Mawaru Mawaru: Art Appreciation Club, Part 1

It's occurred to me that the weekends here are colorful and filled with adventure. Today was another of those Saturdays. But before I get into that, let me tell you about Friday. It's been about three months since I got to Japan, and I hadn't gotten a haircut yet. It was time, let me tell ya. My friend, Kenji, really helped me out and made me an appointment. I met him at Momoyama Goryomae, and we went together to the salon. Kenji helped me explain  what sort of cut I wanted, and then waited for me to finish.

First off, I got a shampoo. But not the regular kind. After she rinsed my hair, the hairdresser set me up in this hair washing machine. I'm not exactly how it works since I had my face covered, but it felt like being sprayed by jets of water and shampoo. And that's probably what it was, too.

The haircut was fairly uneventful, as haircuts go. I made small talk about studying in Japan and whatnot. And then the hairdresser announces, "I will now massage your head." You would think that a head massage would be uncomfortable, but it wasn't. It actually was pretty strange, but not unpleasant. And when she finishes, she puts a few finishing touches on my hair, and then I get another shampoo (not by the machine this time). Lastly, I get brought to this room where you're supposed to brush hair or whatever off of your clothes, not that I needed to. The whole thing was 4200 yen - costly, but hey, you only need a haircut once in a while, and it looks pretty good, I think.

Kenji had a bit of time before he had to go to his part time job, so we grabbed a doughnut at Mister Donut and caught up. I actually hadn't seen him all week, so there was a lot to talk about. I told him about how I went to go find his bike, which had been moved due to campus cleaning. Kenji is a real joy to hang out with, being a mix of serious and silly, and really good English skills. But since he had his job, I headed home for the day, where I finally started the newly aired JoJo series.

On to today. I got up decently early, did some laundry, and called my parents. Unfortunately, I had Rakugo practice, and at a different place than usual. Still, rather than pay for the train, I decided to walk there, which was really pleasant in the warm afternoon sun. Despite all my practice, nobody seemed pleased. I think that because my English is so natural, older Japanese people find it hard to understand. Oh well, I'm almost done with Rakugo anyway. An hour later, I was about to leave practice when the leader of the circle showed up, and demanded that I practice once for her, but she made me do the whole entry and exit as well as my skit. I wound up leaving 20 minutes later than I'd expected and  wanted to.

And so a late and slightly cranky Sam found his way to the train station. From there, I made my way, by way of JR, to Saga Arashiyama where I was supposed to meet Nick and his friends. While it was tough to get in touch with them, I finally got a reply from Nick telling me to meet them at Nison-in. I looked at the guide map, and started walking. It was a beautiful area, almost like a fusion of old style Kyoto and Okayama countryside. Maybe that was what old Japan felt like? Of course, caught up in the scenery, I soon forgot which way I was supposed to go.

I walked past a bamboo grove, through a park, and alongside an apartment complex. Finally, just when I thought I was lost for real, I saw an old wooden sign with barely legible characters pointing out the way to Nison-in. I followed it, which led to another sign, and then another. Before I knew it, I was there in front of the main gate.

Shortly after, Nick showed up with the rest of the club. Everyone seemed really shy, so I mostly tried to brighten the atmosphere by cracking jokes in Japanese with Nick. A couple people laughed, so I guess it worked. We toured the temple, which featured two golden Buddhist statues, really old graves, and some incredibly fiery maple trees. The scenery was stunning. At one point, I got into a conversation with one of the guys, which was a lot of fun. It turns out that there are Japanese people who prefer American cartoons to Japanese anime. I guess the thought never occurred to me, because I was decently surprised to hear this.

After the temple, the club leader asked if I wanted to join them for dinner, which I did, of course. We rode one of the buses all the way across the city to Kyoto University. Dinner, as it turned out, was at that curry place that I went to with Haruhi back in October. As before, it was really good, and we even got some special service - free mango lassie. Ah, but I was in for a real shock too: it was the first store in Japan I've been to where you can't pay with a 10,000 yen bill! I had to borrow 1000 yen from Nick, since I had nothing smaller. Weird, Japan is a country where large bills are common, so I figure this was a rare occurrence.

