Hey Kyoto

Hotels and Sightseeing/Baseball

2009-08-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

I'll be in hotels for the next few weeks with my family. We've been sightseeing, and plan to do plenty more. So far I've taken them to Nijo Castle, Gion Corner, Kaitenzushi (sushi on a conveyor belt), Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, Mr. Donut, and numerous breads, coffees, and mochas.
The first thing we did that I had never done before was go out to Osaka and watch a Hanshin Tigers baseball game! It was really fun, very different than baseball in America. Fans have organized cheers and chants, and every player on the Tigers has his own chant for when he is up to bat. Because of this lively atmosphere, it was very easy to stay interested in the game the entire time, though it was unfortunate our Tigers lost. The three of us swore our allegiance to the Tigers before the game, so we're willing to stick out a few losses. There is also a more friendly atmosphere than in American baseball. Both teams' mascots were friends, and when a player on one team got hurt, even a player on the other team would check to see if he was okay, which I feel like I rarely see in American baseball. There was a little bit more of a Disney-type of feeling with the whole fans/mascots thing, but that's somehow justified by the fans' diehard attitude in supporting their team. Most people were chanting, most were wearing some kind of awesome combination of jersey or hat or towel. They either wear the towels around their necks or around their heads as bandanas, which I think are really cool. Having fans so into it made it a lot easier to have fun, maybe I can bring some of that atmosphere back to America!

Finishing Up/Smileburger

2009-08-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

So things are finishing up here at my apartment. I don't know if I'll be completely done moving out by Saturday, which is when my dad and cousin arrive, but Sunday is the official move out day, so definitely by then. I bought a cardboard box to mail winter clothing and a few other things home in advance, to free up space in my luggage for gifts, etc. I'm also figuring out a way to send my bike home, since the bike shops here will buy it for virtually nothing, and in actuality I probably wouldn't get anything in return that comes close to this bike's value to me. My bike and I had a bit of fall the other day, and though there are only a few more scratches on each of us, I'm sure it has made it that much harder to get anything for the bike.
These last days have just started to be filled with various good-byes, with some leaving right after the last day of school, others starting vacations with families, and one friend of mine on a mission to Tokyo to look for a job. This afternoon my friends and I had hamburgers at the best burger place any of us have ever been to, and we're a rainbow coalition of America, Scotland, Britain, and Japan. The place is called Smileburger, and they serve huge, delicious hamburgers for about $10 each, which is reasonable considering how big and good they are. In fact, half the fun in going is my Scottish friend's enthusiasm for the place. While we all agreed it wouldn't be our last trips to Smileburger, it might have been the last one with all of us together. It's a place I plan on taking any guests that come visit Kyoto.
It's gonna be tough packing everything up and moving out, but it'll happen one way or another. Going through everything will bring back memories, and probably also remind of things I forgot to do. The plus in all of this is that I get to see all kinds of family members, and then eventually go home and see everyone there too. It'll be nice to be home, but it'll also be sad to leave this great city :)

Photos from my film camera

2009-08-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

These were all taken with my plastic white camera throughout the semester, and I finally got them developed. This first photo is from Kiyomizu Temple.

The view from my building.

These next few are from our bike adventure we had a few months back.

This restaurant is somewhat near place, I like the sign. It says the day's special on the board.

This was this crazy band we saw in Osaka, they were loads of fun.

The Kamo River, which I had an epic fall into yesterday...

