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| 05252007 |
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| 05262007 |
Monday, May 28, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Brian: Hiroshima and Miyajima
The past two days were jam-packed and fun: all the SCTI students went to Hiroshima and Miyajima as part of the Bing trip. By the way, prefixing "Bing" before any event just means that Peter and Helen Bing, ridiculously wealthy and generous Stanford patrons, paid for it. I heard from somebody that the cost of the trip was about $400 per head.
We met up on Friday morning at the Kyoto eki at 8:45AM and took the Nozomi superexpress bullet train to Hiroshima, where we were met by a charter bus. The bus took us to an area of Hiroshima called Shintenchi which has good shopping and covered arcades. We ate lunch consisting of Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, the main difference between it and Kanto style okonomiyaki being that there are noodles sandwiched between two thin layers of fried egg batter in the Hiroshima version, and just a pancake-like mix of ingredients in the Kanto style. It came with fried soba noodles, which I'm not a big fan of, so it was only passable in my opinion, although others who liked yakisoba thought it was delicious. After lunch, we walked to the A-bomb dome and the peace park. The A-bomb dome kind of sneaks up on you. You see a dilapidated looking building off to the side and before recognizing the famous bare-metal supports of the dome and realizing that that building was there when the bomb when off. We walked over the T-shaped Aioi bridge that was the target of the bomb, and to the Children's Memorial, where Japanese students were singing. It was really touching. From there we walked through the peace park, with the eternal flame opposite a cenotaph commemorating the bomb victims, and finally to the museum, itself an architectural marvel.
The museum really blew me away. I tried to read every panel in the museum because every detail was so interesting. There were memorandums from the National Archives that descried the motivations behind targeting Japan (ending the war sooner, primacy over the Soviets in the post-war era) and also how the selected the target, Hiroshima. There were scale models of the immediate surroundings before and after the bomb detonated, and you really get a sense of what 90% of buildings destroyed means. Then came the human element, with descriptions of family members searching for lost ones, charred remnants of clothing, and descriptions of the horrible injuries they suffered. I was so engrossed that I was the last one out of the museum and late to our arranged meeting time of 2:45PM. It was a really sad and humbling experience. There were some times that I almost wanted to cry, but I came away more knowledgeable about the incident and also somehow cathartically purged by witnessing the human tragedy that ensued.
We immediately traveled from the peace park to our ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) in Miyajima via charter bus and ferry. As the ferry took us across the bay, we could see a bright red tori emerge from the mist, a famous landmark of Miyajima (an island). On the walk from the port to the ryokan, we saw another famous aspect of Miyajima - the deer. At first we were excited to see such docile and friendly deer, but soon there were too many of them and I grew to perceive them as a nuisance. They'd very aggressively go after any food and would also eat through paper and clothing.
Our ryokan was really nice. The rooms, which fit 6 people, were really spacious, well decorated, and had a super good view of the bay and the red tori. Also, there were showers and baths in the basement and an outdoor bath as well. Us guys immediately showered and soaked in the bath and were joined in there by the director, Terry Macdougall. We had a nice chat about sumo wrestling. Dinner at night was spectacular. We had beer and a continuous parade of seafood delicacies. Everything was very large and fresh. The sashimi was so delicious I thought it was melting in my mouth. There were also 2 extremely large oysters per person. Refer to my pictures for more dishes (I forgot to take pictures of some of them though). We were all dressed in yukata (light robes) for dinner and of course it was the perfect time for photos. We relaxed and talked after dinner before heading to the beach for some more drinking. Around 10PM, Pat and Jeffrey and I headed back to take a bath in the outdoor onsen, which was only available between 10-11PM. Then, I hung out in Jeffrey's room until drunk people from the beach started showing up and I decided to go back to my room to sleep.
That night was really surreal. Michael and Pat got into a fight about something that escalated quite quickly and left the rest of us feeling really awkward in the room. After trying unsuccessfully to talk it out, Michael left by himself to take a walk. I also took a walk with Patrick to try to talk things out. The walk was actually very peaceful - it was pitch dark by then but we made our way carefully to another strip of beach we had never been to and watched the tide come in. The tori was no longer lit by spotlights by this time, so it cast a black silhouette against the city line of Hiroshima and its rippling black reflection on the water was also kind of creepy. Pat and I were able to talk through a lot of things and I felt like he was able to clear his head afterwards. By then it was past 3AM already when Pat went back to sleep. I wasn't sleepy so I hung out in another room until about 5AM, then departed once again to the beach to take pictures of the shrine at high tide in the morning. I was really tired for the rest of the day.
