Doneski

The bike has been my transportation for 4 weeks. I think I am going to miss being able to bike everywhere instead of cars/buses or whatever.


I went to a school to help with English class, all of the kids there were amazed by our sunglasses! We mostly just spoke Japanese and no English was learned...













Also went to a taiko drum class and we all learned a routine.. I think we got pretty good! There is a video of us all playing somewhere, and I need to find it. The picture is of me hitting a gigantic drum.. we had sticks but they were being used at the time. Finally, I managed a picture of my otoosan (dad)... he is very camera shy. He is also over 60 years old, I hope I age like Japanese people.And that's it for Japan... leaving tomorrow. But then Egypt! I really am going to miss this place and can not wait to return, さよなら日本！

Tokyo
Went to Tokyo over the week, it was about a 5hr trip by train. In Tokyo I mostly ate a ridiculous amount of food, walked around the the entirety of the city (which is much more spread out then say New York), and enjoyed their nightlife... I will say, Americans know how to party far better than Japanese!
This is the gate to the Imperial Palace. It is always closed off to the public though..Imperial Palace
In Shibuya (shopping/ nightlife/ restaurant district) they have the busiest crosswalk in Tokyo. It is sort of like their Time Square. They also have this very famous dog, where people always meet... it has a story behind it, good "Hachiko" and wikipedia has it.




















This statue was at a park by the Imperial palace.. thought it was cool!

Monday, Tuesday

Not much to say.. just wanted to post this picture really. Karaoke was awesome! Also went to "Ninja Temple" but pictures were forbidden.. secret ninja things, you know.

Sunday

Sort of a tour of Ishkawa prefecture today. Few words, more pictures.

Friday, Saturday
Nothing much Friday except a very fun club experience where I made some new Nihonjin friends and saw Katamachi's (downtown Kanazawa, the city I am living in) most famous drag queen. Apparently everybody knows her/him.
Saturday was very cultural. There was the million man parade, which celebrates the Daimyo Maedas entrance into Kanazawa castle. Very cool!















After that my older brother threw me a bbq!! No hamburgers and hot dogs though, it was Japanese style with a chisai grill and items such as intestine, chicken skin, and pig toes along with pork, salad, and normal chicken. The stools we sat on were also ridiculously small... but still lots of fun with much kampai! About 20-25 people showed up, and they brought Japanese wine! Different, but still good.

Thursday
Cooking ended up not being cooking, but "desert making" instead that involved no ovens, heat, or a kitchen really. We made mochi, which goes with green tea. I made those beauties in the picture below.












When we ate these it sparked a spontaneous tea ceremony, which I messed up horribly because I A) don't understand Japanese and B) Had no idea how many traditions went along with it. The woman in yellow is my mom for the trip! She is teaching my brother's wife how to do everything.

At school we went out and interviewed random Japanese people, it was the best day so far! While interviewing we stopped in a few stores as well and I found these shirts...









After dinner and the tea ceremony we went to the on-sen and then to a big festival ritual. People walked down the street chanting, following Buddhist monks. Then the monks did lots of strange things to ward off demons and created a big fire.






























There was also a taiko drum show... and PS some of these pictures were taken with my phone and infrared to my computer, gotta love Japanese phones! Thats it for now... this weekend is a huge festival and my brother is holding me a big bbq... ja!!

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday I went to a police academy and watched/ learned a little kendo. Lots of pictures taken.... the older man is Khan-sensei, our teacher from the academy.

Today I finally got my hands on a ketai (Japanes phone)... this has been difficult because you need to be a Japanese citizen, but I borrowed someone elses address and was able to get it that way, take that Japan! Its just a simple prepaid phone that will probably only work here... but I've been traveling around without one, so if I were to get lost or have something come up I think it would have been dangerous.

We had most of the day off, and I mostly relaxed... explored the city some more, saw Prince of Persia, and ate a really nice dinner. Tomorrow, I cook!

Dan

Sunday and Monday

Sunday I went to Himeji Castle, one of the largest in Japan. This castle housed Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who was the person to completely unite Japan after centuries of civil war. Its history is really deep, and probably only interesting if you are me haha! I couldn't help but take this samurai picture also...

