getting cultured

So this weekend I have been in Saijo staying with my supervisor. His home is a traditonal japanese one. Shoes off at the door - which is pretty standard - tables sunk into the floor. My room is walled on one side by canvas screens hiding cupboards and three sides by those ricey screens; one leading from the main entrance, one separating me from the room with the shrine in it and one side leading onto a corridor running along the back of the house. its exterior wall isnt a wall at all but panels of mosquito netting so what little breeze there is can flow through. i guess in winter you just screen the corridor off. Yesterday the lady of the household (whose name I have naturally forgotten - I have forgotten everyones names its acutely embarrassing) invited me to pray at the shrine. She had already placed an offering, a ball of rice, in a little cup up at the top of the shrine - which looks like a cupboard but inside are teirs and carvings and lights and lots of gold and lots of black and tsatkes. Following her instruction I lit a candle then lit incense from the candle and placed them deep in the cupboard. I then tapped a bowl two times with a bowl tapper. It made a satisfyingly religious bong. After this process you wrap beads around both hands and kneeling, always kneeling you say a prayer. The lady of the house speaks almost no english (about as much as i do japanese) so when it came time to explain the praying bit she mimed holding the beads and closed her eyes and said (and I quote) 'blahblahblah pray whatever'. It was delightful.

Later, in the 34% degree heat the family decided to take me out for a walk ostensibly to show me the train station as I would have to catch a train later that day. But actually we went shrine and sake mill hopping - two institutions treated with reverence. they were both interesting things but man, it was so hot and I had just consumed a traditional japanese breakfast (yoghurt, salad, miso soup, a bowl of rice, NATO, pickled seaweed and two cups of tea) so i was in no mood. to make matters worse, kaneshima-san insisted that i taste the sake on offer in the visitors room at one of the mills. it must be said that it was delicious, very light, not at all like the nail polish remover I have had at home... but damn! it was 34% degrees outside. the last thing i want to do was have 12 shots of sake. Luckily you can also taste various waters that are used in the sake making process. Kaneshima-san drank only water. He doesnt like sake.

Then I went to Daeo daeo - Japanese electronic store. Oh man. Dad. Ben. You would die. It was indescribably awesome!

Then off on the train to Fukuyama - Hiroshima prefecture's second biggest city. There i met the internationals at a beer garden: its a summer tradition that shopping malls open beer gardens on their roofs. You pay 3000 yen and from sx till eleven you can eat and drink as much as you like. Beer, spirits, tempura, salads, fish, yakitori and mountains of fresh cold watermelon. The atmosphere was great. The little fried things that turned out to be deep fried pig cartilage, not so great. Had to use Eastern style toilets again too but I think I am getting better at this. So watching the sun go down on the mountains of Fukuyama - all in all another good day!