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Indi Tries To Remember October

October, October... okay... I know I was in Japan... hmmmmmmm

  1. Trip to the Japanese Onsen
  2. Staying in a Tradition Japanese Inn (Ryokan)
  3. Joining the Judo Club
  4. Visiting America Town
  5. Travels through Osaka
  6. Fushimi Inari Shrine

Onsen!! (Hot Spring!!)

Yet another three-day weekend rolled around, and Meredith and Deborah decided they wanted to go down to Beppu and visit an Onsen. Unfortunately, Beppu is in Kyushu (read: VERY FAR AWAY) and also very very expensive. So they found an onsen catalogue, essentially, and found one in Hyougo prefecture, still not very close, but at least on the same island. We all decided to make a weekend of it, and stay at the Ryokan that housed it (see next entry), we being: Lauren, Alison, Dominique, Ursula, Myself, Byron, Leo, Meredith and Deborah. Quite a group. Sooooo off we went, completely unprepared for a five hour trip, and several train switches, one of which had to occur in a station we'd never been in, and we had three minutes to get off our train, find the appropriate train, buy tickets, and get on before it left. Unbelievably, we did so. It would have been another hour before another train would have left for the same destination, and the ryokan ppl were picking us up at a certain time in a bus, so we had to be on time.

We finally arrived, after a bus ride reminiscent of the windy car trips through the Tehachipi Mountains (remember those Mom and Dad?) or up to Calm (California Animal Living Museum). But it was in a bus, and after four hours of train rides, and I was getting a little motion sick, so I was glad to see the ryokan. We were shown to our shoe lockers, given slippers (which as always were too small ^.^), and shown to our rooms. We were also told to be downstairs for dinner at six o'clock sharp!! ^.^ Later, I would understand why, but that'll come in the discussion of the Ryokan. We found our Yukata (robes tied around the middle with Jackets over them, people lounge about in these) and made our way down to the onsen. Thank god it was not co-ed, that had been our primary criterion. I had my swimsuit on when I went down there, but unfortunately, it was not a bathsuit onsen, it was a naked onsen. So we shed our yukata and belongings in the changing room, passed through the door into the large pre-onsen room. There we had to sit on buckets and scrub down (they provided soap, shampoo, and a squirty hose), since it is very bad form to enter a hot spring dirty, especially since everyone's naked. It was really hard to get over that, especially since everyone was staring at us (not too many gaijin passed through this particular ryokan and onsen), and all we had were modesty towels the size of a flea. Plus, the water was absolutely clear, which apparently isn't terribly common. The water was lovely, and they were smooth rock pools, and when you got sick of being in the really hot water, you sunned yourself on the surrounding rocks like a lizard. Very interesting experience. I'd encourage everyone to do it at least once. There were several children there, as well as a few very old ladies who had to be helped into the water by their daughters. On our second trip to the onsen, that evening, we discussed the medicinal qualities of the hot springs with a few Japanese ladies who were very interested in our experiences in Japan.

Staying in a Ryokan (Traditional Japanese Inn)

The ryokan itself was fairly modern, in that it had western-style toilets (THANK GOD!! If I never see a Japanese toilet again, it will be too soon. Japanese toilets look much like urinals except that they are troughs in the floor, which is very difficult to deal with if you haven't done it your whole life. They say it is more sanitary, since no part of you touches the porcelain, but I think the possibility of unsanitariness that one encounters with one's butt firmly on a porcelain seat is well worth it). The rooms were quite large (15-tatami mats, if I counted correctly, Japanese rooms are measured not in feet or meters, but in tatami mats. One tatami mat is usually about 3 feet by 6 feet, I think), and the futons were very comfortable.

We were back from the onsen and ready for dinner at six o'clock sharp, just as we were told. We were ushered into a lovely traditional Japanese dining room, with a very long low table. You are expected to sit with your legs folded underneath you in the traditional way, since it is fairly rude to sit indian-style if you are a woman. However, it takes superhuman circulation to do so if you aren't used to it, so we all gave up about halfway through and sat however we were most comfortable. When we arrived, there was quite a feast in front of us, with eight dishes of various food in front of each of us. It was quite beautiful. There was a lot of very expensive sushi, and just a ton of food that I still have no idea as to it's composition. Every fifteen minutes or so, they would come in and serve us one or two more dishes of new things, as they made them. It was an interesting meal, and as I said, beautifully laid out, but I couldn't bring myself to eat much. I tried quite a bit of it, and took a bite out of most of it, but I have decided that fish oil and I don't get along much, so there wasn't much to my liking. I'm sure Deborah took a picture of the food, so I'll see if I can get a copy from her to post on the site.

Breakfast the next day was a buffet style affair. A traditional Japanese breakfast (which this was) consists of fish (they had grilled whole fish), boiled fish paste, soft boiled eggs, nori (seaweed), rice, they provided some salad and cold cuts, I'm sure, for us, and various pickled vegetables. I don't think there's much reason to fear that I will be converting to the Japanese diet anytime soon.

