Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Kyoto-Day 1

This weekend, the three of us took a trip to Kyoto. This trip was required as part of our Japan trip, so most of it had already been paid for. Kyoto, in central Japan, is about 3 hours away from where we are in Chiba. It used to be the capital of Japan before the Emperor moved over this way to Tokyo. The city still has a lot of historical sites and traditions.



To get there we got to ride the Shinkansen or the "bullet train"as its usually called because of how fast it is (over 500 mph according to Wikipedia!). We woke up very early on Thursday morning so Keiko could take us to the train station. I was happy that Keiko came with us to help us buy tickets for the Shinkansen because I probably would have been extra confused with it being so early and so we didn't have to bike to the station. For breakfast, Keiko offered to buy us sandwiches at the train station. The sandwiches at the shop she picked out did not look appetizing at all, but we are were polite and picked out something. To our surprise and relief they were actually really good! Mine was sort of a barbecue pork sandwich, which probably isn't a great breakfast, but it hit the spot anyway.



The ride on the Shinkansen was very smooth so it didn't feel like it was going as fast as it supposedly was. It felt like an airplane ride; it was smooth and there were tray tables, a drink/snack cart, reclining seats, etc. I slept for most of the ride and finished reading The Hiding Place, which is a moving piece of Holocaust literature for all you readers out there! Here's the speedy little train!












We arrived in Kyoto mid-morning and set off walking to our hotel. It took us a little longer than it should have to find it because we went out the wrong side of the train stations (oops!) and there aren't very many street signs in Japan. We weren't able to check in until 1:30, so we left our bags there and set off to find some lunch. Mike, Lori and I poked around some of the streets close by and finally found a small sushi place on a side street. It was owned by a man and his wife and had pictures and flags from countries all over the world on it. Our lunch was delicious; the man didn't give us menus but offered us a platter of several different kinds of fish over rice and rice and fish rolled up in seaweed, a large bowl of steaming soup, and a cup of tea- all for about 700 yen! (close to $7). When we paid for our food, the woman open a box of chocolates and offered us each one. How nice!


We explored the area close to our hotel for a while and then heading back to the hotel to check in at 1:30. The room was probably a family suite because there were three beds in it; a queen sized and two twins so we each had our own. The mattress on my bed at school is not that soft, so I knew I was going to have a wonderful nights' sleep on this bed once evening came. We were each given a robe and complimentary green tea, along with many other free sample items in the bathroom, like hair ties, Q-tips, toothbrushes and toothpaste. Sweet service!


Around mid-afternoon, we walked to the nearest Subway station and rode over to Kiyomizu Temple. We had to hike up a huge hill and then several flights of stairs until we finally reached the temple area. Here are some pictures from the grounds area of the temple:







































There were lots of bright orange buildings around Kyoto. The orange means something....I think it's prosperity? Possibly.







































I thought these ladies might have been geishas, but they didn't have white painted faces. We tried looking for geishas later in the evening. I saw a few but was never quick enough with my camera to get a picture!

Once we reached the very top of the temple, we paid a small amount to walk around farther and see the view. It was getting close to sunset time, so we hoped we'd see some beautiful colors but it was a little too cloudy. The view of the city and the trees below us was unforgettable however. Here's some pictures!


















The only cherry blossom tree in the bunch!






































We stayed at Kiyomizu Temple for a while just taking pictures and enjoying the view until the sun had gone down. We wandered to a more downtown area of Kyoto and decided on an Indian restaurant for dinner. I've come to love curry while I've been here, so I ate plenty of a vegetable kind along with a huge piece on nan. It's a delicious triangular-shaped bread that's soft, doughy and perfect for dipping in curry. Yum!
After dinner, we took a cab over to Nijo Castle to see the "Spring Light-Up." I've never ridden in a cab before and I wasn't sure I could flag one down, but all I had to do was raise my arm as one drove past us! The Spring Light-Up was something we had read about on a Kyoto website and really wanted to see. Cherry blossoms are starting to come out right now and around the Castle they are lit up at night. We were coming back to the Castle the next day during the day time with our tour, so we didn't look around the buildings too much. There was one area where several little tents were set up and were serving Japanese sweets and drinks, and had full benches of happy customers. We didn't buy anything, but it did look good! And the set up of tents was very cute.

