nihongo computer

i had high hopes of publishing a loooong post with millions of pictures but the internet cafe computers are in japanese and uploading images is a total nightmare when you cannot understand the functions! again a promise to try harder on the weekend and give ya'll a detailed photo diary

i have moved into my flat and got my bike. riding through the streets of mihara at night through tea bushes and buildings alike is completely exhilirating.

my flat is nice (pictures to come!) it has a little bit of a studenty feel due to serious furniture mismatching so this weekend i'm going to blow a bit of cash on nice japanese style cushions and rugs and things. it has an air con which in this weather is vital!

went to hiroshima memorial service last night. it was very moving, thousands of paper lanterns sailing down the river and crowds of suitably silent onlookers. i put a paper crane at the foot of the Sadako monument; i did feel a bit like a blazen cultural tourist but i think it was ok to go, ask Nixy pointed out, just as a sign of respect. I will spend monday through to wednesday next week in Hiroshima for prefectural orientation (read: enlgish teacher piss up) but hopefully i will have some time off and be able to visit the museum in the peace park. there is also a really good bookshop in Hiroshima and I'm keen to get my hands on some books that Peter Carey writes about in his book Wrong About Japan that I have just finished (Thankyou Rob!).

Still well, waiting for inevitable culture shock to kick in.

Much love and (hopefully not empty promises) to deliver on the weekend.

ok lets try again with a piccie:

aha! this blurry thing is the bridge in hiroshima memorial park. crowds watching lanterns sailing down the river.

a picture at last...

two students practice for the concert competition. the school orchestra is really something!

jeez...where to start

first off: fufu i got your comment on the blog so the reply is working fine :)

i really must sit down this weekend and a) upload photos. b) write down as best i can the stuff i have done in the last few days.

here is a list to whet your appetites and remind me on my return

tea ceremony
kimono
lantern making
oragami
temple concert (with a priest in pistachio trousers)
an onsen (traditional japanese hot spring - take the term traditional very lightly indeed)

it feels as though i could come home now and have a tome of tales. staying with the three unbelievably thoughtful and generous teachers from Mihara high was the ulitmate crash course introduction to this complicated and wonderful place!!

tomorrow i hope to go to the anniversary at peace memorial park in Hiroshima. the lantern i made on the weekend is for the ceremony. thousands of people light paper lanterns and send them down the river that passes memorial park. so im gearing up mentally for that a bit...

also moved into my apartment today and took to the streets of mihara on my bike!!

how does that dr suess rhyme go? 'the places you'll go, the things you will see!'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki
this will tell you about Sadako Sasaki. You probably know about her already but i, in my hopeless ignorance only read her story today. She was a victim of the atomic bomb. There is a memorial to her in the peace park in Hiroshima city.



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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!