Joining the Judo Club

Soooooooo Deborah was talking to me one day, and she asked whether or not I'd joined any clubs. I looked at her like she'd grown a third head. Japanese clubs are notorious for being extraordinarily demanding of their members' time and money, often meeting six or seven days a week. On the other hands, clubs and circles (circles are like mini-clubs, less demanding) are a really great way to make Japanese friends and expand your language. I answered no, not yet. I had thought about joining a sports club, except that most clubs are highly competitive, and I didn't want to drag one down (they usually compete as teams in tournaments and such, or like the cheerleading club, compete nationally). She informed me that her club, the Judo club, was not really competitive, and was run as more of a class; she invited me to come along and watch.
For those of you who don't know exactly what Judo is, it is not exactly a martial art. It is a sport derived from martial arts, mainly Jiu Jitsu. There are a lot of throws and grapples involved. I figured that with my martial arts background (since we had had some training in Jiu Jitsu) that it wouldn't be that hard to pick up the basics. On the day I arrived to watch, the sempai (the teacher of the club, i.e. the highest ranking black belt, is still a student, so we don't call him "Sensei" (teacher), but "sempai," which means upperclassman) warned me that Judo is a fairly dangerous sport. Looking around, I saw what he meant. Two of the boys had their fingers taped, because each had broken one, and during the class Brandon dislocated his shoulder (although he dismissed it saying it happened all the time to that shoulder). I figured I'd give it a try. That day I went and ordered a gi (in Judo, they are called "dogi") from the sports store. In Judo club, your gi is your only cost, the rest is free.
Two weeks later, my gi came into the shop, and MAN was I glad to see it. You see, all the techniques in Judo require gi holds, so I could not do any of them without a gi. The only thing I could do was ukemi. "Ukemi" means "pain." They tell me it actually literally translated means "breakfall," but I don't concur. An ukemi consists of tossing yourself at the floor and trying not to die. There are three main types of death avoidance-- left shoulder roll, right shoulder roll, and backfall. Luckily, if you do all three over and over and over again, your body develops "body memory" (sempai's term), which is not to say that it hurts any less, but that you will instinctively breakfall when thrown, thus not dying in a match. How do you develop "body memory"? By breakfalling over and over and over again. Until my gi comes in. *sigh* So when Deborah ran down and told me my gi was ready, I almost literally skipped all the way to the sports store (which is right by Makino station, about a mile away) with Lauren to pick it up. It's thick, white, and has "Indi" written in Katakana (Japanese script) on the belt and on the gi top. Very cool.
So yesterday (Oct. 15) was my first day in class proper. I learned my first technique, a pre-throw step and a throw called "Hougeinshou" or something, I'll have to check on the name again. It's pretty nifty. ^.^ I'll keep everyone updated.

