb from across the centuries in Japan and turn one of the paths into a giant runway and have a procession.  It's pretty cool to see.  They dress up royalty as well as peasants. 

When I was standing on my tip-toes to see who was coming next, the two ladies in front of me offered their spot at the railing so I could see better.  They were so sweet! I refused at first, but they said they see it every year so it was fine.  As a result I got some good pictures.

After we left Jidai, we killed time until Cosmopolitan met up at 4:30 to head over to Kurama. 

It was ridiculously crowded at Demachianagi (I think that's the right romaji...) station.  We bought our round trip tickets and then waited for about 45 minutes to get onto the train. I literally ran to get a seat.  

The ride was pretty long, so I was glad I had one.  Jen was chilling in my lap the whole time. It was a fun ride.  One of my Japanese friends, Jun, was talking with us in English and Japanese and one of the women next to us noticed.  So when he went to ask them a question (of course, in Japanese), the woman comments "You speak very good Japanese" (日本語をよく話せるの)! We all just burst out laughing. It was hilarious. The woman so so embarrassed, but she laughed it off. We joked with her for the rest of the ride.  It was the perfect atmosphere headed to a matsuri.   

When we finally arrived it was dark out and very cold. As I exited the station it took me a bit to realize that there was a mountain looming right next to me. The entrance to the forest was about 100 meters from where I stood. It was so cool!

 

Lilly, Jen and I waited at the station for a bit for Hide to arrive then we headed up.  There were tons of people there.  The street was long and narrow, winding up the hill and ending at an Onsen.  We got in just before it started.  

At first we didn't understand what was going on, then we realized that the main event was the 10-odd groups of 3 or 4 guys in fundoshi carrying these monstrous torches up and down the hill.  

Just before the road turns to keep going up the hill, there's a shrine.  I think that's where they were mostly headed.  For the next couple of hours they paraded back and forth.  

As you kept going up the street you'd see a few taiko banging along as the men chanted "Saya Sairo" (or something close to that).  

We watched and got some awesome photos, but what we really wanted was some food! It took us a while, but eventually we found out that all the food is at the top at the onsen, so we worked our way through the crowd.  When we made it to the top they had all sorts of delicious things for sale. 

 

I had a niku-man (肉まん) which is a steamed bun filled with meat, some tako-yaki (たこ焼き) which is like a donut thing with squid (octopus?) in the middle, and a cat tail thing which was flaky pastry with a light glaze.  It was all well worth the wait.  

When we'd all had our fill and had enough of the cold, we headed back to the station.  We waited a good 1.5 hours to get on the train.  It was insane. I got in a little past midnight.  

It was was a great experience.  I think I like Kyoto matsuri more than Tokyo ones. I definitely enjoyed myself more this time around.  

Apart from that, I got my health insurance problem taken care of last week.  I don't know what happened, but my monthly bills were 3x more than they'd originally told me.  No worries, though.  It's all fixed.

Sunday night I skyped with all my taiko buddies back home! It was their halloween party.  I missed everyone so much. I don't think I realized just how much I missed them until I got online with them all at once.  I got to meet some of the newbies as well.  I can't wait to meet them all in person when I get back. 

It makes me happy to think that I can still connect with them even though I'm so far away.  I felt very loved that evening. Which is sweet, but it made me more homesick than I've been since I came here.  Can't wait for that group hug. I don't even care if it pulverizes me into sweet oblivion because it'll mean I'm back home.

Sigh.

Anyway, Jen and I started P90X yesterday.  I'm feeling pretty sore right now.  I can't wait to keep going! I've been feeling like a bump on a log without the crazy amount of taiko practice I used to get.  

And on that note, I leave you to go do some Plyometrics. 

Love until later,

Caitlin D.