After Himeji I traveled back home, and went to a sushi place with my host family. I've never eaten so much fish before, I can't even imagine what their bill was. The large shrimp sushi came with this little guy, thought it was picture worthy.
Monday was an easy day of school, and dinner at my new older brother's house (not okaasan or otoosan). He made Chinese food, which was not real Chinese food but a Japanese take on it... just like America does with Chinese food. We ended up drinking for a while, and when I told him I liked wine he opened a bottle from New Zealand that he had. Japanese people chug their wine, and I didn't want to be rude and not keep up with him.. I've never finished a bottle so fast! After both of us were pretty toasty (his wife couldn't drink because she is 2 months pregnant), he called his driver over and we went to the onsen... yes he has a driver, and I want one too now. The onsen was different.. it had a freezer you could go into, cold pools, and an outside natural hot spring. The freezer was crazy and our hair was frozen very quickly. We have a BBQ at his house this weekend, I am sure it will be fun! This weekend is also a big festival that I'm looking forward to.

Till next time..

Dan

1st Weekend Part I

After school we went to Komatsu air base, Japan's largest spot for F-15s. It was a little weird because our bases are a lot better, and the things they wanted to show off weren't necessarily that cool to us. We did get to play around with some of the self defense weapons though, which was really cool.

After, I went to Osaka for the weekend! We got in at around 1130 pm, but decided to still go to a bar even though it was so late. It was a nomuhodai bar (all you can drink), but the drinks there were very very weak. I'm not sure when we actually left, but it was light out already when we did!

After sleeping for a couple of hours some more people came to Osaka and I met them at the train station. We walked around for a good amount of time... even went to America town, which was pretty gangster. For dinner we went to a bar/ restaurant and talked to the bar tender in Japanese the whole time, it was cool! At night we tried to do bar hopping... but most of the bars there only had a max of 10 seats (there were hundreds of bars though). There were also mostly only old people drinking. I'm told Tokyo is more full of a younger crowd.

Strange fact about Japan that surprised me... prostitution is just an accepted part of the culture. There are billboards everywhere with prices for girls or guys. And some street walkers that are just weird. I guess Japanese guys have strange fetishes cause most of them were dressed in bunny/ cat ears or other costumes. I have to start class... I'll write more on the weekend later.

Day 4 & 5

Another two great days in Japan! School was average as always, but once it was done there was a lot of fun. First we went to Kanazawa Castle, my first castle. It was very tranquil inside, and
easy to imagine what it was like over 3 centuries ago.
















The next day was very busy. Went to Daijoji Temple for some Zen meditation, very cool! One of my favorite things that we have done so far... even though sitting in the position for so long was pretty painful.















Afterwords I played Pechinko, which are Japanese slots. The only difference is that you have to get a ball in a small hole before the slots will spin. So its possible to spend money without getting a chance to win!
I also went to a Japanese arcade, which was full of awkwardly old people... and a few that looked like they had never actually left the arcade before.

That was all for today, the weekend was more exciting.



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3rd Day

Another interesting day in Japan, and my camera is back in action so lots of photos! First I woke up and took my first Japanese bus ride from okaasan's to school... a little confusing. School lasted far too long. This is one of our teachers, they are all pretty much the same haha.


The day got cooler as it went on though, we went to a Geisha District. There we made gold leaf chopsticks... Kanazawa makes almost 100% of Japan's gold leaf. The area was very traditional and pretty amazing.



We also drank some golden tea (literally tea with gold in it... pretty cool)



From there I went back to the house... or at least tried to. I get pretty lost before I decided to ask for directions, luckily my Japanese has improved enough that this wasn't a problem at all! Back at home okaasan had me sit in while she taught her friend the tea ceremony and after some oishii yakisoba, otoosan brought out a few items from his antique collection and insisted on taking pictures of me with them.













Finally we went to our nightly onsen (hotsprings) trip... relaxing as always! Below is a picture with my atarashi anisan (new older brother).












yasuminasai,

Dan