We all returned to the clubhouse, which was pretty much an old storage shed at the university. Still, it had real personality, which was nice. Nick and I were among the first to arrive, and when we walked in, there was one person inside eating dinner. She asked us which one of us was Nick. Surprised, I asked how she knew about him,but it seems he had written in their diary the last time he went. She was eating what looked like a massive inside out sushi roll, which she referred to as a California roll. This launched us into an amusing conversation about American sushi culture, especially when Nick referred to the "authentic" California roll, as if it were traditional sushi.

Little by little, the other club members trickled in, bringing with them a bottle of umeshu and some beer, plus juice and snacks. Everyone sat around, chatting and snacking and drinking. It was nice, just relaxing like that. Then, one of the members suggested they revive an old tradition. They dealt out playing cards, paired us up with the person with the next highest number, and sent us to walk around the block. It seems to be a "getting to know your clubmates" tradition. That, or setting people up on dates. Anyway, I got paired with Shun, this amusing, charismatic, and "not dangerous" fellow. We walked and made small talk, nothing out of the ordinary. It was a lot of fun though. When we got back, I tried to draw America in the club's logbook, which didn't really come out so well. I talked a bit more, until it was time to head home. I was invited to come back again, which I totally plan to do. It seems like a good way to meet people, as well as get to see temples around Kyoto.

Amagasaki Getaway, Part 2

As some of you may know, my homestay family doesn't clean the house as thoroughly as my dust allergies would like. So recently, I’ve developed what strongly resembles a cold. It’s too much of a pain to explain to everyone who asks that I have allergies and such and such, so for the time being, I’m “sick”.

Anyway, I was sniffling and blowing my nose pretty much the whole way from Kyoto to Osaka. Just before we got into Umeda, the lady next to me turns and asks if I have allergies. Surprised, I told her that I did, and that they’ve been bad recently since my house is really dusty. It turns out she has the exact same problem, and handed me a pack of tissues, telling me to use them if I need them (and boy, I did). It was like something out of the movie “Hankyu Densha”. Well, except that it didn’t change my life in any major way or anything, but still, it was really nice to have a stranger show concern for a random seatmate, especially when that seatmate is a foreigner. 

I had to change trains at this point, but of course I had forgotten where the platform was. Luckily, a kind young lady asked if I needed help, and so she pointed me on my way. It turns out that she was going to Mukonoso too, and we talked for a bit at the station. Compared to Kyoto, I think people from Osaka tend to be more willing to talk to strangers. That isn’t to say that folks from Kyoto aren’t friendly, just that that don’t like to make the first move. At least from what I’ve observed.

Since I knew the way, I walked over to Haruhi’s place, running into her mother just in front of the house. Over the course of the evening, I caught up with everyone. It had been a while since I visited, so there was a lot to talk about.

Now, this is a shame, but in the interest of time, I’m going to compress most of what I did this weekend. The most notable events were:

1. Xiaolongbao – Chinese soup dumplings. I went to eat these with Hide after seeing a live a capella group performance on Culture Day. The restaurant was a decently famous one, and the dumplings were fantastic. I totally gaijin smashed and got the biggest table in the restaurant, even though there were only two of us.

2. Yakiniku – I went with the entire Fujiwara family (plus the grandfather) to eat yakiniku. Although I said I was on a diet, I still wound up eating way too much meat. Which leads me to…

3. Muscle Training – Yep, I’ve started working out. Hide and I ran through a harsh routine for 2 hours after we got back from the restaurant. I’m planning to continue this as often as possible, so that I can get a little tone on my muscles.

There was, of course, a lot more that happened that weekend, but I feel that it’s more or less unimportant to write about now. All I can tell you for sure is that I’m so glad to have some place to go when I need some time off, where I can feel like I’m really home. It’s a nice feeling, that’s for sure.

Unexpected Adventures

Today...went differently than I expected. Not your average Wednesday, by any means. I actually got out of bed when my alarm rang, for starters. As it gets colder, I like sleeping later, so my being able to get up and go at 6:40am should have been my first hint that today would be different.