Finals Done

2009-08-01T04:34:00.000-07:00

~~~, I am actually done with finals. I didn't think they would ever end. We had tests everyday for the past week, every morning, and sometimes again in the afternoons too. I finished writing my paper for my writing class, and after I have my friend look over it, I'll email it to my teacher, and then well, officially done! I guess the finals can explain the recent lack of posting. Not only was there not time to post and write, there really wasn't a lot to post or write about. Studying is studying, and figured I shouldn't post about that.
I have a week until family members arrive, so I'll be doing some last minute preparations for them and packing up stuff so I can move out of my apartment and into hotel after hotel after hotel with the family. It'll be great to see all of them, and I'm excited to introduce them to all kinds of things here. I know a few non-touristy places that I think are great, and I'll only search for more since they won't always have a local to show them around :)
Well, this next week should be filled with plenty of adventures, so expect many posts!

Lake Biwa

2009-07-31T01:27:00.000-07:00

One of my cultural classes had a fun field trip a town next to Lake Biwa, which is the biggest lake in Japan. During out lunch break, a bunch of us decided to go up to the top of the big mountain in the city for a good view of the lake.

There was a gondola lift, but some of us more adventurous types decided to just hike up to the top of the mountain. It took about 30 minutes, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
In the picture is Frederik from Sweden. We usually chat a little about hockey, he's a St. Louis Blues fan. He says it's because they used to have Brett Hull and Al MacInnis, but I think it's because their colors are the same as Sweden's. Behind him is the beginning of the trail up the mountain.

Albert and Kevin are even more adventurous and opted for a very different trail.

These are wishes.

You can see the lake in the top half of this picture, and this sign says the name of the lake "Biwako".

This is the gondola lift that only those willing to pay ~$4 one way rode up and down.

And here is the biggest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa (Biwako in Japanese).

Some things are self-explanatory.

New Pepsi

2009-07-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

This new flavor of Pepsi is delicious! Yes, it's green. Yes, it's named after a root. But I assure you it's the real deal, not just some fad. It might be my Japanese version of Mountain Dew: Code Red. Unfortunately, I doubt they'll sell this in America, or atleast at American stores.

Gion Matsuri

2009-07-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

The Gion Matsuri consisted of 3 nights of walking the streets of downtown Kyoto, viewing platform like floats, tasting some of the treats from the hundreds of vendors, and dressing up in yukatas. This festival is older than many countries, and about five times older than my own, which probably doesn't even begin to put things into perspective.

It all ended on the fourth day, in which all of the floats got paraded along the streets starting at about 11 a.m., with people leaving behind work, school, plenty of other obligations to go watch. Luckily our school had long expected the Gion Matsuri, and cancelled all classes after 10:30.

You will notice, these floats aren't motor-powered, but pulled by a huge group of people. Some friends from my program signed up and got into one of the group, but unfortunately this video isn't of any of them.

Most of us foreign students wanted to get in on the act of wearing yukatas, so we all found some pretty cheap ones on the backstreets of Kyoto. This yukata, the belt, and the fan cost me a total of $20, and if you don't know those sunglasses, you don't me either.

This festival was an eye opener to a lot of things I've seen over and over here but didn't give much thought to. They are things I'd rather devote entire entries to, so next time or the time after that, or even the time after that one. Who knows....

Eggie The Eggplant

2009-07-13T05:17:00.001-07:00

A package arrived from friends Ilya & Rosie, and this package was filled with a number of treasures. One of the treasures was the new issue of their zine, which had comics, movie and book reviews, stories, and some recipes. I recognized the Eggie The Eggplant recipe right away, recalling the delicious Italian dinner they made for me in my last few weeks in northern California. I was craving it the next few days, and finally got around to making it.

Dip those things above into this thing below...

Toss them into something that looks like this...

And they are even more delicious with tomatoes!

If you're lucky, you'll have left over eggs to scramble. If you're like me, you'll manage to screw up the eggs 9 times out of 10.

Ki

2009-07-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

Ki = tree in Japanese (木）Doesn't the character kind of look like a tree?

More Pictures! Pt. 3 (Tea)

2009-07-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

Tea is a big deal, not only in Kyoto but all over Japan. There seem to be a lot more coffee cafes around Kyoto, but I get the impression that tea is more of the daily regular drink, and coffee is the treat to go out and get, which is why it's usually $3-$5 a cup. Either way, everytime I have bought tea there have been great directions on how to prepare it. A famous tea company even has some directions in English! These are directions for sencha, one of the more common kinds of green tea, the kind you probably drink at a Japanese restaurant in the US.

A bag of cheap tea even comes with wonderful directions! This was a $2 bag of 52 packets of Oolong Tea.

For those of you that don't know, Kyoto is the heart of Japanese Tea Ceremony, so there are also many shops around the city selling tools and goods for tea ceremony, as well as tea ceremony snacks and matcha flavored anything. If there's something that matcha can be used for, it seems to happen pretty easily. There's a store that sells very thin papers that you use to blot off the oil from your face, and they even have matcha flavored ones, even though I don't think you're supposed to eat them.

More Pictures! Pt. 2 (One Way To Spend Saturday)

2009-07-10T18:10:00.001-07:00

Some friends came down from Akita (way up north on west coast of Honshu, the main island, the same one I'm on). They studied abroad to UCSC last year and came to hang out with my friend Jake (also from UCSC) and me for a few days. These parfaits are from a really popular matcha dessert restaurant, and are pretty good if you're a fan of matcha and parfaits, as well as waiting in a long line to get one. It was so crowded that we had to split our group into threes, so here are Noriko, Jake, and me terrorizing the restaurant with photography.

There are some geishas in this tinted cab!

More Pictures! Pt. 1 (Tanabata Festival)

2009-07-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

This was at a shrine near my school...

The bucket hat pictured below becomes obligatory when turning 50. I can't wait!

These Weeks/Curry

2009-07-06T04:13:00.000-07:00

Yay, I'm able to post again! I've tried a few times in the last few days, but for some reason the "New Post" button wasn't working very well. It's actually been a little hectic the last few weeks with all sorts of engagements and obligations. I was asked to write a little blurb in Japanese about my Japanese studies/experience here for the newsletter of the sister city group I came to Japan through five years ago, so I wrote about living in Kyoto, and you might say it's a nice summary of what I've written on this blog. When I get the energy I'll translate it to English, but for the time being that sounds too much like homework. I went to school today, but my brain was still recovering from the traffic jam of a proficiency test I took yesterday. A nice way to cap off a few weeks of friends visiting from out of town, flashcard kanji-memorization, article writing, news of various Los Angeles Kings player acquisition, and the usual daily going-ons of studying abroad over here. I also took some very cool pictures, but am sad to say that I managed to delete them while trying to put them on computer. However, I'm sure I can take plenty of pictures in the future that will do them justice, it's just that I don't have them right now to show you guys.
I may have written this earlier, but it's officially rainy season over here. It's said that 20 years ago it would be humid and rainy for most of June and July without any breaks, but we've actually had more days without rain than with rain. And for some reason, the weather was actually very nice a few days ago. It started raining again last night, and there was about half an hour of intense rain today, with more and bigger thunder than one would have guessed. It's strange carrying an umbrella and wearing a T-shirt and shorts to school. But it's also necessary, just like taking off your shoes when you eat curry.
I've been hooked on curry for a while now. It started from two things: curry bread and the convenient price of curry packets. Curry bread, also known sometimes as a "curry donut", has been my favorite Japanese treat for a few years now. And having it around everywhere here hasn't lessened my desire for it. It comes in the form of a large roll (and occasionally slightly sweetened and flaked like a donut) with curry and small bits of vegetables and meat inside. I usually get it from bakeries (as opposed to convenience stores or supermarkets), and I always go straight for it since it's the purpose of my mission. If for some reason the bakery doesn't have it, I usually ask just to double check, ahaha. You can have them heat it up for you, or eat it cold. It's great either way as far as I'm concerned. I want some already, and I just had curry for dinner! Hmm, maybe I have a problem?
