I Think I'm Turning Japanese

How does the song go... "I think I'm turning Japanese. I really think so." Well, maybe not TURNING Japanese, but I'm at least one step closer. I discovered much to my bafflement and surprise (and perhaps even an pinch of disappointment), that I've quite fallen for Kimura Takuya. For those of you who don't know him, old KimuTaku (as the Japanese affectionately call him), is pretty much the premiere talent in this country. Everyone knows who he is. He makes wads of cash and does music, commercials, dramas, movies, magazines, variety shows... you name it, he does it. And he's been doing it since...just about since I was born. I mean Bon Jovi let him sing "It's My Life" as a duet with him. So anyways, most of the people here love KimuTaku, and everyone knows everything about him, whether they like him or not. Except me. I was always that one exception. And then yesterday I watched a clip from SMAPXSMAP (the variety show he hosts with the other guys in his band, SMAP), and I finally got it. In a mere 20 min., everything just clicked. And I can't really say why. It's like some mysterious power that is inexplicable. I mean, he's not a great singer, he played a weirdo/creep in the only drama I've ever seen him in, he's not what one would call conventionally handsome and he's much, much older than myself. But still... there's just something there. So, I have taken yet another step to being absorbed into the living organism that is Japan.

In other news, I went with my host parents today to the family grave, as this time is when everyone goes to visit/pray/clean their family graves. The Nishiyama family's graves happen to be a pretty dang far way away, so I got to take a roadtrip (3 hrs. each way), into the rural, mountainous (if that's a word), country. It is, in just about every way, different than Tokyo. And yet it was so lovely. The mountains are very unlike our own in the US, because where as our mountains are kind of like large, rolling hills with even slopes that swell to a top, the mountains here are very sharp and tall and thin, as though jutting up from the ground like overgrown stalactites. Or rather like God reached down, grabbed up a handfull of grass and jerked it upwards, and things just stayed there. They're sporadic and not really connected to each other, and not rolling but jagged looking, though entirely covered with trees and shrouded in an eerie, Samurai fog when it rains. Also, in the country, there are very few towns, most of the land being used as stretching rice paddies with one lone, ramrod straight road running through them for harvesters. When there is a town, it's not much to speak of. Usually, but not always, there is a gas station, sometimes a grocery, inevitably a bunch of very towering, grandiose-looking houses built in the old style (regardless of whether they really have money or not, they look grandiose), and there is always a Pachinko parlor. There may not even be a gas station, but there's a Pachinko parlor.

We finally got to Batou, which is where my host father's family hails from and where the graves are, and stopped to by fresh veggies/fruit (it's Strawberry season now), and to have lunch. Though they did serve Horse Sashimi (yes friends, that's raw horse meat), we opted not to have that, and stayed save with soba noodles and fried tempura, which was good and nice and warm on a chilly, rainy day. Then we pushed on to the house of my host father's second cousin, who runs the shrine in that town and holds down the fort on the family's ancient land. For countless generations, the Nishiyama family has been a family of Shinto priests and, strangely enough, doctors. The aforementioned second cousin's father had died just last year and he had to give up being both a pilot and a cop to come back to Japan and take over being a priest. Talk about being dedicated to your roots. As such, my host dad talked with him for a long time about general priest stuff that I don't understand, and while he did that, the cousin's wife showed us around her house. As it is a traditional Japanese house, I'd never seen one before, so she showed me around. Of course all the rooms have tatami mat floors and no beds, but futons. Instead of doors, they have sliding wooden doors that are covered, not with paper, but with silk on which are hand-painted scenes of Sakura (cherry blossoms), sparrows, bamboo, etc. Most of the rooms were full of priest stuff (their Hatama leggings, robes, special offering stuff, etc.,) but in one room, where the big shelf/cutout thing is where they hang the scroll to the god, she showed us a bowl made back in the edo era (a LONG time ago, pre-USA), a fake samurai helmet made all of money, a display case of ancient arrows, and a real katana sword, which evidentally you have to have a special license to even own and it has to be tied shut. So that was cool. I also got to check out a real Kotatsu, which is a heated table thing. Let me describe. There is a deep cut out in the floor long enough to hang your legs in, as if you were sitting on a ledge. On the bottom part, where your feet are, under raised slats of wood, is a POWERFUL heater. Then there is a table covering it, and blankets thrown over the top of the table so that when you slide your legs in, you put them under the blanket. Hard to describe, but there you have it. Also I went to a Ukio-e (wood block paintings) museum and had a strange Japanese dessert with red beans, jelly cubes and soft serve ice cream.