We walked for a bit until we found the garden where the trees were. Even though the blossoms weren't in full bloom, they still looked beautiful with the sparkling white lights around them. There are some things in nature that make me stop and realize how lovely God's creation is, and these trees were one of these things (even though they were lit up with man-made lights). It was very romantic and magical. Too bad I was strolling around the park with Mike and Lori instead of some good looking boy :). I tried several things on my camera, but I couldn't get a single good picture of the trees. I think Mike was able to get some on his though. While we were walking through the garden, there was a clearing in the trees that went to a moat around the castle. I realized then how much I really like castles and I made a mental note to come back to that spot to get a picture tomorrow when it was daytime!

On our way out, we heard music playing from one of the buildings and found three women playing these instruments. They all had long fingernails, which might have been special attachments, but looked real. I couldn't tell what the instruments were, but they had strings and sounded like harps. We stayed for a couple songs and enjoyed the peaceful melodies.














After the Castle, we got back on the Subway and exited at the station near our hotel. We were hoping to find a small dessert and something to drink, which we found as soon as we exited the Subway station. Inside, we had to take our shoes off and then were seated at a regular table. We looked around the restaurant and saw the traditional Japanese tables were you sit on the floor and asked if we could have one of those instead. The waiter agreed and I gave him a really overly enthusiastic "thank you." I think I've done that a lot while being here. It's kind of obnoxious.

Lori and I ordered a dessert, but we a bit surprised at what it was when we got it. Lori thought from the picture that it might be green tea ice cream with chocolate sauce and marshmallows. It was green tea ice cream, but the "chocolate" was a sweet bean sauce that's very popular in desserts and the "marshmallows" we some kind of white blob that tasted like rice. It wasn't too bad, just not what we expected! We headed back to our hotel to get some rest for the second day of our trip. We had gotten up so early that morning, walked around for hours, and stayed up late that night; I think we all were exhausted. We stayed up for bit and talked, until I couldn't resist my comfy bed and blankets anymore.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

When Fears Come True

So the three of us have been practicing with the women's Gospel Choir with the moms of kids at the school since we got here and our first concert was last Saturday. I've enjoyed it for the most part. Practices are a nice break from the school day and I've enjoyed singing even though most songs are in Japanese and I don't know what I'm singing. My friend Stacy, who went on this trip last year, had warned me of getting asked to sing a solo at a concert. I thought we had lucked out because as it got closer and closer to the concert, we still hadn't been asked.

However, my fear came true when the director asked us at the final practice if one of us would sing a verse of "Amazing Grace," one of the few songs in English we'd be performing at the concert. Lori and I quickly volunteered Mike to do it because he actually has musical talent and has sung in a micronphone before. Being the good guy that he is, he agreed to, so I hoped for a second that I was safe from singing. But then she asked if Lori and I would sing together on the second verse, which seemed better than a solo except this verse was in Japanese. We had to agree. There was no way out of it.

Now this really might not seem like a big deal because its just one verse and would probably take only 30 seconds of humiliation tops. But singing in public with my real singing voice ranks pretty high on my fears list. I often sing for my friends or to the kids in my "fake voice" which is also bad but bad on purpose. Lori and I practiced our part several times the night before the concert. Lori wasn't looking forward to singing either, but she actually seems like she has some musical knowledge. She tried to give me some direction, which I was thankful for. We just couldn't get one note to sound quite right because it was so high (the note for "me" in "...that saved a wretch like me"). I couldn't wait to have the solo behind me and enjoy the rest of the concert singing with the mommies.

Minako took some pictures of the concert. Here's our shining moments!



















Here's Lori and I over in the alto section singing "This is the Day," another one in English
















Mike doing his solo part in amazing grace. He sounded really good! He's the only boy in the choir!















And finally, Lori and I doing our duet! I'm not sure how we actually sounded; people told us we did good but I think they were just being nice. I actually wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be, but it was a relief to have it done with!











Here's the whole choir. We have to hold our music so we can read the Japanese, so it gets a little awkward when the director adds in sign langauge and clapping. For some of the songs we practiced more, I've been able to pick up on the words, but others not so much.






We did a couple songs with the kids in the audience. The kids have choir with the director during the week too.
I think we're all done with concerts for the rest of our trip, but we might start practices back up after Spring Break. Looking back, I'm glad I could face this fear with Lori and praise God at the same time. To Him, our singing was beautiful!

Kamakura Tour

I haven't blogged in a while! We've been pretty busy lately, even though the kids are off for Spring Break. We have a new change of schedules that gives us a lot of morning free time, but I've been finishing up work for my online classes and haven't done much with all the pretty pictures I took. My online classes end tomorrow and I'm so glad about that. I was taking two, Intro to Economics and Geography of China, India and Japan, along with our Japanese langauge class and the class for the trip itself. Neither class has been too stressful; actually both have been really interesting and useful during my trip, but it will just be nice to be done with them and the same type of assignments each week. Having less than a month left, Lori and I made this paper chain a couple nights ago to count down the rest of our well enjoyed trip. It's made from origami paper (of course!)