The other source of my curry problem is the low price of curry packets at the grocery store. They're less then a dollar, and all I have to do is pour one over some boiled carrots, potatoes, and onions, let it cook a little more, then put that over steamed rice, and well, that's an easy, cheap, somewhat rounded, and very delicious dinner. So I eat curry at home pretty easily. Then there's also the curry in the dining hall, which isn't the cheapest thing but well-priced anyway, and satisfies my craving. There's also a curry chain across the street from apartment called CoCo Curry, which probably tastes the best, but also costs three times as much (about $6-7), which still isn't expensive considering it's a sitdown place.
So I guess I should probably try to curb my curry consumption, so I don't get sick of it. CoCo Curry has some interesting toppings for it, as well as extreme degrees of spiciness. It's useful for ideas to make at home, though I usually just keeep it simple with something similar to what you read above. Whenever I eat there I just get the regular spiciness (which isn't spicy at all), but they have up to level 10, so one day I'll venture to higher reaches of curry civilization.
Well, I hope this curry bit was as fun to read as it was to write! Maybe I'll do an entire curry post sometime, and eventually become some kind of curry expert? But for now, a long bath sounds like a good idea, I haven't had time for one in a while. I have been showering everyday though, so don't worry about anything on that front.

Test

2009-06-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test is this weekend, and I've spent the last week or so studying more specifically for it. I took a practice test for it last weekend and got a good feel for what I need to focus on. The two biggest obstacles are kanji (the more complicated characters borrowed from China associated with meaning) and the rarely-used grammar. There are all kinds of grammar forms that no one uses in daily conversation that are on there, so similar to kanji, it really just takes memorization. I've made a huge stack of kanji flashcards (just like old times) and just plan on going through them a bunch of times throughout this week. People say the only sure things in life are death and taxes, but I've always liked to include "more kanji" on that list too. There's always more kanji. It's said you need to know 2,000 kanji to be considered fluent and/or read a newspaper, and I think I'm getting close to that number, but I still have trouble with the newspaper. In time, in time, just like Sly says.
Good News: I've managed to carry my camera around with me more than I was, and have some more pictures on their way. But for now, I have to finish morning preparations for school.

Camera, etc.

2009-06-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

Hey kids, so I just realized something. A reason I haven't been posting as much is because I haven't been carrying my digital camera around with me as much, and therefore have fewer pictures to post. I mostly use my film camera, and haven't gotten those pictures developed yet. I also think it'd be fun to post some of my random pictures from my phone. They include my friends goofing off in restaurants, cute postcards, delicious food, and a beautiful lake. So step one will be to start carrying around my digital camera in my pocket like I did the first 2 months here. Step two will be to develop that roll of film, and step three to get the pictures from my phone onto my computer and then up here eventually. Sounds fun, wish me luck! I have a few people visiting this week, and also have the proficiency test next weekend (which will require lots of studying), and my friend Good Sam's birthday party on the 4th (the night before the test), so there will probably be more things going on than one really knows. Oh, and Good Sam is British, but he still gets a kick out of sharing his birthday with our country. I think he was saying he wants to have hot dogs on Saturday...

Bento

2009-06-21T04:15:00.000-07:00

"Bento" means pretty much "box lunch", but I feel like that doesn't adequately express what it is. A bento usually includes a main item, which could be really anything from katsu to sushi to fried chicken. Then they usually come with rice and a few other side items such as pickled vegetables, potato salad, kimchee, etc., but for your information, I've even seen spaghetti as one of the sides, with a hamburger patty as the main item. They are filling, and usually delicious. The reason I said "box lunch" doesn't adequately express the meaning is that I get the impression that I a lot of thought is usually put into a bento, more thought than what we generally think of when we hear "box lunch". The combinations of food are important, and I think they often include the Japanese idea that a good meal has many different colors in it. There's a certain number of colors that I can't remember, but I think it's somewhere between 10 and 31. I think the idea is that the meal is well-balanced, though these bentos aren't always well-balanced. Bentos can be bought at convenience stores, cafeterias, and bento shops, but people often make them at home and take them to school or work. That's probably where the idea of having a variety and well-balance of things came from, since I think that 30 colors idea mainly has to do with eating at home. I can't quite say I've made anything close to what I've described above, but I've brought rice and vegetables to school on many occasions. When I finally make my own, I'll be sure to take a picture and let all of you know. For now, he's a picture of the bento place next to my apartment.

Here's another one, closer to my school. This picture also includes my friend Vinit, who I took Japanese with at UCSC and is a video game expert and all-around rad guy, and he is holding a large chicken katsu that this bento place also sells. This place is our cheap destination usually, since they have a regular size bento that fills you up for only 292 yen, or about $3 I suppose. There's nothing special about the food, but seeing as it only costs $3 and fills you up, the fact that it tastes average actually makes it a really good deal.

Between these two places, the place next to my building tastes a lot better than this place near my school. As expected, it also costs twice as much or more ($6-$10), but they are really good. That's why a direct translation of "bento" to "box lunch" would cause a problem when simply saying "I spent $9 on my box lunch".

Adventure Day Pt. II

2009-06-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

My body was a little slower and worn out today thanks to a successful Adventure Day yesterday. I was also mentally worn out from a lack of sleep, which was also due to the successful Adventure Day. My body was so tired that my mind really couldn't relax and fall asleep, which was a first of its kind. We (me, Bad Sam, and Felix) actually went back in search of the same lake as last week, and found it! It was about 14-15 miles away, up and down hills, around windy curves, through small dirt paths, all surrounded by millions of the greenest trees I've seen. We were exhausted at many points on the way up, it took us about two hours under the sun to get there, so when we finally walked over a sandy hill and saw the big, sparkling lake, we had that magical moment that doesn't occur in reality enough. There was one guy leaving as we parked our bikes, and after that we had the lake all to ourselves. We walked around to the opposite side and set up camp on some 20 ft. rocks right on the water. We only had tea, chips, and chocolates this time, but the tea was really all that mattered to us at that point. And not having to bike uphill anymore, that was also important to us. We eventually waded into the water to cool off a little, and Sam was ofcourse the only one willing to go for a full swim out into deeper water. That sounded like it'd be really refreshing, but I also didn't feel like biking home all wet, so I stayed in knee-high water. A little later we decided to head back, which was mostly downhill. The thrill of the long ride down, along with our sense of accomplishment, provided us with plenty of energy to finish the adventure and make our way back into the heart of the city. Before we got back to Felix's apartment to get all of our stuff, we were already planning our next adventure. But we're not sure where exactly, maybe the same lake again! It's definitely high up on the list.
So my body and mind were worn out today, but it's okay because it was the day that I have the two teachers that I don't like very much. I have my two favorite teachers tomorrow, so I'll be nice and recharged by then for class, and the weekend.

Kiyomizu Temple

2009-06-15T06:42:00.001-07:00

Here are some shots I got at Kiyomizu Temple a while back...

Adventure Day

2009-06-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

