Okayama
Today, I’m going to do that travel blogging thing and actually blog about, well, travel. A couple weekends ago, we went on the overnight trip sponsored by CET to Okayama and Kagawa. It was AWESOME. All of us Americans and almost all of our Japanese roommates piled onto a bus early Saturday morning and drove to Okayama Prefectural Shizutani Educational Center, up in the mountains two prefectures to the west of Osaka.
The Educational Center is a big building with classrooms, a cafeteria, baths, and these big tatami-mat floored rooms full of futons for sleeping. Japanese schools take their kids on trips to places like these to do group bonding activities, learn random skills, and generally have some good clean fun, so it was a cool opportunity for us to have a similar experience. Right when we got there, we got a talk about the rules and regulations about staying there (like how to fold our futons properly) and dropped our stuff before lunch in the cafeteria.
The Educational Center is also right next to the beautiful old campus of the Shizutani school, which is one of the oldest schools still around in Japan. Its history goes back to the early Edo Period (1660s). The main lecture hall building by itself is OLDER. THAN. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Yikes. A lovely guide gave us a tour of the grounds (even got a chance to pray at the school shrine) and we had some free time to wander.
After a brief foray in search of civilization (we were really out in the boonies), which yielded the delicious results of soy sauce ice cream (surprisingly tasty), we headed back to the school for a lesson in making Bizen-yaki! Bizen-yaki is a specific type of pottery unique to the Bizen region (in which we were staying). We got a brief how-to tutorial from the Bizen-yaki-sensei-in-residence and then they gave us our own globs of clay and a mini-wheel and off we went! I made three little teacups.
Once we cleaned the clay off of our hands, we headed back downstairs for dinner. Then, after dinner, we had the baths all to ourselves for two whole hours. For most of us Americans, it was our first experience with a traditional Japanese bath (a large room with showers along the wall to wash before soaking in the big tub of hot water in the middle), but it was significantly more fun and less awkward than I imagined. We ended up having a grand time being silly, singing Disney songs, and splashing around in the big tub. Afterwards, it was great to just bum around the rooms, play cards, and be silly before an early bedtime.
We woke up bright and early on Sunday to eat breakfast, fold our futons, and generally make our rooms and bathrooms spiffy before we got back on the bus on our way to Kagawa. We stopped for lunch and wandering in Kurashiki, and then back on the bus, headed to Kotohira, in Kagawa Prefecture on Shikoku (the island right to the south of Honshu, the main island).
We climbed the 1,000 steps to Konpira shrine on top of a mountain, during the peak of the cherry blossom’s beauty. Between the gorgeous trees and beautiful vista every time I looked behind me and watched the city fall away beneath us taking my breath away every five seconds, and the 1,000 freaking steps, I’m amazed I made it to the top alive. What an awesome opportunity.
After we all made it back down the mountain, we went to a school for making udon and learned how to make the dough and roll out and cut our very own udon noodles! It was a blast. Half of the process of making the dough is, after you mix it, you put it in a plastic bag and then dance on it. So, naturally, the Sensei put on some silly pop music and we boogied like pros. They fixed us some tasty tempura and we cooked the udon we made ourselves. I’m not sure whether it was that the udon ingredients were especially good, or that we’d climbed 1,000 steps that day, or that we made it ourselves, but those were the best noodles I’ve had in a very long time.
Exhausted, well-fed, and quite pleased with an excellent trip, we piled back on the bus and slept the whole way back to Osaka.
Let’s Walk Together
Spring has finally sprung in Osaka, Japan. In the beginning of April, I wrote about how our blossoms were finally blooming. Now we’re nearing its end, and most of the blossoms have been replaced by leaves. The pollen is out and about, according to my sinuses. Birds are chirping, stray cats mewling at the spring moon…the days are warm, the nights cool. Spring is a lovely change of pace from winter, isn’t it?
I had a 定期券, [teikiken] or commuter pass that let me ride between where I live and where the school is located (only a train stop away) for an unlimited amount of rides for an allotted period of time. Mine was for three months. You can get them for increments of one, three, or five months. Three seemed logical. But in any case, it ran out last week. And while yes, sometimes I’ve merely bought a normal ticket to train to school, I’ve also learned of this lovely walking path. My friend took me through here one day, and I’d like to share her little secret.
I have to go under the train station, actually. There’s a little tunnel that pedestrians can walk through. After going through the tunnel, you cross over the bridge. Osaka is a big prefecture (which is akin to a state or province, I suppose) filled with rivers, so there’s never a shortage of bridges. The water, especially in the morning, is beautiful and often has ducks swimming in it. Today was no exception. I wonder, though, what the ducks are actually eating?
For a good while, you follow the river. There’s an adorable walking path right up against the water’s edge, and without exception there are people enjoying the pathway along with me. Sometimes, I see older gentlemen and ladies playing golf. Sometimes, walking their dogs. I usually get a glance or two, but they quickly go back to their business. There’s also a few fishermen who frequent the area.
