Today we went to Ise. The city itself wasn't too exciting, but we did manage to go to a nice, active little downtown area. It was essentially a street lined with vendors and little shops full of everything you could imagine....lots of food though. I got what was essentially a hash brown on a stick, a beef bun, and some ice cream, all of which was delicious, but sounds very fatty now that I read it.
In terms of architecture, we visited the Ise Shrines, which are the most sacred Shinto shrines in Japan. They are the most sacred because they have the strongest tie to the Imperial family of Japan.
First, we went to the outer shrine (Geku) which was nice because you can see a little deeper into the compound. It was really interesting to see the hierarchy of the little shrines and the different ways that the sacred areas are denoted. The buildings themselves seem to relate to most native architecture, such as some types of Native American buildings. They are supported by thick wood posts and beams, with wood-cladded walls and thickly thatched roofs. (pictured to come)
Sacred areas are marked off by simple, thin rope with white paper tied to them. This is just to make the sacred areas visible to the people, but the areas themselves were considered sacred before they were marked off. Along the wood fences that line the different areas within the compound there are also very green leaves, but I don't know what they signify.
In the most sacred areas, like the main shrine, there are no pictures allowed, but I think some people were able to sneak a few, so I'll have to try to get them and post them for you. It is really a procession of gateways and buildings that appear simple, but I have never seen the inside of them because only very select few people are allowed to enter them (like the Emperor)
The pillars and columns in the compound are of particular importance. They are made of solid wood, harvested out of the mountains. These posts serve much more of a spiritual purpose than a structural one, since many of them are not even needed structurally anymore. Especially the posts at either end of the gable thatched roof, supporting the main beam of the gable, are no longer structural, but are still considered very important to the shrines.
Pillars or columns are though to hold religious or spiritual meaning in and of themselves. They are tied to the idea of God throughout Japanese mythology. We did a reading on it that tells how the original man and woman built a pillar to heaven and that their daughter eventually ascended into heaven by way of this pillar. The words used to count people and gods are closely related to the word for pillar or column. This helps to tie together the idea that gods would reside in the pillars and that they have a strong relationship with man. It seems like the column itself almost becomes a spiritual entity and is at least respected, if not worshipped to some level.
We also went to the inner shrine (Naiku), which is more sacred. The grounds were beautiful and the shrines were very similar to the outer shrines. We were lucky because we got so see some of a ritual. There was a woman there who got to enter the compound and went through a ritual with a priest who then led her into the next level/ring of the compound where she was allowed to worship and pray. It was really interesting witnessing this ritual that has existed for so many years, and realizing that this woman must be someone important to even be allowed to enter that area. Unfortunately, my camera died on our way up to the main inner shrine, so I will have to depend on Jeff's pictures.
Watching people worship there was also interesting. They would approach a shrine, toss in some yen and then clap their hands twice, bringing them together near their chests for prayer. Then they would bow a few times. We saw people doing this at multiple shrines, always performing the same ritual.
After we walked through the inner compound, we wandered through the downtown shopping area a bit more, but after about an hour we were all ready to head home. The train ride was 2 hours there, and 2 hours back, but I think it was worth it.
When we got back to Kyoto, we went to the chinese food place for dinner and had some pot stickers, chicken, rice and, of course, biiru. It was necessary after such a long day. Now I am going to go review some Japanese before our class at 9 tomorrow morning, and head to sleep.
So goodnight, and pictures will soon follow.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Rest of My Monday
It's almost 7 now and I got back for dinner a little while ago.
Class with the D. Choi was longer than I wanted it to be. We all went through our presentation on our different topics but I had a huge headache so I had a little trouble paying attention. I've been getting those semi-frequently and I don't care for it. However, there were some interesting topics about the different food and shopping places around town and the different type of public outdoor space that is available in urban Japan. It's pretty unique how the street becomes almost a public open space here. It is much less vehicle focused and much more geared towards the pedestrian, much like many European cities. When you think about it, it makes sense because this city was around long before cars were.
There is also very limited public plaza or open space set aside. This is because these cities were originally designed as castle cities, which means they are designed for defense, not necessarily for civic activity. This might pose a bit of an issue for us as tourists because these cities are not meant to be easily navigated, but I'm sure we'll be ok.