I've been out of my apartment a lot in the last few weeks, and haven't had nearly as much time as before to keep up with this. I know a lot of you consistently read this, so I want to apologize and hope I haven't lost anyone's interest. I've been busy with school, friends, and trying to stay out of my apartment. It's fun, tiring, and productive, which might be all I can really ask for. Though I've been out a lot, I haven't taken very many pictures with my digital camera, so I don't know how many I'll be able to post.
So my friends Sam and Felix invented a weekly tradition known as 冒曜日(boh-yoh-bi), which we translate to English as "Adventure Day". It is usually on Wednesday (weather permitting), and basically involves us riding our bikes to some relatively distant location. Last week was my first one, and we went up into the mountains northwest of Kyoto in search of a lake. Felix brought pancakes, we stopped at a convenience store and picked up plenty of snacks and two huge jugs of tea, and the three of us, along with my friend Shinjo, headed up the treacherous hills into the unknown to find a lake and have a picnic. After two hours of riding up the hills and around the mountains we were dead tired, and decided to just make camp next to a river we found. We endured the bugs and our own wet feet, and enjoyed the calming atmosphere of the river, the rocks, communal eating, and not riding our uphill anymore. I decided not to bring my digital camera that day, but did have my film camera, and managed to get a few good shots of people. I think the best one was of Sam sitting on a rock, drinking out of a big jug of tea, and also holding a plate of rice and Japanese-style fried chicken (kara-age).
As I mentioned above, biking up the hills really wore us out. But naturally, those same hills provided us with a very smooth and speedy ride back down. My slow bike couldn't keep up with everyone else, but that just meant that I got to enjoy the thousands of green trees whizzing by me for a little bit longer than everyone else.
We plan to better prepare the next time we head up there in search of the lake, on another Adventure Day. We have a different destination this week: the Gekkeiken Sake Brewery/Museum, all the way down in southern Kyoto, in Fushimi (recall the VERY many red gates). I look forward to the flat ride across the city, especially since most of it will be parts of the city I've never seen.
I also have the motivation to make everyday a mini-Adventure Day for myself. Nothing too far, but just exploring a part of the city I haven't seen yet. Sam and Felix have been here for eight months already, so they've seen a lot more than me, naturally. In addition, just going off on my own and deciding where/when/how etc. is generally a lot more fun.

Peanut Talk

2009-06-09T03:01:00.000-07:00

Peanuts have had an interesting role in my diet during the last few weeks. To start things off, I realized that they are the perfect partner for coffee, so I was munching on quite a few whenever I drank coffee. The stores usually sell what they call "Butter Peanuts", which are pretty much peanuts with a slight butter flavor, but barely noticable, and very delicious (as peanuts usually are). The stores also sell peanut butter, even American peanut butter, but as you can see the only peanut butter this store, and most stores for that matter, have always costs $4 for a tiny jar.

I still have tried the "my jam", but I am a little curious. So instead of the peanut butter, I bought something that seemed like it could be similar called "peanut cream" (pictured below) which costs just a dollar for that small container.

Unfortunately it wasn't very good. It's a very thin peanut cream, and doesn't really taste very good. It kind of reminded me of a thick caramel, but with a peanut flavor. I'm glad I tried it, but I'm pretty sure I won't be buying it again.

Long View Pt. 2

2009-06-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

The last week and a half or so really flew by, and while I realized I wasn't updating this as well as I should have been, I also found that there really wasn't that much time to anyway. I was having a conversation with my friend Bad Sam (but he's actually a really good guy, I don't know how he and Good Sam got their adjectives), and we realized that our apartments are kind of like traps, making it harder and harder to go out and see the city the more we go home. So instead of going home after class, we used the afternoon to bike up to the bottom of the eastern mountains of Kyoto, and go on the 30 minute hike up to what is known as Daimonji (meaning "large character" (as in letter, not cartoon character)). So we did, and by the time we got up to the top were exhausted. It was very worth the trek though, since it gave us this really terrific view of Kyoto, making Kyoto Tower look like small potatoes. While these pictures show the view pretty well, there's no way they could possibly show what it was really like being up there. And for those of you that like things comically literal like I do, Daimonji probably got its name from the gigantic character that is written on the mountain, which is the character for "big". It kind of looks like the Blair Witch Project symbol: 大 .

I'll write more, I promise!

1Q84

2009-06-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

Pronounced "ichi-kyuu-hachi-yon", which is the same way they pronounce "1984" in Japanese.
This is the brand new novel by Haruki Murakami.

Masks

2009-05-31T05:19:00.000-07:00

Swine Flu had its 15 minutes of fame here, and so did the masks. (The sign above says one mask per person)

Dinner Pt. 2

2009-05-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

This is from a gathering at a friend's apartment a few weeks. It was actually only people from the UCs that were there. But they're all pretty good cooks.

End of the Road/Matsuo Shrine

2009-05-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had a free day (which are rarer than I expected), and decided to take a bike ride down one of the huge streets I live near, in search of a venue that a band I like was planning on playing at. The name of the street is 四条 (Shi-jou, "4th Street") and it runs east-west for quite a while. If I head east from where I live, I'll cross the Kamo River right away, head through the tradional/touristy area known as Gion, and then after about half a mile get to Yasaka Shrine, which is where Shi-jou ends in that direction. However, if I head west, which I did in search of this venue, I'll go through more shopping areas, big buildings, and crowded streets. I eventually found this venue, but decided once I was there to just keep on going until Shi-jou ended, since after all, it had to end at some point. It took me past more big buildings, the beginnings of some kind of street fair, and then gradually into a more residential area. I eventually came to a huge bridge that crossed the Katsura River, which was when I took the picture below.

So I crossed this huge bridge, and a few minutes later finally came to the end of Shi-jou. I was also pleased to find a pretty good-sized shrine there tucked at the feet of some mountains. As I said, I had no idea where the end of Shi-jou was nor what was there, so finding Matsuo Shrine at the end of my odyssey was quite poetic.

The shrine was really beautiful, which added to the whole experience. The pictures show it a little, but behind and around most of Matsuo Shrine is a forest and some mountains. It kind of reminded me of some Hayao Miyazaki films, which I highly recommend if you've never seen any. They're all animated, and lots of scenes take place in forests with traditional spirits interacting with children from the regular world.

As you can see from most of the pictures, the sky was a thick grey, which I should have noticed at the time. The majority of my hour long bike ride back was in the rain, but that too, in an odd way, added to the whole adventure of going there and heading back, etc. etc. I stopped at a grocery store on the way home and picked up a bitter melon, since the smaller grocery store by my apartment doesn't have carry any. Since then, I've gone to that grocery store again to pick up other things my grocery store doesn't have, which ended being mostly snacks :)

The Kyoto Psycho

2009-05-25T03:28:00.000-07:00

So I recently met this old Japanese guy who some of us are now calling The Kyoto Psycho. He's harmless, but pretty annoying. Here's what he seems to do pretty consistently: approach a foreign looking person, ask them in English where they're from, and then he says he lived there or near there for some period of time. It's a bit of a stretch, but I might have actually believed him had he just said a few places. But every one of my friends seem to have met this guy, and he always says that he's lived somewhere near where they're from. He's lived in Long Beach, London, Ann Arbor, West Covina, Scotland, San Jose, etc. etc. Had he just lied about living in these places I would probably only think of him as a liar, but he also gets angry if you speak back to him in Japanese. I actually didn't know who he was, and only spoke Japanese to him, and kept on speaking Japanese even though he claimed to not understand me, and while he was walking away, he shouted at me "You can't speak English!". Uhhhh, okay.

On the bus to Nagoya

2009-05-24T01:55:00.000-07:00