Eventually, you have to walk up a ramp and follow a lovely path of trees until you hit a road. On the other side, there’s a Buddhist temple – housing quite a few graves. It’s beautiful and simple, mostly monochromatic with just a touch of colour here and there. That was one of the things that surprised me about Japan – there’s quite a few graveyards in places you wouldn’t expect. I imagine it’s because from a spiritual point of view, the Japanese don’t really “fear” death (as in they realize it’s just another part of life and existing), so there’s no need to hide the markers of those who have passed up high where nobody would see. There’s no tragic feeling associated with these graveyards. If anything, it’s a mix of awe and respect.
Following the road, you walk by a tiny little playground. The main thing there is a rocket ship-inspired slide set. I wish I could go play on it some mornings. Follow the road for a little while longer, and as you walk along a new path that you’ll find just off to your left, you’ll pass by some tennis courts. On the other side, I believe there’s a soccer field, but I honestly don’t know my sports well enough to tell you.
You eventually make a hard left turn, follow the mini-street lined with construction work, and you hit the train tracks again. After you cross over the train tracks, you’ve arrived at my university. It’s a pretty simple mile walk, but every time I walk it, something is different. It’s a fantastically peaceful way to start the school day.
Especially when I have friends to walk with me.
Cherry Blossoms in Osaka
I think I can safely say one of the most iconic symbols of Japan is the cherry blossom. But I wonder how much people actually know about the history of Japan and its various, beautiful blossoms?
There’s a practice in Japan, called 花見, hanami. It literally means to go flower viewing. It’s a really popular springtime activity here. Although, where I am, the weather hasn’t been quite…nice enough to picnic under the blossoms and just relax with friends.
In fact, up until last weekend, most of our blossoms hadn’t even opened. In Osaka, the plum blossoms come long before the cherry blossoms. They’re beautiful with a deep, rich, pink. Their smell is lovely, to be sure…
But they’re not cherry blossoms. I grew up outside of DC, we have the Cherry Blossom festival every year. Those trees, in fact, were a gift from the Japanese. They’re all around where I live. It’s weird little slice of home to see those delicate pink flowers hanging above my head. I could recognize the scent of a cherry blossom out of a group of flowers, I can assure you.
I know this is a short post, and for that I do apologize. But really, there aren’t words for me to properly explain how moved I feel by walking under the blossoming trees. If you ever get a chance to come to Japan, I sincerely hope you can stay until spring…
Because to me, you don’t really see the true beauty of Japan until you’re sitting under the blossoms.
Temples, Pagodas, and Shrines. Oh my!
As a Ryuugakusei (foreign student) living in Osaka, I spend most of my time surrounded by urban sprawl, walking the narrow streets between tightly packed buildings, and taking the train to and from school, downtown, and my favorite hangouts around the city.
But every once in a while, I get the chance to get away from my regular urban routine and get to see some beautiful and amazing things. In case you haven’t heard, Japan is full of a bunch of really cool old stuff. The Kansai region (which contains Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, and many other great places) is especially full of cool stuff. I would like to take this blog post to show you some of the cool stuff I’ve seen since I’ve been in Japan.
As a quick side note for those unfamiliar with Japanese religions buildings: Shrines are Shinto; Temples are Buddhist.
First: Todaiji Temple in Nara. Wikipedia says it’s the largest wooden building in the world, and I believe it. It houses the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) – a giant bronze Buddha statue.
Second: Higashi-Honganji Temple in Kyoto. This temple gives Todaiji a run for it’s money for largest wooden building, because it is also stunningly huge. I went on a grey, rainy day, but I lucked out by catching the tail end of a Buddhist sermon. Monks were seated around the alter, chanting, banging drums, and ringing bells, while hundreds of people were seated on the floor in front of the altar and spilling out every door.
Next: the 5-story pagoda at Kofukuji Temple in Nara. Built in 1426, this bad boy is one of the tallest AND one of the oldest pagodas in Japan. It was fascinating and a little scary to stand in the shadow of a 600-year-old wooden tower. However, my fear was quickly eased by the deer wandering around the temple grounds, waiting to be petted, fed, and photographed by all the eager tourists.
The Kasuga-taisha Shrine in Arashiyama, the shrine of the Fujiwara family, was both beautiful and very old. Most distinctive was the long, winding path up to the temple lined with hundreds and hundreds of stone lanterns. These lanterns came in all shapes and sizes, some with dragons winding up the stem, some with rows and rows of tiny script carved into the stone, some very new and some obviously had been standing there for hundreds of years.
Finally, my favorite shrine so far. Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine in Kyoto is probably one of the best known shrines to the western world because its long path lined with thousands of vermillion torii gates has been featured in quite a few movies. Dedicated to Inari, the kami (god) of rice and fertility, among other things, it is actually a complex of several shrines scattered around the foothills to the southeast of Kyoto. The shrines are all connected by the path lined with torii. Altogether, the path between shrines is about 4km long. I didn’t to walk the whole thing, which only means I have to go back!
This is just a tiny taste of all the cool stuff I have had the opportunity to see in my short 2 months here, and barely the tip of the iceberg of all the cool stuff to see in Japan.
CET Academic Programs