Tomorrow we're meeting at 7:45 am for a day trip to Ise, which is where Japan's most sacred Shinto shrines are located. This is one of those sites that we learned about in our architectural history classes and I never thought I'd actually see in person, so it should be worth getting up early for. I should probably get to sleep early anyways since my head is bothering me.
After class I was really hungry...like too hungry for rice or noodles. No...this hunger would not be satiated by such mundane options. I'm sorry to say that it was time for...McDonalds. Yes, my friends, but an hour ago, I was sitting in a McDonalds in downtown Kyoto enjoying a delicious burger. Some would mock me for it, but I just don't care because it was so good, and it was definitely what I needed.
Now I am sitting in our hotel lounge, downloading some readings and the syllabi and schedules for our classes and enjoying some Maple Cookie flavored Haagen-Dazs (very delicious, by the way). I also bought a drink that I was told I have to try. It is called Pocari Sweat and sounds gross, but I was told it is good. I just opened it and tried some and it's not bad. It tastes like a very weak lemon gatorade, though I think it's a little thicker.
Anyways, now I'm going to go do some reading, some Japanese homework and then potentially some scrapbooking (which I haven't started yet despite my strong intentions to do so). I still have some more pictures to upload but I will slowly catch up on that. After tomorrow, there should be a lot more really beautiful pictures.
Until then...
Class with the D. Choi was longer than I wanted it to be. We all went through our presentation on our different topics but I had a huge headache so I had a little trouble paying attention. I've been getting those semi-frequently and I don't care for it. However, there were some interesting topics about the different food and shopping places around town and the different type of public outdoor space that is available in urban Japan. It's pretty unique how the street becomes almost a public open space here. It is much less vehicle focused and much more geared towards the pedestrian, much like many European cities. When you think about it, it makes sense because this city was around long before cars were.
There is also very limited public plaza or open space set aside. This is because these cities were originally designed as castle cities, which means they are designed for defense, not necessarily for civic activity. This might pose a bit of an issue for us as tourists because these cities are not meant to be easily navigated, but I'm sure we'll be ok.
Tomorrow we're meeting at 7:45 am for a day trip to Ise, which is where Japan's most sacred Shinto shrines are located. This is one of those sites that we learned about in our architectural history classes and I never thought I'd actually see in person, so it should be worth getting up early for. I should probably get to sleep early anyways since my head is bothering me.
After class I was really hungry...like too hungry for rice or noodles. No...this hunger would not be satiated by such mundane options. I'm sorry to say that it was time for...McDonalds. Yes, my friends, but an hour ago, I was sitting in a McDonalds in downtown Kyoto enjoying a delicious burger. Some would mock me for it, but I just don't care because it was so good, and it was definitely what I needed.
Now I am sitting in our hotel lounge, downloading some readings and the syllabi and schedules for our classes and enjoying some Maple Cookie flavored Haagen-Dazs (very delicious, by the way). I also bought a drink that I was told I have to try. It is called Pocari Sweat and sounds gross, but I was told it is good. I just opened it and tried some and it's not bad. It tastes like a very weak lemon gatorade, though I think it's a little thicker.
Anyways, now I'm going to go do some reading, some Japanese homework and then potentially some scrapbooking (which I haven't started yet despite my strong intentions to do so). I still have some more pictures to upload but I will slowly catch up on that. After tomorrow, there should be a lot more really beautiful pictures.
Until then...
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wandering Around Kyoto
cherry blossoms
Kyoto, on the way back to our hotel
check this guy out ^
now check THIS guy out ;)
pretty fountain/courtyard space
piggy fountain
outdoor market/mall in downtown Kyoto
sometimes you just gotta be a huge tourist...
and make an ass of yourself with your friends...
until you realize that you're right outside of a temple (who puts those things right outside temples?!)
dude...screw babies
oh god...there he is
silly me right outside the Imperial Palace groundsRecovery, relaxation and Japanese
It's now Monday at a quarter to 1 pm and I just got back from my first Japanese language class.