The other main thing we did on Saturday was climb Mt. Misen, the mountain in the middle of the island. Actually 4 of us took a ropeway gondola most of the way up, but it was still a really hard hike. It took us about 3 hours to complete it, and almost all of it was either climbing up or climbing down stairs. At least we were rewarded by a monkey park and some good views (that didn't turn out so good on camera). In the afternoon, Pat, Roel, Mary and I headed back to Hiroshima and did some shopping before hitting up the okonomiyaki place once more for dinner. Then it was arcade and sticky pics time until 9PM, when we took a bullet train back to Kyoto so that we could catch the last trains back to our respective host families. It all seems like a long continuous experience because I didn't get to sleep on Friday night. I did take naps every time we were on a bus or train though, so I am not substantially sleep deprived.
We met up on Friday morning at the Kyoto eki at 8:45AM and took the Nozomi superexpress bullet train to Hiroshima, where we were met by a charter bus. The bus took us to an area of Hiroshima called Shintenchi which has good shopping and covered arcades. We ate lunch consisting of Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, the main difference between it and Kanto style okonomiyaki being that there are noodles sandwiched between two thin layers of fried egg batter in the Hiroshima version, and just a pancake-like mix of ingredients in the Kanto style. It came with fried soba noodles, which I'm not a big fan of, so it was only passable in my opinion, although others who liked yakisoba thought it was delicious. After lunch, we walked to the A-bomb dome and the peace park. The A-bomb dome kind of sneaks up on you. You see a dilapidated looking building off to the side and before recognizing the famous bare-metal supports of the dome and realizing that that building was there when the bomb when off. We walked over the T-shaped Aioi bridge that was the target of the bomb, and to the Children's Memorial, where Japanese students were singing. It was really touching. From there we walked through the peace park, with the eternal flame opposite a cenotaph commemorating the bomb victims, and finally to the museum, itself an architectural marvel.
The museum really blew me away. I tried to read every panel in the museum because every detail was so interesting. There were memorandums from the National Archives that descried the motivations behind targeting Japan (ending the war sooner, primacy over the Soviets in the post-war era) and also how the selected the target, Hiroshima. There were scale models of the immediate surroundings before and after the bomb detonated, and you really get a sense of what 90% of buildings destroyed means. Then came the human element, with descriptions of family members searching for lost ones, charred remnants of clothing, and descriptions of the horrible injuries they suffered. I was so engrossed that I was the last one out of the museum and late to our arranged meeting time of 2:45PM. It was a really sad and humbling experience. There were some times that I almost wanted to cry, but I came away more knowledgeable about the incident and also somehow cathartically purged by witnessing the human tragedy that ensued.
We immediately traveled from the peace park to our ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) in Miyajima via charter bus and ferry. As the ferry took us across the bay, we could see a bright red tori emerge from the mist, a famous landmark of Miyajima (an island). On the walk from the port to the ryokan, we saw another famous aspect of Miyajima - the deer. At first we were excited to see such docile and friendly deer, but soon there were too many of them and I grew to perceive them as a nuisance. They'd very aggressively go after any food and would also eat through paper and clothing.
Our ryokan was really nice. The rooms, which fit 6 people, were really spacious, well decorated, and had a super good view of the bay and the red tori. Also, there were showers and baths in the basement and an outdoor bath as well. Us guys immediately showered and soaked in the bath and were joined in there by the director, Terry Macdougall. We had a nice chat about sumo wrestling. Dinner at night was spectacular. We had beer and a continuous parade of seafood delicacies. Everything was very large and fresh. The sashimi was so delicious I thought it was melting in my mouth. There were also 2 extremely large oysters per person. Refer to my pictures for more dishes (I forgot to take pictures of some of them though). We were all dressed in yukata (light robes) for dinner and of course it was the perfect time for photos. We relaxed and talked after dinner before heading to the beach for some more drinking. Around 10PM, Pat and Jeffrey and I headed back to take a bath in the outdoor onsen, which was only available between 10-11PM. Then, I hung out in Jeffrey's room until drunk people from the beach started showing up and I decided to go back to my room to sleep.