Travels through Osaka

Okay, given that Osaka is only a half-hour away, we've had LOTS of travels through Osaka. But I'll go over the highlights and try to paint a picture of the city for you. First, it's huge. Not quite as big as Tokyo, but then what is? Osaka has a gazillion stops (I counted) on a half-gazillion different subway lines and railroad lines. The public transportation system is EXTREMELY effective. That's new to me, since I live in Oklahoma where their idea of "public transportation" is a bus that might run to a few street corners once a day. This is cool.
Umeda is the stop we most commonly travel to. We take our Keihan line, which is the one that runs through Makino (the suburb of Hirakata we live in, the station is about a mile away, it's the closest one) all the way to Kyobashi, which is about six stops away on a sub-express (there are five different levels of trains, from local which stops at every single stop, to super or limited express which only stops at the really major ones. Makino, being a small station, only gets local and sub-express trains, the two slowest). From Kyobashi you have two options. One can take the Midosuji (red) subway to Umeda, or the Osaka Loop Line, whichever floats your boat. I usually take the Osaka Loop.
At Umeda there is tons to do. First, it's just a hop, skip and a jump away from Doyama-cho (the famed Osaka gay district), which has arcades and neat Karaoke bars (on my pic page, the dragon storefronts are karaoke bars in Doyama), and Mandarake's, a nifty manga and anime collectible shop. Very cool. Also in Umeda is Vie5 (i THINK is the name of the building, I'll doublecheck next time I go) which has what MUST be the world's tallest ferris wheel. It's GIGANTIC, painted bright red, and allows you to see the ENTIRE city (and that's quite a view) all the way to the mountains surrounding Osaka. Very keen. Also, on the top two floors of the building that houses the wheel is a huge Sega Arcade, but it's more than that. They also have rides, like an amusement park. They're a little steep, but I shelled out my 400yen (about $4) for a taste of "LAST PANIC," a haunted house-like attraction that promised to scare the wits out of me. No one else wanted to spend 4 bucks on a haunted house, so I went alone... however, being the weenie that I am (you should remember that, Nana!! Mom and I are both weenies), I turned back a mere few feet in, feeling that I didn't really want to do it alone. So the little Japanese girl (LOL!!) working the front in a long black cloak went with me. She went first and had a little rope that I was supposed to hold on to. There were lots of nasty, scary things, like giant spiders and mannequins and evil clowns!! Yeah, just designed to scare Indi!! There were two actual people in there to scare you, one evil clown and one chainsaw maniac. The evil clown guy REALLY frightened me because he looked exactly like all the other evil clown mannequins that were sitting and standing all around... he had a little clown horn that he crept up and blew in my ear!! Scared the hell out of me!! I screamed and he staggered back... the girl in front of me was taken aback too, I don't think they usually squeal as much as I did here in Japan. He (the clown) got a kick out of it, and followed me throughout the maze, creeping up on me ever so often and blowing the damn horn again, and then chuckling and running away when I squealed. When we got out, I was laughing so hard that the girl in front of me turned around, all worried and asked really loudly "DAIJOUBU??" ("Are you OK???") and kept on asking insistently... it was really funny... my screams must have piqued people's curiosity because by the time I got out there was quite a line for the attraction, which had been desolately empty before!! Glad to be of service! ;) oh, and there is a Dance Dance Revolution in the arcade, and on the second floor of the building, there is a Gap (but it only stocks tiny clothing, of course).
If Doyama-cho isn't your taste (especially after 9pm or so when all the questionable folk come out, like suited men who stand in the middle of the streets and occasionally proposition the guys in our party...hmmmm...), then on the Osaka Loop Line, go to Namba, home of "America Town." I'm sure everyone has seen the Simpsons with "America Town" portrayed? Well, don't expect that. This is actually an open air market that hawks the weirdest collections of stuff, most of it imported from god knows where at sky-high prices. We were REALLY disappointed, although it's a great place to peoplewatch. A closer "America Town" to the one featured in the Simpsons Go To Japan episode is the international marketplace on the way to Osaka-Jo. There you can find a Popcorn Emporium (yay! popcorn is tough to find here, at least, popcorn that doesn't taste strangely like buttered corn on the cob, and that isn't as good as it might sound), and Jelly Belly's (but alas, no Bertie Botts' EveryFlavour Beans). Yay!!

Trip to the Fushimi Inari Shrine

A mere six stops away toward Kyoto on the local line is a stop called "Fushimi Inari." Inari is the fox god/goddess (appears as both, depending on whether you're coming at it from a Shinto or a Buddhist perspective) of wealth, business and money here in Japan, and a very famous one. Many business and corporate buildings have a small (or sometimes not so small) Shinto shrine and torii gate dedicated to Inari on the roof, one is visible from the ferris wheel in Umeda. The shrine at Fushimi Inari is not simply a "shrine." It is a mountain, on which sits about a hundred individual shrines (no exaggeration, there are a ton of them) at various points on the mountain. Some are very simple, while others are gorgeously gaudy and complex. The day we went was rainy, so I don't know how well the pictures will turn out, and we had an injured member (Ursula had twisted her ankle the day before stepping in a rain gutter) so we were unable to climb the entire mountain, but it was still a very memorable trip. Hopefully I'll be able to post my pictures of the trip soon. I got several pictures of various ema hung there. Ema are "prayer boards," painted wooden planks on which shrine-goers write their wishes (very materialistic wishes, it's the point of Shinto, very this-worldly), sign their names, and hang the boards on shrine grounds. I also took many pictures of the fox statues themselves. On several, you'll notice cloth capes and/or bibs hanging on the foxes, as if someone dressed them. Well, someone DID dress them, and it wasn't the priests. For extra good luck, many people sew (or buy) capes or bibs and give them to the statues, dressing them. It makes for terribly cute pictures.
Also, I bought an Omamori, a small cloth charm (which I also have pictures of) with cranes sewn into it. You are not supposed to open it, but inside there is a prayer written by a Shinto priest for whatever the omamori is for (mine is for "good health," but there were a plethora of wealth, money, good business, etc. since it was the Inari shrine). Most students in Japan own a "Gakuyo" omamori, gakuyo meaning good student. It's meant to help them pass their high school and college entrance exams and do well in their studies. Very interesting religion, Shinto, especially since most Japanese people do not classify it as a religion. Even though they go to Shinto shrines to "worship," and clap their hands twice at the shrine to call the god/goddess after purifying themselves at the water table (oh yeah, we did that too), and give gifts to the statues that are said to house (in some cases), or signify (in most cases) the god/goddess of the shrine, they say it is merely tradition and not a religion. Very interesting. I am very much enjoying my Religion in Japan class... interesting dichotomy in action and thought.

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