Yesterday was a pretty mellow day. I got up at around 8 or 9 and came online for a while. I got to talk to my Andrew for a little, but then the sound stopped working on my computer :(
I also got to instant message with my Daddy for a little bit, so that was nice. I spent the rest of the morning uploading pictures, which are now up for all to see and there is still more to come.
Trudy and I got hungry and went off on our own to find some food. We wanted to try this burger place because they serve the patties plain or covered in egg, so it would be new but still somewhat familiar. Unfortunately, you had to write your name down on a list to get a table. Trudy and I looked at the list, looked at each other and then walked out the door. We're not quite at the point where we can write things yet.
Instead we went next door to a place called Mamma's Boy. Luckily we had a young waitress who spoke a little English, so she helped us out and we managed to get some food. There was an item that was all over the menu that looked rather intimidating, but I decided to order it because I saw a lot of people eating it. It looked like a ball of something covered in a thin omelet and then topped with some sort of reddish sauce. It turned out to be somewhat like a burrito. There was a big ball of rice covered in what I'm going to compare to enchilada sauce and then wrapped in the thin omelet that acted almost like a tortilla. Then the whole thing was covered in sauce again. It was really good, so Trudy and I were impressed.
Here are some pictures of the food:
After that, we ran a few errands and then came home, where we sat in massage chairs and went online/worked on our projects for the rest of the day.
My project is a joint project with Jeff where we had to compare a Japanese coffee chain called Doutor Coffee to Starbucks in Japan as well as in the US. Doutor is a cheaper coffee chain and seems to be more of a get in and get out sort of place. Jeff and I did our best to make a fair assessment while still making our presentation look nice.
So that was yesterday. Today our classes officially start. I had Japanese class with Watanabi sensai this morning at 9. I was nervous at first because I feel like I know absolutely nothing, despite my efforts to learn some vocab and some of the hiragana characters. The class turned out to be a lot of fun. Watanabi sensai gave us some background on the development of the written Japanese and how most of it is derived from Chinese characters. We went over basic sentence structure (which is subject-object-verb while in english it is subject-verb-object) and the pronunciation of the hiragana characters. We also covered some basic verbs and vocab. Tabemasu is to eat, nomimasu is to drink, kaimasu is to buy, mimasu is to see and shimasu is to do. So when Watanabi sensai said to me, "Nani o shimasu ka?" (what do you do/what are you doing?) I said "Nihongo o benkyooshimashita" (I'm studying Japanese). He was very happy about this because he hadn't taught us nihongo, which is the word for Japanese. I was a little proud of myself.
After class we got some food at one of the ticket (kippu) machine places. Then we came back and I put together a quick presentation on the dessert food that Trudy and I tried. Now I am waiting until 2:30 when we meet as a class for our history and theory class.
Hopefully I'll write more later, but I might be busy learning Japanese :)
Yesterday was a pretty mellow day. I got up at around 8 or 9 and came online for a while. I got to talk to my Andrew for a little, but then the sound stopped working on my computer :(
I also got to instant message with my Daddy for a little bit, so that was nice. I spent the rest of the morning uploading pictures, which are now up for all to see and there is still more to come.
Trudy and I got hungry and went off on our own to find some food. We wanted to try this burger place because they serve the patties plain or covered in egg, so it would be new but still somewhat familiar. Unfortunately, you had to write your name down on a list to get a table. Trudy and I looked at the list, looked at each other and then walked out the door. We're not quite at the point where we can write things yet.
Instead we went next door to a place called Mamma's Boy. Luckily we had a young waitress who spoke a little English, so she helped us out and we managed to get some food. There was an item that was all over the menu that looked rather intimidating, but I decided to order it because I saw a lot of people eating it. It looked like a ball of something covered in a thin omelet and then topped with some sort of reddish sauce. It turned out to be somewhat like a burrito. There was a big ball of rice covered in what I'm going to compare to enchilada sauce and then wrapped in the thin omelet that acted almost like a tortilla. Then the whole thing was covered in sauce again. It was really good, so Trudy and I were impressed.
Here are some pictures of the food:
Trudy looks intrigued
who wants some?
After that, we ran a few errands and then came home, where we sat in massage chairs and went online/worked on our projects for the rest of the day.