I left the house 10 minutes early, too, which let me catch the early train. When I got a seat on the second train (my commute involves transferring to the subway), I fell asleep right away. I mean, I didn't get to study for my kanji quiz at all. I slept straight through to Imadegawa.

I had a fantastic discussion with Leila about this keychain she made for a mutual friend, and how it may or may not be phalliclly suggestive. Many laughs were had by all, but especially me and Alex.

Despite my complete lack of studying, the kanji quiz went decently well. I knew almost all of the readings, and a couple of the ones I needed to write. Not to say that I shouldn't study, but it was nice that I didn't fail outright today.

And during our break, Shore-san came into our classroom and told us that Professor Hirano was out sick, and that his class was cancelled. And so, as of 11am, I was free for the day. Originally, I intended to eat lunch with Angela, Roslyn, and Kenji, but fate would have different plans in mind for me. I went to the cafe, intending to study, where by chance I met up with Nick. He was on his way to Shijo, and as I was free, I saw no reason not to join him.

We walked up from Shijo through the streets of Kyoto until we reached @, a traditional Japanese paper store. Nick, being the thoughtful guy he is, was planning on making a thank you card for his host parents. I, on the other hand, wandered freely through the store, looking at their wares. It was beautiful. They had hundreds of sheets and rolls of Japanese paper coming in dozens of patterns and colors. The first floor had card stock and paper goods, and the third floor was more of a museum of paper. If I had to say why Japanese paper is so great, it would have to be the texture. It's not smooth, which gives it a nice feel and weight. Plus, it's really damn pretty. It's very likely they make all their own paper there, although I have no idea how they would go about patterning and coloring it.

While we were in the area, we walked over to this cake shop Nick had seen when heading to the gym. First of all, it smelled AMAZING. I can't even describe this aroma in words. Just, cake! And it looked like they had a great selection. One of the storekeepers saw me and Nick gawking, and invited us in. We inquired about the 'Black Cream Puff' - most of the time, black in Japanese sweets means black sesame, which actually is really tasty. But this time, it turned out to be a chocolate cream puff! We told the lady we'd be back after lunch, and with one final glance at the cakes, we headed out.

We decided to find somewhere to eat, so we wandered around, finding a number of interesting shops: a liquor shop selling Coca-Cola in glass bottles, a bento shop, a (then-closed) curry shop, and the Goblin Bar. All interesting places I'd like to check out in the future. One store front in particular caught my attention - it appeared to be selling Japanese dishes. We decided to check it out.

The entry gate led through a small garden with stone steps and a few trees, with a second, smaller gate in the back. As we passed through the shop curtain, the shop attendant called for us to come in. When she saw we were foreigners, she appeared slightly surprised, but told us (in English) to take our shoes off and come in. I took a look at some of the wares - it was lacquerware, but superbly light. Somehow or other, we wound up talking with our host. It started off with pretty basic stuff, like where we were from, and that we were studying in Japan. But we actually wound us talking more about our studies, especially what we found difficult with Japanese. She brought out matcha (the good, whisked green tea) and some sweets for us as we talked. We were in there for well over an hour, I reckon. But it was such a delight to have that sort of experience. People who enjoy talking with us foreigners really make coming here worthwhile. I don't think I've stopped smiling since we left the shop.

Continuing our quest for lunch, we walked towards Kawaramachi. We wandered in and out of a couple import stores, running across Haribo gummy bears in both. Finally, we decided on a cheap beef bowl shop, which was actually really tasty with decent portions. Oh, but Nick was super displeased that he didn't get an egg with his meal, and even went to ask the waitress if he could order one. Something about this surprised her, because she looked really confused. Still, beef bowls always come with eggs, so it shouldn't have been that much of a hassle, really. It was about this time that Obama won the elections, I suppose, because we got some texts from our other AKP friends about 'victory drinks'.