Last Friday, the 20th, was a holiday so there was no school. I decided to take a trip but Lori and Mike had planned on staying back so I was going to be all by myself. I wasn't sure where to go though, so I talked to Keiko about some ideas. We've been to Tokyo and big city areas a lot, so I decided I wanted to go to something on the more historical side. Keiko suggested Kamakura, which is south of Tokyo and close to the ocean. She helped me plan out some sites to see and even found me a tour guide for the morning. I was thankful for Keiko's help, but I wasn't sure I wanted a tour guide or if I could really afford one. Fortunately, the tour was free except for the fees for transportation which I would have had to pay for anyway.
Keiko had set me up with a 9:30 am tour, so I had to get up at the crack of dawn to meet Yoko, my tour guide at the station in Kamakura. It took about two hours by train and I was lucky I didn't really have much confusion getting there. Once I got off the train to meet Yoko, it was pouring rain! I felt horrible about making this poor woman get up early to show me around in the storm, but she was very cheerful and excited to see me regardless. Yoko was probably in her fourties and was from the next town over, so she knew Kamakura very well. It was just her and I on the tour, so she was able to tell me a lot about Kamakura and its history and I could aks questions too.
Our first stop was Hasedera Temple. It was a Buddhist temple, made for Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy. Some of the statues were similar to those Lori, Mike and I saw in Asakusa. The gardens around the temple were beautiful I tried to get some good pictures, but since it was raining so hard I didn't want Yoko to have to stop and wait for me too much.

















The garden was full of little ponds and bridges. The ponds had cute little goldfish in them too!












The cherry blossoms were starting to come out here! I can tell they're going to be beautiful when they're in full bloom.






























Magnolias in full bloom. We've seen a couple of these trees close by the school too.

Yoko was so friendly and we ended up having a good time together. It was nice having her with me because I learned so much about what I was seeing and more about Buddhist practices. I don't know a whole lot about Buddhism, but I know there are thousands of gods that people worship. This is not an easy thing to grasp, but I try to keep an open mind when viewing them temples and shrines. One of the shrines inside this temple was for children, but especially for children that had died as a result of abortion or miscarriages.

Here, people could write in prayers and hopes on wooden cards for these children.



















The statue here is the protector of the children. His staff is suppose to help him travel the world and allow him to heal children and mothers who have lost children. All around him were flowers and smaller statues of the same man.

Yoko and I walked up several flights of stairs to where the giant statue of Kannon was. I wasn't allowed to take pictures once I was inside, but it was so big that I probably would have gotten a very accurate picture anyway. Yoko told me about a Buddhist legend that was said to be the orgin of the statue. She told me that supposedly a monk found a tree large enough to make two statues of Kannon; the lower half is in Nara's Hasedera Temple and the upper half was thrown into the sea. Fifteen years later, it washed up on shore near Kamakura, was found by the locals, and so the temple for it was built. It was interesting, but Yoko didn't seem like she believed it either.













At the top of the mountain, Yoko and I stopped at a small cafe that had a look out of the Pacific Ocean. We had a yummy little treat of green tea and Japanese sweets, and chatted for a little bit about my trip and the tours she does. She was nice enough to give me a few souveneers; a few origami paper cranes and little key chains that were shells covered in scraps of old kimonos.

As we made our way back down, we stopped inside a few more of the temple's sites. Yoko showed me Benten-kutsu Cave filled with the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan. The tunnels of the cave were so low; I had to bend over quite a bit and I'm not even tall! I wish I could have gotten pictures because it was actually pretty cool inside, but it was started to get crowded as the skies were clearing up. Yoko also showed me a building for copying the Sutra, which she said was becoming a more popular thing to do. I got this picture from outside, but I kind of look like a creep because it has my shadow in it!


















Our next stop was Daibutsu, or the Great Buddha, which is one of Japan's national treasures. It is 34 feet tall and made of bronze. I got to go inside it for 20 yen (about 20 cents), but it was much better looking on the outside.





































What would a Great Buddha be without great big sandals for his feet?!? Yoko told me these were donated by an elementary school class. After visiting Buddha, they noticed his feet were bear and wanted to give his something to walk around in.