But before that, we went to the graves. Now, most people in Japan are both Shinto and Buddhist and celebrate both ways. When they are born, they have Shinto rites over them, when they die they have a Buddhist funeral. This is true for almost everyone. However, as my host father's family has always been Shinto priests, they're a little special and so you take care of their graves differently. The first set of graves we went to were very tall things with names and employment positions on them. Up until I think it was the Meiji era, though I forgot what I was told, Buddhism and Shinto were the same in Japan and so a person could be both a Temple Master (Buddhist) and a Shinto priest (Shinto). Some of the ancestors of the Nishiyama family were both. Moving on... So for the Shinto graves, you pour water over the top of the stone to clean it off, you light candles before the grave, you put mostly leaves or green plants in vases, and when you pray you clap twice. Also, you offer sake. However, there were some family members (more distant) that were buried Buddhist, and we went to see their graves too. As with the Shinto graves, you pour water over the stone to clean it off, and instead of candles, you burn incense, and instead of leaves, you put down flowers. Also, no sake and no clapping. So there's a crash course in that. Anyways, and that's really all that happened today.

I got my Kimono yesterday and wish me luck on figuring out how to do it. I've been shown twice and still seem to be quite lost. You wouldn't imagine how difficult it is. Just folding it back up the right way to put away takes 20 freakin' minutes! Even so, I'm gonna do my best to get it on tomorrow and go for my tea class. Also, my host brother's girlfriend just graduated and we're going on for dinner to celebrate. Then on Sunday I'm going to TRY desperately to get tickets (it's a raffle, so it'll take luck), to get in to see a taping of ALICE NINE!!! at the Ameba studio in Harajuku. Gosh I hope I get to go! We'll see. Then monday I finally have a day off, then Tues. meeting with my advisor and hoping, really hoping, that he can tell me what classes are offered this semester, when those classes are and... you know... when the first day of class is. I feel like I'm going to have a conniption most of the time. These freaking people. I hate my school. Then on Wed. I have a concert (The KIDDIE) and then on the 3rd, I'm going to Hanami which is sorta like a picnic/party where everyone takes time out to go and sit under the Cherry Blossom trees and admire them. They're just about to blossom here in Tokyo and everyone's already got lanterns strung up down the rivers and in the parks, pretty pinkish red and white lanterns for night viewing, once the buds finally bloom. So, not much longer for that! Anywho, I'll upload pics soon, though I didn't get many. Talk to you guys later! Wish me luck with everything!

More Randomness

So, I forgot to mention that on my Shinjuku trip, I saw my first Buddhist temple. This week is what the Japanese call Ohigan, which is the week when everyone goes to visit the graves of their ancestors, and they burn incense and bring flowers and I suppose pray for the deade. Here in Japan, they practice three different religions, typically. For births, and such ceremonies, they have the Shinto religion, for weddings the current generation typically does Christian, church weddings (though there are more traditional Shinto weddings), and then for death, they have Buddhist funerals, which is why Buddhist temples have graveyards. Here in Japan, no one is buried, but rather, everyone is cremated, so the graves are just monuments with the deceased's name on it, and there are particular rituals that go along with the funeral (the passing of bones with chopsticks, the switching of the top flap on the kimono, etc). But anyways, there is a striking difference between the looks of a temple and the looks of a shrine. For instance, a Shinto shrine usually bears the colors red and gold, and besides the main shrine, there are usually smaller shrines, either guarded by a fox, a dragon, or a dog. Shrines have the 'gates' that you've seen in my pictures, which look like open doorways of sorts, and they also have a water basin where you scoop out water to wash you hands at the outset. On the other hand, Buddhist temples seem to tend toward the more earthly tones of green and stoney grey, and the areas are decorated with stones bearing carvings of Buddha everywhere. Also, they have the graveyards, and the one I went to was very lush with greenery. So, that was interesting.