After eating, we headed back to the cake place. The same store clerk was there, and she seemed glad we returned. We grabbed seats in the back, and flipped through the menu. Nick went with coffee and a cheesecake, and I decided on that Black Cream Puff. All of it was good, if slightly pricy. But wow. All of the desserts were delicious, and the coffee was amazing. Rather than be as bitter as black coffee often is, it had a more subtle flavor that went down really smoothly. I wish I had ordered a cup too. I plan on going back again; in fact, I wish I had known about it sooner, because I would have used it for my food class.

The last leg of my journey led to me taking the subway as far north as you can go, accompanying Nick and my other AKP friends to their art class. Then I took the train all the way down to Joyo. Riding the subway from the farthest stop has its merits: you can sit the whole time.

And so closed my strange Wednesday adventures. It's gonna be a busy night, what with all the work I have due tomorrow. But I have double the time I usually have for homework, so I've practically got all the time in the world. What a fine day in Kyoto. It was for days like today that I came here in the first place.

Lies, there’s more. I wrote this blog while sitting in a park in Joyo. When I went to leave, two girls having lunch at a nearby picnic table asked me where I was from, and I chatted with them. I wasn’t sure how old they were…gut instinct said high school, but I asked them if they were in college. Whoops, they were actually middle schoolers. Simultaneously, I noticed that on the ground, there were two drawings of Hatsune Miku. Since I’m somewhat hesitant to get pegged as a nerd (because here, nerds can be kind of of scary), I didn’t say anything…but there might be another Vocaloid fan out here in Joyo.

Amagasaki Getaway, Part 1

This past weekend was just what the doctor ordered. Just as my stress reached it's peak, I was able to escape from Kyoto. As for why I'm stressed...it's complicated.

Well, I guess one part of it is money. It flows like water here. This month, we got less allowance because of the textbooks we bought. And just when I decided to start saving money, I had to pay 3000 yen to recharge my phone. Oh, but it actually is more complicated than that. I went to Yodobashi Camera, and bought a charge card, but I left it at home when I departed for Osaka. So I actually had to buy another one! 6000 yen gone in two days. At least I won't need a new phone card until March.

Oh! And we had a fantastic field trip in the afternoon. We went to a wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets) making workshop. It was held in this amazing old-fashioned house kind of squeezed into a backstreet by the Imperial Palace. The garden leading up to the shop was gorgeous, like something out of a photograph. Once seated inside, we got a lecture on the history of wagashi, which was fascinating. I understood 70-80% of the Japanese, and I took a video so I can catch what I missed. This is one of the aspects of Japanese culture I am absolutely in love with. I wound up labelled as the guy who studies Japanese culture, leading to my embarrassment every time he mentioned a famous haiku or waka that I'd never heard of. But I knew Okakura Kakuzo, which isn't nothing. After his 40 minute presentation, he gave us a demonstration on how to make sweets. It looks simple. IT ISN'T. First, you mix the coloring into the mochi, which takes some high-level artistic skills. Then you have to mold the mochi around the bean paste. We used shiro-an, the really high level bean paste. Then you have to work it into the shape you want - it can be anything from flowers to fruits to scenery to animals. I made a maple leaf first, which was actually praised by the teacher. But it also took me a ton of time, so I had to rush and make the other two, which turned out to be a really horrible looking leaf and a rabbit. They brought out tea for us to eat with one of our handmade treats. Man, was that leaf tasty! Ah, destruction of evidence. Nobody will ever see my lack of artistic skill!

Speaking of which, I want to highlight my friend and classmate Gabe. In the words of the sensei, "In every group, there's someone like this." He's the kid who mixes all the colors of Play-Dough and winds up with the nasty brown-black. His strange blue-purple-black mochi just didn't seem edible, which is the point of wagashi. However, let me say this: his recovery was perfect. He popped the shiro-an into the middle, and made it into a chawan (rice bowl). Everyone kind of laughed at it, but I was legitimately impressed. It really did give the feel of a bowl of rice. Nice work, Gabe!