So I took a bus to Nagoya yesterday (and one back last night), which takes about two and a half hours each way. I killed time by reading my paper back of short stories, napping, and ofcourse listening to my iPod while staring out the window. I realized that the music of Nick Drake goes incredibly well with watching rice paddies and farm houses go by at 75 kilometers per hour. The song I really fell in love with was Man In A Shed, which demonstrates Nick Drake's skillful finger-picking on the guitar, and also has a very cool piano solo (I'm not sure if he played it himself). You can listen to Man In A Shed on YouTube, so check it out here: Nick Drake - Man In A Shed
I first heard Nick Drake on the soundtrack of The Royal Tenenbaums. His song, like all songs on that soundtrack, is very good, and was very well used in the movie. I didn't become a big fan of his until my friend Adam gave me all of his works last year. Thanks to that, I was really able to enjoy that bus ride yesterday. Here's a link to his song from The Royal Tenenbaums: Nick Drake - Fly
Nagoya was cool, but also kind of accurately demonstrated itself as the big city in Japan that isn't famous for anything, which in fact, is what it's famous for. But it was cool walking around and checking it all out. It's bigger than Kyoto and Osaka, but doesn't have the crazy overwhelming attack-on-all-your-senses power that Osaka and Tokyo have. The local food to have there is said to be Miso Katsu, but we couldn't find any restaurants with it, so we settled for regular katsu, which is always really good anyway. If you've never had katsu, you MUST, it's very very good.

Dinner

2009-05-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

Dinner = kabocha (a kind of pumpkin), kimchee, rice

Aoi Matsuri

2009-05-21T00:02:00.000-07:00

The Aoi Matsuri (which means Blue Festival) is the quietest and calmest festival of the many festivals there are in Japan. It involves young people (especially ones of high-class and good taste!) dressing up in very traditional clothing and make-up. The color blue is generally associated with youth over here, and also coming of age, and spring as a season is very much associated with new beginnings. Blue=Youth=Coming of Age=Spring. They, along with some older people, walk in a parade like fashion very very slowly, apparently around the city of Kyoto. We all caught the festivities at the source, since they start at the Imperial Palace, which is across the street from my university. The point of this festival is to display one of the things one of the gods will be living in for this year. This is it:

There's also an ambulance back there, but I don't think that serves any traditional or symbolic purpose. Unless the tradition is needing to be saved, which doesn't require an ambulance if you ask a missionary, but requires god, which is also present in this picture. The spiritually complicated Japan strikes again.

Lunch pt. 3

2009-05-19T00:15:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've posted this yet, but if I have, please forgive me. We had this for lunch at Miki's house. We scooped out the part we would eventually eat, and it was delicious :)

Bow and Arrow

2009-05-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

While in Nagano, we went to Kaikoen, a park that had the foundations of Komoro Castle, a museum dedicated to a famous author that lived in the park (Shimazaki Toson), and a lot of traditional buildings and things on display. There was a part where a guy was demonstrating his traditional bow and arrow skills.

"What band is this?"

2009-05-16T02:23:00.000-07:00

This is a video I took at a glasses shop in Tokyo. It was a really cool glasses shop, it had this music theme, some 50's-ish and for some reason a bunch of Tom Waits albums on the wall, which I'm not complaining about, but his music is very different from everything else that was going on there. Either way, I remember digging the 50's tune they were playing when I arrived, so I asked the old man that was working there what song it was. Every time I ask an employee of a store in Japan what song they are playing, they never know. They always have to go to the backroom and bring out the CD case or look it up in one way or another. And this old man was no exception. I can't remember what song it was he pointed to on the case, I just remember being disappointed that this guy hadn't hand-picked the music of this place. However, had he done that and been able to answer me right away, I probably would have engaged him in a conversation, and maybe he knew that, and didn't feel like a conversation on a rainy Tuesday, the last day of a long Golden Week of tourists, etc. Either way, I still dug the whole style of this place, I can only assume it wasn't his creation. I mean, any place that has a bunch of Tom Waits records on the walls has to be worthwhile, right? My $10 glasses have indeed served my sensitive eyes well.

Shinjuku

2009-05-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

I took this while I was waiting for my bus in Shinjuku. I recall myself being incredibly worn out and thoroughly enjoying sitting down and being away from the wet, busy streets of Tokyo.

UFO

2009-05-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

This was on a sidestreet of Shinjuku, near the main station. This is the area I bought my digital camera five years ago, but there are also many arcades, restaurants, and interesting-thing stores along with the electronics stores.

This was at one of the arcades. It's the giant claw game where you try to pick up the prize from the inside and drop it into the hole, they call them UFO (pronounced "ooo-foh". This was had bags of candy...

and this one had Ritz crackers.

The one behind it has Pocky, which are pretty good, in case you don't know what they are.

Choices...

2009-05-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

There's vanilla, green tea, roasted tea, and mango flavored soft serve.

We decided to go with all four flavors...

and yes, they were all delicious.

Tokyo Ink

2009-05-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

Pizza, Dongria, and Sqid-Ink Pasta. Guess which is which...

Coffee Break

2009-05-11T04:19:00.000-07:00

It probably wasn't very smart to have two cups of coffee in Tokyo, and then expect to sleep very well on the bus.

Secret Cave

2009-05-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

A kind of secret cave we found at the shrine.

Orion

2009-05-09T05:54:00.000-07:00

Many of us have agreed that this guy on the left looks like our friend Orion.

Long View

2009-05-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

This from a shrine we went to in or near Komoro. It was way up on a mountain and we had a great view of the city. I told my friend and her dad that when they had the olympics in Nagano eleven years ago, I never would have imagined that I would eventually be there some day.

Back from Nagano

2009-05-07T02:39:00.001-07:00

I arrived back in Kyoto yesterday morning, on a very tired, rainy overnight bus. It was easier coming back on the bus then going, but I may seek a different form of transportation when I head up to the Tokyo area again. The bus leaves one station at about 11:30 p.m., and the idea is that you can get some sleep in before the bus arrives at its destination seven hours later. However, the bus stops every two hours, which is good and convenient if you're doing anything but sleeping. It's not quite torture until you realize that all of the Japanese people around you are sleeping soundly for most of the seven hours, through the rest stops and all. Either way, I arrived back home in Kyoto very sleepy, exhausted, with full bags and a wonderful trip to the Kanto region seven hours behind me. There's so much to say, I don't know if I'll be able to get it all in. After all, I do have homework tonight and school tomorrow!
The meat of the trip was going to Nagano with my friend's family to visit her grandparents, and a few other family members. It was a three hour car ride northwest of Tokyo into the mountains, and actually in a smaller city called Komoro, which is in Nagano prefecture. The area is famous for apples, as well as a certain kind of pickled leaves, which we ate in most of our meals. The meals were all very delicious, well-rounded, and a nice change from the eating habits I have developed over here. I just had soba noodles and kimchee for dinner (not together), so I guess it's back to the old routine.
We ate all of our meals in the living room around the family table, which stood about a foot and a half above the room's tatami floor. We sat on cushions, had rice and miso soup with every meal, and drank tea afterwards almost every time. It was a nice experience of traditional Japan that I hadn't had before, especially living on my own in an apartment. However, I think I might start changing a few personal eating customs from now on...
My friend's family was incredibly kind to me, and I am very grateful for that. I was really happy that they invited me along for the trip, which was very different than anything I had done here until then. She and her family lived in Ohio a long time ago, so my friend and her younger sister speak pretty much perfect English, and their parents understand quite a bit too. However, I tried had to practice my Japanese ofcourse. They were really nice and fun, and we had some pretty good conversations. The grandparents were also really nice, but were a little bit more reserved and spoke in a thick dialect, so it was sometimes hard for me to understand them. They have a small grocery store, which is attached to the house, and also a small garden a few blocks away. We woke up around 6 a.m. the first morning to go help out at the garden, which was bitterly cold, but, like everything else, a new and interesting experience. My friend's aunt and cousin live across the street, and came over quite a bit. We went with them to a hot spring bath house (onsen) about 45 minutes away, which is a lot of fun. Onsens are really popular in Japan, they have somewhat of a resort kind of feeling. More on that later though. Basically, it was really great spending time in a place as traditional as her grandparents' house is, I don't get to see that very often. Though I am living in Japan, I can't just walk into random peoples' houses and observe what they're doing and take notes, and expect that to be what Japanese families are like. They'd probably call the cops.