Other things I've noticed here: there is little to no celebrity news what so ever. Not that I'm particularly sad about that point, only a little surprised. The only celeb news I've heard the entire three weeks that I've been here has been about the starlet and her husband that were arrested for using hard drugs. Another thing, the mosquitoes will eat you alive. No joke. I've got more mosquito bites on me now than I think I've had in my whole life. So, that's miserable. Also, honey is ridiculously expensive. And, everyone here under 35 is goregous. I mean, gorgeous, both the guys and the girls, and so stylish too. How they even decide who to make celebrities, I'll never know, because no one is better looking that the other. I don't know if that's just because of where I am, in the city, or not, but Americans don't hold a candle to the Japanese youth right now. So, that's all for now. I've uploaded more pictures, so if you've got time, check them out, and I'll ttyl!

Matsuri Day 2!

Hey there everyone. So, yesterday was the second day of the festival here at our shrine, and it's the day when the BIG portable shrine comes out. Around ten, they had a ceremony in the main shrine, where a bunch of what seemed to be big wigs in suits, attended and took offerings from the assembled priests (about 8 of them), and placed the things on the altar, then everyone filed out and went inside for lunch, which I helped serve. Afterwards, everyone from the neighborhood came into the courtyard and assembled around the portable shrine, which had been brough out and placed on A frames in the very middle of the courtyard, and then the high priest, my host dad, and some other priests said prayers, put a wooden altar thing with a branch on it on the float, and then they put a wooden box inside the portable shrine. Just a few quick facts: turns out that they only bring out the big shrine once every two years, so I was lucky that I got here when I did. Also, as it was explained to me, the shrine acts as like, God's car (I think he was in the box), and so he gets in and goes for a ride around the neighborhood so the people who don't get to see the inside of the main shrine, can see him sorta, and pay tribute. There are a string of these Shinto festivals that pass in a line from one part of the city to the next, so next weekend, they'll be doing it again somewhere else in a different shrine one county over. Our particular shrine cost either 10 million dollars, or 10 million yen (I'm betting Yen, so $100,000), and is quite heavy, being made almost entirely out of gold, with a golden phoenix perched on top. Also, to be a lower level priest, you have to go through four years of learning (I know this because my older brother is a lower level priest here, and participated in the ceremonies). Also, your rank is indicated by the clothes that you wear for the ceremonies.

Anyway, after the prayers and what not, teams of people all dressed in their particular uniforms (always shorts and a jacket, with a symbol on the back), got together and with great chants and stirring yells of encouragement, they heaved it aloft, and watching the signals by their leaders (indicated by the waving of fans), and certain whistle combos, the bore it out of the shrine courtyard and onto the streets, parading it around the neighborhood, with the help of the cops, for four whole hours, never stopping. There were food stalls still, and I learned that what I had once assumed were prayers pegged up on that wall thing, are actually the names of people who have donated money. There were drummers and musicians until around 5, when they came parading back, excitement on their faces as they knew they were close to getting to put it down. A man with a mic said a few words, the carriers held it up as high as they could, and then after about fifteen minutes of maneuvering to get it just right, they finally got to put it down. I can't even describe what an experience this weekend has been, but watching them lift the shrine aloft left me with a feeling similar to that of national pride that you sometimes feel in America. It was beautiful and amazing, and here's a video so you can see part of what I saw:

Shibuya and the Matsuri

Word of the day: matsuri (mah-tsu-ri)n. it means festival.

So, I went to Shibuya yesterday, but I won't spend much time talking about that, because all I did was get overwhelmed, pop in a department store (walls were closing in on me) called Don Kihote for some towels and wash clothes (a single washcloth cost $3), and then I went to the Tokyu department store at the Shibuya Station (the great white building sitting on top of some of the train lines), and to it's basement to look at all the lovely foods there (Jiffy peanut butter, marshmallows, and tons upon tons of artistic, designer looking cakes and whatnot).