My project is a joint project with Jeff where we had to compare a Japanese coffee chain called Doutor Coffee to Starbucks in Japan as well as in the US. Doutor is a cheaper coffee chain and seems to be more of a get in and get out sort of place. Jeff and I did our best to make a fair assessment while still making our presentation look nice.
So that was yesterday. Today our classes officially start. I had Japanese class with Watanabi sensai this morning at 9. I was nervous at first because I feel like I know absolutely nothing, despite my efforts to learn some vocab and some of the hiragana characters. The class turned out to be a lot of fun. Watanabi sensai gave us some background on the development of the written Japanese and how most of it is derived from Chinese characters. We went over basic sentence structure (which is subject-object-verb while in english it is subject-verb-object) and the pronunciation of the hiragana characters. We also covered some basic verbs and vocab. Tabemasu is to eat, nomimasu is to drink, kaimasu is to buy, mimasu is to see and shimasu is to do. So when Watanabi sensai said to me, "Nani o shimasu ka?" (what do you do/what are you doing?) I said "Nihongo o benkyooshimashita" (I'm studying Japanese). He was very happy about this because he hadn't taught us nihongo, which is the word for Japanese. I was a little proud of myself.
After class we got some food at one of the ticket (kippu) machine places. Then we came back and I put together a quick presentation on the dessert food that Trudy and I tried. Now I am waiting until 2:30 when we meet as a class for our history and theory class.
Hopefully I'll write more later, but I might be busy learning Japanese :)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
My Room in Kyoto
the view from my room
the room i share with jeff (ignore the mess)
the room i share with jeff (ignore the mess)
our extremely small bathroom...nice and compact eh?Trip to Osaka
It is 11:15 pm on Saturday, March 28.
I woke up this morning at 8 and went to breakfast with Jeff, Trudy, Derrick, Seth and Blake. We went to another one of those places where you put your money in a machine and don't have to talk to anyone. We're still not sure what is considered breakfast food, but we seem to be managing.
After breakfast we walked around trying to find The Lofts, which is one of the stores that we went to last night. We all wanted to find some rubber cement so we can do a little scrap-booking in our sketchbooks. Unfortunately, there was a little problem with translation. I'm not even sure if they have rubber cement here, so we settled for regular glue and tape.
Later, Trudy and I tried some weird mochi balls with a sweet-ish bean paste on the inside....not really my favorite, but one of our assignments is to try a new food. We documented the process, so hopefully pictures of it will be up tomorrow. Jeff and I also tried some strange omelet thing with onion and some sort of fish in it. It smelled really fishy (literally) but it didn't taste it at all. It wasn't that good, but I think it was meant to be eaten warm. Jeff and I agree that it would make a good breakfast food if it were warm.
Strange Food Documentation:
cheers, buddy
I'm very unsure about this...
Jeff made us laugh
eww, Trudy! Don't pull it apart!
This is what warranted the above disgusted face
I woke up this morning at 8 and went to breakfast with Jeff, Trudy, Derrick, Seth and Blake. We went to another one of those places where you put your money in a machine and don't have to talk to anyone. We're still not sure what is considered breakfast food, but we seem to be managing.
After breakfast we walked around trying to find The Lofts, which is one of the stores that we went to last night. We all wanted to find some rubber cement so we can do a little scrap-booking in our sketchbooks. Unfortunately, there was a little problem with translation. I'm not even sure if they have rubber cement here, so we settled for regular glue and tape.
Later, Trudy and I tried some weird mochi balls with a sweet-ish bean paste on the inside....not really my favorite, but one of our assignments is to try a new food. We documented the process, so hopefully pictures of it will be up tomorrow. Jeff and I also tried some strange omelet thing with onion and some sort of fish in it. It smelled really fishy (literally) but it didn't taste it at all. It wasn't that good, but I think it was meant to be eaten warm. Jeff and I agree that it would make a good breakfast food if it were warm.
Strange Food Documentation:
not ready for pictures
you ready for this?
hmmm...smells like food...maybe
aww...would've been cute
a little sketpical
cheers, buddy
I'm very unsure about this...
Jeff made us laugh
eww, Trudy! Don't pull it apart!