I spent the last day and a half of the trip back in the Tokyo area. My friend's family lives in Saitama, a suburb of Tokyo, so I stayed with them one more night. I spent most of the next day exploring Tokyo, making stops in Hachioji, Harajuku, and Shinjuku, which is where I caught my bus. I had actually been to Harajuku before, but wanted to see it again. It was a national holiday, and despite the rain, the streets were still very crowded with people from all over. I can only imagine what it would have been like had it been sunny. I bought a sweet Beethoven shirt (no, not the dog) in Harajuku at a store called Santa Monica, and had a conversation with the sales girl there. It started off with me mentioning that I'm from a place pretty close to Santa Monica, and then eventually found out this full-Japanese girl was actually born in Israel, and speaks fluent Hebrew! The conversation went full-circle when I told her that my Israeli-American friend lives in Santa Monica, and that it's a very fun place.
I figured it'd be a good idea to get over to my bus area a few hours early and scout the place to make sure I knew where to be and everything. I was kinda worn out from walking in the rain with heavy bags, and took a coffee break at the world's most popular coffee chain. It was there that, to my surprise, bewilderment, and worry, I realized I had misplaced my return ticket home! I ran through possible options I had in my head, in the event that for some very strict and technical reason they wouldn't let me ride. After all, they did have my name and information, but I also recalled the guy at the ticket office telling me to always hold on to the ticket. The best one would probably be the UC system's education abroad office, because it's in Tokyo, and they would be able to atleast find me a place to stay for the night and get me home the next morning. I also have a few other contacts in Tokyo, or the area, if needed. However, none were necessary! First things first, I went to the office of the bus company and they told me the ticket wasn't needed, since, after all, they had my name and information. Second, when I sat down at Peace Coffee near Shinjuku Station a little later and had some hot cakes and coffee (no wonder I couldn't sleep, two coffees!) I found my ticket safely hidden in my notebook. I took my time on my hot cakes, made my way to my bus with time to spare, and began the seven hour ride that ended on a rainy early morning in Kyoto with heavy bags, and a very tired Eric.

Nagano

2009-04-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

So I'm taking an overnight bus to Tokyo tonight, and then heading to Nagano with my friend's family to visit the grandparents. Nagano is where they head the Winter Olympics 11 years ago, just in case you were wondering where you'd heard the name before. My friend's family is worried that it might be too far into the countryside for me to enjoy it, but I think I'll actually like it more because of that. I live in the middle of the busy, noisy part of Kyoto, so it'll be fun to take some time off for a change.
I am able to go on this trip because of a week long break they have over here called Golden Week. It's pretty much a bunch of national holidays lined up around one another, so schools and some companies decide just to give everyone the full week off. I'm glad I'm able to get out of Kyoto, not that I'm sick of it or anything, but this is our only significantly long break while we're here, so it would be kind of a waste not to go somewhere. I'm also glad I'll be able to the whole Japanese-family thing with the grandparents and everything. Although I'm living in Japan, I'm living by myself, so there are still a lot of aspects that I don't get to see a whole lot.
It'll also be cool getting to see a little bit of Tokyo, since Kyoto is so different. I'll ofcourse be making it up there again sometime, so next is when I plan on saying hi to all of my Tokyo area friends. I only have a day or so this time, and I'll be with my friend's family, so it might be kind of a hassle to try to meet a bunch of people.
Here are some pictures to keep you guys entertained while I'm gone, since I probably won't be able to update my blog for a week.
These first two pictures are from Nijo Castle last Saturday. It was raining, which actually kind of worked out for us. It wasn't nearly as crowded as it might have been otherwise, allowing us to take better pictures.

This was a breakfast set from this cafe that specializes in toast. I got the breakfast set, which came with plain buttered toast (but thick toast), a hardboiled egg, just as much orange juice as you see in the picture, and a coffee.

Which kind of underwear should I get? Spiderman or the green face guy?

I also found two vegetarian restaurants. I'll have to take my friend Chuck to one of them (he writes his name in kanji, 茶ック, because he loves tea and studies tea ceremony, the character he uses means tea).

However, if Chuck and I decide to bring two more people, we have to call in advance....

Weapons

2009-04-28T21:54:00.000-07:00

This store sells pretty much any weapon used by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Lunch pt. 2

2009-04-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

A place near my place.

Soba Restaurant

2009-04-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

Soba Restaurant.

DDR Tournament

2009-04-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

This was at some kind of DDR Tournament I came across in Osaka last weekend. It's assumed that all of the competitors get perfect scores, so style points become important I think.

Birds

2009-04-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

I was biking home along the river, and this girl was feeding the birds, so I asked her if I could take a picture of it, and she kindly agreed.

No Post #1

2009-04-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

So, in my busy days etc. etc. etc., I forgot to post something yesterday. I'll make up for that today with some very good material. Later, not right now. But trust me when I say it'll be high quality material, not the best Japan has to offer, but up there.

Belgian

2009-04-23T22:25:00.000-07:00

Belgian Waffles, on the go on a train platform, delicious.

Loner

2009-04-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

The last candle at the Inari Temple in Fushimi.

No Picture! #1

2009-04-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

Just writing for today. The previous pictures may have been worth many words, but not necessarily all of the words that I want to use.
The weather has been consistent with the weather reports, but not very consistent with itself. Rain two or three days, warm, hot, warm, rain again, and who knows what else. I brought my umbrella to school on a warm day, and when I walked into class my teacher asked me if it was going to rain, and I said, "I don't know whether it'll rain or not, but...(雨が降るかどうかよく分からないけど) ", and then everyone laughed, for some reason. Maybe it's all in the delivery?
Have I told you guys that I live in a mansion? Technically, yes, I do. If you come to Japan, or just learn many things about Japan wherever you are, you'll learn about what's called "wasei-eigo", or "Japanese-made English". In wasei-eigo I can say, "I took a limousine from the airport to the R&B Hotel, and then moved into my mansion the next day." But in English it actually means that I took a shuttle bus from the aiport to the R&B Hotel (which has nothing to do with James Brown or Marvin Gaye, but I wish!), and then moved into my one room apartment. My apartment is indeed only one room, but it's big enough, it's not like I'm gonna be running around in here. They refer to these kind of apartments as mansions (manshon), and if you didn't figure it out, they refer to the shuttle buses as limousines. Our UCEAP staff member that met us at the airport actually kind of laughed when she showed us the bus, "We'll take the limousine to the hotel, but, ahhaha, it's not really a limousine." She went UCD for four years and worked in SJ for seven after, so her English was perfect.
So, hmmm, this is in fact Japan. I do finally feel like I'm in Japan. There are so many things here that I could write about that I really don't where to begin. Actually, I do. Here. With my bike. With prices, and exchange rates, and Japan being Japan, I doubt I can find something that I can get more yelp for my yen out of than my bike. It was the cheapest one there, and I've calculated travel costs by other means (like commuting to school by train), and I've already saved a ton of money that way. I think part of the reason my bike was cheaper than the rest is that it's slightly smaller with the mid-size wheels, but still kinda heavy. But that's not gonna stop me from flying past people up and down the river to get to school. Most importantly, my bike has been my way of seeing the city, giving me freedom to choose my own path, even if it means getting lost regularly. Possibly the coolest thing about it is that you can actually unscrew a lot of its parts pretty easily, and break it down into smaller pieces. It's not very flashy, and actually has it's share of scratches and small dents from previous owner(s). I'm assuming it'd be hard to sell because of that, so I think it's something that I'd want to send back home to America if possible. I could see my older sis riding it around anyway :)