After Daibustu, Yoko had to leave so I was on my own for the rest of the day. By this time the weather was completely cleared up; it was sunny and probably about 65 degrees. It was after 12, so I decided to find some lunch. I was able to find a small little restaurant that served huge bowls of ramen noodles (which are 100 times better than the stuff at home that you can heat up in the microwave). The only open table in the restaurant was one in the back where an older woman was seated. She didn't try talking to me at first, so I pulled out a book until my food came. It was delicious, full of vegetables, shrimp, and noodles.
Once I was eating the woman at the table with me got a calculator and punched out "82" and then showed it to me. At first I panicked, wonder what I was going to have to pay $82 for, but then she pointed to herself with a big smile on her face. She was telling me that she was 82 years old, and proud of it! I wrote out that I was from America and 21 years old. Then I told her my soup was good. I think she was actually the mother of the one waitress in the store.















After lunch I decided to head over to the coast since it had gotten to nice out. On my way over, I saw this basket of Home Depot bags. What are those doing over here?
It felt so nice to walk on the beach. Yuigahama Beach was definitely not the prettiest beach I've seen (there was lots of trash and washed up seaweed on it) but it sure felt good to walk with my feet in the sand and water. It was way too cold for swimming, but there were lots of guys trying to surf. I don't think the waves were quite big enough for that either though.
I walked quite a ways down along the beach, just relaxing in the sunshine and ocean water :).




























I stopped to ask a woman if she could take a picture of me and the water and her daughter join me. The woman spoke English really well so we talked for a while about my trip. It was her daughter's first time seeing the ocean and she was running and and having a great time splashing in the waves. This little girl had just had her kindergarten graduation ceremony from a Christian school; I had to do a double take to make sure she wasn't one of ours!



















I didn't want to leave the beach, but I thought I'd better check out a couple other places before heading back to the train station. I headed over to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, which was packed with people. It reminded me alot of Asukusa Temple because the street leading up to it was full of little huts and shops on both sides and was so narrow and because the inside of the temple was pretty similar. I didn't end up staying to long at the Shrine; I was getting tried from waking up so early and from walking around. I climbed to the top of the Shrine, which was up on a mountain and had another great view of the coast.
















This was the only tree in the area that had blossoms on it. People were packed around it taking pictures! They really do love these cherry blossoms!
















The first building is the gate and the one farther was the temple on the mountain.


















There were several people feeding pigeons at the Shrine. I decided to skip this cultural experience. Instead, I bought these cookies that look like pigeons! Yum!






Saturday, March 21, 2009

American Night

On Wednesday night, Lori, Mike and I hosted "American Night" for the teachers at the school. Outside of visiting their classrooms everyday, we really haven't had much of a chance to spend time with the teachers because they are so busy all the time! We were excited to get a chance to hang out with them.

The three of us had planned out a menu and did the grocery shopping beforehand. Lori and I had both wanted to try unique family recipes, but due to lack of finding necessary ingredients, we decided on tacos for the main dish. Yes I know, tacos are not really American but they are my favorite food and I'm American, so it all works out :). We also wanted to make s'mores and strawberry shortcake for dessert and were more successful at finding these ingredients.

After work, we headed into our tiny kitchen to start cooking. Most of the teachers were eager to help us cook and it was a challenge trying to find jobs and supplies for everyone! We stuck a couple of teachers on the job of making the biscuits for the strawberry shortcake, since all the directions were in Japanese. We had just enough cutting boards and knives for teachers to cut up taco toppings and the strawberries. After these jobs were done, we had runners carry the food us to the classroom where we were going to have the party. Finally, after about an hour and a half of cramping and chaos, we were ready to eat! Here's some of the yummy food we had!















Lori and I with three teachers getting the tacos ready in the kitchen. We decided to use croissant rolls and tortillas instead of spending extra money on hard shells. Pretty good!



















Mike's guacamole was so good and was a big hit! Tortilla chips were also expensive, so we served it will flavored potato chips and Doritos.
















Here are two more teachers getting the biscuits ready for strawberry shortcake. Most of the teachers are pretty close to our age, like 21- 25 years ole. Osuka, the teacher on the right, is the oldest and she's been at the kindergarten for about 15 years already! Still looks pretty young to me!





















Here's Tamaki and I with the yummy strawberry shortcake! Tamaki is one of my favorite teachers. She's always so energetic and excited, and can pull of that great hairstyle! And her class was full of some of my favorite students, so I loved visiting it for lunch.


