That night was really surreal. Michael and Pat got into a fight about something that escalated quite quickly and left the rest of us feeling really awkward in the room. After trying unsuccessfully to talk it out, Michael left by himself to take a walk. I also took a walk with Patrick to try to talk things out. The walk was actually very peaceful - it was pitch dark by then but we made our way carefully to another strip of beach we had never been to and watched the tide come in. The tori was no longer lit by spotlights by this time, so it cast a black silhouette against the city line of Hiroshima and its rippling black reflection on the water was also kind of creepy. Pat and I were able to talk through a lot of things and I felt like he was able to clear his head afterwards. By then it was past 3AM already when Pat went back to sleep. I wasn't sleepy so I hung out in another room until about 5AM, then departed once again to the beach to take pictures of the shrine at high tide in the morning. I was really tired for the rest of the day.
The other main thing we did on Saturday was climb Mt. Misen, the mountain in the middle of the island. Actually 4 of us took a ropeway gondola most of the way up, but it was still a really hard hike. It took us about 3 hours to complete it, and almost all of it was either climbing up or climbing down stairs. At least we were rewarded by a monkey park and some good views (that didn't turn out so good on camera). In the afternoon, Pat, Roel, Mary and I headed back to Hiroshima and did some shopping before hitting up the okonomiyaki place once more for dinner. Then it was arcade and sticky pics time until 9PM, when we took a bullet train back to Kyoto so that we could catch the last trains back to our respective host families. It all seems like a long continuous experience because I didn't get to sleep on Friday night. I did take naps every time we were on a bus or train though, so I am not substantially sleep deprived.
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| Hiroshima and Miyajima Trip |
Monday, May 21, 2007
Patrick: Osaka, Baseball, and Kiyomizu Temple
On Friday, we went on a class field trip to Osaka for Contemporary International Affairs. Specifically we ate lunch at the Tsuruhashi district and then went on to visit the Peace Osaka Museum. As a little background, Tsuruhashi (crane bridge) and the neighboring Momotani (peach valley) are the two districts with the highest concentration of Koreans in Japan. Since the World War II era when Koreans and other Asians were pressed into forced labor in Japan, Koreans have concentrated in the Kansai area. Nowadays, Osaka is perhaps Japan's most diverse cities with residents from all over Asia and beyond.
We ate a Korean lunch in Tsuruhashi and then visited a wet market. The yakiniku looked delicious but the prices were prohibitively high for students... The wet market was probably the closest to Taiwanese market atmosphere that I've seen so far in Japan. Everything from clothes to snacks, crackers, and sweets, to kimchi, and fresh seafood was sold. I wanted to stick around a little longer but are schedule wouldn't permit it.
The peace museum was soso. It had floors dedicated to the memories of civilian victims from the fire bombing of Osaka. It also had floors dedicated to Asian victims of Japanese hegemony as well as the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A few Japanese students who were taking the International Affairs class and the Postwar Japanese Society class came along with us. It was a little awkward reading the same saddening diary entries, browsing the same war-marred artifacts.. In all, it was a rather depressing end to the class field trip.
After the museum, a few of us took the train to Koshien (in Kobe, I believe) to watch a Hanshin Tigers game. I bought Jeff's ticket since he said he was too sick and tired to go. I'm not really a baseball fan but I think I've discovered that a Hanshin Tiger's game should be at the top of any tourist's list for things to do in Japan. The fans are absolutely crazy dedicated. They have a song for every person on the team. There is non-stop cheering throughout the game. And the stadium was packed even after the team's suffered a 10-game losing streak last, last week and a 3-game losing streak leading up to the game we attended. The Hanshin's ended up beating the Baystars and the crowd went wild.
When the game finished, Michael, Jason, and some others went clubbing in Osaka and stayed out all night. Brian and I left early to catch the last couple of trains home. I still had the badminton circle to attend on Saturday morning and Brian seemed pretty exhausted and sick.
On Sunday, Stephanie, Daryl, and I went to Kiyomizu Temple. It's apparently a candidate for the new 7 wonders of the world. It was, in my opinion, one of the most fabulous temples I've seen so far in Japan. Overlooking Kyoto, it offered a magnificent view of the city. It was also a very natural place; good for hiking. Leading up to the temple, there was a 10-minute walk along a street lined with shops selling souvenirs and delicious traditional snacks and ice cream. It really was tourist central. And on a beautiful day like yesterday, all the school kids were out too in their uniforms.
We ate a Korean lunch in Tsuruhashi and then visited a wet market. The yakiniku looked delicious but the prices were prohibitively high for students... The wet market was probably the closest to Taiwanese market atmosphere that I've seen so far in Japan. Everything from clothes to snacks, crackers, and sweets, to kimchi, and fresh seafood was sold. I wanted to stick around a little longer but are schedule wouldn't permit it.