So this has become long pretty quickly, so how about one more topic? The dining hall at my school RULES. It has the UCSC dining halls beat on all bases. There's free hot and cold tea, and water, in ready dispensers in the seating area. I usually hang out there before class studying or writing ideas I had on the bike ride over. The food has been very good, and very cheap. Only the vegetable bar can be expensive, but I avoid that, as part of my policy of eating my vegetables at home because that's, surprise surprise, cheaper. The dining hall doesn't have as many options as the dining halls at UCSC, but what they do have is better than everything the UCSC DHs have. Probably because it's Japanese food :)
Well, thanks for reading all this! I'll be back with something tomorrow, be it a photo, video, or another written entry!

Hipster?

2009-04-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

No, not a hipster. A mom with her child safely in the back seat. Very safely in the back seat, it's a Volvo station wagon after all. My family used to have a blue one :)

Puff

2009-04-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

Maccha-flavored cream puff

Tom Sawyer

2009-04-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

Tom Sawyer, a children's version in Japanese on the shelf at a cafe I went to.

So Long~

2009-04-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

These beautiful cherry blossom trees were all pretty much done by last Monday, two days after I took this picture. They come and go incredibly fast, so if you ever want to see this wonderful season in Kyoto, plan well.
I was thinking about this a little earlier, so I figured I'd throw it up on here.
Things I still haven't done in Japan this time:
1. Ridden in a car
2. Eaten at McDonald's (or technically ever in Japan)
3. Eaten any pizza
4. Ridden the bullet train (but one did bring me sushi :), see first video)
5. Been to a Japanese person's house
6. Karaoke (hopefully this will change, I've been practicing The Cure and The Smiths)
7. Written anyone a letter or postcard (this will change tomorrow)
8. Used honorifics in Japanese (I haven't had to, so.....)
9. Longed for any food from home (because the food is SO good here!)

Well, that's all I can think of so far. Of course there are technically many things I haven't done yet, but including all of them would be boring and a huge hassle.
Ookini!

The Bass Player

2009-04-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

There was a three-piece band playing at the busiest intersection in Kyoto.

Geishas In Action

2009-04-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

Geishas in action.

First Geisha Sighting

2009-04-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

My first geisha sighting, though I haven't really been looking. Maybe I need to start hanging out on the other side of the river? This was like at 10 at night, and the two geishas still got mobbed by people...eventually I can roll my eyes and say, "Pff, tourists...", but for now, I still feel like I need to take pictures :)

Inari Shrine in Fushimi

2009-04-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

This is from the Inari Shrine in Fushimi, two short train stops south of Kyoto Station. This place is the main shrine dedicated to the god Inari, which is what inarizushi gets its name from. Inari has messenger foxes, and it's said that foxes like the kind of fried tofu that is used in inarizushi. Also, the corners of the inarizushi are supposed to be similar to fox ears. Japanese mythology is pretty fun, so if this does or doesn't make sense, feel free to read up more on it.
The shrine was huge, and we actually were only able to walk half of it. It was incredibly hot and the hill got steeper, so we called it quits after we had a pretty good view of the scenery. These orange gates are pretty famous, I've seen them on a few EAP brochures atleast.
One of the two gigantic foxes in front of the shrine.

Here's the beginning of the long path of gates, they get smaller farther down the path.

These are wishes people have made at the temple. You can pay a certain amount and get one of the wooden tablets to write your wish on. They were mostly in Japanese, but there were a few in English, and atleast one in Spanish.

Goofing off.

And of course, we had to eat inarizushi after we were done. We were all so drained, so it tasted really good. If you've never had this, give it a shot! It's just fried tofu around rice, and the tofu is always moist and sweet, it has become one of m favorites now.

Sakura River

2009-04-12T03:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, so first things first: sorry that this video is sideways. Maybe just tilt your head and computer a little until you're satisfied.
This is a video I took yesterday of the Shirakawa Canal which leads to Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavillion. Shirakawa means "white river", and in this video it has turned completely white (or off-white?) from being covered by all of the cherry blossom flowers. Every so often a big wind will come, and it will be snowing with flowers, as it does in the video. I sat at the edge of it there for about half an hour, taking it all in and sipping my bottle of Soukenbicha tea. I had been biking around under the hot sun for a while at that point, and this rest was incredibly refreshing. I would have gone back again today, but I got sunburned enough to want to stay inside a lot today. Maybe after school tomorrow, that'd be fun. Have I told you guys enough how much I love this season in Kyoto? My friends tell me winter was miserable, but that this makes up for it.

Crepe Ojisan Pt. 2

2009-04-11T04:52:00.000-07:00

Crepe Ojisan Pt. 2

Bananas!

2009-04-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

Bananas!

Crepe Ojisan

2009-04-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

Crepe Ojisan.

Osaka!

2009-04-08T15:37:00.000-07:00

Osaka!

Coffee

2009-04-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

Coffee.

Club Day Band

2009-04-06T03:48:00.000-07:00

The band from Club Day. Again, I wasn't that into them, but whatever. You can also get a good idea of how big this Club Day thing was, this whole area was only half of it.

Club Day

2009-04-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

So five of my friends and I took a 45-minute train ride out to our school's campus in the countryside, where they were having their beginning of the school year club day. The Japanese school year starts in spring and ends early winter, so this is the start of a new year for all of them. My school has a few different campuses, but this one out in the country is where all of the freshman and sophomores are, and clubs are the biggest rage. So we figured we'd check it out, and we were very glad we did. There were clubs for EVERYTHING it seemed. Most of the people advertising for them at the booths were sophomores or juniors, and a lot of the people walking around were freshmen looking for clubs. The were clubs for pretty much every sport (not hockey), students that have been abroad, cover bands, "original" bands, magic tricks, theater, tea ceremony, ikebana, various volunteer projects, and even just social clubs. A lot of the kids have club jackets, with some of them seeming fancier than others. The group/jacket thing reminded me of the movie Grease, since it would just say one word or so on the back usually, like "Hearts" or something. Here are some photos I got, but these don't even capture all of the clubs that were there, it seemed like it never ended.

There was even an airplane club! I wonder how long you have to be a member in order to fly, we didn't bother asking for some reason.

I had a video of one of the bands that I tried to post, but for some reason it wouldn't load. Either way, they weren't very good, and if anything, convinced me not to join their club. If I ever get the video up, I guess one can admire their enthusiasm, but they really didn't seem like the kind of people I'd want to make or listen to music with.

Moo.

2009-04-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

Moo.

Hungry.

2009-04-03T03:51:00.000-07:00

Hungry.

My street.

2009-04-02T03:45:00.000-07:00

My street.

These Days/Explanation

2009-04-01T02:22:00.000-07:00

These days have been long, and the weeks even longer (duh). Hmmm, where to begin? The music. Every department store, classy place, cafe, or whatever seems to only play instrumental versions of pop songs, Japanese and Western. The first thing I thought of was the first page of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, where, Toru, the main character recalls a girl from 20 years earlier when he hears a string version of The Beatles' Norwegian Wood when getting off of a plane. Of course, Toru's plane had just landed in Germany, but this was still a Japanese novel, so it kinda makes sense for a string cover to appear.