Which brings me to what happened next: our exchange student from last year, Saki, was in Kyoto visiting. I went with Gabe and Nick to meet her for dinner. It was awesome getting to catch up with her again. I mean, I never really used much Japanese with her in America, but she noticed that my Japanese has grown a lot since I've gotten here. And it was really nice to see her in Japan. The tables were turned; now I was the foreigner. We went out to nomi/tabehoudai (all you can eat/drink). But since I'm going healthy, I actually only had one drink! But it was super cheap at 2000 yen for two hours, so I have no complaints. The four of us had an awesome time chatting, eating, and drinking. The other three decided to go tour some famous temples, but it was high time for me to make my great escape from Kyoto. We walked over to Shijo, and I hopped on the Hankyu bound for Osaka.

Vacation Diaries, Part Three

Saturday morning was unfortunate. I mentioned that my host mother is obsessed with English Rakugo, right? Well, I've been recruited, and I had to go with her to practice. It was...boring. They made me do all the work setting up, and then made me perform first. Although it was my first time doing it, they explained almost nothing. And when I tried acting the roles out my way, the leader of the circle insisted that I play the characters her way. It seemed really awkward to me; probably a result of the language gap. Anyway, I've decided I'm done after the 17th (the day I'm being forced to perform). I need the time for piano practice anyway.

Luckily, I was able to bail out after an hour and a half, and took the train over to Doshisha. Seriously, do I just not understand what "vacation" means? I mean, I went to school and spent more than an hour studying every day, including Saturday. Next time I get a vacation, I'm really going to take a break. Like, go to an Onsen or something. In fact, today I actually went to the Fusokan (the KCJS building) and studied in an empty classroom for almost three hours. Around 5:45, I met up with Ryuji and headed over to Osaka for the party.

There were two KCJS students - me and Austen, a German guy from Ritsumeikan, and Ryuji, plus the girls he had invited. It was kind of awkward at first, and I had to take the initiative to open up conversation. We kind of just made small talk for most of the night, but by and large, that's pretty much where the conversation stayed.

After the nomikai, I had intended to return home, but when someone suggested karaoke, it was hard for me to refuse. Again, I knew way too many songs. One girl sang "Cruel Angel's Thesis", which I joined in for; another put on May'n's "Lion", during which I took on the backup vocals. Man, it was a fun night of karaoke. The girls didn't really try to interact with the foreign guys much, but I think everyone wound up having a good time, to some degree.

That is to say, everyone that could get home. I was cutting it REALLY close - I caught the last train back to Kyoto, and I wasn't sure I'd make it for the last one to Takeda, let alone Okubo. And I was cripplingly short on cash, so a taxi was out of the question. Somehow, I was able to catch both last trains, and I made it back home just after 12.

Vacation Diaries, Part Two

Friday, at long last, was Nick and Ai's Birthday party. even though I meant to get up early, I wound up sleeping late again. I suppose it's fine - I needed to catch up on sleep. So I finally got up, and got a ride to the train stop. Unfortunately, I missed a couple express trains, so I wound up getting to Doshisha late. I hung around, waiting for Nick & Co. to get out of class. At last, I found them eating lunch in the cafe. Nick really sucks at checking his text messages. Really, the worst.

We split up into a few groups after we ate - Nick had to go home, Tina had to meet up with someone, and so Dani and I decided to buy the 'refreshments' for the evenings entertainment. With promises of paradise, I followed Dani down Imadegawa-dori, chatting all the while. Many laughs were had, I can tell you that much. I won't tell you why though ^O^

However, when we had walked for 40 minutes without finding the store, I got suspicious that someone wasn't sure where we were going. We asked a few passersby, but nobody know where it was. So we called Nick, and had him google maps it for us. It turns out we had gone way too far on Imadegawa, and so we turned and walked for another 20 minutes.

Liquor Mountain is a large shop right next to a shrine. It was also every bit of the paradise I was promised. They had almost anything you could want. Massive bottles of sake for under 1000 yen, and my beloved Kahlua in real, full sized bottles (combini here have the audacity to charge 700+yen for less than a shot of the stuff). We selected a number of bottles, which ran way less than I thought it would have. We packed them safely in our bags, and schlepped our way to Sanjo dori.