The peace museum was soso. It had floors dedicated to the memories of civilian victims from the fire bombing of Osaka. It also had floors dedicated to Asian victims of Japanese hegemony as well as the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A few Japanese students who were taking the International Affairs class and the Postwar Japanese Society class came along with us. It was a little awkward reading the same saddening diary entries, browsing the same war-marred artifacts.. In all, it was a rather depressing end to the class field trip.
After the museum, a few of us took the train to Koshien (in Kobe, I believe) to watch a Hanshin Tigers game. I bought Jeff's ticket since he said he was too sick and tired to go. I'm not really a baseball fan but I think I've discovered that a Hanshin Tiger's game should be at the top of any tourist's list for things to do in Japan. The fans are absolutely crazy dedicated. They have a song for every person on the team. There is non-stop cheering throughout the game. And the stadium was packed even after the team's suffered a 10-game losing streak last, last week and a 3-game losing streak leading up to the game we attended. The Hanshin's ended up beating the Baystars and the crowd went wild.
When the game finished, Michael, Jason, and some others went clubbing in Osaka and stayed out all night. Brian and I left early to catch the last couple of trains home. I still had the badminton circle to attend on Saturday morning and Brian seemed pretty exhausted and sick.
On Sunday, Stephanie, Daryl, and I went to Kiyomizu Temple. It's apparently a candidate for the new 7 wonders of the world. It was, in my opinion, one of the most fabulous temples I've seen so far in Japan. Overlooking Kyoto, it offered a magnificent view of the city. It was also a very natural place; good for hiking. Leading up to the temple, there was a 10-minute walk along a street lined with shops selling souvenirs and delicious traditional snacks and ice cream. It really was tourist central. And on a beautiful day like yesterday, all the school kids were out too in their uniforms.
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| 05182007 |
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| 05192007 |
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| 05202007 |
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Patrick: Misc. Pictures and Festivities
On Monday, Brian and I took the Uji Keihan line down to the last stop.. Uji City. Uji is known as the Town of the Tale of Genji, the glorified womanizer of the Heian era who represents the pinnacle of courtier society. Uji is also famous for it's green tea: maccha and sencha. I don't know much about teas but my host family was telling me that the plot of land outside of our house produces the best tea in the area and now is the season the leaves are harvest and stir fried (itameru)...
At Uji, we visited Byodoin, a famous nobleman's estate later transformed into a famous Pure Land Bhuddism temple. It really was built to be paradise on earth. The building is so famous that it is present on the back of every 10-yen coin in Japan. We arrived too late in the day to go into the main building... actually we would have made it but we decided to splurge and enjoy a delicious dessert at a local kissaten (cafe).
Yesterday, there was a major festival in Kyoto, the Aoi Matsuri. The festival involved a parade starting from the present-day Kyoto Imperial Palace at 10:30 am to Shimogamo Shrine and then to Kamigamo Shrine. The festival involves an offering of aoi, hollyhock, to the gods. Aside from that, the average citizen is not expected to no any more... I was at the Imperial Palace a little before the start of the procession, since Doshisha University is right across from the compound in the northwest. The place was packed with people from all over Japan as well as tourists from all over the world. It really was a grand procession... at least until you've seen the first versions of everything. It was a very repetitive parade, with people wearing practically the same thing. It was also a rather solemn procession devoid of music. I was expecting taiko drums and shamisen. By far the most interesting part of the parade was the princess that rode in a little house-like box escorted by numerous servants. The Aoi Matsuri is one of Kyoto's three major festivals. The other ones are the Jidai Matsuri and the Gion Matsuri. The latter of the two will be held in mid July and is one of Japan's largest and most famous festivals. I expect that one to be way more fun..
At Uji, we visited Byodoin, a famous nobleman's estate later transformed into a famous Pure Land Bhuddism temple. It really was built to be paradise on earth. The building is so famous that it is present on the back of every 10-yen coin in Japan. We arrived too late in the day to go into the main building... actually we would have made it but we decided to splurge and enjoy a delicious dessert at a local kissaten (cafe).
