Shimogamo Shrine

During orientation, AKP took us to Shimogamo Shrine in order to pray for a good year. There are two words for such religious establishments. The first お寺 (otera) refers to Buddhist temples while 神社 (jinjya) refers to Shinto shrines. You first take your shoes off, as much of Shinto pertains to cleanliness. Padding through the wooden hallways, we first went to sit and the priest did what I think was a cleansing ritual, however it was in Japanese, which, if you can’t tell, I so far have a limited knowledge of. The second was the ritual to pray for a good year. They asked who wanted to sit in front and, as usual, my hand shot up on its own, so I hunkered forward completely unsure of what I was supposed to do! I sat in front of the group, which sat on benches behind me. Towards the end of the roughly five minute ritual, the priest came over and had me kneel before a small table and then handed me a sprig of laurel with folded white papers often used in Shinto. He gestured for me to bow my head to it, turn it, set it down, and bow a few times. He spoke some words that I again did not understand and we bowed some more. I then stood and sat back down. The whole time, NHK (one of Japan’s major television networks) had been filming and afterwards interviewed me! They asked about why I was interested in Japan, how long I was saying, and what I thought of representing the entire group in the ritual. To tell the truth, it was overwhelming! It was, of course, the one day I decided to not put on any make up or give any thought to my appearance. One of the AKP staff members actually saw the program on TV! Next step, idol.

Walking and Walking and Walking and Walking

AKP does their best to spoil its students as much as possible. As such, we are privy to 1 to 2 student guides who not only help us get from school to our homes, but they also help us go sign up for our alien registration and health forms as well as getting cell phones and showing us a shrine nearby the hotel. Of course, Kyoto is a rather confusing city to walk around and as a result, my student and I got hopelessly lost! Unfortunately that rather long day of taking train after train, walking to my house, awkwardly meeting my host mother for the first time, and doing an epic amount of walking to the registration center doesn’t make for the best story, but it was nice to meet Bamboo (my Doshisha student guide) and explore!

銭湯 Adventures

That evening we decided to take Resident Director Ogawa’s advice and took our free public bath (銭湯 sentou) tickets and tromped off for an adventure in the basement of the hotel which also has a small shopping mall and a bookstore located within. It must have been strange to see the group of us, all foreigners, going to the bath, where I suspect few Americans venture due to the nature of it. We certainly got enough stares—not that this is at all uncommon as I am quickly learning—to suggest so. Three of the boys from the program (Kyle, Ben, and Patrick) came with us (too many fabulous ladies to mention), but obviously tromped off to the men’s bath. It certainly is an interesting bonding experience, getting naked with new friends for the first time. In fact I can’t recall having been fully naked with most of my friends ever, even the very good ones. I digress. When you enter the baths, you hand your ticket to a friendly clerk who then hands you a small washcloth. You then remove your shoes in the entrance hall (玄関 genkan) and place them in a small shoe locker from which you lock and remove the key and slip its strap on to your wrist. Padding through the cotton doorway which reads in a large kanji 女 you proceed to another set of lockers in which there are baskets for your clothing. Once fully disrobed, you enter the baths through a glass sliding door, steam billowing out when you do so. In the center of the room is a large bath in the ground and around the walls are mirrors, buckets, and small stools. Before you enter the bath, you must fully wash off. Water in Japan is expensive, however, so in between scrubbing and washing off, you must turn off the water. Only once you are completely clean and free of soapsuds can you enter the bath. The water is very warm so it’s difficult to stay for very long if you’re not used to such hot water, but it instantly relaxes all the muscles in your body, which is wonderful after a long day of walking and sweating in the hot, humid Japanese summer. Despite my previous apprehension, I ended up having a wonderful time and felt fully refreshed.

After the bath, we decided to use our other free ticket for Kyoto Tower, which gives our hotel its name. On a clear day you can see Osaka from the tower—about an hour drive—but we went at night and were rewarded with an absolutely stunning view of our new home. The entire city is lit up all around and from the tower you can see Toji and the mountains Kyoto is encased in. Beyond the mountains must be more towns because they are lit up from behind in the most beautiful and stunning tiered silhouettes. That night I fell asleep watching an Arashi variety show and talking with friends. A day well spent indeed.

Belatedly Posting Blog Entries!

Where to start? The past collection of days has been a whirlwind of new places, new friends, and most certainly new experiences. (stick email to everyone from first day here, make sure to edit for a few things)

Though most of Japan is me-sized (I am 5’2.5”), sometimes even I feel like I’ve eaten the wrong side of the mushroom and have grown too tall to fit through the door to Wonderland (or rather, in the shower in Wonderland)! It is unusual for me to feel tall (or be able to reach the ceiling in the bathroom!)

The day after we went to orientation, which ended at around 3:00PM and thus gave us time to wander around. Realizing we’d quickly lose one another in such a large group without cell phones, a group of us headed off to the Soft Bank store in Kyoto Station just across the street. In broken Japanese we explained what we wanted and in slow, easy Japanese, the clerk replied that we would first need to be registered aliens and have our health cards, which we were to do the following day.

Meanwhile, a small group of college students (four in all and all female) stopped us in two groups and proceeded to ask us questions about where we’re from, why we were in Japan, how long we were staying, etc. for a group project. We ended up conversing with them for about two hours, I being there on and off whilst attempting to get a phone and going off in search of snacks within the station. A few of us eventually exchanged numbers and email addresses with them so that we could exchange the group photos we took. Once they send them to Matt and he sends them to me, I will, of course, be posting them. Matt is particularly confident in Japanese and seems to make many acquaintances easily—it really is amazing to watch!

Pre-Departure Madness

So I'm currently here with Rachel, bleaching my hair, singing, watching True Blood, taking crazy pictures, and most likely getting some Real American Cheeseburgers (TM) before I head out at 3AM to JFK Airport.




Shenanigans, I tell you. Shenanigans.