Despite our lateness, we weren't the last ones there. We chatted in the lobby for a bit, and once the majority of the group arrived, we headed into the room. Seeing as we had stealthed in our own booze (which is totally prohibited), we hid everything under the table as we picked our songs and mixed our drinks. Since it was nicks 21st, I was determined to get him drunk. I gave him double, triple, and quintuple shot mixed drinks, but nothing seemed to faze him. Ah, and having real Kahlua based drinks (as opposed to that crap they call Kahlua milk) was a pleasure.

I sang a lot that night. In addition to my songs, I knew almost all of nicks, and Yuka, one of the AKP joint seminar students, sang a lot of English songs that I popped in for. We had a lot of fun talking between songs, and I always appreciate the chance to make new friends. Yuka had to leave right around the time Ai showed up, at which point I was singing Faye Wong's "Eyes on Me". I was surprised when Ai, hearing the song, exclaimed "I love this song!" and joined right in. As it turns out, she's played Final Fantasy VII through X.

I know we went to an Izakaya later that night, but it was pretty standard fare. I was able to get back home on time, which was nice. What wasn't so nice was having to miss out on the second party by the Kamo, but it couldn't be helped - I was in no mood to sleep at karaoke.

Vacation Diaries, Part One

Today was the first day of our (micro) break. For the first time in over three weeks, I got more than six hours of sleep. It was like seeing color for the first time ever. I was planning to meet up with some friends for lunch, spend a little time studying and taking care of miscellaneous tasks, hang out a bit with Haruhi, and then head to kyuudo practice. Of course, nothing ever goes as smoothly as planned - my host parents left without telling me, leaving me without a ride to the train. While it was a fantastic day for a walk, and I didn't mind taking it slow for a change, this unexpected change of plans left me over an hour late to Doshisha.

By this point, I had completely missed lunch with my friends. Kind of disappointed and really hungry, I bought myself mabo tofu and headed to the international lounge to eat. At that hour of the day, it was completely deserted, save for the poor student who was napping on the couch. He woke up when I came in, and he was significantly startled by my presence. Not sure why, but I feel kind of bad for waking him up. I'm fairly certain the international lounge is really the naptime room.

So, lunch. As I sat eating my mabo tofu alone in the lounge, I was overcome with nostalgia. Scenes of a student eating the same dish all alone in a deserted cafeteria flashed through my head. And maybe her name was Kanade. As I ate, I corrected my Japanese quiz and studied some kanji. Such a diligent student.

A couple hours later, I walked across the river to meet Haruhi. We picked one of the many cafes in the area, and grabbed some coffee. Since it had been a few weeks since we last hung out, we updated each other on the recent going-ons in our lives. Both of us are really busy and serious about our studies, not what you'd typically expect of Japanese college students.

We walked together to the Budo Center where I had my kyuudo lesson. I was about 40 minutes late, and it didn't help that I still didn't know how to put the gear on. The hakama is the real killer - there's a super specific way to put it on for practicing kyuudo, and its not like there's a step by step guide on the Internet. I wasn't there for very long, because, as I mentioned earlier, I got there pretty late. However, I did have an interesting encounter with one of the other practitioners. There is this one man who I've seen every time I go to the dojo. As it turns out, he goes every day, and also practices iaido, a Japanese sword art. He introduced himself as Jun, and explained some things about the kyuudo outfit. The hakama, he said, girdles your pelvis to stabilize you when shooting. But what I really enjoyed was hearing his philosophy on kyuudo. "There is no enemy," he said, "only yourself." After all, it's not like the target is going to chase you around or anything. Kyuudo is an internal battle. You have to overcome your fear of getting hit by the bowstring, and the doubt of being unable to draw the bow all the way. It's just as much of mental exercise as a physical one.

Oh, and going home, I discovered something new! as I've been pretty low on money, I've been rationing out a daily limit of the coins I've accumulated. Sort of a budgeting strategy. Interestingly enough, you can't buy a 320 yen ticket with only 10 yen coins. The machine stops taking them after 200 yen. What a shame, since the 10 yens are kind of heavy.