Yesterday, there was a major festival in Kyoto, the Aoi Matsuri. The festival involved a parade starting from the present-day Kyoto Imperial Palace at 10:30 am to Shimogamo Shrine and then to Kamigamo Shrine. The festival involves an offering of aoi, hollyhock, to the gods. Aside from that, the average citizen is not expected to no any more... I was at the Imperial Palace a little before the start of the procession, since Doshisha University is right across from the compound in the northwest. The place was packed with people from all over Japan as well as tourists from all over the world. It really was a grand procession... at least until you've seen the first versions of everything. It was a very repetitive parade, with people wearing practically the same thing. It was also a rather solemn procession devoid of music. I was expecting taiko drums and shamisen. By far the most interesting part of the parade was the princess that rode in a little house-like box escorted by numerous servants. The Aoi Matsuri is one of Kyoto's three major festivals. The other ones are the Jidai Matsuri and the Gion Matsuri. The latter of the two will be held in mid July and is one of Japan's largest and most famous festivals. I expect that one to be way more fun..
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| 05142007 |
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| 05152007 |
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Patrick: DESA retreat continued...
Methinks Brian did a pretty thorough job explaining the weekend's events. I think we would never have gone to Wakayama if not for this trip. We were lucky to get a chance to experience what was in a sense a bonding event for building camaraderie among new and old members of the DESA circle. As foreigners, we were also treated with an extraordinary degree of politeness and friendship by all the Japanese students. They were all very enthusiastic about conversing and interacting with us despite our lack of deep vocabulary.
Like Brian, I think the best part of the trip was the bbq and the nomikai, drinking party, afterwards. The food was plentiful and the variety of alcohol was staggering. It makes me wish I wasn't such a lightweight because it's embarrassing turning red after just one beer. The thing is though, I don't think I am as drunk as I seem to appear (I am sober now while writing this). At least compared to Yuzo (Brian mentioned him earlier) I still remember the events of that night and I wasn't the least bit tired. I must admit, however, my motor coordination was nowhere near perfect.
Here are the pictures I took on the trip. Brian rarely took out his camera so you have to make do with just my perspective. Notice the absurd number of girls on the trip... Why can't our trips be like this at home?
Like Brian, I think the best part of the trip was the bbq and the nomikai, drinking party, afterwards. The food was plentiful and the variety of alcohol was staggering. It makes me wish I wasn't such a lightweight because it's embarrassing turning red after just one beer. The thing is though, I don't think I am as drunk as I seem to appear (I am sober now while writing this). At least compared to Yuzo (Brian mentioned him earlier) I still remember the events of that night and I wasn't the least bit tired. I must admit, however, my motor coordination was nowhere near perfect.
Here are the pictures I took on the trip. Brian rarely took out his camera so you have to make do with just my perspective. Notice the absurd number of girls on the trip... Why can't our trips be like this at home?
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| 05122007 |
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| 05132007 |
Sunday, May 13, 2007
DESA retreat
DESA is the cultural exchange club at Doshisha. Just guessing, but it probably stands for something like Doshisha Exchange Student Association. They invited us to go on a retreat with them to Wakayama and then either to an amusement park or an onsen. The cost of the bus, lodging, and first night's dinner was ¥12000 per person which I thought was quite a lot, but it was a good opportunity to hang out with Japanese people so it was worth overcoming my Asian stinginess. The students from Stanford who went were Pat, me, Jason, and Stephanie. Michael couldn't go at the last minute because of a programming assignment.
Before going, we had already met some of the Japanese students in DESA. Atsushi-kun, the club president, is Patrick's host brother. Kousuke-san is extremely tall, probably like 6'6". Ami-chan we met before because she works part time in the Stanford center. Some of the other students we met while drinking together on Wednesday - Akiko-chan and Shuu - and others we met when they gave us a tour around campus - Maki-chan, Hotta-san, etc. Of course Shigeo Majima was there too - he was one of the students who came to Stanford last quarter.
The bus trip to Wakayama was long but not boring. We had a nice coach bus with all the standard amenities (except TVs) and even aisle chairs that could be folded up. The trip took 3.5 hours, with one 15 minute break at a rest stop. We left at 2P.M. on Saturday. On the bus trip there Atsushi-kun led a game that consisted of riddles of Japanese puns. I couldn't really understand any of the questions except for one - in English, it was something like, "what sport can't I do?" Somehow I thought of the answer - boxing. In Japanese, it sounds like bokushin, where boku is another word for "I" and "hin" in the Kansai dialect is a negative suffix. My host mom just taught it to me last week. So it was incredibly lucky that I could answer it correctly.