Rather, I'm going to talk about the Matsuri we held at our shrine today. Evidentally, the god that supposedly resides in this particular shrine in Ikejiri, is who you pray to for good harvest and stuff, thus the timing of this festival. At the beginning of the festival, they bring out all the omikoshi (portable shrines), which this shrine here has four, and then the priests call out what I'm assuming are blessings on them, while the head priest, my host father, goes and says the same stuff over the big omikoshi that they didn't take out today, but which comes out tomorrow. Ours has a phoenix on it and has something to do with some lady (lady goddess?), and in front of this one are offerings of vegetables. After the priests are done, the workers present heave the portable shrines off to trucks and stick them in the back, taking them and dropping them at different edges of town. Slowly, with the help of police for traffic, and taiko drummers and chanters, people carrying the omikoshi go around the town all day, showing it off. In the main courtyard, food stalls and a toy stall for children is set up, and prayers or blessings (don't know which) start to get hammered onto this huge wooden billboard looking thing. The main shrine is open, but only certain people can go within, and they sit and drink and do calligraphy, while others come up the stairs to offer prayers. (They shake these colored fabric strips with bells inside, clap their hands twice and pray. On other stand, tea ceremony and flutists are on display.

About halfway through the day, my host mother took me and a friend upstairs and dressed me up in a Yukata (a simpler version of a kimono). It seems she has had special classes to teach her how to dress a kimono. She was so good at it, and she even gave me a butterfly bow tied in gauzy fabric for my back. After that, everyone we met on the street was very friendly and complimented us on our yukatas, saying that they were very pretty, and suited us. At the end of the day, I got to sit up in one of the buildings on a platform and participate in tea ceremony, which was, as always, awesome. It was the cool green tea, so we got chairs, thankfully. And now, I'm totally bushed. It's pouring buckets outside, and it's dark now, but there are still people down in the courtyard, listening to some live singer they have, and if I wasn't so tired, I'd go join them, but for now, I think I'll call it tonight. The big Omikoshi comes out tomorrow, and I think I'm helping with that, so later! (I added more pics to the 'First Few Days' file, as well as making a new file for the Matsuri).

Alien Registration

Hello everyone! I'm afraid I bring boring stuff today, nothing really flashy or exciting. Today was the day to meet with my study abroad coordinator, and we went to the kuyakusho (City Ward Office) here in Setagaya to register me as a temp. citizen. Again, I insist that you bring passport size photos with you, but I found out today that in fact, if you do forget them, there is a machine directly outside the building to oblige you. We went there by bus, but came back by foot, since I wanted to know the way for later, though to both of our surprises, what seemed like a seven minute busride turned out to be a forty-five minute walk, in the heat and sun. Even so, I got to see a lot more shops and things along the way. Btw, advice to the wise, while you're here, buy a water bottle from one of the millions of vending machines and keep it with you at all times. They drink surprisingly little here, so you could get dehydrated in the heat. The tap water is safe, though for some reason unbeknowst to me, most Japanese people drink bottled mineral water. I guess it's just what the cool kids are doing.

For the alien resgistration card, you find the building and the desk, where they give you a form to fill out asking your name, home address, occupation, birthdate, dates allowed in Japan (a sticker in your passport), and the address where you're staying, then have you sign some stuff, etc. The form is in English, so no worries there, though the lady behind the counter may try to ask you stuff in Japanese. I had my lady there to help, but I'm sure with enough hand gestures and miming, you can come to an understanding. They take your passport and make a copy, take your pictures, and also a certificate of eligibility form that you get at the airport (the man you turn the immigration form into puts it in your passport). After that, it takes three weeks for you to get your official card, which you have to go back to the office to get (thus the walk). They can issue you a temporary reg. card, which will work when you want to buy a cell phone, however, it does not work for opening bank accounts, so you'll have to wait the three weeks for that. Also, if you change where you live (as I'm moving into an apartment elsewhere in six months), you have to reregister at the city ward in your new living area. To my surprise, when I turned everything in, they gave me a booklet about libraries, rec areas and general knowledge stuff for the area, in English, as well as a map charting emergency evacuation routes (and a very interesting 1-10 earthquake scale), as well as a chart for how the trash is to be put out and when. Japan is quite strict about how the trash is done, but this pamphlet put all my questions to rest. The trash question will take an entire blog, which I'll do later.