This is what warranted the above disgusted faceAt 4, we met with the whole group to take a trip to Osaka. It takes about an hour to get to Osaka from our hotel. We went to the downtown area, which is "like a tweaked out Time's Square" as one of my peers called it. There are bright lights and advertisements everywhere, as well as plenty of food and entertainment places as well.
We went looking for some early Tadao Ando buildings but ummm...couldn't find them even with the help of Don and his guide book. So instead we went to dinner. Don found this place that is famous for what I'm going to call a Japanese version of latkes. They are like potatoe pancakes that are filled with...things. Jeff ordered one with shrimp and some vegetables and I had one with bacon and cheese (called the Italian Mix). We ended up sharing so we could try both. And of course, there was biiru.
We created our own version of a Japanese cheers, which is "bonzai biiru!", meaning "hooray, beer!" Then we found out that the actual way to say it is "kanpai" but I still like our version better.
After dinner we walked around the downtown area some more. Then Don took us into the strangest place I have ever experienced. When we first entered, it looked almost like a fun house but Don said something about it being a recreation of old Osaka. We were given little handouts and took an elevator up to the 5th story (there was no other option). The elevator doors opened and we were greeted by overly happy Japanese women who handed us tickets. Don informed us that if we don't buy anything we just return the ticket at the end and there is no charge...so then I was really confused as to what the hell we were doing. We started walking through what appeared to be a cross between a maze and a carnival that was designed by Disney, based on the pirates of the caribbean ride (or possibly the Treasure Island scene from Pinocchio) mixed with old Osaka and filled with hundreds of stairs and food vendors trying to sell you things. Apparently, we were in a food court, but it literally took me like 10 minutes to figure that out. I don't know what exactly is was about the place, but it freaked me out a little and eventually made me extremely light-headed. Finally we left the crazy place, but it took me quite a while to recover. Total sensory overload.
We took the subway to the train station and then the train back to Kyoto. I was dead tired on the train but I made it home. I'm trying to keep it relatively short tonight so that I can get to sleep. I didn't get to talk to anyone from home today, so everyone should know that I'm thinking of them. I promise, tomorrow will be a day full of studying Japanese and putting up pictures. There is also a few videos that Jeff took that I will put up as soon as I get them from him or have some way to link to them.
Oyasumi nasai! :) (Goodnight!)
We went looking for some early Tadao Ando buildings but ummm...couldn't find them even with the help of Don and his guide book. So instead we went to dinner. Don found this place that is famous for what I'm going to call a Japanese version of latkes. They are like potatoe pancakes that are filled with...things. Jeff ordered one with shrimp and some vegetables and I had one with bacon and cheese (called the Italian Mix). We ended up sharing so we could try both. And of course, there was biiru.
We created our own version of a Japanese cheers, which is "bonzai biiru!", meaning "hooray, beer!" Then we found out that the actual way to say it is "kanpai" but I still like our version better.
After dinner we walked around the downtown area some more. Then Don took us into the strangest place I have ever experienced. When we first entered, it looked almost like a fun house but Don said something about it being a recreation of old Osaka. We were given little handouts and took an elevator up to the 5th story (there was no other option). The elevator doors opened and we were greeted by overly happy Japanese women who handed us tickets. Don informed us that if we don't buy anything we just return the ticket at the end and there is no charge...so then I was really confused as to what the hell we were doing. We started walking through what appeared to be a cross between a maze and a carnival that was designed by Disney, based on the pirates of the caribbean ride (or possibly the Treasure Island scene from Pinocchio) mixed with old Osaka and filled with hundreds of stairs and food vendors trying to sell you things. Apparently, we were in a food court, but it literally took me like 10 minutes to figure that out. I don't know what exactly is was about the place, but it freaked me out a little and eventually made me extremely light-headed. Finally we left the crazy place, but it took me quite a while to recover. Total sensory overload.
We took the subway to the train station and then the train back to Kyoto. I was dead tired on the train but I made it home. I'm trying to keep it relatively short tonight so that I can get to sleep. I didn't get to talk to anyone from home today, so everyone should know that I'm thinking of them. I promise, tomorrow will be a day full of studying Japanese and putting up pictures. There is also a few videos that Jeff took that I will put up as soon as I get them from him or have some way to link to them.
Oyasumi nasai! :) (Goodnight!)
Osaka pictures:
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