Dinner that night was BBQ, but Japanese-style. Every group of about 10 people sat around a table with 2 grills. We had the hardest time getting the fire just right but in the end we all ate a lot of tasty meat, rice, and vegetables. Everybody also introduced themselves to the rest of the table and we had some conversation, except I had a hard time communicating with the girl next to me for some reason. It just seems like some people are more patient or sympathetic listeners and with others it is feels impossibly awkward. Stephanie didn't sit at my table, but she kept turning around and telling us how hungry she still was. In the end we gave her some meat from our grill to keep her quiet :).
After dinner there was nomikai, or a drinking event. This was the best part of the trip in my opinion. There were 3 long tables in a tatami room (flat rush mats) and 2 large buckets filled with alcoholic beverages in the front. In addition there were all sorts of snacks - popcorn, wasabi chips, potato chips, and sweets. We started the night off with a kampai (cheers) and then the whole room erupted in lively conversation. I had 2 chu-hi (like wine coolers) drinks and some plum wine that night and was pleasantly buzzed the entire time. I sat at the end of the middle table at first and had a fun time talking to a girl I can't recall the name of now, something like Hatari-chan, and another group of people - a foreign exchange student from Australia named David, a really nice Japanese boy who was president last year, and another girl I didn't know the name of. Afterwards, I joined Jason and talked to a senior named Yuki-san. None of the conversations were very deep, for example we learned that Yuki doesn't dance and doesn't really like karaoke either, and what music she likes, but that can't be helped because of our limited Japanese ability. Unfortunately the nomikai had to end pretty early, at 10PM, but that was OK because the party just moved into the cabins we had for the night. Patrick was in a different room, so Jason and I first hung out with these two Japanese freshmen, Yuuzou and Ken. Yuuzou was so wasted, but hilarious. He kept saying that our Japanese was really good and that we should "jishin wo motte itte" or have confidence. It was actually a very good observation but he was so drunk he kept repeating himself. He also kept thinking that Jason's name was Alexander, which was hilarious because nobody on the trip had a name that was even close. Anyways, Ken and Yuuzou were great fun, and then later at night we all piled into the girls' room. A bunch of us played Uno and then sat around talking, another group was playing cards. It was really hard to follow the conversation when the Japanese kids were talking among themselves, but it was still a lot of fun. I ended up sleeping at about 1AM, and Jason slept soon afterwards. Pat was in the card-playing group and apparently he didn't sleep until 5AM.
The next day we all woke up at 7:30 AM and had breakfast and chilled until 10. Then, we left for the amusement park, yuenji, and the onsen (hot spring), which was 70 minutes away. At yuenji, a bunch of us had a seafood barbeque which was really expensive. I spent about $25 on ingredients and had to cook it all myself besides. I bought a jumbo shrimp, a large scallop, a skewer with 4 large pieces of maguro (tuna), a skewer with pieces of marinated pork, and a hot dog. In retrospect, it didn't fill me up and it wasn't particularly tasty (although the scallop was delicious) so it might not have been the best choice, but it was worth trying out. I was in a group that went to the amusement park after lunch - it consisted of me, Pat, Jason, Stephanie, and 2 Korean exchange students. The park didn't have any great rides, but we still had fun. I rode the swings with Jason (besides us it was all little kids) and then we all rode this roller coaster that was a combination of the Disneyland Tea Cups with a traditional coaster. We also played some carnival games and went to an arcade. We even came out with some sticky pics to remember it by. By the end of Japan I will have an immense sticky pic collection, I'm sure. We all went back to the bus at about 3:30 and then got back to Kyoto at about 5:30. One other thing was that Japanese people are really punctual. Everybody was always back in the bus at least 2 or 3 minutes before the announced time and we would actually start driving on the dot. This was pretty amazing because there was nobody yelling at everybody to get moving, everybody was just conscientious and cooperative. A lot of credit also goes to Atsushi-kun and the other organizers for making detailed plans and executing them smoothly. On the way back, Pat and I were really impressed with the camaraderie that was built with the retreat and talked about doing the same with the Stanford badminton team next year. I think it is a great idea, and we will be sure to bring it up with whoever ends up being captain next year.
Before going, we had already met some of the Japanese students in DESA. Atsushi-kun, the club president, is Patrick's host brother. Kousuke-san is extremely tall, probably like 6'6". Ami-chan we met before because she works part time in the Stanford center. Some of the other students we met while drinking together on Wednesday - Akiko-chan and Shuu - and others we met when they gave us a tour around campus - Maki-chan, Hotta-san, etc. Of course Shigeo Majima was there too - he was one of the students who came to Stanford last quarter.