Many of us UC EAP students bought bikes two days ago, so we've been terrorizing the streets (not really) quite a bit. My general philosophy is to just follow other Japanese people that are also on bikes, so I figure if they do it, it should be okay. Unwritten rules of the sidewalk seem to always overrule posted signs. I've noticed pretty much zero regard for signs with bikes crossed out or signs that say "get off your bike" (自転車を除く）. If I am ever stopped, I suppose I can say a few things, first and foremost since I saw so many Japanese people riding in those places it should be okat. The second would have to be that the phrase is not in the command form, so it would be like a sign in English saying "to get off your bike". As long as I have my "gaijin card" I should be okay :) Here's a picture of my bike, it's exactly what I wanted. Smaller wheels and a basket.

I also bought a sweet grey wool jacket for 3,000 yen (about $35 maybe) at a military surplus store in a shopping district. No, not Japanese military, apparently US military. I think they call it "surplus" but it doesn't all seem like it would be. Whatever, I got a good jacket for good price, and the old guys working there were really nice. I had walked in a few hipper stores and dealt with pushy salesman trying to sell me ridiculous jackets with bad music in the background. Enough is enough, ahaha. Here's a picture of my jacket and my bike.

I took that next to the river today on my way to school. It's been pretty windy here, and with my eyes as sensitive to wind as they are, I've been wearing my "fake" glasses. I don't like to call them fake since they do serve a purpose for me, protecting my eyes from the wind, but indeed, they don't improve my vision at all.
Explanations: I think I should probably explain, or atleast give some context, to the previous four or five photos I put up (part of my one word series).
The vending machines are down the street from my apartment, if you look closely, you'll see Tommy Lee Jones in the ad for Boss coffee. I just might make that my brand of coffee because of him, TLJ rules.
"Shinkansen" means bullet train, and my friend and I were eating at a Kaiten-zushi restaurant that used one to deliver sushi you order. At those kinds of sushi restaurants, sushi goes around on a track and you grab the ones you want, and then they calculate your order when you're done based on the number of plates you have. That place had pretty good prices, 105 yen a plate, so we could eat quite a bit and not break the bank.
My lunch that day was sushi rolls, inari, and Jasmine iced tea. It felt like a pretty Japanese lunch, so I felt like taking a picture of it :)
If you couldn't tell, that is a cherry blossom tree. Right now is flower viewing (hanami) season, and they're just starting to bloom. Temples and shrines will light them up at night and it's absolutely beautiful. So beautiful that I feel like people's overuse of the word makes it harder to convey exactly how beautiful it is. That's why all the tourists are here in Kyoto right now, it has the best flower viewing in Japan. I just might go so far as to say "you're in idiot" if you're in Japan and don't come to Kyoto during flower viewing season. But I would say it in a loving way :)
That monster of a building with all those tiny people at the bottom is Kyoto Station. Those people aren't small, I was just REALLY high up. It is very awkwardly huge. From the outside it looks more like it would a convention center, not a train station, but that makes it that much cooler. It has a lot of shops, restaurants, tourists, and of course, trains.
"Mizu" means water in Japanese. That water show was in one of the corridors of part of the shopping center of Kyoto Station. There was even more to it, but that little part was enough to wow me. A simple fountain in a mall will never be good enough for me anymore.
Well, I'm gonna go make myself some udon. Wish me luck!

Mizu

2009-03-31T04:03:00.000-07:00

Mizu.

Epic

2009-03-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

Epic.

Blossoming.

2009-03-30T01:33:00.000-07:00

Blossoming.

Lunch

2009-03-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Lunch.

Shinkansen

2009-03-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

Shinkansen.

Vending.

2009-03-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

Vending.

Here

2009-03-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

So I've made it here safely! I'm currently sitting in my apartment in Kyoto, it's 3 a.m., and I just woke up after having slept for about 5 hours, which means I have "jisa-boke" or, as we say in English speaking countries, jet-lag. This is experience has felt pretty different than my previous two trips here. There are two major differences between now and then. The first is that I speak a lot more Japanese now, which means I understand a lot more of what is going on around me, and that I am also comfortable in communicating with people. The second is that we don't have a host family or Japanese people always looking after us. That makes a pretty big difference without a doubt. We have had UC EAP people from Tokyo helping us along these first few days with orientations and taking us where we need to go, but at the end of the day they let go of the leash pretty much. There are ten of us living in my apartment building, and 30 UC students all together on this program. We all haven't really had any chances to make other friends (i.e. Japanese friends), so we stick together pretty well. This has been good for the first few days as we get to one another and get used to being here. The bummer is that we speak English to each other the entire time. We'll probably have plenty of time to practice our Japanese eventually anyway, so for now, it's no big deal.
My friend Adam gave me a cool idea to do with this blog. I'm going to post one picture a day and one word to go with that picture. I'm going to try my best to keep this up as long as possible. I'll also make longer posts like this one where I talk about things and post multiple pictures. Here are a bunch:

Advanced toilet.

Guess what those buttons do.

The exit for my school and the imperial palace...

The view from by the elevator of my apartment building.

Outside the window of our classroom yesterday. With all of its brick buildings, this place looks more like an American college that UCSC.
Last but not least, a video:

That was just to give you guys somewhat of an impression what it was like walking around last night here. I'll try to take a few more videos if I can sometime.
Well, I hope this was a good first post from Japan! By the way, I wrote most of this at about 3 a.m., but then my internet connection got lost, so I went back to sleep, woke up, and finished this up. Thanks for checking this out!

VISA

2009-03-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wow....all the paper work has been done, except for the visa. They're not expected to arrive to us until next week, one week before I leave at the earliest, three days before I leave at the latest(!). It'll work out one way or another. My friend that has done this a few times before said that if I have to, I can figure it out once I'm over there, which is probably fine, but I'd definitely prefer to have all that business taken care of over here. Oh, and packing, I haven't started yet. We'll see about that...

Paper Work

2008-10-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

So...the paper work for my trip came like a hurricane, with seemingly soon deadlines and seemingly impossible tasks. I have it all done except for one, the Health Clearance. It's okay because the lady at the EAP office in Goleta said just to send it in when I get it, but it's still frustrating because I'm kind of stuck waiting for the Health Center to get it back to me. Since it's taking them a little while, I'm somewhat worried that something's wrong, as in maybe they found something in my health history they don't like or something. Well, we'll see. More updates when more things come....

Final Title Change

2008-07-16T21:30:00.001-07:00

Somehow this has been the most exciting aspect of preparation thus far. But I think I'm pretty set on this name, "Hey Kyoto", so don't expect any more changes. This url should stay the same too, that had been changing around along with the titles.
As far as preparation is concerned, I'm just trying to keep up on my Japanese skills and add to my list. Somehow, it still hasn't sunk in that I'll be going to school over there!

Nevermind, New Tentative Name

2008-07-14T23:14:00.000-07:00

So.....Kyoto Calling is already taken, ha!, I thought I was original, but I guess I wasn't original enough. The new tentative title is Kyoto Krazy. I like it because it's a little cheesey, especially the K in krazy. Let's all hope I can think of something better, hahahahaaaa....

New Name

2008-07-14T22:59:00.000-07:00

So I had a tough time coming up with a name for this thing, but I think "Kyoto Calling" is going to work. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet that I'll be living in Kyoto for 4 months, but I'm sure the day I leave will come before I know it. I'm currently working on a list of 100 things to do in Japan, and I think I'm somewhere around 35 right now. It's all written in Japanese on my other Japanese blog, and I don't feel like translating it anytime soon. If anyone has any good ideas let me know, maybe I'll add it.

First Post

2008-06-29T16:33:00.001-07:00

So I decided to create this blog to document my experience in Kyoto, and things leading up to it. I'll do my best to keep things interesting.