While we were eating, we watched the movie "Enchanted." The three of us were trying to pick a movie to rent and I thought of this one because Disney seems to be pretty popular in Japan and it is still a fairly new movie. Lori and Mike had never seen it, and I'm not sure Mike was too thrilled about getting it! We watched it with Japanese subtitles, and I think the teachers enjoyed it while Lori, Mike and I had fun laughing at the cheesy jokes and lines.
Afterward, we tried to insist on doing the dishes and letting the teachers go home and get some rest before work the next day, but they ended up helping us with the cleaning. They are just so nice! The night was a lot of fun and I hope they had as good of a time as we did.












Friday, March 13, 2009

Graduation Day

In Japan, schools are year round and early April marks the start of a new school year. Wednesday was Graduation Day at the kindergarten! The school has three grade levels of students, so only the oldest group ( 5 and 6 year olds) are leaving. Since they have been at the school for three years now, this group, Shion as they are referred to, has had experiences with other Spring Arbor students coming in and out. Because of this, the Shions get that we can't understand them and have been able to try different ways of communicating with us. It was a little sad to see these kids go because Mike, Lori and I have enjoyed playing with them on the playground, eating lunch in their classes and teaching them English in exchange for Japanese words.

We had gotten the impression that Graduation was going to be a pretty big deal, as many parents often show us for smaller assemblies with video cameras and such. The Shions and their teachers had been practicing for weeks on their march in and different songs and prayers they were to recite. Lori, Mike and I had a few roles in the ceremony. Our first and most nerve racking was to read a Bible verse in front of the crowd, first in English than Japanese. Now, I really don't get nervous speaking in front of people, but in Japanese in a bit different. For those of you who have been keeping up on my blogs, you'll know that I have had the best record of speaking Japanese in front of a crowd! I practiced several times beforehand, but my heart was pumping quite fast as the ceremony approached.

The kids looked so cute in their little caps and gowns! Here's a few pictures I got before the ceremony...





















Kaiya, the boy on the left hugging his friend, is one of our favorites. He always hides when I try to take pictures of him, so I was happy to get one where his arms aren't covering his face!














Some of the moms were excited to take pictures of us with their kids. Sayaka, the girl doing the peace with me, is another favorite.

















The ceremony started with the traditional graduation song to march in with. In their hands, the students held branches with leaves on them. I'm not positive of the significance, but in our copy of the program it said that the buds are eaten as a vegetable in Japan's spring season. So maybe the two are related. The ceremony was held in the outside dome, which was just big enough to fit about 100 graduating students and their families. Parents were dressed up (a very moms had traditional kimonos on!) and there were video cameras everywhere. It was definitely a big deal. Mike said it reminded him of the movie "Best in Show," except for children instead of dogs! Of course, if I had an adorable Japanese child, I would want pictures and videos full of him or her dressed in an over-sized cap and gown too.
The Bible readings went very well for all three of us. We had been told to speak slowly, which was no trouble when speaking in Japanese. Lori and I had verses from 1 John and Mike's was from Isaiah. I haven't been that nervous in a long time! About halfway through (which wasn't that far because it was only one verse), I started feeling really good about myself and began cheering myself on in my head. I didn't dare look up from my paper at the audience, though. I was really relieved when it was done and I could go back to my seat and enjoy the ceremony. However, I should keep in mind though that many of the parents are not Christians, so even giving them one Bible verse is something I should look forward to, not be scared by.

















After our reading, the students recited the Lord's Prayer and then received their diplomas (or maybe they were just certificates). Then the real fun began when the students sang and danced to "Bless the Lord." Here's a short clip of it that I took on my camera:



After the ceremony, our second job was to sing with the Gospel choir at the tea ceremony. The tea ceremony was kind of like a reception, but since we were warming up I didn't get a chance to see, or try, what was being offered. Gospel choir has been going fairly well. I haven't been asked to sing a solo yet, which was something I was warned about by my friend Stacy who came on this trip last year. There are a couple of songs that I know most of the words to, I just don't know what I'm saying. Others I feel totally lost. The first song we had to sing was one of these. It's a very fast song, so I'm proud of myself when I can just keep track of where everyone else is. The second is one is a bit slower, so that was nice. The final song we sang with the kids. There were many moms in the choir, teachers, and parents in the audience getting teary eyed when we sang this song. Mike was curious about what the song's words were and if that's what was making everyone so sappy, or if it was just the spirit of graduation.
Monday starts Spring Break, which is three weeks of no school. The teachers still work, so its really not a break at all! But when we start school up again in April, there will be new students coming in.