The bus trip to Wakayama was long but not boring. We had a nice coach bus with all the standard amenities (except TVs) and even aisle chairs that could be folded up. The trip took 3.5 hours, with one 15 minute break at a rest stop. We left at 2P.M. on Saturday. On the bus trip there Atsushi-kun led a game that consisted of riddles of Japanese puns. I couldn't really understand any of the questions except for one - in English, it was something like, "what sport can't I do?" Somehow I thought of the answer - boxing. In Japanese, it sounds like bokushin, where boku is another word for "I" and "hin" in the Kansai dialect is a negative suffix. My host mom just taught it to me last week. So it was incredibly lucky that I could answer it correctly.
Dinner that night was BBQ, but Japanese-style. Every group of about 10 people sat around a table with 2 grills. We had the hardest time getting the fire just right but in the end we all ate a lot of tasty meat, rice, and vegetables. Everybody also introduced themselves to the rest of the table and we had some conversation, except I had a hard time communicating with the girl next to me for some reason. It just seems like some people are more patient or sympathetic listeners and with others it is feels impossibly awkward. Stephanie didn't sit at my table, but she kept turning around and telling us how hungry she still was. In the end we gave her some meat from our grill to keep her quiet :).
After dinner there was nomikai, or a drinking event. This was the best part of the trip in my opinion. There were 3 long tables in a tatami room (flat rush mats) and 2 large buckets filled with alcoholic beverages in the front. In addition there were all sorts of snacks - popcorn, wasabi chips, potato chips, and sweets. We started the night off with a kampai (cheers) and then the whole room erupted in lively conversation. I had 2 chu-hi (like wine coolers) drinks and some plum wine that night and was pleasantly buzzed the entire time. I sat at the end of the middle table at first and had a fun time talking to a girl I can't recall the name of now, something like Hatari-chan, and another group of people - a foreign exchange student from Australia named David, a really nice Japanese boy who was president last year, and another girl I didn't know the name of. Afterwards, I joined Jason and talked to a senior named Yuki-san. None of the conversations were very deep, for example we learned that Yuki doesn't dance and doesn't really like karaoke either, and what music she likes, but that can't be helped because of our limited Japanese ability. Unfortunately the nomikai had to end pretty early, at 10PM, but that was OK because the party just moved into the cabins we had for the night. Patrick was in a different room, so Jason and I first hung out with these two Japanese freshmen, Yuuzou and Ken. Yuuzou was so wasted, but hilarious. He kept saying that our Japanese was really good and that we should "jishin wo motte itte" or have confidence. It was actually a very good observation but he was so drunk he kept repeating himself. He also kept thinking that Jason's name was Alexander, which was hilarious because nobody on the trip had a name that was even close. Anyways, Ken and Yuuzou were great fun, and then later at night we all piled into the girls' room. A bunch of us played Uno and then sat around talking, another group was playing cards. It was really hard to follow the conversation when the Japanese kids were talking among themselves, but it was still a lot of fun. I ended up sleeping at about 1AM, and Jason slept soon afterwards. Pat was in the card-playing group and apparently he didn't sleep until 5AM.
The next day we all woke up at 7:30 AM and had breakfast and chilled until 10. Then, we left for the amusement park, yuenji, and the onsen (hot spring), which was 70 minutes away. At yuenji, a bunch of us had a seafood barbeque which was really expensive. I spent about $25 on ingredients and had to cook it all myself besides. I bought a jumbo shrimp, a large scallop, a skewer with 4 large pieces of maguro (tuna), a skewer with pieces of marinated pork, and a hot dog. In retrospect, it didn't fill me up and it wasn't particularly tasty (although the scallop was delicious) so it might not have been the best choice, but it was worth trying out. I was in a group that went to the amusement park after lunch - it consisted of me, Pat, Jason, Stephanie, and 2 Korean exchange students. The park didn't have any great rides, but we still had fun. I rode the swings with Jason (besides us it was all little kids) and then we all rode this roller coaster that was a combination of the Disneyland Tea Cups with a traditional coaster. We also played some carnival games and went to an arcade. We even came out with some sticky pics to remember it by. By the end of Japan I will have an immense sticky pic collection, I'm sure. We all went back to the bus at about 3:30 and then got back to Kyoto at about 5:30. One other thing was that Japanese people are really punctual. Everybody was always back in the bus at least 2 or 3 minutes before the announced time and we would actually start driving on the dot. This was pretty amazing because there was nobody yelling at everybody to get moving, everybody was just conscientious and cooperative. A lot of credit also goes to Atsushi-kun and the other organizers for making detailed plans and executing them smoothly. On the way back, Pat and I were really impressed with the camaraderie that was built with the retreat and talked about doing the same with the Stanford badminton team next year. I think it is a great idea, and we will be sure to bring it up with whoever ends up being captain next year.