Other than that, nothing much new to report. I went out to lunch with my brother's girlfriend (he was at work), to a Thai place. Naturally, their Thai food is different than ours (only one curry on the menu, and they don't have yellow curry). And after that, she came to a special, short ceremony to cleanse her soul, since her grandad just died, and it's been a week. It was at the shrine next door and she let me watch, which was cool. Cousin Nobu did the proceedings, all dressed up in that old-timey garb, waving a papery stick at her and saying a bunch of stuff in the same voice that Catholic priests use at mass. Then we got to go inside the shrine and she said a few things and it was over. Well anyways, so that was my day. I may be going to Tokyo Tower tomorrow, but I'm not sure, and then on Wed. I'm going to the school finally. Well, that's all the news to report for now. Talk to you soon!

Word of the Day: Sado and Ogoru

Hello everyone! So the journey continues. Today I got to participate in my host mother's tea ceremony classes that she teaches, which was really cool, and thus the reason for one of today's words of the day. Sado (sah-do), refers to the Japanese tea ceremony, which I will talk about more in a minute. Also, today I went out to lunch with my big brother and his lovely girlfriend and he taught me how to say, 'My treat' as in, I'll pay. To say that, you say "Ogorimasu." So if you say this, be prepared to pay the bill. I also found out that in the Shinto religion, if a member of your family dies, or if you have really bad luck, you are not allowed in the shrine (the jinja) for one week, because the Shinto god likes to stay away from death and bad luck. I had a kind of ramen, btw, called I think it was Tatamen, which was noodles in a gravyish broth with ground beef and white sesame, as well as a few veggies. It is said to be a bit spicy, but I didn't really think so. It was good though.

In other news, I wento the tea ceremony, where my host mother was all dressed up in her kimono looking lovely. There were two different ceremonies I participated in, one with cold green tea, where I sat in a chair like contraption, and one with hot green tea where I had to kneel for forty five minutes until I thought my bones were going to break. I won't go into all the details because it would take too long for one blog, but suffice it to say that the meticulous nature of every aspect of the tea ceremony is amazing. Everything has to be precise, from the angles and places you set things, to the number of times you do something, or how much water you put in, or which foot you lead with when you leave, or how to hold this or that and when. It was an amazing experience, I have to say and I was overwhelmed by the timeless, deep nature of the Japanese tradition. Btw, when Americans think of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, they usually think of powdered green tea that you put in the bowl thing and mix with a whisk until it is a deep green color, but that is ot the only type of tea ceremony. That is used with Macha, which is green tea powder, whereas what I witnessed today was all using Kyusu, which are the actual leaves, and it can be a ceremony for hot green tea or cold green tea. So, suffice it to say, I learned a lot about tea today.

I ventured out on my own for a little bit today, going to the local 7/11 for toilet paper and what not, found a 100 Yen vending machine (which is cheaper than most) where I bought the drinks in the picture, and then went to pick up some photos I'd gotten at a store by the station. Speaking of which, the dang passport photo saga continues. When you come to Japan, if you're staying, not just visiting, and are going to get an Alien Registration Card, bring two passport size photos with you, because as I learned the hard way, getting them here will set you back $15.00 (the first money I spent in Japan : / ) and might take a while to find a shop to do it, if you don't have a host family to ask.

Well, tonight we're having some guests from the neighborhood over for Okonomiyaki, which is a sort of omelette/pancake thing with meat and veggies in it. Oh, be forewarned that some places in Japan don't have napkins (like my family doesn't use them), so you might want to brink a packet of napkins with you, or take some that are being passed out with ads on the streets in busy places like Shibuya. But that's a story for another day. I'll talk to you all soon!