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| DESA retreat |
Monday, May 7, 2007
Patrick: return to reality, sort of
Wow, two posts in a day, I'm on a roll. So the day after getting back from golden week travels, Brian, Daryl, and I went to Kamigamo shrine on a mandatory individual excursion for the architecture class. The shrine is located north of where the Kamigamo river splits and forms the Y shape seen on the map. It is known for the Aoi Matsuri, a festival coming up on May 15th involving a long procession from the Kyoto imperial palace up north to the shrine. Back when Kyoto was established as Japan's capital city, the shrine was set up to guard the city from harm.
When we went, they were holding horse races and I read somewhere that this shrine is where the tradition of horse racing began in Japan. Actually, Brian saw the horses race. Daryl and I were still stuck on the city bus on our way there. I missed my first train to Kyoto station and then Daryl and I went to Softbank to get him a phone. When we arrived at the shrine, the horse races were over.
The shrine itself wasn't particularly impressive. It was of course interesting to see the structures mentioned in the reading up close. Afterwards, Brian and I met up with Chris and Michael at a game center near teramachi avenue and shijo avenue. They had some great fighting games (of which Battle Fantasia was particularly impressive) and the place was crowded with both guys and girls. The girls seemed like they were only there to hold the various stuffed animals/aliens that their boyfriends caught for them playing the UFO catchers. I couldn't stand it after an hour though because the smoking was too intense. It was absolutely suffocating and I was wheezing trying not to breathe.
That night, we met up with Min who took us to A-bar. We were going to go for dinner first but all the restaurants were packed with people out on a Saturday night. A-bar itself was crowded that night. And after some more Stanford students arrived, they kicked us out. The group went searching for another bar/dance club to crash. I had originally planned to be back around 8 pm. I ended up leaving around 10 pm after barely excusing myself with the fact that I was a little sick (probably caught it from Stephanie on the trip) with a slight cough, sore throat, and sinus. Fortunately I didn't drink too much and I was able to find my way home all right without stumbling. The others on the other hand, I heard, stayed out all night. Brian forgot his key. And they found a club to dance the night away. See Brian's post for more details...
And the next day I also got a haircut.. The barber handed me a magazine and I pointed. For a lot of the styles, he said my hair was still not quite long enough. I guess I'm not suitable for long hair. It's too much of a pain to tame.
When we went, they were holding horse races and I read somewhere that this shrine is where the tradition of horse racing began in Japan. Actually, Brian saw the horses race. Daryl and I were still stuck on the city bus on our way there. I missed my first train to Kyoto station and then Daryl and I went to Softbank to get him a phone. When we arrived at the shrine, the horse races were over.
The shrine itself wasn't particularly impressive. It was of course interesting to see the structures mentioned in the reading up close. Afterwards, Brian and I met up with Chris and Michael at a game center near teramachi avenue and shijo avenue. They had some great fighting games (of which Battle Fantasia was particularly impressive) and the place was crowded with both guys and girls. The girls seemed like they were only there to hold the various stuffed animals/aliens that their boyfriends caught for them playing the UFO catchers. I couldn't stand it after an hour though because the smoking was too intense. It was absolutely suffocating and I was wheezing trying not to breathe.
That night, we met up with Min who took us to A-bar. We were going to go for dinner first but all the restaurants were packed with people out on a Saturday night. A-bar itself was crowded that night. And after some more Stanford students arrived, they kicked us out. The group went searching for another bar/dance club to crash. I had originally planned to be back around 8 pm. I ended up leaving around 10 pm after barely excusing myself with the fact that I was a little sick (probably caught it from Stephanie on the trip) with a slight cough, sore throat, and sinus. Fortunately I didn't drink too much and I was able to find my way home all right without stumbling. The others on the other hand, I heard, stayed out all night. Brian forgot his key. And they found a club to dance the night away. See Brian's post for more details...
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| 05052007 |
And the next day I also got a haircut.. The barber handed me a magazine and I pointed. For a lot of the styles, he said my hair was still not quite long enough. I guess I'm not suitable for long hair. It's too much of a pain to tame.
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| 05062007 |
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